noattentionspan

I’ve been reading the Sookie Stackhouse novels that were the basis for the HBO series “True Blood” over the past few days, consuming them at a rate of slightly higher than 1 per day. We have the boxed set here in our work library so I just grabbed them and am rather enjoying them.

When I was down in California for some business stuff during the election I managed to catch an episode of True Blood on HBO in the hotel. It seemed a bit less stupid than some other recent forays into the supernatural, but without context I didn’t pursue it heavily. I had mentioned that I’d be interested in seeing it though when it finally came onto normal channels up in Canada.

Having read the books now though I’ll definitely be watching it when it comes to the Space channel this spring. They are just light enough and still fun fantasy and have been a great mood enhancer.

I heard from the doctor today and have an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon tomorrow, seems that my wrist isn’t healing. I’m picking up all three sets of x-rays and bringing them into him first thing tomorrow morning so we can see what he says. Who knows where it goes from here, but I’m having a hard time being optimistic given the news that it just isn’t healing.

I’m a bit pissed at my doctor for not suggesting I be taking calcium supplements for the injury until he just casually asked me the other day. But I’m also pretty pissed at myself, I should know better. Hell, I should be taking Ca/Mg just for the amount of running I do. The doctor knows what I do and should have suggested it, but I know what I do and at least enough about broken bones (we’ll do a count of how many I’ve had some day) that I should have not needed the suggestion. Dumb ass indeed.

In order to get that bit closer to the start and finish lines of IMC today I did 8 hill repeats with the Running Room group. A jog to/from the hills and a bit after balances things out at 9km. Repeats are never super fast, but these weren’t bad. The hills were done at about a 5:12min/km pace. It would be tough to do that in a race over and over again, but the more I do repeats the more I feel like I could do it if I really needed to

Nutrition today, other than lunch, was not horrible. I likely ate a bit too much at dinner and I ate too late, but I was hungry and I ran late, go figure.

Breakfast:
- Vector cereal with yogurt
- Multi-vitamin
- 1000mg Ca Mg

Snack (0):
- One slice of Amish friendship bread

Lunch:
- Burger and fries
- Can of OJ

Snack (1):
- Small yogurt

Snack (2):
- Small yogurt

Snack (3):
- Gel before running

Dinner:
- Shake and bake pork steak with brown rice
- Beans
- Glass of Juice
- 1000mg Ca/Mg

It’s hard to remember that I’m in training mode and because of that I’m pushing my body a bit more than others might be. Some days I get out for a run and things are just working. I’m maintaining a sub 5:00/km pace with relative ease and feel like I could run it all day. Other days I’m struggling to keep at a 5:40/km pace and taking walk breaks every 10 minutes.

Today was one of the later types. 16.61km at an average pace of 5:43 (that includes the walk breaks). Curtis and I were running with the Running Room group and usually on Sunday we push out to the group right behind the leaders and stick at the front of that. Today I held us back to the front of the middle group and figured we could just run easy with them and chat the whole way. A real LSR (Long Slow Run).

It was tough. What should have been easy was hard. The hills after 12km were brutal and even though we were climbing at sub 5:40/km pace I felt like we were barely moving and my lungs were dying.

All through this I’m doing the math and realizing that if I feel like that on race day I won’t be getting anywhere near a sub 1:50 half marathon. And I certainly won’t hit the 1:45 I really want. Hell, today we would have been lucky to break 2:00!

As I mentioned though, I’m in training mode. I raced on Friday (albeit not wonderfully) for 5km. I ran hard Saturday for 8km. I won’t be doing that before the race. And I certainly won’t be doing that before Ironman.

And, really, this half marathon is not my goal race, it’s just something I’m doing with Curtis, some father/son time. It is important for that reason, but not for time. Heck, Curt can go out and run with a pace bunny, he’s faster than me anyway I just need to think of it as an easy 21.1km training run. Ironman is my goal, everything else is just training.

I finally broke down and drove to MEC to buy some gels in bulk. I took Miranda with me and showed her around the place which she now thinks is pretty darned cool with lots of neat toys. While in that area we stopped off at Mark and Mary’s to drop off some containers and a gift for our H2H trailer park family. We had a wonderful visit and although I didn’t leave with a container of mine that I’d left there, I did leave with some baking sheets for which I am overly grateful!

The day just kept going from there. A trip to the library to get some books on nutrition and triathlon. Spurred on, no doubt, by the teasing I’m taking from my friends for my crappy nutrition. I heard about it from Jackie while running today and Mary while chatting. Hey, the more I hear about it the sooner I am likely to fix it!

A wonderful dinner followed the library with me finally getting around to cooking the curries I’ve been wanting for weeks. Nummyness ensued and I was well satisfied when I left for Avatar with Carly and Curtis.

It was good. Period. The story was nothing special, certainly nothing that hasn’t been done before, but it was done very, very well. The use of 3D wasn’t over the top and just fit in so that I would forget from time to time until something would pop. They are very close to just making this the way we watch movies I think, I was impressed. The graphics, textures and overall background; all solid.

Go see it. Go see it in the theater. Go see it in 3d.

Nutrition started OK today, that’s a major plus. Heck, cereal in the morning, how cool is that? As a matter of fact, while I could have added a lunch, the only thing I really did wrong was the popcorn and pop (strawberry frutopia mixed with sprite) at the movie. Considering my norm, this was pretty solid!

Breakfast:
- Bowl of Vector and milk (cereal? really? yup!)

Snack (0):
- Gel before running

Snack (1):
- Glass of OJ after running
- Apple

Snack (2):
- Couple of cookies and bite of chocolate cheese cake (Thanks Mary!)

Dinner:
- 1 plate with rice, coconut curry chicken and vindaloo pork with onions, peppers and apples
- 1 small bowl with rice and more of the pork (damned nummy)
- Glass of OJ

Snack (3):
- Popcorn and some pop at the movie.

Snack (4):
- Glass of OJ
- Couple of Advil

So, clearly I remember nothing at all about the past 12 months. I know because as I went back and read my blog headings I remembered stuff that I’d forgotten all about. I have no clue what happened in certain months because there was either no posts, or just one or two. Of course I remember a couple of big things, but that’s about it.

After reading through the blog entries though, I have some highlights.

In 2009 I did a bit of exercise. 44.4km done in the pool. 808km of biking. And 1320km (that’s one thousand, three hundred and twenty kilometers!) of running. All of that started on January 1.

January 1, 2009 I started back to running with the 5km Resolution Run with the Burnaby Running Room group. I’d started back running slowly in the months before but this marked a difference for me. I knew that this was the start of a year of running. A few days in I figured I might try and do 1 mile / day for the first month since I’d been doing at least that daily. It didn’t last overly long, but I certainly averaged more than that over the year.

Somewhere in January I figured out the date in binary. A big point in the year? No, but it was neat and seeing the blog entry made me smile at the geek that sits inside of me. For reference, the current date is:
1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 1.1 1 0 0.1 1 1 0 1
Tomorrow is going to be:
1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 0.1.1

Also in January I started as a Run Leader both with the North Vancouver Winter Club Sun Run Group and with a Sun Run Group at my office. We started out pretty slow, but we picked it up and we all managed to make it together.

February seems to have happened without any blog entries from me. Coincidentally it also managed to go by without any lasting memory. Oh, I’m sure that something memorable happened, but without the context of date I have no idea what

March was a bit more active thankfully. I went sailing for the first time in my life with my buddy Joel from work. As it happens I also started swimming again in March. Thankfully these things didn’t happen at the same time! March also marks my first real attempt in a LONG time to bake cookies. I’m thinking of baking some tonight just because.

April brought about another effort to drop caffeine from my life which was massively successful for a month or so. Saddly I’m back on Drug C as I like to think of it. I’ll drop off again in the next few months apart from training use.

The big race in April was the Sun Run and I’m both happy and proud to say that everyone from both of my groups who started the race finished the race! How damned cool is that?

May gave me the opportunity to volunteer at the Vancouver Marathon, something I hadn’t done before. I had an absolutely fantastic time. Since I’m not racing the marathon distance this year I’m planning on volunteering again unless I get talked into doing the half distance.

June marked the purchase of the passes for the Grouse Grind. Did I use them as often as I wanted in the summer and fall? No, but I did use them lots and I plan on using them more, both for snowshoeing this winter and grinding again in the spring.

It also gave me the Scotia Bank half marathon and the Father’s Day Prostate Cancer run. For whatever reason, neither of these races merited a race report. Weird.

July? Dark month. No clue. Again, I’m sure I did memorable things, but without the contextual clue I don’t know what they were

August though I know about. Mostly because it marked the start of all that is insane in my world. It started with a move from the lovely apartment near Lougheed to a house on Canada Way. This was supposed to be a good move to a place with more room and a yard for the dog. Turned out the place was a piece of shit and my tenancy wasn’t going to last long.

On a positive note though, August had me volunteering at Ironman and then registering for the insanity the next day. It started my countdown which is now at T- 35 weeks and 3 days.

September was a bit busier with all the hype and furor over registering for Ironman. I was still in a positive mood about the new place and even went to the effort of painting the kitchen a lovely shade of smurfette blue. The picture linked there is a perfect example of the shade. The kitchen didn’t look quite that good though, sigh.

I also re-certified for Occupational First Aid, ran the Coho run (twice!), bought a bed and registered for the Resolution Run which is tomorrow.

October continued to be busy with three races which included my second marathon, the Okanagan Marathon out in Kelowna. I did a 5km Breast Cancer Run (yes, I run for boobies ), significant because I hit it in 25 minutes, a speed I hadn’t been at for a while. I also did the James Cunningham Seawall Race, in costume no less.

After 10 months, you’d think I would slack off in November, but I didn’t. I became a Sugoi Brand Champion, did Haney to Harrison with an awesome run team, broke my wrist dancing, did the Fall Classic Half Marathon, FINALLY got my marathon tattoo and moved out of the shit hole on Canada Way.

December I have taken a break and I’ve needed one. Life around me hasn’t off course and both Miranda and I celebrated birthdays this month. Miranda is 10 now which seems so precious to me at 39. Oddly, 29 years between us just doesn’t seem that long right now. That’s cool to me.

Most amusing of the month though was a trip through the blog stats from the past while. That just tickled me pink.

So, 2009 is just about gone now. It wasn’t all that I wanted it to be, but in some ways it was better.

It let’s me know what I need to do to make it better in 2010 and it let’s me know what I want to keep doing. I also know what I need to protect to keep good.

Nutrition has been, well, standard. Which is to say, sucky Shortly I won’t have the holidays or vacation days to blame my eating habits on, ug.

Breakfast:
- nadda (and no, that’s not a European cereal)

Snack (0):
- 2 doughnuts at Timmy’s

Snack (1):
- Can of Coke
- Small bag of Frank’s Red Hot Beef Jerky (not bad, but not as good as I had hoped)

Snack (2):
- Can of Coke
- 200g bag of Cadbury Mini-Eggs

Snack (the rest of the night):
- 4 Cans of Coke
- 2 bowls of chips

Of course that clarification is required in the title as I know more than a few people who have turned 39 multiple times. Eventually I think they’ll turn 44 for a few years and then stay 49 forever if they can pull it off.

Whatever happened to aging gracefully anyway?

Last year on my birthday I remember sitting back and looking at the snow, something I hadn’t had on my birthday in a long time. Of course not everyone was so happy about the weather, but who cares, I sorta feel like it was nature’s present to me. This year I have been doing the same, looking at snow out the window at home and at work. This lightens my spirit in an undefinable way and brings me back to being 7 or 8 and playing in the front yard making snowmen and angels on my birthday.

Focusing only on the changes in me over the year (after all, the year in review post is coming in just a couple of weeks), the year has had more ups than downs.

In the little bubble I call me things have been OK. I started running again after my birthday last year, and biking, and swimming. That has resulted in me dropping a bunch of weight which, except for a couple of burbles I’ve managed to keep off, staying over 40 pounds lighter than I was on my birthday last year.

With my stress fractures healing I’ve managed to get back up to 10km , half marathon and then full marathon distances. I have completed a variety of races over the course of the year. I’ve even registered for Ironman in 2010, aiming to have that accomplishment under my belt before I turn 40 (shockingly, the year after I turn 39!).

From a work perspective things are sitting in a trough. Not a bad thing given the economy, but no growth to speak of. I don’t plan on rocking this boat in the next year though with all the training I need to do for Ironman. Heck, any work situation that gives me a bit of flexibility to account for extra training and doesn’t ask me to take a pay cut is a good situation.

Friends and lovers? More of the former by far. A big change from my younger years when I could count my actual friends on one hand, after it had been in a thresher accident. It’s been a good year for developing friendships that are relatively new and rekindling friendships that had started to wane with time. Is this going to change in the next year? My libido certainly wouldn’t mind a shift in focus, but again, my focus is on Ironman and I can live with the blue balls for a few months to get there. Given that I’m an un-attentive self focused SOB anyway, it would be much worse for any partner for the next 8 months

Kids and being a father? My relationship with Miranda has grown and deepened as she’s gotten older and I’ve been able to spend a lot more one on one time with her. Conversely I haven’t seen Gabrielle for more than a visit in ages and have no clue what’s going on in her world. Carly has grown into an adult, almost, and that changes how we deal with each other, but I like where that’s going, she’s turning into a good shit. Kyle is starting to grow up and out of his angry teenager in a man’s body, but only starting. Things have been strained there. Cody is deep into his angst filled angry teenager phase and is generally unpleasant, but there is still the core of him that exists. Curt and I are spending more time together lately with running and training for a half marathon in February and I’m liking that. I want to actually get to know him as he grows up and before he enters the angry teen phase that his brothers have hit with a vengeance. My hope is that he won’t hit this phase… who knows eh?

I have plans for this coming year. Goals that I want to accomplish. My 40th year on this planet is going to be a good one.

Nutrition for the day could have been much worse given it’s my birthday. It could have, of course, been much better.

Breakfast:
- Carnation Instant Breakfast

Lunch:
- Burger and fries
- Can of Coke
- Chocolate bar (Elizabeth, a Cadbury Wunderbar to be specific)

Snack (0):
- Can of Coke

Dinner:
- 4 medium slices of pizza
- Small bowl of ice cream

Today was Jumpstart’s Read for the Record 2009 event. I had the pleasure of reading with my daughter M to 99 other kids in her school across various classes and grades.

The book was “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle, a great kids book that I hadn’t actually read until 2 days ago!

It’s funny when you think of how many books I read (3-5 books a week) and how many books I’ve read to the kids over the years. But somehow, in the midst of all the other stories I’ve read or heard, I completely missed this author and book.

Go figure.

Anyway, M and I sat in front of the classes and read the story, chatted with the kids and just generally had a fun morning. And, we helped set a world record. Two years in a row Also funny is that the book from last year, “Cordurouy” by Don Freeman is another book that I hadn’t read. To be honest I thought it was much more fun to read to the kids.

The best thing is that this was a work sponsored event. That means that it was paid time out of the office to promote literacy. All the kids get stickers and certificates as well. I even have 50 someodd books to give to the kids and the school. All and all, a win win win.

Other than walking up and down the stairs at the school though… not so much in the way of exercise. I’d hoped to get a swim in with M tonight, but prepping gear, making dinner and doing laundry took over.

So, my big contribution towards race preparedness today was, well, preparing for a race Well, at least I’ll be able to say I’ve done that when I’m packed and ready to go for tomorrow, heh.

S

Well, it happens, but that doesn’t make me any happier. I ordered my nice new bed and it arrived last night after a comedy of errors kept the drivers caught up in traffic and made them 3 hours late.

Still, the bed arrived and the guys brought it upstairs for me and all was right in the world.

A bit of setup by me and a rather lovely bed was ready for sheets, which I had to run out and buy at SuperStore.

Unfortunately, the bed is defective. If you look at the picture you can see that on either side of the centerline the bed has caved in entirely, collapsed springs or something.

I went back to the store and they have been very apologetic and have ordered a new bed for me…which will be delivered next Friday.

ah well.

S

The list is longish. It’s everything else (that I remember) that I haven’t blogged yet. Some were rather enjoyable, others were boring.

In no certain order:

Crime Scene-Inside the world of the real CSIs – Connie Fletcher.

I’m a big fan of CSI. I was a fan of Crossing Jordan (until it became incredibly stupid). I grew up a HUGE fan of Quincy. I know that the real world doesn’t work like TV but the chance to watch the shows and see the science of forensics has always enthralled me.

As a kid I wanted to go to medical school and become a coroner so that I could study and work with forensics, just like Quincy. Seriously.

I’m a fan of CSI and CSI NY. I won’t record them to watch when I miss them, but if I’m home I’ll watch them. Well, those and Law and Order, but that’s for a different reason. Not as much a fan of CSI Miami, but that’s just because the acting is way over done and they tend to abuse science more than the other two.

Anyway, I immediately grabbed the Crime Scene book when I saw it in the library (on the way out actually) and have been happy to have done so.

I haven’t finished it yet, but it doesn’t really matter, it’s not a story as it were. This is a book full of quotes and mini-stories told by the people who do this stuff day in and day out. They debunk much of the popular stuff you see on TV, but less in a complaint about the science being bad and more with the complaint of ‘we don’t have those tools’ and ‘dna does NOT come back that fast’.

This is the perfect book to pick up, read for a few stories (stores are as short as a line or two or as long as a few pages), put it down and absorb and consider.

Read it if you a) have an interest in this stuff ‘just cause’, or b) want to write a real book using the science

Rating: 8/10
Buy it? Yes.

Leave Me By Dying – Rosemary Aubert.

This wasn’t so bad. The main character was flawed enough as an individual that you could believe in him and that’s something I like to see. That it was placed in 1960s Toronto was interesting, but the actual story itself was somewhat weak.

I won’t go looking for more books in this series, but I might pick one up if I come across it bored in the library.

Rating: 5+/10
Buy it? No. Library is good enough for this.

Darkness & Light – John Harvey.

This was well written and good to read. I won’t say that it dragged my attention into it and wouldn’t let go, but while I was reading I didn’t want anything to interrupt me. The main character here is a retired cop who has left the city and gone on to sit in solitude. A call to assist a friend of his ex-wife brings him back to the city and back to his first case, one he couldn’t solve those many years ago.

This isn’t a new premise, you see it a lot in books and movies, but this book brought it out well and I have a respect for the way John Harvey wrote the folks involved. I will look for his other books for sure.

Rating: 7-/10
Buy it? No, library is fine. But you should pick it up to read while you are there.

The Lighthouse – P.D. James.

I read a different P.D. James book, A Certain Justice on the advise of Joseph from the old office and I really did enjoy it. When I saw another book by the author in the same series with Adam Dalgliesh I was looking forward to a good read.

In this case though I really don’t think that PD James carried it through. The characters were weaker here and the obvious bias to class and place in society was beyond clear. The snobbery was enough to really take away from the story which wasn’t as strong to begin with.

Rating: 5+/10
Buy it? No. I wouldn’t add this to the collection.

Microserfs – Douglas Coupland.

This is likely one of the better books I’ve read in a long time. Douglas Coupland is a master of his craft without a doubt and carries his characters through so fluidly that I would have sworn he was a comp sci geek himself.

Perhaps it just resonates because of my tie to IT and being a geek, but I think that isn’t the case. This book was just really well done.

This falls into the category of ‘just read it’. Nothing I can say about it matters after that.

Rating: 9-/10
Buy it? Yes. While you are buying this, buy pretty well anything else he’s written.

The Assassin’s Touch – Laura Joh Rowland.

I’ve read a book, not too long ago I think, by Rowland and involving her main characters. At the time I said that I’d be going out to find more books by her and I completely forgot.

I came across Assassin’s Touch while trolling in the library and remembered my original desire to read more of her work so grabbed it and another (next in the list).

I’m still impressed with her writing and I still enjoy both the characters and the fabulously rich setting she gives them in 1690’s Japan.

I’ve always had an interest in Japan, Japanese history and language, so for me this was a great chance to drop into a world that I’ve only read about in historical reference. Add a murder mystery, strong characters and more than a couple of sword fights and I am hooked.

Fun and interesting to read.

Rating: 7/10
Buy it? I’m not sure. I really enjoyed it but I don’t know that I’ll read it again soon.

Red Chrysanthemum – Laura Joh Rowland.

I could just copy everything from the Assassin’s Touch and put it here, but I’ll just point up the page a bit instead.

I’ll read more. Although, I should say I liked Assassin’s Touch a bit more than Chrysanthemum, but felt that the latter had a better story, just less adventure in it’s own way.

Rating: 7-/10
Buy it? Again, no. But read it for sure.

Born in Death – J.D. Robb (actually Nora Roberts).

I’m pretty sure that I picked this up thinking that it was someone else because of the initials and the ‘writing as’ header on the cover. I probably figured it was P.D James and not J.D Robb or something like that.

I can understand why Nora Roberts wrote under a pseudonym for this book, and, I extrapolate based on quality, for all of the Lt. Eve Dallas books.

This was just bad fiction. I have read many fantastic fiction books that were written by women and loved them. I’ve never believed the generalization that women can’t write good sci fi heroes.

That being said, if all I had to base my decision on was the Eve Dallas character in the ‘Death’ series, I’d have to agree.

This character and the ones around it are as bad as Cussler’s Pitt and for all the same reasons. Just my opinion of course and who knows if I could do better. I can tell you that I don’t think I could do much worse.

Rating: 4-/10
Buy it? No, not even as a joke.

The Dead Sit Round in a Ring – David Lawrence.

I’m a big fan of British police procedurals. The best in the past few years has, of course, been just about anything by Ian Rankin and specifically his Rebus character. A new writer has come on the scene though, David Lawrence with his DS Stella Mooney character. Dead Sit Round In a Ring is his first novel with this character and she is very well written and someone I look forward to reading more about.

Lawrence isn’t going to be taking food out of Rankin’s mouth yet, but the characterization and setting show signs of serious promise and I’d like to see where they are in another 10 years of experience.

The Mooney character is very real. Flawed and human but yet still someone who has characteristics we aspire to emulate in more ways than one.

The story itself is also interesting and fun to follow like any good police procedural, but in some ways it is just a backdrop for the development of the character. I think that will change as more writing experience is gained.

Rating: 7-/10
Buy it? Not yet, but if the writing trend continues I can see wanting to pick up these older ones as well.

Nothing Like the Night – David Lawrence.

Look up, look waaaay up (ok, you’d have to have grown up with the Friendly Giant to get that joke). Actually, look up one review to Dead Sit Round in a Ring. Nothing Like The Night is the second book with DS Mooney and the character is just that bit more developed and just that bit more interesting and real.

Again, the story is very interesting in it’s own right, but still seems a bit like a backdrop for character development.

Rating: 7-/10
Buy it? Still not yet. Give it a couple of more books.

Death Match – Lincoln Child.

I picked up on Lincoln Child in his series of books with Douglas Preston. The books were fun, but the fantasy level seemed wrong for what they were doing. Not really wrong, just a bit off.

Death Match is more sci fi than fantasy, but again, things are just a bit off. That being said, I really liked the premise and the way it was laid out. I figured out the ‘bad guy’ fairly quickly, but it was fun to read through how it was going to happen and what was going on.

I probably liked this more than it deserved while I was reading it, but thinking back on it I can’t remember why.

Rating: 6-/10
Buy it? No.

The Messenger – Daniel Silva.

Silva has written a very fun spy thriller from a different perspective than the norm. Like the majority of pulp fiction spy thrillers, of which there are a LOT in the past few years, there isn’t any major surprise about who lives, who dies, and most of the large details in the middle are pretty basic.

What differentiates this from other spy thrillers is that the main character, Gabrielle Allon is a spy for Israel and not for the United States like everyone else. This puts a very different slant on policy and procedure that make a largely common plot quite fresh.

Rating: 6+/10
Buy it? No, but I will read more of his work for sure, just to see how he deals with things from that different slant.

Dzur – Steven Brust.

I talked about this book in my post on the book meme that was sent over by Milla ages ago as that’s when I was reading it.

For whatever reason though I never actually did a real review and it sat on my white board awaiting attention (same thing with The Messenger and Death Match actually).

This series could quickly hit the ‘guilty pleasure’ level that would have me devouring them over a long weekend. Sorta like I did with Xanth when I first came across it, or with M.Y.T.H Inc. before that.

It was fun, silly and completely popcorn for the mind. I loved it.

My enjoyment rating: 7+/10
Content rating: 5+/10
Buy it? I don’t know, I would get a kick out of having them all and lending them out to friends, but I don’t know that I would enjoy that enough to have to buy the whole lot. We’ll see.

I haven’t been reading a lot lately. A big dump from the library was taking me so long that I had to renew some. But it’s been a while since I did a review and there is a back log of books on my whiteboard that I need to make some form of comment on.

First and foremost are the books that were lent to me by the ever wonderful Anne-Marie from my old run group. They were, for the most part, way out of my normal genre, but I enjoyed them all the same.

So, in no specific order…

Mother Tongue – Bill Bryson.
Actually, I guess I start with this one because it’s the only one that I didn’t read all the way through. Ridiculously I was enjoying the book as I was reading it, but I had no great desire to sit down with it when I wasn’t.

So… no real review. I can tell you that the first 50 pages or so were funny, interesting and full of anecdotes of the sort that would normally keep me smiling for days.

The Petty Details of So and So’s Life – Camilla Gibb.
I’m not really sure where to start with this book. Was it real, based on reality, entirely fictitious? I suppose I could find the answer to that if I wanted. The book follows the relationship between a brother and sister growing up (for the most part) in Toronto after their father leaves them with their mother without a word. The book is at times weird and bizzare, depressing and then uplifting. It is, however, well written. The relationship between the characters is very well thought out and while more than a bit unrealistic in many ways, always interesting.

Writing Rating: 6.5/10
Enjoyment Rating: 5/10
Overall Rating: 6/10
Buy it?: Nope. I didn’t mind it but it didn’t scream to me that I was ever going to read it again.

The Secret Life of Bees – Sue Monk-Kidd.
I didn’t really expect to enjoy this book and was only reading it so that I could say that I had sorta thing. The story caught me up fairly quickly though and carried me along through the trials and tribulations of a runaway white girl and her black nanny. As with any story located in the south more and temporarily placed more than 5 minutes ago race is a big factor. The twist here is that it comes from the point of view of a young girl who’s lost her mother, run away from her father and is living in a completely different world than the one she felt she knew.

The characters are wonderful and the environment is so well crafted as to make it seem without question; real. There is a lot to recommend this book and I will certainly look for other books by Sue Monk-Kidd in the library.

Writing Rating: 7.5/10
Enjoyment Rating: 7/10
Overall Rating: 7.5/10
Buy it?: Maybe. I might read this again, but I might not. I’m not rushing out to buy it, but if I come across it on sale at Chapters I’m likely to pick it up and put it on the shelf.

The Colony Of Unrequited Dreams – Wayne Johnston.
Having been born in Newfoundland but then leaving at a young age, I was really interested in reading this book and learning a bit more about it’s history. As a historical book though… I’d call this book questionable. The history might be accurate, but I honestly don’t know if that is the case. I don’t even really care. I quickly forgot that it was supposed to be historical at all and just wanted to keep reading about the characters.

At times it became boring, but at other times it was very fluid and interesting. All and all though, I enjoyed the book. The included ‘Spalding’s History of Newfoundland’ was oftentimes hilarious and always interesting. I don’t feel that I know Newfoundland any better than I did before I read the book, but I liked it and I’m glad that I did.

Writing Rating: 7/10
Enjoyment Rating: 6.5/10
Overall Rating: 6.5/10
Buy it?: No, but I liked it.

The Glass Castle- A Memoir – Jeannette Walls.
This book was the ‘emotional roller coaster’ of all the books in this list. No review for this one at all, just a suggestion that you go out and read it. Not as good as ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’ by Audrey Niffenegger but good all the same.

Writing Rating: 8/10
Enjoyment Rating: 8/10
Overall Rating: 8/10
Buy it?: Yes. I liked this and I will read it again.

I’ve needed to do a bit of work on the web server for sometime, I just hadn’t gotten around to it.

I’ve gotten around to it now.

First temporary step… create a virtual image that is running on the mac that hosts the server. I did that with a FANTASTIC Howto that takes you from root debian right through until you install a package called ISPConfig.

That’s done and it’s configured as it was, only a bit better. Once I’ve tested this a bit more and done some final configurations I’ll take down the old box that is currently waiting in the wings as a backup, and then wipe it and start fresh, following the same Howto.

Woo hoo.

Steps, little ones.

S

So, I took a break from work this evening and decided that I was pissed at myself for not being able to get printing working in Leopard. I know I’m wiping the computer this weekend (probably) and this is a waste of time, but I still wanted to do it.

http://mcdevzone.com/2007/10/28/printer-fix-for-leopard

That link gave me the handy hint damn it.

Edit /etc/cups/cupsd.conf

After this section:

# Show shared printers on the local network.
Browsing On
BrowseOrder allow,deny
BrowseAllow all

Add this line:

BrowseProtocols all

This says to then restart cupsd with

sudo killall -HUP cupsd

… that didn’t work on my machine though. I did it a few times though, just to be safe.

When you go into System Preferences > Print & Fax > + Add Printer after this, make sure you select the Default icon in the very top left.

Your printer may show up. My printer showed up when it hadn’t previously. I have no clue if yours will.

S