NNY Bibliophile

Don't Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth

2011-07-18T11:01:00.000-05:00

At least until you know that the horse is actually a gift.

This year I thought I would surprise my wife with an anniversary/birthday gift she's been wanting for quite a while. After first consulting with my nineteen year-old daughter that it was appropriate for the occasions, I placed my order with Amazon on Thursday. With free Prime shipping I knew it would arrive on Saturday, but would it arrive before she, Liz, Michelle and Daniel left for camping for the weekend? No matter - with Katherine's birthday on Tuesday, it would still be here in plenty of time, even if it didn't arrive in time to give it to her on Saturday.

Thursday evening while we were discussing the upcoming fall's finances - two kids in college, two at IHC, etc - I jokingly said that if she was so concerned about money I could return her gift I ordered. "Oh, you didn't have to get me anything. I didn't get anything for you," she exclaimed. "Don't worry about it," I replied. "You let me get those new golf clubs last month." With that, nothing more was said about her present.

Saturday morning was spent packing the van with every camping accoutrement known to mankind - tents, air mattresses, cots, cooking gear, sports equipment, fans (it gets HOT out there!), electric griddle, chairs - all for ONE night of camping! Anyhow, everyone was too busy to think about Katherine's gift. Just as they were about to leave, though, the Fedex truck showed up with her package. Rather than waiting until they got back, I decided to give it to her then and there. When she saw the outside of the box said "Kitchenaid" the expression on her face was priceless; you'd think I had just presented her with the Hope Diamond! She then explained why she was so pleasantly surprised to get a mixer (not exactly the most romantic gift) as her present:

When she went into the garage the other day to start going through the camping gear, she saw an unopened box semi-hidden under a workbench, and when she noticed that it was a new hedge trimmer she was sure that was what I bought her. A hedge trimmer? Is that really what she thought I got her for our anniversary and her birthday? Yup. She has mentioned hedge trimmers in passing a couple of times, especially since we now actually have some hedges that could use a clip, but it never even crossed my mind to give one as a gift. Instead I bought this one at Sears a couple months ago, but hadn't broken it out yet. Katherine was suspicious about me getting down all the camping stuff for her (even though she asked me to) because she believed I was trying to keep her out of the garage where her lovely present was hidden!

The really funny part is that she spent the better part of two days thinking about how she should react to her "surprise." Treat it as a joke, or act like it's something she really wanted? It guess it's not too hard to figure who knows their spouse better in this relationship!

Reading and More Reading

2011-05-10T13:39:00.000-05:00

After recently reading two fiction books I have shifted my emphasis back to non-fiction. On the fiction side, I first read Mary Pat Hyland's third novel, 3/17, which is the humorous story of a traditional Irish band fumbling their way through parts of upstate New York, enduring their own version of Dante's nine circles of Hell. Only this time the circles consist mainly of clueless Americans who have no real concept of Irish culture and think of St. Patrick's Day as only a bacchanal drunk-fest. 3/17 is a very funny book and I swear Mary Pat created her American characters from people I know here in Northern New York.

I have also been making good use of the free classics available for the Kindle. While on vacation I read Oscar Wilde's The Canterbury Ghost, a farcical ghost tale of an American family moving into an old mansion that has been haunted for 300 years by a ghost named Sir Simon. At first the family denies the existence of the ghost, but when confronted with his reality, display mostly ambivalence towards him, with the exception of a few tricks played on the ghost by the boys of the family. Sir Simon's utter inability to frighten the family angers and then later depresses him, so he closes himself off in a deserted room in despair. Eventually, the daughter in the family stumbles upon Simon and takes pity on him, as he is so miserable. Simon proclaims his sorrow at all he's done over the years as a ghost and asks the girl to help him finally get to rest. With the girl's help, Simon is finally accepted by the angel of death and allowed to have his peace.

The first non-fiction book I've read recently is Stephen Hawking's latest, The Grand Design, which looks at the scientific history of the cosmos, beginning with the Ionian Greeks and ending with M-Theory, a theory of multiple universes, of which ours is only one of many. The book is controversial in that it posits that God is not necessary to explain the origins of the universe. While Hawking does not explicitly state that modern science has disproved the existence of a god or gods, he does go so far to say that gods are unnecessary to explain all the phenomena of the universe.

My next reading was The Moral Landscape, by Sam Harris. This book is Harris' promotion of a science of morality, which uses only objective facts to determine morality and not the use of authority. However, this all depends on Harris' definition of "morality," which many may not agree with: increases in the well-being of conscious creatures. For example, how do you define "well-being"? Physical well-being? Mental well-being? Emotional well-being? Spiritual well-being? All of the above? On a very basic level I agree with Harris - many human practices and behaviors cause net harm to other sentient beings without being illegal - religious practices of ritual genital mutilation and the subordination of women for starters. These practices should be stopped for humankind's benefit. Many other issues are not so clear-cut though: is capital punishment a net good, or bad? What about abortion? Nationalized healthcare? Or any number of other points of dispute. Harris is careful to point out that solving these issues will be very difficult, but he insists that there are facts to be brought to bear on all such questions and that they are therefore not completely intractable.

After years of putting it off, I finally read Alfred Russel Wallace's The Malay Archipelago, a chronicle of Wallace's years as a naturalist in Malaysia, Singapore, New Guinea and Indonesia. Wallace was a contemporary of Darwin and co-discoverer of the theory of natural selection. As Wallace collected new species across all the islands of the archipelago, he began to take note of the many differences and similarities, which got him thinking about why they occurred the way they did. He eventually concluded that similar species had been the same at some point in the past and then diverged as parts of the original population migrated to other islands. Wallace was also to distinguish which islands had fauna more closely related to Asia and which were more closely aligned with Australia. This division came to be known as the Wallace Line. Wallace also became a student of the division of the human groups in the islands and had many opinions as to the history of those divisions.

Different Seasons, by Stephen King, is a collection of short stories, three of which have been made into films: Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption, which became the acclaimed The Shawshank Redemption; Apt Pupil, which was made into a movie of and same name; and The Body, which was adapted into Stand by Me. The fourth story is an interesting one called The Breathing Method. Shawshank is one of my favorite movies, so I was interested in seeing how it differed from the book. To my surprise, I found very little difference, except in a few details. Much of the movie's dialog comes directly from the novella, especially much of Red's narration. Stand by Me also very closely follows King's story, as does Apt Pupil. This group of stories is different from most of King's other works, in that there is little to no supernatural involved, and most of what happens in the stories could occur in real life.

The Eagle of the Ninth

2011-03-31T14:18:00.000-05:00

The Eagle of the Ninth is a 1954 novel by Rosemary Sutcliff, about a Roman family in Britain in the second century, that was recently made into a film called The Eagle. Marcus Flavius Aquila is a young Roman Centurion who has asked to be posted to Britain so that he may find out what happened to his father's legion, the Ninth, that famously disappeared north of Hadrian's Wall.

Shortly after arriving at his fort in Britain, Marcus becomes seriously injured in a battle with native British, and the injury ends his military career. While recuperating from his injuries, Marcus hears that the bronze eagle standard of his father's legion has been seen in the north and is in the possession of an unknown tribe.

Upon his recovery Marcus, along with Esca, a slave he has freed, heads to the north, in the guise of an Greek eye doctor to move among the tribes and find the eagle. Marcus is well received by the tribes, as he has received some rudimentary training in eye care and successfully provides some treatment to the natives. While there, Marcus and Esca learn more about the location of the standard and follow it to a remote coastal village that is a religious center among the tribes. During a religious ceremony, Marcus and Esca see the eagle displayed and decide that night to sneak into the nave where it is kept and recover it.

After taking the standard, the two flee to Hadrian's Wall with the villagers in hot pursuit. After a tumultuous chase, with several close calls, Marcus and Esca finally make it safely to south Britain with their prize. Due to the circumstances of the loss of the standard a Roman official recommends that the eagle be buried and tells Marcus that there is no way the Ninth Legion will be re-formed, but he is successful in petitioning Rome for a land award and a pension for Marcus for the services he has provided. The book ends with Marcus, Esca and Marcus' beau deciding to take the awarded land in Britain and to farm it, as Marcus comes from a long line of farmers.

If not for the recent film I would have never heard of this little book. As usual, the book is better than the movie. In this case, the movie was over dramatized and much less believable than the book. In the film, the natives are little more than bloodthirsty savages, in an Indiana Jones way, whereas in the book they are much more sophisticated, more human and less cartoonish. Likewise, the book presents the Romans as more realistic and not in a "Rome Rules!" kind of way.

Overall, a pleasant book to read: a good story, light reading but informative about that era in British history.

Urban Myths

2011-03-21T09:46:00.000-05:00

Ugh. Yet another urban myth spam email ended up in my inbox today. This one is a protest of a (supposed) upcoming film called Corpus Christi, based on a theater production of the same name in which Christ and his disciples are portrayed as being gay.

A very quick Google search of "Corpus Christi film" turns up a Snopes.com page exposing the spam-mail as a hoax, one that has been around since at least 2001. Yes, there is such a theater production, but no, there is no film based on it. There is a documentary film out there about the making of the theater production, and perhaps there is where some of the confusion lies.

I typically react to these urban legend spams in a couple of ways, delete and forget, or find the reference in one of the urban myth sites and reply with it, taking into account the personality of the person who forwarded the email to me.

There needs to be some sort of an email filter that looks for repetitive subject lines, based on an updated urban legends database, and automatically returns the email with a new "Hey Gullible" subject line. Either that or have it automatically reply with one of those Nigerian prince scams, sort of a Rickrolling for the Internet noobs.

March Madness

2011-03-18T15:23:00.000-05:00

Why do I bother entering NCAA Tournament pools? I end up rooting against teams I like in favor of teams that will help my pool. I'm sitting here watching Villanova beating George Mason, hoping GM comes back to win so I can get those valuable two points. Oh well, it will be worth it if I end up in the money. Heh.

Twisted Logic

2011-02-25T15:40:00.000-05:00

"Do what we want or we'll shut down the government and it will be YOUR fault!"

Sometimes it's embarrassing to be a Republican.

Why is Defense Spending So Untouchable?

2011-02-14T10:52:00.000-05:00

Over the weekend I read some interesting statistics about the United States' defense spending:

Our defense spending is close to seven times higher than the next highest country's - China
Only the UAE spends more per capita on defense than we do.
We are responsible for between 40 and 50 percent of the entire world's defense spending. In other words, we spend almost as much on defense as the rest of the world combined.

And this does not even count what we spend on the Department of Homeland Security.

But we have to cut social programs instead?

The deficit for 2011 is projected to be over $1 trillion, so I agree that spending needs to be cut - deeply - but why should Defense be inviolate? And how much of the expected deficit is due to two unwinnable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan?

Latest Reading

2011-01-28T13:38:00.000-05:00

I've been continuing to read a lot of Stephen King: 'Salem's Lot, The Stand (his best, IMO), Four Past Midnight, Dreamcatcher, Pet Sematary and the first four books of The Dark Tower series. In between, I've also read True Grit, Fight Club and a couple others. With a new big screen TV and digital cable (plus a Wii) I certainly read a bit less than before.

It's time to go back to some non-fiction now. There are new(er) books by Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens I've been meaning to read, plus I recently acquired an illustrated version of The Origin of Species.

Can you possibly get any lower than this?

2011-01-27T11:24:00.000-05:00

Heh. John McCain's daughter, Meghan, recently said, "Michele Bachmann in my opinion is no better than a poor man’s Sarah Palin." Given that you can't get much lower than Palin, that is about as bad (good?) an insult as someone can give. Although, "Christine O'Donnell in my opinion is no better than a poor man's Michele Bachmann" might be worse.

Needful Things (Novel)

2010-11-09T10:23:00.000-05:00

I'm not exactly sure why I didn't read much Stephen King earlier in my life, but I am making up for it now. Most recently I read his "last" Castle Rock story, Needful Things.

Castle Rock is a small town in Maine that has seen its share of horror in the past, but nothing like it will see from Leland Gaunt, the owner of Castle Rock's newest shop, Needful Things. Gaunt is an older, gentlemanly sort of fellow whose store carries an eclectic assortment of items with seemingly something for everyone, objects that hold a high emotional bond to the buyer. As a result it doesn't take long for a large number of the townsfolk to start making purchases there. The monetary prices for Gaunt's goods are quite low, however money isn't all he is after. Leland also requires the purchasers to each play a "prank" on another member of the town. Because of the strong, almost hypnotic, emotional appeal of the purchases, all the buyers go through with their pranks.

The pranks, however, are not harmless. Somehow Gaunt knows all the dirty little secrets and disputes in Castle Rock and the pranks serve to ignite powerful emotional responses until the whole town is ablaze in violence. About the only person not affected by Gaunt's influence is Sheriff Alan Pangborn, who is suspicious of Gaunt from the start. Gaunt knows the Sheriff is somehow different from the rest of the townsfolk, so he avoids contact with Pangborn.

As it turns out, Gaunt does control the purchasers of his goods, which is mostly useless junk that the buyers are deceived into believing is real. Once Leland has his hooks into the people, though, there is no way out except to do as Gaunt commands. The climax occurs after Gaunt passes out guns to his customers, who then use them to settle their grievances. Gunfights, riots and explosions erupt in the little town as Leland looks on with glee. However, Sheriff Pangborn finally confronts Gaunt in a showdown that ends with Leland finally showing his true colors as an imp of the Devil who escapes the town in a horse-drawn wagon to spread his evil elsewhere.

As with most King books, it is not so much the plot that is interesting, rather it is the psychology of the characters that carries it. While the story is unlikely, the struggles of the characters with their own emotions and impulses is very believable and that is what make this book so readable.

The Green Mile (Novel)

2010-10-06T15:35:00.000-05:00

This is another instance where I saw the movie before reading the book; something I don't usually like to do. However, in this case I was pleasantly surprised to see how closely the movie stayed true to the book. There is a difference in emphasis between the two, though: the movie seemed to focus a little more on the supernatural nature of prisoner John Coffey, while the book was really about guard Paul Edgecombe. Of course, it would not have been a very exciting movie if it had followed much of the minutiae of Paul's life, including his relationship with his wife. In the book, however, it is those little details that bring Edgecombe's character to life. Even though really strange things happen around him, his responses seem very natural, very human, and so do his relationships with his fellow employees in the prison.

I won't go into too much detail, as I think it is interesting to see everything slowly unfold, especially the unexpected twists that take place in and around the prison. From what I can recall from the Stephen King books I have read in the past, this is one of the best-written of the bunch, even though it not as bizarre as some of his others. But that is not necessarily a bad thing.

Adventures in Autoland

2010-10-04T10:08:00.000-05:00

So my daughter Michelle and I are driving up to Potsdam to watch my other daughter's soccer game when my wife calls. She can't get into the Durango and she's parked it all the way across town from where we live after running some errands with the boys. The keys won't work in either door or in the hatch and the battery in the remote is dead. I ask her to please have her sister pick her up and take her to Kinney Drugs to have the battery in the remote replaced. When she gets back to the Durango, no luck. So I have her call AAA so they can break into the vehicle and then she can use her ignition key to at least drive it home. The AAA successfully gets into the Durango, setting off the security alarm which they cannot turn off. After popping the hood and removing the proper fuse they try the ignition key, but it won't go in all the way. It looks like the security system has somehow locked out the ignition. In the meantime, a couple of hours have gone by. Liz's soccer game is done and a group of us are having pizza at a little place in downtown Potsdam. I tell my wife that we will head right home and I will check on the Durango with my set of keys, which always work. Plus my remote works, so I'm quite sure I can fix whatever is the problem. When I get to the vehicle I press the button to turn off the alarm and press another button that unlocks the vehicle, get in and it starts up immediately. Problem solved! Michelle and I head home so we can pick up my wife and get the Durango. As we are getting ready to head out the door I ask my wife to grab her keys so I can try them again. As she grabs the CARAVAN keys a light bulb comes on. "Are THOSE the keys you used?" I exclaimed, smacking my forehead simultaneously. My wife answers with a somewhat questioning, "Yeess." And then the bulb came on for her - WRONG KEYS! I must say, I don't know if I've ever seen her so embarrassed as at that exact moment. Apparently it didn't even click when the AAA guy said, "This key looks too new for this vehicle." It never crossed her mind, or mine, that she had the wrong keys. Both sets were in her purse, both vehicles are Dodges, and she's so used to the van keys it was just second nature to use them. Oh well, no harm no foul, and my wife was very good-natured about the ribbing we all gave her that evening.

And people wonder why stereotypes persist. Heh.

The Shining (Novel)

2010-09-28T14:19:00.000-05:00

I didn't think there was any way Stephen King's book could scare me more than the movie did. Boy, was I wrong.

"The Shining" refers to extrasensory perception, specifically in the case of five year old Danny Torrance, who realizes at an early age that he can detect what people around him are feeling, and in some cases thinking. As Danny gets older these perceptive powers increase to the point where he can read minds at will and also detect ghosts.

After Danny's alcoholic father, Jack, loses his job teaching at an exclusive academy for beating up a student who slashed his tires, the family temporarily moves to Colorado so that Jack can take a job as the winter caretaker at an expensive hotel in the mountains called The Overlook. Unbeknownst to the family, the hotel is haunted, but initially the ghosts can only be seen by those who shine, like Danny. The powers-that-be in the hotel covet Danny's power, which can be attained through his death. The powers cannot kill him directly, though, and decide to use Jack as the intermediary by slowly driving him crazy, crazy enough to be completely willing to kill both his wife and his child.

Jack begins to terrorize his family, yelling at them as they hide, to come out and take their medicine. They manage to keep him at bay for a while, but can't stop him forever. In terror, Danny sends a telepathic message to the head chef of The Overlook, Hallorann, who has gone to Florida for the winter and also shines, but not to the same degree as Danny. In a panic, Hallorann catches a flight to Colorado and drives and snowmobiles to the snowbound hotel just as things are coming to a climax. Jack has seriously injured his wife and is ready to finish her off when he hears the snowmobile approach. After knocking out Hallorann, Jack heads off in pursuit of Danny. When he corners the boy, Danny gets away by telling Jack that the boiler, which needs constant attention, is about to blow up and destroy the hotel. The powers controlling Jack realize Danny is telling the truth and send Jack to the basement to bleed off the pressure, but it is too late and the boiler blows, but not before Danny, his mother and Hallorann manage to get outside before the hotel is destroyed, killing the powers controlling it.

What I found most scary about this book were the psychological components, rather than the physical actions. You never quite know what is real and what is just forced thoughts, and you also cannot tell what is harmful and what is not, inside the hotel. I haven't read a King in quite a while and had almost forgotten what a good writer he is. My appetite is now whetted for more of his work - my wife is now recommending that I read The Green Mile, another movie I enjoyed.

Watertown Daily Times and New Age Garbage

2010-09-27T09:12:00.000-05:00

Hey, maybe I am psychic!

Just the other day I complained to my wife about the WDT's ongoing promotion of the supernatural and other hokum, so imagine my surprise (not really) when I saw the front page of today's paper and there was a photo from some local psychic fair above the fold, top left. Full story inside.

I am sure that if a Times rep were to respond to this he would say they are only running stories of local interest. I believe, however, that they are running stories of interest to somebody on the Times' editorial team. It would be different if the stories contained at least something about the lack of any empirical evidence for any of this stuff. Since there is no mention, I have to believe there is a vested interest within the management.

It takes no effort to debunk all of it, or at least show that at best the "treatments" out there are no more than placebos. In the public's interest the WDT should provide some sort of disclaimers when they run these types of stories. It can be harmful if people are led to believe that these kinds of "care" provide any medical benefit whatsoever, especially if "patients" avoid traditional medical care as a result.

On the plus side, though, it is nice to know that one of the psychics predicted we would have mixed weather this winter. In NNY! Imagine that!

Contact (Novel)

2010-09-21T15:30:00.000-05:00

Contact is a science-fiction novel by the late scientist extraordinaire Carl Sagan, later made into a major motion picture starring Jodie Foster. It is a story of our planet's first contact with extraterrestrial intelligence, and how that contact has a global impact, both good and bad.

A message sent from the Vega system is received by radiotelescope on Earth and is eventually translated into instructions on how to build a machine that is apparently a transport device of some sort, with seats for up to five passengers. People from all over the world weigh in on the topic. Some think the message is from God, some from the Devil. Others think the machine is not a transport vehicle but a doomsday machine. Some say to build it, while others say not to build it under any circumstances.

Eventually the machine is built, with the mutual cooperation of most countries of the world. It is very expensive and time-consuming, but the gains from the new technologies provided by the Vegans will outweigh any cost. A crew of five, all top scientists, is agreed to for the voyage and are prepared to depart on New Year's Eve 1999. As soon as the machine is spun up to full speed the five passengers start flying through what seem to be wormholes, first to Vega where they see the transmitter that sent the message to Earth, and eventually to the actual home of the senders.

The extraterrestrials are so far advanced from Earthlings that they copy memories from each of the travelers and present themselves individually as copies of people emotionally close to the scientists. The main character, Ellie, is visited by an extraterrestrial in the guise of her long-dead father, and the other scientists are visited similarly. The aliens explain that they are peaceful minders of the galaxy, using a subway-type system of wormholes to travel throughout the Milky Way and beyond. Their primary function is to watch developing civilizations and only jump in when necessary to prevent them from killing themselves. They are glad to see that Hitler was defeated (his broadcast of the German Olympic games being the aliens' first view of human life), and believe that humans are safe from themselves, at least for the moment, but will be available should the need arise.

To their surprise, when the travelers get back home it appears that to the people at the launch site that they never left. They heard the machine spin up to top speed and then slow back down, a process that only took twenty minutes. From the scientists' perspective, they were gone at least a day. As a result, many of the officials involved in the project are skeptical that the scientists went anywhere and that it was just some sort of group illusion, or worse yet, a conspiracy, especially since the travelers have no proof they went anywhere. Even Ellie's videocamera is blank after shooting a great deal during the voyage.

Eventually the officials decide to put out a release stating that the launch was unsuccessful, but the Earth has still gained substantially from the technology developed to build the machine, plus there is now evidence that alien civilizations do exist. Ellie is returned to her radiotelescope with lifetime tenure to continue her research as long as she agrees to never mention what she believes happened in the machine.

I am not usually critical of Carl Sagan's writing, but since this is a novel instead of popular science I will make an exception. I found the book very enjoyable and extremely informative about the SETI program, however I really did not think the dialogue worked very well. Perhaps scientists really do talk like this in real life, but I found it stilted much of the time, and I thought the female characters where too masculinized, especially the President. It does not take too much away from the book, though, as dialogue only makes up a relatively small percentage of the book, and much of what the characters discuss is quite interesting.

I will have to watch the movie next.

North and South (Novel)

2010-09-09T10:59:00.000-05:00

I read a lot of historical fiction back in the eighties, especially by Michener, but somehow missed John Jakes' North and South trilogy. I'm making up for it now. After just finishing North and South I started up Love and War, which picks up exactly where the first leaves off.

North and South is the story of two families, the Mains and the Hazards. The Mains are rice planters in South Carolina and the Hazards own an ironworks in Pennsylvania. Sons Orry Main and George Hazard meet at West Point in the 1840s and become best friends. The book then follows the Mains and the Hazards for the next twenty years or so, up to the beginning of the Civil War, as the two families struggle to remain friends despite the bitter regional differences.

Like most historical fiction there is a lot of factual history and genuine historical figures included. The novel is a good lesson on the events and thinking leading up to the War Between the States. It is definitely a good book for anyone who enjoys historical fiction.

Tales from Planet Earth

2010-09-03T12:57:00.000-05:00

This is a book of fourteen "hard" science fiction stories by the renowned Arthur C. Clarke, all revolving around Earth, some going back as far as the 1940s. It is quite amazing to see how prescient Clarke was about inventions in the (at that time) future. The stories range from a couple of pages long to a full novella.

My personal favorite is the novella The Lion of Comarre. In the Thirty-first Century humans have been stagnant scientifically for about five hundred years, believing that all that needs to be discovered has already been done so. Life is easy and is primarily dedicated to the arts and leisure. Early in this period of stagnation Rolf Thordarsein, an eminent scientist and engineer, set out to create a place where perfect leisure may be enjoyed. A place called Comarre. A few hundred years later Thordarsein's 22-times' great grandson, Richard Peyton III, sets out on a quest for the mysterious Comarre, from which nobody has ever returned. Peyton eventually does find Comarre and learns its secrets. The city is completely automated and run by robots, while the human inhabitants lie in beds and live in Matrix-like artificial existences, though of pure pleasure. Upon trying to awaken some of the inhabitants and reintroducing them to reality, Peyton realizes the futility of his effort - they all WANT to live this way, so he leaves them alone. Peyton's biggest surprise, however, is that the primary robot controller of Comarre, called The Engineer, has full consciousness and is in many ways superior to humans. The Engineer was Thordarsein's greatest invention and it was his hope that humans and robots in the future would complement each other, instead of humans strictly controlling the robots. One of Thordarsein's last efforts was to document the processes for creating true life in the robots in a book that Peyton finds in Rolf's old office. In the end, The Engineer gladly sends Peyton back on his way, while Peyton himself cheerfully contemplates the next great stage in scientific development and the end of the stagnant ways.

The critical regard for this book is not very high, but I think it is worth the read for The Lion of Comarre alone. Some of the other stories are a bit weak, but others really make you marvel at the author's wit and imagination.

Dog Day Afternoon

2010-08-22T17:22:00.000-05:00

I found this book at a book sale in Schroon Lake, thinking it was the novel that the film was based upon. However, the book is actually a novelization of the movie, and not a bad one at that.

Some of the names are changed, but the book essentially follows the plot of the movie. A bisexual Vietnam vet, tired of the same old grind and desperately needing money for his sweetie's sex-change operation, Littlejoe plans a quick heist of a bank that is supposed to have a large amount of cash on Thursday afternoons for a bakery's payroll on Friday. The robbery is quite well planned but, unfortunately, the schedule has been changed so that the cash is actually to be delivered Friday morning. Littlejoe and his reluctant partner, Sam, realize all their planning has resulted in a haul of only $4,000, instead of the $50-100,000 they expected.

Because of the low payoff, Littlejoe decides to hold the bank employees hostage for $1 million and a jet to Morocco. What follows is a circus of obnoxious crowds, reporters, food vendors, police officers, FBI agents and weirdos who call the bank with suggestions for the thieves, all on the hottest afternoon of the summer.

Once the FBI finds out about Sam, a two-time felon, and realize that he won't give up without killing someone, they give in to the bandits' demands. Littlejoe, Sam and the hostages load up into a limo which takes them to JFK airport where a jet awaits. After letting a couple of the hostages go, the remaining people in the car start to get out, not knowing that the driver is another FBI agent. In a quick flurry, the driver kills Sam with two shots to the head and Littlejoe is knocked to the ground and cuffed, thereby ending things.

Dog Day Afternoon is a quick read, very dirty and gritty, and quite enjoyable. I'm not sure if it's still in publication, but if you can find the book I recommend it.

Ripley's Game

2010-08-16T09:32:00.000-05:00

After the slight disappointment of Ripley Under Ground, I was a bit reluctant to move on to the next Ripley book, but my friend Ed convinced me to push on by telling me that Ripley's Game is the best of the lot. I'm glad I listened to him.

This book is very different from the earlier two, in which I was able to identify with Tom Ripley and sympathize with him to a degree, even given his unlawful hijinks. For the first half of Ripley's Game, however, I detested Ripley, as a whim of his helps cause almost unbearable emotional anguish in an acquaintance.

Ripley does later redeem himself, to a degree, by helping out the acquaintance, however it's not enough to save the man's life. That loss of life creates another enemy for Ripley too, in the form of the acquaintance's wife.

I will have to agree that this is the best of the three I have read so far. After I finish the other series I'm currently reading I'll probably move back to the fourth Ripley book, The Boy Who Followed Ripley.

Patty Ritchie

2010-08-16T07:26:00.000-05:00

To those who know me it is no surprise that I don't care much for Darrel Aubertine as our State Senator, based primarily on his voting record. However, at least I know where he stands, unlike Patty Ritchie. As part of my ongoing effort to learn as much as I can about the candidates for political office this year I took some time to try to find out more about Ms. Ritchie and her stances on the issues.

As with the other candidates, I started with Patty's website. It's a nice looking site, but there is very little content there. Since I am genuinely interested in learning more about her specific ideas, I contacted her campaign through the website. I was very glad to receive a timely response, but was not happy to see what the response contained - no specifics. In fact, the email stated, "As the campaign progresses, I will be posting more information about my specific ideas to fix Albany..." My first thought on reading this was a sarcastic "Gee, do you think it's too soon?" It's only two and a half months to election day and the Ritchie campaign has been rolling for at least five months now. Since she is taking on a popular incumbent she should have articulated her views, and how they differ from Aubertine's, a long time ago.

This election season just gets more and more frustrating every day.

Maggie's On The River

2010-07-17T21:17:00.000-05:00

My wife wanted to try out Maggie's for the first time tonight, mainly because of the view of the Black River, since we had heard mixed reviews about the food and service. We were quite pleasantly surprised by our experience, however.

Upon arrival, we noticed a lot of people around and figured out that there was some sort of whitewater event going on nearby, so we weren't sure how busy the restaurant would be. As it turns out, it was fairly busy but there was no wait. We were directed immediately to a table on the second floor; unfortunately, the second floor was not air conditioned, and we found out from our waiter that the windows could not be opened because there were no screens in them. Luckily, it was not too hot up there or we would have instantly taken our leave.

The decor is much the same as with the previous owners - brick walls with visible plumbing and ventilation and dark wood furniture - not fancy but kind of cool. It's fairly noisy in there too, due to a lack of insulated walls, but not overwhelmingly so.

Our waiter was quite good - attentive, but not bothersome - and our only complaint was that he did not ask us for coffee or dessert when we were done with our dinners. It was fine, however, since we were ready to leave. He made one nice recommendation for us: fried mozzarella (not mozzarella sticks) for an appetizer. This dish consisted of four slices of mozzarella, hand battered and nicely deep-fried. They had just the right crispiness, without being too thick or too greasy, served with marinara on the side, and the perfect size for sharing.

Our salads were excellent. My wife thought hers was as good a salad as she's ever had, with one little complaint - it was not very cold. I don't know if that was intentional or if it had just sat out too long. Her honey mustard dressing was very good, and the mustard was a little bit spicier than the usual.

My dinner was a hand-battered fried haddock that was pretty good. It would have been better if it had been fried at a higher temperature, though, to make it more crispy and a bit less oily. But, I liked the taste and just a thin coating of batter was used, which I prefer. Katherine had a grilled Buffalo chicken flatbread which was excellent and a very nice sized portion. She had enough left over for lunch tomorrow.

Overall, we liked Maggie's. The food was better than we expected and the service was much better than expected. We will definitely be returning, but perhaps on a cooler night, given the lack of air conditioning upstairs.

Blankenbush vs McGrath - Tale of the Tape

2010-07-14T13:52:00.000-05:00

Well, sort of.

I started writing this as a comparison of the two State Assembly candidates' websites. Ken Blankenbush has a site full of stuff from his "True North Plan", while Brian McGrath's site has almost no meat at all, just platitudes. However, it now appears that Blankenbush's plan has been lifted, mostly verbatim, from the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee, since a downstate candidate's plan is, in some instances, word-for-word the same as Ken's. It's very embarrassing for Blankenbush, as he adamantly claimed earlier that the plan was completely his own creation.

Does that leave us with any new, original ideas in this race? It's hard to tell. As I said, McGrath's site gives little detail. Some excerpts:

"I will work to put people back to work for the long-term and to create a climate in the North Country where business can thrive." " I will work to bring 'green collar jobs' and clean energy, and I'll fight not only for better highways, but also better access to the information superhighway." "I will work to ensure the long-term viability of Fort Drum."

How? More details, please, especially as he stated, " Career politicians have failed the North Country, and it's time for a new face, a new perspective, and fresh ideas."

What new perspective, and what fresh ideas?

On the other side, if you throw out "Blankenbush's" plan, there's not much left. Putting aside the credibility issue for the moment, though, let's assume he really does agree with what is in the plan. What is in there? Here are some examples:

1. No Miranda rights for terrorists. As despicable as terrorists are, this is still the United States of America, and if terrorist acts are committed on our shores the perpetrators still need to be treated like any other criminals, a la Timothy McVeigh.

2. Tort Reform - limit punitive damages to $250,000. I agree that something needs to be done about punitive damages, but I'm not sure that a one-size-fits-all amount will work in all cases. It's something to think about, however.

3. T.E.A.C.H - Train Educators According to Competitive Hallmarks - Merit pay for performance and continuing education, and replacing tenure. Rewarding good teachers and penalizing poor teachers sounds like a good idea, but what will we use for objective measurements of performance?

4. Parents' Education Control Act - direct election of Regents in nonpartisan elections every two years. I kind of like this, but think the terms should be longer.

5. Fight proposed methane capture regulations - In other words, no taxing cow flatulence. I had to laugh at this one. On the face of it, it's ridiculous, and it's further embarrassment for Ken, since this issue was debunked a year and a half ago.

6. Spending cap - A constitutional spending cap limiting government spending to no more than the rate of inflation. Perhaps something to think about, but probably difficult to handle in reality because inflation rates are all over the board, depending on what types of products and services you are looking at.

7. A flat income tax, indexed to inflation. On principle, I am opposed to flax income taxes, unless there are very specific exemptions so there is not too difficult a burden on the poor. In general, as you move up the income scale, people with higher incomes have more disposable income, after paying for necessities, available to pay taxes.

8. Term limits - no more than eight years in office for state senators and assembly members. I like the idea of term limits, but think ten to twelve years may be better to allow plenty of time to understand the position and to mentor new legislators.

Aside from the websites, what other information there is about the candidates can be gleaned from Judy Seymour's excellent articles in the Watertown Daily Times. However, in Jude's articles there is little difference between McGrath's and Blankenbush's stances. Both agree that something needs to be done about the state's fiscal crisis; both agree on limiting property tax growth; both agree on providing ease of access for ATV riders to use local roads; and both candidates oppose the DEC's proposed regulations for outdoor wood boilers, among other topics they both support.

At this point, I have issues with both candidates. I wish McGrath would be more forthcoming on the specifics of his platform, and I believe that Blankenbush has hurt his credibility with the copying involved in creating "his" plan, plus some of the specifics of the plan are not well thought out. However, I have to give Ken props for at least having a more specific platform than Brian.

Ripley Under Ground

2010-07-13T10:41:00.000-05:00

The second installment of Patricia Highsmith's Ripliad, Ripley Under Ground follows Tom Ripley's life a few years after the events in The Talented Mr. Ripley. Tom is now married to heiress Heloise and together they live a life of leisure in a country home in France. Ripley's boredom with the everyday leads him to more shenanigans, however, as he get involved in a painting forgery ring. As the ring starts to fall apart, Tom uses all the tools at his disposal to deflect suspicion, including murder. In the end, Tom seemingly clears everything up, but he still suspects he missed something and will be visited by the police again, this time with new evidence.

I did not enjoy this novel as much as the previous one. The plot was fairly convoluted, with too many people involved to believe that Ripley could get away with everything he does. I also did not connect with Tom like I did in the original. Somehow he did not have quite the same charm and appeal. That is not to say I did not like this book; on the contrary, I just thought it could have been better. It is my understanding, though, that the third book in the series, Ripley's Game, is quite good, so I will start that next.

Tarzan of the Apes

2010-07-07T13:45:00.000-05:00

Tarzan of the Apes is the original Tarzan novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs, and probably the best. Like many fictional heroes, Tarzan has been vastly changed by other media. This Tarzan, raised by a female ape who lost her own child, is a mostly wild, rambling hunter who follows his tribe in constant pursuit of food, dragging down live prey and eating the meat raw. It is only upon his eventual contacts with other humans that he even realizes he is not an ape himself.

Tarzan's first contact with humans is with a tribe of cannibals who have moved into the area. It is then, notwithstanding skin color, that he notices he has more in common with the natives than with his own clan. But it is when he comes in contact with his first white people that he really knows he is human, as he has seen pictures of people in books left behind by his parents, who were marooned and died where Tarzan was found by the apes.

During all of this time Tarzan has also come to dominate his tribe of apes by defeating the previous leader, using his brains and superior quickness. This leadership of the clan makes it even more difficult for Tarzan to choose between living as he always has and joining the white people and living as a man. The turning point is his first sight of Jane Porter, the first time he has ever seen a white woman. The innate attraction he has towards her trumps all. Tarzan knows he must be with Jane, at all costs.

Tarzan's contact with Jane and the others sets him off on a path to civilization: he learns to speak French, and later English, dresses in Western clothes and drives a car. He still has many of the traits he learned in the wild, however, and realizes he is not really the man for Jane, who has spent her whole life in civilized company. It is a difficult decision for Tarzan to make, but he renounces his noble heritage (he is the son of Lord Greystoke) in Jane's, and his cousin's, best interests.

What I found most interesting about this book is Burroughs' treatment of how humans evolved and the differences between the natural and the acquired. Through all of Tarzan's life in the wild, living as an ape, he still maintained his basic humanity. Not that genetics tells all, however; those learned traits of his were just as much a part of him and in the end provided his destiny.

Who Represents the Little Guy in NY-23?

2010-07-06T08:26:00.001-05:00

Per their personal financial disclosures, Matt Doheny made close to $7 million last year, Bill Owens earned around $4 million and Doug Hoffman brought up the rear, only making a bit over $300 thousand.

Actually, I don't put much into the whole "who's going to help the little guy" thing, but it does give one pause. How can anybody but the well-to-do run for a major office? It's a shame, because I'm sure there are a lot of well-qualified people out there who don't have the deep pockets to run.

The Stranger

2010-07-06T07:20:00.001-05:00

I have been meaning to read this classic novel by Albert Camus for some time, but finally got around to it this weekend. At first glance it is a fairly simple first-hand story of an innocuous man committing an unplanned murder (or is it really self-defense?) The first part of the book follows the events leading up to the killing, while the second part encompasses the trial and imprisonment.

Looked at more carefully, though, you see a much more complex story. The main character, Meursault, could be a sociopath. He shows little emotion towards anyone: his mother, who passes away, his girlfriend, or his so-called friends. Meursault shows no sorrow when his mother dies and he tells his girlfriend he doesn't think he loves her, but will marry her, if she wants him to. He also expresses little emotion at killing the Arab on the beach. In fact, after killing the man with one shot, he hesitates for a moment and them pumps four more rounds into the corpse.

The idea of fate is addressed, and, incongruously, randomness. While is prison, Meursault thinks of the inevitability of death, but at the same time he seems to be unaware of small, somewhat random events that led him to where he is: other people's perceptions of his lack of emotion, his relationships with others and his rejection of God's forgiveness. Slight changes in any of these things, among others, may have had a profound impact on where he ends up. In the end, however, Meursault accepts his fate and is resigned to his eventual death penalty and actually hopes that the crowd will cheer his execution.

More Conan!

2010-06-29T13:17:00.001-05:00

After reading the third Conan treasury, published by Del Ray, I just had to go back and read the other two. The first, The Coming of Conan the Cimmarian, is a collection of short stories about Conan. They don’t follow any type of chronological order, however it is interesting to see how Robert Howard’s depiction changes over time. These earliest stories almost obsessively contain women as sexual conquests of Conan’s, and also have an extremely negative viewpoint towards the blacks in the stories. I understand Howard is a product of his times, and the fantasy aspect of the women, but it is heartening to see him become less pejorative as his writing progresses.

That said, these stories are excellent, but don’t provide a whole lot of development of the Conan character. On the contrary, the three stories in the second collection, The Bloody Crown of Conan, do a great job of fleshing him out. This treasury of novellas really delves into who Conan is, and shows him to be a very intelligent man, with subtleties not expected of a barbarian. Oh, he’s still the toughest mofo to ever swing a sword, but he also expresses great leadership and diplomacy too.

I’m sure there must be collections that put the stories in chronological order (to Conan), and I am anxious to check them out sometime, but for Conan the way the author originally wrote, the three books of this series are the way to go.

Shaun of the Dead

2010-06-11T10:32:00.001-05:00

After watching (and enjoying) Zombieland, I just had to add Shaun of the Dead to my Netflix queue, and it didn't disappoint. The movie follows Shaun, a 29 year old slacker who is just slogging his way through life. After he screws things up with his girlfriend, ticks off his housemate and neglects his mother once again, Shaun decides to get his life in order. As it happens, on the day of Shaun's big decision, zombies come to life where he lives.

At first Shaun doesn't even realize what's happened, but he and his best friend finally run into their first zombie in the backyard. After fighting off some zombies, Shaun and his friend turn on the news and see how widespread the problem really is. With his new take-charge attitude, Shaun decides to rescue his mom and ex-girlfriend and take them to a safe place - The Winchester, Shaun's favorite pub. What follows is equal parts hilarity and horror, as the group moves through the city, bumping off shuffling zombies, making their way to the pub.

I won't give away any more of the plot, for those of you who haven't seen it yet. There is also a pretty funny little twist at the end that I really enjoyed. I won't make any comparisons to Zombieland other than to say I probably enjoyed them equally, but in different ways.

The Talented Mr. Ripley (film)

2010-06-08T07:52:00.001-05:00

To be fair, I didn't even watch the whole movie. I just don't think it's a book that is easily adapted to the screen. The book is quite cerebral and the pace is slow and that doesn't translate well into a feature film. Maybe I'm jaded, having just read the book, but all I could think throughout was how much was being left out - important things that gave life to Ripley's character. The movie didn't capture the almost sadistic pleasure Tom Ripley takes in scamming people - his sociopathy. Instead, Tom only appears to be an opportunist.

Maybe if I had seen the film before reading the book I would have appreciated it more, but I'm pretty sure I still wouldn't have thought it was particularly good. However, based on a recommendation from a friend, I am going to watch Ripley's Game, which has gotten better reviews. I just don't know if I'll watch before, or after, reading the book.

The Conquering Sword of Conan

2010-06-07T10:16:00.000-05:00

Until recently the bulk of my knowledge of Conan the Barbarian was from the comic book that was popular in the seventies and the epic movies starring Arnold Schwarzenegger in the eighties. That is, until I was introduced to Robert E. Howard's original Conan the Cimmerian in this treasury showcasing the last five Conan stories in the order they were written. This collection is the third of three published by Del Ray covering the entire span of Conan's adventures. It also includes such extras as author's notes, early drafts and a map of Conan's world.

This is not your Governator's Conan: this marauder is not just some monosyllabic barbarian, hacking his way across the world leaving piles of bodies in his wake. Rather, he is at heart a barbarian, having been brought up as one, but also a learned man, gaining a wide knowledge throughout his travels. Conan speaks (and reads) many languages, knows customs from a great range of cultures and has done many things for a living, including thief, corsair, soldier, trader and mercenary. He is also a leader of both strength and subtlety.

The Conan stories are considered heroic-fantasy, as they focus mainly on the hero as human, but also include some supernatural elements that do not dominate the plot. In some ways I prefer this style to more pure fantasy stories because it is easier to identify with the human element than it is to relate to magical creatures.

I will absolutely go find the first two books of the series, as I greatly enjoyed this one, even though it is not my usual fare. It has also inspired me to go back and re-read some of Edgar Rice Burroughs' works, as the historical legacy of Tarzan's has suffered a similar fate as Conan's: the mass media representations are what people remember, and not the original intent of the authors.

New Style

2010-06-03T13:37:00.000-05:00

What do you think of the new style of my blog? I think it looks cleaner and is easier to read than the old one. But what do I know? I'm colorblind!

The Lightning Thief

2010-05-30T20:33:00.001-05:00

After some prompting from my twelve-year-old daughter, I read the first book of the very successful Percy Jackson series, which is at five volumes and counting. The best I can say is that it's definitely a book for twelve-year-olds.

Making the obvious comparison to the Harry Potter series, Percy Jackson pales in comparison. I like the idea of modern-day Greek gods, satyrs, heroes and the like, living in today's world and interacting with humans in the present, but in my opinion there is not enough character and plot development. The Lightning Thief is a pretty good story, but it's not great literature, whereas I believe Harry Potter is.

Perhaps I'm being too harsh, and should be looking at it through a tween's eyes. However, I did ask my daughter what she thought about the book, and she's in complete agreement with me. I was probably worth the read, but I can't see me reading any of the rest of the series.

I'll say two out of five from an adult's perspective, and probably three or four out of five from a pre-teen's point of view.

Where to go if you need a laugh.

2010-05-26T07:58:00.001-05:00

Conservapedia.

I've heard of this site, but never visited there.....before today.

I clicked on a link that took me to a page on the site, and as I looked around I thought, "This can't be real. It's got to be something like The Onion." But after what I've seen for "Conservative" thought lately, I figured it must be real. It is pretty funny, though.

Still, perhaps Poe's Law should be expanded to cover sites like this.

The Talented Mr. Ripley

2010-05-23T09:09:00.000-05:00

Most people will recognize the name from the 1999 film, starring Matt Damon. However, I am writing about the book the movie was based upon, a psychological thriller published by Patricia Highsmith in 1955. The Talented Mr. Ripley is the first of five novels written by Highsmith about Ripley's adventures.

Tom Ripley is a con artist of sorts with no career, living in New York City and willing to do anything to spice up his life, even to the point of setting up cons from which he won't even profit, just to relieve his boredom. Tom is somewhat sophisticated but doesn't have the income to live the lifestyle of the people he socializes with, so he manipulates his acquaintances while he waits for the right thing to come along.

The right thing finally does come along in the appearance of Mr. Greenleaf, a wealthy boat builder whose son, Dickie, is an associate of Ripley. Dickie has taken his money and monthly stipend and moved to a small coastal Italian village, to paint and live a low-key life, but his father has plans for him to eventually take over the company, which Dickie has no interest in doing. In desperation, Mr. Greenleaf hires Tom, through a mutual acquaintance, to sail to Italy and try to persuade Dickie to return home.

Tom, desperate to relieve his ennui, gladly takes the offer. Once in Italy, Tom ingratiates himself to Dickie in order to sponge off him. After a few months of this arrangement, Tom makes an error in judgment regarding Dickie, making Dickie's attitude towards Tom change dramatically. Sure that Dickie is going to dump him, Tom suddenly decides to kill Dickie while they are on a short boating trip. Tom scuttles the boat, and realizing how much he resembles Dickie, decides to take on his identity.

What follows is several months of moving across Italy, dodging friends and Dickie's family members so Tom can continue the charade, until one of Dickie's friends finally catches up and is murdered by Tom in order to preserve the hoax. The murder investigation that follows tightens the noose so much that Tom abandons the Dickie masquerade and resumes his Ripley identity. Eventually, through Tom's machinations, everyone comes to believe that Dickie has perhaps killed his friend and then committed suicide in despair, leaving his estate, through a will Tom forged, completely to Tom.

The book ends with Tom standing on a pier in Greece, paranoid that the police are looking for him everywhere he goes.

Panic Attack

2010-05-11T07:38:00.000-05:00

omigod. what’s happening? why is my chest so tight? am I having a heart attack? jesus, I’m sweating. why is my heart pounding so hard? calm down, it’s just anxiety. but what if it’s not? damn, I can’t feel my hands. is my vision getting blurry? god, my heart just skipped. is it still beating? I’m going to pass out. get up! walk around. go outside and get some fresh air. that’s a little better. what if I have a heart attack out here? how long will it take for somebody to find me? breathe deeply. ahhh. I don’t want to go back inside. it’s too hot and close in there. pinch my hands. do I feel anything? maybe a little. is the fog shifting in and out? keep walking, get some circulation going. swing my arms. my throat is dry. need a drink of water. go back inside. drinking fountain. whew! that’s a little better. damn, it’s hot in here. open a window, feel the breeze. sit down. my legs feel funny. are my feet numb? move them around a little. kick one foot with the other to see if I feel anything. there's a hissing sound in my ears. I think I’m going to die. should I have someone call 911? does anybody here know CPR? how long can I live if my heart stops beating? not long enough for the ambulance to get here. calm down! it’s just a panic attack. put your head down for a minute. no, that doesn’t work. it gives me trouble breathing. deep breaths. that’s it. in slowly. hold it for a second. not too long. let it out slowly. jeez. am I getting enough oxygen? can you die from a panic attack? no, if I pass out I’ll automatically breathe, I think. okay, get up and go to the bathroom. get another drink of cold water. sit down and close eyes. chest isn’t so tight. burp. some indigestion. that feels a little better. stomach and chest don’t feel so bad. another sip of water. deep breath. pinch myself. yeah, there’s some feeling there. man, this sucks. all right, I think I’m okay now.

Thank God I don't have these anymore.

To a God Unknown

2010-05-10T10:19:00.001-05:00

This lesser-known Steinbeck is one of his earliest works, published in 1933, after taking five years to write. While not one of his best books, it follows many themes that Steinbeck would use throughout his career: realism, allegory and Monterey County, California. You might even call To a God Unknown a trial run for Steinbeck's later, greater works.

The story follows Joseph Wayne, a newcomer to Monterey County from New England, who has heard about all the land available for homesteading. After establishing himself there, he convinces his brothers and their families to come to California to claim adjacent land so they can have one large ranch together, instead of trying to scrape a living from the relatively smaller family holdings in Vermont.

There are misgivings when the men find out about the periodic droughts that occasionally plague the area; however, they are quickly forgotten in the first few years of plenty in the valley. Unfortunately, drought begins shortly after one of the brothers performs an act that seems, to Joseph at least, to precipitate the disaster. In the end, Joseph provides a sacrifice that he believes brings the rain back.

This novel, like most of Steinbeck's, provides an ending that is a mixed blessing. As I've stated before, many people find his books depressing, however I take the perspective that frequently the good comes from the bad.

The Wettest County in the World

2010-05-04T14:00:00.001-05:00

This novel, by Matt Bondurant, is a fictionalized account of the lives of his grandfather and two great-uncles during their moonshining days in the twenties and thirties. As someone who has always been fascinated by this era, I found the book very enjoyable and informative. Even though the three brothers are technically criminals, it is very hard not to sympathize with them as they deal with poverty, deadly illnesses, drought, road gangs and crooked cops. The Bondurants make, sell and distribute illegal liquor and deal with their antagonists in their own manner, frequently with violence. However, they don't go out seeking violence; they only respond to violence with the same.

Bondurant's writing is vivid and clear, although some may not like his style of writing dialogue, much like Cormac McCarthy's. In my opinion, though, if you can read McCarthy you'll have no problem with Bondurant.

The Bob Wire Bandits

2010-04-28T10:19:00.004-05:00

This is the first draft of a short story I just wrote, based on a true story. Quite a bit of artistic license was used, so places may not completely match up with reality. All of the details are fictional, as are all the names of the characters.

I welcome any feedback you would like to provide, especially concerning the vernacular, which I am still touching up. Enjoy.

Antwerp is a sleepy little town in northern New York State, bordered to the north by the county line and to the east by the Fort Drum Army base. The village is mainly known for its military heritage and for its petty crime, most of which is unsolved or unreported because of the residents’ suspicion of most outsiders, especially the police.

Dale O’Connor was a descendant of Irish farmers who moved to America to till the rocky soil of Antwerp instead of the rocky soil of the Ould Sod. A ruddy, semi-literate graduate of Indian River High School, Dale, as well as his buddies, lived at home, worked part-time or seasonal jobs, when he could find work, and stayed in beer and pot money by stealing anything not nailed down.

The bulk of the thievery consisted of stealing cash, drugs and other valuables at parties they attended, invited or not (very often Dale and his friends were told NOT to return), and from taking and selling objects from their fellow Antwerpians’ front porches, open sheds and garages – tools, bicycles and the like. One evening, however, Dale and friends decided to up the ante.

“Pass me another beer, wouldja?” Dale, Bob, Harold and Paul stood beside Harold’s ’80 Cutlass Supreme in their favorite drinking spot in a pull-off on Pulpit Rock Road one Saturday night and passed around a joint while gazing at the stars and talking about their two favorite topics, hunting and women. “Here ya go, Dale,” said Paul as he tossed over a can of Milwaukee’s Best, a misnomer if there ever was one. Bob asked, in his North Country nasal twang, “What ya guys wanna do tonight? This is borin' as shit!” “Yeah,” replied Harold, “Let’s hunt some deer or somethin’. I got my guns in the trunk.” “Naw” said Paul. “Ol' Smitty up the road gets pissed when he hears gunshots at night. I don’t wanna get hassled by the cops.”

Bob asked Paul, “You still workin’?” “Just one more week, then that sunna bitch is gonna lay me off 'fore I get my twenty weeks in!” “No unenjoyment then?” asked Harold. “No fuckin’ shit! What'm I gonna do for cash this winter?” exclaimed Paul. “My parents are sick a me bummin’ money offen ‘em. This sucks!” “Hey!” Dale interjected, “Didja hear what Wendell Taylor done? The phone company left a couple spools a wire in the ditch where they’s runnin' it over on Carpenter Road an' Wendell took it, stripped offen the coverin’ an' sold it ta that scrap metal place down in Watertown. Got some pretty good jingle too. Nobody can trace it neither. It’s just bare copper wire.”

“Ya kiddin'?” asked Bob. “What’d he do with all the rubber offen the wire?” “Hell, he just burned it up with the rest a the shit in his burn barrel. Took a while an' that’s the blackest smoke you ever seen”, said Dale. “Damn!” said Harold. “That lucky fucker. I wonder iffen we can find any wire like that around.” Dale replied: “It ain’t gotta be wire. Any kinda metal will do. They’ll buy ANYTHIN’! Ol' pipe – copper’s best – or any ol' steel layin’ 'round. Shit, they’d prolly take this bob wire fence here iffen we cut it down an' rolled it up.” “Ya think?” asked Bob. “Sounds like a lotta work ta me”, said Harold.

Just then Dale got an idea: “Y’know, we ain’t gotta roll up no bob wire; they’s lots a it over at the Agway already rolled up outback the store. All we gotta do is load it up an' take it down ta Watertown when we can.” Paul asked: “No shit? They don’t ask no questions at the scrap yard? Ain’t they gonna wonder 'bout brand-new rolls a wire?” “Nah”, said Dale. “They don’t care where it come from, so long as they can get it cheap. What do ya think?” “I dunno”, said Paul. “What iffen we get caught?” Harold replied: “Who’s gonna catch us? The cops never come through Antwerp an' it’s dark outback a Agway. It won’t take long; just a couple minutes.” “How much ya think we can sell?” asked Bob. “Depends on how much we can fit in the cars”, answered Dale. “Let’s go get my car an' some bolt cutters an’ do it. Agway ain’t open on Sunday, so nobody’ll know it’s gone till Monday mornin’”

The guys hopped in Harold’s car and spun out, leaving beer cans, cigarette butts and chip bags in their wake. On the way to Dale’s house, Bob asked: “What’s the plan? How we gonna do it?” “Easy”, Dale replied. “We back the cars up, with the lights out, ta the fence near the wire, cut a big hole or two in the fence, load up the cars an’ drive out ta our wood lot off Austin Road an’ dump it in the bushes till we’re ready ta take it ta the scrap place.” “Wait a minute!” exclaimed Harold. “We ain't loadin’ nothin’ in my car. That bob wire’ll tear up my seats an’ I gotta buncha shit in the trunk.” Dale retorted: “Fuck! We’ll load up MY car then – front seat, back seat an’ trunk – my seats are vinyl anyhow. Just leave me enough room ta drive. You guys can all folla me in Harold’s car.”

Shortly after picking up Dale’s car and just before reaching the Agway store, Harold and Dale shut off their headlights while Bob and Paul jumped out to help the drivers back their way slowly in close to the fence and switch the cars off. “He he,” laughed Dale quietly as he got to work with the bolt cutters, “we’s cuttin’ through bob wire to get ta more bob wire!” “Shh!” Paul hissed. “I don’t wanna get caught.” “Quit bein’ a pussy, an’ let’s get ta work”, whispered Bob.

The men hauled a few rolls of the wire through the opening in the fence and set them down by Dale’s car. “Lemme pop the trunk”, Dale muttered. As the trunk swung open and the trunk light shined on, Paul almost screamed. “Shit! Get that light out!” “Quiet!” hissed Dale as he reached in and yanked out the bulb. “Yer yellin’s worse’n that light!” Paul whined back: “Sorry, I’m just spooked.” “Well, get UNspooked and let’s load up”, Bob replied sarcastically.

After the trunk incident, Dale knew enough to disable the dome light in his car to avoid undue attention. “SCREECH!” went the first roll as a barb scraped noisily across the rear bumper. “Jesus! You guys fuckin’ stupid? Careful with that!” exclaimed Dale. “Okay, Okay. We’s tryin’!”

The rest of the loading went quickly and uneventfully as they crammed wire into every inch of available space in the car. Barbed wire was hanging out of the trunk and out three of the open windows, leaving just enough room for Dale to squeeze in. “Dammit! I’m gonna need a shoehorn ta get my ass in here”, said Dale. “You guys got somethin’ ta tie the trunk down so's it don’t bang?” “Lemme go cut some a that balin’ twine over there”, Bob said. So Bob and Paul swiftly tied down the trunk while Harold and Dale waited in the cars; then they started up and slowly pulled away.

As they headed out, Dale decided to keep his headlights off in an attempt to be inconspicuous. Harold, seeing that Dale kept his lights out, did the same. Unfortunately, inconspicuous they were not as they rolled through the still streets of Antwerp with no lights on and with rolls of barbed wire sticking out all over, as they found out soon enough.

“WEEEEOOOO!” sounded Deputy Sheriff Reed’s siren as he pulled out from behind the Town Hall and hit his lights. Reed had been contemplating the inside of his eyelids when a short squawk on his police radio startled him awake just in time to see Dale and Harold’s curious little convoy roll by.

“Goddammit!” yelled Bob as his head spun around. “I knew it!” yowled Paul “I KNEW we’d get caught!” Knowing there was no chance of getting away, Harold and Paul both meekly pulled over and rolled down their windows. “What’s going on boys?” inquired Deputy Reed as he strolled over to the parked cars. “Plan on doing some fencing tonight?”

A month later Judge Knowlton glared down at Dale and rumbled: “Mr. O’Connor, you know I can lock you up for a long time because of your record, don’t you?” “Yessir, I do. I’m sorry”, Dale sheepishly replied. The judge continued: “I am only doing this because you come from a good family, but I am going to give you one last chance to straighten up. I will suspend the charges if you agree to compensate Agway for the damages to their fence and immediately join the Army. Perhaps that will teach you some discipline and respect. At the very least it will keep you out of our hair for a while. However, if you do not complete the entire enlistment period, I will reopen the felony charges against you. Understand?” “Yessir. Thank you very much, sir.”

After successfully completing basic training, Dale found himself out in the field for his first assignment with the Army. While explaining the circumstances of his enlistment to a fellow newly-minted private, Dale exclaimed, “I hope I never see no more bob wire the resta my life!” Just then their sergeant called the unit together. “Okay, gentlemen, we’re having trouble with deer entering the range, so I need a detail to install the barbed wire fencing in that truck right there, starting at that pole. It should only take a few weeks. Estevez! Jackson! O’Connor!...”

Isaac Asimov's "Foundation" Series

2010-04-23T10:50:00.000-05:00

I'm currently buzz-sawing my way through the seven books in Asimov's classic Foundation series. I read the original Hugo-winning three books - Foundation; Foundation and Empire; and Second Foundation - many years ago, and didn't realize that additional books had been added to fill in the gaps, so I decided to go back through the entire collection chronologically (to the story, not in the order published).

The series chronicles the fall of the Galactic Empire, in the distant future, after twelve thousand years of domination, and Professor Hari Seldon's prediction of the collapse using the field he created called Psychohistory, which is a form of mathematics that allows the prediction of general changes across worlds and the galaxy. Psychohistory also provides the foreknowledge to shorten the anarchy subsequent to the collapse by a factor of thirty, from thirty thousand years to only one thousand years.

Seldon uses his knowledge to create two "Foundations", which will serve to replace the Galactic Empire after the fall. One Foundation is tasked with documenting all of human knowledge so that it will not be lost in the anarchic period. The Second Foundation is comprised of humans with special mind powers, including Seldon's granddaughter, who are to combine their powers to create a sort of "universal consciousness" to benefit humankind.

After several future "Seldon crises", as they are called, the two Foundations eventually confront each other to determine which will actually end up being the core of a new empire. Along the way there are confrontations with the dying Empire and a mysterious mentalic called "The Mule". And the series concludes with the rediscovery of Earth, the origin of human life, which has mostly been forgotten over the millennia and is thought to be only a myth.

In going through the books, I am glad to see some of the gaps filled in, especially the history of Hari Seldon, although there is a lack of continuity in several places. If you are willing to ignore these inconsistencies, though, you'll find a very entertaining classic science fiction story by one of the masters of the genre.

East of Eden

2010-04-05T15:32:00.001-05:00

One of my all-time favorites, by John Steinbeck. I’ve probably read it five or six times over the last thirty years, starting in my high school Modern Novel class, where we also watched the mini-series starring Jane Seymour (the start of my love affair with her).

Each time I read East of Eden it’s like reading it for the first time. The book continues to surprise me with its depth and descriptiveness. The characters are multi-dimensional and lifelike – bad people aren’t completely evil and nice people are not completely good – although some people would cast the main antagonist, Cathy/Kate, as pure evil. I prefer to think of her as a sociopath, though: probably not truly evil, but rather a person who is missing something in her, through some combination of her genes and her upbringing. Steinbeck seems to feel the same way about her. When Kate finally realizes she’s missing something, she ends her life rather than feeling like something less than human.

What can be said about this classic novel that hasn’t already been said? It’s a retelling of the Cain and Abel story, over two generations, first with brothers Charles and Adam Trask, and then with Adam’s sons Caleb (Cal) and Aron. Many themes mirror the biblical account: just like Cain is a “worker of the ground”, so Charles is a hard-working farmer and Cal becomes an investor in bean crops; Abel is a “keeper of the sheep”, while Aron goes to school to become a priest (commonly compared to shepherds); God rejects Cain’s gift, but accepts Abel’s, while Charles’ and Adam’s father, Cyrus, accepts Adam’s gift of a puppy but rejects Charles’ gift of a hard-earned expensive knife; also, Cain kills Abel, while Charles attempts to kill Adam and Cal’s treatment of his brother leads to Aron entering WWI and getting killed.

The primary theme of East of Eden, however, is that the vast majority of us have the choice to be good or bad. Adam, his cook Lee, and their neighbor Samuel Hamilton extensively discuss what the moral of the Cain and Abel story is and it is eventually arrived at by some of Lee’s philosopher relatives that the moral comes down to the Hebrew word “Timshel” in the Bible, which means “thou mayest”, as in “thou mayest rule over sin.” This gives us control over our actions, rather than fate or an order to obey. Timshel recurs throughout the book, and plays particular importance at the end.

Some find East of Eden to be depressing, but I find it quite uplifting, regardless of many of the events that occur. Ultimately it is about making good choices and forgiveness - things that most of us would agree are of utmost importance to being a good person.

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward

2010-03-23T10:27:00.002-05:00

As I mentioned in an earlier post, my next reading was to be this novella by H.P. Lovecraft. As I also said, one of the criticisms of the Lovecraft treasury I read before was the omission of this work. I now see why. I found this story to be at least as enjoyable as any of the others I've read. In many ways Ward is better, mainly due to its length. Lovecraft is able to really delve into the characters and create a depth that is very enjoyable, and also create a plot that does not have to be hurried through. That's not to say that everything is explained, however. One of the reasons I like Lovecraft is he leaves a lot to the imagination: In this case you never really find out the antagonist's ultimate motive or who exactly some of the characters are, and even though the book seems to wrap up quite nicely, there are enough unanswered questions to make you ponder about what could still happen in the future.

If you are interested in this excellent short work, you can read it here for free, along with many other Lovecraft stories.

The Black Swan

2010-03-17T13:16:00.002-05:00

This book, by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, is difficult to review. It represents such a non-conventional way of thinking (and acting) and covers so much material it’s hard to do it justice.

Taleb defines a “Black Swan” as an event with the following characteristics:

It is an outlier.
It carries an extreme impact.
It has retrospective predictability.

He also believes that “A small number of Black Swans explain almost everything in our world…” Events like market crashes and major wars are very good examples of what Black Swans are all about – they are rare in occurrence, have a widespread impact and are subject to postmortem analysis as to why they happened (even though the analysis is usually wrong or incomplete). Taleb states that the bulk of the historical gain of the stock market is due to these Black Swan-type events.

A good part of the book is a lesson against overusing Gaussian bell-curve analysis, especially for social issues like economics, psychology and sociology. Bell curves assume linear relationships, whereas real life demonstrates non-linear characteristics. Mandelbrot’s work in chaos theory is heavily emphasized as having particular relevance to the real, empirical world. My own study of chaos theory confirms many of Taleb’s arguments.

Predictability, or actually non-predictability, is another main focus. It’s very, very difficult to predict anything because of the non-linear nature of most activities. However, plenty of people claim to be able to predict things (economists, meteorologists, et al) by extrapolating historical data. Well, we’ve all seen how well that works. Predictions may be successful in the very short term, but inevitably those Black Swans jump in and mess everything up.

My biggest question while reading the book, however was “How am I supposed to live my life in Extremeistan (Nassim’s name for the world of Black Swans)?” Obviously, it’s not by following the conventional wisdom and predictions we routinely see in our daily lives, since Black Swans ruin much of that wisdom. Taleb suggests that we look at everything critically and skeptically. Don’t blindly follow the advice of so-called “experts”, especially when their “expertise” is in volatile fields. One particularly useful piece of specific advice the author gives is using the so-called “barbell” investment strategy (Taleb was a securities trader for many years), which calls for simultaneous investment in hyper-conservative securities and in hyper-aggressive securities. That way the bulk of your investment is secure (85-90%), while the remainder can take advantage of positive Black Swans (securities that may increase in value dramatically).

The sheer quantity of information in this book is staggering (although sometimes a bit repetitive), and I can’t begin to do it justice, so reading it carefully will take some time for most people, even though it is only 300 pages long. It’s well worth the investment of time, however. I found it to be a very mind-opening experience.

If his lips are moving, he must be...

2010-03-15T09:02:00.001-05:00

A breakdown of some of Will Barclay's statement about declining to run for Congress in NY-23:

When I set about on this quest to be elected to represent the people of New York’s 23rd district in the United States Congress, I fully expected that at this point I would be issuing a statement detailing why I think we need to replace liberal Democrat Bill Owens…

Bill Owens is a moderate, not a liberal.

We live in a time of rampant cynicism so maybe it won’t take long for some cynic to gleefully throw at me that famous line by George Bernard Shaw: “When a stupid man is doing something he is ashamed of, he always declares that it is his duty.”

I fully expect and resign myself to accepting that my citing duty as the reason for my decision will be dismissed by some, perhaps by many, with cynical comments. So be it.

It’s not cynical to state that if a Republican wins this seat, the 23rd will probably not exist after 2012. Which means either one-and-done or having to run in another district then.

Had I run for Congress I would have had a duty to those who support my candidacy to put in as much time on the campaign trail as my opponents. There are only two ways I could do that.

One way would be to go out campaigning even when I was duty-bound to be in Albany working at the job to which the people have already elected me and for which the taxpayers are paying me to perform. This may well be something that occurs all the time – but I could not in good conscience do that. It’s just not right.

It didn’t stop you from running for State Senate, though, did it?

In a different year, I could have and would have made a different decision.

So, in other circumstances, you would have no problem in “shirking your duty”?

Finally, as I have already pledged in writing: I will support whichever candidate Republican voters choose in the primary. Any candidate worthy of the Republican nomination must, in my view, do the same.

Heh. An obvious slam at Hoffman. Are you sure you’ll support him if he wins the primary?

Tales of H.P. Lovecraft

2010-03-11T11:02:00.001-05:00

This book is my introduction to the writings of Lovecraft, the classic horror writer who inspired generations of writers like Stephen King. Lovecraft's stories have a similar feel to Edgar Allen Poe's, but with some science fiction thrown in for good measure. For many years I have been somewhat familiar with the Cthulhu Mythos, but never really looked into the works of the creator until my son purchased this volume and passed it on to me when he finished. I am now a fan.

This particular volume (of which there are many) includes ten of his more popular works like, The Call of Cthulhu, The Dunwich Horror and The Shadow out of Time. In reading other reviews, it appears the main criticism is the absence of his classic The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, which I have since acquired and will read next.

As a big fan of Poe I have thoroughly enjoyed this collection, being in a similar vein. Whether you are a fan of classic horror or science fiction, especially if you are a Stephen King fan, you owe it to yourself to read the works of the man King called, "The Twentieth Century's greatest practitioner of the classic horror tale." You won't regret it.

The Party of No Redux

2010-03-02T10:39:00.003-05:00

An interesting article on MSNBC.com today:

Analysis: Republicans setting filibuster record
GOP senators are on pace to triple previous uses of procedural obstruction

The frequency of filibusters — plus threats to use them — are measured by the number of times the upper chamber votes on cloture. Cloture is a Senate procedure to end debate so other business can be brought to the floor. Such votes test the majority's ability to hold together 60 members to break a filibuster.

In the 110th Congress of 2007-2008, there were a record 112 cloture votes. In this session of Congress, the 111th — for all of 2009 and the first two months of 2010 — the number already exceeds 40.

The most the Democrats have ever use the filibuster was 58 times in the 106th Congress of 1999-2000.

So the next time you wonder why nothing gets done in Washington, here's a big part of the answer.

Zombieland!

2010-02-25T11:50:00.001-05:00

I've finally watched something released in the past year. Zombieland is, plain and simply, a fun movie. A guilty pleasure. After all, what red-blooded American male hasn't dreamed he could just go out and blast zombies? Well that's exactly what Woody Harrelson gets to do in this rollicking send-up of zombie flicks. Zombies get killed, by the scores, in every way imaginable: with guns, knives, hedge clippers, toilet tank lids, dropped pianos.....you get the gist. Woody (as Tallahassee) teams up with three young people also on the run from the undead and they cross the country looking for a place that's zombie-free. Along the way they run into Bill Murray (as himself) for a memorable scene in Bill's house. The film climaxes at an amusement park in California with an unbelievable pileup of zombie bodies before our heroes ride off into the sunset together.

A big thumbs up for unrepentant violent humor and sight gags where (almost) always the bad guys die.

Mystic River

2010-02-23T09:21:00.001-05:00

I'm always way behind on movies, but I really can't believe that Mystic River came out in 2003 and I'm just getting to it. But it was well worth the wait. The acting by the all-star cast is superb. Kevin Bacon, Tim Robbins and Sean Penn are all favorites of mine and are at the top of their game. The supporting cast is excellent as well, especially Marcia Gay Harden as the wife of Tim Robbins' character.

I won't go into the plot, for those of you (all three of you) who haven't seen it yet. It's a dramatic murder mystery of sorts, with lots of interesting subplots. The character development is deep, and I found myself empathizing with them even as they were performing criminal and/or immoral acts. No black-or-white villians and heroes here - Everybody has their dark and light sides, just to different degrees.

Clint Eastwood really has become one of the best directors going. The next movie of his we're going to see is Gran Torino, which my wife is really looking forward to watching.

The Bourne Sanction

2010-02-21T15:35:00.000-05:00

A Christmas disappointment. Or as my father would say, "A face dropper".

I've been a big fan of Robert Ludlum's books for many years, especially his Bourne series, so I was psyched when I received The Bourne Sanction this past Christmas. Unfortunately, it's not written by Ludlum, even though his name is featured most prominently on the cover. This book, along with two other Bourne novels, was written by Eric Van Lustbader, which must be Dutch for ridiculous.

I should have learned my lesson when I read the first James Bond book written by someone other than Ian Fleming. I had the same feeling while reading this book. The names are right, and the places are right, but it's just not the same character. (I mean, c'mon, James Bond driving a Saab?) This Bourne doesn't have the same edge, the same steel in his spine. He's sensitive. 'Nuff said. I appreciate the author trying to create more depth in Bourne, and in his main antagonist Arkadin, but in my opinion he fails miserably. Van Lustbader needed to stick with the formula that worked for Ludlum.

The plot was too convoluted too, and frankly just unbelievable. That's fine if you're going for a book that's meant to be over-the-top, but I don't think that's the case here. I truly think that Van Lustbader was trying to write a book about something that could happen. Once again, I think he fails.

I really wish franchises like this would be left alone. Now I'm going to have to go back and read the original Bournes just to cleanse my mind and not think of Jason Bourne in Eric Van Lustbader's terms.

Is this the face of the Tea Party?

2010-02-16T16:52:00.000-05:00

This photo was used by both MSNBC.com and The New York Times today in stories about the Tea Party. Is this what the average Tea Partier looks like - Middle aged and older white men, probably veterans, almost certainly Conservatives and/or Republicans, wearing their hearts on their sleeves? I hate to say it, but that's my impression of the movement. Is it true, or is it just how the media presents it to us? I've seen other photos taken at Tea Party events and the only difference I've seen is that middle aged and older white women are involved in the movement too. There seems to be a paucity of young people involved, of any race or gender, and I've seen no people of color of any age, although I'm sure there must be a few. With so little apparent diversity, I really can't see how the movement can have any staying power. Perhaps they might have some short-term success in the upcoming elections, playing off the poor economy and voter dissatisfaction, but I can't see the Tea Party being any more than a passing fad. That is, unless they can show us they are more than meets the eye.

Miracle on Ice

2010-02-16T12:05:00.001-05:00

With the Olympics going on, I thought I'd post something I wrote a few years ago about my experiences with the Miracle on Ice of 1980.

While it was almost an anti-climax after the USA-USSR game in 1980, I was at the gold medal game in Lake Placid when the US defeated Finland. I'll bet if you ask most people, they would say that the Soviet Union game was for the gold. It was not.

The day of the game started inauspiciously enough, but soon grew chaotic when we found out that my grandfather had a lead for tickets to the early game that day, which was the USSR vs. Sweden. When he finally called to say he had gotten the tickets we all madly rushed to get things ready for the three-hour drive. Seven of us packed ourselves into the station wagon - me, my brother and sister, my parents, my grandfather, and my uncle.

The drive was just a blur. Of course, I had been following the Olympics closely; after all, they were going on just a few hours away. It was almost surreal that we were really going there. I didn't even have the time to let any of my friends know before we left. Wouldn't they be surprised when I told them in school on Monday!

We were only able to drive as far as Saranac Lake. We had to take a shuttle in from there. I can still remember how the shuttle stop looked - booths set up selling all sorts of Olympic souvenirs. Hats, pins, frisbees - everything! We bought a few things and then boarded the bus for the last leg to downtown Lake Placid.

The bus dropped us off near the arena. As we walked there we heard a buzz among everyone around us. For some reason, the game times had been switched. We weren't going to see the USSR and Sweden; we were going to see the US and Finland! With the US playing for the GOLD!

The game was very dramatic - the crowd just rippled with excitement the entire game. There was a festival atmosphere there that I have never come close to experiencing since. And each time the US scored - Pandemonium! I had goosebumps the entire game and still get them every time I reminisce about it.

Leaving the arena after the game was over, I wore a grin from ear-to-ear that didn't go away for a week. I don't remember much of the ride home that evening. I know we stopped for dinner along the way and watched on TV part of the game we were originally supposed to see. But that game was meaningless; the US had already won the gold.

I still have the ticket from the game. I keep it in a drawer in my nightstand. It's starting to get worn a little from handling it from time-to-time. Perhaps some day I will give it to my son when he is old enough to appreciate what happened at those glorious Olympic Games twenty-four years ago. I know one thing for sure - I will be taking him to see Miracle when it comes out. Perhaps that will be the beginning of his appreciation of what happened and the incredible patriotism the US hockey team inspired.

Whew!

2010-02-09T16:11:00.002-05:00

It’s a good thing I don’t have to worry about the GOP Purity Test should I ever decide to run for public office as a Republican. The RNC has decided not to endorse the proposal.

Just for laughs, let’s see how I would do on the test:

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the Republican National Committee identifies ten (10) key public policy positions for the 2010 election cycle, which the Republican National Committee expects its public officials and candidates to support:

(1) We support smaller government, smaller national debt, lower deficits and lower taxes by opposing bills like Obama’s “stimulus” bill;

A lot of this sounds good in theory. After all, who wouldn’t like to pay less in taxes? However, what programs do you actually cut? That’s where the rubber meets the road. Defense? Social programs? It’s too complex to just say you want smaller government. And I have to disagree with opposing bills like the Stimulus. While it’s not completely clear how well the Stimulus worked, I shudder to think what may have happened had we not temporarily infused additional government spending into the economy.

(2) We support market-based health care reform and oppose Obama-style government run healthcare;

Once again, in theory it might make sense. But what do we do about Medicaid and Medicare? Isn’t that “Obama-style government run healthcare”? On top of that it’s not a foregone conclusion that any so-called “Obama Plan” will include socialized medicine or even a public option. Reform needs to be done, and for many people it needs to be done quickly, especially the tens of millions of people in this country who are uninsured or underinsured. Will “market-based health care reform” do that for us? The statement is too vague to answer properly.

(3) We support market-based energy reforms by opposing cap and trade legislation;

The question here is: Are they opposed to cap-and-trade as part of energy reforms, or are they merely opposed to reducing carbon emissions because they don’t believe in global climate change? Cap-and-trade was effective in helping to address acid rain, but a plan like cap-and-dividend might work even better in battling climate change.

(4) We support workers’ right to secret ballot by opposing card check;

I'm not a big fan of card check (or unions for that matter), but the current system for forming unions has many weaknesses too. I don’t know if card check is the answer, but things need to be changed somehow.

(5) We support legal immigration and assimilation into American society by opposing amnesty for illegal immigrants;

It may be that amnesty is the least of all evils. We don't have the resources to round up and return illegal immigrants to their home countries. It would probably be less expensive to grant them amnesty and devote our resources to securing our borders.

(6) We support victory in Iraq and Afghanistan by supporting military-recommended troop surges;

I’m not even sure we can identify “victory” in either Iraq or Afghanistan, let alone can count on troop surges to help insure it. Again, this is a much more complicated issue than the pledge alludes to.

(7) We support containment of Iran and North Korea, particularly effective action to eliminate their nuclear weapons threat;

I agree with this because of the instability of their respective governments. But really, what legal basis do we have to take action? Who gets to pick and choose what countries have nuclear weapons and which don’t?

(8) We support retention of the Defense of Marriage Act;

I am unambiguously opposed to the Defense of Marriage Act. It is archaic, discriminatory and probably unconstitutional.

(9) We support protecting the lives of vulnerable persons by opposing health care rationing and denial of health care and government funding of abortion; and

I also oppose health care rationing and denial of health care. The abortion issue is a bit more complicated, however. While I am personally opposed to abortion in most circumstances, there is some precedent for government-funded abortions. Currently, Medicaid is required to cover abortions in the cases of rape, incest and the endangerment of the mother’s life. In some states Medicaid covers all abortions. With health care reform (assuming there is a government-funded piece) these differing policies need to be streamlined.

(10) We support the right to keep and bear arms by opposing government restrictions on gun ownership;

Opposing all government restrictions on gun ownership? That’s insane. Or are they opposed to new government restrictions on gun ownership? We may need a little more clarity here.

and be further

RESOLVED, that a candidate who disagrees with three or more of the above stated public policy position of the Republican National Committee, as identified by the voting record, public statements and/or signed questionnaire of the candidate, shall not be eligible for financial support and endorsement by the Republican National Committee.

Some people might think that I really didn’t provide specific replies to the statements, but that is precisely my point – the statements are too ambiguous to simply say “I agree” or “I disagree.” Not to mention that the entire test is very exclusionary and polarizing. In my not-so-humble opinion, the GOP needs to be more inclusive to be successful, not less inclusive.

Reiki at BOCES?

2010-02-05T11:40:00.002-05:00

I was pretty surprised the other day as I was looking through the BOCES adult education catalog to see that Reiki training was offered. I have all the respect in the world for BOCES as an educational institution, so I am disappointed that they would have courses for a program that has no empirical evidence whatsoever to support it.

For those of you unfamiliar with Reiki, please refer to this article from Wikipedia. Basically, it is an invented form of alternative medicine whereby "life force" can supposedly be used to heal. Unfortunately for the practitioners (and their "patients") scientific research has shown that Reiki has no efficacy beyond a placebo effect. In fact, Reiki could even prove harmful if the "patient" avoids traditional medical treatment in favor of Reiki.

I hate to see a great organization like BOCES hurt its integrity by offering a course like this. What's next? - Astrology? Phrenology? Seances?

The Party of No

2010-02-02T14:19:00.001-05:00

In the Sunday Weekly section of this Sunday's Watertown Daily Times, four potential Republican candidates for Congress were asked to discuss health care reform. Unfortunately, we heard very little for GOP ideas, but instead were subjected to slamming of the potential Democratic legislation.

Doug Hoffman offered the least – only slamming Obama, Pelosi, Bill Owens and the Senate health care bill – while actually using the word “no” in his statement to describe his point of view. He also promoted conspiracy theories and fear-mongering without providing one single proposal of his own. Very weak in my opinion, and just a continuation of his previous run.

The “King of No” title has to go to Paul Maroun, though. Six consecutive statements began with “We should not...” His only reforms are what he calls “gap” coverage, tort reform and being able to purchase health insurance across state lines. I am all for those ideas but believe they will only have a relatively small impact on health care, though. What about the tens of millions of Americans without health insurance? What should we do about that?

Will Barclay’s sole proposal is tort reform. Will’s numbers don’t completely add up there, however: One study he referred to estimates that defensive medicine costs $200 billion a year (which by the way is less than 10% of health-care costs), while another study referred to 25% in additional costs. I find it highly unlikely that there are more than $500 billion in additional tests and procedures done in the name of defensive medicine. 20% of all medical costs? I’ll need to see some hard numbers before I believe that. Nevertheless, I am in favor of tort reform, because I think it’s the right thing to do, not because I think it’s going to reduce our country’s medical costs by that high an amount. However, Mr. Barclay also avoided all the other issues out there: Medicare and Medicaid reform, the uninsured and underinsured, ER staffing and nurse shortages, and so on. But Will thinks we have the best health care in the world, and based on that and some of the other statistics he threw out there it sounds like he’d pretty much like to leave things alone. What defines “best health care” anyways? Do we spend the most per capita on health care? Sure. But is it the best? In my studies, a great number of European countries have excellent health care, covering all citizens, at a lower cost per capita than we pay. Isn’t that better, at least on some level?

Matt Doheny also spent a good deal of his time criticizing the Democratic proposals. However, he did devote a majority of his essay to reform issues. Like Maroun and Barclay, Matt placed a lot of emphasis on tort reform. Although there’s one thing about tort reform these gentlemen need to remember: tort reform will not eliminate malpractice claims or defensive medicine – it will only reduce them – and nobody knows to what degree. Another of Doheny’s ideas is making the cost of health insurance tax-deductible. I assume he means 100% tax-deductible, since health insurance costs can already be itemized and are deductible, along with other out-of-pocket medical costs, for the amount over 7.5% of AGI. Matt also addressed access programs for those with pre-existing conditions. I only wish he had specifically discussed those without insurance at all.

As a Republican I would like to see solid proposals by the Republican candidates, not the criticism and nay-saying that made up the bulk of these responses. If the candidates have not developed plans of their own, then they should at least endorse competing proposals from GOP representatives. Unfortunately, The Party of No has primarily been in reactive mode since the Democrats made it a priority to enact health care reform legislation. Not that the Democrats are completely faultless – after all, they have pretty much cut the Republicans out of the process. Hopefully that will change now that the Democrats no longer have a filibuster-proof majority. I’d like to see proposed legislation that takes the best ideas from both parties and incorporates them into a reform program that provides affordable health insurance access to all, while cleaning up some of the other messes out there.

Death Metal

2009-12-14T13:40:00.003-05:00

My musical tastes and my teenage son's are finally diverging. After many years of enjoying "classic" rock and roll, blues and jazz together, he has gotten into heavy metal, including bands that were around in my formative years. Unfortunately, I don't remember any of them. He now listens to speed metal, thrash metal and, most recently, death metal. Last evening, when he and I were at FYE together, he purchased the debut CD of the originally named Death, who I guess were pioneers of the death metal genre, not that I would know.

At least our tastes haven't completely diverged yet. On our way back home he popped in TSO's Lost Christmas Eve and we enjoyed some Wizards in Winter.

I hope this is just a phase. Heh.

Kafka and Healthcare Reform

2009-09-09T13:32:00.005-05:00

I finally really understand what "Kafkaesque" means after reading The Trial. While K's tribulations are a bit unrealistic, they are not that far off the mark in some circumstances. Many government (especially pseudogovernment) agencies seem to revel in a similar type of obfuscation, deliberately muddying the waters so that nobody really knows what goes on there. Arbitrariness is the order of the day, with a side order of capriciousness. Accountability is thrown out the window, and consequently, responsibility.

How do we really know what is happening at huge government bureaucracies like the Treasury Department? They can't even account for how billions of dollars of stimulus funds given to banks was spent, let alone the effects of the spending. This kind of lack of accountability is what makes me nervous about rushing through healthcare reform: If this ends up being a huge government boondoggle, who will be the watchdog? Medicaid is rife with fraud, and unless a new public option for those without health insurance is built carefully, we'll see more of the same.

An Interesting Obit

2009-05-21T15:05:00.005-05:00

While checking out the Jefferson County section of Ancestry.com, I stumbled upon this neat obituary from around 1910:

At 8:00 o'clock on Sunday morning, just as the day of rest was at its best, a beautiful woman entered into the last sleep to awake no more until the great trumpet sounds, when graves will be opened and the dead shall be raised. It was so calm a passing away that it seemed as though even death itself felt that its victim had already suffered enough, and strove to make the last moment one of joy.

Mrs. xxxxxx xxxxxx, with her husband, went to Dr. Walter Smith's office to have a tooth extracted; the doctor advised doing it under local anaesthetic but she insisted upon having chloroform, saying she had taken it several times and was not afraid of it. Dr. Smith advised against it as being contrary to his best judgement but she was determined and asked him to make an appointment with Dr. Forsyth to administer the chloroform the next morning. At 8:00 o'clock Sunday morning both doctors went to the home and found Mrs. xxxxxx quiet and composed and her husband assisted in the preparation and administration of the anaesthetic. She took it well and by actual measurement required less than one-half ounce by the drop method. The tooth was extracted and [unreadable] to spit out the bloody mucous from her mouth but [unreadable] gained consciousness when the heart suddenly failed and she died despite the efforts of the doctors and her husband to resuscitate her.

Mrs. xxxxxx has been very stout and the heart muscle had undergone a degree of fatty degeneration, which, under ordinary circumstances, was giving no trouble until some unusual strain like the anaesthetic caused it to break down.

In extending our sympathy we can also express the consolation that wife, mother and sister is past all suffering now, and for the first time in a number of years her body is at perfect rest. As to soul, it is well known that everything is right with God. The funeral services were held this afternoon at 2:00 o'clock from the Methodist church, of which she was a member, Rev. B. G. Miller officiating.

Deceased was a member of the Companion Court and Royal Neighbors. She leaves to mourn her loss a husband, mother and father, two sons and a daughter, two sisters and a brother.

You don't see them like that anymore.

The War of the Flowers

2009-05-21T12:16:00.003-05:00

I just finished reading this book by Tad Williams and enjoyed it. I'm not a big fantasy fan, but my son recommended it (he reads a lot of fantasy). Without giving too much of the plot away, The War of the Flowers follows the adventures of Theo, a down-on-his-luck thirty year old musician who really hasn't done much with his life. That all changes when he is dragged into events on an alternate Earth that will have consequences for both worlds. As he stuggles to adapt to the other Earth he discovers things about himself that he never could have imagined before, as well as love and friendship like nothing he has ever had.

There is the usual magic (called science), fairies, goblins, nymphs, giants and other beasties you would expect to find in such a book, but the world they inhabit is really not that different from our own - Politics and power, murder, class warfare, even power outages. Theo's great-uncle even makes an appearance on the alternate Earth, but in an unexpected way.

Overall, it's a fun book to read, with plenty of action and a multi-dimensional main character. I give it about a 7 out of 10.

The King Raven Trilogy

2009-04-24T13:10:00.000-05:00

I am in the middle of reading the King Raven Trilogy by Stephen Lawhead, which is a different way of looking at the Robin Hood legend. Robin (Rhy Bran) is now a prince in the Welsh forest called The March who loses his ancestral lands to a Norman duke and then organizes a band to try to recover his legacy. Robin teams up with many of the usual familiar characters, Little John, Friar Tuck, Maid Marian and Will Scarlet, to steal from the Norman nobility and redistribute the wealth to the poor of his former lands, while at the same time scheming to oust the hated possessors of his kingdom.

The trilogy is comprised of Hood, which is from Bran’s perspective, Scarlet, which is from Will’s point of view, and finally Tuck, which is the good friar’s account.

They are very fast-paced books, with a lot of action, and are very readable and enjoyable if you like Robin Hood or other stories from the Middle Ages. Each book is around 450 pages long and can be quite easily read in just a few days.

Something to consider on Good Friday

2009-04-10T08:43:00.004-05:00

Here are some links to articles about the historical Jesus Christ and the historicity of Christ. There really is little to work with, other than the Gospels themselves, which do provide some compelling evidence about His life.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30034168/

http://www.livescience.com/history/090410-jesus-the-man.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_Jesus

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historicity_of_Jesus

Most scholars agree that there was a real Jesus and that he was not just a fabrication of Messianic Jews.

Just something to read and think about.

Weekend From Hell

2008-03-12T10:22:00.002-05:00

What a weekend we just had! One of those "Murphy's Law"- type weekends where just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

My family had a very busy weekend scheduled, with soccer tournaments and a trip to the SU game on the agenda. My wife and I split things up with me handling the more "local" activities and with her taking the girls to Saranac Lake and Lake Placid for the soccer tournaments.

Getting up to freezing rain on Saturday morning set the tone for what was to come. My son had indoor soccer at 7:30 am at the YMCA and after a slippery 40-minute drive I got him there only a couple of minutes late - Not bad, all things considered. Unfortunately, that would be about as good as things got for the weekend.

While I was dealing with my son's soccer, my wife and daughters (and a friend) headed out for Saranac Lake and a first game at 11:00 am. A 3-hour jaunt got them up there by 10:30 and in plenty of time for that first game. They shouldn't have really worried about getting up there on time, however, as it was a single-elimination tournament, and after getting beaten handily in that first game, they were done playing for the day. Well worth that drive through the freezing rain!

Back at home, my sons and I prepared for an early departure to the Syracuse game, given the weather conditions. Actually, the drive down could have been much worse (as we were to find out later), with crappy conditions only about as far as Sandy Creek, then changing over to only light rain. We still barely made it to the game on time, just getting into our seats at tipoff.

The game itself was the highlight of the weekend, with SU playing one of their best games of the season, against a top-twenty team in Marquette. The only downside was when the drunk guy behind us fell on top of me at halftime as he was heading to the aisle (probably to either buy more beer or take a leak). Luckily, he did not show back up for the second half. Regardless, a 15-point win left us flying high as we left the Carrier Dome back out into the rain. Optimistically, I thought we might have clear sailing all the way home. Boy, was I mistaken.

After stopping for a quick bite to eat at McDonald's in Central Square, we came out to a blizzard - Heavy snow and whipping winds. Great. After leading the pack up Route 81 for a while, I pulled off at Parish to clean off the windshield and to let somebody else lead the parade. After getting back out on the highway I found myself behind a Jeep with his four-ways blinking and I planted myself a little way behind him and followed him all the way to Watertown. In all, it took me almost 2 1/2 hours to get from Central Square back home. And that wouldn't be so bad if that was the end of it, but oh no, to put the icing on the cake we got stuck in the end of the driveway at 10:00 pm with about 1/4 of the car sticking out into the road.

We couldn't very well leave the car like that, so after putting my younger son to bed, my older son and I spent over an hour trying to dig out the car. We tried everything, but to no avail. It was completely hung up and was going to have to be pulled out. We finally gave up and went to bed, exhausted.

Sunday morning, things started out well. I got a hold of a friend who was not only able to pull the car out, but also plowed out the foot and a half of snow that had accumulated the previous 24 hours. Things were starting to look up. Then the power went out.

Not just a little power outage; a downed tree limb or something like that. Rather, a 9-hour outage, with smaller outages during the night. And all this with work and school the next day and with half of my family still up in the mountains working their way home.

Speaking of the ladies - They woke up Sunday morning to an inch of ice on the car and a 9:00 am game in Lake Placid. After getting some assistance from a helpful gentleman, they were able to get into the car and start the long process of de-icing. But wait a minute. Now the car won't start properly. At first, my wife only got that awful "click-clicking" sound you get when the battery has a low charge. Wonderful. After a couple of attempts, though, she got it started and they eventually made it to their game on time.

After a much more successful day of soccer (they made it to the semi-finals), the girls went to head back and it was "click-click" yet again. Once more, my wife got the car started and back home they headed. On the way home they decided to stop and eat in Tupper Lake and when they arrived there my wife called and told me about the problem starting the car, and another problem - Now the car seemed to be idling at very high revs. More great news! I told her to not shut off the car and to head directly back.

I had no problem telling when they got home (aside from the fact that because we had no electricity nothing electronic was running in the house and the entire town was dead quiet). High revs? Holy Crap - How about 2500 RPMs in Park! It normally idles at 700. It sounded like a frickin' jet engine running in the driveway. Everyone was safe, however, and none the worse for wear. A trip to LaFave Auto yesterday put everything right with the car and all is well in the world again.

Wait a sec.......I just looked at this weekend's schedule.

Crap.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

2008-01-05T18:02:00.000-05:00

I know. I lied.

I said when I started blogging again I would do it on a more regular basis. Hopefully, that will be corrected now. TSO is always a good thing to write about, so I'll begin by reviewing last night's show in Syracuse.

In a word - Different. Not in a bad way, but just a bit different than I expected. Our seats were almost exactly the same as last year: Floor level, about twenty rows back from the stage. Good seats, but visibility was a bit of a problem when you have a guy about 6' 5" in front of you. Next year we might go for seats in the first section up from the floor.

Anyhow, back to the concert itself. Either I am getting older or the band wasn't a loud as in years past. At first I thought it was just me, but other people I talked to after the show said the same thing. Not necessarily a bad thing, because I have come out of the War Memorial before with my ears ringing. Not last night. I do think they cranked it up a notch for the second set, and that was great, since that's when they really rock.

As usual, the performance was very tight. They are so good you would swear you were listening to the CDs. The lighting was spectacular, but sometimes a little out of sync with the music, and I noticed a couple of blown bulbs in the light show, something I had never seen before. A petty complaint, because it's not like it took away from anything.

The first set was the usual performance from Christmas Eve and Other Stories. Always great and a crowd pleaser. A couple of minor complaints about some of the song choices in the second set, though. I preferred last year's Layla to this year's Proud Mary. We were also disappointed by them not playing Queen of the Winter Night - A personal favorite of my family. I also heard a few people outside afterwards who said they regretted not hearing that one too.

Like I said......different. Overall, it was as good as any of their shows I've seen. I was also happy to have introduced TSO to several friends of mine who went to see them for the first time ever this year. Rave reviews all around. I am sure they (and us) will all be back again next year.

Adirondack Painting

2006-09-27T19:30:00.000-05:00

We just had our house painted and I can't say enough about Adirondack Painting. They were simply phenomenal. They did everything we asked, and then some. The quality of their work was excellent, and they completed the job in a timely manner. The owner, Gary Galasso, kept me updated continuously on the progress and what they planned on doing next, every step of the way. Before we hired them we checked with other customers, and we did some price comparison. Their price was competitive, and everybody we spoke with gave them high praise, obviously deserved.

Without reservation, I recommend them for your next painting job. Gary can be contacted at (315) 493-6143. You won't be disappointed.

Watertown Ruby Tuesday

2006-09-16T21:11:00.000-05:00

A brief review of the new Watertown Ruby Tuesday restaurant:

My wife and I and another couple decided to try out the new Ruby Tuesday for dinner tonight and I have to give it a mixed review. We expected a wait, and were not surprised to be told there would be a thirty-five to forty minute wait after we arrived. We were a little surprised when, a half an hour later, a young female employee came out and told everybody waiting that we would have an additional ten to fifteen minute wait due to problems in the kitchen. With already over a half hour invested we decided to wait it out, figuring that it would take us at least that long to get seating any place else. After waiting a total of fifty minutes my wife went in to check and see where we were on the list. Much to her surprise she was told we weren't on the list. Surprise Surprise! In the meantime, though, another employee came out and called us. There was a little confusion, but in the end we ended up waiting just about exactly how long they told us, given the delay due to the kitchen. Oh well, no harm no foul.

As we were being seated we noticed that only about 2/3 of the tables/booths were being used, so they did seem to be telling the truth about having some problems. It seems obvious that for some reason the kitchen couldn't keep up with a full restaurant tonight. That's all right, stuff happens. Our waitress was very cheerful upon greeting us and ensured us that the food would be worth the wait. Perhaps she was using a bit of hyperbole, because the food was decent, but not great. As many of you know, Ruby Tuesday specializes in burgers, so that's what my buddy and I ordered, while our wives ordered a seafood dish and a chicken dish respectively. Their dinners were fine, but while my friend and I both ordered our burgers cooked medium, his came out rare to medium-rare, while mine was medium-well to well-done. The taste was fine, but it's a bit aggravating to not have it cooked properly. The burgers were large, however, with lots of nice toppings, and the fries were quite good, although the portion was quite small. Definitely not in keeping with the size of the sandwich.

The waitress was quite pleasant throughout our stay, but not particularly attentive. Certainly not bad enough to affect her tip (we tip fairly generously - at least 20-25%), but it would have been nice if she came around a little more often to keep our drinks refreshed. Dessert was excellent, and reasonably priced. I don't remember what it was called, but it was more than big enough for two. Overall, the prices were good - My wife and I split an appetizer, I had soda and my wife had coffee, we had our entrees and dessert, and it came to less than $45. That is certainly less than we typically spend at Applebee's.

It wasn't a totally bad experience, altogether, but I think we'll wait a little while before we go back, just to give them time to get the kinks out.

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

2006-09-15T20:29:00.000-05:00

This year's TSO concert in Syracuse is Tuesday, November 21 at 7:30 pm at the War Memorial. Presale tickets went on sale this Tuesday and were sold out by Thursday. The regular sale date for tickets will be announced soon.

My family is really psyched to go again this year. Last year was the first time we saw them, but we didn't have very good seats, as we bought them at the last minute. This year we took advantage of the presale and got seats down on the floor, about 20 rows back from the stage. It should be a fantastic show from there.

Take MIT Courses for Free!

2006-09-15T18:28:00.000-05:00

Well, not really. But if you're interested in seeing what MIT classes are like, or would like to "try" one out, check this out.

MIT OpenCourseWare allows you to pretty much see everything involved in an MIT course. You get everything from a syllabus, to videos of lectures, to assignments with answers, to quizzes and exams with answers, and more. There is an extensive course selection in a variety of subjects.

I am going to try Introductory Biology first because I've had a great deal of interest in Biology lately. I even found a used copy of the textbook online for under $10, which I ordered through Amazon.com. If I like the format I'll continue to "take" the courses. It's great for subject matter you might be interested in, but don't want to spend the money on a for-credit course.

Latest Reading

2006-08-24T20:41:00.000-05:00

Just finished Richard Dawkins' River out of Eden, and have started Intelligent Thought, a series of essays in favor of evolution and against Intelligent Design.

I've been reading quite a bit about evolution lately; particularly the works of Dawkins. I'm going to start tackling Gould soon, but I find his writing a bit cumbersome so I've been putting it off for a while. Gould should provide a different perspective as he was a paleontologist, whereas Dawkins is a biologist (ethologist, actually). I also recently purchased Darwin's Dangerous Idea, by Daniel C. Dennett, who is a philosopher and not a scientist, for yet another perspective.

I'm not limiting my reading to evolution, however, as I also picked up a book on the diaries of Lewis and Clark, and another about the history of Christianity, which has been another of my recent interests. I am currently reading David McCullough's excellent John Adams as well.

Welcome!

2006-08-22T16:28:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my blog! This is the second incarnation of my blog on Blogger.com. Unfortunately, I had to abandon the previous one as my work took up too much of my time. With a new job with shorter hours I should be able to update this blog quite frequently. Please check back often as I plan on writing about a variety of interesting topics.