Memorial Day

This Memorial Day weekend I did my best to help with the water situation in Utah. I went camping with my wife's family. Growing up my siblings and I always joked that if we needed water Dad just had to plan a camping trip. Well, I was glad to help continue the tradition as it rained the first twenty-four hours or so that we were there.

Angel took the kids up early with her mom and brothers and I came up after I got off work. Luckily they got the tent up before it really started coming down. There was enough water that some did get through to the inside the tent but it was stayed around the edges and so our sleeping bags and pads stayed dry. I was able to air everything out the next day, for good measure, and the rain stopped by Saturday afternoon.

The kids did really well. We were worried about Tigger soiling himself as he still has some trouble getting himself to the bathroom. It's much more fun to play than to go to the bathroom apparently. However, he didn't have a single accident, not even during a couple of naps. Both of the kids ended up with dirt on the end of their noses at different points. While we were playing cards they were building volcanoes with rocks and dirt. They had fun running round, collecting rocks (were somehow disappeared the next day), and snuggling with the various family members. At one point he was a little out of sorts and the only way I could get him to lie down was to snuggle him. Unfortunately the only place to lie down was on a bench in the trailer. My feet were hanging off the end and fell asleep faster than he did. I ended up dozing with him for about forty minutes before getting up rather groggy. He continued to sleep for an hour or so in a frog like position.

It was a lot of fun to get out and enjoy nature and family. I was able to listen to some books, take a small hike, take many walks with the kids, and play games. It was a good break from the routine. While out in the woods it was easy to think about those that weren't here this year that were in years past. I'll miss them and be glad to see them again when the time comes.

The Excitement of a four year old

Tigger's Birthday was this weekend. We had a little get together with family, but nothing big. The highlight for him was getting a bicycle. He got to pick out the helmet. Tigger is a very excitable little boy on a regular day. Both his ups and downs. If he could pitch a baseball as fast as he could pitch a fit he would be set for life. Most of the time he is a very pleasant kid with bursts of happy excitement. It's not uncommon for him to come running into the kitchen with a grin on his face, wrap his arms around my knees and say, "Daddy, I love you" and then go running off. When he gets really excited he'll hold his fists next to his head and clench them until his whole body shakes all the while emitting a high pitched, "EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" It is really quite adorable.

Yesterday at church he was called up in Primary (the combined children's class) so they could sing to him and the other children with birthdays. Apparently, according to three different witnesses that told us about it later, when Tigger's name was called he jumped up and in his excited voice said, "I got a new bike!!!!!!!" all the while doing his body shaking thing. The bishop, who was present to give a few words, started his remarks with, "You know, Tigger, my wife and I went and bought a car yesterday and we weren't nearly as excited as you." The excitement continued when the Primary gave Tigger his birthday voucher (they call it something a lot more kid friendly) which they can redeem with the bishop after church. Tigger was anxious to cash it in, but the bishop wasn't in his office. We looked around for him and spotted him on the other side of the gym. "Go get it." I said to Tigger, who took off across the hardwood like a miniature sidewinder heat seeking missile with its target locked in (I'm relistening to a Clancy novel - can you tell). He accompanied the bishop into his office where they chatted for just a minute and a miniature bag of M&Ms was handed out. As the bishop opened the door to let him out I heard Tigger say, "Bishop, I love you!" The bishop couldn't help but smile. Tigger has that effect on people.

Tigger was a good sport with his birthday. Beyond the bike he got one toy and a bunch of clothes but everything he opened was, "Just what [he] wanted!!" Everything. Even the pajamas. Which he looked at for two seconds before returning to play with his new Bucky the pirate ship. He's a good kid who didn't mind that his birthday was dominated by his grandmother's graduation party. He got to play with his sister and some other kids at Grandma's most of the day and got cake twice. He's a pretty happy boy.

With his birthday comes memories of the day he was born. Three months premature and literally only 9 oz bigger than my current new shoes. It was a harrowing day. He has always had a pretty cheerful disposition. But we've always said that any day he didn't wake up in an isollet was a good day for him. He has had a lot of good days.

Book Review - Wednesdays in the Tower by Jessica Day George

I really like Jessica Day George. I am one of her tallest fans. Not the tallest, I learned, but one of the tallest. I would say biggest, but that's just a little cliche (and I know that Larry Correia likes her and he's much bigger than me). I first learned about her on Twitter and bought Tuesdays at the Castle and thoroughly loved it. I'm still working my way through her books, but was excited to find Wednesdays in the Tower at the library this week. It was a great read and went very quickly. I think she does a great job with her young characters. Wednesdays in the Tower could potentially be read as a stand alone novel, but I would recommend reading the first story as it flushes the situation out more and provides some basis for some of the alluded to events. Overall, I was quite pleased with the book. I do have to say that this is the sixth book in the last month I have gone through and marks the third one with a decent cliff hanger. You've been warned.

Plot: Princess Celie knows the Castle Glower the best and the castle is acting strange. It's created new rooms and moved things around before, but now it's doing it seemingly at random. Her older brother, the court wizard, Bran is baffled and has found strange armor and weapons that have magical properties. In addition, Celie finds a new room that does not have a ceiling with a large orange egg in the center. It's clear that the castle wants her to care for the egg and doesn't want anybody else to know about it. When a griffin hatches from the egg, Celie doesn't know what to do or how she's going to keep the castle's secret.

My personal favorites: Jessica Day George is great at writing young characters. Celie and her siblings are fund to spend time with and act their age and station well. Rufus, the griffin, was entertaining and felt real as well - as real as a mythological creature can. The plot was basic, but not simple and did not disappoint in it's flow. The story also provides additional information about Castle Glower's origins and background, flushing out the world even more.

Considerations: I would have no qualms about reading this to either of my children (currently ages 6 and 4).

I went through the book quickly and was very pleased with it. The total length as 225 pages.

Audible Book Review - Wings by Aprilynne Pike

I first heard about Wings when she was on Writing Excuses back in season 3. (was that really five years ago?) sharing her interesting take on fairies. I thought her ideas were intriguing but was unable to locate her books until now. We swapped out a credit and picked up Wings to give it a try. Here is a link to the Audible page for the book. The story is a straight forward teen "discovering herself" feel, complete with love triangle. Many may say that it feels like Twilight and while it does have a similar plot structure, I was very glad it wasn't Twilight. Laurel is not Bella. And yes, I've read the Twilight series and know the differences. While I don't know if I'll read/listen to the rest of the series, Wings was a good listen and a good distraction. It was narrated by Mandy Siegfried who did a good job.

Plot: Laurel is experiencing a lot of changes. Her family has recently moved to a new town, and she's started attending public high school after being home schooled for many years. New friends, new routine, new job working at her father's book store. New everything. She's handling things pretty well, quickly making friends, explaining her vegan preference, and struggling through biology class. She's able to adjust to everything until a giant flower grows out of her back. That is her first introduction into the unseen world and she soon understands that she has a lot to learn.

My personal favorites: Like I said, Laurel is not Bella. I liked that Laurel is proactive and involved. While the story was not the action fest that I've recently found myself reading it was not boring and paced well. It was nice to read a story about a developing teenager that wasn't angst ridden or moody. Not to say the book was emotionless, but it was nice to read about a happy family and functional relationships. I also felt like the characters acted like real teenagers, something that is hard for some authors.

Considerations: There are a couple of references to sex, but no sex is implied, stated, or otherwise. There are a couple of scenes of what I would describe as age appropriate attraction. As a "coming of age" story the characters have to come to grips with their emotions and attractions and this book does not skirt that aspect, but it also addresses it quite well. I must say that I do not agree with the parents that let two teenagers of opposite sex be in a bedroom with a closed door together, but again, the characters do nothing that would be inappropriate in a public place. There is one reference of David's mother's dates "not leaving until the morning," but that is as far as it goes.

Overall, I like wings. The mythous was creative and new. The characters were upbeat. And the story was satisfying. There were some surprises and some things I could see coming but I wasn't bothered by either. It flowed well and I felt that the characters were age appropriate in their actions and thoughts. While there was not a great amount of conflict in the book, it was engaging and intriguing. The total length was just under 7 hours.

Birthday Musings

My birthday is this coming week. While at church today Kanga told one of the parishioners (the librarian at her school) that it was my birthday and then ran over and asked me how old I would be. Not wanting to discuss my age in public I replied, "Old enough to be your father." I wish I could claim that answer as my own, but my father has used it for years. It's similar to my grandfather's answer of "just tall enough that my feet reach the ground" when people asked him how tall he was. I don't feel my age too much. But When I look back on my life I realize that I have aged. When I look in the mirror I don't appear to have aged, but that's either luck or shortsightedness on my part. But regardless of how I look I know that I am older.

I don't think that one year to the next tells much. Every year will have similarities to the year before it and so they can blend into each other and look very much like each other until you look back over a longer period and realize that you are decidedly not where you were. I remember my father telling me that I would come to a point when I could look back over the last ten years and think about all that I did over those ten years. Then, he said, you will look forward and think, "I have X number of decades left in my life." and you will think about what you will be able to accomplish based on your past performance. I don't know if I'm at that point yet, but this birthday does mark ten years since I returned from my mission to South-west Russia. For many young men in the Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day saints life is planned up to and including their missions. However, after the mission is a big unknown that is usual summed up in three words: school, marriage, work. Like most, I didn't have much of an idea about any of them.

I thought I had an idea about one of them. I had dated a girl through my first year of college and she had waited for me through my mission. The next step was to get engaged, which we did in about five months. But come to find out I didn't have a clue about it. We ended our engagement finals week of my first semester back. It was a mutual agreement and while there were still things to sort out the breakup was the right decision. I went on dates with many different people after that until I met Angel about ten months after my first engagement ended. This year will be our eighth anniversary and they have been wonderful years.

My schooling was very straight forward, as I already had my major and minor in mind. It was a very easy thing to get my classes and finish my degree. I regret nothing about the degree I hold. I do have to acknowledge that had I done more career planning and exploration I probably would have gone for a degree in management information systems. I'm found through my employment and through additional education opportunities that I tend to do well in tasks that utilize those skills. I've thought of doing a 2nd bachelor's in that area, but nothing concrete yet. I'm still putting together funding to finish the last three classes for my masters degree.

When I returned from my mission I knew I wanted to study history, but really didn't know what I could do with it. I wanted to work in education, but didn't want to teach high school. I'm very grateful for a wife that kept asking me what I wanted to do with my life. Partially through her encouragement and through an opportunity to work as a student advisor I was able to discover student services and identify my future career path. Like many working professions, I may en up changing at some point, but for the being, I've found a good fit for now with some mobility options. In the past ten years I have worked for three (technically four) different universities and in three different kinds of universities. I've made plenty of mistakes, but I've had some good success too.

Now to look forward to the next ten years. I would say, we'll see what's in store, but I know I need to be more proactive than that. I'll see what I can make.

Audible Book Review - Blackout by Robison Wells

With the launch of Altered Perceptions in behalf of Robison Wells and awarness of mental illness as a whole the obvious choice for me to get this month was his latest book, Blackout. I enjoyed his first two books published by Harper Teen, Variant and Feedback and I find him one of the few writers that can write realistic teen characters. Blackout was tense and suspenseful, punctuated with brief instances of seer terror - kind of like how combat has been described. And that is what life in Blackout is like. Rob does a great job giving us a peek into what would happen if order came to an end. Here is the link to the Audible page for the book. It was narrated by Ray Porter who did a good job except in his pronunciations of certain small towns in Utah - Manti ("Man`-Tie" not "Man-tee") at the top of the list. And I hate to say this, but Robison Wells, why do you love cliff hangers so?

Plot: Many people think that there isn't much going on in central Utah. But something terrible is. There and all over the country. Terrorist of some kind are systematically dismantling the countries ability to function. Dams, power stations, transportation, government, and military are all targets. They even turn Old Faithful into a pile of rumble. Nothing is sacred. In one case a whole city is brought to its knees and then kicked as it fights for life. There doesn't appear to much of a reason. No demands. No ultimatum. No contact with the terrorist whatsoever. The only thing in common with these attacks is that people causing all of this destruction and chaos are between the ages of 16 and 21. What's more, it appears they have abilities that empower them to do incredible things. And it turns out that they are contagious. Mount Pleasant, UT. Aubrey only wanted to have friends and instead she got invisibility. Or rather she got ambiguity. People ignore her when she wants them to. They don't hear her, they don't see her, if she touches them they don't associate it with her. As it turns out she's not the only one who can do incredible things. Unfortunately the next one she see is killed by the army at the Home Coming dance, right before all of the kids in town are herded onto buses and placed into quarantine. It is there that she learns about the teenage terrorist and that the army intends to fight fire with fire. At the same time, one of the most destructive terrorist cells in the country is in Utah and won't be leaving soon.

My personal favorites: Like Variant and Feedback, Blackout keeps you in suspense but in different ways. Rob lets you see the enemies movements and get an idea of what they are thinking without detracting from the story of our young heroes. The action was realistic and intense and the suspense was well done. I liked the characters and we learned and grew with them. I like the way that Rob portrays teenagers and personally feel that he does a great job of it. I also liked the tour through south and central Utah. I knew where the majority of the towns mentioned were and have even been to most of them. I liked the flow and pacing of the book as well as the way that he made his "powers" unique. I particularly liked the X-men reference, just to distinguish Rob's world from theirs.

Considerations: Despite being a book about terrorist and horrible things happening there is little violence to speak of and none of it graphic. The thought of teens causing such disasters and chaos may be difficult to listen to for some, but the book is very age appropriate. I can't recall a single use of course language and there is no sensuality of any kind. This does not mean the book is devoid of emotion, action, or attraction. Rob does a great job of writing to his audience and entertaining everybody above it. And if you didn't guess from my question to Rob, this book does end in a cliffhanger. Not quite as bad as Variant but still a significant one. I just have to say he better be working on the next one.

Blackout was a great listen and is one of the few "end of the world" books that I have read. It was solid and enjoyable. I have no reservations recommending it to anyone interested. The total length was a little under 8 hours.