1. Number fourteen of the "things I nearly said" list would have to be: "Are kidding me? You seriously don't believe that global warming exists? Man, gotta add ignorant redneck to the vulgar fascist title."
2. I picked up a basketball for the first time in almost two years last Thursday. For those who don't know me well, that's an astonishing period of time for someone who essentially credits basketball with keeping him alive for around five years. Playing 3-5 hours of ball a day in college was the norm for me. At any rate, due to whatever combination of circumstances I haven't been playing at all for a long, long time.
So I picked it up Thursday with some trepidation. You have to guard against immense frustration at not being able to do the things you used to do on the court. Well, I wasn't as terrible as I had expected. The handles never leave you. I ran through the old Mike Smith basketball camp drills to warm up and was surprised at how fluid I was. I guess three thousand hours of practicing takes more than two years to wear away.
Of course I couldn't shoot worth a damn, but by the end of my 45 minutes in the gym I was feeling more comfortable with my shot and actually hit 10/15 free throws. Some of you may be familiar with the siren call that basketball can weave on those who haven't played for a long stretch of time. It goes like this: You expect to look like South Park's Timmy on the court and with every made layup or jumper your amygdalas fire a little jolt of ecstasy -- this primes you for returning quickly. Now when you return the next day, or perhaps the day after, your expectations are higher. You expect those little jolts of joy, but alas, no ecstasy as the law of averages catches up and you do indeed look like Timmy.
Surprisingly enough, I managed to avoid the day-after let-down and did a little better on Friday. I hit for 15/20 free throws at the end, finishing on an 8/8 streak. (Okay, you all know that's a lie; nobody makes 8 in a row and stops. I was really 16/22: I missed the 21st, but just like you can't quit on a streak you can't quit on a miss, thus the 22nd.)
Today was the comedown however. I fully believe that a child with cerebral palsy could have whupped my ass today. It was ugly. U - G - L - Y, you ain't got no alibi, you ugly, yeah yeah you ugly. If I were a rapper I would have been "Less than fiddy percent".
3.
Enjoy.
4.
This is the best article I've read on Apple's new iPhone. While it looks pretty f-in' sweet in every facet, I'm not going to rush out and buy one anytime soon. Which is no surprise to anyone who knows my reluctance to buy any cell phone, much less a six hundred dollar one. I do anticipate, however, that my next computer purchase will represent a shift to the Mac side of life, setting me up to buy the second generation iPhone in about four or five years. The big plus that I anticipate for me is that it could drive down the cost of high end iPods as demand wanes in favor of the phone.
5. So far so good on my New Year's resolutions. I'm working out 3-4 times a week, eating better (i.e. more than 1500 calories/day), and trying to do nice things for my wife more often. I figure I've got six months to instill a life-long fitness routine. Now or never.
6. I was going to do a separate "recommends" post, but screw it. I've read some excellent mature fantasy in the past year. Not "mature" as in barbarian chics with huge bare knockers and leather thongs, but "mature" as in complex, thoughtful novels.
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell was simply excellent. A very detailed look at how magic would change the real world in a practical manner. While the ending certainly sets up for what I'm sure is an inevitable sequel, it is in fact a self-contained novel and not "volume one of the new epic trilogy". Multi-volume fantasy tales are completely cliche and rarely worth the effort.
Another novel that did a fantastic job of looking at how gods and magic might impact an imagined society was
Firethorn. As you read this book you become surprised at the underlying feminism in a book about a culture that treats women as chattel. Indeed, the main character is what's known as a sheath in the book -- a woman who is not quite a whore but who is kept by a warrior for his sexual enjoyment. The main character remains at all times, however, a sympathetic and intelligent woman who operates with a sort of post-feminism feminism in that she refuses to subjugate herself while at the same time refusing to ignore her femininity. The fictional world is lovingly rendered in great detail. I am a sucker for mythology and a carefully crafted mythology permeates this book. The one knock I have against it is that it is indeed the first volume of a new epic trilogy.
The last fantasy book worth mentioning is
The Stolen Child. A novel about lost childhood, second chances, the struggle to survive and even thrive under excruciating circumstances, this book is the sort of thought-provoking and intelligent prose that fantasy should be. It does suffer from a couple of inconsistencies in minor details, but in big-picture terms this may be one of the top ten fantasy novels I've ever read. Part of the appeal for me is my penchant for coming-of-age tales. Hence my continued devotion to
Catcher in the Rye, the novels of Jane Austen, and the
Ender's Game series by Orson Scott Card (who has the politics of a douche bag).
Since it's not technically part of my 2006 reading list I haven't included
The Prestige, which I just finished, but if you haven't seen the movie, read the book first. Having seen the movie first spoiled much of the suspense Christopher Priest works so hard to construct, but this was still an excellent read. Many thanks to my sister-in-law, who, if there is a God, will never know the existence of this blog, and who, incidentally, gave me the book for Christmas.
7.
Accepting pesos at your business is an invitation to death threats. Stupid Meskins. Dollars. Maybe if you'd learn to speak English you'd know what kind of money we use. And we don't take kindly to nobody encouraging them Spics to keep their Meskin money and Meskin talk and Meskin ways. We just want 'em to go back where they come from and take their stupid Spic money with 'em. [note sarcasm]
8. A weak stab at making this blog about something remotely related to medicine: Here's a link to
a story about finding a mutation that conveys high risk of developing Alzheimer's. The article talks about how this discovery is important for pointing toward therapeutic research, but the reason I'm linking it is because I think it succinctly and clearly explains the molecular pathogenesis of Alzheimer's. In case anyone was interested.
9. A non-fantasy book from last year worth mentioning is
The Thirteenth Tale. Oddly it has a bit in common with
The Prestige. The real meat of this book, however, lies not in the clever plot stratagems, but in it's careful dissection of the love of reading. Normally I'm not a fan of this sort of navel gazing in literature, but in this case it's simply exquisitely executed.
10. Finally,
Kevin Durant would be the VY of Texas basketball if he stayed for his sophomore season, which he won't. If he had a seasoned little white dude who was money from downtown and quick enough to be a lock down defender on the team then he could at least be the Carmelo Anthony of Texas basketball, but he doesn't. He might get them to the sweet 16 though.
