This n That

I wish I could say I forgot to post yesterday. The truth is every time I thought about posting - and it was a lot, trust me - all I could come up with would've turned into a rant. Life's too short for all that negativity. So today, I'm just going to offer up a few different things and see if we can avoid the rant...

But I can't not mention this. Yesterday at Diana Peterfreund's blog, she wrote a post that ended with something that really made me glad I homeschool. According to a NY Times article approximately 75,000 schools are using this 'Reading Management' software thing that assigns point values to books, and then the students have to read x-number of points. Don't get me wrong. I don't have a problem with that idea when taken at face value. If I'd only just heard about this thing, I might've even thought it sounded great. The problem comes when there doesn't seem to be any objective reason for assigning points to any given book. I mean, seriously, a Gossip Girls book got more points than HAMLET? WTF? Anyway, I said I wasn't going to rant, and there I go doing it, so I'll let you consider the ramifications behind teaching our kids that pop culture carries more weight than great literature. Feh.

Look ahead folks. What you see is the world of Fahrenheit 451 creeping closer...

And speaking of speculative fiction, I got a lead on an agent who's currently looking for dystopic novels. Since I haven't sent Blink to her, I'll be jumping on that later this morning. Yay. I really love this book, and I won't give up on it until I see it in print.

In other news, Biggest Loser starts tonight. I can't weight wait to see what the new season will bring. Hopefully more inspiration and less drama. But hey, if I didn't have that one Detroit chick to hate last year, the real competitors wouldn't have shined as much. I'm also hoping to get some nifty new tips for my own health. That tortilla pizza thing last year was awesome, and the whole idea of doing different exercises every other day to burn calories more efficiently was awesome.

Of course, now Tuesday nights are hell for me. NCIS, the WSOP and Biggest Loser??? All on at the same time? Crap. I suppose I should be grateful they don't show college football on Tuesdays, too. I'm torn enough as it is.

Lastly, I just wanted to mention that even though I haven't written much this year (compared to the last two years), I've been reading up a storm. So much so, in fact, that I've almost reached the amount of books I read all of last year and it's only September. Wow, there've been some awesome books published in 2009, and there are plenty more yet to come. Some of my favorite current authors have topped themselves this year, and the future promises even better stuff. I'm in awe of these people.

Your turn: Anything to add about any of the above? Read anything awesome this year? What shows are you anxiously awaiting? Or do you have a peeve to get off your chest?

Comment away.