A quick post before I take off. Last day and half has been solid. Went to the Minnesota football game last night. Golden Gophers won in a squeaker v. Northern Illinois. This one win matches their win total from last year so there is no where to go but up.
Today I went to the Minnesota State Fair. It is awesome. Kicks the Arizona state fairs butt. I had always heard it was great and it was. It is a total event out here, everyone goes and the grounds are huge and crowded. I had cheese curds (which are amazing), fried snickers, and some apple cider. I would have eaten more but I went on a ride and lost my appetite. They have so much there. They have unlimited milk for a dollar, huge tubs of cookies, friend alligator, cheese on a stick, meat on a stick, fruit on a stick, everything is on a stick. The big hit this year was bacon w/ chocolate. I was gonna try it but I went on a ride and my stomach was unsettled after that. It was a true Minnesota culture experience; if you ask locals why they are there one of the answers you are most likely to get it, "you have to go". I'm glad I did.
So now I am back with Blake and Beth. I leave for Prague at 1117 tomorrow. I don't know when I will post next. I'll try to throw down some updates when I can. Some aspects of the trip will be kept a little closer to the chest then this blog allows of course, for those that have been following that saga, you can ask me in person for an update.
I've been in neutral for a few days here in the cities. It's still been an action packed neutral though and I had a great time. I leave the twin cities more in love with them then before and further convinced that this may the place for me someday. I love Minnesota and will miss it.
Time for the next gear though. I'm out.
Joey
Sunday, August 31, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
I fucking love bikes! (and the twin cities)
Seriously, I fucking love bikes. Bikes are sweet. They are just so awesome. I've missed riding my bikes so much. . I'm gonna talk about bikes in a minute but first let me tell you about my day. Today I borrowed Ice's bike while he went to work. It was just an okay mountain bike but it was so nice. He offered me his car but I said no way. There is no better way to get to know a city then on a bike
I took it to the Minneapolis Institute of Art, a great museum. It should have been about a 10 mile ride. However, on the way there I got incredibly lost. Like super super lost. It was great. I love getting lost while riding a bike. It's how you learn new roads and the ins and outs of the city. I somehow ended up at the University of Minnesota, which was kind of neat actually. School starts there on Tuesday so it was a busy day. The streets were packed with confused and lost looking freshman, I'm sure I fit right in being confused and lost myself.
Eventually I found the river, which you wouldn't have thought was that tough, but it was. I rode down the river path to an awesome thing called the Midtown 'Greenway' . It is like a bike freeway, similar in a way to the Rillito river path or the the aviation highway path, except in a way more useful spot, and therefore much more used. It runs along an old railroad track, it is 5.5 miles right through the middle of town, it's great. It connects to other bike paths so it's really useful. There were a lot of people on it, the most people I've seen biking since I was in Copenhagen.
I eventually made it to the museum. I had been there before and didn't spend a super long time, just looked at some stuff I wanted to see again. It is in a beautiful building and I could go back countless times, I just don't spend a long time in art museums at once. On the way back I stopped on the famous 'eat street' of Minneapolis. It is a stretch of road famous for it's wide variety of ethnic restaurants and markets. I ate at a Pho restaurant. Pho is a traditional Vietnamese soup made with beef broth, rice noodles, and other stuff.
The ride back was far less eventful, having learned a few things I was able to make the 10ish mile ride from eat street to Ice's place in St. Paul with a great route. I stopped at a used book store I saw, mostly because I am a sucker for used book stores.
The Twin Cities are rated as one of the best places to bike in North America (Tucson is also often on these lists) and I can see why. It lacks the sheer number of bike lanes as Tucson (though pretty much every city does) though it makes up for it with more really nice bike paths with good road separation. Also although their aren't as many bike lanes, there is a good amount of riders which is more important. When cars are used to seeing bikes on the road they know how to deal with them and it becomes an awesome self perpetuating process. I stopped inside of a bike center they have along the greenway and it looks like they've got some really cool bike culture stuff going on. It is certainly one more plus for me as I don't think at this point I could live in a city where I couldn't bike as my primary form of transportation.
I have become really committed to the idea of bike commuting for not only myself but American society in general. Biking won't solve any of the major problems facing our country today but it will take a bite out of a lot of them. Some facts:
- The average person loses 13 lbs. their first year bike commuting
-3 hours of biking a week can reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke by 50%
-Each rush-hour auto commuter spends an avg of 50 hours a year stuck in traffic
-60% of the pollution created by automobiles happens in the first few minutes of driving before pollution control devices start to work
-25% of all trips are made within a mile from home
-40% of all trips are made with within
-50% of the working population lives within 5 miles of work
2 of the biggest issues today, the environmental crisis and the obesity crisis can both be attacked by promoting biking for short trips. Plus it is fun. It turns a chore (driving) to a recreational activity, something to look forward to. It gets your energy going to start the day. You meet cool people who sometimes have sick tattoos. It is one of the best life choices I think I have ever made and it is hard to imagine going back. I really hope the rest of the country will catch on; there is good and bad news here.
The good: bike commuting is increasing almost everywhere. Numerous studies have come out showing a steady increase in city ridership over the past 5 years with a recent spike due to high gas prices. Cities around the country are committing to making their cities more bike friendly with trend setters like Chicago and NYC investing millions. People and communities are starting to realize this is a good thing and are studying Amsterdam and Copenhagen (in which about 1/3 of the population bikes to work) to find how to make this work. Bike shops are opening and electric and recumbent bicycles are gaining popularity.
The bad: The numbers are still dismally low. About 1% of all trips are made by bike. At 2.5% Tucson has the highest rate of work commuters in the country, 2.5%. This is a city with 300 miles of bike lanes/paths/routes, completely flat, and has year round great weather, and still only 1 in 40 people are biking to work.
More good: Still with all things it may not continue at this gradual rate. As more people slowly trickle onto the roads and it gets more visible, safe, and hip, some people believe we may be approaching a critical mass point and that biking is on the verge of exploding in this country. I hope so.
In closing let me echo something said a long time ago by H.G. Wells:
Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the human race
I Heart Bikes,
Joey
I took it to the Minneapolis Institute of Art, a great museum. It should have been about a 10 mile ride. However, on the way there I got incredibly lost. Like super super lost. It was great. I love getting lost while riding a bike. It's how you learn new roads and the ins and outs of the city. I somehow ended up at the University of Minnesota, which was kind of neat actually. School starts there on Tuesday so it was a busy day. The streets were packed with confused and lost looking freshman, I'm sure I fit right in being confused and lost myself.
Eventually I found the river, which you wouldn't have thought was that tough, but it was. I rode down the river path to an awesome thing called the Midtown 'Greenway' . It is like a bike freeway, similar in a way to the Rillito river path or the the aviation highway path, except in a way more useful spot, and therefore much more used. It runs along an old railroad track, it is 5.5 miles right through the middle of town, it's great. It connects to other bike paths so it's really useful. There were a lot of people on it, the most people I've seen biking since I was in Copenhagen.
I eventually made it to the museum. I had been there before and didn't spend a super long time, just looked at some stuff I wanted to see again. It is in a beautiful building and I could go back countless times, I just don't spend a long time in art museums at once. On the way back I stopped on the famous 'eat street' of Minneapolis. It is a stretch of road famous for it's wide variety of ethnic restaurants and markets. I ate at a Pho restaurant. Pho is a traditional Vietnamese soup made with beef broth, rice noodles, and other stuff.
The ride back was far less eventful, having learned a few things I was able to make the 10ish mile ride from eat street to Ice's place in St. Paul with a great route. I stopped at a used book store I saw, mostly because I am a sucker for used book stores.
The Twin Cities are rated as one of the best places to bike in North America (Tucson is also often on these lists) and I can see why. It lacks the sheer number of bike lanes as Tucson (though pretty much every city does) though it makes up for it with more really nice bike paths with good road separation. Also although their aren't as many bike lanes, there is a good amount of riders which is more important. When cars are used to seeing bikes on the road they know how to deal with them and it becomes an awesome self perpetuating process. I stopped inside of a bike center they have along the greenway and it looks like they've got some really cool bike culture stuff going on. It is certainly one more plus for me as I don't think at this point I could live in a city where I couldn't bike as my primary form of transportation.
I have become really committed to the idea of bike commuting for not only myself but American society in general. Biking won't solve any of the major problems facing our country today but it will take a bite out of a lot of them. Some facts:
- The average person loses 13 lbs. their first year bike commuting
-3 hours of biking a week can reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke by 50%
-Each rush-hour auto commuter spends an avg of 50 hours a year stuck in traffic
-60% of the pollution created by automobiles happens in the first few minutes of driving before pollution control devices start to work
-25% of all trips are made within a mile from home
-40% of all trips are made with within
-50% of the working population lives within 5 miles of work
2 of the biggest issues today, the environmental crisis and the obesity crisis can both be attacked by promoting biking for short trips. Plus it is fun. It turns a chore (driving) to a recreational activity, something to look forward to. It gets your energy going to start the day. You meet cool people who sometimes have sick tattoos. It is one of the best life choices I think I have ever made and it is hard to imagine going back. I really hope the rest of the country will catch on; there is good and bad news here.
The good: bike commuting is increasing almost everywhere. Numerous studies have come out showing a steady increase in city ridership over the past 5 years with a recent spike due to high gas prices. Cities around the country are committing to making their cities more bike friendly with trend setters like Chicago and NYC investing millions. People and communities are starting to realize this is a good thing and are studying Amsterdam and Copenhagen (in which about 1/3 of the population bikes to work) to find how to make this work. Bike shops are opening and electric and recumbent bicycles are gaining popularity.
The bad: The numbers are still dismally low. About 1% of all trips are made by bike. At 2.5% Tucson has the highest rate of work commuters in the country, 2.5%. This is a city with 300 miles of bike lanes/paths/routes, completely flat, and has year round great weather, and still only 1 in 40 people are biking to work.
More good: Still with all things it may not continue at this gradual rate. As more people slowly trickle onto the roads and it gets more visible, safe, and hip, some people believe we may be approaching a critical mass point and that biking is on the verge of exploding in this country. I hope so.
In closing let me echo something said a long time ago by H.G. Wells:
Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the human race
I Heart Bikes,
Joey
Friday, August 29, 2008
All things are relative
So recently (recently being a relative term) I was in one of those, "what is the most fundamentally true statement you can make about the nature of the universe", conversations that are always popping up at parties. The best answer I could come up with was that, "all things are relative". As an aside, the second best answer I could think of was, " nothing is certain, however all things converge in large numbers". Anyway as I was walking down the street today I was thinking about that, not in large scientific ways, but just in my life.
Much of yesterday, today, tomorrow and the next day I have absolutely no commitments whatsoever. I get to wake up and every morning decide how I want to spend that day. Sure I need to eat, and I've got some plans, but these things are up to me, I can eat where and when I want, and change or cancel the plans if I so choose. This may not seem like a particularly big deal. In fact most of you that are reading this have days all the time that are like this, or if not days, large portions of days. For me however, this is an amazing thing. It is amazing because for the past 3 months I have not had a 30 hour period in which I didn't have to be somewhere or doing something. Sure my job is considered to be one of a great deal of freedom, but that is relative to the counselors. The work I do involves a lot of freedom but that doesn't change the fact that every day I have to eat breakfast lunch and dinner at a specific place, sleep in a specific place every night, and largely stay in one place for an entire summer. Strange as this may sound this is one of the great things about camp. It makes me appreciate so many things about my life that I take for granted. You can't truly appreciate the simple joy of sleeping in until 10am, going for a run during the middle of the day, or sitting down to decide how you wish to spend your time for the next 3 days until you haven't really been able to do these things for a while. When I expressed this a long time ago to my uncle Howard, he asked if that wasn't similar to the statement, "I love beating my head against the wall because when I stop it feels so good". He made a point but it was flawed, here the difference; I love camp. Hitting your head against the wall and then stopping implies a relief of pain, but camp isn't painful. I don't really dwell on the things I can't do there because I love the things I am doing. It doesn't change the positive feeling I get from having those things back.
Much like right before camp I am staying with my friend and former camp colleague, Mike 'Ice' Eckberg. He shares a house in St. Paul. It's a nice neighborhood. A lot of modest, but nice homes with mostly young families (lot's of plastic Playschool type furniture around), small backwards which face each other with alleys in between, and tree lined streets. I've really grown the like the twin cities. If one day I come to my senses and get a 9-5 job, a mortgage, 2.3 kids, and a Toyota Camry, this is one of the places on my shortlist right now. I should note that although I have been here during winter I have not lived through a Minnesota winter. There are nice neighborhoods, a quality culture, actual seasons (something I have never had), and rather friendly people. It is the last two I wanted to hit on.
As much as I hear about how people leave cold places to escape the winters I think they may be missing something. There is something that is part of the reason that more people go to baseball games in St. Louis than Florida, parks are vacant during the best parts of the year in Phoenix but packed in Minneapolis, and why more restaurants are built to accommodate outdoor seating in Germany than California. I think without bad weather you just can't appreciate good weather. It is those times of the year in which people in places that get cold are held up in the their homes that sends them outside in droves when the weather is good. There is a sense of urgency and appreciation that you don't get in places with year round good weather. In the end, I think that people in the colder places end up enjoying the good weather that do have more than those who get it all the time. The only exception is people that move from cold places to year round warm places, but even that only lasts a few years. Eventually it becomes normal and you settle down like everyone else.
Midwestern people have a reputation for simplicity that I think is underserved. I think it may come from a missinterpritation of people's friendliness. People do seem more friendly out here, it isn't a huge difference; people just say thank you more, smile at you more, things like that. Somewhere along the line we got this image that to be a member of the would be intelligentsia/hipster/coked out sexpot set that can really just be summarized as 'cool', you had to be stoic, cynical, and far too deep to subject yourself to pedestrian things like friendly waves. I personally am very cool and (a unstoppoble mixture of intelligentsia, hipster, and sexpot of course) yet I like waving to people and smiling, it feels good to be waved at and smiled to. Now I am not implying that people in other places in the US are unfriendly, in fact far from it. In general the United States is a strikingly friendly place. So many friends of mine from other countries comment on it and most like it. (though apparently NZ and OZ give us a run for our money, I suppose I'll find out). I've also noticed this, especially when I lived in CPH. The Danes are supposedly the happiest people on earth http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5224306.stm . Still they aren't an especially friendly people, except when they are drunk, which is fortunate considering how often this is the case. When I would go running and wave to other runners (a ubiquitous practice throughout the US in my experience) I would get nothing but confused looks. I eventually stopped doing it. So LA can be considered a friendly or unfriendly place I suppose, it just depends of your frame of reference.
The human brain has evolved to deal with the relative nature of the universe. It only really cares about things that change. This is why 'white noise' such as the fans that help my mother sleep work or why what once seems like complete darkness can quickly become full of things to see as soon as your eyes and your brain adjust to the situation. We are designed to detect change or difference. That is what new experience is all about. Maybe that is what I am trying to right now, see enough different stuff that my brain has to keep guessing and won't fall asleep.
3 days until I leave for Europe
Joey
Just Finished: Love, Stargirl
Currently Reading: A Short History of Nearly Everything
Up Next: Lonesome Dove, The Tipping Point, and Lonely Planet's guide to New Zealand.
Much of yesterday, today, tomorrow and the next day I have absolutely no commitments whatsoever. I get to wake up and every morning decide how I want to spend that day. Sure I need to eat, and I've got some plans, but these things are up to me, I can eat where and when I want, and change or cancel the plans if I so choose. This may not seem like a particularly big deal. In fact most of you that are reading this have days all the time that are like this, or if not days, large portions of days. For me however, this is an amazing thing. It is amazing because for the past 3 months I have not had a 30 hour period in which I didn't have to be somewhere or doing something. Sure my job is considered to be one of a great deal of freedom, but that is relative to the counselors. The work I do involves a lot of freedom but that doesn't change the fact that every day I have to eat breakfast lunch and dinner at a specific place, sleep in a specific place every night, and largely stay in one place for an entire summer. Strange as this may sound this is one of the great things about camp. It makes me appreciate so many things about my life that I take for granted. You can't truly appreciate the simple joy of sleeping in until 10am, going for a run during the middle of the day, or sitting down to decide how you wish to spend your time for the next 3 days until you haven't really been able to do these things for a while. When I expressed this a long time ago to my uncle Howard, he asked if that wasn't similar to the statement, "I love beating my head against the wall because when I stop it feels so good". He made a point but it was flawed, here the difference; I love camp. Hitting your head against the wall and then stopping implies a relief of pain, but camp isn't painful. I don't really dwell on the things I can't do there because I love the things I am doing. It doesn't change the positive feeling I get from having those things back.
Much like right before camp I am staying with my friend and former camp colleague, Mike 'Ice' Eckberg. He shares a house in St. Paul. It's a nice neighborhood. A lot of modest, but nice homes with mostly young families (lot's of plastic Playschool type furniture around), small backwards which face each other with alleys in between, and tree lined streets. I've really grown the like the twin cities. If one day I come to my senses and get a 9-5 job, a mortgage, 2.3 kids, and a Toyota Camry, this is one of the places on my shortlist right now. I should note that although I have been here during winter I have not lived through a Minnesota winter. There are nice neighborhoods, a quality culture, actual seasons (something I have never had), and rather friendly people. It is the last two I wanted to hit on.
As much as I hear about how people leave cold places to escape the winters I think they may be missing something. There is something that is part of the reason that more people go to baseball games in St. Louis than Florida, parks are vacant during the best parts of the year in Phoenix but packed in Minneapolis, and why more restaurants are built to accommodate outdoor seating in Germany than California. I think without bad weather you just can't appreciate good weather. It is those times of the year in which people in places that get cold are held up in the their homes that sends them outside in droves when the weather is good. There is a sense of urgency and appreciation that you don't get in places with year round good weather. In the end, I think that people in the colder places end up enjoying the good weather that do have more than those who get it all the time. The only exception is people that move from cold places to year round warm places, but even that only lasts a few years. Eventually it becomes normal and you settle down like everyone else.
Midwestern people have a reputation for simplicity that I think is underserved. I think it may come from a missinterpritation of people's friendliness. People do seem more friendly out here, it isn't a huge difference; people just say thank you more, smile at you more, things like that. Somewhere along the line we got this image that to be a member of the would be intelligentsia/hipster/coked out sexpot set that can really just be summarized as 'cool', you had to be stoic, cynical, and far too deep to subject yourself to pedestrian things like friendly waves. I personally am very cool and (a unstoppoble mixture of intelligentsia, hipster, and sexpot of course) yet I like waving to people and smiling, it feels good to be waved at and smiled to. Now I am not implying that people in other places in the US are unfriendly, in fact far from it. In general the United States is a strikingly friendly place. So many friends of mine from other countries comment on it and most like it. (though apparently NZ and OZ give us a run for our money, I suppose I'll find out). I've also noticed this, especially when I lived in CPH. The Danes are supposedly the happiest people on earth http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5224306.stm . Still they aren't an especially friendly people, except when they are drunk, which is fortunate considering how often this is the case. When I would go running and wave to other runners (a ubiquitous practice throughout the US in my experience) I would get nothing but confused looks. I eventually stopped doing it. So LA can be considered a friendly or unfriendly place I suppose, it just depends of your frame of reference.
The human brain has evolved to deal with the relative nature of the universe. It only really cares about things that change. This is why 'white noise' such as the fans that help my mother sleep work or why what once seems like complete darkness can quickly become full of things to see as soon as your eyes and your brain adjust to the situation. We are designed to detect change or difference. That is what new experience is all about. Maybe that is what I am trying to right now, see enough different stuff that my brain has to keep guessing and won't fall asleep.
3 days until I leave for Europe
Joey
Just Finished: Love, Stargirl
Currently Reading: A Short History of Nearly Everything
Up Next: Lonesome Dove, The Tipping Point, and Lonely Planet's guide to New Zealand.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
The end for super duper actually realseys this time
I leave camp in a couple hours Spent the last day and a half painting (the trim on about 7,000 windows) and thinking. Thinking about Europe, Hana, Camp, New Zealand, Biking and everything in between. I leave camp knowing that I will come back someday, but also knowing that it may never again be for a summer or as a staff member. I officially have 4 months to decide.
Joey
Joey
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Okay so it's almost actually over for real but still not quite yet.
It feels like recently I've been on a string of not quite endings. Yesterday was another big one. Almost all the staff left except for the full time staff, 3 staff that are staying to do work crews for two weeks, and me. Yesterday was the second day of work crews. It was a great day. I did more pick up in the morning and in the afternoon was the leader of brush pickup. This meant that we went through the forested areas through camp and picked up large sticks/branches and small fallen trees and through them into the dumptruck and dumped them. There are reasons for doing this but from the prespective of most staff it seems rather meaningless. However, the group got really into it. I knew it would be a little tough to motivate people, it being hours before they would leave and doing a seemingly pointless job that you can never finish, no to mention the other group leader was a bit negative at the start. So I just overcompensated and kept talking about how sweet brush crew was. Eventually Luke, an awesome staff member and I started this elaborate conversation where we pretended that brush collecting was a sport. We talked about levels of competition, rules, issues with performance enhancing substances and technology, stradegy, training and anything else. The other staff got involved as well and despite it being tough plodding work everyone legitimatly had fun. That is really what makes camp work, a conscious effort to stay positive. One of the most important things I've learned at camp is that your attitude is up to you; you can make yourself and those around you happy just by commiting to being happy. In the end it was a great way to wrap up the summer for the group.
There was another round of goodbyes, more tears, and more good feelings. This was almost entirely international staff and many of them are going to travel now. They seemed so excited. Perhaps the only thing better then a great trip is a great trip that you feel like you've earned. Blake and I both drove down vans to hotels/bus depot/ airport last night. Andre drove another this morning. Blake, Wig, and I all stayed at Blakes appt last night before dropping off Wig in the morning. It was nice to see Blake's new place and talk to his girlfriend, Beth. It's weird because I know a great deal about Beth but I've spent almost no time with her so it was nice to put some personality to the stories and face.
I'm back at camp now, I've moved cabins again for just the last two nights. This summer I've been in 5 different cabins at different times. I realized that although I already sent a box of stuff home it wasn't enough and I need to send another. I don't want to bring too much to Europe. I am a bit dissapointed about one thing though. I thought that I was going to get to see the Republican convention in St. Paul but it starts the day that I leave. I'm pretty dissenchanted with presidential politics but it would have been cool to see all the hoopla and protests. Eh, another time.
Joey
There was another round of goodbyes, more tears, and more good feelings. This was almost entirely international staff and many of them are going to travel now. They seemed so excited. Perhaps the only thing better then a great trip is a great trip that you feel like you've earned. Blake and I both drove down vans to hotels/bus depot/ airport last night. Andre drove another this morning. Blake, Wig, and I all stayed at Blakes appt last night before dropping off Wig in the morning. It was nice to see Blake's new place and talk to his girlfriend, Beth. It's weird because I know a great deal about Beth but I've spent almost no time with her so it was nice to put some personality to the stories and face.
I'm back at camp now, I've moved cabins again for just the last two nights. This summer I've been in 5 different cabins at different times. I realized that although I already sent a box of stuff home it wasn't enough and I need to send another. I don't want to bring too much to Europe. I am a bit dissapointed about one thing though. I thought that I was going to get to see the Republican convention in St. Paul but it starts the day that I leave. I'm pretty dissenchanted with presidential politics but it would have been cool to see all the hoopla and protests. Eh, another time.
Joey
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Work crews
Today was the first of two days of work crews where all the remaining staff 'shut down' camp. We spend about 20-30 days all toll preparing camp and then we try to shut it down in 2. Pretty crazy. Everyone was working really hard. Mostly it is taking stuff apart and putting stuff away. My job was pickup. I would drive around in a old F-350 coverted to a dumptruck and pick up what people had packed up from activity areas and bring it to the warehouse or dumpsite. That rig is a beast. The most memorable moment though had nothing to do with my own work. One of the biggest work crews is always building/ taking down the docks. I have always arrived by the time the docks were built and left while they were still standing. Today for the first time I saw our waterfront with no dock. I cannot explain exactly how weird that was for me, highly surreal. Imagine if you drove to the location of you childhood home and saw that instead of a house you saw a vacant lot. It was something like that.
Joey
Joey
Saturday, August 23, 2008
And they're gone
The last campers leave tommorow. In fact I have to wake up in less than 5 hours to wake some up. Craziness. A few days of hard work up here and then 2 days to breath before I leave for Prague. Been looking at a lot of different places to live in New Zealand right now. Christchurch is maybe at the top of the list.
Joey
Joey
Friday, August 22, 2008
Job Hunting
So I've started looking for seasonal work in New Zealand. I spent the last 1.5 hours looking through listing and requesting information. I've attached my CV (curriculum vitae, just means resume for people in Britain, OZ, NZ, others) to some of those. That of course meant I had to put one together for the first time in my life. Yet another milestone I suppose. I've mostly looked at hospitality/tourism stuff as well as one supervisory position in an before/after school program for kids. The first step ladies and gents.
J David?
Just Finished: Storm of Swords
Currently Reading: A Short History of Nearly Everything and Love, Stargirl
Up Next: The Tipping point and Lonesone Dove (reread)
J David?
Just Finished: Storm of Swords
Currently Reading: A Short History of Nearly Everything and Love, Stargirl
Up Next: The Tipping point and Lonesone Dove (reread)
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Idiotic and Pretentious, or Awesome
So as I am moving to a far away place where I will know almost no one. I feel like this is a unique opportunity to do something I feel many people wish they could do; change their name. Now I'm not talking about actually legally changing my name or even making something up in the sense of claiming my name is Finnegan or something. No, I was thinking about going by a different possible but legitimate version of my given name. I've almost always introduced myself as Joey except when I worked at the Phoenician and I was Joseph. Also many people call me Joe on their own accord often (notably my parents and grandparents). At camp some people became enamored with my middle initial due to it's use in my email address, josephdshannon@gmail.com. So that has led to occasional and inconsistent use of any of the following: Joseph D, Joey D, JD, JDS, and even prompted the nickname Da-wayne after Andre joked that, that is what it stood for mocking my consummate whiteness. As an aside, 'Da-wayne' has had the most staying power being my Prep 4 nickname for the last two summers. Still I had really only ever gone by Joey, Joseph, and Joe. This left these possible candidates all of while required some use of my middle name.
David-The classic, 'go by the middle name', I would consider it but David is pretty pedestrian to begin with (sorry Dad) so it really wouldn't be that fun. Plus having the same name as my father would be a tough adjustment even if he wasn't around.
JD- The obvious choice perhaps. Common enough but not so common as say, Joey. Still I have a friend named JD for one which takes a bit of the fun out it, plus I just don't feel like a JD. It doesn't fit in my opinion.
J- Could try to go by just the first letter. Didn't like this one as it is effectively going by an existing name, Jay, which I don't want.
So after all the vetoes I thought of one that I liked. It's pretty pretentious, but I think it has a nice ring to it and I think I could get used to it. So without further ado I give you:
J David - It's clearly going in a totally different direction than my previous names, but retains legitimacy. At the same time, in my entire life I have not known a J David so I don't have to feel like I am copying anyone, so it satisfies my silly human need to feel unique. Plus I just think it's catchy.
So this is an idea, not sure yet. The three big questions I have to ask are:
1. Is J David a good name? Or is it silly and pretentious.
2. Even if it is, am I just being a vain jerk for trying to change my own name?
3. If I am, do I give a shit?
So in my first attempt to even actually illicit a response from my small cadre of readers I want to know your thoughts. Just click the comment box below. In the end I reckon I'll just decide on my own but it would interesting to hear what some of the people closest to me think.
Signed,
J David Shannon
Just Finished: Stumbling on Happiness
Currently Reading: A Short History of Nearly Everything and A Storm of Swords
Up Next: The Tipping Point and Love, Stargirl
David-The classic, 'go by the middle name', I would consider it but David is pretty pedestrian to begin with (sorry Dad) so it really wouldn't be that fun. Plus having the same name as my father would be a tough adjustment even if he wasn't around.
JD- The obvious choice perhaps. Common enough but not so common as say, Joey. Still I have a friend named JD for one which takes a bit of the fun out it, plus I just don't feel like a JD. It doesn't fit in my opinion.
J- Could try to go by just the first letter. Didn't like this one as it is effectively going by an existing name, Jay, which I don't want.
So after all the vetoes I thought of one that I liked. It's pretty pretentious, but I think it has a nice ring to it and I think I could get used to it. So without further ado I give you:
J David - It's clearly going in a totally different direction than my previous names, but retains legitimacy. At the same time, in my entire life I have not known a J David so I don't have to feel like I am copying anyone, so it satisfies my silly human need to feel unique. Plus I just think it's catchy.
So this is an idea, not sure yet. The three big questions I have to ask are:
1. Is J David a good name? Or is it silly and pretentious.
2. Even if it is, am I just being a vain jerk for trying to change my own name?
3. If I am, do I give a shit?
So in my first attempt to even actually illicit a response from my small cadre of readers I want to know your thoughts. Just click the comment box below. In the end I reckon I'll just decide on my own but it would interesting to hear what some of the people closest to me think.
Signed,
J David Shannon
Just Finished: Stumbling on Happiness
Currently Reading: A Short History of Nearly Everything and A Storm of Swords
Up Next: The Tipping Point and Love, Stargirl
My temple and my castle.
It is said that your body is your temple and that every man's home is his castle. I have been thinking a fair bit about my body recently. Every summer for the past 4 I have gotten out of shape during the summer. This is fine, my training cycle for ultimate was based on taking it easy and resting during the summer, starting in late August and peaking in May. It the past this has mostly meant losing muscle. My metabolism has always been fast enough that I didn't really get fat. For the first time this summer I started to notice the first signs of the innevatble 20's metabolism slow down. I was lazy and eating poorly and I managed to start to get a little bit of a belly, now mind you it wasn't that much, but it was there and I took notice. It seems I have reached the point in my life where I can no longer get little exercise, eat like crap and stay skinny. I feel that is a real milestone, though not one to jump for joy about I suppose.
Luckily my schedule has opened up and I have started working out again going for 3-4 mile trail runs and doing a bunch of push ups and core exercises that I like. This is what I think is interesting about the human body and athletics; in about a week I was 75% back to looking like I did at the beginning of the summer. The last 25% will take a little while longer but still that is amazing. This is interesting for two reasons; first, it is amazing how quickly our bodies react to change in neccesity, it took about two days of hard work for my body to realize that the time to store energy was over (add fat) and that it needed to prepare to do hard things again (add muscle). Somewhere in my brain years of transitioning from preparing for winter to needing to escape sabretooth tigers kicked in. Evolution is neat. Also considering how long it originally took me to get in the kind of shape I am in now the first time I can't believe how quickly I am able to get it back now, in 10 days I go from doing sets of 20-25 push ups to 45-50. That is pretty crazy considering it took me months to get from one point to the other the first time. There is just something the brain/body does when it breaks through a wall the first time, after that it just knows what it needs to do again. This has always seemed especially aparent with distance runners. You often here marathoners talk about how hard their first one was and that even though they didn't train for the next nine months after and felt like they were back at square one they were able to get back into shape in a fraction of the time. Obviously their is some sort of biological statute of limitations on this (after 20 years I think your body has kind of moved on) but still I think it is amazing.
So onto my castle. This summer has represented the longest stretch of time that I have kept a domecile consistantly clean and neat my entire life. I'm kind of proud. I was living with a roomate for most of the summer and I was actually the cleaner of the two, though we were close. I am now living by myself which is the past has been my messiest but I have actually been doing even better. The exception being a part of my cabin which is used by my staff to do work. One of the staff the other day even mentioned, unprovoked and off topic how neatly my clothes were put away. For those that have known me a long time, which consitutes many of my few readers you know what a big accomplishment this is for me. It's nice, I have to admit. Still it isn't easy. I have decided that anyone that says it is easier to consistantly clean then to let it get really messy and then clean is a liar. In pure time spent it is more efficient to wait until the mess is large and then clean up a bunch at one. However, I will agree that even though it takes more time to clean consistantly it is still a better idea because of the utility gained. Imagine cleaning consistantly is %150 of the work of waiting until it's trashed. When you clean consistantly you have at least a fairly neat domecile ~100% of the time, whereas if you wait until it is terrible then say 25% of the time it's neat, 50% of the time is pretty poor and 25% of the time it's awful. In the end it is worth the extra 50% of work because you overall situation improves so dramatically. I will try to keep it up after camp, that will be the real test, but I am confident. I was going strong last fall but then do to a number of reasons I let off. I would really like to be hold on this year, I really think it would make me a 'better person' whatever that is.
Now I just gotta start eating healthy.
Joey
Luckily my schedule has opened up and I have started working out again going for 3-4 mile trail runs and doing a bunch of push ups and core exercises that I like. This is what I think is interesting about the human body and athletics; in about a week I was 75% back to looking like I did at the beginning of the summer. The last 25% will take a little while longer but still that is amazing. This is interesting for two reasons; first, it is amazing how quickly our bodies react to change in neccesity, it took about two days of hard work for my body to realize that the time to store energy was over (add fat) and that it needed to prepare to do hard things again (add muscle). Somewhere in my brain years of transitioning from preparing for winter to needing to escape sabretooth tigers kicked in. Evolution is neat. Also considering how long it originally took me to get in the kind of shape I am in now the first time I can't believe how quickly I am able to get it back now, in 10 days I go from doing sets of 20-25 push ups to 45-50. That is pretty crazy considering it took me months to get from one point to the other the first time. There is just something the brain/body does when it breaks through a wall the first time, after that it just knows what it needs to do again. This has always seemed especially aparent with distance runners. You often here marathoners talk about how hard their first one was and that even though they didn't train for the next nine months after and felt like they were back at square one they were able to get back into shape in a fraction of the time. Obviously their is some sort of biological statute of limitations on this (after 20 years I think your body has kind of moved on) but still I think it is amazing.
So onto my castle. This summer has represented the longest stretch of time that I have kept a domecile consistantly clean and neat my entire life. I'm kind of proud. I was living with a roomate for most of the summer and I was actually the cleaner of the two, though we were close. I am now living by myself which is the past has been my messiest but I have actually been doing even better. The exception being a part of my cabin which is used by my staff to do work. One of the staff the other day even mentioned, unprovoked and off topic how neatly my clothes were put away. For those that have known me a long time, which consitutes many of my few readers you know what a big accomplishment this is for me. It's nice, I have to admit. Still it isn't easy. I have decided that anyone that says it is easier to consistantly clean then to let it get really messy and then clean is a liar. In pure time spent it is more efficient to wait until the mess is large and then clean up a bunch at one. However, I will agree that even though it takes more time to clean consistantly it is still a better idea because of the utility gained. Imagine cleaning consistantly is %150 of the work of waiting until it's trashed. When you clean consistantly you have at least a fairly neat domecile ~100% of the time, whereas if you wait until it is terrible then say 25% of the time it's neat, 50% of the time is pretty poor and 25% of the time it's awful. In the end it is worth the extra 50% of work because you overall situation improves so dramatically. I will try to keep it up after camp, that will be the real test, but I am confident. I was going strong last fall but then do to a number of reasons I let off. I would really like to be hold on this year, I really think it would make me a 'better person' whatever that is.
Now I just gotta start eating healthy.
Joey
Tennis
So right now I am working as tennis camp director. This is not nearly as impressive as it sounds. A more accurate title would be Assistant to the Director. CL runs some specialty camps for the last two weeks of the summer; CO-ED Camp, Tennis Camp, Family Camp, and Golf Camp. I was assigned to be Tennis Camp 'Director' which basically means I oversee the counselors and do whatever is asked of me by the real Director who has been doing this for 35 years (he only comes for Tennis Camp). He is actually in charge and oversees all the tennis coaches. He's a good dude and is very passionate and committed about the program. He has been doing it a long time and is pretty stuck in his ways. Some people in the past have struggled coming from spending all summer making decisions (like I have) to having to just follow orders and carry out ideas, many of which seem silly. It doesn't really bother me that much. He works really hard and I respect people that work hard and I respect that level of commitment to something. So if he needs me to make to type a form this exact way and copy it onto blue paper but then change it because a camper wants to be called Ally instead of Alisha then I'm not that bothered. I just do it. In the end it is much less work then I have been doing all summer and for the first time I have consistent free time. I've been doing some travel planning, buying some stuff, working on my final report for the summer, exercising, reading, and playing Risk with Blake and Wig.
There are two 5 day camps and we just finished the first and started the second today (which is crazy). Not all the kids were that sweet during the first one, especially some of the older guys. However, there were some great one too and most of them are staying for the second session while the others left. I have especially enjoyed getting to know the girls. There are some really cool ones and I enjoy getting to build relationships with girls, something I rarely get to do. I thinks pre-teen/early teen girls are absolutely hilarious and I love talking to them about all sorts of stuff; 5th/6th grade relationships, teen pop (Miley is so my girl), or our favorite part of Bomb Pops (the white part for me, it's lime). That has been the best part for me for sure.
So I got 5 more days which I am looking forward to. Then almost everyone that is left will leave. I will stick around for 3-4 days doing odd jobs, possible painting then leave with Blake on the 29th or 30th before bumming around in the twin cities for 2-3 days. Selling shaved ice at the fair fell through but that is okay, I will still likely take a trip there. Should be a gas.
Joey
There are two 5 day camps and we just finished the first and started the second today (which is crazy). Not all the kids were that sweet during the first one, especially some of the older guys. However, there were some great one too and most of them are staying for the second session while the others left. I have especially enjoyed getting to know the girls. There are some really cool ones and I enjoy getting to build relationships with girls, something I rarely get to do. I thinks pre-teen/early teen girls are absolutely hilarious and I love talking to them about all sorts of stuff; 5th/6th grade relationships, teen pop (Miley is so my girl), or our favorite part of Bomb Pops (the white part for me, it's lime). That has been the best part for me for sure.
So I got 5 more days which I am looking forward to. Then almost everyone that is left will leave. I will stick around for 3-4 days doing odd jobs, possible painting then leave with Blake on the 29th or 30th before bumming around in the twin cities for 2-3 days. Selling shaved ice at the fair fell through but that is okay, I will still likely take a trip there. Should be a gas.
Joey
The End (Kinda)
So it has been a while since I did an update type post (or any for that matter) but I have commited to focusing on the present even if it means skipping some of the past. So I will just mention one quick thing that happened at the end of the summer. So regular camp ended a week ago and that meant the first big departure day for staff, mostly America staff (there are only 7 Americans left working from ~30) though some internationals as well. Plus people that are staying move camps and such so even though it is not the actual end for everyone, it is for many people and is a symbolic end as it is the last time were all together. Afterwords people start leaving at different dates so there really isn't another huge goodbye, just a series of smaller ones. Anyway we always end with our staff circle which is the same way we end OSD at the beginning of the summer. The idea is to give people a chance to give thanks to the group or certain people. Anyway during my first two years ('04 and '05) there was a good deal of crying. The past two years have seen little to no crying. This has definitly been a reflection of the quality of the staff experience which has in my opinion been down for a few different reasons that I won't elaborate on now. Anyway it had been such a great summer that I had really hoped that crying would return (Blake and I had talked about it consistantly throughout the summer). I wasn't dissapointed. Of course everyone didn't cry, but many did and yours truly got a little misty for the first time since the '05 circle (first time since '05 in the staff circle, I've shed a few tears since then that's for sure). So that made me feel pretty good.
Also as I was saying goodbye I was really surprised by how many people referenced small things I had done for them in beginning of the summer, mostly something I said or a note I wrote to praise them. It was mostly people I didn't work with much and maybe didn't know as well so I was surprised they even remembered (I had forgotten about some of the moments). What I came to believe is that the reason it made such an impact was that it came from an unexpected source. Everyone expects to be praised at least occasionally by their supervisor, so when it happens although it makes you feel good, a certain part of you (I know I think this way) inevitably feels like they are just doing their job (they are to a certain extent). However, when it comes from someone who has no responsibility for you, someone who isn't responsible for noticing you and yet they do and take the time to tell you or write it down, that makes an impact. That tells you that you must be doing something right. At least that is what I think. I'm sure this idea has been better presented in innumable management and leadership books but I really noticed it on this occasion.
Incedently I have decided that even when I right a lot at one time I am going to make it into more, smaller, focused posts to make it more digestable.
Joey
Also as I was saying goodbye I was really surprised by how many people referenced small things I had done for them in beginning of the summer, mostly something I said or a note I wrote to praise them. It was mostly people I didn't work with much and maybe didn't know as well so I was surprised they even remembered (I had forgotten about some of the moments). What I came to believe is that the reason it made such an impact was that it came from an unexpected source. Everyone expects to be praised at least occasionally by their supervisor, so when it happens although it makes you feel good, a certain part of you (I know I think this way) inevitably feels like they are just doing their job (they are to a certain extent). However, when it comes from someone who has no responsibility for you, someone who isn't responsible for noticing you and yet they do and take the time to tell you or write it down, that makes an impact. That tells you that you must be doing something right. At least that is what I think. I'm sure this idea has been better presented in innumable management and leadership books but I really noticed it on this occasion.
Incedently I have decided that even when I right a lot at one time I am going to make it into more, smaller, focused posts to make it more digestable.
Joey
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Book It. Part 1: Recent Reads
So I have been doing a lot of reading this summer. Especially before camp started and for the last month. I've actually sacrificed a fair amount of sleep so I could read. Also as I have mentioned most of my free time is spent reading. Today I had a great conversation about books with another staff member and one of our 16 year old campers (16 years old, but mature beyond his years, very intelligent and well read for his age). I enjoyed talking about books I read recently and in the past so much that I have decided to do a post about it. For one maybe some of you will be inspired by my short book reports and decide to read it. Then we can talk about it and that would be sweet. Also I sometimes forget what books I've read, and why I did or did not like them. Maybe if I do this consistently I will be able to look back and know. So let's start with the books I've read recently. If it is a series of books I will just talk about them as if they were one.
Books I've Read in the Past Few Months
Lonesome Dove Series (Larry McMurtry)- The Lonesome Dove saga has 4 books of which the first written was Lonesome Dove and the Pulitzer prize winner for fiction. After LD was written Street of Laredo which I have not yet read came, followed by Dead Man's Walk and finally Comanche Moon. Within the story they go chronologically DMW then CM, then LD, then SOL. Like most people I ready LD first. After that I started at the beginning reading DMW then CM. I will likely read SOL by the end of the year. LD is absolutely amazing if you value great characters on the background of reasonably simple plot. It is about 900 pages and almost nothing of any plot consequence happens for the first 250. It doesn't matter. McMurtry uses that time to start building the foundation for one of the greatest group of characters in any book I've read. Many of the characters are trite on the surface. Gus; the smartalack who never shuts up, who loves women and drink, detests hard work, but is keenly talented and in a pinch has a heart of gold. Call, the stoic hard working leader who cares about his responsibility and doesn't mince words, Gus' clear foil, him and Gus make up the two main characters. Deets, the uniquely competent and loyal member of the troop, the only black man in the group, who would do anything for anyone. It goes on. McMurtry takes these and other superficially archetype characters and adds a depth and genuineness that makes them some of the most memorable characters I have known. The story is simple, a group of former Texas Rangers, the semi-famous leaders of which are Gus and Call, now getting old have decided to take a herd of cattle to Montana to try and strike rich. The primary plot is their journey from the town of Lonesome Dove where they have lived to Montana which includes trial and tragedy. One of the things I like about this book is that often death happens as it does in real life, quickly and without great drama. It makes the book much less predictable, though when something happens to a character you have truly been endeared towards McMurtry gives it it's due. Throughout the book casual reference and stories are made about Gus and Call's glory days as Rangers. When I finished the book I was left with two things; a quiet sadness and a strong desire to read a tale that would shed light on those glory days.
That is where DMW and CM come it. Both are good but only CM comes anywhere close to LD. DMW takes place when Gus and Call are first starting as Rangers (about 25 years before LD) and is good but feels like it was written purely to set up the book that one truly wants to read after reading LD, Comanche Moon. Virtually all important surviving characters from DMW are still in CM which starts about 10 years later and finishes after about another 10. It does in many ways leave you fulfilled in filling in the gaps of Gus and Call's life, particularly their love life, both minor tragedies unto themselves. Unfortunately I lost the book with about 100 out off 800 pages left and had to wait two weeks before finishing it as I rushed through it in a bookstore not wanting to buy it again. It kind of ruined the end for me I think. Maybe I'll read it again someday. I think I may read LD again before I read Streets of Laredo. LD is really just that good and reading CM makes me want to go back.
Enders Shadow Series (Orson Scott Card)- Ender's Shadow was the parallel novel to the highly acclaimed and well known young adult scifi book Ender's Game. Incidentally if you haven't read EG you really should, it is a modern classic of youth literature. Ender's Shadow was a parallel novel, it followed mostly the same story but from the perspective of a different character, one that was moderately important in EG, Bean. Both books tell the story, taking place in the Earth of about 200 years in future, of a group of children who are sent to 'Battle School' where they learn to command armies to hopefully aid in an expected 3rd war with the only known other sentient species in the galaxy, nickname the 'Buggers'.
There are three sequels to ES; Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, and Shadow of the giant. They all take place in about a 10 year period following the aftermath of that war and are focused on the geopolitical situation of this future earth. The characters are mostly derived from characters in EG/ES and are not it's strong suit. Outside of Bean himself, there are only a couple characters that are particularly intriguing and even then not the strength of the book. What makes this a fun read is watching the evolution of the political situation on earth as being manipulated by a number of different people. In this future construction essentially all of nations of the earth are the same as they are now but the balance of power is somewhat shifted though many things are still the same as well. Basically there has been a loose unity in the nations of earth due to their need to challenge a unifying enemy, the aliens. With that enemy no longer a significant issue, once again the power plays between nations start and war seems almost certain. These are super fast reads written on a pre-college level but plenty clever to keep adults entertained and engaged. A good number of twists and turns plus Bean is a worthy protagonist who you do grow to care about. I enjoyed them and would recommend them to anyone that enjoyed Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow more than I would recommend the sequels to EG.
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies (Jared Diamond): This was the first non-fiction book I read this summer. It won the Pulitzer for non-fiction a few years back. It feels like a member of a growing class of books; books written by academics on academic issues, often combining disciplines, but meant for layman's and at least somewhat readable. The point of the book is to answer why certain societies in earth dominated over certain others. Diamond quickly argues that in recent times (recent being 1400s-present, sufficed to say recent is a relative term) the reasons have been primarily that certain societies either possessed superior weapons, carried diseases that they were largely immune to but others were not, possessed other superior technology which could include not only machines but thing like writing, science, complex government or some combination of those. He uses the symbols, Guns, Germs and Steel for these ideas. Showing that these were the short term reasons for their success is gone over quickly. The majority of the book is spent trying to explain in his opinion how certain societies (in general the Eurasian Societies) got those things in the first place. It is more history than anything, but not a traditional Euro-Centric history, New Guinea is discussed more then all of western Europe combined and the US gets hardly a mention. He refers to a number of different reasons some of which are: variety and nature of plants suitable for agriculture and animals for domestication, whether a land mass has an east/west or north/south primary axis, and other factors. Although he claims it is something else it reads pretty much like environmental determinism to me, not that that is a bad thing. I enjoyed it and it had some ideas that I already had and some others I did not. I think the part I enjoyed the most was learning more about the process of domestication of plants and animals. Towards the end of the book it seemed to get redundant as he just goes from one case study to another proving the same points. I skimmed the last 50 pages. As it has been highly succesful there has also been a great deal of criticism surrounding the book claiming things like: his ideas are stolen, the question he is asking is simpler then he makes it out to be, it just repackaged enviromental determinism and others. All in all I would say a good read if you have an interest in sociological history or just like to learn stuff. I would be lying if I called it a page turner though.
A Song of Ice and Fire Series ( George R.R. Martin)- This is a series that Blake has been trying to get me to read for two years. He loves it and I can see why. It is on the surface just another fantasy series but it is actually quite unique for two reasons. One is that although it is set in a fantasy world a great deal of the book is a very complex political thriller with a good deal of twists. It is by no means the story of some single minded quest for right and good. There are few completely evil characters and only one significant character who has been shown to be always virtuous. It is mostly a world of greys. As the books go on you become more familiar with the different political situations of more places and the universe of the books becomes slowly larger. The other thing I like about these books is their unpredictability, particularly when it comes to mortality. It seems it most fantasy books there are a few characters which about a 1/4 the way through you can be almost positive are going to make it. That is not the case here, no one is sacred and characters that seemed essential can die or leave in a flash. Likewise characters that were merely background or were just casually mentioned can quickly become focal points of the story. Each chapter is from the perspective or a character. For each book there are about 8 of them that get the 1st person treatment. Each book about two of those are changed. I have read the first two: A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings. Four have been written of an eventual six. They are very entertaining and quick reads for their length (~800 pages). I intend to read the rest of the series.
Stargirl (Jerry Spinnelli): I just finished this ultra fast youth read (I can be a sucker for kids books, a few of my campers are reading it right now). It is by the author of one of my all time favorite books, Maniac Magee, a book I read around the 3rd grade and have read about every other year since. Spinnelli has a talent for creating wonderfully endearing characters, people you can't not root for. Stargirl is written from the perspective of Leo a high school Junior. At the start of his junior year a new girl comes to school, Stargirl. She is a wildly unique girl, either ignorant or unconcerned with social norms, caring and nice to a fault, and has a sweetness to her that for me is hard not to fall in love with. Leo has the same problem as he falls in the love with her and her with him. At first the school (it takes place in a fictional suburban outskirt town in Arizona) embraces her and she has a dramatic positive effect on the school, but eventually they turn on her, and Leo. It is a story about non-conformity and young love and some of the difficulties that come along with both. What makes the book is the Stargirl character, supposedly loosely based on Spinnelli's wife, she is an ideal, and a fun one. I really enjoyed this book and found out there is a sequel which came out last August (Stargirl was written in 2000) entitled Love, Stargirl which I intend to read.
Stumbling on Happiness ( Daniel Gilbert)- This is another in what I also think is an growing type of books. They are a more specific group but these are also academic produced books that are highly digestible (more than Guns, Germs and Steel for instance) and are just fascinating reads on human nature and the human condition. Books like Freakonomics, Blink, or The Tipping Point. This book I am currently reading and love. It is about the objective scientific nature of happiness. It attempts to describe fundamentally and empirically what makes us happy. It strives to disabuse people of some highly intuitive notions of what makes both them and other people happy. A great deal of the book is focused on how the human brain works in general in creating memories and imagination and how that relates to our happiness and perception therein. It also talks about the nature of feelings; is thinking you are happy the same as being happy? The author is a physiologist by study and practice but the books samples from many disciplines. It is interesting, clear, and sometimes genuinely funny. It is not a self help book and is not in anyway designed to help anyone achieve happiness. I look forward to finishing it.
Up next will be similar write up on some of my all-time favorites. First I have to figure out what makes the cut.
Joey
Just Finished: Star Girl, Clash of Kings
Currently Reading: Stumbling on Happiness and The Uncommon Reader
On Deck: A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire) and The Tipping Point
Books I've Read in the Past Few Months
Lonesome Dove Series (Larry McMurtry)- The Lonesome Dove saga has 4 books of which the first written was Lonesome Dove and the Pulitzer prize winner for fiction. After LD was written Street of Laredo which I have not yet read came, followed by Dead Man's Walk and finally Comanche Moon. Within the story they go chronologically DMW then CM, then LD, then SOL. Like most people I ready LD first. After that I started at the beginning reading DMW then CM. I will likely read SOL by the end of the year. LD is absolutely amazing if you value great characters on the background of reasonably simple plot. It is about 900 pages and almost nothing of any plot consequence happens for the first 250. It doesn't matter. McMurtry uses that time to start building the foundation for one of the greatest group of characters in any book I've read. Many of the characters are trite on the surface. Gus; the smartalack who never shuts up, who loves women and drink, detests hard work, but is keenly talented and in a pinch has a heart of gold. Call, the stoic hard working leader who cares about his responsibility and doesn't mince words, Gus' clear foil, him and Gus make up the two main characters. Deets, the uniquely competent and loyal member of the troop, the only black man in the group, who would do anything for anyone. It goes on. McMurtry takes these and other superficially archetype characters and adds a depth and genuineness that makes them some of the most memorable characters I have known. The story is simple, a group of former Texas Rangers, the semi-famous leaders of which are Gus and Call, now getting old have decided to take a herd of cattle to Montana to try and strike rich. The primary plot is their journey from the town of Lonesome Dove where they have lived to Montana which includes trial and tragedy. One of the things I like about this book is that often death happens as it does in real life, quickly and without great drama. It makes the book much less predictable, though when something happens to a character you have truly been endeared towards McMurtry gives it it's due. Throughout the book casual reference and stories are made about Gus and Call's glory days as Rangers. When I finished the book I was left with two things; a quiet sadness and a strong desire to read a tale that would shed light on those glory days.
That is where DMW and CM come it. Both are good but only CM comes anywhere close to LD. DMW takes place when Gus and Call are first starting as Rangers (about 25 years before LD) and is good but feels like it was written purely to set up the book that one truly wants to read after reading LD, Comanche Moon. Virtually all important surviving characters from DMW are still in CM which starts about 10 years later and finishes after about another 10. It does in many ways leave you fulfilled in filling in the gaps of Gus and Call's life, particularly their love life, both minor tragedies unto themselves. Unfortunately I lost the book with about 100 out off 800 pages left and had to wait two weeks before finishing it as I rushed through it in a bookstore not wanting to buy it again. It kind of ruined the end for me I think. Maybe I'll read it again someday. I think I may read LD again before I read Streets of Laredo. LD is really just that good and reading CM makes me want to go back.
Enders Shadow Series (Orson Scott Card)- Ender's Shadow was the parallel novel to the highly acclaimed and well known young adult scifi book Ender's Game. Incidentally if you haven't read EG you really should, it is a modern classic of youth literature. Ender's Shadow was a parallel novel, it followed mostly the same story but from the perspective of a different character, one that was moderately important in EG, Bean. Both books tell the story, taking place in the Earth of about 200 years in future, of a group of children who are sent to 'Battle School' where they learn to command armies to hopefully aid in an expected 3rd war with the only known other sentient species in the galaxy, nickname the 'Buggers'.
There are three sequels to ES; Shadow of the Hegemon, Shadow Puppets, and Shadow of the giant. They all take place in about a 10 year period following the aftermath of that war and are focused on the geopolitical situation of this future earth. The characters are mostly derived from characters in EG/ES and are not it's strong suit. Outside of Bean himself, there are only a couple characters that are particularly intriguing and even then not the strength of the book. What makes this a fun read is watching the evolution of the political situation on earth as being manipulated by a number of different people. In this future construction essentially all of nations of the earth are the same as they are now but the balance of power is somewhat shifted though many things are still the same as well. Basically there has been a loose unity in the nations of earth due to their need to challenge a unifying enemy, the aliens. With that enemy no longer a significant issue, once again the power plays between nations start and war seems almost certain. These are super fast reads written on a pre-college level but plenty clever to keep adults entertained and engaged. A good number of twists and turns plus Bean is a worthy protagonist who you do grow to care about. I enjoyed them and would recommend them to anyone that enjoyed Ender's Game or Ender's Shadow more than I would recommend the sequels to EG.
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies (Jared Diamond): This was the first non-fiction book I read this summer. It won the Pulitzer for non-fiction a few years back. It feels like a member of a growing class of books; books written by academics on academic issues, often combining disciplines, but meant for layman's and at least somewhat readable. The point of the book is to answer why certain societies in earth dominated over certain others. Diamond quickly argues that in recent times (recent being 1400s-present, sufficed to say recent is a relative term) the reasons have been primarily that certain societies either possessed superior weapons, carried diseases that they were largely immune to but others were not, possessed other superior technology which could include not only machines but thing like writing, science, complex government or some combination of those. He uses the symbols, Guns, Germs and Steel for these ideas. Showing that these were the short term reasons for their success is gone over quickly. The majority of the book is spent trying to explain in his opinion how certain societies (in general the Eurasian Societies) got those things in the first place. It is more history than anything, but not a traditional Euro-Centric history, New Guinea is discussed more then all of western Europe combined and the US gets hardly a mention. He refers to a number of different reasons some of which are: variety and nature of plants suitable for agriculture and animals for domestication, whether a land mass has an east/west or north/south primary axis, and other factors. Although he claims it is something else it reads pretty much like environmental determinism to me, not that that is a bad thing. I enjoyed it and it had some ideas that I already had and some others I did not. I think the part I enjoyed the most was learning more about the process of domestication of plants and animals. Towards the end of the book it seemed to get redundant as he just goes from one case study to another proving the same points. I skimmed the last 50 pages. As it has been highly succesful there has also been a great deal of criticism surrounding the book claiming things like: his ideas are stolen, the question he is asking is simpler then he makes it out to be, it just repackaged enviromental determinism and others. All in all I would say a good read if you have an interest in sociological history or just like to learn stuff. I would be lying if I called it a page turner though.
A Song of Ice and Fire Series ( George R.R. Martin)- This is a series that Blake has been trying to get me to read for two years. He loves it and I can see why. It is on the surface just another fantasy series but it is actually quite unique for two reasons. One is that although it is set in a fantasy world a great deal of the book is a very complex political thriller with a good deal of twists. It is by no means the story of some single minded quest for right and good. There are few completely evil characters and only one significant character who has been shown to be always virtuous. It is mostly a world of greys. As the books go on you become more familiar with the different political situations of more places and the universe of the books becomes slowly larger. The other thing I like about these books is their unpredictability, particularly when it comes to mortality. It seems it most fantasy books there are a few characters which about a 1/4 the way through you can be almost positive are going to make it. That is not the case here, no one is sacred and characters that seemed essential can die or leave in a flash. Likewise characters that were merely background or were just casually mentioned can quickly become focal points of the story. Each chapter is from the perspective or a character. For each book there are about 8 of them that get the 1st person treatment. Each book about two of those are changed. I have read the first two: A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings. Four have been written of an eventual six. They are very entertaining and quick reads for their length (~800 pages). I intend to read the rest of the series.
Stargirl (Jerry Spinnelli): I just finished this ultra fast youth read (I can be a sucker for kids books, a few of my campers are reading it right now). It is by the author of one of my all time favorite books, Maniac Magee, a book I read around the 3rd grade and have read about every other year since. Spinnelli has a talent for creating wonderfully endearing characters, people you can't not root for. Stargirl is written from the perspective of Leo a high school Junior. At the start of his junior year a new girl comes to school, Stargirl. She is a wildly unique girl, either ignorant or unconcerned with social norms, caring and nice to a fault, and has a sweetness to her that for me is hard not to fall in love with. Leo has the same problem as he falls in the love with her and her with him. At first the school (it takes place in a fictional suburban outskirt town in Arizona) embraces her and she has a dramatic positive effect on the school, but eventually they turn on her, and Leo. It is a story about non-conformity and young love and some of the difficulties that come along with both. What makes the book is the Stargirl character, supposedly loosely based on Spinnelli's wife, she is an ideal, and a fun one. I really enjoyed this book and found out there is a sequel which came out last August (Stargirl was written in 2000) entitled Love, Stargirl which I intend to read.
Stumbling on Happiness ( Daniel Gilbert)- This is another in what I also think is an growing type of books. They are a more specific group but these are also academic produced books that are highly digestible (more than Guns, Germs and Steel for instance) and are just fascinating reads on human nature and the human condition. Books like Freakonomics, Blink, or The Tipping Point. This book I am currently reading and love. It is about the objective scientific nature of happiness. It attempts to describe fundamentally and empirically what makes us happy. It strives to disabuse people of some highly intuitive notions of what makes both them and other people happy. A great deal of the book is focused on how the human brain works in general in creating memories and imagination and how that relates to our happiness and perception therein. It also talks about the nature of feelings; is thinking you are happy the same as being happy? The author is a physiologist by study and practice but the books samples from many disciplines. It is interesting, clear, and sometimes genuinely funny. It is not a self help book and is not in anyway designed to help anyone achieve happiness. I look forward to finishing it.
Up next will be similar write up on some of my all-time favorites. First I have to figure out what makes the cut.
Joey
Just Finished: Star Girl, Clash of Kings
Currently Reading: Stumbling on Happiness and The Uncommon Reader
On Deck: A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire) and The Tipping Point
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