All You Need is... to Show your Love! - Love Thursday

Another blogger (Karen) has posted a blog tag on her site.

The challenge? Make a blog post with a photo showing love...

My choice is the below photo.
My husband of 6 weeks, Mike, our son and niece playing together. My little guy and I spent a couple weeks over in England this spring with Mike and visiting his family before he moved over here with us. We had a fantastic time, and the two-too-adorable little ones had a great time playing with one another.

















(see, I bet you thought I was going to go the easy route and post pictures from my wedding, didn't you?)

Book Review: Lightning

Title: Lightning
From: Dean Koontz
Cost: $7.99 paperback, $4.99 audio cassette, ~$20 used hardcover

This book was originally published in 1988. And, about 5 years afterwards, this was one of the first Koontz novels I read (Icebound being the very first).

I adore this story. It is touching, and full of hope, and tragedy, and love, and unimagineable loss, and growth, and scarring and justice for... most.

The book opens on a dark and stormy night (although not in those exact words ;) ), where we see an inebriated doctor being held at gunpoint so that he won't oversee the delivery of a little girl named Laura Jean Shane.

When Laura was 8, she and her father were saved from an armed robber by a mysterious man.

Multiple times throughout her life, Laura was rescued from some sort of trauma by the same stranger.

She was always a loner, having lost her loving father before her teens (her mother having died during childbirth), making a couple close friends during her years at the orphanage. She found a wonderful guy during college and they married and had a child. All was happy for her again...

Then, after over a decade since their last encounter, the man appeared again.

I don't want to give anything away to those who haven't read the book.

You should have the chance to get to know and love Laura and her father Bob, the Amazing Ackerson twins, her husband Danny Packard and their son Chris and Thelma's husband, Jason.

And shudder with revulsion at Dr. Markwell, the burglar/assaulter, the Eel, the foster parents and the mysterious men with slight accents who show up with guns.

And... wonder about the mysterious man, Stefan Krieger.

Who was he? Where did he come from? Why did he want to help Laura? How was he able to know when and where to come to her aid on so many occassions?

Will she, a novelist, be able to protect her loved ones?

Learn along with Laura; Learn to edure, Learn to fight, Learn to accept.

I'm not sure how to classify this novel... mystery? yes. intrigue? yes. love story? yes. tragedy? yes. inspirational? yes. science fiction? ...

Overall Rating: Excellent!

Dean Koontz crafts a convincing story with his words. This is just mysterious enough, and tragic enough, and hopefull enough to keep you turning pages long into the night.

If you've read this book, chime in and let me know what you thought about it.

Movie Review: The Safe Side (for Kids)

Title: The Safe Side
From: John Walsh, Julie Clark
Cost: $19.99 (USD)

Alright, the first review on my book review blog is going to show you... a children's safety video Through the Eyes of Dorkness!

On a quasi-regular basis, I visit the Family Watchdog site to check for the presence of Convicted Sex Offenders near the places that my son lives and visits regularly. The last time I was there, I noticed a link claiming to help me protect my child. It was a link to purchase The Safe Side video.

Since my son (very gregarious by nature) has recently experienced a leap in his verbal communications, I thought that it was an appropriate time to introduce him to additional safety lessons (I give the constant talks about people, animals, and places that we don't know, but, of course, I always worry that 'professionals' will have a better way of reaching him than my words alone).

I thought, well, for $20, it couldn't hurt, and I'm helping to support a good cause.

Well! I will certainly say this, my son LOVES this video. The Safe Side Super Chick really kept him engaged. There were simple cues to help the child know about the situation she was in (green shirts for safe, yellow shirts for unsure and red shirts for dangerous). She was wacky but, the situations she walked the kids through were in-depth, but, presented simply so that I really felt my son understood them.

It adds another layer to the 'Stranger Danger' teachings of my day. Instead of just strangers, a child is taught how to properly reckognize and react to 'Don't Know's' and 'Kinda Know's', which I think is important.

The first time he watched the video, I sat with him, he didn't have many questions, but, I wanted to be sure that I was accepting of, and able to reinforce, the ideas taught during the program.
He was very proud to know the answers that the Super Chick asked, and afterwards, I gave him one of the Safety badge stickers that came with the movie.

He asks to watch it over and over again, so I really hope this sinks in.

Overall Rating: Excellent!

I recommend this video (geared at children in gradeschool) for parents wanting to open up a dialog with their child, or just find new ways to reinforce safety tips taught in the home.

Finally Settled on a Blog Name

I love reading. I love books.

I've been been blogging since April of 2005, but, it's been mostly work-related (CAD/Facilities Management/FM/Autodesk/etc). I wanted a place just to share my thoughts on the books that I read.

BUT! I wanted to keep a bit of a theme.

I'm a dork.

I named my first blog Mistress Of the Dorkness and my second one, The Love Dorkter.

So... the best one I could come up with was 'Reading in the Dork Ages'. But, while somewhat apt, just didn't have the right feel for me. I picked some brains, and finally someone came up with the idea of using a Dean Koontz title... as he's my favorite author, and has been since I was an adolescent.

So, I did a run-through of titles on my shelf, as well as old magazine article titles that I found on the web, and here are the ones where I've substituted Dork for either Dark or Door.

Dork Rivers of the Heart
Dorkfall
The Eyes of Dorkness
The Dork to December
One Dork Away from Heaven
The Dork of Summer
A Dorkness in My Soul
Dork of the Woods
Dork Symphony
Down in the Dorkness

I must say that Dark Rivers of the Heart is a book of Koontz's that I've always been drawn too, reading it annually as I do the Lord of the Rings trilogy. But! The Eyes of Dorkness just seems to pop out to me, and I believe I can get across that you're viewing the books Through the Eyes of Dorkness...

So... join me on my journey through literature... we'll be touching on a lot of Koontz, the book I'm finishing now is by David and Leigh Eddings, I have most John Grisham novels, I also like some historical books (but, only if they're really entertaining), as well as some classic literature (call me nuts, but, I love Crime and Punishment and will be reading it yet again).

I will spare you in most cases from my most voracious reading habbits... ie... the ones I read to my 3-year old son. He ADORES being read to, and I'm eager to jumpstart his reading skills and hope this helps. He's also started a new daycare, which does a really great program that keeps the students involved instead of just shoving boring repetition down their throats. His favorites change on a semi-regular basis, but, now that he's learned the sounds going along to all of the letters, he's eager to go through again his Sesame Street ABC series. If you'll follow this link you'll see a reason why this particular set is so cool (in addition to the obvious), it's a floor-sized puzzle!
While the little top and bottom of some of the puzzle pieces where they link together have gotten a little worn, with close supervision, this can be kept to a minimum.


I'm enjoying this time I can spend reading to him, whether it is one of his books, or when he climbs into my bed and asks me to read from mine (the last set was the Chronicles of Narnia). I know that in a couple years time, he will be reading totally on his own, and will likely regard it as a solitary pursuit. How do I know this? Because it happened with my Mother. She read to myself and my sister when we were small, but, sometime around kindergarten, it suddenly became more attractive to read the things by ourselves. I also recall that we used to play Scrabble and Boggle all the time... until my sister and I were about aged 7 and 9... and we started beating Mom at every game. After that it was just the two of us competing, and Momma calling from her desk to ask how to spell something.

Well, I think I've rambled on far enough for my first post. Please come back and share your thoughts and feelings about what I've read.