Time passes

It's amazing how time passes without noticing it. It's been over three weeks since I posted here and don't even get me started on my other blog. The sign on Brigham City Implement (our local marque that shares words of wisdom) currently says something along the lines of "Anyone who things a minute goes by quickly hasn't been on a treadmill." This reminds me of the comparison, often contributed to Einstein - Put you hand on a hot stove for a minute and it feels like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour and it feels like a minute. That's relativity. I've noticed that when I'm busy and content time passes slowly in the moment but upon hindsight seem to have flown by. I don't know if it's a function of memory that I can't remember the time that has gone by, but I suspect it is. We tend to remember negative emotions more than positive, so when things are happy or content it tends to make time go faster.

Understanding that, it's no wonder that time seems to be moving pretty quick. While things are far from perfect, they are still very nice. Kanga and I finished The Hobbit and started reading the Adventures Wanted series by M.L. Foreman. Tigger is doing better at staying dry and is improving in his reading. And Roo has become become predominately bipedal. Angel still loves being at home and my responsibilities at work haven't changed much. Money is tight, but it always has been, and we have Leeroy Jenkins, Spock, and their little girl (hereafter called Raptor - for her cute dinosaur noises) have moved in with us while looking for property to build on. It's made things a little cozier but it's worked well for the time being. I've enjoyed Leeroy picking me up from work as it means I get home a lot faster than when I take the bus.

All in all, I can't complain about life. It is good and treats us well. We are warm, fed, clothed, and I have a job. Yes, there is more that we would like (like to reactivate our Audible account) but opportunities are being explored and developed so I can't complain.

Book Review - Crocodile on the Sandbank by Elizabeth Peters

My coworker mentioned the character of Amelia Peabody one time when we were discussing books and I was a little intrigued. I enjoy a good hero/heroine and Peabody sounded like somebody up my alley. I was finally able to make a trip to the library AND remember the name of the author and book, so I was able to pick it up. I started reading it on the bus and then found myself reading it at home and finally finished it on a day that I had off when I woke up early. As I suspected, I enjoyed the character of Amelia Peabody and the situations she found herself in. It was a pretty quick read, what I would expect from a paperback mystery, but it was satisfying. I'm looking forward to reading more of her adventures, and will probably fit them in between other books as the mood takes me.

Plot: Amelia is the youngest child of a scholarly father. She grew up studying with him and gaining a pleasure out of learning about dusty tombs and ancient mummies. When her father died and left her with an unexpectedly large amount of money she decided to live her dream and winter in Egypt. Not quite a full feminist, but still rather progressive for the 1880s Amelia is a direct women that will not be swayed or moved if she doesn't want to be. She is delayed in Italy on her way to Egypt but it throws her in the path of Evelyn, a young English woman who has found herself in deplorable circumstance and who Amelia takes under her wing as a traveling companion. The two of them reach Egypt and begin their cruise down the Nile. But new friends and old acquaintances muddy the waters of Amelia and Evelyn's trip. When a mummy goes missing, only to reappear on its feet Amelia is determined to clear the waters and see that everything ends in proper fashion.

My personal favorites: Amelia and Evelyn were great period characters, showing two different personalities in similar situations. I liked the way the two played off each. The mystery was fun - not your classic murder mystery but still engaging. The Emersons, Lucas, and the other characters were all interesting. I really liked the setting and the historical events were all fun.

Considerations: It's important to remember that this is a period book, so the characters are concerned about some things that modern readers might consider important. Beyond this, there was nothing I would consider questionable.

I enjoyed Crocodile on the Sandbank and will undoubtably pick up more Elizabeth Peters' books in the future. I can see them as becoming a mystery Louis L'amour, something to grab when I'm in the mood or as a palette cleanser after a heavier novel. All in all it was a good read. The total length was 352 pages.

Great Grandfathers and Great Grandmothers

Three posts in two days. I know I'm not being consistent with my postings, but the new year tends to get me introspective so that's why the increase in posts.

We were with my family on Christmas Eve and I found myself watching my dad closely. I watched the way he played with the grandkids and interacted with them. I thought about what he meant to my kids. He's not the favorite relative they have, but he is a favored relative. I watched his reaction to them and how they are all his favorites (favorite Kanga, favorite Tigger, favorite Roo, etc). I noted the smiles, the laughs, the kind words and encouragement. I sidled up to him in a brief lull of people and told him that he was a good grandfather. And how that made me miss his father.

I've already mourned my grandfather, who was the inspiration for this blog. And while I've missed him at times I've not felt a need to mourn again. Until I made that comment to my father. I could see that Dad felt the same thing as me, but I could also see that I had paid him a great complement. He deserves that comparison. I have been very blessed by the patriarchs in my family.

I have also been blessed by the matriarchs. My two oldest childrens' middle names are tied directly to their grandmothers for good reason. My own grandmothers are and were caring individuals. My paternal grandmother, who died three months after my grandfather, was caring, witty, educated, and musical. She would play games with us - she loved games - and was not the sort of person to "let" you win. You had to earn it. My maternal grandmother, who was not always the most liked is a selfless individual who cares about and helps all those around her. We did not always understand grandmother, but my siblings and I came to know what an amazing women she is. As an example, I carried an extra dinner across the street every Sunday while I was in college to the couple across the street who had constant medical problems. Without being asked Grandmother sent me with a baking sheet covered in warm dishes to the Simmons which was always received with much appreciation. I remember meeting a man whose first words out of his month upon learning of my relation to her told me how appreciative he was for her visits to his aged mother. She visited her, not for hours, or days, or weeks, or months, but for years. It's no wonder that my mother has always been very selfless as well.

All in all, I'm grateful for my grandmothers and grandfathers.

A white and fine Christmas

Christmas this year was very white, as I'm sure the rest of you living in Utah noticed. It was very beautiful and was perfect for my work's Christmas bunch where I was asked to head up a vocal quartet that performed. It was fun to sing with Andy (Young), Warren (Loveless), and Aaron (Garza).




The family parties were a lot of fun. The three pictures below were all from Angel's grandmother's get together. I'm glad that I get a long with so many of her relatives. As a young man you are inundated with stories of horrific get togethers with the in-laws, but I haven't had one yet. Kanga, Roo, and Tigger enjoyed themselves. I love these pictures of them as they do a good job of showing off parts of their personalities. Kanga loves to dress up (that's her trying on a new dress she just received). Roo, when unsure what to do, is quite and watches, very much like his mother (he's also starting to get tired at this point). And Tigger is a happy kid who just can't keep still (you can see his had is blurry because he's pulling it out of his pocket.

 We all got things we enjoyed for Christmas and have LOVED being close to family and visiting with them. With that said, we're planning on taking New Years a little easier, but it still includes a family dinner with Angel's aunt (the one sitting next to her in the picture). The kids have all been very good with Christmas being a little thinner due to Angel quitting her job. While finances are always stressful the blessing of her being at home with the kids is far greater than anything money could buy. With that said, I'm currently waiting to hear about a job I interviewed for (on the same day I sang at work). I've got high hopes that I'll be looked on favorably and have a better than average shot at it. Regardless, it's uncertain what the future holds and while I always have a little anxiety about the unknown I'm glad that I have my family by my side for the journey.

2015 Books reviewed

First off, this is not a "Best of 2015" list. I don't want to end up on Richard's list.

Looks like it was a little thinner this year for books. But that was probably due to me finishing my masters and cutting our audible account in September. Last year's total was 46, so I'm down nine. However, that is books reviewed not read. I think I read a half dozen ebooks that I didn't review (not quite "if you can't say something nice" but close enough) and I read a lot of monographs for classes and such. The list looks a lot shorter because I had more repeat authors this year that last year (5 books from Elizabeth Moon, 3 from Brian McClellan, 6 from Brandons - Mull and Sanderson).

Curtsies and Conspiracies and Waistcoats and Weaponry by Gail Carriger
1633 and 1634: the Baltic War by Eric Flint (and David Weber)
Legion, Legion: Skin Deep, and The Rithmatist by Brandon Sanderson
Slaves of Socorro, and Scorpion Mountain by John Flanagan
Dracula by Bram Stoker
William Shakespeare's Star Wars: The Jedi Doth Return by Ian Doescher
Sky Raiders, Rogue Knight, and Crystal Keepers by Brandon Mull
The Seventh Sigil by Margaret Weis and Robert Krammes
Promise of Blood, The Crimson Campaign, and The Autumn Republic, (The Powder Mage trilogy) by Brian McClellan
Trackers by Peter Haran
Boneshaker by Cherie Priest
The Ethos Effect by L.E. Modesitt, jr. (I have actually read three others and am in the middle of a fourth by Modesitt's but haven't reviewed them yet. I wanted to get the whole set read).
The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley
Thursdays with the Crown, and Silver in the Blood by Jessica Day George
Farmer in the Sky by Robert A Heinlein
Dune by Frank Herbert
Trading in Danger, Marque and Reprisal, Engaging the Enemy, Command Decision, and Victory Conditions (Vatta's War series) by Elizabeth Moon
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin
Son of the Black Sword by Larry Correia
The Aeronaut's Windlass by Jim Butcher
Her Brother's Keeper by Mike Kupari
David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell

Favorite book this year - Silver in the Blood. It was a great romp for all ages and held me entranced for the whole thing. I loved the mythos of the family and, like Dracula, knowing what's coming just builds the suspense. With that said, The Aeronaut Windlass comes in a very close second. Steampunk, airship combat, great characters. It was close. Interesting enough, both of those books are ones I read, not had read to me. There runners up for favorites were Son of the Black Sword and Rithmatist, both by great authors who are really good with character and plot. Correia has joked that he doesn't mind coming in behind Butcher and he does again. But not by much.

However, I have to mention that The Power Mage trilogy takes favorite series. And that probably takes first place for the year overall. It was an incredible ride through an awesome world with great characters and all the awesome. What's more is that Brain McClellan is a new author and this is his debut series. Like I said, all the awesome. Vatta's War was also very good and ranks high on the favorites.

All in all, it was a good year for reading. There was some great stories that I look forward to re-reading/listening to, and others I can't wait to share with my children (I've already pawned off a bunch on my friends). I can't wait to see what next year brings. I've already got several I'm looking forward to reading and others I just need to finish.

Losing tempers

This last week Tigger decided to play in the bathroom sink. He knows he shouldn't but he tends to anyway when he goes to the bathroom. However this time he left a towel in the sink and the water running. I have no idea how long it was like that before I went in to grab some tissue to wipe Roo's nose (he and I have colds) and discovered Tigger's new water park.

I'll be honest, I lost my temper and wanted to throttle him. Angel was also upset and let him know it in no uncertain terms. He was promptly told that he was expected to clean up the mess immediately and that if he was lucky he would be allowed to see the light of day before he died. It was a fair amount of water and I knew that towels were not going to get the job done by themselves. So I ran down to get the wet/dry vacuum. That's when i realized that it was raining in the basement. That should have really made me even more upset but it didn't. In fact I wasn't even mad. I think this was because I had dropped my phone that morning.

For the last two weeks I've been dealing with the complications of dropping my phone. I won't bore you with the details, but that very morning I dropped my replacement phone and broke the screen. I was so mad at myself for doing something so stupid that I almost threw the phone against the wall. The whole situation had been such an emotional ride already that I was just done. I hopped in the car and used the drive to "talk myself back from the ledge." I had to tell myself that life would go on, that it wan't as bad as my emotions were making me think it was, and that I needed to calm down. I finally succeeded in calming down and everything really was fine.

I think because I had to deal with my own little emergency that morning that I didn't totally flip out even worse when I saw the waterfall. In fact, I might have laughed. I worked with Tigger and he did a great job getting everything cleaned up. Really, he didn't complain or shirk, even though he doesn't normally like vacuums. I was really impressed and while he couldn't play with friends for three days, it was only for three days.

In the end, I think it was a great experience for him despite the difficulty he caused.

Book Review - David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell

My work sponsors a book group every semester. Now that I think about it, I didn't review the book last time. I may need to get on that.... Anyway, this year there was a great selection of books, but I wasn't really drawn to many of them. I had heard about David and Goliath through Audible when it came out so I thought I would give it a go. Our group is only four people, but I like them all and am looking forward to the discussion later this month. Like with the other non-fiction books I've reviewed the "plot" section of this review will include an overview of the points that Gladwell makes. In many ways, Gladwell reminds me of Taleb and Black Swan in that he introduces ideas that seem contradictory or highly unorthodox, but with consideration make sense and should be the logical choice. It was a good read, although it wasn't always easy. Gladwell requires you to reflect on the people and situations that he presents and some of the situations can be painful. In any event, the book was a good read and worth considering.

Plot: Why was Goliath surprised when David slew him? A thing like that hadn't entered his head before. David is the mascot of any underdog taking on the superior foe. However, was David really at a disadvantage when he fought Goliath? If you look closely at the situation, even without considering possible physiological considerations/limitation, David was armed with a projectile weapon against a man with a sword. He had essentially brought a gun to a knife fight. There's no wonder he won. However, the fact that don't tend to consider the details but rather make assumptions based on imperfect information. Gladwell looks at the strengths that come with being an underdog and the weaknesses of giants that are not readily apparent. He demonstrates these ideas through relating actual events and through interviews with those that were the underdogs. The clincher of the book is that you might not be as disadvantaged as you originally thought.

My personal favorites: This book causes you to shift you mindset and consider some things that may be perceived as laws, but are in fact just customs or traditions. It is inspiring in that it lets you see what kinds of advantages you can have because of disadvantages. It also encourages you to consider what's the worst that can happen and what that enables you to do.

Considerations: There is no language or sensuality of course. There are some descriptions of childhood leukemia that showed it's devastating impact, but nothing graphic. I found some of the examples he gave were of people that pushed the lines of ethics in my opinion and consequently their behavior should not be emulated, but Gladwell might argue that point. As ethics is determined by social and cultural norms more than rigid laws and this book is about looking beyond those norms his examples make sense and show exactly what he is discussing. The only other thought I have on this book is one that I have with many such books or stories when I come across them - for every person who succeed how many failed? My (albeit small) inner skeptic knows that books like this are only written about success and that stories about failures are not often published which gives us a skewed view of success. With that said, Gladwell does look at some examples where someone failed to achieve what they wanted to despite doing what appeared to be the right thing. He also acknowledges the fact that the disadvantages that can create an advantage are still disadvantages that we won't wish on anyone and we should not seek for them. Regardless of my small misgivings about these kinds of books, I feel and know that they need to be written for the simple reason that they show that success is possible. If a person is unable to see the potential of success they will never strive for it. This book encourages us to look at that potential and rise up to meet it.

The book was very good and it was a relatively quick read for non-fiction. It's well written, expertly organized, and engaging. I've already got an eye on one of Gladwell's other books and do not expect to be disappointed. The total length was 295 pages.