Book Reviews for November

It's been a while, and I've read a couple of books since the last time I posted. Here are my quick reviews:

Learning the World by Ken MacLeod
This was one of the Hugo nominees for this past year. Synopsis...human civilization has gone a long way towards populating the galaxy, thus far no other intelligent species has been found...up until now. The latest colonization attempt is reaching a world which is populated by bat-people similar in size to human. The world is very similar technologically to the Earth in the 1920's.

This book flips back and forth between two points of view: those of the colonists and those of the bat-people. I actually wish that MacLeod stuck with the story from the bat-people's point of view...to me, at least, this part kept me more interested than on the colony ship. I think what turned me off to the colony ship was that the people on this ship were so different from humans today that I couldn't relate to them...I actually felt closer to the bat-people. Maybe that was what MacLeod was trying to do all along. The ending was a little weak, I was waiting for more stuff to happen and then the book just ended with a convenient resolution. I was kind of disappointed because I was really getting into the story at that point.

The Android's Dream by John Scalzi
John Scalzi is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. Again, Scalzi doesn't delve in any deep concepts/messages, he just writes a really good story with plenty of action and comedy to keep you turning the pages. The book starts off with a chapter-long fart joke assassination of an alien diplomat. In order to prevent the alien race from destroying humanity, which they easily can, a low-level state department official, Harry Creek, who has just the right qualifications (i.e. ex-cop, special forces experience, computer-wiz, etc.) has to track down a genetically modified sheep called the Android's Dream and provide it to the alien race. The only problem is that somebody is killing off all of these sheep and now have their sights set on Harry. I'm afraid of revealing any of the plot twists, so I can't say anymore about the book. Just pick it up, you won't regret it.

My only regret is that I bought this book right away and then found out that Scalzi is offering some signed versions of the book at some of his preferred retailers. I think I will still buy the signed version anyway and give my current version to the library. The great news is that Tor has asked for a sequel to this book...I can't wait to see it!

Encounter with Tiber by Buzz Aldrin and John Barnes
Yes, that Buzz Aldrin. I was actually surprised with the quality of the book. Of course, reading all the technical parts about space travel from an expert was quite exciting for me, considering that I'm getting my Master's in Space Systems. Synopsis...an alien species far more advanced than humans sends a signal to earth with a map to a location on the moon that leads to a library of information from the aliens. The book is divided into a number of parts, some parts deal with trying to get to the library, other parts deal with information obtained from the library (in particular, the telling of some stories from the aliens...this is the part that I enjoyed the most).

It's a pretty good book, which surprised me. I say that because I'm always skeptical of picking up books that are written by more than one author. There's something deep inside me that says, if one person couldn't write it (especially if he isn't an author) it can't be that good. I'm glad to be proven wrong here.

The only thing that I found as a real weakness in this book is one of my major pet peeves when I read novels...a really smart character all of a sudden having such a lack of knowledge in a particular area that another character has to explain it to him, when really the author is just trying to explain the concept to the reader. It really annoys me when an author does this. I don't care if the author has to make a descriptive paragraph or two in order to explain this to the reader...it's science fiction, it's a given that there are going to be some things that a reader doesn't understand. The part that I detest is taking a person so out of character that it is laughable that they don't know the information being explained to them. It doesn't fit in the story, especially when the person has be touted as being uber-smart and is a real distraction for me.

Next Book:
Sun of Suns by Karl Schroeder
(By the way, this book has some real kick-butt cover art. It will definitely be picked up by those people who do judge a book by it's cover.)

Book Review: Cell by Stephen King

When I read Cell, it reminded me very much about another end-of-the world Stephen King novel, The Stand. Don't get me wrong, they are very different books...however I couldn't stop comparing the two as I read them. So I guess this review will end up being a compare/constrast review.

The Stand:

• Population killed off by a biological agent which has become known as Captain Tripps Disease
  
• Very long novel. Complete and Uncut Version comes in at 1,152 pages.
  
• Follows the viewpoints of a number of characters on both sides of the battle which ensues.
  
• Character flaws lead to conflicts later in the novel.

Cell:

• Population turned into zombies by a pulse whenever a cellphone is used.
  
• Shorter novel, only 350 pages.
  
• Follows the viewpoints of one main character.
  
• It seems like none of the main characters can make any mistakes at all.

You can probably tell that I definitely preferred The Stand. Here's why:

• The kill-off scenario is much more realistic. I think that it is a lot more plausible for the world to be affected by some biological agent than by some pulse which turns into zombies. It makes for a much more disturbing book if you have "this might really happen" in the back of your head while you're reading. While there is a bunch of mysticism in The Stand which definitely takes it out of reality, it still makes for a much better read than Cell.
  
• The length of The Stand allows for much more character development. There are probably a lot of people out there who thought The Stand was much too long, I'm definitely not one of them. I really felt that I knew the characters and it affected me a lot more when some of them died. I had no such connection with the characters in Cell.
  
• The different viewpoints approach in The Stand definitely led to me having a closer connection with the characters. I also liked how Mr. King showed that the people on the "evil" side of the conflict weren't pure evil. Cell was very one sided in this regard. I know, I know, zombies aren't supposed to think so how are we supposed to see their point of view. But think of what might have come if we did see the zombie point of view. If he had explored that path, it might have made for a very interesting book indeed.
  
• Finally, the thing that really bugged me about Cell was that it seemed that none of the main characters could make any mistakes...at all. The teenagers were too smart and centered, the adults were too reasonable, even the cat did what cat's are supposed to do. It really got to me after a while, especially the uber-awesome teenagers. While The Stand had it's fair number of characters that didn't have their flaws (Tom Cullen comes immediately to mind) there were a number who had there flaws. This made them more believable in my eyes.

I'm not saying that Cell is a terrible book. The first couple of chapters really had me on the edge of my seat. I even had to force myself to stop reading during the last couple of chapters so that I wouldn't stay up all night finishing the book. These qualities in themselves definitely put the book in the "decent" to "good" categories. However, after a couple of days of digesting the book and comparing it to The Stand, it really doesn't hold it's own when the two books are put side by side. I really consider The Stand to be one of King's masterworks that will stay with me for a long time while Cell is another one of his books which I've read and will soon forget.

Next Books:
Learning the World by Ken MacLeod
The Android's Dream by John Scalzi

Gotta Love Colorado Weather

We had a blizzard yesterday. I think we ended up getting somewhere close to 14" of snow. The wind caused a lot of drifting snow which made it much higher in some places. I probably should have taken some pictures after shoveling the driveway...that really would have shown how high the snow had gotten. Below are some pics that we took at 9:00 AM. It continued snowing for the rest of the day and we had substantially more snow by the time it was all over.



Now, here are some pics from 9:00 PM today...



It got up to about 60 degrees today and the sun was shining all day. In just 36 hours the weather went from "you can't see 15 feet in front of you...only go outside if you dare" to "beautiful fall day...I should put on some shorts and enjoy the weather". I'm not sure if I will ever get used to the weather around here.

Local Politics

Last week I listened to a debate between Jay Fawcett and Doug Lamborn who are running for the US House of Representatives 5th District in Colorado. In case you don't know, the 5th district is considered a republican stronghold which includes such organizations as Focus on the Family. I was quite surprised to hear that the Democrat, Jay Fawcett, is actually in a close race with Doug Lamborn. I think the reason is quite clear if you listen to the debate: Fawcett-Lamborn Debate.

I don't think that I have ever heard a debate where one of the candidates absolutely destroys the other candidate before. This is worse than the first John Kerry vs. George W. Bush debate during the last presidential election. While President Bush came off looking angry and uncomfortable at times, he at least addressed all of the issues and rebutted when he got the chance. Lamborn just stood there and refused to answer point blank questions about how he would do his job. Even mediocre politicians have some kind of answer when asked about what they would do, even if their whole answer is an avoidance of an actual answer (Bill Clinton is the King of this). While I don't agree with all of Fawcett's viewpoints, he has definitely gained my vote. I would much rather have a strong leader representing me in the House than the guy who answers a question with "Next question, please".

Book Reviews for October

I had to stop reading The Count of Monte Cristo. It's a great book and I was thoroughly enjoying it. The only problem is that school work was getting in the way and it was taking way too long to get through the book. I suggest saving off the book until you have the time to read a 1,000+ page book.

The next book that I read was Spin by Robert Charles Wilson. It was the Hugo Award winner for this year and I wanted to see how it stacked up against Old Man's War (which was nominated for the Hugo as well). While I thought that this was good sci-fi, I really didn't enjoy it as much as OMW. I don't know, I guess I'm much more of a military sci-fi dweeb and can't get as much into the hard sci-fi that is found in Spin. It's a very good book and is definitely worth the read. I just enjoyed OMW much more. In fact, I re-read OMW just to make sure I could do a really fresh comparison between the two. In my eyes OMW still wins.

After that, I read The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Wifey recomended it so I decided to give it a try. For some reason, this book seemed very similar to a lot of other coming of age books that I've read in the past. The only difference was that it was set in Afghanistan. There's something that I now call The Sixth Sense Effect. Here's how it goes: After watching The Sixth Sense you come to expect that M. Night Shyamalan's movies will have a huge plot twist somewhere near the end of the movie. As a result, any more M. Night Shyamalan movies that you watch will not surprise you if and when the plot twist occurs. You're expecting it and it's not going to surprise you when it happens. I found that to be the case when I watched The Village. I have a feeling that more people would have enjoyed the movie a lot more if they didn't know that it was directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The Kite Runner suffers from The Sixth Sense Effect since I've read coming of age books before and I know that some huge revelation would be coming. I guessed what the plot twist would be within the first couple of chapters and the rest of the book was a slog once I knew what was going to happen. It's a well written book, but I don't think that it deserves all the hoopla that has surrounded it.

Next Book: Cell by Stephen King

Oh no, not the knees again

I've taken about a 3 week hiatus from running. Unfortunately after the Nielson Challenge, I started pushing myself to run faster during my training runs. As a result, my left knee started hurting again (a recurring injury that I've had since highschool) and I backed off to only running once a week for a couple of weeks. Even then, my knee was still hurting, so I stopped running completely to see if that would help. I haven't felt any twinges in a couple of weeks, so it may be time to start slow jogs again. Back to building that aerobic base...

Obligatory Kid Pics

I just realized that I haven't yet posted any pictures of the kids. What blog is complete without the inevitable kid pictures. Here are some of my favorite of the most recent pictures...

Woo hoo!

Ran in an event called the Nielson Challenge today. It's basically a 2-mile practice race on a very flat course that occurs on the first Saturday of every month. After your first race, you are given a handicap (pretty much equal to the running average of your top 6 times during the last 24 months, with some incentives added if you run more often) and all other races are run against the handicap. The person who beats their handicap by the largest amount wins the race. It's a pretty neat event considering that you can win the race even if you come in last place...you just have to improve over your average time by the most amount. More details can be found at the Pikes Peak Road Runners website: http://www.pprrun.org/

The reason for the exclamation in the title of this post was because I beat my running goal by a lot! I was aiming to run under an average pace of 10 minutes/mile (in other words, run the race in under 20 minutes) while running negative splits (i.e. run the 2nd half of the race faster than the first half of the race). I ended up running the race in 16:09. My first mile was somewhere around 8:16. That puts my 2nd mile at 7:53! The average for both miles was 8:09. Not only did I accomplish everything that I set out to do, I did it in style! I was able to run the last 1/8 mile at pretty much a full sprint. I used to be able to do this in highschool, but I was usually disappointed in myself because I felt that I had saved too much energy for the end. In this race, I felt like I had worked hard throughout the race and that the sprint at the end was everything I had to give.

One thing that I learned about was that my max heart rate is 188 beats per minute (at least that was the heart rate I had at the finish line). I also realized that my training runs can probably be run at a slightly faster pace. Unfortunately, one of the things that came up this week is that my training runs are taking up too much time. I'll have to reduce the number of times a week that I run from 5 to 3. As a result, I've just totally revised my training schedule between now and October 28th. My goal for this year's race is to run at a 7:39 pace, putting my race finishing time at 23:46. That's a 30 second improvement over today's race pace...I think I should be able to do that over the next 8 weeks.

No, this is not some weird form of driveway art

We just got a whole bunch of dirt (under the tarp), mulch, rock, and railroad ties delivered. Boy, are we going to have some fun getting this stuff moved from the driveway onto our yard!

Quick Update

Pleasure reading has come to a screeching halt. Just started my next class in my Mechanical Engineering degree. It is called "Analysis of Mechanical and Aerospace Systems". I feel like I'm woefully unprepared for the course since our text is Modern Control Theory by William Brogan. I've heard a lot of good things about this book, but thus far it seems to be working with the assumption that the student has taken a Controls course. Right now I'm giving myself a crash course in Classical Control Theory and I'm hoping that I'll have enough knowledge to get me through...

Sailing was absolutely awesome. Even though it was a small lake, it was definitely big enough to get me hooked. We did most of our sailing on Sunfish, but I also got a chance to go on a Fireball (definitely too much boat for me) and I spent an afternoon sailing a Butterfly. I had a ton of fun (especially the 2nd weekend when we had fairly steady winds) and I can't wait to get back out again!

Running is still going strong. I'm up to 16.5 miles/week and I will be doing a 2 mile test race next Saturday. My current goal is to finish at a pace under 10 minutes a mile. We will see how that goes.

Still With The Water Issues

As a follow up to the previous post...

The funny part is that I've waited until now to decide that I want to learn to sail. No, living next to Lake Ontario and the Finger Lakes most of my life wasn't good enough. Moving to Philly didn't suffice either. Nope, I've got to wait until we move to the Rockies where the things they call "lakes" are what most Easterners would call "ponds". About the only place you can sail is in the man-made reservoirs that serve as the region's potable water supply. I'll be taking my first class this weekend in Standley Lake. The image at the left shows a nice comparison of Standley Lake against Conesus Lake in New York. If Conesus is considered a small lake...it looks like Standley is tiny.

Oh well, the "Wildlife Refuge" part of Standley is actually pretty cool. Apparently, they have some bald eagles nesting on the lake and a whole section is blocked off so that humans don't disturb their habitat. Maybe we will see them flying around while out on the water. Now that would be cool!

We've Got Water Issues

Growing up in Rochester, NY sure did not get me ready for the weather here in the mountains. I always pictured the Rockies to be just like the Appalachian mountains...only much bigger. You know...lush forests, crystal clear mountain lakes, and snow topped peaks. Boy was I wrong. Where Rochester has about 300 days of rain/snow a year, Colorado Springs has about 300 sunny days a year. I've heard the area described as a high plains desert...which I'm guessing is pretty true.

It is extremely dry over here. If you dig into the soil (if you want to call it that), you find that it is actually only sand. In the summer, we get almost daily afternoon thunderstorms which usually dump a whole bunch of rain (and sometimes hail) in about 20 minutes. Then the clouds blow away and it's clear skies for the rest of the evening. The drenching will do very little for actually watering the lawns (and all the water just drains through the sand immediately); as a result, almost every house in the Springs automatically comes with a sprinkler system. You have to let the water run for about an hour every day in order to keep your grass green. I just about had a heartattack last year when I opened my first utility bill which reached $300...$250 of which was the water portion alone.

At that point I decided that having a green front lawn really didn't matter. Our house is located in a portion of the street that doesn't lend itself to playing out front. The solution, out with the lawn and in with the rocks and mulch. We will have a small island next to one of the trees where we will plant native plants. The rest will be rocks. I've rerouted our sprinklers so that they only cover the tiny little island. For the most part, we will keep the back yard the same. At least we will be cutting out half of the watering needs for our lawn.

We've been working on this project most of the summer. We've just finished tilling the lawn into the ground. Now all we have to do is lay down the lawn fabric and bring in the rocks. I'll post some before and after pictures once the project is finished.

On the Road Again

Seeing Floyd Landis win the Tour de France inspired me to start long-distance running again. Of course, that was before the whole possible doping scandal blew up yesterday. I personally don't believe that he tried to enhance his performance. It would be ridiculous because (1) taking testosterone will not have a significant effect on an athlete's performance until at least a week afterwards, and (2) any athlete who wins a stage of the Tour de France automatically gets tested after the race. Floyd would have to be a complete idiot to think that he could get away with cheating like that. One of the things that I find interesting is that I have seen very little talk about the tests themselves and how the B sample is tested differently from the A sample. Is there any more rigorous testing that occurs the second time around? Does the B sample get tested at a separate independant laboratory? I've heard that the test is a measurement of the ratio between testosterone and epitestosterone, and that these measurements could be different from person to person. Does the test take into account the person's normal ratio of testosterone? I will have to plead ignorance with many of my questions...I'm just frustrated that I can't find the information about the test.

But I digress. Either way, whether Floyd cheated or not, I have still been compelled to start training for my first 5K since highschool. I was never a stellar runner. After 6 years of running cross-country, my best time was 20 minutes and 21 seconds at the McQuaid invitational. McQuaid is a fairly flat course and therefore it is really fast. My goal is to run a 5K in under 20 minutes by Fall 2007. This is a goal that I always had in highschool, but never quite followed through on. It's going to take a lot of consistent work to get there, but I think I can do it. After all, I never really did a good job with my training when I was younger. Here's my plan for getting to my goal:

- Train between now and my 1st race to build my aerobic base. This basically consists of running at 60-75% of my maximum heartrate 5 times a week. I will slowly build up the mileage until I get up to 20 miles a week. This is something that I NEVER did before.
- Run my first race on October 28th, 2006. It will be the Manitou Springs Mayor's Cup. It sounds like a pretty cool race with a whole lot of other things going on, including the yearly Emma Crawford Coffin Races that I've heard so much about.
- Continue training throughout the winter, working my way up to 30 miles a week. This is where living in Colorado Springs will really come in handy since our winters are relatively mild. Once I'm up to a 30 mile/week aerobic base, add interval training and tempo runs to the mix so that I can increase my 5K speed.
- Participate in the Nielson Challenges throughout the winter. These are really cool free 2 mile races that are put on by the Pikes Peak Road Runners. Basically, each time you run, they record the time that you run and then keep a running average of your times. The race is actually against your average. The person who has the best improvement over their average wins the race. These will help gauge how well I'm progressing with my winter training.
- Participate in a number of 5K events leading up to the 2007 Manitou Springs Mayor's Cup. These may include the following events: Tortoise & Hare (another really cool race), Take 5 in the Garden, Sailin' Shoes 5K, Woodland Park Mayor's Cup, and Colorado Springs Mayor's Cup. Descriptions for all of the races can be found on the Pikes Peak Road Runners website.
- Run the 2007 Manitou Springs Mayor's Cup in under 20 minutes!

Why, you say, am I writing this in my blog? So that I'm comitted. I've now posted it and I will be lying to myself and all of my anxious blog readers (all 1 of you) if I don't follow through.

Wish me luck.

P.S. It wasn't only Floyd Landis who inspired me, but also my friend The Wolf. He participated in a triathalon last August (follow this link to read his exploits) and ever since then the bug has been in the back of my mind. In fact, The Wolf also inspired me to start a blog. You'll notice that my first entry in this blog started about 2 months after reading The Wolf's blog.

Sabres Logo

According to some news around the net, this is the new Buffalo Sabres logo for next year. I hate it and I think many other fans hate it as well. When I heard that the Sabres were going to go back to the blue and gold scheme, I was under the impression that it would be something reminiscent of the orignal Sabres logo with the buffalo and two sabres crossed. It was one of the few logos out there which you could literally read the team's name from the pictures. There are not many teams that could do that. Now we have a buffalo that looks very much like a flying slug or a really bad hairpiece. If you're a Sabres fan and you don't like the logo either, voice your opinion at www.fixthelogo.com. As of the publishing of this post, there are 20,000 Sabres fans who agree with me. I'm not sure if this will make any difference, but it's worth a shot.

Good thing I moved here...

You're Colorado!

You really enjoy getting high. Even though it's often a lot of work, the
view from the top is almost always worth the effort. Your distance from others makes
your relationship with them rather rocky at times, but they do look up to you. Be very
careful around schools. And stop being quite so focused on the number 5,280!

Take the State Quiz
at the Blue Pyramid.

Book Review - The Theban Mysteries

The Theban Mysteries by Amanda Cross
Very dated book and a little too hoight-toighty for me. Wasn't worth reading. I'll give mysteries one or two more shots, but if they are similar to this one, I'll have to pass on the genre.

Next Book:
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (2nd time reading this one)

Book Review - Agent to the Stars

Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi
Funny sci-fi. It's free on-line, so just give it a try. http://scalzi.com/agent/

I'm not a mainstream sports kind of guy

I'm not your typical sports fan in America. Most of the time when I'm talking to my friends, they only watch certain sports and I'm usually the only one watching others. Here's a list of all the sports that I can think of off the top of my head:

Football:
Let's just say thank God for Tivo. The only way I can watch football is by fast forwarding through all of the commercial breaks, standing around, and commentary that goes on. I can usually zip through a 4 hour broadcast in about an hour and a half. Even then, it's a little too much because my thumb starts to cramp up.

Basketball:
I only watch the NCAA tournament, and that's only to see if the teams I picked in my bracket moved on to the next round. It turns out that I either come in last place, or I look like a genius because I picked Syracuse to go to the final four. Go figure.

Baseball:
Shoot me now. Put me out of my misery. This would be the thing that they would be showing me if I was the hooligan from A Clockwork Orange. I have a feeling that a lot of people will agree with me on this one.

Golf:
Ditto.

Hockey:
I can watch this anytime, anywhere. I'm just so happy that the NHL came back this year. I can't wait until next year.

Soccer:
Here, I'm a typical American. What's so exciting about watching 22 people run around a field for 90 minutes. I made a valiant effort to watch the World Cup this year; I just don't think we're wired to watch that sport.

Bicycling - Tour de France:
Now here's a sport that I can get into. A 3 week battle where the best prepared cyclist with the best team usually wins. I like the drama that this race creates. Don't get me wrong, I still fast forward through most of the flat stages...but I will stop to watch the climbs & sprints and I'm glued to the TV during the time trials.

Tennis:
Yup, I like this one to. I can attribute my fondness for this sport since this is one of the few sports that my father and I watched together.

That said, it's time for me to get caught up on my Wimbledon and Tour de France highlights...

A much maligned post...now that's evil!

In a recent news article from the Buffalo News, the reporter references the "maligned defensman Rory Fitzpatrick". I don't know if I'm getting defensive since Rory grew up in my hometown and went to highschool with me, but it really irks me when reporters attach "maligned" to his name. It bugged me so much, that I went to look up the definition. Here's what I found:

Malign:
1. Evil in disposition, nature, or intent.
2. Evil in influence; injurious.
3. Having or showing malice or ill will; malevolent.

Wow, that's sounds a little harsh. Don't you think? This isn't the first time I've seen this word associated with Rory or even with other athletes who aren't performing at the top of their games. Yeah they may be out there making some mistakes which may or may not affect the outcome of the game, but come on, do we have to call them evil for making mistakes? I'm pretty sure they are not out there saying to themselves "I'm really going to mess up this play because I really hate this team, town, etc. and I'm really evil". I know it may sound like I'm blowing things out of proportion, but I really can't stand it when people say "Well, they are professionals, they shouldn't be making mistakes like that". I think that's BS. We're all professionals, we are all getting paid to do something professionally, be it flipping burgers, writing software, or playing sports. I really don't like the whole "they get paid so much more than me" argument either, that's directly related to the market price for professional sports. It doesn't make these people any more professional than anybody else. It's a career and I can't imagine what it would be like if every mistake that I made was scrutinized across the nation. Of course, that's one of the hazards that you take on when your job is televized (well, at least it is televized all over Canada).

I guess my main beef is using such strong language to describe someone who is not playing at the top of their game. After all, just the previous NHL season (2003-4) was a career season for Fitzie were Lindy Ruff "was not afraid to put him on the ice for any type of situation" (see NHL.com article). Additionally, he has twice been awarded the Rochester Amerks McCulloch Trophy for community service. This hardly sounds evil to me.

Book Review

The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
Sequel to Old Man's War. Didn't quite have me as hooked as OMW, but I still enjoyed it. Definitely give it a try if you are into Military Sci-Fi.

Currently reading:
Agent to the Stars by John Scalzi. I'm actually reading this online at www.scalzi.com.

Next book:
The Theban Mysteries by Amanda Cross

We don't want any!

Several months ago, wifey put up a sign on our front door that says "No Solicitation". The primary reason was because we kept getting people coming over in the middle of the day trying to sell us new windows, give us lawn care service, save our souls, sign a petition, help a kid through college by subscribing to a newspaper...you get the idea. Without fail, these people would ring the doorbell just after wifey got our daughter down to bed. The dogs would bark their heads off like crazy and nap time for the little one would be shot for the day. That pretty much guarantees no sale at this house...you try selling products to someone just after you have ruined their afternoon.

While the number of callers we get has been greatly reduced, we still get the occasional person who ignores the sign and rings anyway. As if that isn't bad enough they usually ask me if my parents are home. I understand that they are trying to do their job, but it takes all my self control not to go off on them not only for interrupting our family dinner but also for assuming that I'm not old enough to own my own house. I know I'm not being fair, but it's the way I feel.

I'm seriously thinking of putting up a sign in hot pink that says "If you don't know us and you are trying to sell us stuff, please do not ring our doorbell because we don't want any. If you do decide to ring the doorbell, unless the person who answers the door is under 3' tall, you ARE speaking to the owner of the house." I just don't think that I can bring myself to do it because I know that I will blow up at the next unknown person who decides to ring our doorbell. With my luck, it would be somebody trying to do a good deed by returning one of our dogs, or something like that.

It's been a while...

(originally published on 6/27/2006 in Fubaar's Books)

OK, wow, I totally forgot about my blog. I think I got embarrased with some of the books that I was reading and decided that it wasn't worth it to write a post. It all went downhill from there.

Let's see if I can remember what I've read since last October...

S.M. Stirling's Island in the Sea of Time
Nantucket gets zapped back into 1250 B.C. and the inhabitants have to figure out how to survive without the comforts of modern life. This was a cool alternate history/time travel book. After reading this, I started reading the sequels to this book. It's a fun set of books, but after a while you kind of think to yourself...when is it going to end. The books just keep going and going.

S.M. Striling's Dies the Fire
The first book in a parrallel series to the Nantucket books above. The premise is that a blinding white light originates over the island of Nantucket and spreads over the whole globe (supposedly, this is when Nantucket is thrown back in time). After the white light is gone, physics has changed such that electricity and explosives no longer work. The rest of the story follows the survivors of the Event and what they do to survive. This book had a cool concept, but I got pretty tired of Stirling's writing style. I don't even remember if I finished this book or if I just gave up because I knew there were multiple sequels that I just didn't want to read.

After these books, I got a little tired of reading the same genre over and over again, so I started looking for reading suggestions. Quite by accident, I stumbled on the Nancy Pearl podcasts on NPR. So far, I've liked about 65% the books that she has suggested. She's got two books out called Book Lust and More Book Lust, which are essentially books with reading lists in them. If you're looking for some suggestions, I would highly recommend these as a starting place. Here are the books that I've read from Nancy Pearl's suggestions:

The Prestige by Christopher Priest
If you like magic then this book is for you. It's a novel about two magicians, their hatred for each other, and their secrets that they want to keep the other from finding out. I'm not much for magic myself, but I still found the book intriguing. However, the book got a little weird toward the end and the plot twists actually turned me off from enjoying the ending.

The Calligrapher by Edward Docx
This book is about a playboy who falls desperately in love with a gorgeous woman...Nancy Pearl put this book into her "Dick Lit" category. I didn't really like the protagonist from the start, so I was pretty lukewarm with the book all the way through. Probably since I didn't get involved with the main character's life, I was able to guess some of the plot twists early on in the book.

Flanders by Patricia Anthony
This book is a World War I soldier's account of the war through the letters he writes home to his brother. I really liked this book and will probably read it again at some point.

A Sport and a Pastime by James Salter
No, this book isn't about baseball. I think it was supposed to be some coming of age story, but I couldn't get into the book.

Old Man's War by John Scalzi
What a kick-ass book! I knew that I would eventually get back into Sci-Fi again...I just can't help it, I think it is in my blood. If you liked Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers then you will love this book. Scalzi actually used ST as a model for this book. However, he's not just regurgitating the same sci-fi themes that any old hack can come up with...he's got some really innovative ideas that he weaves into the story. I'm currently reading The Ghost Brigades, which is a sequel to Old Man's War, and I'm thoroughly enjoying that book as well. Check out Scalzi's website (www.scalzi.com). He regularly blogs on the website, still answers fan's posts, and he even has an online novel Agent to the Stars, which I'm reading as well.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
Actually, Nancy Pearl didn't recomend this directly. Wifey had started listening to the book on tape again and once I heard it, I just had to read it again. This must be the 5th time I've read the book. However, this is one of the Sci-Fi books that Nancy Pearl does highly recomend.

OK, that's about it. I could say that I will be better at writing posts, but that would be a lie.

Some of the books that slipped through the cracks

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin - mediocre, at best

Native Son by Richard Wright - 2nd time trying this book. Once I read the preface which told me that this wasn't supposed to be an easy book to read (i.e. you won't like the protagonist), I had an easier time reading it...kind of funny. I was able to appreciate it a lot more this time and will definitely read it again.

The Rama Series

(originally published on 10/04/2005 in Fubaar's Books)

I completed the Rama series by Arthur C. Clarke a couple of weeks ago and I'm finally getting around to writing my reviews...

Rendezvous with Rama
Premise: In the beginning of the 22nd century, a large cylindrical object enters the solar system headed on a trajectory where it will pass the Sun and then get slingshot out again. The Earth sends a crew of astronauts to check out the object before it leaves. They find that the object is actually a mini-world complete with cities and a sea...the only problem is that the world seems totally uninhabbited except for a number of robots which seem to have biological components (biots).
Review: I loved the concept and the description of the alien world. The only problem is that I finished the book and I was left feeling that nothing happened. The crew landed, got inside, observed the world through some environmental changes, saw some robots, and then left. I kept feeling that there was so much more that could have been done with the book. I almost gave up on the series, but wifey convinced me that the 2nd book had a lot more action in it.

Rama II
Premise: Written in conjunction with Gentry Lee. It's a little less than a century passed since the first Rama craft appeared in our solar system. Since that time, the world has gone through a major economical depression. The world is just getting back on it's feet again when scientists notice another Rama craft approaching. This time, the crew sent up to investigate the craft has a specific goal of trying to capture one of the biots and make contact with the alien species if possible.
Review: Ok, wifey was right, this book definitely had a lot more action in it. Also, the character development was much better...this time I felt like I really cared for some members of the crew, while I despised others. I don't want to ruin any of the twists, so I'll just leave it as a pretty good read.

Garden of Rama
Premise: Jeez, I'm realizing that if I write too much about the premise for this book then I would ruin certain parts of the 2nd book. The same will be true for the last book in the series. So the generic premise is that this is a continuation of the Rama series. =)
Review: This book is basically a discussion on human nature. It asks the question, "what would happen if the human race could start over again, would it follow the same path of war and corruption that we have seen in history?" I don't think that the authors really gave the "start over" concept a really fair chance. Still, it was a very interesting read and there is a killer cliff hanger ending.

Rama Revealed
Review: This book really needed to be cut down. After a while, I just kept saying to myself "ok, I get it, stop beating this dead horse and get to the ending". My suggestion, read the first three books. Then, check this book out of the library and read the first couple of chapters to resolve the cliff hanger ending from the previous book. Then, skip to the end and read the last couple of chapters. Most of the 300 pages in the middle could probably be cut down to 100 pages...this would make it into a much better book.

Next books on my list:
The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
Native Son by Richard Wright

My love affair with sci-fi...

(originally posted on 10/04/2005 in Fubaar's Books)

...started in the summer between my Freshman and Sophmore year in college. I was in Puerto Rico for about 2 months living with my sister and brother-in-law. My brother-in-law introduced me to Frank Herbert's Dune and I was hooked. I quickly read through the first three books in the series, decided God Emperor Dune wasn't worth finishing, and temporarily stopped reading for pleasure when I returned to college.

I really didn't start reading heavily again until I graduated from college. All of a sudden, I found myself with a whole lot of free time at night. I was living with someone else, but he was in law school and way to busy to hang out every night. The free time got split between reading and going to the bars. I quickly went through a lot of the classics...Hyperion, Stranger in a Strange Land, The Stars My Destination, etc. Some I liked, some I didn't. Then I encountered Ender's Game and I was hitched for life. There's just something about the genre that keeps me hooked. I guess its the idea of space travel and colonization of other planets which really interests me.

The big surprise for me, was Stephen King. Wifey introduced me to him shortly after we started dating. Up to that point, I thought that he only cranked out cheap horror books which were good for a quick buck. Boy, was I surprised when I started reading The Gunslinger and found the fantasy/sci-fi side of Stephen King. I loved The Dark Tower series along with all of his other books which tie into the series. I also couldn't put down The Stand; occasionally when I hear someone cough, I think to myself "I hope they don't have Captain Tripps Disease" and a chill runs up and down my spine.

I will occasionally delve into other genres as well. I think my next two favorite subjects would have to be African/African American Literature (Roots, Uncle Tom's Cabin, Cry the Beloved Country, Things Fall Apart, etc.) and then Alternate History Fiction (Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus, 1632, etc.).

The African/African American Literature definitely stems from the way my parents raised me. They always taught me to judge people by their actions, not by the color of their skin. When I read these books, I can still see the discrimination which is still present today...I'm not just talking about African Americans, I'm also talking about Latinos, Asians, Middle Easterners, and anyone else who is chastised for looking different or having a different set of beliefs from the "mainstream" society.

OK, I better stop before I get up on my high horse. The subject of discrimination/ignorance in today's society is definitely way too long of a subject to get into right now. I think I would need a couple of hours of writing in order to get all my thoughts on that subject off of my chest. Until next time...

Down to one

OK, I give up trying to keep up two blogs. Seeing how often I contribute to this blog, it's probably a wise idea to go down to one...nobody reads either of them anyways. I will retire my books blog and put my book reviews into this blog instead. I think I will also keep my reviews to one line unless I feel particularly passionate about a book...I don't have the time to write a book report for each one I read. Having two kids will do that to you.

Just so that I don't lose some of my previous info, I will copy my book review posts over here and then remove my other blog.