The Books That Brock Read

Rock On

2010-03-02T22:27:00.000-05:00

Dan Kennedy had what at one time I would have considered my dream job. In Rock On, Kennedy tells the tale of his career in the music industry, attending exclusive events, and meeting music legends. However, the book chronicles the industry during the early 2000's during the new threat of the great evil that was digital music.

Of course music has changed a lot in the past 10 years and I've changed right with it. Back in 2000 ,I was easily buying 1-2 CD's a week. Now, it's been 4 years or more since I can recall buying myself a CD. Once I owned hundreds of records and a 1000 CD's all cataloged in alphabetical order. Today, the little remaining music, I haven't sold at yard sales or given away, collects dust in a corner of my house.

I used to know a lot about music. I DJ'd dances, went to concerts, and stored away copious amounts of useless information involving b-sides and foreign releases. In the present day, I couldn't tell you the difference between A Vampire Weekend and Three Days Grace, and the only songs that have been stuck in my head lately all come from pre-school programs on Nick Jr.

Until I Find You

2010-02-11T19:30:00.000-05:00

Until I Find You is a big novel following the life of the main character Jack Burns starting from the age of four. Jack survives a chaotic and dramatic childhood of being lied to and abused. Many years later he comes to realize that much of what he remembers is wrong. It isn't until he reaches adulthood that he is able to start putting it all together in order to put it all behind him and open himself up to things he could have never imagined.

I'm 30 now and 30 doesn't feel like I imagined it would at 15. There's really not much excitement in turning 30. Being 30 really isn't hip like how they say 40 is the new 30 and 60 is the new 40 (of course these are said mostly by people in their 40's and 60's), but 30 is still the same old 30.

A person's 20's is a celebrated time of coming into adulthood, and being completely independent. They are called young professionals, where as in any other age it simply called having a job. The twenties are a time where people feel free to go and find themselves. By 30 is you haven't found yourself yet you're likely lost forever.

The thirties are the least glamorous, the Jan Brady of ages. There's nothing interesting about them. You can't get away with being young and care-free, but far from being old and wise. A person's 30's are all about work, whether it's working to establish ourselves at a job, raising a family, improving ourselves, or to overcome the obstacles set before us. It's 10 years of raising kids, 10 years of the daily grind, and hopefully only 10 years of paying off the debt we racked up in our twenties.

The Catcher in the Rye

2010-01-29T19:30:00.000-05:00

When I was probably fourteen I read this book for the first time at night before bed. I knew nothing about the actual plot of the book; only really knew that it had this reputation of being so controversial. So much so that I was even surprised that my parents allowed me to buy the book. So each night I read about 10-20 pages, waiting to reach the point of the book that made it so infamous. My teenage imagination was convinced it was either going to get very violent or pornagraphic. I read and read and of course neither occurred. And once I had finished the book I shrugged. I liked the book but what was all the fuss about?

The Catcher in the Rye is easily and justly grouped into those objects considered timeless, however the general public's ability to appreciate those types of things is always grounded in the here and now. Taken out of the contextual history, can Citizen Kane really be considered the greatest movie ever made? Are the original Star Wars movies really an epic experience in science fiction?

The Catcher in the Rye is a call to arms for teenagers in angst. And when the book was published back in 1951 teen rebellion wasn't much more then a boy's refusal to tuck in his shirt. The most popular song of 1951 was Les Paul and Mary Ford's How High the Moon, so far in 2010 it's Ke$ha's TiK ToK. Needless to say, today teenage angst is very much a part of the social mainstream. Holden Caufield is no longer the champion of alienation and rebellion. He's a parody of every teenager in America.

Sadly, Catcher in the Rye is no longer a book, it's just another pop culture item like The Dark Side of the Moon or The Rocky Horror Picture Show that young people and hipsters like because they think they're supposed to in order to be considered unique individuals. Maybe it was the the fight to have the book banned, Salinger's self-imposed exile from the public spotlight, or it's overblown role in John Lennon's death, but Salinger's masterpiece became more about the hype that surrounds it. Is the book popular because people like it or do people like the book because it's popular?

There will no doubt be numerous articles and commentaries in the next few days and weeks about The Catcher in the Rye's impact. Many will say share the same story of how the book "spoke to them" during their youth. While I have no way of proving this, I'm willing to bet that for the many who claim to hold The Catcher in the Rye so close to their hearts there are few who truely understand it in their heads. But what to I know. I'm probably just a phony.

American Born Chinese

2010-01-23T19:26:00.000-05:00

American Born Chinese is a graphic novel about a boy's journey in learning to deal with his cultural background. It's one of the few graphic novels that's as much a novel as it is graphic. A "graphic novel" is really just a more grown-up way a saying 'long comic book'. As a boy, I never really got into comic books, but I was into comic book superheroes. I watched the after-school cartoons, played with the action figures, and even had them on my Underoos.

It's easy to see why these costume crusaders are so well loved by kids. Their superpowers, costumes, and alter egos are just the beginning. They're always there when they're needed, they always make things right, and they always win in the end. They show us what we could be if we could be anything we wanted.

There's this website called Growing Up Heroes, it's a collection of pictures of our childhood love of superheroes (1, 2, 3), back when we believed that anything was possible and telling the difference between the good guys and the bad guys was an easy thing to do. Superheroes are fictionalized versions of the real heroes in our then young lives, the firefighters, teachers, and parents, all the people we wanted to grow up and become. But once we do grow up those heroes many times fade away, or rather we don't view them in the same way.

It's hard to have heroes as adults. We may feel we no longer need them. Maybe they've disappointed us, or we've discovered all their unheroic flaws, but it is when we are grown-ups that we need to have heroes the most. Having heroes is acknowledging that you are still a work in progress. They are examples of who we'd like to be. Heroes give us a goal to reach for. And it's when we're adults that, in some capacity, someone in our lives is looking for us to be their hero. We may not be able to teach that someone how to fly but hopefully we can show what to do when we fall.

A Decade's Read In Review

2009-12-30T18:36:00.000-05:00

Five years ago my New Year resolution was to read 50 books within the year. I failed by five books. But what this resolution started was a habit of keeping a running list of books I read each year. Based on this list, over the past 5 years I've read 186 books. That's a lot of books, but I still wish that number could be higher. However, it seems that the more responsibility I have, the less I read. In 2005 I was childless, living in an apartment and without a job for part of the year, so I had time to read 45 books. This year I became a father of two, remained gainfully employed, and had a house to keep up, thus only got through 25. Of course it's not all hard work and toil causing my decline in reading, my DVR in conjunction with my love of reality television gets some of the blame.

Looking over this list from the past five years is almost like looking through a scrapbook. With certain books I remember exactly what was going on in my life as I read. For example, Into the Wild was the book I brought to the hospital when my first child was born. There are other books, such as Indecision, that I have no memory of ever reading.

Given the trend of looking back at the end of the year/decade, I found it only fitting that I put together my own list of top ten favorite books of the past five years. While these ten are clearly standouts, don't hold me to the actual rankings as they are about as meaningful as the ranking in the BCS.

10. The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey - This book changed how I look at money. There's no big secrets or magic formula, just simple, common sense information.

9. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky - This was like a page ripped out of my early high school years. At times the book's diary entries mirror the journal I kept.

8. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell - Like all of Gladwell's books, this one pulls back the curtain on life to see that most times there isn't as much luck involved as assumed.

7. The Road by Cormac McCarthy - This is every father's anxiety filled nightmare. The fact that someone wrote it all down assures me that I'm not the only one worrying.

6. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald - Despite the high school English teachers of the country (myself included) forcing this book down the throats of young readers nation-wide, this is a great story and one of the few "classics" worthy of all the praise.

5. Superstud by Paul Feig - This is one of the few books that I have found to be laugh out loud funny, but that's probably because it was honest and embarrassing. Few people would ever have the courage to admit to the what Feig did, although many of them are guilty of some of the exact same things.

4. I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle - When you were an awkward teenager, reading about the mishaps of a follow brethren is funny because it's true.

3. Columbine by Dave Cullen - This will be the next book I write on so for now I'll just say, most of what we thought we knew was wrong.

2. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson - If only all history books were written like this, but then again not all historical events are this interesting.

1. East of Eden by John Steinbeck - The average person could probably name 4-5 Steinbeck novels and East of Eden wouldn't be one of them, but it is by far his best.

In case you're interested (however I'm not sure why you would be) here is my reading list for the past 5 years:

Books of 2005
01. LANARK by Alasdair Gray - 1/2/05
02. THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER by Stephen Chbosky - 1/5/05
03. THE JUNGLE BOOK by Rudyard Kipling - 1/13/05
04. DIARY by Chuck Palahniuk - 1/17/05
05. A SEPARATE PEACE by John Knowles - 1/21/05
06. THE POLYSYLLABIC SPREE by Nick Hornby - 1/23/05
07. NINE STORIES by J.D. Salinger - 1/28/05
08. TRUE NOTEBOOKS by Mark Salzman - 2/1/05
09. LIT RIFFS edited by Matthew Miele - 2/7/05
10. THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME by Mark Haddon - 2/11/05
11. ECHOES DOWN THE CORRIDOR by Arhtur Miller - 2/20/05
12. RUNNING WILD by J. G. Ballard - 2/21/05
13. PETER PAN by J. M. Barrie - 3/3/05
14. THE FORTRESS OF SOLITUDE by Jonathan Lethem - 3/15/05
15. ANTHEM by Ayn Rand - 3/17/05
16. THE TIPPING POINT by Malcolm Gladwell - 3/24/05
17. BLESS THE BEASTS AND CHILDREN by Glendon Swarthout - 3/26/05
18. FEVER PITCH by Nick Hornby - 4/3/05
19. PEACE LIKE A RIVER by Leif Enger - 4/15/05
20. LIES MY TEACHER TOLD ME by James W. Loewen - 4/25/05
21. THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY by Thornton Wilder - 4/29/05
22. 10TH GRADE by Joseph Weisberg - 5/4/05
23. LIVE FROM NEW YORK by Tom Shales & James Miller - 5/14/05
24. CARRIE by Stephen King - 5/19/05
25. RUNNING WITH SCISSORS by Augusten Burroughs - 5/29/05
26. NOTES FROM THE UNDERGROUND by Fyodor Dostoevsky - 6/5/05
27. THE LITTLE GUIDE TO YOUR WELL-READ LIFE by Steve Leveen - 6/6/05
28. LIFE OF PI by Yann Martel - 6/14/05
29. THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald - 6/25/05
30. AMERICAN PSYCHO by Bret Easton Ellis - 6/30/05
31. THE FUNHOUSE by Dean Koontz - 7/10/05
32. DEATH BE NOT PROUD by John Gunther - 7/27/05
33. LULLABY by Chuck Palahniuk - 8/21/05
34. SHEET MUSIC by Dr. Kevin Leman - 8/23/05
35. WHY DO MEN HAVE NIPPLES? by Mark Leyner & Billy Goldberg, M.D. - 9/11/05
36. THE TRUE CONFESSIONS OF CHARLOTTE DOYLE by Avi - 10/11/05
37. THE OUTSIDERS by S.E. Hinton - 10/17/05
38. MANIAC MAGEE by Jerry Spinelli - 10/19/05
39. JARHEAD by Anthony Swofford - 11/5/05
40. NIGHTJOHN by Gary Palsen - 11/**/06
41. WILD AT HEART by John Eldredge - 11/21/05
42. BLINK by Malcolm Gladwell - 12/4/05
43. ANIMIAL FARM by George Orwell - 12/23/05
44. WEIRD CHRISTMAS by Joey Green - 12/25/05
45. WHEN ZACHARY BEAVER CAME TO TOWN by Kimberly Willis Holt - 12/27/05

Books of 2006
01. THE KNOW IT ALL by A.J. Jacobs - 1/9/06
02. EAST OF EDEN by John Steinbeck - 1/30/06
03. JOURNAL OF A NOVEL by John Steinbeck - 2/8/06
04. SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut - 2/13/06
05. MY LIFE AMONG THE SERIAL KILLERS by Helen Morrison MD - 2/19/06
06. MY NAME IS ASHER LEV by Chaim Potok - 3/12/06
07. TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD by Harper Lee - 3/25/06
08. FAHRENHEIT 451 by Ray Bradbury - 4/3/06
09. RUMBLE FISH by S. E. HINTON - 4/6/06
10. ULTRAMARATHON MAN by Dean Karnazes - 4/9/06
11. TORTILLA FLAT by John Steinbeck - 4/14/06
12. OF MEN AND MICE by John Steinbeck - 4/18/06
13. MISSING PERSONS by Stephen White -5/13/06
14. BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA by Matherinw Paterson - 5/14/05
15. MIXED by Angela Nissel - 5/30/06
16. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE by J.D. Salinger - 6/8/06
17. INVISIBLE MONSTERS by Chuck Palahniuk -6/15/06
18. EATS SHOOTS & LEAVES by Lynne Truss - 6/25/06
19. SUPERSTUD by Paul Feig - 7/3/06
20. BUSTING VEGAS by Ben Mezrich - 7/10/06
21. THE RULES OF ATTRACTION by Bret Easton Ellis - 7/17/06
22. A LONG WAY DOWN by Nick Hornby - 7/24/06
23. CHOKE by Chuck Palahniuk - 7/29/06
24. THE MEMORY OF RUNNING by Ron McLarty - 8/4/06
25. TOTAL MONEY MAKEOVER by Dave Ramsey - 8/17/06
26. THE KITE RUNNER by Khaled Hosseini - 8/20/06
27. FUGITIVES AND REFUGEES by Chuck Palahniuk - 8/21/06
28. HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN by M. J. Hyland - 8/26/06
29. REASONS TO LIVE by Amy Hempel - 8/28/06
30. A FAREWELL TO ARMS by Ernest Hemingway - 9/13/06
31. THE DANTE CLUB by Matthew Pearl - 9/27/06
32. KICK ME by Paul Feig - 10/7/06
33. WORD MYTHS by David Wilton - 10/9/06
34. FIGHT CLUB by Chuck Palahiuk - 10/12/06
35. PLAINSONG by Kent Haruf - 10/26/06
36. TWO SOULS INDIVISIBLE by James S. Hirsch - 10/28/06
37. HOUSEKEEPING VS. DIRT by Nick Hornby - 10/31/06
38. THE BRETHREN by John Grisham - 11/9/06
39. IS TINY DANCER REALLY ELTON'S LITTLE JOHN? by Gavin Edwards - 11/10/06
40. GEEK LOVE by Katherine Dunn - 11/18/06
41. DEAN & ME by Jerry Lewis - 11/22/06
42. THUMBSUCKER by Walter Kirn - 11/25/06
43. BAIT AND SWITCH by Barbara Ehrenreich - 11/27/06
44. INTO THE WILD by Jon Krakauer - 12/3/06
45. LORD OF THE FLIES by William Golding - 12/20/06
46. A GUIDE TO RECOGNIZING YOUR SAINTS by Dito Motiel - 12/24/06

Books of 2007
01. EARLY BIRD by Rodney Rothman - 1/9/07
02. THINGS FALL APART by Chinua Achebe - 1/20/07
03. THE 48 LAWS OF POWER by Robert Greene - 1/28/07
04. FREAK THE MIGHTY by Rodman Philbeck - 1/30/07
05. LITTLE CHILDREN by Tom Perrotta - 2/5/07
06. HAUNTED by Chuck Palahniuk - 2/17/07
07. THE CALL OF THE WILD by Jack London - 2/19/07
08. INDECISION by Benjamin Kunkel - 2/25/07
09. EMPIRE FALLS by Richard Russo - 3/7/07
10. NIGHT by Elie Wiesel - 3/11/07
11. THE KNIFE MAN by Wendy Moore - 3/19/07
12. THE BEACH by Alex Garland - 3/14/07
13. OH THE GLORY OF IT ALL by Sean Wilsey - 4/6/07
14. RICH DAD POOR DAD by Robert Kiyosaki - 4/8/07
15. EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE by Johnathan Safran Foer - 4/16/07
16. THE DIRT by Motley Crue - 4/29/07
17. THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER by Stephen Chbosky - 5/4/07
18. FREAKONOMICS by Steven Levitt - 5/13/07
19. THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA by Philip Roth - 5/20/07
20. FAST FOOD NATION by Eric Scholsser - 5/28/07
21. WHY DO MEN FALL ASLEEP AFTEER SEX? by Mark Leyner - 6/3/07
22. INSIDE THE AUCTION GAME by Frank Stefanick - 6/9/07
23. BLINDNESS by Jose Saramago - 6/19/07
24. ON WRITING by Stephen King - 6/20/07
25. YOU REMIND ME OF YOU by Eireann Corrigan - 6/28/07
26. MIDDLESEX by Jeffrey Eugenides - 7/8/07
27. THE ALCHEMIST by Paulo Coelho - 7/12/07
28. FOUNDING MYTHS by Ray Raphael - 7/26/07
29. HEY NOSTRADAMUS! by Douglas Coupland - 8/6/07
30. SMASHED by Koren Zailckas - 8/17/07
31. MR. ADAM by Pat Frank - 9/3/07
32. TWELVE by Nick McDonell - 9/12/07
33. TWISTED by Laurie Halse Anderson - 9/18/07
34. LOVE IS A MIX TAPE by Rob Sheffield - 9/26/07
35. AMERICA'S CHEAPEST FAMILY by The Economides - 10/28/07
36. NARRATIVE OF FREDERICK DOUGLASS - Frederick Douglass - 11/16/07
37. MONKEY WRENCH GANG by Edward Abbey - 12/9/07
38. THE BLIND SIDE by Michael Lewis - 12/16/07
39. GILEAD by Marilynne Robinson - 12/29/07
40. THE STRANGER by Albert Camus - 12/31/07

Books of 2008
01. ASSASSINATION VACATION by Sarah Vowell - 1/11/08
02. THE PURPOSE DRIVEN LIFE by Rick Warren - 2/2/08
03. YOU REMIND ME OF ME by Dan Chaon - 2/18/08
04. THE GREAT GATSBY by F. Scott Fitzgerald - 3/1/08
05. FRESH FAITH by Jim Cymbala - 3/7/08

06. JOE COLLEGE by Tom Perrotta - 3/23/08

07. A RAISIN ON THE SUN by Lorraine Hansberry - 4/7/08

08. HEAT by Bill Buford - 4/24/08

09. RANT by Chuck Palahniuk -6/7/08

10. I LOVE YOU, BETH COOPER by Larry Doyle - 6/11/08

11. DEAR MR. MACKINS by Richard J. Mackins - 6/15/08

12. CHASING GHOSTS by Paul Rieckhoff - 6/24/08

13. THE CONTORTIONIST'S HANDBOOK by Craig Clevenger - 6/26/08

14. JESUS' SON by Denis Johnson - 7/13/08

15. MONEYBALL by Michael Lewis - 7/18/08

16. ONE MISSISSIPPI by Mark Childress - 7/29/08

17. REMAINER by Tom McCarthy - 8/11/08
18. SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson - 8/18/08

19. THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy - 8/19/08

20. I KILLED by Ritch Shydner & Mark Schiff - 8/22/08

21. HEART SICK by Chelsea Cain - 9/6/08

22. THE SHACK by William P. Young - 9/25/08

23. COMPANY by Max Barry - 10/23/08

24. ADVENTURES OF THE ARTIFICIAL WOMAN by Thomas Berger - 10/28/08

25. GIRLFRIEND IN A COMA by Douglas Coupland - 11/12/08

26. BAND OF BROTHERS by Stephen E. Ambrose - 11/30/08

27. THE LAST LECTURE by Randy Pausch - 12/4/08

28. CHILDREN OF MEN by P.D. James - 12/20/08

29. DISRUPTING CLASS by Clayton Christensen - 12/26/08

30. MULTIPLE BLES8INGS by Kate Gosselin - 12/28/08

Books of 2009

01. WATCHMEN by Alan Moore - 1/1/09

02. THE REAL ALL AMERICANS by Sally Jenkins - 1/13/09

03. THE ABSTINENCE TEACHER by Tom Perrotta - 1/19/09
04. THE CHOSEN by Chaim Potok - 1/31/09
05. CLOWN GIRL by Monica Drake - 2/9/09
06. WONDER WHEN YOU'LL MISS ME by Amanda Davis - 2/17/09

07. WHERE'S MY JETPACK? by Daniel H. Wilson - 2/19/09
08. RICKLES' BOOK by Don Rickles - 2/21/09
09. SLAM by Nick Hornby - 3/1/09

10. SWEETHEART by Chelsea Cain - 3/8/09
11. THE DEVIL IN THE WHITE CITY by Erik Larson - 3/29/09
12. LULLABY by Chuck Palahniuk - 4/14/09
13. RATS SAW GOD by Rob Thomas - 5/10/09

14. ANGELS AND DEMONS by Dan Brown - 6/2/09

15. NARRATIVE of the LIFE of FREDERICK DOUGLASS by Frederick Douglass - 6/10/09

16. FOUND by Davy Rothbary - 7/3/09

17. AMONG THE THUGS by Bill Buford - 7/28/09

18. RABBIT, RUN by John Updike - 8/16/09

19. WHEN THE FINCH RISES by Jack Riggs - 9/12/09

20. LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT by Eugene O'Neill - 10/5/09

21. OUTLIERS by Malcolm Gladwell - 10/12/09

22. TWILIGHT by Stephenie Meyer - 10/26/09

23. COLUMBINE by David Cullen - 11/5/09

24. THE SCARLET LETTER by Nathaniel Hawthorne - 11/24/09

25. STORKY by D.L. Garfinkle - 12/13/09

Storky

2009-12-16T18:48:00.001-05:00

Storky is about a year in the life of a high school boy told through his journal entries. I could relate to this story for many reasons, one being that from the spring of my sophomore year until the middle of my first year of college I sporadically kept a journal. Reading Storky motivated me to dig out the journal, which has since been ripped out of its original notebook.

(Please note that the excerpts in red are transcribed just as I originally wrote them, in all their ungrammatical glory.)

I often wrote in my journal late at night just before bed, so I was usually half asleep as I jotted down the day's events. That is the only reasonable explanation for why I would write things like, Dec 30, 1998: ...I went over and found Tony and a bunch of other people and we went to see Patch Adams, one of the best movies I have ever seen... and 6/30/96: ... The past week I have been following Kerri Strug reading every about her. It weird, I know I will probably never meet her but because of her I exercise for at least 45 minutes each night...

The late night writing could also be why I often wrote the most incredibly undetailed entries: Dec 27, 1997 – Went to Megan's house. There was a bunch of people from where I used to work and just watched T.V. and July 3, 1998 – Today I went hiking with Kate, Lauren, Matt, Nick, Katie, and Laura and went swimming to a lake.

Other times I perfectly illustrated the traits of a teenager that doesn't know what true hardships in life really are: 5/14/95 - Today I think I had to make the most important decision in my life so far... This decision was to give a girl a note telling her I liked her and in case you're wondering how it went the next entry starts: This was the most tension (I think I meant stressful) day of my life...

But by far the most painful aspect of the journal is the occasional poem:

Untitled

Do you wonder what I called myself

When I'm walking all alone

It is different from what you call me on the phone

The name I have now was given to me as a child

It was good then but has become to mild

This name I will keep me till the day I die

You're never get it from me so don't even try to pry.

I have no idea what any of that means.

One of the great things about the journal is being reintroduced to all the people and moments in my life I had long since forgotten. I only wish I would have been more detailed in my entries, capturing all I could, because for covering 3 years of my life the journal is only about 30-40 pages. This means that so many things went unrecorded. Take for example my entire entry from the day of my high school graduation: June 4, 1998 - Today I graduated. Basically all day I reflexed (I meant to say I reflected). The only time I all most lost it (meaning was emotional) was before leaving when we were taking pictures. It really didn't hit me yet. Afterwards Dylan had a party which a lot of people went to.

Why I only spent 3 lines on what, at that point, was one of the biggest days of my life is very disappointing to me now. Especially since I remember so many memorable moments from that day, like driving over to the ceremony with just me and my grandfather in the car and him talking about my future, taking pictures with friends outside the auditorium in our robes, the realization that this would be the last time I'd see most of my teachers & classmates, and the party I mentioned was a lot of fun, but none of it made the cut.

It's hard to fully cherish the moments in life as we are busy living them. That's why people keep journals or in this day and age have blogs, to help with recording those events; I just didn't put as much effort into it as I wish I would have.

And so I'll leave you with a few words of advice from my 16 year old self: "Listen when people talk because they sometimes tell you things about themselves unexplicitly."

The Scarlet Letter

2009-11-25T13:08:00.000-05:00

The Scarlet Letter is the next unit I’ll be teaching and it has been a while since I did a thorough read through. It also seemed fitting given the time of year in relation to the setting of the book.

I tend to feel the same way about The Scarlet Letter as I do about Thanksgiving and that is that while I love the overall message of each, neither is by any means my favorite in their respective categories. With The Scarlet Letter the symbolism and character development is genius, but the writing itself is a cure for insomina. And Thanksgiving is a great time to reflect on all we have, but too often it feels more like a dress rehersal for Christmas. Thanksgiving has never been my favorite holiday. In fact I’d probably like it even less if I wasn’t a teacher, seeing that I currently get more days off then the average person.

My biggest qualm with Thanksgiving is the meal. Overall, I’m not a fan. However, I do like the separate dishes that typically make up the meal. I enjoy turkey, love stuffing, and can do nasty things to a pumpkin pie, but throw all those things together and the whole meal seems tired and overdone. It’s too 1950’s June Cleaver.

But the meal is a tradition and when something is part of a tradition it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s great but rather there is a meaning far beyond the actual ritual. Another thing about traditions is that over time they are often taken for granted. And to some degree we’re all guilty of seeing Thanksgiving as just a day of food, football, & family. We take the day for granted which is sort of ironic since the purpose of Thanksgiving is to pause and remember all the things in our lives we’ve been taking for granted like our health, family, etc.

So while I won’t enjoy eating green bean casserole I guess I need to remind myself to be thankful for the luxury of never being without it, even if it is as uncreative as the Puritans’ color palette.

Twilight

2009-11-15T22:00:00.000-05:00

Yes I actually read this book. The whole thing. And while during the read I rolled my eyes so often they nearly fell out of my head, it's easy to see why this book has become all the rage within, & even outside, the tween crowd. What girl hasn't at one time dreamed about starting over in a new town where boys are suddenly fighting over her and the richest, most mysterious, most attractive guy falls instantly in love with her.

But Twilight is really no different than books with a shirtless Fabio on the cover, it's similar to reality shows like The Bachelor, and the same as romantic comedies starting actresses named Jennifer. All are in the business of selling the love fantasy. Essentially this fantasy involves an everyday girl meeting the perfect guy and they instantly have a connection. The outside world tries to tear them apart but the couple's love is so strong that they are able to overcome it all. The End.

Romantic entertainment is big business and some girls can't get enough of the stuff much in the same way there are guys who can't get enough adult entertainment. In fact the two genres are very much alike. The main different between Twilight and men's magazine is that one has pictures. Yes, I suppose there are other differences as well but the main thing they share is that they both objectify the very thing they are supposed to be portraying. Just as adult entertainment presents an unrealistic fantasy of sex, romantic entertainment presents an unrealistic fantasy of a platonic relationship.

Romantic entertainment teaches that love, true love, is something that once we obtain it we can treat it like a house plant, put it in the sun, give it some water, and watch it grow. Love is made into this object that's hidden from us, but once we find it we have it forever in flawless condition. Too often romantic entertainment shows people in love with love and not the work it takes to love another person. Real love takes work. Real love is about struggling through tough times and learning to abandon your pride for the betterment of the relationship.

Love isn't a Celine Dion song. It's not a rose ceremony, the use of the word loins, or a music montage. Love is finding someone you can fart in front of. It's morning breath. It's things that wouldn't make a very appealing romance novel and thus we see very little of true love in romantic entertainment.

So adult entertainment is a false representation of sex, and all a person needs in order to dive into a sea of this misrepresentation in today's day & age is a computer. But it's still taboo; it's not socially acceptable to look at during a lunch break at work or on a bench in the park. You won't find it on prime-time network television or in the racks of the supermarket. But romantic entertainment, this false representation of love, is everywhere and it's seen as no big deal. There aren't many conservative groups getting worked up over a Meg Ryan movie. And maybe that makes romance entertainment more dangerous. Maybe we've seen so many lies we forget what the truth is; we are searching for the fantasy instead of working with reality.

By no means will we be seeing people walking out of stores with Twilight books wrapped in brown paper bags any time soon. Nor will many high school girls be grounded after DVDs of Maid In Manhattan are found under their mattresses. But it's important to keep in mind that just as it is ridiculous for guys to assume every intimate moment will be pornographic paradise, it is foolish for girls to be disappointed when their lives fail to be fairy tales.

Long Day's Journey Into Night

2009-11-03T17:36:00.000-05:00

My first teaching job was as a long term sub, meaning I was substitute for a teacher who would be out for an extended period of time. The position was as the theater teacher. Now there were many glaring problems with this:

First, my theater experience, beyond childhood Christmas plays at church, was once working stage crew on a high school musical and an introduction to acting course, with a course difficulty in the vein of basket-weaving, I took solely to fulfill a creative arts requirement.

Second, acting classes weren't really within my comfort zone. Sure, I had studied to be a teacher and in theory should be able to walk into any classroom and mold young minds, but teaching theater takes more than a class roster and a lesson plan. It takes someone with acting talent, something I lack, and thus I was not equipped to lead by example in the finer points of acting.

Third, I was hired a week before the start of school. There were no textbooks. No materials. The teacher I was a sub for created the course from scratch. She was an acting coach in her spare time,making her a walking textbook. Where as I didn't know my stage right from my stage left.

My greatest performance may have been acting like I knew what I was doing each period. Too many times I was deciding what to do in class as students were walking in the door. Needless to say if any of those kids become movie stars they should receive an instant Oscar just for overcoming the huge setback that was my instruction.

So while I'll never direct a play I enjoy reading them. They're often a welcomed break from novels where the author feels the need to describe everything in unimaginative detail. Plays, even ones written by the the most detail oriented writers, are concise, the meat of the story with all the side dishes intended to be served once it reaches the stage.

I read a lot of Eugene O'Neill's plays in college. I can't say I'm a huge fan of his, but what drew me to his supposed masterpiece, Long Day's Journey into Night, was the topic of dangerous drugs, like heroin, once being used for common cures. It's beyond frighting that drugs that would now get you jail time used to be given to children to help them sleep. Although I sure for some of my theater students a similar remedy would have been a welcome relief from the pain I put them through.

Outliers

2009-10-21T17:30:00.000-04:00

There's a quote by E.B. White, the man who wrote the children's classics Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little, that goes, "The time not to become a father is eighteen years before a war."

As parents we want the best for our children and to put them in the best possible position to live long, happy, and productive lives. We try to predict the future our offspring will face and prepare them for it. While it's impossible to foresee and eliminate all the hardships and tragedies that will stand in their way, we encourage, protect, and corral our children towards success.

Ask someone how to achieve success and they'll most likely tell you that the answer lies in hard work. Society has bought into the belief that hard work is the solution for everything, it is after all at the core of the American Dream. If someone failed, it's simply due to the fact that the person didn't really work for it. As a teacher I've seen my share of good intentioned parents pushing their children harder than a pack of mules. It's assumed that hard working kids become talented and intelligent adults who are essentially guaranteed success. If that were true the man with the highest IQ ever measured, Chris Langan, would be a world leader instead of a bouncer at a bar.

In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell examines what separates the super successful from the sub-par. While talent plays a major part in success, it is rarely the most important factor. This is illustrated in how a majority of professional hockey players have winter birthdays, why many of the richest people in the history of the world were born within just a few years of one another, and what makes children in Asian countries perform so well in math. It's not very often that you can thoroughly enjoy reading a book full of theories and statistics, not to mention feel just a tad bit smarter from the experience however this seems to be Gladwell's forte and the only qualm I have with him is that he has only written three books thus far.

As Gladwell explains, success is almost entirely about being at the right place at the right time and taking advantage of the opportunities if they happen across the person's path. So while William and Mary Gates raised their son in an upper-class home where they supported and provided for him, as it turns out the biggest reason Bill Gates (who as Gladwell illustrates is a prime example of having the rare opportunities that lead to success) is one of the most successful persons in technology/business today, is that his parents decided to start a family in the mid-fifties. As parents we can try to give our children the world, but ultimately what will have the biggest impact is what the world gives to them.

When the Finch Rises

2009-09-25T18:30:00.000-04:00

In When the Finch Rises the main characters are two young boys growing up in the late sixties. The pair become enamored by Evel Knievel and his televised motorcycle stunts. Being a curious and courageous duo, they even attempt their own stunts atop bicycles, using dangerous homemade ramps made of plywood and cinder blocks.

The entertainment industry can have a powerful effect on children. When I was around 8 one of my favorite movies was Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory mainly because I dreamt of having a room totally made out of candy like the scene with the chocolate river. In the movie, one of the rude kids, Violet Beauregarde, loves to chew gum. A gum addict. And at some point in the movie she states that she sometimes saves a good piece of gum by sticking the chewed wad behind her ear.

For some reason this tidbit resonated in my young mind and one day I distinctly remember enjoying a delicious piece of Dr. Pepper flavored gum with a liquid center. I was enjoying it so much that I decided it was too good to throw away. So taking a cue from Miss Beauregarde, I stuck the gum behind my ear.

Now at that age I was sporting the classic shaggy bowl cut so it wasn't hard for the gum to become intertwined in my hair. The hard thing was trying to retrieve the gum out of the hair behind my ear. In fact I unsuccessfully tried for the next 10 days, making sure to hide it from everyone.

Finally, on a night my family was getting dressed up to attend some event, my dad found the clump of hair while combing my hair. Now this Dr. Pepper gum, in its crewed, ten days old state, takes on a dark maroon color, the same hue as a bloody head wound. But as my dad was about to rush me to the ER, he noticed that my massive gash had a sweet delightful smell. Once the truth of the matter came out but it was clear that the wad of gum could not come out, dad reached for the scissors and I ended with a large hole in my bowl cut. Lesson learned.

A Shout-Out From Mr. Eisen on Twitter

2009-09-08T07:55:00.000-04:00

Total Access

2009-09-07T08:20:00.000-04:00

The NFL season is here and in my opinion football is simply the greatest sport on Earth. People typically like to place baseball over football, they romanticize it and call it "America's favorite pastime" but it's nothing more than propaganda. Baseball just simply isn't close to the complex and physical game of football.

In baseball every game is like casual Friday with players wearing pants and button-up shirts. The perfect game in baseball is one where nothing happens. Baseball players can actually go on the disable list for a blister on their fingers. And professional baseball stadiums even have to give the crowd a designated time to stand up and stretch so as not to have them sleep through the end of the game.

But beyond the games themselves, the biggest thing that the NFL has on the MLB is that in football everything is an event. The NFL has perfected the art of making news out of the off-season. Once the Super Bowl winner is crowned, the league doesn't go into hibernation. There's the Pro Bowl, Free Agency, the Combine, the Draft, training camps and endless fantasy football talk, all satisfying our fix until the kick-off of a new season.

Total Access is a great read from the Walter Cronkite, or even the Pookie Anderson, of the NFL Network, Rich Eisen. It's an inside look into the event packed world of the NFL. It's loaded with hilarious stories and interesting facts. The perfect thing to tide someone over between Sundays.

Fly Eagles fly.

Rabbit, Run

2009-08-29T10:13:00.000-04:00

So I have this tattoo on my right upper arm. I got it back in the summer of 2003. At the time I had moved back home with my parents, was single, unsuccessfully looking for a teaching job, waiting tables part-time, and staying up until 3 in the morning on an average weekday. What better way to celebrate these great achievements then by rewarding myself with a tattoo.

The tattoo is this logo thing that I carefully designed using my initials, which for better or worst just happen to be B.S. The tattoo itself is blotchy; it's not as filled in as it could be. That's because the day I got it I had the bright idea that to lessen the pain normally associated with getting a tattoo I would take a few shots of rum. However, alcohol causes your blood to thin, so as the needle is going in and out of your arm, you bleed more, making it harder to ensure that the intended area is covered. So I ended up with a less than stellar tattoo.

But at the time I convinced myself that regardless of its appearance this tattoo was more than just ink strategically placed under the skin, it was a statement, a statement of uniqueness, like a trademarked symbol. Think The Artist Formerly Known As Prince. It's completely ridiculous thinking behind this completely ego-centered image, that I will wear for the rest of my life.

It's not that I'm now against tattoos, it's just that tattoos on me don't seem right. Like going to McDonald's and finding salmon tar-tar on the value menu, ink on me is confusing, humorous, and more than slightly disturbing.

As time has past I've come to confess the errors made in many of my choices. Like when my 2 year old son asks me why I have a sticker on my arm, I admit to myself that this tattoo was a mistake. I regret getting it. People say you shouldn't regret things in life. I don't understand that. Having regrets doesn't mean you didn't learn something valuable, it just means you identify your wrong doings. Show me someone who has no regrets and I'll show you someone who either has never made a mistake or more likely is too embarrassed/delusional/arrogant to admit them.

I've come realize that I am my worst enemy, and the same probably holds true for most people. No one has lied to you more than yourself. The person who has talked you into making all those horrible decisions is the person you see in the mirror each day. We tend to either trust ourselves way too much (learning to twist our reasoning until anything is justifiable) or not at all (by knowing our flaws and continually use them against us).

The author John Updike died back in January of this year. I had never read any of his work and since this celebrated writer is from the state I call home, Pennsylvania, I felt compelled to read one of his more well-known books. That and Conan O'Brien recommended him in an issue of Entertainment Weekly.

Never have I hated a main character more than I have in Rabbit, Run , so much so that I repeatedly wanted to toss the book aside and it took much longer to read than it should have. The character doesn't know what he wants, only what he wants right at that moment. He's an anti-hero, and his super power would be the ability to justify running away from all the responsibility in his life. At no point did he get any sweet tattoos but his actions and attitudes just happen to be total B.S.

Among The Thugs

2009-08-12T11:00:00.000-04:00

When I was in high school there was this propaganda spread around to all the students, that to get into anything close to a good college a student had to take at least 2 years of a foreign language. Maybe it was the guidance counselors who spread this lie, or the language teachers wanting to ensure their services would be in high demand. Nevertheless, my fellow students and I bought into it and were soon choosing our classroom aliases and looking up curse words in the English to foreign language dictionary.

I took Spanish and during my second year I had a fresh out of college, 5 foot small, meek and incredibly kind-hearted woman for a teacher. And we made her life, or at least the class period, miserable. The class was filled with sophomores. Now sophomores are essentially freshmen trying to act like juniors, full of delusional immaturity. What made things even worse is that of the 25 students in the class only 4 were girls. There was so much testosterone in that room it's surprising that the girls didn't sprout whiskers as a result of a contact high.

So needless to say we were beyond jerk status in our treatment of this woman. I remember almost nothing she actually taught, but I do remember how we would rhythmically pound on our desks in the middle of her lesson, how we would steal things off her desks and hold it above her head as she would jump and try to get it like some kind of poodle. On a number of occasions we somehow convinced her to let us listen to the song The Humpy Dance during class, and to celebrate the end of the year we had her show us The Goonies. And again this was Spanish class.

I'm not sure how many times we made her cry during class. It was enough to make us feel bad but not enough to make us stop. Clearly we were complete and utter bastards to this poor woman. But the thing is we weren't bastards by nature. Individually, we weren't troublemakers. We weren't making frequent visits to the principal's office. In fact many of us had never seen the inside of it. However, when we were thrown together in that classroom together we transformed into a pack of incarcerated vikings.

I choose to read Among the Thugs because, A. I read Buford's book Heat some time back and enjoyed it and B. it's about soccer (or I should say football), a sport I'm not any good at but have enjoyed playing ever since I was six years old. I was about 20 pages into this book when I came across an article in the latest issue of Newsweek called "Fifty Books for Our Time", and in a serendipitous moment this obscure, 19 year old book, that I couldn't even find in a book store or libraries, was listed. This was my first hint that this book was more than just soccer.

Among the Thugs is about the author's time spent around soccer hooligans in Europe and analyzes crowd violence. Some even see the book as being insightful in understanding terrorism. Maybe if that Spanish teacher had read it our Digital Underground fueled attacks would have been squashed.

Swaptree

2009-07-21T21:19:00.000-04:00

Like most avid readers the number of books I get far outnumber the number I'll ever get around to reading. 80% of the books I own are ones I have yet to read. I add an average of at least 2-3 books to my shelves a month. With that said, it's safe to say that I haven't actually bought a book in over two years.

Instead I've relied almost solely on the site Swaptree.com to feed my reading habit. Swaptree is a trading site for books, CD's, DVD's, and video games. You make a list of all the items you are willing to trade and a list of items you'd like to receive. The site then finds matches and setup a 2-way, 3-way, and even 4-way trade.

Time and time again I've made a trade for a recently released book in exchange for a CD I haven't listened to since college and instead of shelling out the $20 or more dollars for the new hardcover book, I'm only paying 2-3 dollars to mail the CD. I can even print postage right off the site.

So far my best trades have been for uncorrected proofs books also called advance reading copies (ARC). These are small batches of book copies the publisher gives out to the media, bookstores, and libraries before the book is released for sale. They are very collectible and without intentionally seeking them out, I've made trades for 5 ARC's so far. The best one being a signed uncorrected proof of Slam by Nick Hornby (movies based on his books include High Fidelity, About a Boy, and very loosely Fever Pitch).

To date I've made over 170 trades and estimate that I've probably saved between $1,100 to $1,700. The best thing is, when I'm finished with a book I turn around and list it right back onto Swaptree and I no longer feel forced to read a book I can't get into since I don't really have a financial investment with it in the first place.

So whether you're looking to feed all your media desires, save money, and/or de-clutter your bookshelves, Swaptree is the way to go. Enjoy.

Found

2009-07-20T21:46:00.000-04:00

Found is a collection of discarded and misplaced notes, letters, and pictures, that someone came across along the sidewalk or crumpled up in the trash. The book is filled with strange, hilarious, and moving insights into people's lives. These are things people never intended anyone to see, which makes them all that much more interesting, getting to peek in on someone else's life.

That is after all what the whole social networking is built on. Now I've done or am still doing the Friendster/Myspace/Facebook/Twitter-thing and while the social networking sites are great for keeping current with far off friends, there comes a point where all I'm doing is just, for lack of a better term, spying on people while at the same time sort of boasting about everything I have going on. Social networking sites seem to feed two guilty pleasures at once, wanting to be nosey and wanting to be the center of attention. It could be called social eavesdropping or social grandstanding. And while I'm speaking only for myself, I'm sure most social networkers are guilty of either or both. Why else would anyone feel the need to share what they are eating for lunch in real-time?

Another draw back of social networking (assuming you find the previous point a drawback) is that these sites have all but strangled face to face conversations and replaced it with awkward small-talk. Think about it, we've seen each others' vacation pictures, know what movies each of us saw last weekend, and of course what we've had for lunch so what else is there possibly left to talk about when we finally meet up face to face. We can't talk about mutual friends because we've both seen the friends' pages and thus know everything about the friends already.

With all the said I probably won't be breaking the social networking habit anytime soon, but I have a huge amount of respect for anyone who has avoided them all together. The lack of desire to know what everyone is eating for lunch everyday is unimaginable.

If I can get back to Found, the book and its website have caused me to seek out my own found items by flipping through secondhand books and scanning the sidewalks . I haven't had much luck. My best finds probably occured during my classroom teaching days. High school students are gold mines when it comes to discarded notes, doodles, and writings. A teacher can create quite the collection over the years.

There is only one item that I've found and kept. It appears to be a skit done by three 10th graders I had in class. I found it on the floor at the end of the day and never bothered giving it back to the owners. The skit seems to be a commerical for pogs. I found this in 2002/2003 so the pog trend was long gone which I guess was intended to be part of the humor. Warning, it's funny but only in the immature, adolescent way. I'll transcribe since it's hard to read but I'll leave the spelling mistakes to add to it's charm:

Pogs

J - Hey I'm Master McPogsalot, I'm here to tell you about Pogs.

M - And I'm his superhero sidekick Poggy Pogenstrom.

L- These videogames are boring, I need something to do with. Someone help me!!

J&M - Hey Timmy, Pog superheros here.

J - We are here to tell you about mankinds greatest creation....ever...POG'S!!

M - Yeah remember when your parent's got a divorced because of you? Well pogs will bring them back together, so buy pogs.

J - Also try and collect all 50 million pogs on sale. And if your friend has some pogs you want, kill him and steal his pogs, I swear it would be worth it.

L - But wait didn't pogs only used to be cool?

M- Thats just filthy anti-pog propaganda the government is saying to control your soul. Pogs protect your soul Jimmy.

L - It's Timmy.

J - Whatever, Let's get back to the real point here...Pogs.

M - Yes and that is to worship pogs and slammers daily. And convert to P.O.G.

J - Pogs over goverment.

L - I see. Isn't that blasphemaus.

M - No! Pog was Washington's middle nane.

L - Wow, pogs are cool!

J - Damn straight, Timmy.

Special Commemorative Magazine Issues

2009-07-04T20:55:00.000-04:00

When I was 8 my parents bought a video camera, the old 80's type that recorded to standard size VHS tapes and had to be worn on the shoulder in order to film. On the first tape ever used is a scene of me in the living room wearing a light colored sports coat on a Sunday morning just before church. Now something is fouled up with the tape because much of the sound has been replaced by loud static. This makes it hard to decipher what I'm doing and at times down right confusing as I fling the coat off my shoulders and at one point slap myself in the face.

But if you could hear the audio you'd hear the title track of the 1987 album Bad. Bad was the first item, let alone album, I can remember buying with my own Christmas/Birthday obtained money. And for the rest of my life I was married to a following of the Gloved One, for better or worst.

On my key chain I keep the key to my very first car. A 1989 maroon 2-door Chrysler Le Baron. Of course the only fitting name for the car, in my mind, was Billie Jean. I even made a tape for the car that played the song on continuous repeat. A tape I purposely left in the deck when the car finally headed to the wreckage yard.

With all the tributes out there for Michael Jackson right now I won't bother going into my own. So instead know that I'll be 30 in less than a year. An age where no matter how hard you try to play it you're officially an adult whether you like it or not. Having Michael Jackson die now almost seems fitting. Like mourning Mike is really mourning the kid that spend hours lip syncing to his songs in front of the mirror.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass

2009-06-16T19:36:00.000-04:00

I'm teaching summer school and this is one of the books that's taught. It's been almost two years since I've read Douglass's book so I thought I'd brush up. Even though this is my second time reading it, it's two more times than a majority of my students will have read for the assignment.

Any realistic English teacher is well aware that most of class will never read what is assigned to them. In fact when I was a student I can say with the utmost certainty that between 7th grade and my final year of college I probably read only 2 books from cover to cover out of the dozens and dozens of books assigned to me (pictured are just a few of the books over the years that I never read). Instead I relied on cliff notes, a run-down of the reading from a classmate during lunch, or by the time I reached college, summaries online. And if none of the options were available, or I was simply too lazy to pursue any of them I would rely on class discussions and lucky guesses. All in all I was mildly successful through all of it, maintaining a B average.

But why then did I ever become an English teacher of all things? Because an aspiring dentist doesn't avoid brushing his teeth and a wanna be vet doesn't hate animals, yet I avoided reading novels as if it was the smelly kid in school. Basically, I didn't decide to major in English education because I particularly loved the idea of being an English teacher but rather I didn't hate it or thought I could at least tolerate it, unlike the many other majors out there. I'm lucky in the sense that I grew to enjoy teaching as well as developed a strong interest in reading.

There are probably fellow English teachers that would look down on my past actions as not having a true love of literature. And I would tend to agree, because most "great works of literature" are crap, only good for curing insomnia. I equate having to read Beowulf and The Canterbury Tales to an unexplainable torture. That doesn't mean that all the books I never read were horrible books. But it's no wonder we can't convince kids to read when we're forcing the driest words ever written down their throats.

But with all that said Frederick Douglass's book is not one of these and is a great insight into the horror that was American slavery.

Angels & Demons

2009-06-05T20:49:00.000-04:00

Imagine your name is Edwin Booth. You are an actor, in fact you are considered the greatest American stage actor to have ever lived. Yet today the average person has no idea who you are. They have never heard of you, but every single one of them knows your younger, less talented, president killing brother, John Wilkes.

Thus is the case of Angels & Demons which is far and away better than its more popular and hyped-up brother The Da Vinci Code.

So it's summer, and my favorite time of year mainly because, for every year of life I have always had a summer vacation. Every job I've had from the age 14 until now, over the months of June, July, & August, has either been part-time or temporary summer work. I have no real understanding of things like having to save paid time off days in order to take a summer vacation.

So with summer comes summer reading, and while I don't want to hype up this book too much because there is a difference between an entertaining book and a good one, Angels & Demons would be a perfect example of a beach book. First off, a 5th grader could read it. Mr. Brown isn't exactly James Joyce. Secondly, it has all the classic action/adventure cliches: the ticking bomb, the cliff hangers, the huge plot twists, the good guys who turn out to be bad guys, the love interest, the reluctant hero, and so on and so forth.

I'm a Christian but not Catholic so my reaction to the media focused, controversial elements of the book is from a slightly limited perspective, but with that said, I had a hard time seeing what all the hype was about. I mean it's a fictional story based on conspiracy theories. Interestingly enough there were many favorable, yet probably unintentional, pro-religion elements sprinkled throughout the story.

One last fact on Edwin Booth that's insanely interesting yet totally unrelated to all of this. Shortly before his brother became world famous, Edwin was at a railroad station when a young boy stumbled and began to fall in front of a moving train. Edwin was able to pull the boy out of harm's way saving the lad's life. The boy was Robert Todd Lincoln, son of the man Edwin's brother would later kill. This interesting tale and many more can be found in Assassination Vacation , a book by the voice of Violet in The Incredibles.

A Practical Gardener's Guide to Growing Vegetables, Fruit and Herbs

2009-05-27T20:42:00.000-04:00

This past Memorial Day marked three years we have lived in this house. And with home ownership the grown up thing to do since the year we've moved in was to plant a small garden. At the very least a tomato plant or two the first year. The next year the garden expanded, growing most everything from seeds. This year I ripped out a tree and two bushes to make room in our small backyard. I even went as far as to make a compost pile (that's beginning to smell like a herd of cattle). But the thing is I hate yard work. I break out the weed whacker once a month at best, I do a poor job sweeping grass clippings off the driveway, and really only rake the leaves to avoid the death stares I'd get from my neighbors who literally trim the grass along their sidewalk with a pair of scissors.

So despite my yard-care short comings, I've become somewhat of a gardener. People with gardens are just like people that like to who restore old cars, just like people that love to cook, and like people that enjoy being crafty. All these people, they're filling a need to be creators. They're completely in charge of something, they have power over it. With the economy in it's current state they say home gardens have become the popular trend this summer. Gardening is the new black. It might be reasonable to assume that all these new gardens are just as much about being able to control something in a world full of things totally out of our hands as it is about saving money on food. With everything in our lives dragging us along, people find comfort in having something in life that we get to drag around.

Now with all that said I find gardening neither calming nor refreshing. While watching pounds of food come from a small little seed is beyond amazing - beyond complete human comprehension, the sweat from having to water on hot humid days, and dirt that you can never quite get out from under the fingernails are something I could do without. And despite my best efforts the slugs destroy my dill, insects make a buffet out of my bok choy, and birds stake out my strawberries. By the middle of August I'll be so over this whole gardening business. I'll be up to my ears in tomatoes and looking forward to fall's first frost.

Rats Saw God

2009-05-11T15:16:00.000-04:00

In fourth grade we all had to take part in the Presidential Physical Fitness Program. This was the first time in my school career that gym class was not something involving a kickball, jump rope, or even a square dance. Yes, we square danced in gym, which wasn't bad IF your partner was one of the cuter girls in class, but being that there were probably only 2 that fell into that category it was always a crap shoot. Anyways, PPF program was the first real test of a young child's physical abilities. The reward for meeting the requirements of the program was a certificate with an official looking signature from the President and more importantly a blue round patch.

Why a patch? Who knows. It's not like we all had jackets or better yet sashes to sew all our patches on. In reality the patch would end up in a desk drawer along with crewed up superballs and cereal box toys. Never the less I wanted that patch. And for the most part it was smooth sailing. The shuttle run with the chalk board erasers, I conquered. The v-sit reach with two classmate pushing down on my knees was a breeze. The only problem with the sit-ups was trying not to pass gas on the person holding my feet. The mile run was torture but I got through it. The unmovable obstacle came in the form of pull-ups.

Being only nine years old my upper body strength was practically non-existent. I could not do a single pull-up let alone the required five. Thus my PPF award was out of reach. However, this being public education, where no student is to be told that they are less than the best, I received a round yellow and white patch that said "participant." I hated that patch and it's "good try, you did you're best, better luck next time" message.

Fast forward twenty years, as a teacher with slightly better upper body strength, I stumbled upon a container packed with PPF patches. They were just out there in the open, not hidden away, not under lock and key, not guarded in anyway. So I snatched one. I consider it a lifetime achievement award since certainly I have done at least five pull-ups in the past 20 years.

We have these important things in our childhood lives, and we grow up to learn how very unimportant these things are in the real world. But the fact that these things were once so important makes us look back at them with nostalgia. They allow us to remember what it means to live a care-free life.

That's what's great about the coming-of-age genre. Stories about young characters facing problems that aren't that big of a deal, but to those characters, the problems are practically earth shattering. Problems that many of us had and made too big of a deal about at the time. Rats Saw God has nothing to due with rats or God but rather a smart yet slacking teenager with girlfriend and daddy problems and by the end he's learned how to deal with both, a character in the mold of many guys were or knew growing up.

One quick note, this book was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. I mention that only because it seems YA lit has gotten a little edger since I was a young adult. For example the first line of the book is "Though I tried to clear my head of the effects of the fat, resiny doobie I'd polished off an hour before..." Toto, I don't think we're in Narnia anymore.

Body for Life

2009-05-04T12:07:00.000-04:00

So there's this thing called sympathy weight. It's something a man claims after 9 months of running out to get a small milkshake for his expecting wife and ordering a large milkshake for himself. Or when the husband plants food ideas in the expecting woman's heads, like "we haven't had ice cream in awhile" or "we should order the x-large pizza instead of the medium." But it's not all one big con job, the husband is just trying to be supportive, going as far as to skip the gym the mornings of the last two months of the pregnancy in order to help take care of the 2 year old. And of course once the second child has arrived the husband is so busy helping out with late night feedings that the gym is the least of his concerns. Add in the food friends and family bring and it's no wonder the husband is not sporting his summer physique. Now the husband isn't obese, I don't want to give you that impression as it might hurt the husband's delicate feelings, he's just out of shape.

So the husband (as well as the now unpregnate wife) is going to be follow the Body for Life
plan. Not a diet, a PLAN, the husband would never follow some silly diet. And the most beneficial part of this plan is just having some sort of structure, a schedule. Something to tell the husband what to do and when to do it. And isn't this what we all secretly want. Regardless of how much freedom we claim we have, no matter how much individuality we view are self with - at some point and in some way we want to be told how and what to do. We liked to be parented. The husband wants to be told what to eat even though it's not what or as much as he'd like to eat. I'll try to remember to let you know how he does.

Lullaby

2009-04-21T22:00:00.000-04:00

I first read Lullaby in August of 2005. I know this because for the past 4 years I've had weird obsession with keeping track of all the books I read. This list it becomes like a scrapbook, the good times, the bad times, the okay times and the times I don't have no memory of. The latter is the category this book falls in, and while I didn't fully remember what this book was about I clearly remember what life was like while I was reading Lullaby.

Married one year and an month, we were living in a small one bedroom apartment and I was just a few short weeks away from my first teaching job the didn't have an exploration date, the same I'm at today. We were saving up to buy a house and debating on when to have children.

So less than 4 years ago I'm typing this from our quaint little 3 bedroom home enjoying some peace and quiet after an hour of our 2 year old getting in and out of bed and the 2 week old being fed and rocked to sleep. If it wasn't for all these changes, all this added responsibility I may have remembered what Lullaby was about and realized that just maybe it wasn't the I book I should be reading at this moment in my life, for my nerves sake at least. Because a book about an ancient magical death spell accidentally published in a book of children's lullabies that parents use to rock their children to sleep can be a little unsettling when your basically waiting around for your wife to give you the high sign that it is time to go hospital.

There is a lot more worry in my life than there was 4 years ago. Worry makes me check the locks at least twice at night, makes me check the basement for water after a heavy rain, makes me check my sleeping children to ensure they're still breathing, makes me fear magical poems that kill people. Worrying about things is stressful, and at times it's caused some sleepless nights but I'm thankful to have these things to worry about.

As fas as the book goes my brief description makes it sound much more sci-fi/horror than it really is. It's actually more about relationship and the abuse of power. A story that is very entertaining, where the unique approaches to writing make you forgive the moments you find unsettling, even disturbing.