I read a pretty cool article today from LiveScience.com about how other countries celebrate their independence days. I have to admit that aside from France’s Bastille Day, I didn’t even know the dates of the other celebrations listed in the article — not even Canada Day (sorry to all my friends in the Great White North!).

If you want to learn how France, Canada, India, Mexico, Peru, Australia, and a few other countries celebrate their independence, click through the link below. Some places do party with fireworks and parades like we do, but I think you might be surprised by a few of the other celebrations!

Live Science

That doesn’t sound very appetizing, does it? Nevertheless, it seems that a lot of people are buzzing about the positive effects of eating red yeast rice regularly.

I’d never heard of this stuff before, so I had to look it up. Apparently, red yeast rice is rice that has been specially cultivated with a mold called Monascus purpureus and has been used in Chinese medicine for more than a thousand years.

Red rice yeast is becoming more popular in western countries because studies have shown that this particular kind of rice can lower LDL (”bad” cholesterol) levels. Many people have reported success in taking red rice yeast as an OTC dietary supplement.

I checked out a few pictures of red rice yeast, and think the stuff looks absolutely nasty! I guess it wouldn’t be so bad in supplement form or whatever, but the thought of eating it in its natural state makes me want to gag.

Oh, and this is not a miracle cholesterol drug or anything like that. While LDL can be lowered, there are several side effects, including liver damage. So don’t go off and take this stuff by yourself. You need to be closely monitored by a doctor for safety and effectiveness.

Late again with the Booking Through Thursday Meme, but what else is new, right? Here’s this week’s question (there’s actually another part to it, but I’m only answering this one):

Have you ever been a member of a book club? How did your group choose (or, if you haven’t been, what do you think is the best way to choose) the next book and who would lead discussion?

I’ve only ever been a member of one book club. It was an online discussion group called the Classics Book Club or something like that, and it was supposed to be a place where members could read and (virtually) discuss classic literature.

Books were chosen based on member nominations. Anyone could nominate a book, and then there would be open voting for three days. Members would then read and discuss whichever book received the most votes during the voting period.

It sounded like a good idea in theory, but the execution was atrocious. The biggest problem I had with the group was that there was constant arguing about what kinds of books could be considered “classics”. I mean, without getting into the finer points of the discussions, we had people nominating books that were first published in 2005 or 2006. Come on! A classic at least has to stand the test of time, right?

Anyway, I left that discussion group and haven’t joined another one since then.

If you’re looking for a way to monetize your blog, then one option you might want to consider is SocialSpark, the new “social media marketing” platform from IZEA. After months of top-secret development and alpha testing that was only open to a limited number of users, SocialSpark is now in beta and is accepting blog submissions from anyone interested in signing up.

SocialSpark has several features that separate it from other paid-to-blog companies out there. I really like some of these features, but would prefer to see others modified or done away with completely.

One of the best features in SocialSpark is the code of ethics that everyone in the community must abide by. For instance, IZEA insists on 100% audit-able in-post disclosure and 100% transparency so readers never have to guess if a post is sponsored or not. In addition, SocialSpark posts are 100% search engine friendly — meaning that all paid links carry the “nofollow” attribute so as not to violate search engine rules. And finally, SocialSpark encourages bloggers to give 100% real opinions about all of the products and services they write about.

As I said, those are the good features.

There are also a bunch of features that I’m not crazy about — or that I downright despise. Some of these include dynamic pricing (which is good for advertisers, but not so great for bloggers), the confusing process of actually trying to take opportunities (is it open? Do I qualify? Do I have to wait for a slot? Do I have to request a slot?), and the whole social networking aspect of the site (the endless friend requests, props/drops, and comments).

Here’s a screen grab of part of the opps page. Click to enlarge it.

Overall, I think that SocialSpark has the potential to help people make money from their blogs and interact with other bloggers in the community. As things stand now, SocialSpark still has a long way to go before it becomes a consistent source of income for me personally, but that could all change if IZEA makes some improvements to the basic operation of the site.

Take a look for yourself and see if you like it or not!

As usual, I’m a bit late getting this week’s Booking Through Thursday meme up — but at least I didn’t forget it altogether, as I’ve done more often than not!

Have your book-tastes changed over the years? More fiction? Less? Books that are darker and more serious? Lighter and more frivolous? Challenging? Easy? How-to books over novels? Mysteries over Romance?

My tastes have definitely changed over the years, and not necessarily for the better! When I was in high school and college, I enjoyed working my way through the classics. Not “true” classics, as in ancient Latin and Greek lit (though I tackled a few of those as well), but the kinds of books published by Penguin and Signet.

I guess I must have burned myself out on those types of books, though, because now I prefer to read much lighter fare, such as mysteries, thrillers, and the like. For example, I read a lot of Agatha Christie these days, as well as Michael Connelly, John Grisham, Dan Brown, Stephen King, and similar stuff.

It might not be a reading list to make my former lit teachers proud, but hey, at least I’m enjoying books again!

My PayPal Money Market Fund dividend for the month of May was distributed early this time around. I received a deposit of $13.66 on May 31, which is just about what I expected the dividend to be. The published 7-day yield for the fund is now 2.46% — the lowest it’s ever been in the year and a half that I’ve been participating.

I stated last month that I’m going to move my money out of PayPal and start investing in a mutual fund or something with the possibility of a higher return. I still intend to do that, but simply haven’t had any time in recent weeks. I need to get going with that, though, because I really ought to be earning more than 2.46% on my money!

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to let you know that I’m hosting yet another giveaway over at Reviews and More. This one is for a prize pack from a brand-new USA Network TV series called In Plain Sight, starring Mary McCormack (who used to be on the West Wing), Frederick Weller, and Cristian de la Fuente. McCormack and Weller play U.S. Marshalls who help put federal witnesses in the Witness Protection Program. It’s a summer series that begins on June 1, and it actually sounds pretty interesting. I’ll tune in to the premiere for sure!

Anyway, as I said, I’m giving away a prize pack (pictured above) that contains a tee shirt, tank top, TSA-approved travel kit (with plastic toiletry bottles), and a luggage tag.

All you have to do to enter is drop an email with In Plain Sight Giveaway in the subject line to contest[at]reviewsandmore[dot]net between now and June 9. Here’s the direct link to my contest page, so go check it out now!

Here’s this week’s Booking Through Thursday question:

Books and films both tell stories, but what we want from a book can be different from what we want from a movie. Is this true for you? If so, what’s the difference between a book and a movie?

I definitely want different things from books and movies. I find movies to be better vehicles for stories that feature lots of action, such as car chases, shootouts, expansive battles, etc. Those things are just easier to process visually than verbally.

Books are better suited to character-driven stories where the narrator (either the omniscient narrator in the voice of the author, or the first-person “I” narrator) has lots of commentary about the inner workings of the character’s mind. I’m talking about the types of novels where the main character thinks a lot or comments (internally) about other characters or situations. These stories come off much better on the written page than in films where a voiceover or similar technique must be used.

Since anyone with Internet access is allowed to edit Wikipedia, there are frequent cases of “vandalism”, where people purposely post humorous, malicious, or simply misleading information. Of course, most of the time these problems are cleaned up pretty quickly, which means it’s somewhat hard to actually find examples of vandalism. In fact, the first time I saw an instance with my own eyes was a couple days ago when I was reading about Mario Kart Wii on Wikipedia.

In the “Playable Characters” section, someone added the following lines to the description:

There is one last character that you unlock by completing all courses in all engine classes with a 3-star rank. This character is Jesus, God’s son, is [sic] at last a playable character. He was very unexpected, but it is possible to unlock him with the previous method.

I was so surprised at actually catching this kind of vandalism that I took a screenshot, which you can see below. Just click for a larger version.

So have you seen any Wikipedia vandalism firsthand? What was it?

It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve done the Booking Through Thursday meme on time, so I actually made a note to myself to play along today. I guess the reminder worked because here’s my post!

Scenario: You’ve just bought some complicated gadget home . . . do you read the accompanying documentation? Or not?

Do you ever read manuals?
How-to books?
Self-help guides?
Anything at all?

I actually do read the manuals for these things — at least to find out how to do specific things that I want to do. Most of today’s gadgets are actually pretty user-friendly and have intuitive controls, but there are a few operations that aren’t crystal clear just by looking at the device. A quick glance through the manual tells me exactly what I need to know.

I do the same thing with new video games. I have to know all the tips and tricks, how to maneuver in certain ways, how to get power-ups, etc. These things are usually right in the manual and make gameplay a whole lot easier. My husband, on the other hand, would much rather start playing the game immediately and not even bother looking at the manual — until he gets stuck somewhere!

I’d never heard of Voodoo Doughnut before today, but after seeing this photo of something called a “bacon maple bar”, I just had to check out the site for myself. Apparently, this donut shop is based in Portland, OR, and is pretty famous throughout the Pacific Northwest because of their quirky product names, shapes, and flavor combinations.

I browsed through the Voodoo Doughnut online menu, and could have sworn I felt my arteries hardening just from looking at the stuff! In addition to the aforementioned bacon maple bar, they offer an apple fritter “as big as your head”, a chocolate donut smothered in chocolate glaze and covered with Coco Puffs, and a glazed donut made with chocolate chips, bananas, and peanut butter — among many other treats.

I didn’t see any nutrition information about the donuts, but I’m sure we’re talking mega calories for each one. Pass me the Phentermine!

(AP Photo)

I know it’s Sunday, but I was so busy the past couple of days that I didn’t get a chance to do this week’s Booking Through Thursday meme on time. The organizers always say that you can post about the meme on any day, not just Thursday, so I’m taking them at their word this week!

Do your reading habits change in the Spring? Do you read gardening books? Even if you don’t have a garden? More light fiction than during the Winter? Less? Travel books? Light paperbacks you can stick in a knapsack?

Or do you pretty much read the same kinds of things in the Spring as you do the rest of the year?

My reading habit’s don’t change all that much in spring, though I do have a tendency to read a lot more poetry during these months than at other times of the year. For example, I love Browning’s “Home -Thoughts From Abroad”, Auden’s “Shield of Achilles”, “Spring” from GM Hopkins, and a bunch of stuff by Tennyson.

Other than this desire to delve into more poetry in spring, my reading habits don’t change with the season. I have a list of books to read throughout the year, and whenever a book’s title comes up, I tackle it — no matter what the weather’s like outside!

I skipped BTT last week, but remembered to do it this time around. Here’s the latest question:

I’ve always wondered what other people do when they come across a word/phrase that they’ve never heard before. I mean, do they jot it down on paper so they can look it up later, or do they stop reading to look it up on the dictionary/google it or do they just continue reading and forget about the word?

I absolutely stop reading and look the word up in a dictionary. I keep one by my night table (I do most of my reading in bed) specifically for this purpose, and use it whenever necessary. Looking up new words is a force of habit that was ingrained in me way back in junior high by one of my reading teachers, so I’m used to it.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been reading many books where I actually need to look stuff up. This says more about the quality of my chosen reading material than my own vocabulary… Grisham, Michael Connelly, and Agatha Christie aren’t exactly known for pushing the limits (intellectually speaking).

Because I’ve had to look so few words up recently, I clearly remember the last ones that sent me scuttling for my Webster’s: “tommy” and “butty” from Disraeli’s Sybil.

tommy: Slang. bread, esp. brown bread, or rations, as formerly distributed to troops and workers.

butty: a fellow worker or friend, esp. in a coal mine.

This video was featured on the front page of Yahoo! Sports today, otherwise I never would have seen it. I’m not a basketball fan at all (college or pro), but even I can appreciate how amazing this Patrick Ewing Jr. behind the back dunk is. Look how fluid the ball transfer is and how he brings it home with his left hand. Unbelievable!

I think it’s pretty safe to say that the young man has an exciting future in the NBA ahead of him. Hopefully, he’ll be able to one-up his old man by winning a title before he retires, something that the senior Ewing never accomplished.

Anyway, take a look at the 40-second dunk clip right here:

I’m way late with this week’s Booking Through Thursday meme, but I guess this is better than skipping it entirely!

When somebody mentions “literature,” what’s the first thing you think of? (Dickens? Tolstoy? Shakespeare?) Do you read “literature” (however you define it) for pleasure? Or is it something that you read only when you must?

For me, the main consideration in determining whether or not something should be considered “literature” is how well the work stands up to the test of time. Will the author or work still be read 100 years from now, or will they more or less be forgotten? So, yes, Shakespeare and Tolstoy for certain, as well as some Dickens, Austen, Eliot, Balzac, Wilde, etc. etc.

If you look at recent bestsellers, I have a feeling that not too many of them will be highly regarded a century hence. Harry Potter likely will turn into the current generation’s Narnia, but John Grisham, Dave Eggers, Nora Roberts? Maybe not so much.