Books

Is anyone ever really qualified?

DamonZ — Fri, 27 Aug 2004 21:42:00 GMT

Ok, so reading my book tonight (Donorboy, BTW, which so far is a great read), I came across this line, “I think it's incredibly arrogant for you to assume that the fact that you provided some ejaculate fifteen years ago makes you in any way qualified to act as a parent to a child you don't already know.”

So, I'm taking it a bit out of context here, and you'll have to read the book or at least the back cover to figure out what this REALLY applies to, but is one ever really to become a parent before they are one? I think that parenting is more learned than inherent. But being childless, I could be wrong here. Anyhow, I just was thinking about that. Besides, its a really funny line.

Finally Sunday!

DamonZ — Sun, 04 Apr 2004 16:05:00 GMT

I always look forward to Sundays since I usually get to relax. I originally was supposed to go hiking, but we just couldn't get our shit together (or maybe it was me?).

Anyhow, I got bored with the three books I started to read, and took them all back to the library today. I instead got the new Patterson novel, Big Bad Wolf (well, actually I think there's one more newer book now). As well as a couple mystery books. But the one I started first is Shopgirl by Steven Martin. I LOVED The Pleasure of My Company, and so far this one is not disappointing me. I love the voice that he uses in his books. Here's a quick example from one of the first few chapters:

Jeremy and Mirabelle are separated by a hundred million miles of vacuum space. He falls asleep at night in blissful ignornace. She, subtly doped on her new prescription, time-travels through the terrain of her unconscious until she is overcome by sleep. He knows only what is right in front of him; she is aware of every incoming sensation that glances obliquely against her soft, fragile core. At this stage of their lives, in true and total fact, the only thing they have in common is a Laundromat.

Pure genius! Then again, I've been a big fan of Steve Martin for years.

So, I got a new phone. I ordered a new computer from Dell Refirb. I got an appointment Tuesday with the claims adjuster to look at Spaceball One. *sigh* hopefully all this is over with now.

Oh, last night was the Farewell to Long Wongs! :( I got a roll in the funsaver that I'll post when i get it developed. What a great night! Quite possibly the BEST Truckers on Speed show ever. And the rest of the night was awesome too!

I now have 3 funsavers to be developed from the last couple weeks. I'll try to drop them off tomorrow... Ok, well I gotta get moving because I can only get about 20-30 minutes out of the computer before the keyboard and mouse die... then I have to kill it for an hour or so. I'm sure its an overheat problem, but all the fans are functioning properly. I'm not sure why it started doing this. It helps to have the sides and top off of the case, but not by much. When I get the new computer, I'll discet this one and see if I can breathe some more life into it.

Anyhow, that's all for now, kids!

WOW!

DamonZ — Mon, 29 Mar 2004 00:28:00 GMT

Ok, so I really did go to bed, but I always read before I fall asleep, and I came across this passage, which I had to share, and I knew if I didn't do it now, I'd forget about it, so here goes (I started with just the part that struck me, but then realized it didn't make much sense without the context around it, so I started putting in the important parts from earlier in the chapter to make it make sense):

[From the main character's deceased wife's dream journal]
”I dreamed they cut me open and found I had two hearts. The second one was small, and it was a different color. It was hidden underneath the main heart, so they didn't see it at first. I was very surprised when they told me about it, bu thte doctor said it was completely normal. He said that most people have two hearts, we just never know it.”

[The main character's voice]
It's true, isn't it, that each of us has two hearts? The secret heart, hidden behind like a fist, living gnarled and shrunken beneath the plain, open one we use every day.

[...snip...]

It's not the content of our dreams that gives our second heart its dark color; it's the thoughts that go through our heads in those wakeful moments when sleep won't come. And those are the things we never tell anyone at all.

The last paragraph is the one that I found intriguing. It's something to think about really. Isn't that when your truest feelings come to surface? When you're not really thinking about them? It is for me. I can't tell you how many times thoughts hit me when i'm in that half-awake/half-asleep state before you actually doze off. I should keep a notebook by the bed and write them down. I actually came up with probably 3-4 pages of a beginning to a short story last week, but by morning of course, I couldn't remember any of it.

Anyhow, this is from The Dogs of Babel, by Carolyn Parkhurst. I'm almost done with it, in fact, I'll probably finish it tonight. I'm not sure what my thoughts about it are, I'm definitely not as into it as I was the last few books I read. Now, back to bed, I just had to share that.

Obsessive-Compulsives

DamonZ — Sun, 14 Mar 2004 20:31:00 GMT

According to Dictionary.com:

ob·ses·sive-com·pul·sive (b-ssv-km-plsv, b-)
adj.

Relating to or characterized by a tendency to dwell on unwanted thoughts or ideas or perform certain repetitious rituals, especially as a defense against anxiety from unconscious conflicts: obsessive-compulsive behavior.

n.

An obsessive-compulsive person.

Over the last couple months, I've found myself completely entrenced by three separate novels. The first one was The Pleasure of My Company, by Steve Martin. The second was Pattern Recognition by William Gibson. And today, I stopped by the library and picked up The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. You see, after 50 or so pages (only 2 chapters mind you!) I just could not get into Greenhouse Summer. It felt like it was going nowhere. So, I started into this book, and by the end of page 8, I knew I was hooked. A similar thing happened with the other two books mentioned. Once I barely got started, I was completely hooked, and knew there was no quick way out. One interesting thing about all three of these books is that the central character portrays various Obsessive-Compulsive traits.

I think I've finally figured out exactly why I'm so drawn to these characters lately. Maybe its because I myself possess many OC traits. Mine generally manifest themselves in harmless ways, such as; I always wash in the same order when showering (shampoo, face, body, conditioner) and then after the shower, the remainder of the morning proceeds in a given order as well (dry off, brush teeth, dress--underwear first, followed by shirt, pants, socks--right foot first--, shoes--right foot first). I always drive the same route to work. My wallet, keys and phone have specific pockets they belong in. My keys always hang in the same place on the back of the door. Its stuff like this. Where, it doesn't really keep me from functioning as a normal human being, but if I happen to do any of these things out of order, it really seems to disrupt my entire day.

So as you see, I think I find myself relating to many of the things that these characters do, because in many ways we are similar. The main character from Pattern Recognition, Cayce Pollard, continues on a normal life. She knows how to control many of the OC traits she possesses, so I can relate more to her than the others. One of the interesting things is many OCs know what their OC traits are, but are helpless to change them. I certainly know what mine are, but I derive great comfort from knowing that they are there. If I stray, I really start to feel uncomfortable.

What I really find most interesting, is in many other aspects of my life, I find diversity, change, and out-of-the-ordinary to be exciting and I embrace it. And while I'm not the most spontaneous person, I do sometimes do things “on-the-spur-of-the-moment.”

Hmpf. Again, this is part of my continuing introspection, that I mentioned a couple weeks ago. Anyhow, like I said, I'm completely engulfed by this book now. So we'll see how it proceeds.

Insomnia Sucks

DamonZ — Sun, 14 Mar 2004 03:41:00 GMT

So here it is at 03:30, and I'm still pretty much wide awake. I got home from seeing Suspect Audio and then Shurman (both of which were VERY good shows!), and popped in Blast from the Past. And still after all that I'm not really tired. :( I'm gonna settle back down with my book (Greenhouse Summer by Norman Spinrad), and see if sleep will eventually come to me.

Hey, in case you're interested, today I registered the domain suddenconfusion.com and will probably be moving all my personal stuff over to that... ;) Should be fun!

Oh yeah

DamonZ — Mon, 01 Mar 2004 23:09:00 GMT

I meant to include this with my review of Pattern Recognition... This is a small except from chapter 35. I love the way he makes this work:

Yet another of those undercover police cars goes bombing past, blue light flashing, maybe the fifth she's seen, all of them shiny and new and expensive.

The duck mantra doesnt seem to be helping, tonight.

“Walk through the fear,“ she tells herself, something Margot had said a lot when seh'd still been going to her codependency group. That doesn't seem to help either.

“Fuck it.” An older, deeper invocation perhaps. That gets her turned around and headed back through the door.

A cozy, crowded room, highlights of copper and polished wood.

Where every table is ocupied, it seems, except for one, flanked by two enormous, empty, wingback armchairs, and there, quite clearly, is the fish: a large, freestanding sculpture, its scales cut from one-pound Mdeaglia d'Oro coffee cans like the ones Wassily Kandinsky used, but assembled in a way that owes more to Frank Gehry.

She's moving too fast to get a read on the crowd here, but is aware of a number of glances as she beelines through and seats herself in one of the wingback chairs.

A waiter materializes instantly. Young and quite beautiful, white-jacketed, a white cloth folded across his arm, he looks none too happy to see her there. He brusquely says something, in Russian, that clearly isn't a question.

“I'm sorry,” she says, “I only speak English. I'm meeting a friend, I'll have coffee, please”

As soon as she speaks, there's an instant change in his demeanor, and not, she senses, out of any love of the English language.

“Of course. Americano?”

Guessing that Italian is the default language of coffee here, and that she's not being queried as to her nationality. “Please.”

When he's gone, seh does a crowd-scan. If there wree visible logos on the clothes these people are wearing, she'd be in trouble. Lots of Prada, Gucci, but in a Moneyed Bohemian modality too off-the-shelf for London or New York. LA, she realizes: except for two goth girls in black brocade, and a boy gotten up in impeccable High Grunge, it's Rodeo Drive with an extra helping of cheekbones.

But the young woman crossing from the entrance now wears nothing that isn't mate and the darkest of grays. Pale. Dark eyes. Center-parted hair, unfashionably long.

Her white face, angular yet somehow soft, eclipses everything.

Cayce realizes that seh's gripping the arms of her chair so hard that her fingers hurt.

The whole book is so beautifully written. I occasionally would have to stop reading simply to marvel at the writing. Simply awesome. Anyhow, I'm off to bed now! (No pager this week, so a full night's sleep is in order). :)

Pattern Recognition - William Gibson

DamonZ — Mon, 01 Mar 2004 22:49:00 GMT

I finished reading Pattern Recognition by William Gibson last night. What an awesome book. Even though I couldn't help but think of an ex-girlfriend throughout the entire book! This is Gibson's first book set in the modern day. It is so beautifully written. I think what I'm really drawn to the most about Gibson time and time again is his style. He writes much like I do. Some very short fragmented sentences, some run-ons. His characters are so very real its scary. This book has a lot of references to modern day fixtures in my life, such as cell phones, the internet, websites, email. Many of the main character's friends are people she's either never met in person, or if so only a handful of times. Yet, they are scattered around the world! Sound familiar to anyone?

I highly recommend this book! In fact, it put me in such a state as to not be able to choose what I wanted to read next. Actually, I did think of a couple books that were on my to-read list, but they didn't have them at the bookstore. So, because I was tired of wandering the bookstore, I picked up another Ken Follett novel. I really wanted to read something else, and I may hit the library tomorrow evening and see if I can find something good there, and shelve the Follett book for a while.

If anyone has sugestions for books and/or authors for me to check out, I'm really ready to read something completely new. Also, if you haven't read Steve Martin's The Pleasure of My Company, I highly recommend it too!

Interesting Thought

DamonZ — Wed, 25 Feb 2004 22:03:00 GMT

So, while reading my book earlier, I came across this passage, and it started me thinking:

“...gradually she let [her talents] define the nature of what it was that she did. She'd thought of that as going with the flow, but maybe, she thinks now, it had really been the path of least resistance. What if that flow naturally tended to the path of least resistance? Where does that take you?”

So what if the flow really is the path of least resistance? How often is that the case? My trials at work this week seem to be that the path of least resistance is the normal flow of things these days. Which is somewhat frustrating at times. Something to think about I guess.

In other news, my Axim X3i came today! YIPPEE!!! It's very purdy... now i just gotta figure out how to get it configured between home and work! I thought of a neat idea: a quick & dirty app on the PocketPC that i can enter blog entries into, and when it sync's it can post them for me. Hmm....

Rain!

DamonZ — Mon, 23 Feb 2004 22:41:00 GMT

Damn... it rained all morning!

What a crazy day. Phew... glad its over... not much else to say... :) Time to get back to my book... So far its MOST excellent!

Parting Thought: How many “chances” do you give someone before you finally give up trying to be friends?

The Man From St. Petersburg

DamonZ — Mon, 16 Feb 2004 22:38:00 GMT

I just finished reading The Man From St. Petersburg by Ken Follett. It is yet another excellent novel by him. This one is set in the pre-WWI era. Actually it ends right about the time that WWI is getting started. From the back cover:

His name was Feliks. He came to London to commit a murder that would change history. He had many weapons at his command, but the most dangerous were the love of a beautiful young woman longing for the end of innocense, and the passion of a high-born lady demanding satisfaction at any price. Against him were ranged the whole of the English police, a brilliant and powerful lord, and the young Winston Churchill himsellf. These odds would ahve stopped any man in the world except the man from St. Petersburg.

As is typical for Follet, the female charaters are extremely “strong.” This book once again shows why Follet is one of my favorite authors. This is the 9th book of his I've read and every one of them has completely capitvated me, and held me to the very end. In fact more than that. They keep me up at night, flipping pages instead of sleeping. His books do not get boring, and seldom can you truly guess what is going to happen next. Follet is a true treasure in the fiction world, and I can't wait to pick up another of his novels soon.

FYI: The Ken Follet books I've read are:

The Man From St. Petersburg
Jackdaws
Triple
A Place Called Freedom
The Hammer of Eden
Code to Zero
The Third Twin
Pillars of the Earth
Eye of the Needle

If you've not read any of these books, I reccomend any of them. Pillars of the Earth is probably my favorite of these, but its a very close call.

Next up: The first book of Piers Anthony's The Apprentice Adept Series, Split Infinity.