Because It’s Fundamental : On The Reading Tip
Posted on March 31, 2003 at 10:16 am | No Comments
A welcome change has taken place in my free-time-filling habits over the past couple of months… I’ve rediscovered my love of reading. Not that I ever stopped completely, but I noticed that I was devoting far less time to recreational reading that I had in the past. Not sure why… it just sort of happened.
Lately, however, I’ve been shying away from the PS2, the surprise X-Box (which I’ve played for all of 10 minutes total), or killing time on the PC in favor of sitting down with a big, fat novel. I’ve also been watching a lot less TV (thank you, TiVo), which no doubt has something to do with it. I’m always sure to have a paperback in the man-bag, ready for the quick-draw during lunchtime, and I just realized I’ve burned through more pages so far this year than I did last year, total.
Just finished… Winter’s Heart by Robert Jordan. Book Nine in the Wheel of Time series. I’ve been reading this series for going on 13 years now, and I go back and forth between obsession and total frustration. At times it feels like he’s just dragging the story out (it was originally supposed to be 7 books or something), and he throws so many characters at you that it’s nearly impossible to keep track of them all… especially when it’s been a year or two since you read the last one.
I actually got stuck on this book about 1/3 of the way in, and nearly bailed on it. Glad I didn’t, though. Once I hit the halfway mark last month, I blew through the second half and felt my love for the series return. Stuff actually happens in this one. Things start moving, people die, main characters connect… the double-climax pays off in spades. Great stuff. Enough to make me buy (or at least borrow) the new hardcover of the 10th book asap.
I also recently finished up Lone Wolf and Cub volume 28, by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima. Yes, it’s the grand finale. 28 volumes, roughly 300 pages each… that’s 8400 pages over the last 2 1/2 years. And I loved every damn minute of it. I’m almost, no I am, sad to finish it up… to not have a volume sitting in my bag at all times, ready to read on the T. This series is one of my favorite things, period.
In progress… Sea of Silver Light by Tad Williams. The fourth and final book of the Otherland series. What a monster. Over 1000 pages, and I’m just over 600 in… but it’s taken over my brain and won’t let go. I can’t wait to finish it… dying to find out how he wraps it all up, how he gets the cast of characters out of the technovirtual-world they’ve been trapped in for so long.
On deck… The next Robert Jordan, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Dennis Lehane’s Shutter Island, the new Robert Parker. I’m also thinking of working in some non-fiction soon… maybe some biographies (the last one I read was the excellent, if fairly depressing, Cobain biography Heavier Than Heaven). Recommendations?
Putting My Money Where It Matters : Howard Dean For President
Posted on March 27, 2003 at 1:24 pm | No Comments
I just made the first monetary political campaign contribution of my life, and this man is the reason why…
Here’s what I received via email after I made my online donation …
Thank you for your contribution to Dean for America.
Your support will help me share a new vision for America that includes:– Guaranteed access to quality health care for every American.
– An American foreign policy that embraces multi-lateralism, and
that would seek to resolve conflicts in concert with our allies.
– A federal budget that is balanced, because we can only have
social justice if we have a strong fiscal foundation.Your continued support is critical to our campaign’s success. I hope you
also will consider inviting your family, friends, and associates to visit
www.deanforamerica.com and make a contribution to our campaign.With best wishes,
Howard Dean, MD
I’m fairly jaded when it comes to most democratic presidential candidates. By the time they get in the game, or even into that oval office, it seems any pre-existing idealism or enthusiasm they might have had has been washed away in a sea of compromise and concession. I don’t see a sign of that in former Vermont Governor Howard Dean. My bullshit meter is pretty sensitive, but it rests squarely on zero when I hear this man speak. Many of the things that come out of his mouth might sound cliche out of anyone else’s, but they just don’t. He’s a freakin’ breath of fresh air in a world of gasbags.
S’funny… I had to come to this conclusion in spite of an existing connection to him. Y’see, my dad spent a number of years in his administration, and I spent the first 28 of my life growing up in Vermont. It would have been all too easy for me to fall in blindly behind the man, getting all rah-rah-rah-gung-ho about my so-called ‘homestate underdog’, and because of that, I was even more curious, more skeptical. If I was going to put my considerably small but enthusiastic weight into the campaign, I was going to be damn sure it was for the right reasons.
And so I read a ton of speeches, followed a bunch of links, watched a bunch of interviews. Dug deep and discovered that my previous connections to him were a stroke of luck; they allowed me to find my near-perfect candidate at an early stage in the game… to dive in and line up with like-minded folks at a grass-roots level where I might be able to actually do some good. It’s pretty inspiring…
… just like his speech last night at the JFK Library in South Boston. Granted, it’s not like he was speaking in a Republican hotbed (it’s Massachusetts, after all), but he really got the 600+ standing-room crowd going. He’s come a long way as a public speaker, and it showed through both at the podium and as noted commentator / anonymous author / Time reporter Joe Klein lobbed questions at him during a post-speech interview. He also handled himself well during an all-too-brief audience Q&A near the end of the evening, before he was whisked away to another area fundraiser.
I’ll skip the details of his speech, the interview, and the questions, since a transcription of the event will eventually be available here, and a video might even be available here at some point. Suffice it to say, his words gave me hope at a time when there’s not a whole lot of it to go around.
If you’ve got some surf time, check out the official Dean For America website, the Dean Call to Action weblog, or take a look at Dean Action Net. Even better, how about coughing up some cash or even volunteering? If you’re as frustrated and saddened by our country’s current administration as I am, there may not be a better way to spend your extra time or money.
Check out a few other photos I took here, and some shots from another supporter right here. My favorite campaign slogan of the night? “Beantown is Deantown!” Go Dean!