Flying Feeling

I pushed the pedal down, feeling a thrill of exhilaration and a stab of anxiousness, wondering if I could make it up the hill without the tell tell knock, knock, knocking of a misfiring cylinder. My car has been under the weather for awhile, engine light on, leaving me fearful of standing, stranded on the side of the highway. I've tried a few things and hit the road with anticipation to see if they've done the trick, usually ending with a car that runs better but still not hitting on all four. So there I was climbing that hill, accelerator depressed, fourth gear, hit the clutch, threw the transmission into fifth... and sailed right on over the crest without a knock or a ping. Yes! Hallelujah! I sped on up to the limit and over, only slightly though, I didn't need to risk a ticket and thus bring my spirits crashing down. By the time I returned home the engine light was off, waiting to warn and frighten me again another day. While I am elated there's still a fear lurking in my mind that it's all just a fluke, that come Monday my car will be back to it's old tricks, and tics and knocks and pings, but if it does I'll just go back to the drawing board and try, try again. But for a night at least I felt like I was flying.

Some books I've read.

So it's been awhile, again. I think I started my last blog the same way, anywho, sometimes I post on here about books I've read, sometimes I put a note on facebook and sometimes just a status update will do the trick. It's been three books back since I've posted about any of them so I thought a blog would be a nice fit. The last book I remember posting about was Faithless:Tales of Transgression by Joyce Carol Oates (to recap, it's a short story collection, I liked most of them). So after the somewhat long, short story collection I turned to something light and predictable but also enjoyable, The DayBreakers by Louis L'amour. If it were an old movie western it'd be the white hats versus the black hats, with just enough ambiguity thrown in (except for the hero who never waivers,of course)to give the story a minuscule amount of depth. But you don't read paperback westerns for depth you read them for the never give up, tough as nails, gun-slinging, gentlemen heroes and lines like these: "The first thing I was learning was there are times when a man had to kill and times when he had no need to. Reed Carney wanted a shoot out and he wanted to win, but me, I'm more than average contrary.", "There would be trouble enough, but man is born to trouble, and it is best to meet it when it comes and not lose sleep until it does." More than average contrary, I love that line.
After Louis I dove in to Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, the first in his Millennium series, it was a big hit in Sweden and then a big hit here, they've already made Sweedish movies out of the trilogy and now there making them in Hollywood. So I thought I'd give it a try. It starts out a little slow as it sets up the characters and then it becomes a whirlwind page turner for most of the book. Reading it I was loving it and then it hit some sour notes, the Swedish title literally translate to Men Who Hate Women and that title is very much to the point. There's some real sadistic characters in this novel and I don't care to read about such goings on, had I know what I was in for I don't know that I would have started reading it in the first place. So by the time I finished the book I wasn't planning to read the sequels. Now, I'm not so sure because the main character Lizbeth Salander, despite being a little too over the top, is a really good character. Larsson said the idea for the character was a sort of Pipi Longstocking grown up, and I might add a little, no lot, twisted.
Then finally, this blog has gotten long winded I'm afraid, Transparent Things by Vladimir Nabokov. Again one I liked at the outset better than at the end, although let me hastily add that I still did like it at the end. It's the story of a person, Hugh Person to be exact, and his four trips to Switzerland (I just now realized I read back to back books set mostly in Switzerland) and it's about the transparent nature of life, things, and memories. Near the beginning there's a fantastic chapter about a pencil that falls out a desk drawer that Mr. Person tries to close. It runs down the history of the pencil from great tree to manufacturing to much sharpened and very little thought of pencil. Near the end Nabokov says, "Human life can be compared to a person dancing in a variety of forms around his own self...,going faster and faster and gradually forming a transparent ring of banded colors around a dead person or planet." This novella was... interesting and entertaining but also a little bit of a downer so next up is Christopher Moore's Bloodsucking Fiends, which should be an lol read.

Shakespeare and Spark Notes

I just finished reading The Merchant of Venice yesterday and besides the seeming anti-Semitism it's a good show. While reading Shakespeare's history plays I got in the habit of reading a synopsis of the play after finishing it to see if I had it all straight in my head, a few plays back I discovered Spark Notes (SN) and I wish I had found it when I first started reading my way through Shakespeare, it's really a great resource. The SN page address the antisemitism in this play and shows that in the context of the plays of Shakespeare's time he actually presents a human side to what would be considered a stock character (the evil Jew). It's this Jew (Shylock) that utters the now famous line, "If you prick us do we not bleed? If you tickle us do we not laugh? If you poison us do we not die?" So while Shylock is the heavy in this show and is stereotypical he also elicits some sympathy. Another point that SN highlights that I completely missed is the possibility that Antonio (the title merchant) has a repressed homosexual attachment to the lead male, Bassanio. The female lead, Portia, is a great character and according to SN one of Shakespeare's first strong female roles. It's neat to note that the three main women of the show go in drag at one point or another, a regular Shakespearean device, which would have been very funny in his time since, of course, all the female roles were played by men. So you had men playing women dressed as men. In the end all is well and everyone is happy and in love, except for poor Shylock and Antonio.

Book, book, play: kind of like duck, duck, goose but without the running.

It's been awhile since (I saw your face) I've blogged and almost as long since I've read others blogs. So I've just read about ten blogs and now I'm posting one of my own. In the past couple weeks I've finished reading two books and a play - Lao Tzu Tao Te Ching, Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar, and Shakespeare's Love's Labor Lost. The Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu or as the translator of the copy I read believed the title is actually Lao Tzu Tao Te Ching and it is a collection of old Chinese proverbs (that one about the man with a hole in his pocket wasn't in there) that fall into the Taoist tradition. I read this after reading, and really liking, the Tao of Pooh and while there are some really great pearls of wisdom within it's pages there's also a lot of double talk, the kind you might find in self-help books written by would be sage's. In the introduction the translator says to understand the Tao Te Ching you have to know something of the time when it was written and goes on to explain that it was a time of political upheavals in China and that to find yourself on the wrong 'side' could mean literally losing your head, this is why the Tao Te Ching says to be like water always taking the lower but wearing away the harder and higher. Taoism has three gems (tenants) that are expressed in the Tao Te Ching - compassion, moderation and humility. Sounds like some pretty good gems to me.
   Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein is an overview introduction to some of the great names of philosophy and there main thoughts. According the the authors jokes and philosophy have much in common they both have a set-up and a pay off and they both try to shock us into seeing the world a little differently. The two writers use jokes to illustrate and explain some of the main thoughts and branches of philosophy. It was a really enjoyable book I wish I could remember have of what I read in it, my only complaint is that it wasn't longer. I would loved for them to have spent a little more time on each person and thought. I thought I'd share a couple of the jokes that I can remember- A man wants to get married but can't decide which of three women he's been seeing to propose to so he gives each woman a thousand dollars to see what she'll do with it. The first women goes and gets a new do, makeup, manni-petti, and new clothes and tells him it's all so she can look good for him. The second women goes out and buys lots of presents for the man and says making him happy is what makes her happy. The third women invests the money and makes big on it and tells him she's investing for their future. So which one did he marry? The one with the biggest tits of course. (I can't remember what point that was illustrating but I thought it was funny.)
      (This one isn't politically correct, sorry) Two Jewish men are walking down the street when they see a sign in front of a Catholic church that say's they'll give a thousand dollars to anyone who'll convert. One of the guys decides to go in and see what it's all about. The other guy waits on the sidewalk for a very long time, finally the guy that went in comes out. The guys on the sidewalk says, "Well? What happened?", the other guys says, "I converted." so the guys on the sidewalk says, "Did you get the money?" and the other guy says, "Is that all you people think about?" (This one was illustrating an Reductio ad absurdum.)
    One more and I promise I'm done with this book - An 85 year old man goes to his doctor and tells him his younger wife is pregnant and he's not sure how it could happen at his age. The doctor says let me tell you a little story, a man decides to go bear hunting but on the way out of the house he grabs an umbrella instead of his gun, he finds a bear, raises the umbrella and shoots, and the bear is shot and killed. What would say to that? The old man says, "I say someone else must have shot the bear." "My point exactly." says the doctor.

   And now the play Love's Labors Lost by ole Bill Shakespeare, the first of the comedies I actually enjoyed. The humor is mostly made of wit and biting sarcasm, Shakespeare would have been great at a Friar's Roast. The play center's on three men and their king vowing to study for three years forsaking all other things, including love. So of course they are visited by a princess and her ladies in waiting and all fall madly in love. At first I thought the women were being royal (pardon me here) bitches but then you learn they thought the men wooed them in jest and both parties verbally dismantle the folks who try to put on a show for them. Eventually all is resolved and the women promise to wait for the men if they make there vows true (but only for a year, not three.)

It's Kind of a Funny Story - movie review.

 I don't often do movie reviews but most movies don't touch me the way this one did, so I thought I'd share. It's Kind of a Funny Story is a coming of age story about a young man, Craig, under pressure (there's a cool scene in which that song is sung) who is contemplating committing suicide and ends up checking himself into, somewhat accidentally, a mental ward. In broad strokes you know where this film is going, have probably seen others like it but it's in the finer strokes that this film really shines. So yes Craig makes friends in the Ward, one of which is a romantic interest, Noelle, and one is a fellow inmate mentor/guru, played wonderfully by Zack Galifianakis and there's the cast of unusual characters who become part of Craig's life as he faces triumphs and setbacks and eventually break throughs. The finer strokes lends this movie credibility and makes the viewer feel connected to the characters and their trials. I think all of us, at least I know I do, sometimes feel we can't handle the pressures of life, that we are overwhelmed and under prepared for the many and diverse challenges that simple being born brings. There have been times when I wished I could lock myself away from life, either in a mental ward, or a hermitage. I'd hate to admit the number of times I've fantasized of dropping off the grid and buying a small one room cabin and subsistence farm or when I'm not so ambitious in my escapism daydreams I ponder a life of agoraphobia. I don't believe I'm alone in sometimes feeling the squeeze and Craig comes to find this out as well, yes there are problems in every life we just all have to try and find our way to deal with them. Another thing I enjoyed about this film is that it uses some neat visual effects to externalize Craig's internal feelings. Some films need to be 'real' but it's great that a film like this will use different visual styles, film is a visual media, you can do things in a film you could never do in a play or in a book, so I like it when a film shows you something unexpected visually. Just so long as it fits the story and doesn't get overplayed that is and this film did it right. In fact it did most every thing right, striking a good balance of comedy and drama, realism and pie-in-the-sky optimism. It was never over the top, even Galifianakis, and it left you feeling good, feeling that while there will always be pressure there will also always be ways to cope.

We Were the Mulvaneys; a book review.

"We were the Mulvaneys, remember us?... For a long time you envied us, then you pitied us." These lines from the opening of Joyce Carol Oates magnificent story of family, family lost and family found, sum up the novel wonderfully. I feel like this novel deserves more than the meager review I can give, it needs a paper or thesis, there's so many subtexts and issues dealt with and it packs such an emotional wallop, bordering on  maudlin at times but thankfully never crossing over into Sparks territory. Corinne the matriarch of the Mulvaney clan is an antique lover, supposed dealer but she can seldom part with her finds, she especially loves clocks. Every room of High Point Farm, where the Mulvaneys lived was filled with clocks, no two keeping the same time much like the members of the family themselves, each marching along to his/her on tick-tick-tick. Perhaps I'm reading too much into it but the fact that the only clock that was know to have the 'right' time was the one Michael Sr.'s, the father of the tribe, friends had giving him. Michel Sr.'s self-made life depended so much on how he felt society saw him and that turned out to be one of his biggest faults and one of the biggest drivers of the conflict in this story. I don't want to give too much away because I really hope others will read this book so let me gingerly out line it for you. This great, picturesque all-American family (Michael Sr., Corinne, Micheal Jr., Patrick, Marianne, Judd and a host of dogs, cats and horses) live on a great, picturesque all-American farm (High Point Farm) in upstate New York. The family seems blessed and lucky hence the narrator (Judd, the youngest Mulvaney) saying you may have envied us, until something terrible happens to one of the family members and the family begins to fall apart (and then you pitied us). One of the underlying messages of the book is that our lives are not entirely our own, our decisions, our actions affect everyone that loves us. In fact you could say that the burden of love is caring about what happens to others. When something terrible happens to a member of this close-knit family it has a jarring effect on all members of the family. The terrible thing that happens though isn't even really the time and life redefining moment, merely the event that starts it, the real tragedy is a decision to try and save the family that just rips it apart. You just feel like screaming at the characters- "No! No! No! Don't do it, how can you?" I think one of Oates' greatest achievements in this book is making you care so much for the characters, early on you fall in love with Corinne and the farm (the farm is as much a character in the book as the people) and when things start falling apart Oates pulls away from Corinne and the farm, their always in the back ground but others now take center stage. That pulling back has an emotional impact on the story, you love Corinne yet your mad at her and that relegating her to the back ground for awhile emphasizes and compounds those feeling. Like I said this book is masterfully written. Each of the characters lives take different twists and turns as none are willing or able to really cope with what happened, not for a while any way. A lesson you can take away from this book is that life changing events, even terrible, horrendous, unfair events, events that leave families filled with impotent rage can lead to good things. It reminds me of the bible verse- All things work together for good for those that love the lord- but in a less celestial way - all things work together for good for those that will continue to live.

Feeling fine

  Driving down the highway with the sun bathing me through the sun roof, listening to one of my all time favorite albums, Chris Issac's San Fransisco Days. Steering wheel fitting snugly into my hand as if they were molded one for the other, cruising down the fast lane of life while Issac plays his west coast rockabilly/jazz and hits those falsettos. Zened out, living completely in the moment, I was most definitely feeling fine.

Broccoli Dreams

I had a very strange dream this morning, I must have been nearly conscious because I remembered it very vividly upon waking. It started with me having walked away from work, angry or frustrated by something and wandering through some sort of concourse, a type of amalgamation of a Turkish bazaar, a large mall and Times Square. I ended up in an almost empty theater sitting near the top snacking on something, I don't remember what, as the theater slowly began to fill. There were a group of service men in naval uniforms but by and large the auditorium was filling up with heavy set middle aged or older women. I found myself sitting amongst a sea of estrogen. As we waited for the show, I didn't know what or who was performing/being performed, we could hear loud music coming from outside the theater, it was something by the Beastie Boys. Some of the women started to complain and I began to defend the Beastie's saying how much their music had meant to me when low and behold the show begins. It's Margaret Cho doing stand-up only Margaret looked like Christina Applegate in a svelte, sparkly blue dress and she was doing a big song and dance production all about... broccoli. Yeah, I know. So some time after the performance she's (Margaret/Christina) talking to the audience about getting our 5 servings of fruit/vegetables a day and I told her I ate lots of veggies, especially broccoli as it's a superfood. She asked what I'd had that day and I was doing good until I remembered I'd had bacon and eggs for lunch and so had the kids and then the crowd turned kinda holier than thou feminist/left wing/vegetarians on me. Somewhere around here I lost the thread of the dream and awoke and remembered the dream and then just shook my head.
        As an afterward while at the grocery store today they had broccoli spears (is it spears, or bunches, or heads, or branches, or a murder? no that's crows) two for three dollars so don't think I didn't drop two bunches of branches in my buggie. After all, broccoli is a super food.

Reviews and well more reviews (Fluke, some Shakespeare, Sucker Punch...)

Okay a bit of random reviewing, first off -- Fluke, Or I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings by the talented and hilarious Christopher Moore. Not only is Moore a very funny writer but he has a gift for creating memorable characters, ask any of his fans and they'll recount some of their favorites (Kendra Warrior Babe of the Outland and Theo, Tucker Case and Roberto, Biff and Josh just to name a few) and this book is no exception. There's Nate and Amy and Kona and Clay and Clair and a few others, each one coming to life on the page. This isn't one of Moore's funniest books, it had laughs but not as many lol moments as some of his others but I really liked the kinda sci/fi element of the book. It starts off as a save the whales, eco-adventure with lots of 'action nerds' as Nate likes to say and then descends (like 600 and something feet below sea level) into a semi-Apocalypse Now thiller/sci-fi/comedy. I don't want to give too much away but I can't help but bastardizing one of my favorite Hemingway quotes-- Sometimes a story about a fish is just a story about a fish but other times a story about a fish is really a story about bio-mechanical submarines. lol (I'm probably the only person that finds this amusing but damn it it's my blog so suck it.)
Next review Henry the VI the trilogy by Bill Shakespeare. Henry the VI was sort of a mamby-pamby (at least Shakespeare's rendition of him) his pops, Henry V, was a warrior that conquered France and rallied the troops -Once more into the breach- but died of dysentery (I believe it was) and left his young son to be king. The three parts of Henry VI are really more about the war of the roses than about Henry and about how the Lancasters lost out to the Yorks and Edward the IV declared himself king only to eventually be replaced by that humpbacked abomination and royal pain in the ass Richard III but that's the next play. These plays can be a little tricky to follow, sometimes you just have to go with it, so many of the characters are know by different names and sometimes even change names as titles are being bandied about. It makes you wonder how England didn't collapse on itself the way the different houses warred over the crown.
Now for a quick couple of movie reviews- Sucker Punch, my 15 year old and I went and saw this and while he really liked it I thought it was just okay. It wasn't bad but it wasn't as good as I had hoped. I wanted to be blown away like I was with the first Matrix movie or with 300 and this looked to be a visual wonder but so much of the surreal action scenes looked just like a video game. There were some grand visual moments even so, one shot of Baby Doll barley clearing the fire of a fire breathing dragon and then a shot down her samurai sword as she turns it in the air and brings it to bear on the dragon was really cool. The story had potential and the twist or sucker punch near the end, while not real surprising, was pretty cool. I liked the narration at the end, I don't believe it gives anything away to repeat it, I don't remember it word for word but the gist of it was that it was up to us to fight our fights and that we had all the strength we would need.
Burlesque- with Cher and Christina Aguilera as a burlesque club owner and a waitress /dancer want-to-be. Parts of the movie were predictable Christina gets her big break, things look rough for awhile and then it all wraps up with a big hollywood happy ending. But predictable isn't always bad and there were even a few times when it didn't go the way you would think and that was nice, but really the best part of the movie were the dance scenes. The most incongruous moments were when Cher and Christina sang big power-ballad solo's that, while sounding really nice, didn't really fit within the story but ego is ego and ego must be fed.
Finally in the review category- The Switch - with Jennifer Aniston and Jason Bateman. Talk about predictable, just another romantic comedy that while enjoyable will run together with others in your head till you can't remember what happened in which one. Aniston seems to like these kinds of movies. Over all it was pretty good, although it did get on my nerves for awhile when Bateman's character can't tell Aniston how he really feels until the most inappropriate moment to do so, big surprise.
Enough with the reviews, I've got  one more thing to share if any one is still reading. The whole time I was reading Fluke and even before really We Were The Mulvaneys by Joyce Carol Oates had been giving me the siren call. I would walk by and look at my bookshelf and it always pulled my eyes to it, beckoning me to read. I don't know what it is about this book that's captivated me but I know as soon as I finished Fluke I picked it up and cracked it's spine and dove right in with a bit of an electrifying thrill. I've not heard much about the book nor do I know much about the author but I'm hooked so far, I'm just a chapter or so in but I'm enjoying it to this point. I just hope it isn't too melodramatic, that's my fear. I'll let you know.

Idolatrous - a love song

I could be a knight Templar and you could be the grail I find.

Or I could be a pilgrim and you could be my holy shrine.

I'd offer up my supplications, I'd lay them at your feet

because every prayer I've ever prayed you just made complete.

That's why I prostrate myself and beg for your love.

Praying for your kisses like mana from above.

I know you wont like my analogy much,

but baby please don't fuss.

The way I covet your slightest touch,

the way I feel for you must be idolatrous.

I thought my faith must be dead

and if I had a soul it was too far gone.

But now I'm writing down in red, every word you said

and worshiping the very ground you walk on.

You've brought mystery back into my life

and I'm so blessed to have a goddess for a wife.

That's why I prostrate myself and beg for your love.

Praying for your kisses like mana from above.

I know you wont like my analogy much,

but baby please don't fuss.

The way I covet your slightest touch,

the way I feel for you must be idolatrous.

You can be my Diana, my Aphrodite, you could be my Athena or my good God almighty

I know you don't like my analogy much

but baby I get so amorous

with just your slightest touch

it must be idolatrous.

A+ Behavior

 In Sunday School this morning the question was asked what would you rank your behavior, on average. The teacher asked at each grade level (A,B,C...) and folks would raise there hands at where they thought they fell. Well I'm not much of one for class participation, never have been and so I didn't raise my hand any, the teacher noticed though and so asked me point blank what grade I'd have. When I wasn't immediately forthcoming she said if I didn't answer then she would grade me, I told her to go ahead. She gave me a D. What? Others in the class at first said they figured I was a B, B+ but then pointed out I was too quite at church which probably meant I was more of the D the teach. had leveled at me. I laughed, I thought it was all funny. After class I told Araine that I had actually given myself and A+ but when no one else even gave themselves and A I thought perhaps I was thinking a little too highly of myself. ;-)

Book review - Peter and the Star Catchers and some random thoughts.

 It's been awhile since my last book review and that's because it took me awhile to get through Peter and the Starcatchers by Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry. It's not that the book is that long it's that it just took forever for me to get into it and when I'm not into a book I don't seem to find the time to read as much as when I am. I love J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan and when I saw this book, it's suppose to be a prequel to Pan, several years ago I wanted to read it and it's just taken till now to get to it, it was not worth the wait. The first half of the book is very slow in it's build up, the tempo doesn't pick up and the story doesn't get interesting until the pirates board Peter's ship which is almost half-way through the book. Early on I realized if I was going to get any enjoyment out of this book, and there is some joy to be had from it, I had to let go of the prequel to Peter Pan idea and just read it as a story on it's on, a story that just happens to have some similarities to Peter Pan. Because this Peter is not the  Peter we all know and love. "The" Peter Pan is an archetype of adolescence, brash, brazen and bold. He's always ready for an adventure, he'll switch sides in the middle of a fight, he gets moody when he doesn't get his way and he doesn't understand when things aren't fair. The Peter in Starcatchers is just too precocious to ever be the Pan. The other big problem with this being a prequel is that Barrie's Peter Pan is as much a dream as he is real where as the Peter in this book is very much based on a real world. The story tries to explain all the wonderful things that just 'are' in Barrie's book and sometimes explaining things takes away all the fun.
  Now for some randomness. I shared this as a status update earlier but it's funny enough to bear repeating here, I overheard my four year old playing with two Batman figures yesterday and this is the conversation the two caped crusaders had. "I know your Batman." "You know Batman can turn into a kitty. Meow, meow." lol    
Now a story about the wee one, who's almost two now, he and I were sharing a can of roasted almonds and he squats down in the floor and starts putting almonds into his diaper, so of course I say, "Boy you already got two nuts in there you don't need any more."  Well he, despite my admonitions not too, puts the almonds in there and he's walking around and then he pulls them out and starts to put him in his mouth. Ewww. So I yell, "Sam don't eat those!" Thankfully he listened this time, and dropped them in the floor. I threw them away and then grabbed me some hand sanitizer.

Well I suppose that's all for now, I hope every one has a good week. Now let's go, "second  to the right and straight on till morning".

Sexual harassment 101

Once a month or so we have plant wide meetings at the good ol' distribution center where management tells us how things are going, where we're headed and generally blowing smoke up our, well you know. These meeting are also used for instructional purposes, where MSDS's are located, what to do in case of a spill and all the way from the home office ethics training. Ethics training usually takes the form of videos where 'actors' are playing out dramatic scenes, often to comedic effect, to teach us a lesson. Sort of like School House Rock without the cartoons and cool songs. This month our lesson was on sexual harassment.(I prefer her-as-ment but if your prefer hair-as-ment, I'm fine with that. It takes all kinds.) The vid. starts with Ann showing new girl Anita around the shop floor (the facts are the same the names have been change to protect the, well actually because I don't remember them) when Ann remembers she's suppose to have Anita at personnel by 11 but Ann doesn't have a watch on,and apparently there's no clocks on the wall and she must have left her cell phone at her desk, so she asks Jim (our heel in this scenario) if he's got the time. (No Ann! What are you thinking?) Jim's cagey reply is, 'I've got the time if you've got the energy'. While Ann looks a little put out she still fires back, 'You couldn't keep up.' So Jim, encouraged by this no doubt, fires off a few salvos of very thinly veiled innuendo which Ann deflects. Then Jim takes aim on the new girl, Anita, after all Jim and Ann aren't exclusive, he's a playa'. Jim says she'll be a great asset to the company and that he'll definitely keep an eye on her, then he nods and (holy shit batman) winks at them before strutting away. After Jim's departure Anita is aghast she asks Ann, 'How do you put up with that?' Anita say's , 'Aw, that's just how Jim is, you'll get use to him.' Well Anita and Ann have a nice little convo in which we find that Ann doesn't like Jim's remarks but assumes she just has to put up with it, because he's always been that way. Then the video presentation stops and we're asked a couple of questions about what was right and wrong and what the characters and us should do if we should ever find ourselves in this situation. The right answer generally involves some form of talk to them and then tell supervision. We've even got a hot-line number if you don't feel comfortable talking to someone on the premises, which is a good thing even though this blog is of course tongue-in-check. Two things really bothered me about this little info-drama, let us take a look at them. Shall we? Now let's go back a little bit and have a closer look at Jim, first off the two ladies are attired in clothing suitable for an office environment and are out in the 'shop', Jim on the other hand is t-shirt and jeans, regular work-a-day Joe, or Jim in this case. Jim is graying late thirties/early forties, he's got a bit of a paunch and the sneer of a paunchy, graying late thirties/early forties single man watching the high school cheerleaders practicing splits and kicks. He comes on all cocksure and smooth criminal like and it fits him like that bra fit the chick on Sienfield (if it doesn't fit you must acquit). So it's no wonder the women are uncomfortable with this sleazy want to be Lothario trying to lay his mack down. But here's my problem, imagine this scenario, imagine Jim flirting with these girls and now imagine that Jim is white! (lol,Sorry I'm going to use Pitt for my example and Mcconaughey had to get his two cents in.) Imagine that instead of poor perfectly cast graying, early thirties/late forties paunchy guy the role had been played by Brad Pitt, circa Thelma and Louise, all chiseled abs and a ten gallon hat of southern charm and he'd a said with a sly sideways smile, 'I got the time if you've got the energy.' You think these ladies would still have been creeped out or would they have been all batting eyelashes, bated breath, tittering little school girls. It's still technically sexual harassment (or hair-as-ment if you prefer) regardless of who says it but it's definitely not going to be reported if it's enjoyed.  The second thing that bothered me about this info-soap-drama was that our little Snidely Whiplash, Jim, this cockalorum, this braggadocio, this swaggering sultan of sleaze, this plucked pea-cock, this impudent imp, this brazen would be Don Juan, this big pimpin' faux-mack daddy, this eye-winking, head nodding, son of a bitch never told Ann what time it was! (Hallelujah! Holy shit! Where's the Tylenol.)

So boys and girls what did we learn today? The beautiful people of the world get by with a lot more crap than the rest of us can and small insignificant facts can really drive me to distraction.  In closing I'd like to share a quote that combines our topic of sexual harassment (or hair-es-ment, if you prefer) and my goal of comedy.

"Joey. Do you like movies about gladiators?"

These old bones and of course a book review.

I had a pretty nice and way too short weekend. I feel like the last three days have been spent in a time vortex. Friday night the eight hours I spent at work seem to have lasted just shy of infinity and then the past two days flew past like wind through the sun roof on a gorgeous faux-spring day. I worked on my van some and seeing as how I'm neither a mechanic nor a handy-man I didn't accomplish too much but I did manage to clean my battery cables and get my battery looking nice, so that's something. I watched the slam dunk contest Sat. night it was pretty entertaining and watched The Big Lebowski which I thought I would like so much better than I actually did, dude. Saturday night also found me fighting a headache most of the evening, worse one I've had in some time. It's mostly gone but ever so often it hints at wanting to hurt again. I think perhaps it's something in the air. Pollen? Maybe. Sunday found me trying to watch the Daytona 500, I like racing but it just takes way too long to finish a race so I usually end up napping and reading during the race. I really don't like the new style of racing they're doing this year with the two car drafts, a car can't do anything on it's own and they have to wait until the last lap to make a move. So I watched it, but just sort of. Sunday afternoon Alex and I played a few games of back yard b-ball, he won two out of three, and it was lots of fun and good exercise. Of course old man that I am I spent Sunday evening watching the NBA all star game with an ice pack on my knee and today I can barley make it up and down the stairs. The NBA all star game was good, in the second half. The first half the East didn't really play too much and it was just the Kobe Bryant show, Lebron came back from half-time fired up and made it a close game. The West still won however and Kobe still got MVP, but at least it was a game.

Now on to the books. I finished The Sandman volume two The Dollhouse this weekend, very, very creepy. I'm not a fan of serial killer stuff and this one was chock full o' them, it really wasn't my cup of tea throughout much of it but Gaiman made it all alright toward the end. I believe he used the killers (he even says as much when Morpheus confronts the Corinthian) to mirror the darker impulses of humanity. Not sure where this comic goes but I'm sure it will be twisted and interesting.
I also finished reading Like Water For Chocolate by Laura Esquivel. Good book and very different than anything I've ever read, our heroine Tita unwillingly infuses the food she cooks with the emotions and feeling she has as she cooks them. This is a love story, where love isn't an emotion but a force of nature and God help who or whatever tries to stand in it's way. While there were parts of this book I wished had gone other ways overall I loved the way the writer takes you different directions and leaves you hoping and pulling for Tita, and the ending... wow. That's all I'm going to say. The style of the book is unique as well, it's written as a cook book with each month holding a different recipe that's tied to the events going on in the chapter.

quickie blog

This is an attempt to write something without over thinking it and really just an excuse to write. I've got ideas for stories in my head one I've been incubating for years and every so often I think of something else for it and then get excited about it for a little bit but every time I've ever tried to 'put pen to paper' it goes horrifically wrong and I usually don't get past the first paragraph before I've given up. So this is going to be a wham, bam, thank you mam, off the cuff , free flowing blog. I listen to lots of different types of music, my main stay, the one I always come back to is country. I like that it's about life as I know it and that it can be funny or serious and occasionally deep but mainly I like it because it's easy to sing along to. The last few days however I've been in a pop mood listening to Rhianna, 'sticks and stones may break my bones but chains and whips they excite me' when I heard that a part of me was like whoa! Rhianna, tmi,tmi and part of me was like yeah, you go girl. Bruno Mars, 'I'd catch a grenade for ya', Keisha, 'don't mess with us, got Jesus on our necklaces' yes that's really a line, and Katy (thank god for her)Perry, 'you make me feel like I'm living a teenage dream'. At first I wasn't all that crazy about that song but then it reminded me of Rain and me and I started liking it, people often tell us we still act like teenagers. I think it's because we still really like each others company. We still joke and pick and we still have the hots for each other, that helps too. I started on the pop fix after coming off of about a week of metal. I was jamming out to Metallica as much as possible for a while there. It's great music for working out to, very testosteroney (wow, imagine spell check not liking it when you add a y to a word to try and make it an adjective) with that thick bass line, thump, thump, thump. Kinda primal and kick-ass in a UFC kinda way. But while it's great for the gym I find that's it's not so great to listen to before bed are really before work, for me anyway. The week I was really into it I was ill most nights at work and the night I switched to the dance/club stuff I stopped being so damn hard to get along with. I downloaded a book today on my kinle, which I'm still loving btw, called Shit My Dad Says it's the book the t.v. show is based off of, I've not seen the show yet, I need to dvr it. But while waiting for my wife in Target one day I leafed through it and decided I needed to read it, it looks hilarious. Of course I'm already reading 3 books so I may not get to it right away. Anyway the book is based on a twitter (I don't know what you call it on twitter, page? profile?, I'm a real twit when it comes to twitter (har,har)) will go with account that started with a guy quite literally twitting shit his dad said. So let's recap, the show based on the book based on the twitter account based on a guy who moved back in with his dad. Got it? Good. I said all that to say in the opening pages he (the writer) says he was once mortified by his dad but now realizes that his dad is the least passive-aggressive person he knows and it made me wish I could be that way because I'm one of the most passive-aggressive people I know, and I hate it. I'd love to just tell people what I really thought, but I just can't do it, not usually anyway. I guess I'm just to sensitive, that or I'm just a big ole pussy. (I really stretched myself to not write wussy there.) I'm so wishy-washy on things I should have been born a fish. A mind may be a terrible thing to waste but an open-mind is just plain terrible, at least to the person in whom it is housed. Or turrable if your Charles Barkley. I had a good day today, I feel good, I got a good rating at my health screening, I had fun hanging with Rainy, work went well and I was hungry and I ate some eggs. That last bit, with the eggs, just happened. So, to make a long story short (someone yell 'Too late'), the three bears decided little girl tasted better than stupid porridge anyway and they all lived happily ever after, well not Goldilocks.

holiday inspired reading

Okay so technically Super Bowl Sunday is not a holiday, but it should be. In honor of Super Bowl week I read Playing for Pizza by John Grisham it's one of Grisham's few non-legal stories although he does manage to insert a lawyer of two into the book. It's the story of a journey-man third string NFL quarterback, Rick Dockery, he's got a rocket arm but after a few concussions he's contact shy and tends to throw bad passes trying to avoid a hit. His most notorious, and last, NFL appearance was in the final quarter of the AFC title match he was playing for the Browns and went in with a 14 point lead only to throw 2 interceptions and fumble the ball to loose the game. After the game no one in the NFL will touch him and so his agent gets him a job playing for the Italian NFL (which Grisham says in the author's note is a real thing, American style football in Italy complete with their own Super Bowl) for the Parma Panthers. It's a neat little story, nothing earth shaking or life changing, it goes pretty much the way you think it will, football wise anyway, Rick's personal life throws you a little curve which helps to keep the story interesting. Nice light read.
So now, new week, new holiday, Valentines day and in honor of said romantic holiday I'm reading Like Water for Chocolate. It may of course be in the unrequited, even sad vain of love, I'm not sure. But it is, I believe, considered a romantic book and it's been sitting on my shelf for quite some time quietly awaiting it's turn.

Not a book review blog

The last few blogs I've put up have been about books and while that's fine and all I like to think there's other things I can discuss as well. So... , so I've also been reading through the Complete Works of William Shakespeare (it seems so funny not to write abridged here) I thought I'd go comedy, history, tragedy and then some sonnets, (wash, rinse, repeat) and save the long poems and the apocrypha until the end. And I did this until I read King Richard the Second which led right into The First Part of King Henry the Fourth which, by strange coincidence, led right into The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth, which is where I am currently. Judging by King John I didn't think I'd really like the histories but these others have really moved right along and that's mostly thanks to Shakespeare's Falstaff. Falstaff and often Prince Hal spend a lot of time calling people names and Falstaff is constantly finding ways of getting out of doing things. For example the famous line, "The better part of valor is discretion..." is said by Falstaff after successfully playing possum to avoid a fight and then after Prince Hal has killed the other guy (I can't remember his name right now) and walked away, Falstaff gets up stabs the guy in the leg and throws him over his shoulder as though he's just slayed him. Hilarious. This isn't a book review in case your wondering because these are plays I'm reading. Okay that doesn't hold water. So what? What else should we talk about? Politics? Religion? I get on my nerves talking politics and religion to myself I don't want to drag you poor folks into that. Fitness? I'm still on my diet, though I'm still having a hard time sticking to a fitness regimen, life can be hard on us lazy people sometimes. Work? It's going good, finally got 40 hours in this week, first time all year I do believe. Oh!  The elephant in the room, Super Bowl XLV, I'm excited. I like football, I love the Super Bowl. Years when I've barely followed the teams I've watched the BIG game and this year we watched football every Sunday and we are soooo ready to see Pittsburgh vs. Green Bay. I say we because you see, dear hearts, my lovely wife loves football even more than I do. So every Super Bowl is a big event at the Spurling household, we have decorations even, but this year is even bigger because my number 2 team and possibly Rain's favorite team is the Steelers. I also really like Rodgers and the Packers, so I think this is going to be a great game. No blow out like it has been at times. So tomorrow is all about getting ready for Sunday and Sunday is like Christmas and Monday is like the day after Christmas but without the long return line at Wal-Mart. The game starts at about 6:30 but pre-game shows start at about 10 a.m. (I told Rain I might not be able to go to Sunday school with her). Well actually pre-game shows started this past Monday, but you know what I mean. Okay I've rambled on (it's in the blog name) long enough. Live long and prosper Orson, Mork out na-nu, na-nu. Shazbat, it's the finger thing makes me confuse them.

book review - Odd and the Frost Giants

This is a kids book written by Neil Gaiman and it's very short, in fact my only complaint about the book is that it's way too short. I've read longer short stories, it's more like a tale told in front of a fire place on a winters night by some avuncular character than an actual book. But it's a good tale, so that's not so bad. It's the story of Odd (which according to Gaiman wasn't an Odd name in those times and in that place but even though Odd's name wasn't odd, he was) who as a young viking had faced many difficulties in his short life when one day he rescues a trapped bear from a tree only to find that the bear is actually the Norse god Thor who, along with Odin and Loki, have been transformed into animals and banished from Asgard. Of course Odd saves the day and rids Asgard of the conquering Frost Giant. I thought it was pretty neat that instead of a white hat/black hat dual morality Gaiman presents Odd instead with Gods and Giants that are equally culpable in their distresses and has him find a suitable solution to the problem. I plan to try and read this to my two little ones if I can con them into turning off their games and t.v. programs long enough.

book review - The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Just (like 5 minutes ago) finished reading The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and I loved it, great story. It's considered juvenile fiction and is in large part inspired by Kipling's The Jungle Book but instead of a boy raised by wolves, instructed by bears and watched over by a panther it's the story of a boy raised by ghosts, instructed by both ghosts and a werewolf and watched over by a vampire. The story moves along at a good pace and probably is pretty good for kids (and adults that still like kid lit.), I'm going to try and get my middle children to read it. In an interesting, to me at least, side note Gaiman thanks Audrey Niffenegger in his acknowledgments, Niffenegger is the author of The Time Traveler's Wife which is the last non-Gaiman book I've read. I find little coincidences like that fascinating. 

book/movie review - Stardust

I read Stardust by Neil Gaiman earlier this week in my on going attempt to read all things Gaiman. It's a short, to the point fairy tale. It's an interesting story that I'm sure could have been expanded and made into a longer novel or even a series of novels, but that wasn't the point of Stardust. Gaiman, I believe, set out to right a fairy tale and that's just what he did, complete with unicorns and witches and fairies and marauding princes. There was an interesting speech that Gaiman had given included at the end of this edition about Neil's view on the power of fairy tales and on how fairy tales had originally been intended for adult audiences but when they lost their popularity they were moved to the 'nursery'. This book is set up like a kids chapter book, 10 chapters and an epilogue,  with each chapter telling an important part of the story and moving the plot along at an very fast past. It's a 'kids' book for adults. I did enjoy this story but I felt that perhaps it was Gaiman's expert fantasy weaving that saved it from being a contrite, predictable story. So good, quick read but not an American Gods or Anansi Boys. On an related note I watched the movie, I feel I should say inspired by instead of based on, this book this week also. I know when a film maker takes a story they use it to tell a story of their own and perhaps had I waited a while between reading and watching I wouldn't have compared so much but there were some things I just couldn't figure out why they felt needed changing. The movie was okay, had I not just read the book I might hold it in higher opinion but I can't help but think it would have been better without the big name stars hogging up the screen time. The story should be about the story not about how often you can show Robert DeNiro or Michelle Pfeiffer. I can't quite make up my mind though which ending I like better, the movies happily ever after or the books more realistic (within the realm of fantasy that is to say) one.

The Time Traveler's Wife - a book reivew.

This is about the third time I've tried to write this, first on a facebook book site that I couldn't get to work and then here on my blog but I tried to get technical and thorough and couldn't concentrate and got very aggravated with myself and gave up. So here is a quick and easy review of The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I wanted to read this book because it had garnered lots of accolades and had a neat premise but I really didn't expect a whole lot from it except for a maybe a good love story, I figured it would be a Nicholas Sparksian book and in the end that's pretty much what it was. The beginning of this book however was surprisingly good and I wish it could have carried through to the end. The beginning contains most of the time traveling and it's great how the main characters Clare and Henry meet. Clare is six and Henry in his thirties the first time Clare meets Henry, however Clare and Henry are both in their twenties when Henry first meets Clare. The beginning has lots of the fantasy side of the story as well as lots of foreshadowing of both romance and mayhem to come. Then we get to the middle of the story, which unfortunately is the Achilles heel of many a writer, and the story slows ,way, down. Clare and Henry spend much of the time in sequential time, getting married, trying to conceive, trying to find out what causes Henry's time traveling and basically trying to live a 'normal' life. Once or twice the author goes back and shows Henry coming back to the present from one of the times he spent with Clare in her past and I wish she had done more of this in the middle of the book and perhaps shown more of the future, I think this would have buoyed the middle more. Then we come to the third part of the book that, for the sake of argument, will call the end. I really liked parts of the ending and really disliked parts of it as well. There's plenty of room for tears (and really this is where it gets real Sparksish) but I couldn't get to emotional over it for being aggravated at the writer for taking an interesting story down a maudlin chick-lit path. That being said the ending isn't all bad, there are some redeeming qualities to it as well. When I finished the book and my wife asked me how I liked it, I wasn't real sure how to answer. Finally I said yes, mostly. Would I recommend it? It's got some language and sexual scenes that would keep me from loaning it to my mom or daughter but for my peers I'd say if you'd like a possibly tear jerking love story with an interesting twist , a sort of fantasy chick-lit, then go for it.

You know your getting old when...

You know your getting old when...

• you get up off the couch and your joints loudly crunch and crackle.
• you look at your sons i-tunes and you don't recognize any of the bands. And speaking of i-tunes,
• you have to have your son put music on your i-pod for you. I feel bad now for making fun of my mom when her vcr use to flash 12:00 all the time.
• you've been married for 20 years.
• 7:00 at night is just to late to drive to another town for dinner.
• for your big anniversary you eat left over chicken and watch two episodes of Jeopardy, and you enjoy it.
• you dvr Jeopardy.
• you subscribe to a word-of-the-day email (today's word was guttural).
• you want coffee, with every meal. And finally,
• you start hurting in random places for no apparent reason.

Yep, I'm getting old. But as a lovely older woman I use to work with always said, "It's better than the alternative."