2,906 Miles Update #9

New Year means that I'm back on the workout horse- so far, thanks to calorie counting, working out and the stomach flu, I'm down ten pounds.  I've gone a little wobbly as of late, but I'm working to crawl back to discipline and get fully back on the horse to keep losing this weight.  (Because it ain't going to lose itself.)

On tap for the year:  I would really, really like to do a day of RAGBRAI.  (There's a nice, easy chunk between Forest City and Mason City that I've got my eye on- it's about 30 miles or so.  I have yet to sell the Missus on this notion.)   The Missus, however, has plans of her own:  one of her friends from St. Louis asked if she wanted to do a 5K with her this spring, so I guess I'm going to have to double down on Couch to 5K and alternate it with heavier and heavier bike rides!)

Either way, it's Game On in 2014!

As of 10/1/13, we're 272.92 miles in.

Miles Added: 91.31

So now we're 364.23 miles in and the map looks like this:

Whiskey of the Month #16: Old Crow

Before we plunge into the business at hand, we've got to take a detour to one of the coolest Christmas gifts I got this year:  101 Whiskies To Try Before You Die.  (I also got some goodies to sample, which you'll get to see over the course of the next two months!)  You can find whiskey (or whisky) guides a plenty in your local bookstore, but this one stands out.  It's easy to read, relaxed about the topic of whiskey (some people can take it very, very seriously) and it's fun and more to the point, sets the reader up for a challenge:  can you try all one hundred and one?

Well, you know what, kids?  Game on.  (As of right now, I've got 10 of their 101 sampled which puts me 9.9% of the way there!  This is such a fun idea I think I'll update periodically just to keep track.)

As for this month's whiskey, Old Crow, well, rest assured that this isn't one of those 101 whiskies, but really, it's got the heritage and the history (and yeah, I think the taste is decent enough) and the way I figure it, Mark Twain and Ulysses S. Grant can't be wrong, can they?

That's right!  This was the poison of choice for Twain and Grant- you know that story they tell from the Civil War about a bunch of Generals going to Lincoln and complaining that Grant was a drunk?  And how Lincoln said, 'well, send him a case of whatever he's drinking then, because this guy wins battles!' This was the stuff he sent with a cherry on top.

How did I find out about it?  Randomly, I saw a list of the best budget bourbons, ranked on Deadspin and number one?  Old Crow.   Serious Eats agreed with them.   So, one trip to the Waterfront Hy-Vee later and I was surprised to find that a bottle of Old Crow- and a decently sized one at that will run you about seven, eight bucks a pop- a perfect way to tickle your craving for bourbon without breaking the bank.

Color: Pale yellow, straw colored.

Body:  Smells smooth and slightly buttery- I'm thinking butterscotch or caramel- it's not strong enough to be straight up toffee.  But there's also some underlying sweetness to it that's hard to pin down-- I ended up going with brown sugar and candy of some kind.  (Some of the reviews describe the general notes as buttered toast and candy corn, which is awfully close to the mark, I think.)  The Quiet Man sniffed this and said it smelled like 'college.'  He was less than enthusiastic.

Palate: This, to me is where Old Crow comes into it's own.  It sits on the tongue beautifully- light, easy and smooth.  It doesn't burn, it doesn't irritate- it's not too thick and not too watery.

Finish:   If there's a note of criticism about Old Crow, it's that the finish is awfully weak.  To me, the perfect finish is a gradual warming sensation without an unduly harsh burning sensation and that's just not present here.  The finish is fleeting, fast and gone too soon.

Overall:  Best budget buy I've come across thus far.  If you want to satisfy your taste for bourbon and don't have a lot of cash, you could do a lot worse than Old Crow.

Am I Ready? (For 2016? Probably Not.)

File this one under:  way too f***king early to talk about the next Presidential election news.  (Again, I apologize for this, but since the talk has begun, it's only going to get worse, so the way I see it, why fight it?)

Ready For Hillary, a pro-Hillary super-PAC launched their Iowa efforts this past Saturday in Des Moines and once again, the air of inevitability is beginning to build around the former First Lady/Secretary of State as the pace begins to quicken toward 2016 and yet another round of Presidential politics.

All of which raises the question:  Am I ready for Hillary?   'Possibly' is the best answer I can come up with right now.  (As the first sentence of this post should alert the reader:  what I'm not ready for is talk about 2016- but since it's here, I grit my teeth, take a handful of Tums and get into it.)  At this point, I'm certainly open to the idea of entertaining the possibility- it's worth noting that in the 90s, with a Republican Congress and a Democratic President, the spirit of compromise was forced, like rich, nourishing food down a goose's liver to make into foie gras, upon both parties and, barring Clinton's blowjob shenanigans and the Republican meltdown over them, things were more productive and generally all around better than they are now.

Or did they just seem better?  I've also got a certain amount of queasiness when it comes to the quasi-dynastic nature of her candidacy.  We had four years of one Bush, eight years of Clinton, eight years of another Bush and now we're going back to another Clinton?  Come 2016 that means that the Presidency for the past three decades will have been held by either a Bush or a Clinton a whopping 71% of the time.  If we're going to talk so much about income inequality, it sure looks like the power is being held by fewer and fewer people as well- something that needs to change and fast.  (And more to the point, why the dearth of qualified women in either party?  Of all the bright, talented, capable women out there- the only one up to the job is Hillary?  Really?)

But ignoring all that:  while the trumpets are starting to blare to announce the arrival of the Once and Future Potential President in the United States, something worth noting went down in Africa: Catherine Samba-Panza was sworn in as Interim President of the Central African Republic.  She is the first female leader of the CAR and only the third in Africa and despite the conflict tearing apart that country, no one seems to be batting an eye- to the contrary, a lot of people seem to be of the mind that since men seem to be the ones responsible for the fighting and the bloodshed, it might, in fact, be a good idea to put a woman in charge because they have less of a propensity to kill people.  (At least, thus far.)

President Samba-Panza has one hell of a task ahead of her, given the history and the current state of the CAR, but since this is a country and a conflict that's getting far too little attention from the news media in this country, it's a breathe of fresh air to read about a woman rising to power not because she's 'inevitable' and not because of her 'connections' but because she might be the best person for the job.

A leader like that, I could get behind.

This Week In Vexillology #65

This Week In Vexillology, we're breaking out of Africa and heading over to South America to take a look at the flag of Peru!

Adopted on February 25th, 1825 for national and civil usage, Peru was liberated from Spanish rule in 1819 by an army lead by Jose de San Martin (whose name is equally as impressive as Chile's liberator, Bernardo O'Higgins.)  He ended up (along with the Peruvian Legion) choosing the colors for the flag, red and white, said to be the colors of the Inca Empire as well as a rising sun in the center, also dating back to the Incas.  The sun was dropped in 1825 at the behest of another one of South America's liberators, Simon Bolivar- instead, you'll find many variants of the flag include the Arms of Peru.  (Interestingly enough, the Wikipedia page for this flag says that the red represents the blood that was spilled for the fight for independence and the white represents peace and bravery.  Hmmmm...  oh and they also celebrate their flag day on June 7th.*)

The Arms of Peru have another little conflict to consider...

On the shield, there's a llama (or a vicuna, depending on who you talk too- hence the conflict), a cinchona tree (actually the source for quinine, a key ingredient in tonic water and, of course, gin and tonics.) and a cornucopia of gold symbolizing prosperity. Surrounding it, you have a palm branch on the left and a laurel one on the right, tied by a red and white ribbon (the national colors) with a oak crown above it.  These represent God, gold and glory.

So there you have it, the flag of Peru!  Remember, until next time, keep your flags flying- FREAK or otherwise!

*This is interesting because June 7th is the anniversary of the Battle of Arica, a key battle in the War of the Pacific.  It has nothing to do with Peru's liberation and everything to do with a war I've never heard of at all.  So, click the links and educate thyselves, people.

What I'm Reading #2

There are times when I both love and hate Wikipedia...  this, I'm afraid is one of those times.   You see, I'm terrible when it comes to spoilers.  I have this weird tick where if it's not a television show or a book I'm seriously invested in, I like to look up what happens next- which, if you don't mind spoilers is okay, but when you're dealing with a book like Kazuo Ishiguro's Never Let Me Go, it becomes absolutely torturous.

I'm on about Chapter Six now and I still have no idea what's going on.   I know something is going on.  I know it's probably somewhat sinister in nature, but the way Ishiguro builds the narrative, the reader is swept along with the other characters are they put together the mystery of idyllic Hailsham School where they had all grown up together before some of them head out into the world to be 'carers' and others start to give 'donations.'

But here's the thing that's fascinating so far:  Ishiguro doesn't present this as a mystery, instead, it reads like a coming of age story.  Kathy, Ruth, Tommy and the others are growing up and struggling to discover who they are and what their purpose in life is meant to be.   The older they get, the more questions they seem to have about Halisham and the true nature of the school and their fates, but at this point in the book, I feel like it's just a matter of time before they figure it out or maybe they've known all along and it'll be just a matter of time before I figure it out.  Either way, something awesome promises to come at the end of this book.

I'll confess...  I've never read any of Ishiguro's other novels before, but I think that's something I might have to remedy.  I'm 26% of the way through according to Goodreads and I can't wait to finish this and find out what conclusion this masterful author has in store for me.

Game Over, Dude

To be clear, I was born in 1983.  The Captain and Tennille were just a wee bit before my time, but over the years, I've always been aware of them in a vague sort of way.   Mainly for this song:



There's something nice about this song- it's comforting, it's happy- it's remarkably free of a lot of the nonsense and bullshit that seems to infect society today.  It's got a simple, easy, premise:  Love will keep us together.  It's a nice sentiment and in an age of cynicism and disillusionment, it's all too easy to laugh it.  But wouldn't it be nice to remember a time when maybe people actually believed that?  Wouldn't it be great to have life be that simple again?

In a culture obsessed with superficial bullshit and a news media more interested in entertainment that informing the public, there was something reliable and comforting about The Captain and Tennille.   They were always there.  They were that hatrack you can always hang some hope on:  no matter how much you thought the country might be increasingly resembling a dumpster fire, love will keep us together.  Right?

Wrong.  They're divorcing after 39 years of marriage and, as one commentator already noted:  Love is dead. It's hard not to feel that the foundations of the universe have been rocked ever so slightly on their axis and that we're all totally and utterly doomed.

If The Captain and Tennille can't make it?  Game over, dude.*

(However, I've decided that if, after an appropriate period of post-divorce whatever, Tennille marries an Admiral (retired or active) in the Navy, that would be amazing and awesome and might restore some hope to the universe at large.)

*After some consultation via FB, the Missus and I decided that if The Captain and Tennille can't make it, at least we can.   She decided, however, that I don't need a hat.

On Biographies and Bribery

In the wake of Bridgegate it appears that January is off to a great start for political shenanigans as former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell and his wife were indicted on federal corruption charges.  McDonnell has been touted as a possible Vice-Presidential candidate for Mittens in the 2012 Election, but apparently Mittens has good instincts:  he dodged not one, but two bullets so far now that Governor Christie is in a mess and McDonnell is indicted.

It's easy to wallow in a wee bit of schaudenfreude at the travails of Republican officials but as an independent voter, who shops around and looks for the best possible candidate to hand my vote off too in every election I can, I'd prefer it if both parties got their shit together and brought their A-game to the table.

(The Quiet Man and I actually touched on this a little when last we spoke:  for all the hatred of The Moustache in certain parts of the state, he belongs to a slightly older generation of Republicans.  GOPers who were tight with a buck, talked a little too much about morality/family values but were more or less tolerable.  And if any GOPers readings this want to try and insist that a more ideologically pure party is the key to success, keep in mind that LBJ once said that it's better to be inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in and trying to shrink your tent ensures the latter outcome instead of the much preferable former.)

It's messy and delightfully irritable, watching the process of evolution and change.  If I'm a betting man though, I'd say a Clinton Presidency and a Republican Congress in 2016 might be the best possible solution for all concerned when it comes to holding down the crazies at either end of the spectrum.  (Which is something I'd like to see...  oddly enough of all the probable GOPers mentioned for 2016, I wouldn't count Rand Paul out yet.  The media will undoubtedly dig up every 'kooky', 'weird' (i.e. libertarian and perfectly sensible) thing he's ever said but he could go deep in any GOPer field.)

While corruption charges might actually be a for real type of thing, the other end of the spectrum finds the interwebs abuzz with charges that TX Gubernatorial Candidate Wendy Davis took liberties with her biography and had a real d'oh sort of moment.  I'm really not sure what to think about this stuff yet...  lefties are already screaming sexism which is the reaction that you sort of have to expect with this stuff.

Mainly, it's just bad optics.  The piece in the Dallas Morning News doesn't really indicate that her ex-husband or her daughters have any hard feelings, but the fact that her ex-husband cashed out his 401K to pay of her Harvard Law Degree and she divorced him the day after the last payment was made will raise eyebrows.  The fact she pretty much gave him full custody of the kids, saying 'it's not a good time for me right now' could also raise eyebrows- either way, it's ammunition for the right (and yeah, there's probably some sexism thrown in there, because as much as I hate to admit it, that's the country we live in) and seeds of doubt for independent voters.  Maybe.

As for her d'oh moment, could I just suggest that even if you're running against a tinfoil hat wearing, misognystic, 'checks every box on worst stereotypes the media can come up with' type of GOPer, inviting your opponent to 'walk a day in your shoes' might not be the best thing to say when the dude's a paraplegic.  #justsaying

The Great GastroIntestinal Disaster of 2014

Uncertainty gives me the stomach flu.  Or maybe it was the Mexican food we ate Saturday night.  Either way, I enjoyed a glass of wine on Thursday night.  (Major, major acid reflux resulted.  I threw up.)   Friday night, I enjoyed a beer- a relatively non-hoppy one, in an attempt to avoid the acid reflux of the night before.  Nope.  That didn't work.  Saturday night, the Missus and I went to a Post-Holiday Party down at a local Mexican place.  It was fun but my stomach was already riding a roller coaster before we got there, so I nibbled on chips, pecked on the food and churned down a whopping magarita and a half plus a shit ton of water.

Sunday came with nausea, gas, bloating and the squirts.  My burps tasted like rotten eggs and death and  both the Missus and I spent the day on the couch, taking turns in the bathroom and generally wondering what we had done/eaten to deserve this.  If you ever heard of that age old question:  'Have you ever gambled on a fart and lost?'  Sunday was our day in Vegas- only we stayed away from the craps table and stuck to the slots, so to speak.

This is probably already rounding the corner into TMI territory, so I'll spare everyone the gory details just to say that I feel like I'm slowly crawling back toward normality, so the usual stream of blogging and pith should resume, I'm hoping, by week's end.

This Week In Vexillology #64

We're staying in Africa one more week and taking a trip to the smallest country on mainland Africa, because This Week In Vexillology, we've got The Gambia:

Somewhat unusually for many African flags, the flag of The Gambia has no political basis whatsoever.  It was adopted on February 18th, 1965 for national and civil usage and became a republic on April 24th, 1970.  Situated on either side of the Gambia River, the namesake of the nation, it's a long, narrow strip of land surrounded on three sides by Senegal.  After a coup attempt in 1981, the Senegambia Confederation (a loose Confederation of the two countries) was attempted but only lasted until 1989.

The color scheme of the flag is pretty simple.  The red in the flag represents the savannah grasslands, the blue stripe symbolizes the River Gambia and the green in the flag symbolizes the forests.

Nice, easy and simple...  sometimes those are the best flags to study!  In the meantime, put your hands together for The Gambia and remember, until next time, keep your flags flying- FREAK or otherwise!

10 Authors (In No Particular Order) Part II

This month, I'm bringing a tripleheader to the party!  It took me a long time to think of these three, because although my tastes tend to run toward science fiction and fantasy, they're not the only types of literature that have impacted me and influenced my writing.  So, without further ado:

David Eddings:  When it comes to fantasy, I started with J.R.R. Tolkein's Middle Earth and C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia but despite a brief flirtation with Lloyd Alexander's The Chronicles of Prydain, the world of The Belgariad is what made me fall in love with the genre.  What makes The Belgariad so good?  If I had to put my finger on it, I'd say it's more grounded and it's characters delightfully human- with vices and virtues alike. You can't really beat The Belgariad, I don't think.  It's successor series, The Mallorean is good, but doesn't match the original.

Eddings wrote a lot of other stuff as well, two more fantasy trilogies The Elenium and The Tamuli (both of which are excellent as well) but if there's a mark against Eddings, it's that you can move through these wonderful fantasy epics and enjoy them, but they're all a bit similar, plot-wise and even character wise sometimes if you're totally honest about it.  He's a lot like Aaron Sorkin in that way...  his writing is excellent and you can enjoy watching his television shows, but at the end of the day, they're all a little similar.   One striking exception to that is a stand alone fantasy novel that he wrote later in his career, The Redemption of Althalus.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez: Of course, I've read One Hundred Years Of Solitude.  Of course, I've read Love In The Time Of Cholera...  but the book that really imploded my mind, one that I think everyone should buckle their seatbelts, sit down and read is Autumn of The Patriarch.  Don't get me wrong:  this is not an easy read, but if you push through it to the end, it's absolutely stunning.   The story of a dictator in his last, dying dies, Autumn of The Patriarch is written in one long stream of consciousness, shifting seamlessly from one character to another.  It about drove me up the wall the first time I tried to read it (yes, it took me a couple of times) but if you persevere, the scope and power of Marquez's narrative is breathtaking.  This was one of the most challenging books I've ever read but also one of the most worthwhile.

Terry Pratchett:  I don't think you can really describe Terry Pratchett in one word very well.  His stuff is fantasy, satire, parody, drama, comedy and tragedy all rolled into one.   Don't take fantasy seriously as a genre?  This guy busts boundaries and elevates fantasy to great, excellent literature.   You know the old saw about how science fiction is at it's best when it's saying something about the world we live in today?  Pratchett and his Discworld are a lot like that.   The thing with the Discworld series though, is that it's not so much one, overarching series, but several different series that can interact with each other from time to time. It's closing in on 40 novels at this point, so again, hard to recommend just one, but I'll try:  I'd say, Wyrd Sisters, Night Watch and probably Maskerade rank as some of the best.  But really, they're all good.  This is a universe worth getting lost in.  So what are you waiting for?

Condition of the State '14

The Moustache and His Chief Henchwoman kicked off the new legislative session with the annual and IMHO, cumbersomely titled 'Condition Of The State' address and there was nothing really all that new to report.  It's Iowa.  We're all still here.  Corn and soybeans, presumably, will grow just fine once we all thaw out and start planting them again.  But this is also 2014- and that means before we all get dragged into the never ending cycle of Presidential politics and midterm elections, there's also some state and local races to consider.

With the exit of intriguing, telegenic candidate Tyler Olsen from the Democratic side of the Gubernatorial race, the field has pretty much cleared for Democrat Jack Hatch who called The Moustache's 2014 agenda 'timid and lukewarm' and tried to insinuate that The Moustache had been in the job way too long.  I haven't taken a peek at Hatch yet, but if his photo is anything to go by, optics-wise this promises to be a vanilla affair between one old white guy and another old white guy.

Hopefully there's a third party candidate lurking out there to at least bring something interesting to the table, because The Moustache is powerful in Iowa politics.  I don't want to pour cold water on Democratic hopes and aspirations, but it's going to take a lot to oust The Moustache and thus far, another vanilla white guy doesn't seem to be getting me all that excited.   But it's a long time until November, so we'll see what, if any punches Hatch (assuming he gets the nomination and I think, now, he's running unopposed) can land.  If not, he'll be just another sacrificial lamb to fall before the power of The Moustache.

Congressionally speaking, it looks as though the 2nd District (that's Iowa City and surrounding areas) could see another death match between Dave Loebsack and perpetual GOPer hopeful Marianette Miller-Meeks (I'm just going to call her 3M from here on out- it's easier to type.)  The boundaries are a little different this time around though- so that might, maaaaaaaybe play a little more in her favor.

Looking at the results from last time, she needed to stay competitive in Linn County (single digits) and run up the score big down district in the rural areas and smaller towns.  She didn't do that... and so she lost.  But we've got Newton and the Quad Cities in our District now and while I'm not sure of the politics of Newton/Jasper County, if memory serves, Scott County can run pretty Conservative...  so who knows.

Locally, leaving aside the County Attorney race (will not descend into rage spiral.  WILL NOT DESCEND INTO RAGE SPIRAL.) It's also time for the Charter Review Commission...  this is actually pretty cool and very sensible of Iowa City, but basically, every ten years they pop the proverbial hood and check out the city's home rule charter to make sure it's still working the way it should be.  They're taking applications now and one of the more interesting platforms can be found over here at JDeeth...  the man himself is applying to be on the Commission and his platform makes a heck of a lot of sense.

I like the idea of directly electing the Mayor.  I'm honestly not sure why we don't do it to begin with-  I get the idea of electing the City Attorney, Clerk and Chief of Police but am less sure about the latter.  I don't think it's something a lot of municipalities do-  they seem to prefer the Chief of Police be an employee that they can fire, not an elected official they might have to overrule popular will to get rid of.

Precinct sized wards with only residents voting and a larger Council?  Again, I can cautiously get behind this- at the very least, if you're running for a seat in District B, only people in District B should be able to vote for you.   Timing the City Council races with the Midterms/Presidential elections is a smart idea as is reducing the term to two years.

I tend to break with JDeeth on the petition issue... I'm okay with abolishing the cross-checking policy- I think Deeth is right and it does tend to be aimed more directly at students- but petitions should not be able to address issues of state and federal law..  I'm sorry, but this is one of the more irritating Progressive habits that I wish we could get away from.  I don't like meaningless symbolic gestures or conversation starters any more than I like candidates for county attorney announcing that they're going to ignore laws they don't like.  Doing so undermines the rule of law, however insignificantly and more importantly misses the point:

Talk is cheap.  Action matters.  If you don't like a law, run for the legislature and change the law.

Gonna be a fun year!

I've Never Been To Cooperstown

My level of interest in baseball sits somewhere around 'well, it's better than watching golf.'  Going to a baseball game is a lot of fun.  The warm summer days, hot dogs, obscenely overpriced beer and a game paced in such a way that you essentially hang out with your buddies and relax.   Watching baseball?  Meh.  I use it as background noise mainly.

Other than that, it's hard for me to get seriously passionate about our national past time.  I'm not sure why...  maybe I lack that quintessential male bonding experience of going to a baseball game with one's father as a kid.  (We did go down to the pub for a pint of bitter one Christmas, which took far less time and was, I feel, a far better use of my time, bonding wise.)  Maybe it's because, like cricket, it remains vaguely incomprehensible to me, even now.  I can't speak in hushed tones of things like Merkle's Boner.  I giggle instead.

But it is with great gusto and amusement that I read and witness the outbreak of pearl-clutching from the numerous members of the Baseball Writer's Association of America when the identity of the member who had 'sold' his vote to Deadspin (who promptly let the fans vote on it).  For his trouble, Dan Le Batard has been  banned for life from voting for the Hall of Fame and suspended from the BBWAA (not actually sure what the second B stands for) for one year. 

(To rewind slightly:  this blew up a few months back, when Deadspin revealed that they had secured a vote and were going to let people vote on it!  Power to the people, man!)

Was this entire thing essentially a publicity stunt on the part of Deadspin and Le Batard?  Yes.  But it was a brilliant one... the BBWAA sits on the Hall of Fame Vote like a precious mother hen guarding her eggs, or, in perhaps a more apt metaphor, the College of Cardinals meeting to elect a New Pope at the Vatican.  I couldn't tell you the process or the rules- just that they're arcane and that you only have a certain number of times to get into the Hall of Fame and then you're done, which strikes me as bullshit, really.

The moribund and crusty gatekeepers of baseball's Holy Sanctum of Cooperstown rushed to guard their precious voting system.   Bob Costas (who, I guess is not a voter, so I don't know why he's making that argument) said it was a bad idea because fans would 'vote for their favorites.'  The PTI guys teed off on Le Batard's move, probably because ESPN was pissed they hadn't thought of it first. Indeed, baseball writers around the country were generally pissed about it.

Deadspin, of course, responded with some very good points of their own.

Me?  I think this is fascinating and I only wished I gave more of a shit about baseball so I could make some salient points in this debate.  I'll always come down on the side of giving a little power to the people, but as a sport, I think baseball needs to reinvigorate itself a little bit.  Used to be, The World Series was a banner event on par with The Super Bowl.  Now for some diehard fans, it might still be that but the television numbers don't bear it out.  What's wrong with giving fans some power of their own?  Why do baseball writers get to sit in moral judgment over a sport a lot of them didn't even play?  And more to the point, how can they, when they, along with baseball itself, looked the other way at the height of the steroid era only to demonize players they had been carefully ignoring when the full extent of the problem was revealed.

I've never been to Cooperstown and to be honest, it's not that high on my bucket list.  But if the BBWAA gives the fans a little bit of skin in the Hall of Fame game, well then, that might get a little more of my attention.

Bookshot #71: Rainbow's End

Where to begin with Rainbows End?  Well for a start, it took me a hell of a long time to get through this book- but I don't want that to scare anybody.  This was a good book...  but not a knock your socks off, you have to read this right away, it will change your life type of a book.  This was a thought-provoking book and a vision of the future that isn't at all far-fetched- at least I don't think it is, but...  I don't know.  Just didn't really work for me when all was said and done, but let's unpack the plot a little bit and see if I can put my finger on just what it is that didn't work for me.

Rainbows End opens with Robert Gu, the famous poet slowly regaining his faculties as he recovers from Alzheimer's disease- he re-emerges into a world that is very different from the world he knew.   He was a world renowned poet with a notoriously volatile temper that was more or less estranged him from his entire family- he has to get to know them all, including his granddaughter Miri and try and rebuild his shattered relationships with them.

And, he has to do it while going back to school to learn about all the new technology that has emerged since his illness.   What the author Vernor Vinge describes sounds a lot like Minority Report- not virtual reality, but augmented reality- human now interact with virtual overlays of reality all the time.   Smart clothing with gesture recognition and contact lenses with virtual retinal display make it all possible- learning how to interact with new reality 'the wearables' as the characters call them is the challenge that faces Robert.

But incredibly powerful technology is now available to more and more people and Robert and his granddaughter are drawn into a plot involving a traitorous intelligence officer, a mysterious stranger disguised as an anthropomorphic rabbit and mind control technology that could be very dangerous indeed.   Robert, who has lost his 'spark' and finds himself unable to write poetry like he used to again is lured into the plot with promising of being able to get back his old abilities again and soon he, his granddaughter and colleagues old and new are caught up in plot that could radically alter the future and all their lives hang in the balance.

Overall: Realistic vision of the future, believable characters and a good story- and, I have to admit, good writing, produce a solid, if somewhat uninspiring novel.  I think what Vinge lacks is a touch of cyberpunk panache.  You look at books like The Diamond Age or Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson and they deal with many of the same topics and themes that Vinge touches on with Rainbows End, but while Vinge produces perfectly serviceable macaroni and cheese, Stephenson adds bacon and truffle oil.  (If you'll excuse the metaphor- that's making me hungry now!)  It's the difference between ** 1/2 and **** stars, I'm afraid.  They both might taste good, but if you've got a choice, you're going for the bacon and the truffle oil.

This Week In Vexillology #63

This Week In Vexillology, we're going to have more fun than usual (because, after all, every Week In Vexillology is a fun one, right?)  Last week, we looked at the flag of Zimbabwe, and this week, we're staying close by and slipping across the northern border of Zimbabwe to take a peek at the flag of Zambia:

Before, we get to all that fun though, I've got to launch into a mild tangent:  I want to go to Zambia, mainly to do this:



Over enthusiastic college girl commentary aside, doesn't that look fucking wild?  I mean, just going to Africa period would be amazing and seeing Victoria Falls would be doubly amazing, but doing something like this? Once in a lifetime, bucket list type of stuff.  (I was also intrigued by a lot of videos of people base jumping from the top of Angel Falls, which I'd also like to see- but, I just don't know about base jumping/sky diving.  It'd be awesome, no question, but I'd probably end up being the dude who gets a bum parachute, you know?)

(I originally discovered this pool thanks to Atlas Obscura, a fabulous site that everyone should spend an hour or two exploring- doubly so if you're going on vacation or just want to discover what wild, wacky and random shit is just a short drive away from you- their data base is searchable.)

But now, BACK TO THE FLAG!

Adopted on October 24th, 1964 for national and civil usage, I have to admit that this flag actually grew on me quite a bit while writing this post.  I think I just associate too much green with Libya's old flag and I considered that to be boring as well as being a symbol of a loony dictator- but the more I looked at it, the more I began to like it.

Sure, there's a lot of green (which represents Zambia agriculture) but placing the eagle over the three vertical stripes on the fly instead of the hoist actually draws the eye towards the colors.  And, although I'd have to see it in use to be sure, I'm wondering if placing the symbols on the fly, which will flap in the wind is intended to give the effect of the eagle being in flight.  If so, genius design.   I like it.

Speaking of the symbols:  the eagle is taken from the national arms (it's the eagle of liberty) while the three stripes stand for the struggle for independence (red), the people (black) and the country's copper.  (Yellow/orange).

'American Hustle' --A Review

With Sister Cigar back in town for the Christmas holiday from her abode in Arizona, the Missus and I took the opportunity to give her some alone time with The Cigarillo and snuck out of the house when he wasn't looking to go see our Christmas movie of choice, the wonderfully entertaining American Hustle.

To be honest, I wasn't sure what the expect.  The second Hobbit film had been a pleasant surprise, but after the torments of the first Hobbit flick, the Missus had not been anxious to repeat the experience with a sequel.  And with review of 47 Ronin being anywhere from mixed to out right panning it (I saw one that labelled it 'the second worst thing to happen to Japan this century') the Christmas movie scene was a little lacking this year.

Happily, American Hustle more than picked up the slack.  Loosely based on the Abscam Scandals of the late 70s, where FBI stings netted about ten or so members of Congress, plus the Mayor of Camden, New Jersey on bribery/corruption charges.  (When I say 'loosely' I mean loosely, the movie proclaims right up front:  Some of this actually happened.)  

Our story opens with small time businessman and con artist Irving Rosenfield (played by a wonderful rumpled, almost unrecognizable Christian Bale) meets stripper Sydney Prosser (an electric Amy Adams) at a party- they bond over Duke Ellington and become lovers, with Sydney posing as a British aristocrat named 'Lady Edith Greenlsey' in order to attract investors, whose money Irving then embezzles.   Things go great for them for awhile (how, I don't know...  Lady Edith's accent is all that great, but then again, I think that's the point) but eventually things get complicated:  Irving won't divorce his unstable wife (Jennifer Lawrence, hitting it out of the park yet again) for fear that she'll take her son (whom Irving has adopted) away from him. 

Things get even more complicated with the duo is caught in the act by undercover FBI Agent Richard DiMaso (Bradley Cooper).  Sydney is arrested but Irving cuts a deal with the feds:  help Richie get four more con artists and the two of them walk free.  Irving agrees and soon plants rumors that a Sheikh is looking to make investments in America.   This soon points them toward the mayor of Camden, Carmine Polito (an excellent Jeremy Renner showing his depth- seriously like him breaking out of his action star schtick.)  Mayor Polito is looking to attract serious money to Atlantic City to revitalize the casinos and bring back jobs 

Richie keeps wanting more and more and their operation threatens to spin out of control:  soon enough, though, Carmine comes through for them and arranges a meeting between their faux Sheikh and the Casino running Mafia bosses, which includes a surprise visit from Mob Boss Victor Tellegio (Robert DeNiro.) Tellegio tells them that in order to secure Mafia backing for their investment, the Sheikh will need to be an American citizen and that they'd have to bribe members of Congress to do it.

This only urges Richie on further, convinced that he's got a major member of the mob in his sights and in order to survive, they have to out hustle good guys and bad guys alike.

Overall: I haven't seen every 70s period piece churned out by Hollywood but of the few I've seen, this one was probably my favorite because although it was set in the 1970s, it wasn't obnoxious about it-  the story is what carries the movie and it could be transplanted into any other decade with relative ease I think.   The acting is incredible (having a cast of all-stars helps) and the nice part is that it plays with multiple themes of corruption, lies and what people are willing to do to get by.  (The Missus thought it played like an uber-realistic heist flick, but without the bells, whistles and other nonsense that goes along with them-- something I would agree with.)  The director, David O. Russell also uses music to great effect here- the opening to Steely Dan's 'Dirty Work' is nicely done and the rest of the soundtrack is excellent.  **** out of ****.

Bridgegate: Or, How I Learned To Accept The Inevitable And Start Thinking About 2016

Scandal embroiled New Jersey Governor Chris Christie today as it was revealed that his aides had conspired to tie up traffic on the George Washington Bridge (the busiest bridge in the world) as payback for not getting the endorsement of the Democratic Mayor of the nearby town of Fort Lee.

All of which would be yawn inducing and slightly grimy but not an actual scandal-  turns out Al Gore had done much the same thing back in the primaries in 2000, but this was a little different.  First of all, it wasn't about winning an election- it was political payback, pure and simple.  Second of all, the traffic nightmare that resulted slowed down EMS response times and at least one woman died as a result of her extended trip to the hospital.

Which moves this from the territories of 'shenanigans' into actual, real live 'scandal' territory.

Governor Christie wasted no time in addressing the scandal.  Refreshingly, he fired the aide who ordered the traffic problems and took full responsibility and apologized for the lane closures.   He had another aide withdraw his name for State GOP Chairman and cut all ties with the Republican Governors Association.

He did all of this in a marathon press conference that lasted 107 minutes- it comes across as uncommonly smart politics- let the media asks questions until they've got no more questions to ask. (First fifteen minutes of the marathon are here, if you're interested.)  The general feeling is that his Presidential ambitions have been dealt a serious blow- but I'm not so sure.  Watching his opening statement for the press conference, he came across as transparent, apologetic and genuinely remorseful about the actions of his aides.  I tend to agree with the notion that if anything he said in the press conference turns out to be less than true, then you can stick a fork in him-  he's done.

But overall, I think I was left with a feeling of 'down but by no means out.'  The fact that he owned up and actually fired someone (something that doesn't happen a lot in politics) is refreshing.  The bigger problem for his Presidential ambitions is going to be the fact that a lot of Conservatives don't really like him all that much. If (and that's a big 'if') he can get past this scandal then I think he could potentially be considered a serious player going forward toward 2016.

Don't get me wrong:  I'm not 100% sold on Christie yet- or any other candidate for that matter, but I think he could be considered a serious candidate on the GOPer side and serious candidates are lacking, especially on the GOPer side.

I can't believe I'm writing this, but going forward toward 2016, the GOP is faced with a problem:  I feel like their coalition is cracking.  You've got pro-national security GOPers versus Civil Liberties/Libertarian GOPers, Social Conservatives versus Realists...  you either need a new coalition or a candidate that can stitch them all back together to succeed in 2016.   And a lot of these coalition partners force the GOP to contradict its core message time and time again.  You can't fulminate against big government and the government coming to take your guns and then turn around insist that the state has the power to override the wishes of a family to keep a woman alive.  It's contradictory at best, hypocritical at worst.   I come firmly down on the idea that embracing the civil liberties/libertarian side of the GOP will reap more benefits that sticking with the Establishment/Social Conservative wing of the party.

The Dems have their own set of problems:  they have to get past 2014, hope Obamacare doesn't screw too many people in the process and whatever results from that is going to shape their Presidential race going forward.   It's a long way until November, so I don't know what, if anything is going to happen- it could all look very different come fall.  After that, the question becomes, can anyone sink the S.S. Hillary?  (Am I 'Ready For Hillary'?  Possibly.  But I get queasy over the quasi-dynastic thing and am, in general tired of Bushes and Clintons.   I want to see a female President in my lifetime, but I think there are less divisive candidates out there and resent the notion that I, or anyone should vote for someone solely based on their gender.  But I'm open to the notion, anyway.)

Like it or not, (ugh) 2016 is here.  Might as well get used to it...

Food Adventures #37: Anchor Christmas Ale 2013

I forgot to do this over Christmas, so we settled for New Year's instead- yes, it's the annual, Anchor Christmas Ale tasting- where I drink a bottle of last year's version (kept around and in our fridge for a year, give or take) and compare it to this year's version...  (brought early last month when I noticed it had finally arrived.)   Behold, the Anchor Christmas Ale 2013 tasting:

After some deliberation and consultation with the Missus, I came to the conclusion that this was a match-up of Christmas Tree (or possibly candy cane) versus Christmas Pudding...  I'll tell you why after my sketchy tasting notes:

2012

Nose:  notes of chocolate immediately apparent- nutmeg more than cinnamon, spice-wise and some kind of fruit.  I didn't want to say cherries but raisins/figs didn't seem quite right either.  Maybe plums?  Whatever it is, it's a dark fruit.  The Missus thought she smelled root beer, which also seemed right to me.

Taste: Spice, spice, spice--  lots of nutmeg in the taste, but a little smoother after a year aging.  There's something earthy, almost piney about it- which does, as I said above, bring to mind a Christmas tree in beer form.

2013

Nose:  cinnamon leaps out right away and you can tell it's not as strong as the '12 when it comes to spices/flavors.  But there's also an odd yeasty undertone to it that brought to mind cake batter or possibly bread dough- though we couldn't rule out marzipan either.  (I will consult with The Quiet Man about this...  might have to try another bottle just to make sure it's not a skunky/bum one, you know?)

Taste:  Much, much smoother than the '12 and more pleasant to drink as a result.  Initial taste brings notes of chocolate to the forefront but that fades to be replaced by predominantly coffee. 

Verdict: '13 over '12- and I have plenty of bottles left of both! I'm feeling like a triple header next year, just to be crazy about it!

The Tao of Writing #2: Outlining, Outlining, Outlining

So it's 2014 and the air is alive with the promise of a new year.  You're going to climb that mountain!  You're going to lose those pesky twenty pounds!  You're going to be awesome and get that tattoo!

Or maybe you finally want to write that novel that you know, deep down, you've got somewhere inside of you.  The only problem is, where do you start?

That's the question I want to explore on this month's edition of The Tao of Writing.   I've got to say though, that writing my first novel, The Prisoner and The Assassin was more of an exercise in chaos theory than anything else.  The butterfly flapped its wings somewhere and I started writing.  Most of what I wrote was very, very bad but underneath the muck and mire, I found myself looking at not one, not two but three books (The Prisoner and The Assassin, the sequel (which I'm just getting go on now) and it's prequel- after that, I started getting serious about organization.

I'm not sure what other novels I work on are going to be like, but it took me a long time to actually start to get a grip on the first one and figure out how to spin a story out of the mess of writing I had just created and the easiest way I found to do that was a simple outline.

I say simple but they can, in fact, be as complex as you want them to be.  Some people plan whole scenes out meticulously, chapter by chapter but I took a simpler approach and just wrote a short description of each scene in the chapter. I was a bit dubious at first, but in the end just having one proved to be a valuable way to organize my novel.

I'm also one of those people that likes to do a lot of writing in my head.  Sometimes it can just sort of pop into my head and go from there.  Sometimes, it helps to actually go there and get a sense of the place.  (I used Google Maps/Street View quite a bit, but that can't make up for actually going an experiencing a place- that scene in Chapter 11 where Abby and Mara are watching the protest marching coming up Washington Avenue- I a)  Weirdly, an Adele song triggered a whole scene for me. (But you'll have to wait until prequel to get to that one.)

Fortune Cookie version of all this: Big Ideas can take many forms, but to go from big idea to novel,  you've got to get your ducks in a row and organize it!  And how do you want to do that?  (Say it with me!)  Outline, outline, outline!

But here's the thing:  what works for me, may not work for you, so I reached out to former co-worker, talented writer, friend and fellow author Jade Eby (who blogs over at Chasing Empty Pavements and over here as well.) to see what her process was and how she went from her 'Big Idea' to her novel.  And she was more than happy to stop by and share:

I'm actually much like Tom in that my tiny seedlings of an idea cannot bloom unless I water them properly. That being -- a proper outline with lots and lots of plotting. 

My writing life is much like my "real" life in that I'm someone who doesn't particularly like the unknown. I want to know what's going on and when. All the time. Jumping right into a novel without any idea of what's going on is a death wish for me. 

When I get that "shiny new idea," the first thing I do is write it down. It doesn't matter where I'm at, what I'm doing or who I'm talking to. If that idea comes knocking, I'm going to answer. There are some idea that need longer to marinate in the brain and some that literally scream at you to work on them immediately... those are the ideas that I usually go with. Mostly because the voices inside my brain won't shut up! 

My process usually takes the same form every time. I find/create a playlist of songs that inspire me for the particular novel at hand. These are songs that maybe gave me the idea in the first place, or the speak to a character's emotional well being at a point in the name. No matter what, I ALWAYS have a playlist that I create. I'm a very visual person so anything that can inspire me aesthetically is also brought together. Before the good old days of Pinterest, I'd just find pictures online and download them to the computer and pull them up when I needed or print them out. Now, I just create a board on Pinterest and put them there for easy access. 

Then I plot/outline. This is the most fluid item in my process. It can range from days to weeks to months until my plotting/outlining is done and before I can start drafting. 

That, in a nutshell, is how a novel starts from a tiny seed of an idea to a flower in bloom. It takes a little while, but once you're all done -- you've made something quite beautiful. 

The crazy part of all of this is that part of the writing process is figuring out what exactly your formula for success is will be a little different for each and every author.  So if you've think you've got that novel somewhere inside of you, what are you waiting for?  Get organized and get cracking- let me tell you from experience, heaving  my first one over the finish line felt like it took forever.  But I'm glad I did...  

Now That I've Defrosted...

Hallelujah, it's 9 degrees outside!   And with the windchill, it only feels like -4 degrees below zero.   After the past two days, this is getting perilously close to shorts and sandals weather.  Yes, I've spent the past two days cooped up inside my house, not because I didn't want to go out and about and do things, but because the entire state of Iowa along with much of the rest of the country got to experience what it would be like if we were all living on Mars.

I have seen Mars, peeps.  And there were no futuristic bars or dudes with creepy mutants growing out of their chests.  No, there wasn't even anyone with three breasts.  (The Missus keeps trying to insist that a zit on my chest is actually my third nipple.  I keep denying it, because well, no breast, no nipple, right?)  When Ah-nold looks into your television screen and say "Get your aaahss, to Maahs," he obviously didn't know what he was talking about.

Mars is cold as fuck.  And leaving aside the fact that you couldn't even breathe on Mars (the atmosphere being too thin and contributing to it being cold as fuck) temperatures ranged from 0-20 below with windchills of 40-50 below.   The Polar Vortex made temperatures in Iowa significantly colder than much of Alaska, the North Pole and McMurdo Station in Antarctica.

So, for two days, we went nowhere.  Actually, when I say 'we,' I mean The Cigarillo and I.  The Missus, lamentably for her, but happily for our bank account, had to go earn some spending cheese both nights.  The Cigarillo came down with a serious case of cabin fever by the second day.  I, for the first time in my life, got to do one of those 'throw a cup of boiling water into super cold air and watch it vaporize' things and failed to video it so I could upload it onto YouTube.

Hmmmm...  what else happened?  We activated our HuluPlus, said goodbye to DirectTV (for now but not, methinks, forever).  I fell seriously in love with Community.  (That paintball episode in Season 1?  Genius!  #sixseasonsandamovie)   The Packers lost.  Iowa played Wisconsin, Fran McCaffery lost his shit* and got ejected.   Denizens of the Hawkeye State alternated between clutching their pearls in horror and brushing it off like it was no big thing.  (Because, really, it wasn't- unless you've been looking forward to Fran McCaffery Bobblehead night all season.**)  And most deliciously of all, Auburn*** lost to FSU in the last ever BCS Title game before the four team playoff begins next year.  (Soon to be an eight team, then sixteen team playoff.  #Sweet16By2023 I'm calling it now.) 

But now, it's a new week.  Things are looking up.  Temperatures are moving up.  I'm not trapped in my house wondering if I should just start eating everything bad, just to past the time.  (Forced confinement was hell on my calorie counting.)  And now that I have feeling back in all of my extremities, it feels like things can only get better and warmer from here.  Because it couldn't possibly get that cold again, could it?

Right?

*Fran McCaffery is not Bobby Knight or Mike Rice.  He's genuinely a good guy, brings a lot of passion to a program that needed it badly and could quite possibly be the smartest hire Gary Barta ever makes.  When he loses his shit, it's strategic and motivational. Not symptoms of a douchey personality or a God complex.  When he himself admitted that he was only aiming for one technical and not two, you know there's remorse there.   The real question isn't his temper, it's can this team but together two complete halves and start closing out some of these games.  It's frustrating him (obviously) and I know it's frustrating the fan base.   Take a page from telemarketing:  A. B. C.  Always Be Closing.

**I had one, but the head fell off.

***So happy FSU won.  SO SO SO HAPPY.  Maybe now the decade long sports media fellatio of the SEC can stop and we can concentrate on more important things.  Like preseason polls for next season.

But seriously:  the SEC doesn't travel, they play ridiculous cupcakes and they still get extra credit for it because Alabama won two national titles.   And to think, people piss all of the B1G for their 'weak' schedule, but shit, at least we travel.   And if Urban Meyer can find a defense somewhere and retool his offense a bit, Ohio State will be back.   Or Sparty.  Either or.

Bookshot #70: Medium Raw

It's no secret that I loved Anthony Bourdain's breakthrough memoir of life in the seedy underbelly of the restaurant/food business, Kitchen Confidential.   Part autobiography, part blunt lesson in the reality of the industry (there's something almost romantic about opening your own little bodega or cafe somewhere...  but Bourdain is quick disabuse you of such notions.  It can be done, if that's your dream, it's just going to take hard, hard work and probably eat your life) it was sprinkled with swear words and seemed refreshingly honest and self-aware.

It's follow-up, Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine To The World of Food and The People Who Cook has much of the charm of it's predecessor:  Bourdain is not shy to acknowledge his own faults but nor is he willing to pull any punches against targets than inspire his ire:  the Food Network gets a particularly gleeful evisceration.  But while Medium Raw may lack some of the rock star je ne sais quoi and overall charm that Kitchen Confidential brought to the literary world, it's actually, in many ways, a better book.

Don't get me wrong:  I loved Kitchen Confidential...  but that was Bourdain and his adventures in the industry.  Medium Raw is him looking into the industry that he knows so well and much of what results is a thought provoking, entertaining (as always) and philosophical looks into the world of food, the people who inhabit it and what makes it all tick.

Three of the more interesting chapters in this book deal with first, Bourdain's distaste for lengthy tasting menus and then a chapter on a former contestant on Top Chef and another on the mind behind MomoFuku, David Chang.  I'll take them one at a time:

The tasting menu thing came in a panel discussion that apparently kicked off some feud/bad blood between culinary all-star Marco Pierre White and molecular gastronomy genius Grant Achatz...  White expressed his distaste at the 20-course tasting menu at Achatz's restaurant, Alinea.  (Would totally LOVE to go there, but don't have a spare $500 bucks or so handy...) Bourdain finds himself agreeing with White, while bemoaning the pervasiveness of trends in the industry that get done to death, or worse, executed poorly.  It's a fascinating look at how what one or two chefs make their names on can get turned into a trend that does more harm than good in the pursuit of excellent food.

But it's the contrast between the Top Chef contestant and David Chang that I thought was fascinating.   Top Chef guy didn't have tons of money or fame, but had a good solid life and loved to cook food.  That's all.  He didn't want to be a super star or a television personality or be the face of some brand.  He just loved to cook.  Contrast this with Chang, who comes across as a genius- albeit a prickly, mercurial, one- but a genius nonetheless, who's learned and grown from failures and successes alike.  It's a fascinating look at how much the role of 'Chef' has changed and how much variety you can have in the career you make for yourself.  Either way, it can be hard, brutal, costly work but it's a rapidly changing, ever shifting industry.

Overall:  Bourdain remains massively entertaining...  his feuds, his pet peeves, his complaints and deep thoughts about the overall state of the industry he loves and the people that inhabit it.   A fascinating read it kept me engaged and ready to turn the page again and again...  **** out of ****

This Week In Vexillology #62

Last month we had fun with breakaway Republics and hypothetical states, but this month, we're kicking off the New Year right with a trip down to the end of the alphabet and the southern end of Africa with the flag of Zimbabwe:

Adopted on April 18th, 1980 for national and civil usage, the flag of Zimbabwe displayed many of the green, yellow and red colors common to pan-Africanism and seen in flags throughout the continent.  The design was partially taken from the flag of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) which lead the struggle for independence.  Their flag had the green, yellow, red and black arranged in concentric panels with the black panel being at the center- the national flag takes these colors and arranged them in stripes.

At the hoist, you'll see a white triangle with a black edge:  the black stands for the country's new leaders and the white, their desire for peace.  The red star represents the country's international outlook.  (Not sure what that says about their Cold War politics since they gained independence at the dawn of the Reagan Era) and that brings us to the bird...  the Zimbabwe Bird was a soapstone sculpture found in the ruins of Great Zimbabwe (the ancient city that the country is named after)- and is the national emblem of Zimbabwe.

I'll spare everyone the long, tortured path to independence that Zimbabwe had to go through.  (Britain actually re-assumed control of the country briefly during the political transition) but for those that want the TL;DR version, Wikipedia's page on Southern Rhodesia isn't a bad starting point.

In the meantime, put your hands together for Zimbabwe!  And remember, until next time, keep your flags flying- FREAK or otherwise!

14 for 2014

Sigh.  I do this every year with mixed success, but I really do think that it's a good way to start the year. You have to set yourself some goals, something to shoot for--  it's probably something buried deep in human nature to insist on making lists of goals, most of which you'll fall short of reaching by year's end.

2013 was an amazing year.  The Cigarillo arrived.  The Missus graduated Nursing School.  I published my first novel...  and I ended the year down 15-20 pounds from where I began.  On balance, there was stress, craziness, good, bad, but overall:  amazing year.   2014 can only be better, I know it.

So, without any further ado, let my quixotic quest begin again:

1.  It's the oldest chestnut in the book, but what the hell...  I ended 2013 down 15-20 pounds, so let's shoot the moon:  I want to lose at least 40 pounds this year and keep it off.

2.  Master at least one song on my ukulele by year's end.  (I've been neglecting my uke lately.  Want to pick it back up.)

3.  Randomly, I've decided to make this a year of pies.  I want to make one pie a month- including a lemon meringue and a gallete of some kind.  I'm going to start small and use up the rest of our Pappy's Pie Crust and then start working on doing it all from scratch.

4. Drink less soda, drink more water, coffee and tea.  I want this to be the year that I stop drinking soda.

5. See this shelf?  I want to read all of the books on it by year's end.

6. Exercise at least 2-3 times a week.  (I've discovered I really like cycling over running and I think I could get into swimming as well.)

7. Better money management:  don't get me wrong...  I'm a ton and a half better with money than I was five years ago, but there's room for improvement.  Hopefully the Missus and I can make it team effort and end the year with more dinero than we did when we started it.

8. Finish my second novel and publish it.

9.  Cut back on my booze consumption-  too much beer won't help the cause for Resolution #1, so I'm going to say Saturdays, Sundays and special occasions...  (birthdays, holidays, etc, etc.  Gotta live a little bit!)

10. I'd like to build some muscle mass in my upper body- I don't want to turn into a total meathead or anything, but I've never in my life had much muscle mass up there.  I've honestly never cared to develop it, but I think I want to give it a shot this year.  Gonna get me some guns!

11. Take time to enjoy having a family...  between work and all the other craziness of life, it's good to, to paraphrase Ferris Bueller, 'look around once in awhile, just so you don't miss it.'

12. I would like to learn a new language/learn how to code this year.

13. Spend at least 30 minutes a shift at work standing up.

14.  (This is my control resolution- so I have at least ONE that I succeed at) I will eat breakfast, lunch and dinner every day.

'The World's End' --A Review

The Cornetto Trilogy of Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright comes to a boozy, rip-roaring conclusion with the final installment, The World's End.

The World's End is the story of Gary King (a nicely disheveled, ragged Simon Pegg) a recovering drug addict that decides to track down his friends and complete a legendary bar crawl, The Golden Mile that they had attempted in their twenties only to fall short of the required 12 pubs in their hometown of Newton Haven.

Friends back together (including Oliver- played by Martin Freeman and a now sober Andy, played by Nick Frost) they start their travels, running into Oliver's sister, Sam (Rosamund Pike) along the way- both Gary and Steve have unrequited affection for Sam from their youth and things are a little awkward for awhile.  Eventually, as old feelings and resentments come to the forefront, Gary goes to the bathroom and get into a fight with a surprisingly strong teenager.  Inadvertently ripping his head on, his discovers that most of the town has, in fact, been replaced by robots.

The group decides to continue with the bar crawl to avoid raising suspicion- though when the hit the dance club, the men are seduced by robots in an attempt to steal their DNA and the robots realize that the jig is up when Sam recognizes her childhood crush, Adrian as having been killed in a motorcycle crash some years before.   This is when their old teacher, Guy Shepherd (Pierce Brosnan) appears and urges them to accept their fates and allow themselves to be replaced by robots.

Cutting to the end of our affair:  Gary reaches the final pub on the Golden Mile, The World's End and attempts to pour himself a pint only to find himself being lowered into one of the myriad headquarters of a disembodied alien entity called The Network, which reveals that it has been responsible for much of humanity's advancement in telecommunications over the past decades.  It offers Gary and Andy eternal youth but the two decline, arguing that humans should be free.   The Network abandons its invasion and ceases all communication as the Andy, Gary and Sam attempt to flee the self-destructing town

Andy finishes the story in the post-apocalyptic ruins of London- for The Network's departure set off a massive electromagnetic pulse that sent humanity spiralling back to the Dark Ages- and a green Cornetto label flutters by.

Overall: A wild, fun and entertaining end to the 'trilogy' begun in Shaun of The Dead and continued in Hot Fuzz.  Pegg and Frost are in fine form here and the usual touches (someone attempting to jump over a fence, a random Cornetto somewhere in the movie) are evident as its the quality of the writing.  Like it's counterparts, this is a movie that doesn't take itself too seriously and is drenched in fun.  I already own Shaun of The Dead and Hot Fuzz- it's hard not to envision adding this one to complete my trilogy.  **** out of ****.