Russell J.T. Dyer

Russell J.T. Dyer http://russell.dyerhouse.com The works and musings of an American writer living in Milan, Italy en Copyright 2009, Russell J.T. Dyer Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:32:54 GMT Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:32:54 GMT http://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html russell@dyerhouse.com (Russell J.T. Dyer) russell@dyerhouse.com (Russell J.T. Dyer) Russell J.T. Dyer http://russell.dyerhouse.com/image/misc/me_orange_small.gif http://russell.dyerhouse.com 88 42 Photograph of Russell Dyer, taken by Marie Dyer. My First Lasagna When I was a kid, my grandmother would make occasionally a wonderfully tasting lasagna. She has since died and I have been trying to find lasagna similar to the way she made it. I’ve tried lasagna at many restaurants over the years, even tried to find it here in Italy, but have not come close to finding it. So, I finally decided to try to make it myself. A couple of months ago I started practicing making a tomato sauce similar to hers, but more to my liking. I have also worked on learning to roast beef, one of the key ingredients of my grandmother’s recipe. Feeling ready, I made my first attempt this past night. <img src='http://russell.dyerhouse.com/images/notices/first_lasagna_rss.jpeg' align='right' border='1px' width='75px' /> http://russell.dyerhouse.com/cgi-bin/post.cgi?post_id=1151 Sun, 07 Mar 2010 02:51:32 GMT Parma A New Photo Album: Parma is probably best known around the world for its cheese, in particular parmegian cheese, and throughout Italy for prosciutto and various other food, as well. In addition to good food, though, they have several very old churches and a cathedral from the 12th century. The cathedral in Parma has elaborate frescos painted by Antonio da Correggio.<img src='http://russell.dyerhouse.com/images/photographs/samples/parma_rss.jpg' align='right' border='1px' width='75px' /> http://russell.dyerhouse.com/cgi-bin/photo_album.cgi?album=parma Sun, 14 Feb 2010 06:00:00 GMT Bard in Val d’Aosta A New Photo Album: Bard is located in the Aosta Valley, or Val d'Aosta. In this town can be found a fortress built for the Count of Aosta, Umberto Biancamano (11th century), who was the founder of the House of Savoy. When I visited the town, it was an off day with all of the shops closed. I did manage to visit the fortress, which houses a museum about the Alps.<img src='http://russell.dyerhouse.com/images/photographs/samples/bard_rss.jpg' align='right' border='1px' width='75px' /> http://russell.dyerhouse.com/cgi-bin/photo_album.cgi?album=bard Sat, 30 Jan 2010 06:00:00 GMT New MySQL Book In record time, I have written a book on MySQL Replication. I’m not sure why or how I got started on it, but I wrote it in three weeks, over the holidays. I finished yesterday. It’s not overly long, just 200 pages. However, I think I did a good job and that it will be a useful resource for database administrators who want to learn how to use this component of MySQL software. I still have to get some people to tech review it for me, but it’s in excellent shape. Since I’m publishing it myself, I had to edit it and do the layout myself, as well. I learned plenty in the process and have a better appreciation for the people at O’Reilly who published my other MySQL book. If you’re interested in getting a copy, give me a few weeks to get the changes that will come out of the tech review. Shortly after that I’ll have it for sale on Amazon. Come back to my web site for a notice when it’s available. <img src='http://russell.dyerhouse.com/images/notices/mysql_replication_proof_rss.jpg' align='right' border='1px' width='75px' /> http://russell.dyerhouse.com/cgi-bin/post.cgi?post_id=1150 Tue, 12 Jan 2010 09:05:04 GMT My Novel is on Amazon Finally, I have managed to get my novel on Amazon’s web site. It took some doing. If you’ve been reading my web site regularly, you know I had originally used Lulu.com to print my book—publishing it myself. That started out well, but after getting an ISBN number, the price per book went to twenty-four dollars. What’s worse is that despite their assurances, it never made it to Amazon’s web site. I don’t expect to sell many copies of my book, but I would like it on Amazon’s site. I wanted to go through the experience of writing a novel and publishing it, to learn about all of that is involved. I also wanted to be able to point to it when trying to get an agent for my second novel. So, a few weeks ago I moved my novel to CreateSpace.com, a subsidiary of Amazon. Since the size of the book is different, about the size of a DVD case, I had to adjust the cover layout and the text. Once that was done, I uploaded the new layout and all and waited for my proof copy. It looks pretty good, so I approved the proof. A few days later, today it hit Amazon’s web site. Click on the image of the book cover here and you can buy a copy if you would like. <img src='http://russell.dyerhouse.com/images/notices/in_search_of_kafka_new_rss.jpg' align='right' border='1px' width='75px' /> http://russell.dyerhouse.com/cgi-bin/post.cgi?post_id=1149 Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:08:58 GMT What happened to Burglars? A burglar is a person who breaks into someone’s home. It’s a perfectly good word, albeit one that may be difficult for some people to say. Perhaps because it’s difficult to pronunce, a substitute word is becoming popular among Americans: home invaders. I heard it for the first time on a television show a few weeks ago and again more recently. While the word home invader may be sufficiently accurate, it bothers me. Is this where the English language is heading? Will English become simpler and less artistic? I find that irritating and depressing. http://russell.dyerhouse.com/cgi-bin/musing.cgi?musing_id=62 Sun, 13 Dec 2009 17:14:45 GMT Being a Settler Although it may seem contradictory, I enjoy moving and I have a inordinately strong need for a stable home. Most people dread moving. They hate the disruption. Whereas, I enjoy it immensely. While this first part seems strange to most people, the second part confuses people less: I become very upset when my home is threatened. This seems to be contradictory to my love of moving. A thought occurred to me recently, that reconciles the two attitudes: I'm a settler. http://russell.dyerhouse.com/cgi-bin/musing.cgi?musing_id=61 Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:33:10 GMT The Heart of the Matter My second literary review, it's about another of Graham Greene's novels, one of my favorites. It discusses a few aspects of the novel, focusing on the opening lines and the ending. Mainly, it discusses the interesting plot and includes some personal reflections related to writing. http://russell.dyerhouse.com/cgi-bin/novels_criticism.cgi?criticism_id=118 Thu, 20 Sep 2007 06:00:00 GMT The End of the Affair This is my first literary book review for my web site. It's a review of the first Graham Greene book that I've read. It discusses the book from a writer's point of view, admiring his work and trying to learn from it. http://russell.dyerhouse.com/cgi-bin/novels_criticism.cgi?criticism_id=117 Sat, 18 Aug 2007 06:00:00 GMT