Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith

Tears of the Giraffe is the second book of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series and the third that I've completed. In addition to the initial book, I've done The Kalahari Typing School for Men.

In short, I liked this one the best of the three. It seemed to have the best blend of detective cases (which is made to seem easier, I'm sure, than it is in real life) and relationships. I'm not sure if I'm getting used to the characters, or if it really was better.

Still, it's more "light" than "heavy" reading, but that doesn't make it bad. Also, if you're interested in the series, I recommend reading the first book first. Three stars out of five.

This News Makes Me Mad

I won't bother to make an effort to expand on these thoughts, but news of the assassination of Benazir Bhutto angers me moreso than just about any news story I've heard for quite a while.

Browns Uniforms

Kellen Winslow made some comments that the Browns would have new uniforms for 2008, and they might be something like what the Denver Broncos currently wear. The assumption is that this is completely false, in part because NFL teams aren't supposed to change their uniforms more than once ever 3 years, and the Browns made minor tweaks for 2006.

But, here is one fan's nightmare concerning what could happen:

(Did Romeo go on a diet?)

And, if the Browns did finally add a helmet logo, I suppose this is the best that they could do:


Personally, I'm not opposed to minor tweaks here and there, as long as they keep a "traditional" look, and they don't look like something that was trendy in the late 1990s. The Browns have been tweaking their uniforms for as long as I've been a fan; I don't see there being one set uniform that they need to keep.

• Even though orange-brown-orange has been more common, I prefer the brown-orange-brown pants stripes:

• I don't mind the occasional orange pants:

• The orange jerseys were OK. I especially like the 3-D block effect on the numbers, and wouldn't mind them adding that to the white and brown shirts.

• Did the Browns ever have white shirts and orange numbers, or is this a colourised version of a b&w photo?

• Check out this apparenly early (1950s?) version of orange jerseys:

vajoe.com 2008 US Presidential Candidate Calculator

From http://www.vajoe.com/candidate_calculator.html, I got the following. I'm not sure I truse these any more than to say that then can be used to generate potentially interesting conversation. What did you get?

Your Results

Based on your responses, your top candidate for 2008 is below.

Your Top Match
Texas Representative Ron Paul (R) 88.46% match

Your Other Top Matches

Former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel (D) - 56.73%
Colorado Representative Tom Tancredo (R) - 53.85%
Arizona Senator John McCain (R) - 50.00%

Middle of the Pack

Former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson (R) - 49.04%
Businessman John Cox (R) - 46.15%
Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee (R) - 46.15%
New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (D) - 45.19%
Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich (D) - 44.23%
Kansas Senator Sam Brownback (R) - 42.31%
California Representative Duncan Hunter (R) - 38.46%
Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (R) - 34.62%
Delaware Senator Joseph Biden (D) - 33.65%
Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards (D) - 25.96%

Bottom of the Barrel

New York Senator Hillary Clinton (D) - 25.00%
Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd (D) - 24.04%
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) - 20.19%
Illinois Senator Barack Obama (D) - 18.27%

Playing With My Camera's "Colour Accent" Mode

Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI

It's difficult for me to decide what to write about Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI. On the one hand, it's deep, but it's not that deep. There were times where it was difficult to follow while driving in city traffic and not also smashing into the car in front or me, but this doesn't mean that it's too difficult for anyone of moderate intelligence to follow, especially when reading a paper copy. On the other hand, it's also not definitely not light fluff.

The book focuses on the teachings of Jesus from the time of his baptism, until before the triumphal entry. That is, he leaves out the "infancy" narratives, as well as the other "Holy Week" events like the Last Supper, Arrest, Trial, Crucifixion, Resurrection, etc. Benny says that this is because he has been working on this book for quite a while, and has been devoting most of his free time to it. Not knowing how much time (of any sort) he has remaining, he wanted to publish this part now and work on the second volume as time allows.

It's had to say where to begin. The book goes into great detail on subjects such as Jesus' connection with Old Testament Law, his baptism, transfiguration, Sermon on the Mount, parables, etc. For example, the Pope expounds at great length on each phrase of the Lord's Prayer. Two other points he makes are:

• Jesus didn't bring universal peace or prosperity. So what did he bring? He brought God.
• There are correlations between Moses and Jesus, which I won't begin to describe in this review.

As a non-Catholic, I thought it was interesting to hear the Catholic side of things. I may have missed some things, but there wasn't much I would disagree with.

In conclusion, I don't not recommend it, but I also hesitate to recommend it strongly. A Hindu friend of mine mentioned that he read the Gospel of Matthew, really enjoyed it, and gained a greater appreciation of Christianity from it. Regarding the Pope's Jesus of Nazareth, I'm undecided if the reader of this review, my Hindu friend, or I would be better off reading this book of just reading, for example, the Gospel of Mark or Luke. So, while it is pretty good, read the Bible too.

The Pope recommends A Rabbi Talks With Jesus by Jacob Neusner. I plan on giving that one a try.

My 2007 Baseball Awards Ballot

Like last year, it looks like I'm too late to vote in the Internet Baseball Awards. Anyway, here are my votes:

American League Most Valuable Player

1. NYA Alex Rodriguez
2. NYA Jorge Posada
3. DET Magglio Ordonez
4. TB Carlos Pena
5. BOS David Ortiz
6. DET Curtis Granderson
7. CLE Victor Martinez
8. CLE C.C. Sabathia
9. CLE Grady Sizemore
10. CAL Vladimir Guerrero

You can't argue with ARod. It's always a challenge to decide how much to value defence, but if Big Papi played 3B with the same skill as Rodriguez, my vote would still have gone to ARod. My impression was that VMart was the most valuable Indian. Honourable Mention: Brian Roberts, Mike Lowell.

National League Most Valuable Player

1. NYN David Wright
2. ATL Chipper Jones
3. PHI Chase Utley
4. FLA Hanley Rameriz
5. MIL Prince Fielder
6. COL Matt Holliday
7. SD Jake Peavy
8. FLA Miguel Cabrera
9. STL Albert Pujols
10. SF Barry Bonds

Unlike the AL, I'm sure you can argue with Wright. And, unlike the AL, all of the batters listed above have somewhat comparable stats. Even Barry Bonds on-based .480 (wow!) in 126 games. I've heard Holliday considered to be a favourite for the award, but the question is, how much does playing in Denver inflate his stats? But, even if they put up the same numbers in neutral parks, I'd go with Wright over Holliday due to his defensive position. Honourable Mention: Jimmy Rollins.

American League Cy Young Award

1. CLE C.C. Sabathia
2. CAL John Lackey
3. OAK Dan Haren
4. CLE Fausto Carmona
5. BOS Josh Beckett

When it comes to choosing a Cy, I tend to favour high IP and low ERA. Sabathia lead the majors in IP, so that's a good place to start. Is there a correlation between high IP and future arm trouble? Will his arm fall off? Considering October, maybe it already has. It felt strange not voting for Johan Santana, but I had Beckett edging him out for 5th. Joba Chamberlain was almost worthy of consideration, believe it or not, giving up 1 ER while striking out 34 in 24 innings.

National League Cy Young Award

1. SD Jake Peavy
2. ARI Brandon Webb
3. LA Brad Penny
4. ATL Tim Hudson
5. ATL John Smoltz

I don't think many will argue with the choice of Jake Peavy. Webb looks to be an obvious choice for #2. After that, it gets murky. Penny, Hudson, and Smoltz all look pretty close to me, along with Roy Oswalt and Aaron Harang.

The Kalahari Typing School for Men by Alexander McCall Smith

Considering my thoughts on The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency, it might seem strange that I picked up the audio version of The Kalahari Typing School for Men when I saw it it the library. I suppose that there is a lot of stuff at the library that I know nothing about, so I thought I might as well go with something I knew wouldn't be horrible, instead of something totally random.

Maybe I'll do that sometime -- walk in and randomly select an audiobook.

Anyway, Typing is number 4 in the series. Rather than focusing on individual cases, Typing focuses more on relationships:

• Mma Ramotswe is still engaged to Mr J.L.B. Matekoni.
• Mma Ramotswe's assistant, the single Mma Makutsi, meets a man who seems too good to be true.
• Mma Ramotswe's main case of the book, Mr Molefelo, is looking to correct wrongs he committed in the past.

Overall, the book seemed to have less of a "life in Botswana" flavour, but had more of a story and was more of a journey with people you know. Though slightly different in focus than No. 1, it was about as likable. I'm surprised I only gave that one two stars. I'll give this one two and a half stars out of five.

Gorilla Warfare

When I was young, I would hear news reports about gorilla attacks on villages in Africa, or bouts of gorilla warfare in various places. This scared me. I mean, what if some gorillas escaped from the zoo and decided to attack my house?

I was reminded of these past fears today when I saw a BBC report that an Indian politician died after being attacked by monkeys.

Primates == Scary.

Another Football Player?

High Temperature Athletic Training

Consistently run, work out, or whatever, when it's, say, 25 to 30C (77 to 86F). Of course, you shouldn't over-exert yourself in high temperatures, or low temperatures for that matter. Then, when the temperature falls to 10C (50F), you may be surprised that you're suddenly faster.

Will You Be My Friend?

My Internet time sink of the week is Facebook. Do you have an account there? I created one and am now up to a massive count of 5 friends. I didn't know I had that many.

And it does seem to have the potential to be an addictive time drain, which is, I assume, what advertisers and Wall Street are looking for. There are numerous little applications that you can add to your site depending on your interests. I'm having fun adding pins on a map listing all the cities and towns in the world that I've visited, though I can't say it's all that productive.

Anyway, I don't expect to do a whole lot with my site, and I won't link to it here. But if you have a Facebook account, go ahead and send me a message through it.

Running a Marathon

I've never run a marathon, and the odds are that I never will. I had never even run the distance of a marathon in a week. Until yesterday, that is. I guess you could say that I completed a marathon in about 164:30:00, with lots of rest, sleep, and work breaks in between. If I run that distance next year in 6 days, and do it the following year in 5, maybe I'll be ready to do it in one day around 2013.

Is it the Mormons? The JWs? Worse, it's the Phone Company!

As I was running last night, I saw a few pairs of people walking around the neighbourhood with information, going door-to-door. They were all dressed in white shirts and dark pants. I wondered if they were the Mormons or the Jehovah Witnesses going around. Instead, it turned out to be the Phone Company. Or more precisely, independent contractors trying to get me to sign up for Phone Company services. In my case, their catch was to try to get me to sign up for high-speed Internet service. I thanked the lady for stopping by and asked if she could leave me some literature about the service for me to go over and contact them if I'm interested. Of course, this couldn't be done -- I had to sign up immediately or not at all. This effectively ended our the need for discussion, though we did chat for a while until the nice lady realised that I meant it when I said that I wouldn't sign up on the spot.

Plum Lovin' by Janet Evanovich

Someone I know is a fan of Evanovich and will read anything she puts out. So, when I saw one of her works available in the audiobook section of the library, I thought I'd give it a try.

I was not particularly impressed, though it got better as it went along.

The story involves everyone's favourite bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum. It's nearing Valentine's Day, and her old pal Diesel shows up. A "relationship expert" has been arrested and skipped bail. Diesel makes a deal with Plum: if she fills in for the relationship expert, playing Cupid for her clients so that they'll find true love in time for Valentine's Day, Diesel will let Plum bring her in and get the bounty. So, the possibilities for slightly risqué humour abound as Stephanie travels between lovelorn characters. There's a small bit of a mystery or crime/suspense aspect to the story as well, but not much.

The book is short so I don't see the need for a long review. I hear that Evanovich's "Numbers" books are better and some of her fans weren't thrilled with this one. I'll give it two stars out of five, but I was considering a lower rating.

Have the Stock Markets Been Depressed Since 2001?

I've heard from more than one person lately that the stock markets have not done well since 11 September 2001, that they're afraid of investing in stocks because of the risk of another terrorist attack on the United States, and so on. I certainly wouldn't want to advise anyone to invest in an instrument that they're not comfortable with. However, when I hear such blanket assertions made about the stock market or baseball statistics, I wonder what the numbers really say, and decide to look it up.

I'm going with the most-recognized US market index, the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

10 September 2001 Close: 9605.85
18 September 2007 Close: 13739.39
Cumulative Annual Growth Rate Over this Period: 6.12%

I used the handy Excel XIRR function to compute this value. I don't think I've been able to compute this kind of math on my own since I was 18.

But what do the numbers show? What should the reader think of a 6.12% annual growth rate? Well, it is lower that the supposed long-term historic average. But on the other hand, I don't think it should be considered dismal. It seems within the expected historic range for a 6-year period, though I am not checking it against 6-year rolling returns. Maybe when my kids are a little older, I can give them assignments like this.

If you want to guarantee a better return than 6%, well, let me know how that can be done.

Cheerleading Pic

On Losing Weight

For better or worse, my weight has been fairly stable. If I make a moderate effort to watch what I eat, I don't easily gain weight. The down side of this is that, like many of us, it wouldn't hurt me to lose 5 kg or 10 lbs (OK, or more...). Unfortunately, losing weight isn't easy for me and I like food too much to make it happen.

I say this because, when seeing relatives like my parents or some siblings that I don't see daily or even weekly, I'll be told that I look like I'm losing weight. Or maybe I'll be asked if I lost some weight. They could have some "large" impressions of me, and seeing me brings them back down to size; I don't know.

Anyway, I had thought that this was just some kind of honest question. However, it's happened so much without corresponding weight loss that I am starting to wonder about it. Is it just some kind of polite greeting? Am I just being told, "You're not as fat as I thought you'd be"? Am I being rude (in my family at least) if I don't ask people if they'd lost weight in return?

Anton's Chekhov's Short Stories

I enjoyed my collection of Chekhov's short stories. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised, as he was, after all, my favourite Star Trek character. To me, they seemed to have some of the feel of "real life" to them, which stands in contrast to other 19^th century works I've read. Chekhov isn't trying to answer questions about life. If anything, he's trying to raise them.

This lead to an interesting discussion with a Dickens fan, who seemed to like the structure of a Dickens novel, with its good guys and bad guys, beginning, middle, and end, morality, etc. Chekhov isn't like that at all. And, according to my friend, his style of writing was quite an innovation.

From my brief readings on the topic, there are two types of Chekhov stories: those in which nothing really happens in the end and those on which something does. One story that I liked was The Beggar, which can be read here. I won't say which of those two types The Beggar is. Actually, it isn't clear to me.

I may be forgetting someone, but at this point, I'll say that I think I liked Chekhov's stories better than anything I remember which was written in the 1800s. I recommend his works fairly highly, but I can see how some folks might not enjoy it as much as I did.

OK, Here's a (Sort of) Football Picture, too

First Day of School 2007, and New Backpacks

The soon-to-be new preschoolers also need backpacks:


Turtle Boy!

Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson

Housekeeping is a novel by Marilynne Robinson, the author of Gilead. If I understood the hype around Gilead correctly, fans of Housekeeping waited a quarter of a century for Robinson to come out with her second novel. After reading Housekeeping, I can see why her fans were eager for more.

Housekeeping is set in and around a fictional town and lake named Fishbone in Idaho. However, as a reader who ain't never been there (they tell me it's nice) with regards to Idaho, a little bit of research shows that Lake Fishbone seems to bear similarities to the real Lake Pend Oreille, meaning that the town is likely Sandpoint. (Sure enough, that's where Robinson grew up.)

The book tells the story of Ruthie and her sister Lucille, through the eyes of Ruthie. When the girls are orphaned, they move in with their grandmother. Then, after she dies, they eventually have their aunt Sylvia as a guardian. Their relationship with Sylvie forms the main plot of the book. Sylvie had lived as a "drifter" after moving away from home, and it remains to be seen whether or not Sylvie's "housekeeping" will be stable enough to meet the needs of the girls, and the expectations of the community.

And that's just it. Sylvie can be in tune with the beauty of nature, but what good is that? The book is beautifully written, and full of phrases and interesting ways of putting things that make you think. (For example, "his mortal and professional careers ended...") Themes include water, resurrection, life, loss, and memory. Like the lake, at times it can be deep, but that's what the pause and rewind buttons are for.

One other theme that I saw in the book was the whole idea of civilization, or at least society. Who is civilized? Does it have anything to do with keeping a house? Who isn't? What attitudes does civilization view as a threat, and how does it react to such perceived threats?

I really enjoyed this book. It may compete with Mercy Among The Children as my favourite fiction of the year. It's not light reading, so stay away if you prefer fluff. But I think it's worth the effort. Four and a half stars (out of five).

The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai

The Inheritance of Loss is more difficult than most books to sum up in a brief review. Set in the 1980s, at first, the main character seems to be Sai. She's an Indian teen who becomes an orphan when her parents, among the first astronauts in the Indian space program, are run over by a bus in Moscow. (That seems a little contrived to me.) Sai is forced to move in with her grandfather, a retired judge living in the Himalayan foothills near Darjeeling. The judge becomes a main character, as does his poor cook, and also the cook's son Biju, who's an illegal immigrant in New York. Minor characters are also studied in greater detail than in many books.

Sai's love interest is is Gyan, an ethnic Gorkha (Nepali) who becomes involved with the Gorkhaland National Liberation Front (which, I assume most non-Indian, non-Nepali readers will have never heard of).

The book could be described as beautiful, with lots of slices of the reality of life in the post-Colonial era. The experiences of Indians are looked upon (or at least Desai's views of them). For example, while there are exceptions, Biju is assumed to be the common-man Indian emigrant. Without a green card, he has a tough time of it in New York, leaving the reader to wonder whether or not America is all that it's cracked up to be. Where is ones home after all?

If the book has a flaw, in my opinion, it's the time spent with the GNLF. I suppose a novel needs to have some extra conflict introduced. But to me, the slices of life were so vivid and compelling that this wrinkle hardly seemed to be needed.

Despite winning the Man Booker prize, it seems to have more than the normal share of negative reviews over at Amazon.com. As of this writing, it's rated at three stars out of five. I'll do better than that and give it three and one half stars. However, Desai can do better.

UK Climate Change Protesters at Nuclear Plant

I don't really know much about this story beyond the headline, but here's an article. Just the headline make me wonder if the protesters are for or against climate change.

There is a lot of negativity surrounding nuclear power, but if you wanted to increase CO₂ emissions, wouldn't one way be to ban nuclear?

A Man Without a Country by Kurt Vonnegut

This book should be subtitled The Ramblings of a Grumpy Old Man Who Is Unhappy With the State of the World. It was published in 2005 when Vonnegut was 82. At least "Kurt's up in heaven now", or at least he wants me to mention this. (Read the book to know what I mean.)

Actually, for an atheist and humanist, he talks about God and Jesus a lot. One interesting point was that he'd rather see Christians pushing for wider display of the Beatitudes (see below), rather than the 10 Commandments. I can go for that.

The book is US-Centric and rather short. I'm not sure I'd want to pay the full price for it, but if you can pick up a copy from the library, it isn't a bad introduction to Vonnegut's late-life views. Slaughterhouse Five was better. So was Back To School. Two and a half stars out of five.

And, here are the Beatitudes. Vonnegut suggested that it would be nice to see the one concerning the Peacemakers in the office of George W. Bush.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God
Matthew 5:3-9 [NIV]

The Rocket Runner?

Here are a few photos from yesterday's rocket launch. From reading The Kite Runner a while ago, I had the feeling that if I caught a (parachuting) rocket in the air, I should get to keep it. I did catch one, but gave it back to the 10-year old when he asked for it. (I'm looking forward to reading A Thousand Splended Suns).



We also brought along my old little one:


No parachte and small size makes it go high and fast, but it's difficult to see and find. It didn't land very far from the launch pad.

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway

The Spanish Civil War. It's not really well-known or studied around here. I suspect that there are probably a few reasons for that:

• With names like the "Republicans" and "Nationalists", it's hard to remember who were the good guys and who were the bad guys.
• With one side backed by Stalin and the other by Hitler and Mussolini, was there even a "good" side and a "bad" side?
• As this was a prequel to a main event of World War II, it is overshadowed in most memories and our history books.

Anyway, Bell tells the story of the fictitious American Robert Jordan, who's a Spanish instructor from the University of Montana and in Spain fighting with the Republican (Communist-backed) side. Jordan is a demolition expert, and he is given the task of meeting up with a guerrilla band in a Nationalist- (Fascist-) controlled area and blowing up a bridge.

Much of the story involves the interaction of Jordan with members of the band in preparation for the coordinated assault on the bridge. Pablo, the band's leader, is a troublesome character. He seems to have lost his will to fight, and Jordan and the reader can't tell whether or not he can be trusted. And, when Pablo finally commits an act from which there can be no forgiveness, suddenly, all is right in their relationship, at least for a while.

Then, there's Jordan's love interest, Maria, who may exist more to make the story more suitable for Hollywood. (I'm looking forward to seeing Ingrid Bergman in the role.)

The narrative point of view seemed interesting and somewhat unconventional. It was third person, mostly focusing on Jordan's thoughts and actions, including long "conversations with himself" that make it more of a first-person account. But, it also had a few parts away from Jordan and from the point of view of other characters. These made the book seem inconsistent.

The book does a good job of showing the uncertainties of war. However, I thought it was too long. The asides were too numerous and also too long. I would have preferred if Hemingway had stuck to the story.

It's considered a classic, and I can see how literary types would really enjoy it. Others in my book club also didn't care for it, though I'm not that negative. It has good parts and bad. I suppose I'm neutral about it, though I may try another of the author's classics.

No man is an island, entire of itself
every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main
if a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were,
as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were
any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind
and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls
it tolls for thee.

-- John Donne

In-Progress Vacation Photos

I love having internet access in a hotel room, though posting photos at this point is probably more amusing to me than to anyone else. We haven't been to the wedding yet. I'll probably post more photos of the weekend later at my other site.

At Least I Didn't Cut Myself

When packing for a weekend trip, there is always so much to remember to bring along. This time I forgot my electric shaver. So, this morning when grocery shopping for breakfast, I picked up "more primitive" shaving supplies. It's been many years since I've shaved with a blade. I'm sure my speed would improve with experience, but it sure took a long time. I can't see preferring that to my old, dull, electric shaver. At least I didn't cut myself.

Are You LinkedIn?

I recently got my second invitation for someone else to link to me at LinkedIn.com. What's the deal with this site? Can someone explain it to me? Is it useful? It seems to me that people enter a lot of personal information, which must be valuable to someone. Also, it seems to make unsubstantiated and unverifiable claims, such as, "If you fill out this section, you're 3.1 times more likely to get a job offer."

So,

• Are you registered with this site?
• What good has it done?
• Do you want to be connected to my site or vice versa? (Are such relationships commutative?)
  

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton

Wharton is an author who I've heard of and thought I probably should read, so I picked up the short (4 CDs) audio edition of Ethan Frome.

The novella is set in rural Starkfield, Massachusetts ("where it's always winter!") near the turn of the last century, though the bulk of the book is a long flashback to 20 years before the present. In the short opening, the narrator meets the impressive but crippled and unapproachable Ethan, and tries to piece together his history and the cause of the "smash up" that left him in his physical state.

This is yet another one of those "evil, controlling, hypochondriac wife" stories, and 20 years previously, Ethan finds himself married to one. When his wife's cousin Mattie arrives to help out around the household, Ethan sees another side of womanhood and longs for her. Wharton is a master at building the tension. I can just imagine post-Victorian (Taftian? Wilsonian? Georgian (V), I suppose) ladies reading this and wondering if or when Ethan and Mattie will get together.

Wharton, however, paints Ethan as basically a good man. When his wife decides to send Mattie away and bring on another hired girl, Ethan feels trapped. He longs to run away with Mattie, but can he break his vows to his wife and leave her destitute?

Like the last book, this one seems to be geared more towards the female side of the reading audience. It's not bad, especially if you like hypochondriacs and tension of the sort described above. Recommended, but not highly.

Runaway by Alice Munro

Runaway, a collection of stories by Alice Munro, won the Giller Prize for 2004, which was reason enough for me to pick it up when I saw it in the library's audiobook section. The stories are:

• Runaway - Carla seems trapped in a bad relationship. Can she escape and where does she belong?
  
• Chance - Juliet meets a stranger on a train.
  
• Soon - Juliet returns East to visit her parents with her child.
  
• Silence - Juliet is estranged from her adult child.
  
• Passion - Grace meets her fiance's older brother and her life takes an turn that's not ordinary but not surprising.
  
• Trespasses - 10-year old Lauren doesn't seem to have many friends, except for the hotel cleaning lady.
  
• Tricks - Robin's life reaches a turning point. We check in 30 later to see how it turned out.
  
• Powers - Nancy's friend Tessa is an unusual girl. We check in 40 years later to see how she turned out.

So, there are a few common themes:

• All of the stories have to do with a woman's (or girl's) relationships.
• In addition to "Runaway", some other stories have that theme; thus it's a good name for the collection.
• In a few (the Juliet trilogy, Robin, and Grace) we come back later to see how things turned out.

All-in-all, it's not bad. I thought the Juliet sections were the least interesting, and she got three stories of the eight. In it, she encounters a Christian pastor who seems so incompetent that Munro's apparent stereotype made me upset with her. But it turned out that he may have had a reason for acting as he did, and as her saga ends with an interesting point on parenting, the reader is left to wonder if the pastor was right after all.

If I had to choose a favourite, it might be either Trespasses or Tricks.

As it's a book about women and their relationships, it would, of course, be most interesting to someone who is, well, interested in that kind of thing. Still, it was less a "Romance Novel" than was A Student of Weather, which I selected because it was a Giller Prize finalist in 2000.

I give Runaway 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

4H Clothes Project - "Ready, Let's Sew!"

Coats of Arrms

Have you ever had to make a coat of arms, like for a school project or anything? I never had. I also know next to nothing about heraldry.

For some reason, tonight while running, I had an idea for a coat of arms. This is probably overly complex and in violation of the normal heraldic rules. I won't describe the components; they all may be obvious, or maybe not. Also, when they saw me working on this, my kids wanted to make their own, which they began before bedtime. When they complete them, I may post them here.

I used what may be called "primitive" tools to draw my design, and was it was intended to be a quick prototype. (It's been years since I've made this kind of little art project.)

Are My Golf Clubs Legal?

I try to go golfing once or twice every decade or so. One of these occasions is scheduled for Sunday. I took a look at my golf clubs and wondered if my 3 wood and 5 wood were legal. They're not titanium. They seem to be made out of some sort of unidentified light, fibrous material.

MillionCount.com

Check out millioncount.com (within a month or two of this post). The person who forwarded me the link said "THIS IS SPECTACULAR." I'm not sure about that; I haven't made up my mind yet. I suppose if it's for a good cause...

Three Cats

The artist at work:

Overnight Guests

Interestingly, considering my last post, it's just me and the boys tonight. The rest of the family has gone. The question is, will I be able to handle it?

I've already been asked my views concerning bed time. My philosophy is that I am most concerned about my own bed time. If I am trying to sleep and am awakened, I won't be very happy. So, it would be wise to avoid loud voices, crashes, explosions, etc., after that time.

And, here's looking at the world through fly's eyes:

Hospitality

"Practice hospitality" - Romans 12:13b

For the past two summers (2005, 2006) we hosted a short-term (4 months and 1 month) international exchange student. While we found it quite enjoyable, we didn't sign up to participate in the program again this year. Thinking about it, one reason (though not the only) is because, as our family grows, our house seems to be growing smaller, making it more difficult to imagine adding another resident, and committing a bedroom for that purpose.

One thing we'd like to do is to be able to practice hospitality as the verse states above. We'd like to be able to host a short- or long-term exchange student. We'd like to be able to more comfortably host parents, in-laws, or foreign or domestic travelers for some period of time. Of course, we can still do that now to some degree, but not to the extent that such visitors deserve.

So, this raises the question, should we get a new house? Would you be more likely to stay here overnight if we had more space?

And, the $100,000 question: Does anyone have an extra $100,000 or so laying around that we can use for such an upgrade?

The Jungle by Upton "Axl" Sinclair

Opening Launchcast Music:
Dafür Ist Das Leben Zu Kurz by Nena

The famous quote about The Jungle by its author is "I aimed at the public's heart, and by accident I hit it in the stomach." This is obvious from reading it. While it does describe Lithuanian immigrant Jurgis Rudkus' time in Chicago's Packing Town and the conditions therein, it's a lot more than that. Jurgis also spends time as an unemployed homeless bum, a steelworker, a wandering hobo, a farm machinery factory worker, in jail, on a railroad construction project, as a Republican party operative, and more.

Sinclair certainly gives a detailed look at life at the turn of the previous century. Most striking to me is the lack of any sort of (small-s) social security. If a worker is injured or loses his job, his entire family may lose their house and face starvation.

Jurgis' life goes through its ups and downs, with more downs than ups, until the conclusion of the book, where he is introduced to the concept of "Socialism". To today's ears, Sinclair's "Socialism" most closely resembles Communism. With "Socialism", life finally has meaning and things are looking up for our hero.

The entire work needs to be taken with a grain of salt and taken for what it is, a piece of political propaganda. But, as long as that is kept in mind, I found it to be highly interesting, though perhaps too long. Highly Recommended.


Closing Launchcast Music:
Ricky by "Weird Al" Yankovic

Bringing the Museum Piece Out of Retirement

My wife had been having trouble with her mobile phone lately. It didn't seem to pick up the network of our provider and was always in roaming mode, but not working well and generally being ineffective. There are a lot of ways I could solve this dilemma, but I'd like to do it in a way that doesn't cost a lot of money and doesn't contractually tie me to any service provider for a longer period of time. Since we don't have a landline phone, getting my wife a working phone was the biggest thing I wanted to accomplish. And yes, one possibility might be to build some redundancy into our network by getting a landline again.

As for the possibility of spending money, just to run a diagnostic on the phone would cost $35. That should be free -- as far as I know, the problem isn't even with the phone. But apparently, mobile providers offer phone service for low prices and try to earn all their money on additional "services" like this one. Or, I could but a new phone from them for at least $150. Or, I could wait until August and get $75 off the price of a phone from them. Or, I could buy a phone on eBay.

But, as I said, my first goal was to get my wife a working phone. They'll switch numbers between phones for free. I was going to switch her number to my phone and then deal with the non-working phone in "Phase 2" of the solution. However, to transfer numbers between phones, a third "dummy" phone is needed. Enter old phone that we were lucky we kept. We got rid of that maybe 2 1/2 years ago because the screen no longer worked. I plugged it in and the screen worked. So, instead of having the non-working phone, I transferred my number to the ancient Samsung 8500. We'll see how long that works. I'm thinking eBay is the next option, if this one doesn't work out.

Athletic Road Trips With Sticks

Until Friday, it had been quite a while since I've gone on a road trip to participate in a team sport that involved the use of sticks. Previously, it was in my lacrosse-playing days. This time, the sticks are more correctly called "brooms" and the sport was curling.

It was an overnight "Mini-spiel", where 4 teams from our club played a game Friday night and Saturday morning against teams from the host club. It included a dinner Friday night -- choices were filet mignon or some fancy shrimp dish -- a reminder that I'm not playing lacrosse anymore. Friday night lodging was free and provided by members of the home club, and we had a cookout lunch on Saturday after the games. Another indication we weren't playing lacrosse was the sushi at the cookout.

All-in-all, it was a great time, and we got to meet some wonderful people. I hope to do it again, but not real soon. My current plan is that I might enter a full bonspiel in January.

Curling-wise we did OK. I played second. Going into the 8th (final) end of the Friday night game, we were up by 2 and had hammer. We somehow gave up 4 to end up losing, 9-7. Then, on Saturday morning, we were up by three going into the last end with hammer. This time we scored three more to make the final 9-3.

I didn't fully understand the tournament scoring. In terms of games, we lost, 6 games to 2. But then they also did something where points were totaled as well as ends won. (I'm not sure I agree with adding ends to points. Would you rather win two 1-point ends, or one 3-point end?) Anyway, there were three awards: The overall cup, which our club didn't win, as well as a small trophy to the highest scoring team for each club. We ended up winning that. Since we have no club trophy case for it, our skip probably should have received it. But, because I mentioned that I have never won anything before (which isn't really true) he let me keep it, at least for a while. See below. I'm so excited! :-)

Isle of Dogs by Patricia Cornwell

As I was in the library looking at the available audiobooks, I saw a woman who had the appearance of a frequent visitor to that section. I asked her for her advice. She said that her blind mother-in-law frequently listened to audiobooks, and she selected them for her. Two authors she suggested were John Grisham and Patricia Cornwell. Since I was familiar with Grisham, I went with Cornwell.

The book I selected was Isle of Dogs, and it turned out to be an abridged version. I don't know how long the actual book is, but I listened to 5 CDs whereas a "normal" novel might contain between 9 and 14 CDs.

After listening for a while, I noticed all the reviews for this book say that it is bad. Cornwell is apparently "America's bestselling crime novelest", though in this one, she tries her hand at dark humour. The book involves a state trooper and the head of the Virginia trying to track down a serial killer and a band of "road pirates" who board semi tractor-trailers. There's also the blinding and senile governor and a cast of characters with really strange names, such as Unique First, Major Trader, Windy Breeze, and others. Everything is such a caricature that there is a limited feeling of reality about the whole thing. When my recording malfunctioned and I missed the last 7 minutes of so of the novel, I didn't feel that bad about it. Everyone seemed so unrealistic that it was easier than normal to not care about missing the conclusion. Maybe I'll pick up a print copy and read the last few pages sometime. Or maybe not.

That said, it's not all bad. Maybe it's like cotton candy for the mind. It did hold my interest, though I may be slightly embarrassed to admit it, and when I missed hearing the ending, it was quickly forgotten. I still need some real nutrition.

Two stars (barely) out of five.

Biking in the Land of Plenty

It was about time for the kids to move up to bigger bikes, so my wife went garage sale shopping today and picked up a couple of bikes for a total of $17. They had the idea that it would be nice to paint them, so I spent a good bit of the day disassembling the bikes for painting and then putting them back together. I had nothing to do with the neon green colour selection.

It's amazing to me how cheap used bicycles can be purchased. Sure, they're not in the greatest shape, but they're ridable. The point I'm trying to make is that, compared to walking, a bicycle is a big improvement, and it's amazing to me that people are practically giving away that transportation upgrade. Sure, part of it is that bikes are more toys that transportation.

Along those lines, I'd consider getting new higher-quality domestic bicycles for the kids, but it's hard to make that $250 (or more) purchase when a cheap, used, imported model costs $8.50. Not only does it show the challenges domestic manufacturers face, it makes me think about the economy of the future. One would hope that, in future years, mankind will be able to meet more of individuals' basic needs like food, shelter, and bicycles. So, if you want to sell something as more than a commodity, you'll have to make it better than anyone else. It's not enough to sell a good bicycle. You'll need to sell a great one, to those specialized buyers that are looking to buy a great one.

Also, I always have trouble with photos with that fence in the background. I think the camera likes to focus on the fence and not the foreground.

Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

As the image shows, the book Freakonomics is subtitled A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. In it, Levitt answers such questions as

• What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common?
• How was the Klu Klux Klan like a group of real estate agents?
• If drug dealing is so profitable, why do most crack dealers live at home with their mothers?
• What was the real reason for the drop in crime in the United States in the 1990s?
• Are swimming pools or guns more dangerous to children?
  

There are also sections on parenting, baby names, and probably some areas that I've forgotten. Basically, the authors look at data to answer questions.

As for swimming pools vs. guns, the authors claim that approximately 100 times as many children in the United States die in a swimming pool accident than die in a gun accident. This was really small section in the book. Regarding the other sections, the authors use data to show how

• We can detect cheating by sumo wrestlers in tournaments and by teachers giving high-stakes standardized tests.
• The Klan and real estate agents used information to their advantage, and how Stetson Kennedy used information to help reduce the influence of the Klan (and not in a way that you might guess, if you're not familiar with the story).
• The organization and finances of one drug-dealing street gang shows that big money was made by some, but the average dealer made around $3.30 per hour.
  
• The major drop in US crime was due to a reason you might not expect. Also, other possible explanations for reductions in crime are explored.
• Parents may be obsessing over areas that might not make much of a difference to their children's development.

I also found the section on names to be interesting. The book discusses the fact that there are some names that seem to be only used by blacks, while others are much more commonly used by whites. For example, using the common last name of Williams, what can you surmise about the backgrounds of the fictitious Jake Williams, Dashawn Williams, Molly Williams, or Shaniqua Williams. And what, if anything, do these names predict about their bearers prospects for success?

Basically, I thought the book was great, and I highly recommend it. It's probably not for everyone, and it has its critics. But if you like to ask questions about why people behave how they do, and if you like to wonder about what kinds of things make a difference and what kinds of things don't, then this book is for you. Five stars out of five.

What's on Your Gravestone?

I saw an interesting gravestone recently*. As you can see, it contains a name, birth and death dates, and the "common" gravestone symbols of a train engine and a tow truck. I am not an expert on the subject, but I don't remember seeing anything like it, which is why I snapped a picture.

I've seen nature scenes before. Military service designations are common, and I don't think it's unusual for even the complete agnostic's stone to have a religious symbol. But nothing says "second half of the 2oth century" like a tow truck. I wonder how it will look to future generations.

I remember reading Phil Niekro's autobiography. In it, he said something like, "My parents taught me the things they held most dear. My mother taught me faith in God and a respect for others. My father taught me the knuckler." Likewise, a gravestone is a limited slate to display what is most important to you. I can't say that I have given much thought to what I want mine to display, and I don't intend to consider that subject now. However, things like a computer or the logo of my favourite sports franchise are not the first items that come to mind.

I certainly give them credit for their honesty.

* - Let me say that no disrespect is meant towards the deceased or his family. I do not know them and have blurred out identifying information. If you know the deceased or his family and are offended by this post, ask nicely (and fill in the blanks) and I'll remove the photo.