Josh's Summer Reading

I'm on a roll. I guess its the summer reading thing. Having fun.

I have discoverd Phillip K. Dick. I started with _Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep_, and I am currently reading _A Scanner Darkly._ This man can do trippy. You know how lots of people TRY to do trippy, and fail, an then it's pathetic. Oh, you were trying for trippy, cool (not). But this man can do trippy.

In between those I read _The Dilbert Principal_. I'm a manager in a tech company these days. A tiny tech company rather than a huge one, but it still has a different resonance than it did before.

Yesterday I picked up _Invisible Cities._ Been wanting to read that one for a long time, so I'm excited. And today I received _The Devil in the White City_, and I have a bunch of expectation built up for this one. It's the story of the World's Fair in Chicago told through the lives of 2 real men, the architect who built the White City, and a serial killer who used the Fair as a hunting ground. This is true story.

And on the total fluff side, Jae and are reading several books by Garth Nix. They are fantasy books found in the children's or young adult section. He has a gift for creating worlds. He only gets into trouble when he tries to tell part of a story in the "real" world.

Wildcard

One of the guys I work with, known around the office as, Babs, is a wildcard. What do I mean by that? He's one of those rare people who, even after you have known them for years, still frequently surprises you.

For example, yesterday there was a discussion going on about snakes and spiders as pets. Babs walked in and started spewing information on the topic. I was trying to decide how much of it he was making up, when he said:

Babs: "Damn, I miss my boa. We used to go on drives all the time."

Josh: "You what?"

Babs: "I'd put him up on the dash and take him for drives all the time. Damn I miss that."

Men, shave your arm pits

Are you tired of those sweat rings under the armpits? The B. O.? Shaving your armpits helps greatly.

It will feel uncomfortable at first, and you have to shave every couple days or the stubble chafes. Good chance your partner will like it.

Another thing about Jae's job

She just paid off a big chunk of my remaining school loan :-)

Artists

My wife, Jae, is an artist. Her work adds beauty to the world. How cool is that? She sometimes is concerned that her job is not more "productive" for society. I see it differently. While there is lots of work that more directly supports the struggle to live, we need beauty for living to be worth it.

Educators

As my last post shows, I've been thinking about what we do with our lives. A little belated, perhaps. My last post might suggest I think you are failing if you aren't a CEO or something. Not true. I just never really considered that I might be a CEO. That mental bound is what I was thinking about.

An example of folks who I think are admirable, even American heros, are my parents. They are both teachers in small town public schools. Public education, including for the rural and the poor, is one of the great triumphs of modern society. It's a hard, important job, and they make an daily impact on the lives of their students.

There is a lot of talk about how important education is, and its true. It is a foundation of commerce, of equal opportunity of outcome, of a public capable of deciding who its leaders should be, in short, what's great about the United States.

I have a friend, Pat Barton, who owns and runs a Montessori school. It's a little different, right. It's private, people who think about it and choose and who can afford it, or choose to sacrifice for it, send their kids there. It provides a market based alternative. Another great thing about America. On top of thet, Pat is a small business owner who creates jobs for teachers. Another American hero.

Thought Experiment

There is a blog I read that is different from the others I read. It's a personal blog, individual, quirky. It is hit or miss for me. He'll have several posts, spread over weeks, that mean nothing to me. When he posts something that resonates with me, though, it often really hits the target. It's the Ming the Mechanic blog. I just read one that resonates with me.

This post, Thinking Bigger Tricks, is the one I'm talking about. I'm going to quote liberally from it.

Another experiment: imagine you're an inter-galactic agent who's been sent to this planet in order to clean things up. The planet is on a downward course, people are fighting about stupid stuff, destroying their environment rapidly, and following self-serving leaders who don't have more of a clue than they do. Something needs to be done, so the Grand Council in the galactic core have sent YOU. What are you going to do?

Most of us settle down on having a certain standing in life, a certain sphere of influence, a certain range of things we might attempt to do. It is different for each of us, but most of us imagine certain boundaries around our sphere of influence.

. . .

Some people, who seem no more well-equipped as human beings than me, might choose bigger lots in life. To be a politician, and be elected to office, for example. They're not smarter people, but merely people who assume that they ought to do that.

Am I living small simply because I don't assume I should be living large?

Another Tasty Summer Treat

I posted before about the frozen grapes. Here is another one for you. Buy a seedless watermelon, blend. Perhaps the best beverage on earth.