Under the Covers: Hood

TITLE: Hood
AUTHOR: Stephen Lawhead
GENRE: Science Fiction/Legends/Historical Fiction
SUMMARY: The first in a trilogy called King Raven, Hood tells the story of an alternative Robin Hood, a rebel in the deep forests of Wales in 1093. (Lawhead's extensive research convinced him of this premise.) Son of a king, a young man named Bran is made homeless when his father is killed and the kingdom of Elfael becomes a pawn to squabbling Norman factions. A long and fascinating time in the wilderness, in which Bran's faith and health are restored by an old woman of mystical origins, brings him at last to his destiny: leading a band of dauntless archers against the kingdom's usurpers. Robin Hood is born, along with Maid Marian, Friar Tuck, and Little John, in this highly imaginative, earthy adventure that has little to do with Errol Flynn but is just as rousing.*

ROSE'S REVIEW: I love re-imaginings of familiar stories. I love Ten Things I Hate About You (a re-imagining of the Taming of the Shrew), Clueless (Emma) and the BBC productions of Merlin and Robin Hood. So its no surprise that I love Lawhead's Hood. I love that he actually went and did his research and came up with a plausible scenario for the Robin Hood myth. Yes, there is a significant amount of Science Fiction in the novels but i don't mind that so much. The character are really amazing and they have alot of depth. You find yourself rooting for them. I love how Lawhead manages to weave in the names we all love without giving away the Welsh origins of the characters. The characters come off as real people. You actually see them reluctantly making their choices to fight for their country. My only gripe is that this actually a trilogy and the ending leaves you wanting more. Which is probably a good thing for the first book in a trilogy.

GRADE: A

* By John Mort, Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved from Booklist.

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No, Thats much too high

So I live by my debit card. I almost never carry cash, even when i was a waitress i would toss my cash in a jar and once a week i would make a deposit at my bank. Trust me the tellers used to love to see me coming with my 300 dollars in ones. But that is beside the point.

So everytime i swipe my debit card, I get the regular plethera of questions: Pin number, do i want cash back, do i want it all on this card. Those questions i get. But then i get "Is this price okay?" and i always wonder if i say no whats going to happen. Do i get to haggle over the price? Can i tell the cashier its too high and i need it to be 3 dollars less? I get the point of the question; its to make sure that the person paying knows how much they are about to confirm having taken out of their bank account, but it such a strange question to get.

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To Twitter or Not to Twitter

So I've been toying around with the idea of getting a Twitter account for some time now. I like the idea of being able to follow people's opinions and such, especially famous people. Although my famous people are like Project Runway contestants or Soap Opera actors. But I can't wrap my head around actually getting one. I asked G-Fab his opinion and his answer was "Hell No!" UNC-Sis had a similar reaction. Plus seriously my Tweets would be like:

5:00- Just saw a girl walking barefoot across the road

6:15- Making Dinner

2:30- God, class is so boring can't wait to be out. Maybe I'll bake muffins.

And really who would want to read that? Even i don't think anyone is so bored as to be interested in my life. But I'm still entertaining the idea. So I turn it over to the 4 readers i probably have: Should I get a twitter account?

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Because One is Never Enough

So you may remember that i got a dog not so long ago. Now I love Nixon, my Border Terrier. He's a handful and a half but he's my sweet little guy and i love him, but all he ever wants to do is play; 24/7 play and i can't do that I have papers and research and all that other general graduate school crap. And even though i take him to the dog park 3-6 times a week i felt like i was somehow letting him down by not being able to play with him all the time. So i started entertaining the notion of getting a second dog, because i am crazy and because i thought that would give Nixon someone to play with. Now i hadn't actually started looking for a second dog but i was in the thinking about it stage.

Then i went on vacation for 2 weeks in Florida. Nixon stayed at the kennel and it killed me cause i missed my little guy. Anyways while i was down there, as luck would have it, I found a puppy. As adorable as she was i couldn't let her go, so i scooped her up and brought her back with me. So let me introduce you to Kennedy. I'm not entirely sure what she is. The best guess the vet had was a Jack Russel/Chihuahua mix. I was worried when i brought her home that Nixon would be too much of a bully for her. Let me tell you that is not an issue. She takes no crap from Nixon. She even steals stuff right out of his mouth (which he does right back).

While i feel a little guilt having two dogs in my two bedroom apartment, they don't seem to mind. In fact they spend all day chasing each other or wrestling. In fact the only way i can get them to sleep is to put them in their separate kennels. But it seems it was the perfect fit for my problem, they spend so much time playing with each other they forget I'm even here sometimes.


and yes, I named my dogs after presidents. I'm a historian did you expect less?

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Users and Abusers

So i have come across in my life several people who I consider to be users and abusers. These types of people tend to think the world revolves around them, have no consideration for anyone else, expect other people to do everything for them, never think anything is there fault, etc etc. The ones i've known have always been women, but i'm sure there are men that fit this bill too. The worst two offenders in my life have been a friend and one of my sisters.

The friend i used to have like this was awful, and i should note i am no longer friends with her. She was my friend in college and she could be alot of fun to be around. She was great to go out dancing with and have fun with. When i met her i was a freshman at a college where i didn't know anyone and so she quickly became my best friend. She had alot of issues with teachers and classes and other stuff. She would get tickets for speeding and complain that she was the only car on the road and that she had been going under the speed limit until he caught her. She never took responsibility for her actions. She had trouble with teachers-- they were out to get her. She would make plans with me all the time only to forget and sleep through them or be out with her boyfriend instead. And she said she would do alot of things, but she never did any of them. It really became bad when i became an RA, because then i was busy alot and everything wasn't about her. I would invite her to things with my other friends and she would blow us off or didn't want to hang out with them. It got really bad and I had a fight with her and she swore she would change but then i invited her out to a concert with me and other freinds and she pulled the same old stunts and made us really late, I was done with her.

Recently, the person doing this shit has been my stepsis. She hasn't been doing it to me but her boyfreind. She uses him to buy stuff for her and take care of her but she cheats on him. She lies to him constantly about everthing, and shes a very bad liar. She's totally ungrateful to everyone who helps her, mostly him. She makes everything his fault and his problems. She uses their kid as leverage against him. When he does what she wants she's all sweet as pie to him, but when he doesn't she tells him he's an awful father and that he's a horrible person. She bad mouths him to everyone in her family who will listen and anything she does wrong is his fault. He recently left her because of the crazy ass shit she was pulling. He dropped the baby off with her and she drove it to visit family in florida even though him and our family told her not to go, she couldn't afford it. When she got down there her family chewed her out for driving on bald tires and bad brakes. She called him up and told him that everyone was mad at him and my stepdad for letting her go.

She doesn't just do this to him either. She did this to one of our other sisters over contact lenses. She basically harassed UNC-sis to buy them for her even though she didn't have a perscription (she had a bullshit story for that too) and then when UNC-sis did it, stepsis was mad that UNC-sis ordered them online and she wouldn't have them in time for a concert we were going to, and to this day she still hasn't paid UNC-sis for them and this happened in may! I'm appauled by the level of usery she has mastered, and the sad part I really had thought she had changed since having a baby, but she just uses that baby to get people to do things for her and she pays no mind to it. The only conselation i have is that my parents didn't raise her, so it's not our fault she turned into a lying, using and abusing bitch.

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