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July 13th, 2009
09:36 pm - The Old Man and the Sea - Ernest Hemingway
People love to hate on Hemingway's writing style and look down on it as being too simplistic, or too boring, or repetitive. Maybe for his longer novels that's meaningful criticism. But Hemingway really nailed it with The Old Man and the Sea, which is a perfectly tuned story about a man and his plight against nature. The style is a great benefit to the short novel, continually reinforcing the mood with clipped language about the main character's current and pressing problems. It's so bluntly delivered that readers are simply dragged in without a second thought.
The story is simple. Santiago, a fisherman in Cuba, has gone 87 days without catching a single fish. He's old and broke and well past his prime... even his younger help has deserted him. On the 88th day, he hooks a huge fish that carries him out to sea. The bulk of the story is his attempt to bring the fish home so he can get food and (more importantly) prove his worth. I can't say much more without spoiling things.
It's so short, if you haven't read it, I'd recommend it. Takes some getting used to but the ending was something else. The book is proof enough that strong characterization and message don't need pages and pages of description heaped over everything. Hemingway saw to the core of his characters and showed us only what really mattered.
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July 11th, 2009
12:43 pm - Breaking Dawn - Stephenie Meyer
I read a comic strip once called "God-Man", in which God is portrayed as a superhero. He's omnipotent, of course, and in one issue a villain plots a way to destroy him... so God-Man simply makes the villain disappear with a single thought. The joke is that a narrative about an omnipotent character is ridiculous - there can't be any real challenges or problems, it's boring. And this summarizes my problems with the last book in the Twilight series, Breaking Dawn.
( Spoilers )
So there it was. Most characters reduced to hollow shells of their former selves, all themes cast aside, all narrative rules broken. I made it to the end of the series, and the end result was that this book was a huge huge let-down. Very disappointing. If you are thinking at all about reading these books - read the first and stop there. Everything goes downhill from that.
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11:42 am - Eclipse - Stephenie Meyer
This book falls somewhere between Twilight and New Moon on my rating scale. The plot revolves around a couple of separate happenings: a vampire from previous books is on the hunt for Bella, and in nearby Seattle a vampire army is forming and attacking humans in the area. Most of the plot is highly predictable, but that's okay by me, because the plot is just backdrop for the character drama.
The real meat of the book is the love triangle set up between Bella, Edward and Jacob. Finally, the two guys get their chance to fight for Bella's affection. Meyer manages to throw them into situations that cause constant interactions between the three, and even when it seems forced or silly it doesn't matter as long as the characters get in their dialogue.
Disappointingly, the triangle is very lopsided, and that takes away most of the tension that would've made the story five stars easily. ( Spoilers )
It's disappointing, because I think there was a lot of potential here that ended up wasted. Jacob and Edward are both distinct characters with distinct personalities, but they're a little thin at the start... and if the book had instead fleshed out Bella and the boys into solid individuals, this could have been gripping and brilliant. Instead it just sort of wavers between "decent" to "bland and unbelievable". It's an improvement from New Moon but still lacks the impact of the original Twilight.
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July 6th, 2009
08:17 pm
Check out what moved in on our gutter this summer:
( Don't worry, they didn't go hungry for long )
I know, should've used the flash. I have a few more days left to try to get a good one for ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) 100_snapshots so I'll just keep trying I guess. I wish my camera had a long remote so I could set up a tripod right next to the nest and fire off the shutter from inside.
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July 4th, 2009
02:50 pm - Motivation
I'm supposed to work out today. I've been lifting weights every 2 days for the past 2-3 weeks, and it's time again today, but I don't feel like it. I have a mild cold (sore throat really) and I keep trying to use that as an excuse not to work out, even though I know it won't actually affect my ability to lift weights.
I guess I'm right in the time period that most people fall out of an exercise plan - generally those who make it a New Year's Resolution don't make it past the Superbowl. For those who have made it over the hump, what keeps you motivated?
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July 3rd, 2009
01:33 pm - Goals Progress - Week 73 (and 3 days)
At this point 515 of 1001 days have passed since I started the project, which is 51.4% or about halfway. Checking my progress so far, this is a rough completion breakdown:
Completed Goals: 23
Partially Completed: (4/12 Amazon purchases) + (3/5 Video Games) + (4/24 Theater Movies) + (45/50 Home Movies) + (22/36 Books) + (37/100 Amazon Reviews) + (1/3 Bike Gear) + (2/6 Electronics Projects) + (1/3 Concerts) + (3/10 Game Nights) + (2/3 Freecycle Giveaways) + (5/10 Recipes) + (21/100 Snapshots) = 5.657
"Yearly" Goals: 14 (* .5) = 7
So that's nearly 36 goals or 35% done. Pretty inaccurate count of course, but I'm still behind a good amount. Obviously now I see some that I'll probably not complete - too many music-oriented goals, too many theater movies, etc. - but I do feel pretty confident that once the house is purchased life will return to normal again, so I'll have the time and motivation to work on some of these other items instead.
( On to the regular boring weekly update )
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10:06 am - Hobbies
Everyone needs a hobby. What's yours?
Currently, I take pictures and play video games.
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June 29th, 2009
12:15 am - Digiscoping, Take 2
A while back I tried photographing the moon through a pair of binoculars. It worked okay, but was pretty blurry and very hard to get a good shot.
Things are a bit easier when you shoot through a 6" Dobsonian though.
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June 25th, 2009
08:40 am - Today at work
Way to go, team! Pay cuts for everybody!
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June 24th, 2009
09:58 pm - The Hacker's Diet
Here's an old eBook that takes an engineering approach to weight loss. The idea is simple: your body takes in X calories and burns Y calories per unit of time, and whenever there is a 3500 calorie difference between X and Y, your body weight goes up or down one pound. The author is a programmer and so the entire process is aided by Excel sheets, simple formulas, etc. that helps people get on the plan and stick with it. It's also got a roundabout way of providing motivation and encouragement: your body's hunger feedback system is "broken" and it's up to you to take care of it instead. It's pretty straightforwardly logical, showing that you can't possibly go wrong as long as you do what it instructs.
Interestingly it makes no distinction about "quality" of food, treating all food as nothing more than a container of varying amounts of energy - and it doesn't require exercise, arguing that small diet changes compounded over time are far easier to commit to and maintain than hour-long daily exercise programs to achieve the same calorie differential.
Here's the link - http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/
Incidentally there IS a chapter on exercise which puts down a 15-minutes a day exercise program following the 5BX (5 Basic Exercises) system. Nobody's going to become Mr. Universe on it but at least you wouldn't get winded walking up stairs or picking up heavy bags of cat food any more.
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June 23rd, 2009
June 16th, 2009
11:00 pm
I scored a used (unbanned) Diablo II Battle Chest this weekend for $3.
Let the addiction begin anew.
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June 9th, 2009
June 4th, 2009
09:25 am
The Beatles: Rock Band. Some things just should not be done.
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June 2nd, 2009
May 26th, 2009
May 24th, 2009
May 19th, 2009
11:19 am - New Moon - Stephenie Meyer
I liked this one much less than Twilight (2 out of 5 stars). There's not much of a way to do this review without spoilers, so here we go. ( spoilers )
Overall, Twilight was a much better offering. The characters seemed more real, the storyline tighter, the drama better. Read it if you're interested in continuing the series, but don't expect as much this time around.
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