Caffeinated Taxes and Music Selections

I don't consider myself to be a huge coffee drinker; maybe I'm a minor-to-moderate coffee drinker. I drink decaf more often than not, and when I want some at home, I make instant. There are only two situations when I'll brew a pot of coffee at home. That's either when coffee-drinking friends and relatives visit, or when I'm working on my taxes. Today was that day, so I'm feeling extra caffeinated at the moment.

I had my Yahoo! Launch station playing as I worked. Since it's been a while since I've posted a playlist, here is today's. There's a bit too much "Adult Alternative" for my tastes, and some artist ratings have been adjusted down. And, the following list is in reverse order.

The Killers Andy, You're A Star
Reel Big Fish She Has A Girlfriend Now
The Blues Project Where There's Smoke There's Fire
Three Dog Night Feeling Alright
Ten Years After Skoobly-Oobly-Doobob
Rusted Root Hands Are Law
Monty Python's Flying Circus Track 1
Soul Asylum Runaway Train
Guster Fa Fa
Johnny Cash Desperado
Adam Sandler Joining The Cult
Arlo Guthrie Alice's Restaurant (The Massacree Revisited)
Metallica Garage Days Re-Revisited '87: Crash Course In Brain Surgery
George Carlin The 11 O'Clock News
Jars Of Clay Love Song For A Savior
Jim Croce You Don't Mess Around With Jim
Howie Day She Says (Brauer Mix)
Geddy Lee Moving To Bohemia
Paul McCartney Fine Line
Jason Mraz Geek In The Pink (Radio Edit)
The Blues Brothers Soul Man
Gavin DeGraw Follow Through (Radio Edit)
Kenny Rogers Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town - Kenny Rogers & The First Edition
Ben Harper Steal My Kisses
Bowling For Soup 1985
Eddie Izzard Jesus In Religions, Part Two
Ryan Adams The Sadness
Robert Palmer One Last Look
Blondie Rapture
Blind Melon No Rain
Roger Miller Do Wacka Do
Loretta Lynn Have Mercy
Warren Zevon Play It All Night Long
Rodney Dangerfield Unhandy Husbands
Tori Amos Spark
Tom Lehrer Lobachevsky
The Kingston Trio Reuben James (Live)
Depeche Mode Suffer Well
Aerosmith The Reason A Dog
Natalie Merchant Ophelia

Holes by Louis Sachar

My children enjoy reading books, and when I want to give them a book as a gift, I sometimes have a hard time deciding on what books that should be. When I was my daughter's age, I struggled reading Black Sunday by Thomas Harris, which is a book I wouldn't recommend to anyone, let alone a child. (I don't think I ever made it to the climactic Super Bowl scene.)

Anyway, one way I've been getting book ideas for my kids is to check the list of Newbery Medal Winners. One of these was Holes by Louis Sachar. I had heard somewhere that this was an interesting book for children and adults, so I bought this one as a gift, and then read it myself.

Holes is the story of young Stanley Yelnats. (I don't recall how old he is in the book.) Stanley is mistakenly convicted of theft, due, it is claimed to a curse placed on his "no good dirty rotten pig-stealing great-great-grandfather", whose descendants are cursed to bad luck because he didn't live up to a promise made to an old Latvian gypsy woman. Stanley is sentenced to Camp Green Lake, where, in order to build character, the residents are required daily to dig a hole five feet deep and five feet around in a dry lake bed.

It becomes clear that the people running the camp are looking for something, beyond building character. But what is it? And who will find it first?

Interspersed with the present-day story are some flashback scenes, both to the Latvian old country, and to the Green Lake area of 110 years ago. How do these fit together and how do they relate to the present story?

While I heard that the book was recommended for adults, it is still very much a kids book, both in length and in depth. Don't be led to think otherwise. I've tended to say that I prefer short books, but this is rather shallow compared to adult literature. But does this make it a bad book? Not necessarily.

Still, despite the awards, I'm not a big fan of the book. I thought that the first 2/3 or so was rather slow moving, though it was interesting how all the threads wove together. Also, before reading it, I had no idea what the holes were being dug for. I don't want to give away the story or anything, but I had assumed that they might be related to space aliens or a portal to another dimension, or something like that. Instead, the answer is a little more mundane.

As a kids' book, I don't have anything against it. If a child is able to read a book of this magnitude, I can't think of any reason to go against the Newbery Committee, even though I've found the few other Newbury books I'm familiar with (Shiloh, The Slave Dancer) to be better. But as adult reading, there's not a lot to recommend it, unless, perhaps, you want to read the same thing that your child does. Two stars out of five.

No More Mr Nice Guy

When I go to Chess Club, I like to play everyone else, and not just the adults. Since there are a number of regularly attending teens and pre-teens, last night I found myself playing a girl who was around 13 or 14. (I'm lousy at guessing people's ages. For those that know her, it was the daughter of the club president.) Anyway, fairly early in the game, I had a slight lead of a pawn or two in materiel, and she moved her queen into a square where my knight would have captured it, without me even losing my knight. Because of the nice guy I am, I gave her a chance to take back that move, which she accepted. Then, she won the game (not immediately, of course).

I don't record my games, but I (playing white) had an unusual setup that caused me to castle late on my queen's side. I had most of my power on the king's side, pushed my queen's knight's pawn up a square, and ended up being checkmated in the midgame on those open diagonals with her queen and black bishop.

That's the last time I'll do that!

Cool Music Video

(Someone said that's the Swedish team.)

Hammerfall - Hearts On Fire
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EisVuJcrMY&search=Hammerfall)

Electronic Plumbing

Author's Note: It's been a long time since I've posted anything here. What follows is an idea I've had for a while for a post, but never got around to posting.

What's the deal with electronic plumbing? At work, the lavatories are still decorated with their original circa 1955 furnishings, except for one area of note. The toilets, urinals, and sinks all have little person detectors, and all work automatically. Only rarely do you get a nice "refreshing" blast when and where you don't expect it.

My question about all this is, what's the point? Who are they trying to protect? I mean, are they trying to conserve water? Or is this to keep me germ-free, so I don't have to touch those dirty handles? (Seriously, I assume that these things aren't very sanity.) And what happens when the electricity goes out?

The paper towel holders are manually operated. Am I putting myself at risk by using my hand to operate them, rather than using my elbow like I've seen another guy doing?

And how will germs deal with the situation?