It's before midnight somewhere...

So now... The mother has the girl named valentine in the way of her son gaining her vast fortune from the paralysed father Noirtier, who in turn does not appreciate what the family has been up to in terms of planned marriages and has withfrawn his bill. Meanwhile the count of Monte Cristo has appeared and written a perscription for the mother, whom he reminds that the medcine can also be a poison. Also, during a ball he met mercedes again, who is dropping ints that she knows who he is. During this same ball, the grandmother and grandfather of Valentine both fall ill and quickly die. The local doctor suggests murder as a possibility. Drama, death, love and revenge: the best things from France.

These are some notes for when I get back home.

http://www.boston.com/bostonworks/galleries/30fast_declining_occupations?pg=2

So my reserach project is going to be on the ethics of laying off hundreds of workers and replacing with our soon-to-be robot overlords.

ReasonTV. "Mexicans and Machines: Drew Carey on Nafta". June 25, 2008. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9csCerjfdE

In this video, Drew Carey explains how we blame job loss on Mexicans, even though the greatest job stealers are actually robots. He notes that all of the media is focused on exported jobs, while the real cause is at home. According to Carey, people wrongly blame NAFTA for allowing tis to continue. He claims that many more jobs were created by NAFTA than lost. He claims that the real threat lies with a worker that requires no sleep or pay. Factory and agricultural jobs are lost while their outputs increased. He also mentions a ninteenth century revolt against machines.

Anonymous. "Industrial robot". Wikipedia. December 7, 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_robot

The Wikipedia article accurately details the history of a robot's use in industry, from patents of the 1950's to definitions and graphs of today's modern working man. The article also gives a sample of programming used in today's machines, and a small abridged article (with a link to the main article) on the future of robotics.

Werre you expecting something witty?

I'm still a little fuzzy on the details, but it appears that the count has freed several criminals, so that they in turn would capture Albert. Instead, they captured his friend, Franz, but still the count is now Albert's friend. Using this as a motive, he has renovated an old manor on Champs Elysies to his particular tastes. Now back in French Society, he has met all his old friends and enemies. He saved his old boss from commiting suicide when his company was sinking, and now his son (Maximillian) has fallen in love with the daugher of his enemy Villefort (Valentine, though the count does not know of it yet). Already, It appears that the count has done some digging into the count of Morcerf's past life in the Ottoman Empire, and he now keeps a slave girl of particular importance (though he refuses to admit she is a slave). Also, Danglers has lost several hundred thousand pounds in a failed business venture, one of many I'm sure...

Part 2: the thrilling conclusion you waited for is not here yet.

Edmond, who now calls himself the count of monte cristo, has started off with some charity: he gave a large diamond to somebody for information on the current era (which is 14 years off), and finds out several things:
a: his wife married his enemy Fernand, who mysteriously got rich quick and is now Count Morcerf. He has one son: Albert.
B: His old enemy Danglers is now an excellent banker
C: His corrupt judge had a bonapartist father who is now bound to a wheelchair (Villefort). The father's (Noirtier) granddaughter Valentine is the only family who actually loves him. Valentine is planning to escape her arranged marriage to marry Maximillian, the son of the merchant whom Monte Cristo used to work for.

Upon hearing all this, the count saves his old friends from financial ruin and then departs on a yacht, vowing he will devote his life to revenge.

I have a sinking feeling that this was due on tuesday...

So.
Edmond Dantes is jailed because one guy wants his wife, another guy wants his job and a third guy doesn't want the world to know his father supported Napoleon. He was in jail for 14 or 17 years before he (with the help of another cellmate) escapes, having been stuck in a sack and thrown from the castle into the sea.

The cellmate, who died during the escape, told Edmond of an ancient treasure he learned about before being incarcerated. Edmond found it, and is now rich and fabulously wealthy.

"Chautau D'if", kingdom of the Hypotheticals

I just started reading "The Count of Monte Cristo" which takes place in France before and after Napoleon's 100 days back in action. I'm following the life of Edmond Dante, who is about to get promoted at his job as a successful sailor to CAPTAIN, marry a BEAUTIFUL GIRL and SAVE HIS FATHER from poverty. So what could go wrong?

I don't exactly have "stellar" habits, do I?

Alright, so I had to read through the rest of the book in one night, which is why I had to do my blog this morning. I collapsed at about 12:30 and had to sleep. Anyway, heres the breakdown:
A man named Ferris builds a gigantic metal wheel with cars to out-eiffel eiffel. The fair is just barely a success. Today, most of the fair has withered away, leaving only the palace of fine arts (which is now a science museum).
Holmes is finally caught and convicted after the bodies of several children are found. He is executed promptly after writing his memoirs, where he says he killed over 100 women.
Prendergaft, or whatever his name is, was a total psycho: He believed the government betrayed him, so he decided to kill the mayor, on the night of the ending of the fair.

So there it is.

What do you do when there isn't a breakfast-machine to be found?

Well, turns out that Holmes did not kill the woman and her daughter...yet. In any case, there are are more interesting things to read in the regular story: An entrepeneur by the name of Sol Bloom, recently bought a whole algerian village, has decided to set up his exhibit next-door to the fair. he plans to call his place a "Midway".

SPECIAL GUEST STAR APPEARANCE from Buffolo Bill, who's wild-west show is also setting up shop next to the grounds. Evn beter are the proposals set forth to "out-eiffel Eiffel", including:
A tower that telescopes upward
Another tower (this time with tobbogans leading to New York, Boston and San Francisco)
A third Tower, but with a twist: it's the exact Eiffel Tower, only bigger! (submitted by Eiffel himself)

I couldn't stop laughing for awhile...

Almost forgot...again

Well, I'll be honest. With all the commotion that happened last weekend with relatives visiting and touring St. Paul, I have only managed to read one page at this time of writing. The architecture team is using very interesting buildings, bu there is very little drama so far. Holmes, on the other hand, is now selling his victims' skeletons o nearby med schools, as this was the height of anti-desecration-of-the-dead and cadavers were hard to find.

Also, I think he might have just killed a little girl and her mother, but I'm not sure...

Whoops!

OMG! I'M LATE! Trying to fit in "The Hobbit" (which I never got around to reading before) was a bad idea. I didn't get much reading done in DitWC, But here's a basic update: Holmes has finished his hotel, wich has a sound-proof kiln in the basement and an airtight storage vault with a gas nozzle. Creepy! He kept the workers from noticing by having them build it in sections, then firing them without paying them. Actually, he does this a lot; He has thousands of dollars worth of debts to various factories whose products he sells. Also, because he is a doctor after all, he has opened a pharmacy on the first floor, where he sells crack-pot stuff like wonder-cures and hair-tonics. He has already seduced several women, even though he married the first one, and obviously has some evil plan for them. I'm beginning to think that he, considering his business expertise, might be planning to sell the remains as pies, a la Sweeny Todd. We'll see...

Dun-dun-DUUUUN!

While the exposition crew is being assembled, and Holmes seems on his way to Chicago infamy (By the way, his real name was Dr. H.W. Mudgett), a third story has started about a quiet, young man named Prendergast, who is a staunch supportor of the new Chicago mayor. On a whim, I googled his name and discovered something that (to finish this sentence, please turn to blog post # 6).

Anyway, The team that's designing the exposition now has Burnham, Frederick Law Olmstead, George Post, Henry van Brunt, Francis Millet, Col. Edmund Rice, Charles McKim and Ernest Graham.

The map of the exposition looks spectatular. Here's a good example:
http://www.vintageseattle.org/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/chicago_birds_eye.jpg

Why "The Super-Special-Awesome Exposition" was NOT used for a name...

Apparently, this follows around David Burnham as he is working fervently on gathering a team of artists, architects and investments to plan the "Colmbian Exposition", which celebrates 400 years after Columbus reached the Americas. There was a big competition among St. Louis, New York and Chicago for the honor of hosting the fair, and Chicago won. No mention of a murder yet, but I have very high hopes!

First post!

I finally caved in to my father's begging and picked up "Devil in the White City" as told by Erik Larson.

The story is a non-fiction retelling of the history of the construction of the World's Columbian Exposition intertwined with the muders done by "H.H. Holmes". It looks interesting and I can't wait to sit down and really read it.

The first chapter is called "frozen music"...

...sounds like some new-age craze.

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog...
...don't get yer hopes up.