My 26th Year

It's been a while since I've posted, but I thought this would be a perfect time to reflect on my 26th year with my turning 27 in just a few days. This was a big year in a lot of ways, both good and bad. It's the year I ran my first mile for one thing - something I consider a huge accomplishment. It's the year I got engaged - crazy. The year I read the Twilight series and fell in love with Edward Cullen. The year I made a new, and excellent friend, Jessica. But it's also the year the C word entered my life - Cancer.

Overall, it's been a fine year; normal for the most part with the obvious exception of my mom falling victim to Inflammatory Breast Cancer. I tasted new foods, tried loads of new recipes with great thanks to my cousin, Jackie. I read more books, saw more movies. But for the most part everything stayed the same and I take great comfort in that.

But I do feel older. Somehow it seems to me that someone who's 26 can still make mistakes and can still be immature at times because, well, they're still maturing. But 27 sounds so much more adult, like it entails more responsibility and accountability. But I think the cancer has also aged me. I guess you really start growing up the day you're faced head on with the realization that your parents won't be there forever - the day you realize, Oh My God, I've taken my mom for granted the past 25 and a half years! That's the hardest part of growing up in my opinion.

But it's unavoidable of course. So I look to my 27th year with great hope. I hope it will be the year I finally reach my goal weight, the year I run my first 5K, the year I see my Mom become a Survivor, the year I read more books and see more movies. It's going to start out great I know. With friends, a trip to the Olympic Peninsula with my brother Doug, and a vacation with friends in July. Bring it on.

Memoirs of a Geisha

I finished reading Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden last night. I am not going to review it since the novel was written over a decade ago. I'll just say that I loved it and that the story has earned its place in my top ten list of all-time favorite books.

I also enjoyed the connection I felt to my brother Doug while reading the story - being as he is in Japan as I type and as I finished the second half of the book. That I can't explain - but reading about Kyoto and hearing that he planned to visit Kyoto just seemed "neat" to me.

Overall, I tremendously enjoyed reading about Japanese tradition - the tying of Kimono, tea ceremony, the ways in which Japanese men and women communicated and built relationships. This is a subject I'd certainly like to learn a great deal more about.

I found it mildly deflating, however, to hear that the author breached his contract with his main source of information, a Geisha from Gion who broke her code of silence to assist him in his research, and was ultimately sued by her for defamation of character. The terms were that he was not to release her name and to certainly not reveal she had assisted him. Well, he thanked her in the acknowledgments. D'oh!

However, I am pleased that as a result of this lawsuit, Mineko Iwasaki, the Geisha who assisted Golden, decided to write her own memoir, and leave out the fiction that Golden built his story upon. After all, she was already receiving death threats for breaking the code of silence - why not go all out?

So Geisha, a Life is the next book on my list. I am saddened that my reading will come to a crawl now that school has started. So technically the next thing I will be reading is Gilgamesh.

Drinking tea imported from Japan out of my brand new tetsubin, should make that more bearable though. (A Valentine's Day gift from Mike)

The Hour I First Believed

I finished reading Wally Lamb's new book last night, The Hour I First Believed. I thought the novel was fantastic, right up there with his previous two works, She's Come Undone and I Know This Much is True.

Many people have waited a near decade for Lamb to publish another book and he did not disappoint. He actually took an historically tragic event, the Columbine school shootings, and centered an entire work of fiction around them while also incorporating 9/11, The Iraq War, and Katrina. Not a tragic event, but Barack Obama even makes a cameo appearance. Throughout the novel, evidence of the amount of research Lamb had done becomes clear and explains the lengthy gap between novels. The reader also gets an inside look on what is clearly Lamb's experiences from teaching creative writing to incarcerated women.

In my opinion, Lamb is the master of character development. And I was thrilled that he journeyed back through history several generations to enhance this development similarly to that of which he did in I Know This Much is True. By the way, keep a look-out for cameo appearances from some old friends.

Lastly, Lamb noted in his afterword that one of the reasons for using Columbine and not a fictional school shooting was so that he had a platform to list the names of those who died and were injured in the attacks. It is clear that the tragic event shook Lamb deeply and the book really does resonate as a tribute in a carefully crafted way. I truly enjoyed reading it.

Breaking HP News

The seventh and final installment in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, is being made into two movies.

At first I was totally stoked. But now, I don't know. 7 Books. 7 Movies. I like consistency. So much has been cut from these books for the purpose of making movies and now they say they just can't get the ending right without making this book into two movies. I know they have a lot of loose ends to tie up, and lets face it, Hallows, did have some pretty far fetched ideas, but still.

I can't help thinking The Man is trying to squeeze out a couple more hundred million by splitting the seventh movie into two. But J.K. must have approved, right?

So now the shock and misery of no more HP will not occur until May 2011 when the eighth movie is expected to come out. Don't worry about the actors getting even older. Both movies for Hallows will be shot simultaneously. Like LOTR.

I guess I'll be heading to Universal Studios to experience Hogwarts Castle in 2011 after this eighth movie rather than in 2010. That will be my last hoorah....

....until I have kids and I get to experience the joy and wonder of Harry Potter all over again.

See the article here.

Exploring vegetarianism - NO PREACHING I SWEAR

Two weeks ago I went out with my girlfriend Kelly to lunch and shopping. She wanted to pick up a book called Skinny Bitch and she said it took sort of a drill sergeant approach to helping the reader lose some weight. For example, the first line in the book says something like, "Hey fat ass, keep eating shit and you're gonna look and feel like shit." I thought it was pretty cool so I picked it up. Well, I guess you truly cannot judge a book by its cover because what started out kinda cool became a long diatribe on going vegan. According to these skinny bitches, the only way is to go vegan.

Well I say fuck that.

However, the book made some valid points especially against artificial sweeteners and what dairy really does to our systems and just how awful the average meat is (and what slaughterhouses are really like).

So I immediately got off the sweet n low, have drank a total of three glasses of diet soda in the past two weeks and stopped buying any juices with artificial sweeteners. I now only use raw sugar in my coffee and iced tea. A very positive change I think. If you ever want an interesting read, look up why Nutrasweet failed approval eight times in front of the FDA and how it finally got to be approved. Someone yell shenanigans!

Dairy is a funny thing. The book pointed out to me that we are the only species that continues to consume dairy after we get off our mother's breasts. My brother Joey always said milk made him feel sick. I don't drink milk - not even when I was a kid. My mom didn't force that on us. Well, It's bad for us and it produces mucus in our systems. I had some nice Thai iced tea last Friday made with about 8 ounces of low fat milk and I tried to see about this mucus thing. Lo and behold I felt nauseous afterwards and felt clogging in my upper chest. I never usually consume that much milk at one time.

MEAT! What an icky word. If you want to go on happily consuming meat a word of caution. DO NOT READ ABOUT SLAUGHTERHOUSES. You won't be able to put meat in your mouth even if you close your eyes. Not only that, these poor animals are fed food covered in pesticides, they are constantly injected with hormones and antibiotics and they stand around in their own shit all day. I'm all about animal rights, but my number one reason for exploring vegetarianism is that I don't want mutant children and I don't want to be very sick one day.

This all got me thinking about the youth of today. Girls becoming women at age nine, obesity, OCD, hyperactivity disorder, youth diabetes. Their moms eat all this shit and then the kids eat all this shit and everything is getting so far away from what nature intended that it's going to be difficult to get back to normal.

I want to have a healthy child. That's the bottom line. And I want me and my family (Mike) to be healthy. Eat fruits and vegetables and grains and keep away from overly processed foods and chemicals. Voila. You're healthy.

So back to the whole vegetarianism thing. (P.S. I just bought the most beautiful half of a cooked rotisserie style chicken. I haven't had that in years!) I went to the store and bought some soy hot dogs (good with lots of ketchup), I researched vegetarian recipes and made delicious steamed dumplings, I talked to some people about different rices, and then I went to my new most favorite place. WHOLE FOODS.

I always thought Whole Foods (organic supermarket) was super expensive and for like indie rocker vegan type kids. I was wrong. A woman I work with recommended I try brown rice (I never had it) and basmati rice. I gazed upon the bulk rice and grain bins looking for my first experiment in rice. Brown Basmati Rice. I could try two kinds at once! I bought a cup to make in my brand new rice cooker/steamer and was on my way.

Brown basmati rice is friggin delicious. I hesitantly raised my chopsticks to my mouth and had a taste and was pleasantly surprised. Mike really liked it too and said we don't have to ever eat white rice again. I was thrilled at this new discovery!

While i was at Whole Foods I also checked out the meat counter. Can raw meat be beautiful? At Whole Foods it can! I looked at it and read the information on where it come from and what diets the animals are on and how they live and realized that was meat I could eat and not feel sick. It won't be often but I was very pleased. Afterall, I cannot expect Mike to stop eating meat because I don't want to. He's been great trying new things (tofu) and hasn't complained once about the lack of meat being served in our home.

Hence the chicken. It's been two weeks now and I only had meat twice. Mike had it a lot more than me but not too much at home. I am making veggie burgers tomorrow out of mainly lentils and pearled barley so I thought I'd offer up a compromise. Tonight I'll serve that nice all natural rotisserie chicken with a nice broccoli Asian slaw I also picked up at the prepared foods section and some nice ciabatta rolls.

Tomorrow, Mike eats his first veggie burger.

Nothing left to theorize

HAVEN'T FINISHED YET? NO WORRIES! NO SPOILERS HERE!

Last night I told Mike I'd just read for half an hour then get dressed so we could go out for coffee. About twenty minutes into that half hour, Deathly Hallows picked up the pace big time. Three and a half hours later, I had finished the book.

I loved it. I wish it went on forever, but nothing can. And similar to the death of a loved one, it feels wrong to say anything negative.

I thought I'd cry but I didn't. I emerged late at night into the living room and Mike looked up and could tell I had finished. He gave me a nice long hug and then tucked me in and I woke up this morning and continued reading Water for Elephants. Life goes on.

I will certainly read it again soon just because I did read it a bit fast. I don't think I missed anything but it felt like my heart was racing most of the time which, looking back, makes me feel like I speed read.

I look forward to the rest of the movies and I really look forward to reading the stories to my children and then them reading them to me. I feel special that I was around for it all - the craze, the anticipation, the movie releases. I hope my kids are jealous.

Less than 18 hours to go

Life is short and a lot of people find it easier to be miserable than do something nice. My mom is case in point. So to alleviate this problem, I throw in a dash of guilt, a touch of manipulation and hope for the best.

For example, it dawned on me today that instead of just dropping my mom's HP book off tomorrow at her house, we should do some reading together. But not at her house. Not the sort of setting I want for this final read. Sounds awful, but her house doesn't feel worthy of the act of my reading this book there. I am making one last Harry Potter reading memory starting tomorrow and yes, I will be picky about where I read.

So I told her it would "mean the world to me" if we could pack a picnic and go to a nearby (25 minute drive) state park that has a lake and pretty scenery so we could have lunch and start the book together. I told her it's our last chance to do this and that I would keep my fingers crossed waiting for her reply. After some heeing and hawwing and wondering how long we'd be gone, she asked if she could speak to her husband first before she responds. I concluded this is the best answer I would get at the time and couldn't argue simply because I was at work. After dealing with this woman my whole life (obviously) I can gage almost to pinpoint accuracy the chance of our picnic happening. Right now there is a 78% chance. She'll most likely ask first why we can't just read at her house and I'll give my response and then she'll give in but not before asking one more time if we can stay home once I show up tomorrow to pick her up.

I know where, when and why I picked up the first Harry Potter book - I was 20. I cannot remember if I bought book five on its release date or if it was out already but I remember reading it. I remember buying book 6 the first day it went on sale and reading that book with the intensity of someone dying of thirst lunging for a cup of water.

I think it would make a brilliant memory and an excellent story to tell my children if mom would go and read with me in the park tomorrow and I hope she does. At this point, I'm just as excited to see what happens as I am preserving these memories. I can only hope that another series just as wonderful as Harry Potter will ever appear again in my lifetime.

Thanks for the memories, J.K.

A Farewell by Stephen King

He says is best of course so here 'tis:

Goodbye Harry
by Stephen King

I'm having a day of mixed feelings: happy because I'm reading the manuscript of a novel that's full of magic, mystery, and monsters; sad because it will be finished tomorrow and on my shelf, with all its secrets told and its surviving characters set free to live their own lives (if characters have lives beyond the end of a novel — I've always felt they do). It's called The Monsters of Templeton, by Lauren Groff, and it will be published early next year.

Did you think I meant the final Harry Potter tale? Don't be a sillykins — not even your Uncle Stevie gets that one in advance (although I'm sure you agree that he should, he should). But I expect to face the same feelings, only stronger, when the pages of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows dwindle down to the final few. Hell, I had trouble saying goodbye to Tony Soprano, and let's face it — he was a turd. Harry's one of the good guys. One of the great guys, in fact, and the same holds true for his friends.

The sense of sadness I feel at the approaching end of The Monsters of Templeton isn't just because the story's going to be over; when you read a good one — and this is a very good one — those feelings are deepened by the realization that you probably won't tie into anything that much fun again for a long time. This particular melancholy deepens even more when the story is spread over multiple volumes. I felt it as I approached the end of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy, more strongly as I neared the conclusion of Frodo's quest in The Lord of the Rings, and with painful keenness when, as the writer, I got to the end of The Dark Tower, which stretched over seven volumes and a quarter century's writing time.

When it comes to Harry, part of me — a fairly large part, actually — can hardly bear to say goodbye. I'd guess that J.K. Rowling feels the same, although I'd also guess those feelings are mingled with the relief of knowing that the work is finally done, for better or worse.

And I'm a grown-up, for God's sake — a damn Muggle! Think how it must be for all the kids who were 8 when Harry debuted in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, with its cartoon jacket and modest (500 copies) first edition. Those kids are now 18, and when they close the final book, they will be in some measure closing the book on their own childhoods — magic summers spent in the porch swing, or reading under the covers at camp with flashlights in hand, or listening to Jim Dale's recordings on long drives to see Grandma in Cincinnati or Uncle Bob in Wichita. My advice to families containing Harry Potter readers: Stock up on the Kleenex. You're gonna need it. It's all made worse by one unavoidable fact: It's not just Harry. It's time to say goodbye to the whole cast, from Moaning Myrtle to Scabbers the rat (a.k.a. Wormtail). Which leads to an interesting question — will the final volume satisfy Harry's longtime (and very devoted) readers?

Although the only thing we can be sure of is that Deathly Hallows won't end in a 10-second blackout (you're going to hear that a lot in the next few weeks), my guess is that large numbers of readers will not be satisfied even if Harry survives (I'm betting he will) and Lord Voldemort is vanquished (I'm betting on this, too, although evil is never vanquished for long). I'm partly drawing on my own experience with The Dark Tower (reader satisfaction with the ending was low — tough titty, since it was the only one I had); partly on my belief that very few long works end as felicitously as Tolkien's Rings series, with its beautiful pilgrimage into the Grey Havens; but mostly on the fact that there is that sadness, that inevitable parting from characters who have been loved deeply by many. The Internet blog sites will be full of this was bad and that was wrong, but it's going to boil down to something that many will feel and few will come right out and state: No ending can be right, because it shouldn't be over at all. The magic is not supposed to go away.

Rowling will almost certainly go on to other works, and they may be terrific, but it won't be quite the same, and I'm sure she knows that. Readers will be able to go back and reread the existing books — as I've gone back to Tolkien, as my wife goes back to Patrick O'Brian's wonderful sea stories featuring Captain Aubrey and Dr. Maturin, as others do with novels featuring Travis McGee or Lord Peter Wimsey — and rereading is a great pleasure, but it's not the bated-breath, what's-gonna-happen-next suspense that Potter readers have enjoyed since 1997. And, of course, Harry's audience is different. It is, in large part, made up of children who will be experiencing these unique and rather terrible feelings for the first time.

But there's comfort. There are always more good stories, and now and then there are great stories. They come along if you wait for them. And here's something I believe in my heart: No story can be great without closure. There must be closure, because it's the human condition. And since that's how it is, I'll be in line with my money in my hand on July 21.

Source

Worth the wait - Al Gore Book signing 7.18.06

Seeing Al Gore was well worth the wait but I can't quite put my finger on why. I guess I just really like him.

I got in line around 4:45 on Tuesday and sat and opened King's Dark Tower IV like I do so very often. I was about 25th in line and it was growing fast! The crowd was very mixed and very excited. I wasn't there to mingle and spread rumors about Gore running in 'o8 or discuss politics. The woman next to me got in an argument with two frat boys trying to get people to sign their petitions to help get the Green Party on the ballot next election. (Wasted votes)

I was waiting for Diana, a friend and colleague, and I had a Powerade (red of course) and an apple so I was slightly annoyed when they opened doors half an hour early due to the heat. Diana now wouldn't be able to find me and I was enjoying sitting outside.

So I mosied on in to Friends Select, a private Quaker school, and bought An Inconvenient Truth for $23.50. No one could bring in outside books and the rules were quite strict. Nothing but the book purchased at the signing would be signed, no personalization - just Al Gore's signature and no photos with Gore. (Proceeds went to Gore's organization of choice of course)

I walked into the gymnasium and walked back and forth back and forth along the impromptu maze set up with caution tape. Didn't we always just jump straight across at Great Adventure when there were no lines? We all felt quite silly. It took ten minutes to walk the length of the gymnasium.

I stood and waited for Diana and was grateful to have spotted her before my vision of the door became too poor. She cut across and we ignored the annoyed faces of those few she cut. Thank God she was there. We proceeded to stand in line until 7:15 pm when Gore finally stepped into the room and the conversation helped the time pass.

Press was in full effect asking people to open their books and gaze down affectionately as they made pretend they were reading. I took no part in that. The radio folk were there asking questions.

Gore was 15 minutes late and the doors were closed around 6:30 due to maximum occupancy at 1200. More waited outside the doors in case Gore had more time. I was happy to have done my waiting before instead of after. Once he started signing I'd be out within ten minutes and I also had front row view of him.

The crowd went wild when Gore entered and it really was pretty fun. I just like him so much. He's good people. It was nice to see him less than ten feet away. A small group began chanting "Gore '08! Gore '08!" and Gore smiled and rolled his eyes and shook his head as if to say "no way!". It was funny.

He began by saying that he knew we have been waiting a long time and that he wanted to get to everyone so he would be brief. He wasn't kidding! He spoke for 5 minutes and 50 seconds. I know because I recorded the whole thing. I plan to link the video to this blog for those interested. It wasn't a very memorable speech but feel good. It was over so fast. But it souped us up and made us cheer for him. He spoke of how the chinese symbol for crisis is also the symbol for change and yeah, you know where I'm going. I need to watch the video again. I was too focused on holding the camera steady that I wasn't listening too well.

So as soon as he was done talking he ducked behind his little table and the press covered him like ants on jelly and he started moving like lightning. It was way too fast and way to impersonal and I knew I wouldn't get a chance to tell him that I started a recycling program at work.

Diana got a photo of the back of my head with Gore and I was able to snap this photo of her with Gore before security told me to move on out.

That's her in the green.

So he signed my book while I was still a few feet away and then when I was standing in front of him, he looked up and smiled and shook my hand. All I could manage was , "Thank you". In that setting, nothing I could have said would have been memorable and I know it.

But it was fun and we both walked out very excited and kind of giddy. We went and had a drink and the conversation was changed within ten minutes but it really was pretty cool.

I went home and read some excerpts of the book to Mike who did not go see the movie with me and I am pleased to say that the book and movie are basically one in the same. The same graphs and charts and text even. It's set up like a very informative coffee table book. Even someone who had no idea what they were looking at would find themselves intrigued by the photos and the captions.

Wait - 2.5 hours

Speech - 5 minutes 50 seconds

Time in prescence of Gore between speech and signing - 10 minutes

Worth it? - Yes

The Chronicles of Narnia

I have such fond memories of reading the Chronicles of Narnia in grammar school. It's when I think of those books that I can see the Minue School library crystal clearly in my mind. Wow, I can't remember ever writing Minue. It can't have been spelled that way. It just looks so strange. I never thought about it before.

I can see the orange, hard cover bindings around each book and I see Jennifer Burke reading the next installment directly across from me with an expression of concentration and enjoyment on her young pretty face. We were young. We were also reading buddies and we stayed that way until high school but we always kept right on reading and we always shared that bond. I thank Jennifer Burke for my love of reading. She was always one book ahead of me and couldn't wait until I caught up so we could talk about them.

I saw the preview for the movie version of Chronicles and knew within five seconds what the preview was for and shouted out, "The Chronicles of Narnia!" and didn't even feel embarassed because I was just so amazed by the teaser trailer.

I went and reread the series and enjoyed them very much. I don't know if I enjoyed them more, but I do know that I understood all the religion this time and I'm sure I did not then. I planned to see the movie.

Then I read on CNN that C.S. Lewis was very much opposed to his series ever being made into film. A cartoon he was fine with but no movies. I do not know if someone went against his will and sold the rights to Disney or if time was just up and it was a matter of first come, first served. His reasoning for this, supposively, was that he thought Aslan, the Great King Lion, would end up looking like a bafoon in film. For how could an old crabby writer in the '70's really envision what our computers could accomplish in 2005.

(Doesn't Kong look great? Five stars all around.)

I decided I would not see the film out of respect for the author....until I changed my mind a minute later. I think that if C.S. Lewis knew what we could do, he would say it was fine with him. I may be very wrong. But now millions more people will know the story of little Lucy and Edmund and the evil White Witch and I would assume that at least one quarter of them will read the books as a result of having seen a great movie. Or maybe he liked that the books weren't trendy. For now, it is difficult to buy the books without them being the Motion Picture ones without the movie poster on the cover. Just look. The old ones are still there....in the back....or not featured on the display table but back on the shelf in the children's section.

About what I said about 'a great movie'. Ok, it got 3 1/2 stars. It apparently received demerits for 'trying to be Lord of the Rings' or something like that. That's fine with me. I LOVE LTR and watched it again last night as a matter of fact. All three are my favorite background movies. One of them is on almost everyday while I do chores.

So Mike and I saw HP GOF last so I called him and said we'll see King Kong next. He'd like that. It's his turn. And then we'll see Chronicles. My roommates really liked it.

I have a whole week off for the holidays so it will be nice to have a date on the weeknights. I must admit that weeknight dates are terribly lacking in this relationship.

Countdown to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Do you realize that Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is released in only 41 Days, 12 hours, 9 minutes and ten seconds!!!

I can't wait. I will be there alone for the midnight opening just like last year. Actually, I'd love to share the experience with Mike so I might wait until Friday and see it with him. (I don't think he'd be able to make it to the midnight release.) That's a very tough decision. I shall see. Only time will tell.

41 Days, 12 hours, 7 minutes and 18 seconds worth of time!

Ok, so I've been reading this memoir by Wendy McClure, I'm Not the New Me." It's decent. Anyhow, this book is really based on a website. There's this overweight chick, Wendy, and she starts a website to make fun of weight loss, track her progress, bitch, ya know, the usual. www.poundy.com

So I finally remembered that I've been meaning to see if she still writes on it. It turns out she does which I think is pretty cool. Ya know, reading almost daily blogs by an author I happen to be reading. So, in her book she talks about these conventions she gets invited to for bloggers, diaryland.com folk, etc. They find her. So her website got all 'famous' and she's all cool now and has ten million friends.

So in her entries, she references people with obscure names and the name is in orange which tells my brain to click. So I click and I'm swept away to (enter obscure name here's) blog. I read an entry or two. I see a new color and I click and I'm swept away to (obscure's) site and then he/she says that he/she and (obscure's) were interviewed by (hip magazine) and I click on whoever's name that is and they just have an entry about poo colors and nothing in particular. I click again. I read. I click again. I read about garage sales. I click. I read. IT NEVER ENDS!!

Did I miss something? There's conferences for this stuff? There are whole worlds of people who have absolutley nothing better to do than read 12 dozen of their favorite linked sites and then just start all over again? I imagine one day missed would require ten hours of reading to catch up on. I have my favorite site and my brother's blog but I also have yellow post-it notes on my monitor reminding me to look. This is so bizarre to me. Is this kind of like the equivalent to my thirteen year old days on aol hanging on every word some 'kid' typed to me? Those were fun times. Ten hours straight, no sleep, feeling like my life had meaning. I WAS THIRTEEN!

Wow. It's true. You can get famous just by being this invisible online writer. Then you can get famous by writing about it. Then people can see how you really just look like everyone else when you go on book tours. But it's ok because you'll be interviewed by cool magazines and get to write articles for the Chicago Sun Times about the new Dove commercials because you write about being fat and the new commercials feature new and improved curvy women.

Where have I been? My head hurts.