Monthly Archives: August 2012

Where the Rain is Made

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Where the Rain is Made – by Keta Diablo

Ethan Gray is a time traveler, sent into history by a Council of spirits to ensure the Cheyenne nation survives their struggles in the late 1800’s against eradication by white soldiers.  In spite of the bloodshed and loss, he longs for these missions.  They are a chance for him to connect with his culture at a time when a tipi was home and dog soldiers fought a seemingly hopeless battle against a stronger foe.  Ethan would always complete his missions, and then return to his modern life with a sense of satisfaction.  This time is different though.  This mission he’s fallen in love and suddenly the needs of his people and the Council all pale in comparison with his duty to his heart. Continue reading →

Frostbiten

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Frostbiten – 2006, Director Anders Banke

Tired of those sparkly, emo vampires?  The brooding ones that would rather play hide the salami than bite someone in the neck?  Journey beyond the confines of Hollywood and experience a Swedish film full of dark humor, and more chewed up bodies than a tank of piranhas.

The movie starts out with a flashback from WWII.  A group of German soldiers are separated during battle and end up trudging through a snow packed woods, before sheltering at an abandoned farmhouse.  But the farmhouse isn’t abandoned, and the soldiers find themselves attacked at night by wall climbing creatures that rip their throats out.  Fast forward to modern times.  Annika  and daughter, Saga, have moved to a small town in northern Sweden, where Annika is excited to be working as a doctor in a hospital with eminent geneticist Gerhard Beckert.  But Beckert has secrets.  Sounds serious?  Well it might have been were it not so darned funny.  There’s creepy Bekert, earnest Annika, and there is an entire box of stolen pills that wind up at a house party, turning drunken teens into bloodsucking vampires.  Really funny drunken teenage vampires. Continue reading →

American Goddesses

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Over the weekend I looked at my huge to-be-read list on my Kindle and chose American Goddesses by Gary Henry.  Two women have found themselves transformed into mighty superheroes after undergoing an experimental medical procedure intended to increase their disease resistance.  It’s an easy transformation physically, but becoming an invulnerable, telepathic, flying human takes a toll on one’s relationships.  Megan finds her friends feel uncomfortable around her and suddenly are no longer available for happy hours.  Trish’s boyfriend feels threatened, and a prank has bone breaking consequences due to her new powers.  Superpowers seem to initially bring out the worst in the women.  Megan’s assertive nature goes into overdrive.  She telekinetically locks down the fridge door so her husband can’t get a beer, melts his weights in a fit of anger, and forcibly hauls him home when she finds him cheating with a reporter.  No wonder her marriage is on the rocks.  Trish saves a jumper, but her method of suicide prevention by repeatedly dropping the guy and scooping him up would probably be frowned upon by psychologists everywhere. Continue reading →

Back in the Saddle

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My Treasure. Sometimes known as “Butthead”

The past two weeks I’ve been attempting to overcome a fear.  It’s a stupid fear that I’m embarrassed to have.  One I’ve glossed over and tried to hide from others.  It’s Fear of Canter.

I learned to ride horses as an adult.  I took lessons, bought a pony or two or three, and next thing I knew I was foxhunting.  Then last year I had a fall.  I’ve had lots of falls.  It happens when you ride horses.  This fall was not particularly bad.  I should have been able to get up, brush myself off and hop right back on.  I’d had the same fall several times before, but this time I landed wrong.  Really wrong.  Separated shoulder, and wrist broken in two places wrong.  One fracture and one bone with an indentation so big they thought at first I had chipped it.  Six weeks in a cast, six more weeks in physical therapy.  Suddenly we were in hunt season and neither I nor my horse was in shape to foxhunt.  So that was my excuse.  I missed the whole hunt season because I was still healing and we ‘weren’t ready’.  Continue reading →

One Track Mind

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Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

Earlier this year, popular news sites highlighted research from an Ohio State University study (Sex on the Brain?: An Examination of Frequency of Sexual Cognitions as a Function of Gender, Erotophilia, and Social Desirability, Terri D. Fisher, Zachary T. Moore, and Mary-Jo Pittenger, Journal of Sex Research, 49(1), 69-77, 2012) that revealed that the difference between men and women in terms of frequency of thoughts about sex wasn’t as big as previously thought.  (Want all the details?  Get them here.)  Urban legend holds that men think about sex every seven seconds.  That’s over 8,000 thoughts per day.  Which begs the question, ‘how can men get anything done?’  Anything beyond humping table legs, that is.  The reality is that men are not quite that sex-obsessed.  With a median daily total for men of less than 19 thoughts per day, that leaves plenty of time for things like taking out the garbage and watching the playoffs. Continue reading →