I just read this article on the Unplugged blog that talks about people passively telling their neighbors about a problem by using the name of their WiFi network.  This is the image that accompanies that post:

I had a good laugh, and then I took a screenshot of the name of our wireless network’s name that my passive/aggressive boyfriend uses to tell others not to “borrow” our network:

More from the Unplugged Article:

The one thing that most people forget is to simply create a good password to protect their home network. That won’t stop everyone, but it will protect you from most people trying to get at your signal. The other great thing that you can do with your WiFi network is to send some passive aggressive notes to your neighbors, when you just don’t feel comfortable enough raising the issue with a handwritten note or in person.

I don’t remember why I put Jon Krakauer’s Into Thin Air on my Amazon.com Wishlist.  Maybe I saw him on a talk show, or saw the title on one of those books-you-must-read lists.  Whatever the reason, I got the book from Daniel’s sister for xmas, and was a bit surprised by how much I liked it.

I’m surprised that I enjoyed a non-fiction novel…I’m no fan of reality.

This story is Krakauer’s version of what happened in 1996 when he climbed Mt. Everest.  Many of his fellow mountaineers never made it off the mountain, and it’s an interesting look into the seductive control this mountain has over people.

I would only make two changes about this book.  The first thing I didn’t like about this book, which can’t really be changed, is that there were way too many characters to keep track of.  During the 1996 voyage there were four other groups of people climbing Mt. Everest at the same time as Krakauer’s team…so that made for a long list of characters.  And I guess since Krakauer was trying to accurately tell his story, he couldn’t cut anyone.

The second thing that that made this story hard to read was the way that Krakauer used first names and last names to refer to people.  Rob Hall, for example is called “Rob” in one paragraph and “Hall” in the next.  It made it difficult to follow the million characters in the book.

If I needed another reason to like this story, Krakauer quoted Joan Didion from The White Album.

We tell ourselves stories in order to live…we look for the sermon in the suicide, for the social or moral lesson in the murder of five.  We interpret what we see, select the most workable of the multiple choices.  We live entirely, especially if we are writers, by the imposition of a narrative line upon disparate images, by the “ideas” with which we have learned to freeze the shifting phantasmagoria which is our actual experience.

If you’re keeping track, this is the 4th book I’ve read in 2010.

I was going to read  A Streetcar Named Desire a few weeks ago, but in all of the boxes and piles of books that have come with moving I wasn’t able to find it.  But now I’ve located the book and I’m going to give it a read.

I go to bed early…usually before 10pm every night.  Last night I tucked myself in around 9:30 and read myself to sleep.  When Daniel came in to go to bed, I was already experiencing REM, and the commotion in the bathroom woke me up.

“Did you already shower?” I asked him, thinking that it was already morning.

“Go back to bed,” he said.  “It’s still night time.”

What a glorious feeling that is – thinking that you need to wake up and start your day and realizing that you actually have at least 6 more hours to sleep.

I was going to read A Streetcar Named Desire but in the chaos brought on by the recent move, I can’t seem to locate the book.  So instead I read James Patterson’s Witch & Wizard.

Patterson is one of my guilty pleasures.  He writes airport book – books that you can always find in an airport gift shop and will be able to finish before you arrive at your destination.  I love the Alex Cross series, and I often breeze through one of his books as a pallet cleanser between “serious” novels.

Witch & Wizard is the first in a young adult series that Patterson is writing.  It’s about two kids (Witsy and Whit) that are kidnapped by the New Order, a form of government that has taken over the world.  In captivity they discover that they have magical powers and that is the reason they are a threat to the N.O.

While I like a good dystopian, end-of-the-word-as-we-know-it, kind of novel (Orwell’s 1984 or Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451) I’m not a huge fan of the novel series.  Too often, you just get a rushed, watered down story because the author has book four or five in mind.

This book actually started out with promise; I was excited to see that I was reading a book that could possible rival some of those mentioned in the previous paragraph – and then we learn that the world’s political system collapsed literally overnight and was replaced by the New Order (lame).  And then the two main characters run in and out of other worldly dimensions (lame).

I got a “This is a new Harry Potter” feeling when I was reading this book, and quite frankly if it wasn’t written by James Patterson I would never pick up book two…but I’m going to give this series one more opportunity to woo me.

This is the 3rd book I’ve read in 2010.

For Christmas, Jennifer gave me Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.  It was on my Amazon.com wish list.  I read about the book in Time magazine, and threw it on my list sometime in 2008, I think.

I haven’t written about it here before, but I don’t have time to write the entire story out, so here’s the condensed version for back-story: When I was nine, one of my classmates was home alone, and a family friend came over and robbed their house and stabbed my classmate 57 times to avoid her being a witness.

I know it’s odd to breeze past that story, and I actually had to search the WhatSomeWouldCallLies.com archives to make sure that I haven’t already told you guys that story before…but that’s not what I’m writing about today.

I’ve been doing some lazy Internet research about the crime because I’m now an adult and can kind of understand the articles about the trial and evidence a bit better than I could back when I was a child.  And I accidentally stumbled across the murderers mailing address (she’s on Death Row in California right now) and I want to write her.

I don’t want to write an angry letter.  I’m not even certain that I want to point out that I knew her victim.  I’m kind of just curious to see what she’s up to.

Is this completely insane?

I really thought that I was going to be joining the Nick Hornby fan club when I picked up How To Be Good. I’ve never read anything by him, but from what I’ve heard, I thought that he was going to be someone I would read thoroughly and often.  Instead, I think that this book should be re-named to How to Waste a Week Of Your Life.  I was really disappointed.  After all of the to-do about About a Boy and High Fidelity I was expecting so much more out of this.

This book started out with promise.  What happens when the crankiest man in the world becomes generous, caring and kind?  Spoiler alert…nothing, because Hornby was too lazy to write an adequate ending.

It’s a story of annoying characters that just get more and more annoying you get deeper and deeper into the book.  Do not waste your time.

If I never read another Nick Hornby book, fine by me.

For those of you keeping count: This is the 2nd book I’ve read in 2010.

This is been on my list for some time now, and I got it for Christmas from Daniel, so I’m finally going to get to it.

Because of the move, I’m pretty late posting my 12 of 12.  Forgive me.  If you don’t know what 12 of 12 is, here’s the basics: On the 12th day of each month bloggers all over the world take 12 photos throughout the day and post them on their blogs. It’s Chad Darnell’s idea, and you can see his website and a list of links here.

To see my photos from past months, click here.

Here are my photos from January 12, 2010.  This should be called “The Diabetes Edition” of my 12 of 12:

What a cute face! Beezus is getting big, right?

Dan and I are obsessed with these Not-A-Paper-Cup ceramic coffee mugs. They look like disposable coffee cups, but are made of glass and can be washed in the dishwasher.

Kind of a boring morning for 12 of 12...I had a meeting in Gilbert until almost 1:30. Bleh.

My office-mate is kind of disorganized, and it drives me nutso! This is what I'm greeted with each day when I arrive.

When our members arrived I took a couple of minutes to play some CandyLand. Damn, my job is hard.

We installed these lights in both bathrooms. It's kind of dark, but you can see the paint color too.

This is the beginning to a very long night. 233 is WAY too high.

My friend Lee Ann Thill writes a blog called The Butter Compartment, named after the place that most of us keep our insulin. Maybe I should create a blog called "The Mustard Shelf."

After some insulin, my blood glucose level is slowly creeping down. 196 is still too high. I'd be happy at 85 or 90.

Getting there...

Not on target, but close enough to go to bed.

Fucking Diabetes. I woke up feeling panicked and shaky, and tested. 66 is too low. I drink some Mountain Dew and wait.

Exhausting. This picture is taken after 2 a.m...which is technically the 13th, but whatever.

I’m not knocking it…but the entire time I was reading Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, I couldn’t help but think that this book would be perfect for the older mom demo.  I mean come on – a creepy neighbor rapes and kills a little girl, and then the girl walks her family through the grieving process from heaven.  FROM HEAVEN.

I’m not well-read enough to say “this is an entirely unique idea” or “Sebold ripped the narrator-in-heaven idea from…” but I will say that it was a clever hook that kept my interest enough to breeze through the book in a week or so.

And y’all know that I’m a sucker for a good opening line, and this one got me right away: My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973. My murderer was a man from our neighborhood. My mother liked his border flowers, and my father talked to him once about fertilizer.

I really wanted to read this book before seeing the movie which is in theaters now, but I really don’t have any interest in paying to go sit and watch a story I just read.  So I may just wait until I can rent it, or I might forget about it and never actually see the movie.  Who knows.

On a side note, I was reading this blog and was tempted to try to read 100 books in 2010.  Do you think that goal is too lofty?

People I respect love the hell out of Nick Hornby, but I’ve never really been too interested in picking him up.  I saw High Fidelity the movie, but never read any of Hornby’s novels.  I know that I have all of those books I got for Christmas, but because of moving they are all in a box and I had to stop at Barnes & Noble and use the gift card to buy this one.

Since we moved a couple of weeks ago, my commute is a bit longer – which kind of sucks, but I really like driving on the I10 under the 7th Street bridge.  I don’t know what it is about the bridge that I like, but every day it makes me smile on the way to and on the way from work.

For you non-Phoenix people, here’s a little video of what it looks like (taken from my Andrioid phone, so don’t knock the quality).

I did my 12 of 12 yesterday…but I only have access to the MacBook which doesn’t play nicely with my digital camera, and doesn’t have Adobe Photoshop on it.  So I’ll be posting them this weekend.  I swear.