So my podcast BookBanter is alive and doing very well, including getting mentioned in Brandon Sanderson's blog, as the current episode (Episode 2) features an interview I did with him. The hits, ratings, and downloads are up and doing well. I'm hoping to let publishers know about my book review blog, and maybe one of them might be interested in making this a permanent and possibly lucrative thing. So for all you who haven't checked it out yet or have not idea what I'm talking about, why don't you head over the BookBanter link, HERE. Or you can go to the Itunes store and search for BookBanter and check it out there. And be sure to let me know what you think!

Thanks,

Alex.

Welcome to the next small update at alexctelander.com. The BookBanter podcast is in full swing, and in episode 2 you get to hear my exclusive interview with bestselling author Brandon Sanderson, who's been picked to write the last novel in Robert Jordan's bestselling Wheel of Time series. A print version is also available for those who prefer to read it. And then there's two reviews of Sanderson's books: Elantris and Mistborn: The Final Empire. All is linked below, so check it out!

Alex.

11/08/08

Daily KOS has a really cool Electoral Scoreboard to help keep track of everything that's going on tonight: Electoral Map

Today is a historic day. We’ve been told this for many months; over a year by some. It may well be a day we remember for the rest of our lives. And it is finally here. I came to this country partly because it was the land of opportunity, choices, and freedoms: I wanted to have choice when I went to a store. It may seem shallow and crass, but part of it is true. I lived in a country where endless opportunity wasn’t always available to me. This is part of the reason I chose to come to this country.

But there was another part, a growing, warming sense for freedoms and opportunities that the rest of the world always seems jealous of. I came, discovered this to be real, and loved this country for it. Then President Bush got falsely elected, and these freedoms, choices, and opportunities were changed and/or revoked, not necessarily to me (though the increase in citizenship fees did affect my opportunity to apply and be allowed to vote). As the years passed and things became worse for many, a new America was revealed of only black and white, and never gray choices; of a fundamental determinism and obsession that one had to subscribe to, and if you didn’t you were un-American and unpatriotic.

Then an ignorant and blind America did it again in 2004 and things continued to go downhill for many. Once more, my world wasn’t really affected by these changes, but I read of many who were suffering. It is a different America that the world grew no longer to admire and respect, but to eventually disdain. It is an America that most of its people no longer subscribe to.

It says something when citizens are doing more for each other and themselves to help the environment and their country, while its government blindly ignores it and its people. It says something when the people bond together to help each other in times of crisis and catastrophe, when the government can’t be bothered to lift a finger. It says something when a groundswell movement of minor cries for something new grows to a deafening chorus heard from coast to coast and state to state for change.

This is that day. The day for change. Get the hell out and vote. Vote for change, so we can start fixing America again – because Obama knows, as everyone else does, that it’s going to take all of us to fight and make sacrifices together to get through this. If you have work and can’t make it, go on your lunch break. If you can’t do that, skip out on work for a day, because this vote is more important than any day of work.

I don’t have the opportunity to vote, yet. But you do, it’s your right in this country, so don’t squander it. This time more than any other, do what many others dream of. And lets make the rest of the world jealous of America once again for its freedoms, its opportunities, and its choices.

And make sure to vote a big resounding NO on 8.

See you Wednesday morning, at the dawn of a new America.

Welcome to the next update at alexctelander.com. It's been a very busy last couple of month with travel and going on vacation and still dealing with the whole new job of being a manager. But the update is finally here and that's what you care about. Since it has been so long since the last update, there are A LOT of new book reviews, fourteen new book reviews to be precise. Links to each of them can be found below. There is also a link to the BookBanter podcast, which is replacing the former alexctelander.com podcast. I know it all sounds a little confusing, but basically at BookBanter you'll be getting audio versions of the book reviews and that's it. As for the new Stream of Consciousness, it will only be available online at this particular website. You will also find links to two new pages above: one is the LibriVox page, with links to all my LibriVox recordings and any projects I'm currently working on. The second new page is the Portfolio page, which lists all the sites I've been able to find online which have cited my work in some way. If you find one not on that page, do let me know and I'll add it on there. Finally the ever popular book review counter is back at the top left of the page, which will show the ever increasing book reviews, as well as below that a list of books I'm currently reading. For now, enjoy all the new materials, links to which are all below.

Alex.
10/12/08

In the first of hopefully many posts on recipes and my efforts in the kitchen we have Middle Eastern Chicken Sloppy Joe. This is a delicious dish which can last a couple at least two meals or more, depending on how much they wish to eat at each serving, and how well they wish to stuff their pitas. The one difference I make in preparing this dish is using lean, low-fat turkey as opposed to chicken, simply because I prefer the taste of turkey, and just pick up a package of ground turkey at the grocery store.

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 bunch scallions (white and green parts separate), thinly sliced

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 medium tomatoes, diced

1/4 cup golden raisins

1 pound lean ground chicken

1/4 cup plain low-fat yogurt

1/3 cup pine nuts, toasted

4 (4-inch) whole wheat pitas with pockets, tops trimmed and warmed

Directions:
Heat olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat, add the scallion whites cinnamon, salt, and pepper, and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, tomato, and raisins and cook over high heat until mixture is almost dry, about 6 minutes. Add the chicken and cook stirring until meat is cooked through, about 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the green part of the scallions, yogurt, and pine nuts. Serve mixture stuffed into warm pita.

(From Food Network)

And the result is this delicious looking meal:

Some new election results that should brighten up your day!

Welcome to the better late than never update that has been long overdue. I didn't do one in June, as I didn't have too many book reviews to put up, and now we're well into July so let's get started: you've got nine new book reviews, the complete story of "Saving the Planet, One Piece at a Time," since people were asking. Links to the Kyra Podcast where you can hear each chapter of the podcast and we're up to Chapter 10 right now, with new chapters going up every Friday. There's of course the alexctelander.com podcast where you can hear the audio version of this update with the short story and the book reviews, as well as highlights about book reviews for the next update. For now, enjoy all the new stuff, and let me know what you think.

Alex.

I miss the blue sky. With the heat wave that hit the Sacramento area last week, it naturally led to uncontrollable fires in the vicinity. I believe there were seven of them, wreaking havoc and destruction, and expelling an incredible amount of smoke.

We are now going into day three of no blue sky above, even though it is a beautiful day out. There has been so much smoke that a thick haze now hangs around the Sacramento area, forming a grayish-white sky above and at times making the vista murky. When I drove by Sacramento yesterday morning, there was no visible downtown, just hazy shadows and darkened bruises where the high rise buildings were supposed to be. The strangest aspect of this is the way the sunlight is occasionally filtered -- when it manages to break through the smoke -- and makes an orangy-yellow light that feels more alien or radioactive in nature than natural sunlight. It congers images of nuclear fallout, Armageddon, and connotations of what the world may become if hit by a large meteor and plunging most of the planet into a cloudy darkness. This is what it must've been like in Southeast Asia after Krakatoa in 1883. This is what the dinosaurs had to deal with, once a portion of them had been wiped out by the meteor blast.

No wonder they died out.

The video says it all:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/bestoftv/2008/06/02/lkl.alien.tape.cnn

It's worth watching the whole thing, and try not to laugh too loud when you get to the reenactments.

Obama's victory speech:

McCain's not so good speech:

The photo and blurb from Cogitamus says it all.

75,000 people in Portland, Oregon. If we're very charitable, Portland and it's neighboring counties have a total population of 2.45 million. That's one in every thirty people in the Portland Area, and around one in every five or six Obama voters in the entire state.

The video says a lot about who this man really is, and it's not conjecture or slanted facts, it's all footage from him in his own words.

Welcome May update. First, there's the link to the podcast with this month's episode. There's a new Stream of Consciousness: the first few pages to a story I'm working on about a superhero. There's the last chapter and epilogue of Kyra, which ties in with the surprise, see the bottom of this paragraph. There are nine -- count them, nine -- new books reviews, mostly fiction, one nonfiction and a kid's book. All the links are below in the table. At the bottom you'll find links for the work I've done with Librivox, along with the new book I recorded. And now the big surprise is now that Kyra is full uploaded in textual format on this site, I am unveiling the podcast of the book, with the first chapter available right here. There will be a new chapter uploaded every week. So check out the site, checkout the podcast, and check out the podcast for Kyra, and enjoy!

Alex
www.alexctelander.com

. . . You Call For HOPEMAN!

The YouTube vid says it all:

I've been mentioning over the last couple of weeks about a program I saw about how some apes have evolved to use pointy sticks as weapons, fighting each other, and in this case catching food, imitating us:

Great, the apes have evolved hate for each other, like humans, and the urge to attack with weapons. What a great leap!

So if you're sitting around wondering why Hillary doesn't just admit that she's out of the race already and concede (like the Jon Stewart joke about Obama getting sworn in as president while Hillary is still running), check out this site to see what our candidates will supposedly look like in four years:

http://www.popphoto.com/popularphotographyfeatures/5253/the-candidates-how-will-they-look-in-four-years.html

Just mouse over the photos, and while they're pretty scary, I think they reflect more what they will look like in eight or ten years time instead four.