Winner of AC/DC book

I drew the winner of the Why AC/DC Matter by Anthony Bozza today.  I wrote out a list of all the valid entries in the order of their comments on the original post.  I then when to RANDOM.ORG and entered the number of entries and the winner was entry number 1.

True Random Number Generator

Min: 1
Max: 21
Result:
1
Powered by RANDOM.ORG

Winner is Nazmis from Turkey.

You have 3 days to contact me with you mailing address.  I have sent a private email with this information.

Thanks to all who entered.  Thanks to HarperCollins for the prize book.  Check back for my next contest (yet undecided what it will be).

Needlework Tuesday - Bags for Fencing Equipment

Last week I received the fencing equipment that I needed  including my sous plastron (half jacket) and jacket.  Yippee.  The only item I'm missing is my lame (overjacket for electric scoring).  With all this gear to carry back and forth I needed a large bag.  Of course I could have bought one, but that wouldn't be satisfactory to a sewer.  I would search each seam and piece of fabric used to determine whether it was of any value. arg.  Better to make one myself.  Time was an issue, so I needed something quickly; I can always sew a second bag later at my leisure (okay, don't start laughing).  I chose a pattern by M'liss Rae Hawley from her book Fat Quarter Quilts.

It's called "The Fat Quarter Bag" and uses six fat quarters for the outside.  I happened to have a rather large piece of upholstery fabric and used the same fabric for both the outside and the lining.  Worked out well, nice sturdy fabric and I didn't have to buy anything.

After I finished the main bag I used the left overs to make some small one for accessory items.   Now for a bit of a fencing lesson.  For scoring one method is to use a sword with a plunger tip that uses a small electrical current.  When the tip is depressed, the circuit completes the a light goes 'on' on the score board.  This requires a wire from the sword to the score board.  It's called a 'body wire' as it runs from near the handle of the sword, under the jacket and out at the waist and connects with a coiled wire to the scoring equipment.  Not wanting to have this wire get tangled in the larger bag I made a small drawstring bag.  It actually has a divider in the middle as a fencer is required to have a spare wire at all time in the event of a problem with the first. 

For those familiar with fencing, you know that the clothing is all white.  Last think I want to do is throw my running shoes on top of my jacket, thus I made another bag for the shoes.  On the back of the bag I made a large pocket to accomodate a note book.

The small bag pattern is adapted from the Kit Bag pattern found on the Mennonite Central Committee website.

Hop on over to Lit and Laundry to see what's been "Finished for Friday".  Some great halloween crafts are on display.

First Nations/Aboriginal Friday - Extra Indians by Eric Gansworth

Vietnam veteran Tommy Jack McMorsey is working as a truck driver when he happens into an odd situation.  A Japanese tourist is searching in the snow behind a truck stop for the missing ransom money from the fictional movie Fargo.  Tommy Jack doesn't feel right about leaving her there; he asks her if she wants to ride along with him.  Later she goes out into the winter night, lies down in the snow and dies in her sleep.

The ensuing police investigation and media interest sets Tommy Jack on a very public reflective journey.  His memories of Vietnam, those of his best friend Fred Howkowski and his son, and also of his lover Shirley Mounter are all brought into view.  Wounds long buried are unearthed and thrust into daylight.

I have to say right up front that I loved this book.  Every minute of it.  I read it as an ebook sitting at my desktop computer.  Not a comfortable way to read, but I couldn't stop once I started this book.  I would much rather have had a paperback as I wanted to carry it around with me, and hold it close.  I wanted to trace the cover images with my finger and re-read passages, particularly those about the Fireball game and those times Tommy Jack spent with Shirley.

Why did I love it?  It seemed to me that it was such a real set of circumstances that  they could have happened to a neighbour or friend.  I can't imagine being torn from your comfy home life and dropped literally into a war zone.  The friendship that Tommy Jack formed with Fred was the type of friendship that would last forever.  Even thirty years after Fred's passing, Tommy Jack still referred to him as his best friend.  Even writing this I am tearing up.  I know how it feels to lose your best friend, gone physically but never gone from your heart. Those are memories your hold onto, you cherish much as Tommy Jack has.  There is also the love affair between Tommy Jack and Shirley.  A war time love born out of desperation, anything to help him survive in the jungle, but which developed into something real and lasting once they met in person.  It is also an un-resolved love that's been put on hold for decades.

I selected this book mostly based on the information that the author Eric Gansworth is a First Nations Author.  He is a member of the Onondaga Nation.  I started searching out and reading book by First Nations authors over two years ago as part of a Canadian Reading Challenge.  I truly enjoyed reading the books I found and have continued to search out more such authors.  Mr. Gansworth is an author who's works I look forward to reading more of.

Thanks to NetGalley and Milkweed  Editions  for this ebook.

Eric Gansworth's website
Cover photo from Amazon.ca

Recipe Thursday - Ghirardelli Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chocolate chip cookies are one of those baked goods that I tend to fall back on when I want to make a treat but don't want to worry about finding unusual ingredients, or worry whether anyone in the family will eat it when it comes out of the oven.  A great stand by.

I was at the Lindt outlet store recently and they had bags of Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate chips.  I had not tried them and was wondering if the little bit more cost was worth it.    On a taste test of the chipits alone, yes, but what about when baked.   The chips them shelves are more like a slightly flattened disk  and they are larger than I expected.  It was the taste that made the difference.  Excellent.  I will definitely be purchasing these again.

I used the recipe on the back of the package.  You can click here to print from the Ghirardelli website, or you can copy and print it from this post.  There are lots of other recipes at the site as well as information about cooking with chocolate.

The Ultimate Chocolate Cookies

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 bag (326 grams) Ghirardelli Milk Chocolate Chips
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Heat oven to 375 F.  Combine flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.  In large bowl cream butter with two sugars, eggs and vanilla.  Gradually stir flour mixture into creamed mixture.  Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.  Shape 1 inch dough balls on ungreased cookie sheets.  Bake 9 minutes or until golden brown.  Let cool 2 minutes , then remove to rack.  Makes about 4 dozen 2 1/2 inch cookies.

I tried rolling the dough into balls, but it was so warm and sticky that I used two spoons to drop blobs onto the pan.  You could chill the dough if you want balls and nice round cookies.  I chose to use walnuts since I had them on hand.

I really did make more than the five cookies shown in the top photo....

"Weekend Cooking" is hosted by Beth Fish Reads.  Visit to read an assortment of Food Related Posts. You are invited to add a link to your recent foodie post.

Needlework Tuesday - Two Scarves

I know I said I wasn't knitting any more scarves, well, ignore that.  I started two more last week.

Years ago (really over two decades ago) I bought this blue speckled yarn by Papillon.It was a fluffy skein of 250 grams and it was supposed to be enough to knit a pullover sweater.  Great, as a university student, that was about the limit of my spending money for the term.  I happily knit away.  The body, the one sleeve and then the next.  oops, only enough yarn for half of the second sleeve.  I checked my measurements and the tension, perfect.  arg, now what do I do?  I couldn't afford a second kit.  So I unknit and the balls of yarn sat for twenty years. 
I found them when cleaning my sewing room and figured a scarf would be good.  It's not about two feet long and I'll keep going until long enough or I get bored.

My niece started a new scarf this week.  I thought I would join her and use the same pattern.  We could encourage each other.  This one is fingering weight wool.  Mine is being made with some self patterning sock yarn (shown).  She is using a black with the occasional red speckle.  There is a second step, but you'll have to wait a few weeks for that as well as the link to the pattern. 

As a family we went on an outing last week to the Toronto Zoo.  Great place regardless of age.  My niece wanted to get her first glimpse of a polar bear.  At the gift shop I was surprised to find wool for sale.  Turns out it is hand spun camel wool.  What a great orange.  I couldn't pass it up.   One skein is 150-200 yards weighing 5-6 ozs.

I have no idea what I'll make with it, but that doesn't matter.  This wool is being sold as a fund raiser to help support snow leopard conservation activites.  Be sure to visit the Snow Leopard Trust to find out how to help with these conservation efforts and how it helps nomadic herding women and their families.

This wool and other items can be purchased through zoos, museums and wool shops throughout Canada and the United States.  Click here for a list.

What an Oprah Pick Means

I was reading over at  The Savvy Reader a terrific post regarding Oprah's lastest book pick.  Last week the office staff at a HarperCollins office were crowded into a lounge to watch her and find out which book would be announced. 

As you probably know by now Freedom by Jonathon Frazen was selected.  Browse inside Freedom. 

At the end of that post, Jason asked whether this announcement by Oprah affects your choice in reading this book.

I checked in my Read, Remember, Recommend journal and found the list of approximately sixty books that Oprah has previously recommended.  Of those listed I have read two.  I have a further three marked off as wanting to read.  Clearly I don't use Oprah as a source for suggesting books to me.  In fact, I would say that I tend to avoid book pushed by celebrities.  I don't say this is a good approach, but that's how it happens with me.  I might be missing out on some good reads. 

On reflection, I'd say that I don't want to get sucked into buying an overly hyped book.  Imagine you are a reviewer and you read this current book and hate it, would you post and honest review or would you go with the flow not wanting to rock the boat?

Did you purchase this book solely on Oprah's recommendation?  What did you think of it?  Are you planning to read it?  buy it? borrow it from your library?

Be sure to leave a comment as I am curious if I am standing alone in my reluctance.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

First published in 1851, Moby Dick is still finding it's way on to recommended reading lists.   If you are like I was, you haven't read the book but have seen bits of cartoons and perhaps a movie on tv and think that it's the story of Captain Ahab and his quest to kill the white sperm whale Moby Dick.  Well, in part it is, but it's so much more.  It is practically an encyclopedia of whale lore such as it was known in the mid nineteenth century. 

At first I was confused and wondering why Mr. Melville always seemed to be going off on a tangent and losing the thread of the story.  Actually, as it turns out, all those tangents are the story.  The whale himself, is only a part of the larger picture.  One section goes on at length on the taxonomy of whales.  While it was somewhat interesting, after ten or fifteen minutes I was starting to lose track of what was going on and how it could possibly pertain to catching that one, white whale.   After speaking with a literature student, I learned that this book had been written chapter by chapter and was printed in a weekly paper.  Mr. Melville would have been paid by the page, so it was in his best interest to be wordy.  I don't know if this is true, but that would explain some of the choices of what to include in the book.

There were a few passages that I particularly enjoyed.  One of them, chapter 85 discusses the purpose of the blow hole.  Considering that this book was written 150 years ago, I felt that the author presented quite detailed information.    This was  a very lengthy audio book (some 23 hours) and much of it was rather a blur to me.  It perked up considerably at the start of hour 22.  This moving passage was set the night before the white whale was spotted and the final chase begun and Captain Ahab is on the deck with his first mate.  He actually questions whether it is crazy to expend so much effort to capture one whale and whether he should have been spending his time at home with his wife and child.  Very insightful.  From this passage on, I had finally found the book that I had sought to read.  It was exciting and had me hanging on the edge of my seat (so to speak).

Would I recommend this book to other readers.  For a young reader, no way.  Get him or her the new graphic novel that coming out,  or a short abridged one.  This version would seem like punishment.  If  you are a purist and like lots of detail, then yes, this could be the book for you.  Don't expect to push on through it in a few days, you'll need the time to digest the many different topics that Mr. Melville discusses.  If you plan to read the original text, then be sure to visit the Life and Works of Herman Melville website.  They have lots of background information there that will help you get the most out of your reading time. (link is posted below).

I listened to the un-abridged audio version of this book.  Read by Adams Morgan and recorded by Blackstone Audio in 2000.  This version does not appear in there current  product catalogue.

 Sperm whale photo from Greenpeace Canada website.

Further information about Herman Melville can be found at The Life and Works of Herman Melville.
Visit the Berkshire Historical Society at Herman Melville's Arrowhead.
For further information about the sperm whale, visit the Oceanic Research Group.

This is my fifteenth book that I have read for the Read, Remember, Recommend Challenge being hosted by Bibliobabe.  There is still time to join in the reading fun.