Dean Koontz
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Some people are Stephen King readers, I for one prefer Dean Koontz. My bookshelf is full of Koontz’ novels, along with one of his newest, “Relentless”. Full of Koontz’ signature page turning mystery and surprising plot twists, “Relentless” is classic Koontz.

The plot of the novel centers around a semi-famous fiction author and his family, but after his newest book is published he reads a disturbing review from one of the countries top book critics. He can’t get the review off his mind and thus follows the critic to one of his favorite little dinners to get a look at the man. Little does he know that the critic doesn’t just review books for a living and that he hides a much darker secret, one involving multiple homicides, and when bad things begin happening around the authors house his family’s life will change forever.

Overall “Relentless” is a fast and fun read that will keep you guessing till the end, and I recommend it to anyone who is either a fan of Koontz or thrillers in general.

Always staying on top of the hand held market, Nintendo will continue to do so with there next gen hand held console, the 3DS. It looks so far to be the same shape and overall size of the DS, though it packs a lot more features and hardware than the DS for sure. Here are the basic specifications of the device:

• Dimensions: 5.3″ W x 2.9″ H x 0.8″ D
• Weight: 8 Ounces
• Top Screen: 3.53″ LCD Glasses-free 3D display, with 800 x 240 pixel resolution (400 pixels per eye).
• Bottom Screen: 3.02″ LCD display with 320 x 240 resolution
• Cameras: One front-facing, two outward facing stereoscopic lenses with 640 x 480, 0.3 megapixel resolution.
• Wireless Connectivity: 802.11 Wi-Fi with LAN and 2.4 GHz band support.
• Inputs: Nintendo 3DS/DS game card slot, SD memory cards, AC adapter, charging radle terminal, and stereo headphone jack.
• Controls: D-Pad, A/B/X/Y face buttons, shoulder pads, start/select buttons, “slide pad” analog controls, built-in motion sensor and gyroscope.

There is a slider on the side that lets you tweak the 3D effect, seemingly enabling you to adjust its depth based on your distance from the screen — or turn it off entirely. As with the current DS, the bottom is a touchscreen, and is not 3D. The “Slide Pad.” is for analog controls, and I think will be very cool. There is a gyro, motion sensor, it’s compatible with DSi games, and has two cameras enabling 3D photos.

I am sure it would be very difficult to dock any sort of space craft onto the International Space Station and well even the professionals have trouble with it some time.

A runaway supply ship that failed to dock at the International Space Station on Friday made good on a second attempt Sunday afternoon.

The robotic Russian-built cargo tug approached and made communication links with the space station around noon and docked at the orbiting outpost around 12:17 p.m.

I suppose it really wasn’t human error, the incident was caused when they lost communication with the station, which caused the ship to simply glide by instead of docking.

NASA said the spacecraft was about three kilometers away from the station when it passed by. Engineers in Russia and the United States analyzed the situation Friday afternoon and decided Saturday to try again Sunday.

Would have been quite embarrassing I’m sure if they would have collided with the Space Station, ripping it in two…

[Via. USA Today ]

It may seem to some that we are in a sort of warped reality, a reality were the norm isn’t normal anymore, nor does normal even have a set definition. Climate change, wars, bad economies and a almost complete loss for the appreciation of art, in all it’s forms. What are we becoming as a society, as a people, as the human race? Are we really nothing more than consumers of good and services where most of those goods and services control are lives and how we live? Don’t get me wrong I love technology, but I feel we use it to harm more than to do good. Maybe I’m just cynical, but nonetheless I do want the world to be a better place. I want the rain forest to still exist in one hundred years along with all the great wildlife around the world. But can it last if we keep living these lives; drinking from plastic water bottles that fill landfills and not recycle centers, driving around all day burning oil and polluting the atmosphere, so tuned into are internet lives that we are tuned out from reality… Well I guess I don’t have the answers to any of these questions, but it’s food for thought, and thinking is something we all need a big dose of.

I apologize promptly for the most outrageous post title ever (well, maybe not ever), which I assure you is in no way relevant to this post. I had recently drove down to Columbus to help out my brother do some things with his business, you know help out with this and that. Anyways the drive down there, while I guess only about two and a half hours way; sucks. I also had to drive him around town and am not fond of big city driving, but I didn’t it anyway, he’s my brother after all.

And now completely unconnected in any way to the rant I have just posted above I have this cool thing to share about Montana’s new ant-methamphetamine billboard ads. They are pretty striking, and I suppose get to the point and root of the problem, but is it wrong I thought a few were funny? (;

Click here to see them all.

Have a good night all…or day..

Yes that’s right, today is this Gemini’s day of birth; May twenty-fifth. The weather is fine, and the clouds and sun are simply breathtaking. For me this day is more than just my date of birth, today for me is a new day, today is also the beginning of a new chapter of my life. A chapter that will contain a new goal oriented way of life for myself where only by completing each goal I will have finished another chapter, and eagerly move on to the next…

Anyway, I decided it would make sense to do a short list of cool things that have happened on this day through the years (besides my birth).

1. 1953 – Nuclear testing: At the Nevada Test Site, the United States conduct their first and only nuclear artillery test.
2. 1977 – Star Wars (later known as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope) premiers in American movie theaters.
3. 1961 – Apollo program: U.S. President John F. Kennedy announces before a special joint session of the Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a “man on the Moon” before the end of the decade.
4. 1984 - The Space Shuttle Discovery takes off on its maiden voyage.

Okay, well in closing I would like to send a blogosphere happy birthday from myself to anyone else out there that shares my birthday.

The recent explosion of the oil drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico and the subsequent massive ongoing release of oil into the ocean is the straw the broke the camels back. It is time to put the use of oil behind us and really begin going full speed into alternate forms of energy before any more damage is done to our planet. I am really pissed off at the way BP is handling this mess to begin with, I feel like they are downplaying it and everything they try to stop or contain the leak is mediocre at best.

I think it is time that the US government step in and do as much as they can as quickly as possible because the longer it takes to fix the leak the worse off we are. Already they are now predicting that the oil is going to be sucked into a current and be drawn up along the entire each coast within six weeks, which would be unimaginable.

The latest satellite and overflight data shows a “small portion” of the BP oil slick has reached the Loop Current “in the form of light to very light sheens,” the federal government said Wednesday.

I am very disappointed in the President also for (even after this leak) supporting coastal and deep water drilling. It is time that our government start taking heavy steps into the direction of a oil free economy where we get are energy solely from natural means: solar, wind, waves, natural gas et cetera.

Please recycle, turn off and unplug unused lights and electronics, car pool, buy a hybrid automobile even organize a community even like a day of recycling and energy awareness, because only together can we break free from are countries oil addiction. Then we would set and example for other countries as well.

[via MSNBC.com]

Irvine Welsh
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You can most likely tell that I am drawn to a lot of others authors like Welsh; Palahnuik, Neilan, Coupland too name a few. They each have their own unique writing style but what draws me to their work is the dark rawness of their novels. I have seen the movie Trainspotting which is based on the novel that shares the same name which was written by Welsh; however this is the first of his novels that I have read, and I can’t wait to pick up another one to read.

The novel centers around a Scottish police detective, Ray Lennox, and his troubles with catching a pedophile murder. Lennox is sent away by his captain on a vacation leave to Miami Florida where he and his soon to be wife Trudi mean to relax and plan their wedding, but soon their getaway takes a wicked twist which will take Ray Lennox into the seedy side of Miami and into his own haunting memories.

I found Crime to be a very enjoyable read (if you like Walsh’s in your face gritty style, which I do) that was full of powerful prose and a thick plot that is filled with interesting characters and situations. I highly recommend giving Crime a read, it is most definitely a page turner.