Another glorious day

It was another nice day, if not terribly warm. I painted the trellis outside the sunroom and the garage windowsills, while listening to a 2-cd set of Alison Krauss and Union Station.

DVD project:
Goldeneye
While You Were Sleeping
Tomorrow Never Dies

Reading:

I finished the controversial How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life, by Kaavya Viswanathan, which I had requested from the library before all the plagiarism furor broke out. Since I had not read any of the books which this book is allegedly copied from, I cannot make any judgements on its originality, but I did enjoy the book. I liked reading about a desi heroine, not only because I could understand all the Indian references, but because there is too much uniformity in the chick-lit genre among characters, and also Indians are not well represented in mainstream literature of any kind. I'd like to see some mysteries with desi heroines, as well! The character Opal Mehta herself was likeable, albeit a little bit senseless in that she let her scheme go too far without any protest. I can't imagine anyone compromising herself to that extent. She did have redeeming features.

Some complaints:
I'm not sure about the physics behind Opal's theorum, and I'm not too sure Kaavya knows what she is talking about, either. I know this is fiction, but it should sound plausible, at least.

The ending scene at the graduation ceremony, where she solves the "Fermiculi principle", was really overwrought. That is pretty common in books of this genre, though.

I also read Touched by Time, by Leanne Shawler. It's a rare time-travel regency. I rate it 4/5 stars - I've never read a really good time travel regency, but this was entertaining and besides the rather goofy premise, it had a good storyline. I'm always pleased when the author does not try to get all scientific and explain how the time travel actually works. It never sounds believable!

Mail Call:
Large bag of popcorn from Daleandthomas.com. I had requested a free sample and was expecting a tiny packet, and got a big box! It's nice, but soooo expensive.
DNA collection kit from Columbia university (I'm participating in a genetics study)
junk