HollyKing's Journal

interests
Originally uploaded by hollyking

From the right to the left that is the book Clock Repairing as a Hobby, the DVDs Phantom of the Paradise (1974) and the Platinum Edition of Sleeping Beauty (1959). Too bad I have plans to play LEGO Indiana Jones tonight or I would watch the DVDs. ;)

I'm trying to be better about not spending so much on books and other things on a whim. Really I am! Damn, Amazon.com and their tempting tempting ways! The Tales of Beedle the Bard is going to be available in a collectors edition.

Damn them!

sirriamnis is a bad girl and I like it! She mentioned the book Voluptuous Panic which covers erotica in the Weimar era of Berlin. My copy arrived today and I keep sneaking into my bag to look at more of it. I should be working but I’m too distracted. See! She’s leading me to distraction. Isn’t that bad? :D

Thanks to yendi letting me know it existed I now have Raymond Smullyan’s latest book, The Magic Garden of George B. And Other Logic Puzzles. I didn’t realize it at the time, although I should have from the title, but this book covers Boolean algebra. A topic which I have an interest in personally and a bit professionally.

In searching for some links and references for this post I found a blog on MySpace that purports to belong to Raymond. It might be, I don't know. What I do know is I was intrigued by a logic puzzle posted there and I thought some who read my scratchings might also be interested. It’s certainly something to occupy your mind during otherwise boring times.

In 1992, George Boolos called the following “the hardest logic puzzle ever.” I figured that people here would especially like it. It’s certainly a Raymond Smullyan inspired puzzle and goes as follows.

“Three gods A, B, and C are called, in some order, True, False, and Random. True always speaks truly, False always speaks falsely, but whether Random speaks truly or falsely is a completely random matter. Your task is to determine the identities of A, B, and C by asking three yes-no questions; each question must be put to exactly one god. The gods understand English, but will answer all questions in their own language, in which the words for yes and no are ‘da’ and ‘ja’, in some order. You do not know which word means which.”

Just for the sake of clarity, George Boolos gives the following four clarifications: (1) It could be that one god gets asked more than one question (and thus, some god is not asked any question at all). (2) What the second question is, and to which god it is put, may depend on the answer to the first question (likewise, for the third question). (3) Whether Random speaks truly or not should be thought of as depending on the flip of a coin hidden in his brain: if the coin comes down heads, he speaks truly; if tails, falsely. (4) Random will answer ‘da’ or ‘ja’ when asked any yes-no question.

Good luck!

Today I finished Inkheart, a book I’ve been reading during my lunch hour. It’s written by Cornelia Funke and its being made into a movie staring Brendan Fraser. Last year I saw a teaser about the movie so I picked up the book.

In the story when Mo reads out loud things in the book exchange places with things in our world. A long time ago when Mo was reading to his wife she vanished and Dustfinger, Basta and Capricorn came into our world. The story picks up years after that when Capricorn comes after Mo and his daughter, Meggie, to read more of his friends out of the book into our world.

I enjoyed this book. It was a good story. While I wasn’t gripped with the need to keep reading to find out what happened I did look forward to my lunch time to get back into the story. A lot of the description of how Mo and Meggie loved books reminded me of myself and many of you.

I’m reading Inkheart by Cornelia Funke and I’ve come across a reference to a story that I hope someone can help me identify. The passage is:

“Interesting choice!” Elinor had commented when she lent Meggie a bag for the books, an old-fashioned one made of dark leather that you could sling over your shoulder. “These stories about the ill-made knight and people with hairy feet going on a long journey to dark places. Have you read them both?”

I am sure that “people with hairy feet” refers to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. I can’t think of a story that might be about an “ill-made knight.” Any ideas?

“Best way to scare crows,” said Mr. Vandemar, “you just creep up
behind them and you put your hand round their little crow necks and
squeeze until they don’t move anymore. That scares the stuffing out
of them.”

This weekend was filled with fun and falling down. hollyqueen and I were fighting off a cold/flu and we kept bouncing between being energetic and collapsing on the closest piece of furniture. Still I did get out for a bit and here’s what fun I had.

First on Saturday I went down to South Lake Union and volunteered as a docent on the Arthur Foss for Northwest Seaport (NWS). It was pretty slow so I spent most of the time talking with bluemoonshark about NWS plans and what I could do in the future. It was fun and it only got better when we had a few people show up at the end of my shift.

After my shift ended I headed over to the House of Hong to meed hollyqueen, fallenpegasus, intrepid_reason and some others for Dim Sum. As usual it was tasty and full of good socializing. We even discovered a new dish that was a big hit with folks who don’t care for seafood.

After lunch hollyqueen and I walked over to Pink Godzilla but nothing was calling my name so we hopped in the car and headed over to Pioneer Square. Our goal was a visit to Seattle Mystery Bookshop.
I liked the book store but didn’t have a good enough idea of mysteries I enjoy to gorge myself on the books. I did pick up a copy of Peter and the Starcatchers and a new print of two Doc Savage novels in one graphic novel sized book. It looks like someone is going to print the entire series of books so I’ll be able to get them all without spending a fortune.

That wiped out our energy reserves for the day so we headed home and rested. At home we watched Colossus: The Forbin Project (1970). I had forgotten how much I enjoy this movie. It’s a good story and I particularly the ending. No spoilers for you! ;)

On Sunday I took $little out to see The Golden Compass (2007). I enjoyed the movie but there was quite a bit missing from the book. I didn’t expect much with all the “controversy” surrounding the changes. The one thing I didn’t know was that they ended the movie a chapter before the book ends. So instead of wanting to know what happens next I could care less about it all. I am happy with how Iorek and the other bears looked on the screen. I wish that they hadn’t skipped so much in Svalbard. Again I didn’t expect much so I wasn’t really disappointed.

After that hollyqueen went to pick up some shoes she had ordered and had a nice dinner at Claim Jumper and then it was home to rest and watch Barney Miller. Such wild people we are.

Today hollyqueen and I drove to Leavenworth (Washington, not Kansas) for the day. I wanted to go spend some of my hard earned coin at their Christkindlmarkt, a German style Christmas market.

While I did pick up some stuff I didn't spend anything at the market. Instead we had lunch at King Ludwig's restaurant. Then we ambled over to Kris Kringl and picked up some decoration for the season. Nice and wintery. Willi knows how to separate me from my money with his tasty sausages, Kinder eggs and other German treats. hollyqueen found some paprika sausage which is a treat from her childhood. We also picked up a new cookbook, German Cooking by Marianna Olszewska Heberle. The book claims to be the complete guide to preparing classic and modern german cuisine, adapted for the American kitchen. We'll see. We also found a couple more Charming Tails figurines for hollyqueen. So cute!

I was expecting traffic and crowds, but I was pleasantly surprised by a light amount of traffic. In fact the only trouble was on the way home over Snoqualmie Pass as it had started to snow. While the roads were just wet I was stuck between idiots who freaked out and went way too slow and maniacs who kept tailgating to try and pass. Grrr... Once we were over the pass the snow stopped and then it was back to the maniacs but I just let them pass and enjoyed the drive.

Now I'm going to crack open a bottle of cider and try and convince hollyqueen to cook me some Knackwurst.