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Books and scandal
Feb. 15th, 2011 08:15 amScandal first, well it's only going to be interesting to local people.
The RCMP charged four men yesterday for fraud and theft. All of them are or were MLA's (Provincial legislature members, the provincial versions of the federal MPs). The one that's currently a sitting member is the one that happens to represent my district and i used to know him. He lived in my building on my floor and worked part time in the corner shop while also managed a drug store. This was before he got into politics. Next thing i know, he and his girlfriend got married, bought a house and he's running for the New Democrats. About a year ago, he was in the papers for all the wrong reasons. He was accused of fraud and theft.
Seems he had alcohol and gambling problems, he has connections to fraudulent expenses, outstanding personal bills and apparently has lost his house or is about to, as well! It looks like he really got himself into hot water with the gambling addiction and at the time, he was ejected from the NDP and sat as an Independent but they hadn't charged him then. A year later, they've done all their investigations and have laid charges yesterday. The other three are former MLAs. The sitting MLA is also the youngest of the four and is facing the fewest charges but he's facing theft charges in addition to fraud and breech of trust by a public officer. The other ones face fraud,. breeching trust and forgery charges. I do feel the tiniest bit sorry for him for his addictions but it's no excuse. He's insisting that he's still on the job, still representing his district. Innocent until proven guilty and all that. I think he can stay until he's found guilty and then the government will have him out though by rights, morally, he should probably resign.
Books:
I've just realized that i have FOUR books on the go! Good grief! Three ebooks and one paper book. Actually, no, i have fifth ebook too but it's only one i pick at on occasion. It's Keith Richards' autobiography and it's not all that great but easy to pick up and put down. Non fiction is often like that, since there's not really a thread of a story you have to keep up with as such. You can read a chapter and be satisfied and if you don't pick it up for a week, you haven't really lost the plot. If you take that sort of attitude, then i even have a sixth, paper book about the history of London on the go too which i only pick up once in awhile.
That one's actually not really a straight line of history but it picks on particular aspects such as housing or markets or even prostitution and talks about that. IT's more about the history of life in the city rather than a political history. It's London: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd. He talks about transportation, childhood, crime, all sorts of different topics to give you an idea of life in London over the centuries. It's easy to pick up and put down and i've had it on the go for months. It's also the size of a door stop!
The idea of having so many books on the go might baffle some people but i've always been one to have a couple at least on the go with a non-fiction one in there as well. if a book is really, really good and i can't put it down, then that's the only one i'll read until i'm done. Having the ereader and a library of ebooks on my puter is spoiling me and giving me so much choice that i think that's why i keep starting new ones! Then i can decide which one i'm in the mood to read since i've got three of them on the go on the ereader.
I also put a few on my ipod touch and have read one on that and have started another. Sometimes on the way home from work, i just use the ipod to read from instead of the ereader. That's often if i've just been at the gym and have been using it for tunes anyway. Sometimes i'll just listen to a podcast instead of reading though i don't always take it all in. I kind of drift and the bus can be noisy so i don't always hear it all well.
Now i'm getting ready for a trip, i'll be putting various maps and pdf documents on the ereader as well, probably just on the memory card for it. I've created a Word template to the dimensions that workr well with the ereader so i can put lists and copy/paste info from websites into that and create pdfs from it. i haven't actually tried that to see what it looks like though. I guess i should, eh?
So, another of the 2011 books (#14) completed is Coraline by Neal Gaiman. I saw the animated movie last year and when i saw that i had the ebook, i had to read it and i put it on the ipod touch. I really liked the book and yes, of course, the movie ends up being different. They actually added a character to the movie that isn't in the book, the character of the next door neighbour boy but other than that, the story is pretty much the same minus the 3D graphics to jazz it up some. Coraline is an only child of two parents who are writing a gardening book and don't seem to have much time for her. They've just moved into a big old house that's been divided into flats with some decidedly eccentric neighbours in the other flats. There are two older ladies who used to be cabaret or vaudeville type stars and there's an older, foreign man who keeps mice that seem to be a bit psychic. Well they do seem to be able to predict things and the man can communicate with them and he trains them to perform. It's children's book, right? So you can do stuff like that.
Coraline finds a door in the parlour that at first seems to have been bricked up in behind but which, in reality, leads to an alternative universe where everything seems the same but the people all have buttons for eyes and are just a little too perfect. Her "Other" mother pays her all the attention she ever wanted but little by little Coraline realizes things aren't as they seem and she's got a battle on her hands.
I have Stardust by Gaiman as well so i will definitely be reading that as i saw that movie too and liked it. That one was a bit more complex than Coraline Must check to see if i have any more.
The RCMP charged four men yesterday for fraud and theft. All of them are or were MLA's (Provincial legislature members, the provincial versions of the federal MPs). The one that's currently a sitting member is the one that happens to represent my district and i used to know him. He lived in my building on my floor and worked part time in the corner shop while also managed a drug store. This was before he got into politics. Next thing i know, he and his girlfriend got married, bought a house and he's running for the New Democrats. About a year ago, he was in the papers for all the wrong reasons. He was accused of fraud and theft.
Seems he had alcohol and gambling problems, he has connections to fraudulent expenses, outstanding personal bills and apparently has lost his house or is about to, as well! It looks like he really got himself into hot water with the gambling addiction and at the time, he was ejected from the NDP and sat as an Independent but they hadn't charged him then. A year later, they've done all their investigations and have laid charges yesterday. The other three are former MLAs. The sitting MLA is also the youngest of the four and is facing the fewest charges but he's facing theft charges in addition to fraud and breech of trust by a public officer. The other ones face fraud,. breeching trust and forgery charges. I do feel the tiniest bit sorry for him for his addictions but it's no excuse. He's insisting that he's still on the job, still representing his district. Innocent until proven guilty and all that. I think he can stay until he's found guilty and then the government will have him out though by rights, morally, he should probably resign.
Books:
I've just realized that i have FOUR books on the go! Good grief! Three ebooks and one paper book. Actually, no, i have fifth ebook too but it's only one i pick at on occasion. It's Keith Richards' autobiography and it's not all that great but easy to pick up and put down. Non fiction is often like that, since there's not really a thread of a story you have to keep up with as such. You can read a chapter and be satisfied and if you don't pick it up for a week, you haven't really lost the plot. If you take that sort of attitude, then i even have a sixth, paper book about the history of London on the go too which i only pick up once in awhile.
That one's actually not really a straight line of history but it picks on particular aspects such as housing or markets or even prostitution and talks about that. IT's more about the history of life in the city rather than a political history. It's London: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd. He talks about transportation, childhood, crime, all sorts of different topics to give you an idea of life in London over the centuries. It's easy to pick up and put down and i've had it on the go for months. It's also the size of a door stop!
The idea of having so many books on the go might baffle some people but i've always been one to have a couple at least on the go with a non-fiction one in there as well. if a book is really, really good and i can't put it down, then that's the only one i'll read until i'm done. Having the ereader and a library of ebooks on my puter is spoiling me and giving me so much choice that i think that's why i keep starting new ones! Then i can decide which one i'm in the mood to read since i've got three of them on the go on the ereader.
I also put a few on my ipod touch and have read one on that and have started another. Sometimes on the way home from work, i just use the ipod to read from instead of the ereader. That's often if i've just been at the gym and have been using it for tunes anyway. Sometimes i'll just listen to a podcast instead of reading though i don't always take it all in. I kind of drift and the bus can be noisy so i don't always hear it all well.
Now i'm getting ready for a trip, i'll be putting various maps and pdf documents on the ereader as well, probably just on the memory card for it. I've created a Word template to the dimensions that workr well with the ereader so i can put lists and copy/paste info from websites into that and create pdfs from it. i haven't actually tried that to see what it looks like though. I guess i should, eh?
So, another of the 2011 books (#14) completed is Coraline by Neal Gaiman. I saw the animated movie last year and when i saw that i had the ebook, i had to read it and i put it on the ipod touch. I really liked the book and yes, of course, the movie ends up being different. They actually added a character to the movie that isn't in the book, the character of the next door neighbour boy but other than that, the story is pretty much the same minus the 3D graphics to jazz it up some. Coraline is an only child of two parents who are writing a gardening book and don't seem to have much time for her. They've just moved into a big old house that's been divided into flats with some decidedly eccentric neighbours in the other flats. There are two older ladies who used to be cabaret or vaudeville type stars and there's an older, foreign man who keeps mice that seem to be a bit psychic. Well they do seem to be able to predict things and the man can communicate with them and he trains them to perform. It's children's book, right? So you can do stuff like that.
Coraline finds a door in the parlour that at first seems to have been bricked up in behind but which, in reality, leads to an alternative universe where everything seems the same but the people all have buttons for eyes and are just a little too perfect. Her "Other" mother pays her all the attention she ever wanted but little by little Coraline realizes things aren't as they seem and she's got a battle on her hands.
I have Stardust by Gaiman as well so i will definitely be reading that as i saw that movie too and liked it. That one was a bit more complex than Coraline Must check to see if i have any more.
