A few words on reading

~ EMM

Today Greg asked me if I ever get sick of reading. We were both reading at the time. He was finishing Where’d You Go Bernadette? — which was kind of a big deal because he barely ever reads novels. I was sneaking in a fast-reading, fun novel instead of finishing the slog through the final novel for my Mystery Fiction class (which is what I was supposed to be reading).

I’ll admit it, I read a lot. Lately I seem to be reading even more than usual, and regularly find myself choosing reading over watching movies. Until Greg asked, I didn’t really think much about it, but now I’m wondering if this makes me “odd.”

Sometimes I get sick of reading. Sometimes, especially after I finish a book and before I’ve decided what to start next, I can go for days or weeks without diving into a new book. But even then, I’m always reading articles on the internet, and following what’s going on in my timeline on Twitter. Come to think if it, from the moment I get up in the morning, until just before I go to bed at night, almost every free minute is spent reading something.

I read like “normal” people watch TV, I guess. And for that reason I am woefully out of the loop on all the “cool” TV shows (I’ve never seen an episode of Lost or Breaking Bad, for example). But I really don’t feel like I’m missing anything. There are just too many books I want to read. Good books, trashy books, YA books, fiction books, non-fiction books, and (this summer, at least) mystery books.

I constantly find more books that I want to read. I have two wish lists on Amazon in order to keep track of them — one for fiction and one for non-fiction. Currently, there are 81 books on my “someday / maybe fiction” wish list and 42 books on my “someday / maybe non-fiction” wish list. As fast as I read them, and as many times as I try to remove the ones I can’t even remember why I put on there in the first place, I still find more to add.

All this reading is both helping and hurting my other hobby, writing. I have limited free time, and if I spend it all swimming and reading, that doesn’t leave much time for writing. Just like I have more books on my wish lists than I’ll ever have time to read, I have more hobbies than I have available free time. Some of them (learning to program, sewing, biking, kayaking) get ignored regularly. Some hover on the precipice of being ignored (writing). And all because I have learned that in order to achieve balance in my life I must swim and I must read. 

Still, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to change things up every once in a while. I mean, I rode my bike to the pool today and it didn’t kill me. And now I’m writing this blog post instead of reading. There’s hope for me, yet.

Swim Workouts: week of 2013-08-12

~ EMM

I may have over-done it a bit last week.  I was pretty tired on Friday and Saturday, and ended up cutting my Saturday workout a bit short (only 2 reps of the main set instead of 3), mostly because I was short on time, but it felt good to take it a bit easier.

This week I think I’m going to do some longer distances and stroke work, and schedule a sprint workout for later in the week, which I may substitute for an additional rest day if my body is still feeling tired.

As noted previously, workouts below are modeled off of those found in my copy of Swim Workouts in a Binder and adapted to the distance and strokes I want to swim.

To learn more about the difference between a swim interval and a rest interval, or to find out how to adapt a workout to your abilities or preferred time / distance, check out my resources page.

As always, each workout will be preceded by my usual warm-up:
400 swim (free)
4 x 100 individual medley (fly / back / breast / free) on 2:00 swim interval (SI)
4 x 50 free descending (each one faster than the previous) on 1:00 SI

And I’ll finish each workout with my usual cool-down:
either 50 backstroke / 50 elementary backstroke (100 yrds)
or 100 backstroke / 50 elementary backstroke / 2 x 25 underwater swimming, no breath (200 yrds)

Here are the five workouts I picked for this week…..

Monday (Distance, 1b):
warm-up (1000 yrds)

2x:
3 x 250 free (descending) with :20 RI
100 with :10 RI
50 with :10 RI
50 with :10 RI
50 with :40 RI

200 kick (br)
cool-down (100 yrds)

Total = 3300 yrds

 

Tuesday (Stroke, 1a):
warm-up (1000 yrds)

3 x 200 breast with :30 RI
3 x 100 breast with :20 RI
4 x 50 breast with :20 RI
extra 1:00 rest
200 kick (br) with 1:00 rest
4 x 50 breast with :30 RI
extra 1:00 rest
4 x 150 free (100 easy / 50 build) with :20 RI
cool-down (100 yrds)

Total = 3200 yrds

 

Wednesday (Distance, 2a):
warm-up (1000 yrds)
4 x 100 free (desc) with :20 RI
extra 1:00 rest
400 with 1:00 RI
8 x 50 free (desc) with :15 RI
extra 1:00 rest
400 with 1:00 RI

2x:
75 free (build) with :15 RI
75 easy with :15 RI
75 breast with :15 RI
75 fly kick on back with :15 RI

cool-down (100 yrds)

Total = 3300 yrds

 

Thursday (off)

 

Friday (Middle Distance, 1b):
warm-up (1000 yrds)
4 x 75 free with :20 RI
200 free on 2:50 with :30 RI (3:20 SI)
3 x 100 free with :20 RI
300 free on 4:15 with :30 RI (4:45 SI)
2 x 150 free with :20 RI
400 free on 5:40 with :30 RI (6:10 SI)
100 easy
3 x 100 on 1:25 with :20 RI (1:40 SI)
cool-down (100 yrds)

Total = 3300 yrds

Saturday (Stroke, 2a):
warm-up (1000 yrds)
4x:
4 x 50 breast with :15 RI
100 IM with :10 RI
75 back (easy) with :30 RI

3x:
100 kick (br) with :10 RI
75 breast (build) with :15 RI
75 breast (fast) with :15 RI
50 back (easy) with :30 RI

cool-down (100 yrds)

Total = 3500 yrds

 

Sunday (off… and set up next week’s workouts…)

Happy swimming!

Swim Workouts: week of 2013-08-05

~ EMM

This past week at the pool I was asked twice about my swim parka (everyone wants to know what the “UNAT” on the back of my jacket stands for…) and it made me think I should start posting my swim workouts to my blog in case any other swimmers out there are bored of their current workouts and looking for something new to do. We have a lot of regulars at my pool, but no masters team in our area. All of them are good swimmers, and appear to put in nearly as many miles as most members of masters teams do. I have hopes of expanding “Team UNAT.”

I also added a new page to my blog, intended to help other “unattached” swimmers find resources, learn more about US Masters Swimming, and get inspired (Go Team UNAT!).

This week I’m planning on swimming (at least) five workouts. I picked out the following five workouts from my copy of Swim Workouts in a Binder and adapted them to the distance and strokes I want to swim.

If you are a beginner (or a faster / more experienced) swimmer, you can easily modify these workouts and adapt them to your capabilities / available time and desired distance. For example, you can decrease (or increase) the number of repeats of the main set, or you could decrease (or increase) each interval distance by half (50s become 25s, 200s become 100s, etc.). You can also adjust the interval times (more rest / less rest). Or, instead of using a “swim interval” you could use a “rest interval.” (To learn more about the difference between a swim interval and a rest interval, check out my resources page.)

As always, each workout will be preceded by my usual warm-up:
400 swim (free)
4 x 100 individual medley (fly / back / breast / free) on 2:00 swim interval (SI)
4 x 50 free descending (each one faster than the previous) on 1:00 SI

And I’ll finish each workout with my usual cool-down:
either 50 backstroke / 50 elementary backstroke (100 yrds)
or 100 backstroke / 50 elementary backstroke / 2 x 25 underwater swimming, no breath (200 yrds)

Here are the five workouts I picked for this week…..

Monday (Middle Distance, 13b):
warm-up (1000 yrds)
5x:
4 x 100 (odds moderate, evens fast)
odd sets (1, 3, and 5) free on 1:45 SI (or :20 RI), even sets (2 and 4) breaststroke on 1:55 SI (or :20 RI)
cool-down (200 yrds)

Total = 3200 yrds

 

Tuesday (Individual Medley, 2b):
warm-up (1000 yrds)
2 x 50 free (build) with :15 RI
100 IM with :30 RI
200 free with :30 RI
2 x 50 free (build) with :15 RI
200 IM with :30 RI
200 free with :30 RI
2 x 50 free (build) with :15 RI
300 IM with :30 RI
200 free with :30 RI
400 alternating 25 free / 25 breaststroke
100 fly kick on back
100 breaststroke kick
100 cool-down

Total = 3200 yrds

 

Wednesday (Distance, 8a):
warm-up (1000 yrds)
2 x 400 free with :20 RI
2 x 300 free with :20 RI
2 x 200 free with :20 RI
2 x 100 free with :20 RI
4 x 50 breaststroke on 1:00 SI
cool-down (200 yrds)

Total = 3400 yrds

 

Thursday (off?)

 

Friday (Sprint, 3a):
warm-up (1000 yrds)
2x:
200 free on 3:30 SI (or :20 RI)
100 free on 1:45 SI (or :20 RI)
50 fast on 1:00 SI (or :20 RI)
100 free on 1:45 SI (or :20 RI)
3 x 50 fast on 1:00 SI (or :20 RI)
100 easy on :20 RI
5 x 50 fast on 1:00 SI (or :20 RI)

200 kick (breaststroke)
100 cool-down

Total = 3200 yrds

 

Saturday (Stroke, 8a):
warm-up (1000 yrds)
3x:
200 alternating 25 breast / 25 free with :20 rest interval (RI)
200 alternating 50 free / 50 breast with :20 RI
200 free with :20 RI
200 breast with :30 RI

cool-down (100 yrds)

Total = 3500 yrds

 

Sunday (off… and set up next week’s workouts…)

Happy swimming!

By the Numbers: July 2013

~ EMM

Books

Total read since January: 23
(target is 36 by December, to be on track I should have read 21 books by now)

Vacation time means more reading time for me. I only finished two books during my vacation. Then I finished one more on the plane ride home. But, even outside of vacation, I’ve been reading like crazy this month, and I’m finally caught up (actually, a little ahead) of where I should be to meet my 36 books target for this year. Of course, my “to-read” pile just keeps growing because I am always finding or receiving recommendations for awesome books out there that I want to read.

Here are the (six!) books I read this month, stack ranked by how much I liked them, from most to least favorite:

  • Swim: Why We Love the Water — LOVED this book. So many fun facts about the history of swimming and swimmers. Made me feel proud to be a swimmer, and made me want to go swim laps. Highly recommend this to anyone who loves the water and loves to swim.
  • Where’d You Go Bernadette — This book cracked me up. Having lived in Seattle and worked for Microsoft, I can vouch for the fact that Maria Semple has Seattle and Microsoft nailed. One of my favorite parts is the transcript of the TED Talk. So perfect. I really enjoyed this book. It made me miss the city I think of as “home” (even though I grew up in the Midwest). Highly recommend this to anyone who has ever lived in Seattle and/or worked in technology (even though the book really isn’t about working in technology at all). Think Gilmore Girls, but set in Seattle.
  • A Murder is Announced — Read this one for my UCBx Mystery Fiction class, but I actually enjoyed it. It’s very British and amusing, if not laugh-out-loud-funny. It’s sort of a comedy-mystery. I kept thinking I had the mystery solved, but then something else would happen and I would change my mind. Definitely kept me guessing (and engaged) through the end.
  • A Fountain Filled with Blood — Read this one for my UCBx Mystery Fiction class final project. I liked the first book in the series (the one I read last month) better, but this one was still good. The story was fast paced and takes place in the Adirondacks where I was on vacation this month. My only (small) complaint is that the main character, Clare, was a bit more inconsistent in this book than she was in the first book. In this book she constantly flips from being responsible to irresponsible, and takes some actions that seem out of character based on what we know of her background. I hope this improves as the series continues, because I like her character in general, and I am drawn in my this will they / won’t they relationship developing as a (major) subplot. 
  • Island of the Sequined Love Nun — Was less than impressed with this one by Christopher Moore. No matter how many Christopher Moore books I read, I still think the first one I read by him (A Dirty Job) was the best. Maybe his brand of humor / writing style has diminishing returns?
  • Unfamiliar Fishes — Originally bought this for my mom because she lived in Hawaii and loves it there and also enjoys history. She read it and passed it back to me to read and it sat on my shelf for years. Brought it with on vacation and had a hard time getting into it. The text seemed to ramble without purpose and periodically repeat bits. It was almost as though it was a series of essays that were strung together into a book. I finally finished it, and then left it in the Adirondacks for future campers to enjoy.

I was hoping to be able to tackle more of my non-fiction selections while on vacation. It’s harder for me to read non-fiction in the start / stop way I have to read while I’m working. I only get about thirty minutes of reading time on the bus, and the rest of my reading time happens on the weekend. It’s much easier for me to devour novels on the weekend than meaty non-fiction. Plus, novels are more of an escape worthy of weekend downtime.

Writing

I haven’t been keeping up the blog this month, mostly due to “no screens” time during vacation. But also because I’ve had a lot on my mind that hasn’t been post-worthy. But, I have been doing a tiny bit of writing. I dusted off one of my two unfinished novels (finally) and started (slowly) working on it again.

The one I picked (I need a good working title…) had just over 16k words already typed up. I also had a few scenes scribbled in a notebook. After re-reading what I wrote I immediately decided that 1) this is utter rubbish writing, but maybe a decent story, and 2) it probably needs to be written in first person. The annoying thing is that I remember I started writing this in first person, then painstakingly changed it to third person, and now I’m having to go back to my original, first person narration.

This month I edited all the existing text, added the handwritten stuff, and then added a few “new” scenes. I now have just over 20k words. There are about 100k words in a novel (unless you’re George R.R. Martin, then it’s between 300k and 450k per novel…). So, at this rate, this may take me a while. But, my goal is just to ignore the “this is complete crap” voice and finish the story. I can always make it better later. Or just leave it gathering virtual dust on my hard drive. But I’m going to finish it.

Swimming

My US Masters Swimming FLOG (Fitness Log) says I swam:

  • 20 of 31 days (target was ~20 days)
  • 35.18 miles (target was ~30 miles)

Woo hoo! I did it! I finally hit my target for both number of days and miles! Yay! I owe all this to vacationing somewhere that I could easily swim daily and a little change of routine that increased my motivation to get out of bed in the morning.

This month I got to spend a week swimming around in a lake in the Adirondacks. On my first day at the lake I swam across and back a total of five times — not all in a row, but total for the day. That was the most I swam across and back for the whole vacation, but I did that trip at least once a day, and usually more, sometimes with friends, sometimes with small children, always with someone in a boat patiently accompanying me.

When I returned from vacation I decided to capitalize on my adaptation to East-coast time and get up early to swim in the outdoor pool instead of going to the gym. I LOVE swimming in that pool. It is so much more motivating the swimming in that dinky little three lane pool in the basement of Equinox with five other splashing humans and a sporadically working time-clock.

Because of this, I am planning on canceling my gym membership and buying a bulk pass to the outdoor pool instead. I may regret this decision come winter, but it doesn’t really get too cold here in the winter. Mornings now, in the middle of summer are in the mid 50s and overcast. I expect it will be a bit colder, maybe mid 40s in December / January, but the pool is always the same temperature. Besides, we have yoga classes and a weight room in our office, so I’m really just using the gym for the pool at this point (not that I’m using the office facilities, either… but I could…).

I need to step up my training in preparation for the fall racing season. Anything I can do to make that a more enjoyable experience is going to help me swim more — and faster. As you can see from this month’s stats, I am definitely finding the outdoor pool more motivating.

Movies

Not a big month for movies. Possibly recovering from last month’s movie watching binge. More likely, my movie watching time was allocated to swimming, reading, and writing. Here’s what we watched:

  • Anchorman — Confession: neither of us had ever seen this movie before. Apparently it is a bit of a “classic”? It was okay. Some parts were funny, and, really, Steve Carrell was the best of all the characters. Is this the movie where that whole “mic drop” thing started (Vince Vaughn at the end, reporting at the zoo)? or does that pre-date even this movie? Answer here?
  • Pitch Perfect — If you’ve been keeping up with my blog(s), or know me IRL, you know I am a sucker for feel-good “team” movies like Bring It On, Stick It, and Dil Bole Hadippa — especially ones with a strong, sassy female lead. So it should come as no surprise to you that I loved this movie. (Slightly more surprising was that hubby also liked it…)

There you have it — an extremely long post all about July to make up for my lack of blogging. I can’t believe that tomorrow starts AUGUST! It’s almost back to school time (my second-favorite time of year)!

By the Numbers: June 2013

~ EMM

Books

Total read since January: 17
(target is 36 by December, to be on track I should have read 18 books by now)

I’m almost caught up to my 3 books per month reading goal! I read two mysteries, some science fiction, some fantasy, and some historical fiction… basically, a little of everything except non-fiction, but I have a few non-fiction titles lined up for vacation next month…

I really liked all the books I read this month… except one. I wanted to try to rank them in order of preference, but it’s so hard to do. If I were forced to stack rank them, here’s what I’d say:

  • The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman — I had big expectations for this one, and it completely lived up to my expectations. If you’ve never read anything by Neil Gaiman and you want an introduction into his books and the worlds he creates, start with this one. This is basically a book about childhood for adults. If it doesn’t make you remember what it was like to be young and believe in magic and monsters, then you are a cold-hearted person and I have no idea why you are reading my blog.
  • Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein — This may be tied with “Ocean” for the best book I read this month. I’m usually not a big fan of historical fiction, but this story just grabbed me and I couldn’t stop reading. I loved the characters and the story. The only annoying bit was something that was my own fault for reading reviews before I read the book. From what I’d read I was expecting some sort of major plot twist or something. Lots of people referred to how the main character “lies.” So I kept waiting and trying to anticipate (figure out) what would happen. So when the ending came, I had this feeling of, “that’s it? really?” Not a solid sense of closure to the story. I guess some of the stuff I guessed was going to happen was more of a surprise to others reading the story? Regardless, this is a really well written book and I highly recommend it. My advice though, just go into it and get absorbed by the story without expectations.
  • Thousandth Night by Alastair Reynolds — Technically, I think this is more of a novella, and I think it should have been paired with a second novella (Minla’s Flowers), but my Kindle version only had the one story. Still, Alastair Reynolds is quickly becoming a new favorite science fiction author. This story played with some of the concepts he explored more in Blue Remembered Earth, and featured a little mystery plot that kept things moving as we learned more about this world and this species of space travelers. I really enjoyed it and can’t wait to read more by Mr. Reynolds.
  • In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming — This one may be tied with Thousandth Night, it’s hard to say which I liked more. I read this for a project I’m doing for my mystery fiction class. However, I got to pick the topic and the book for my project. I had narrowed my (self-selected) choices down to three, downloaded the samples for Kindle, and ultimately picked this one. I am so glad I did. This is the first mystery I’ve read for my mystery fiction class that I actually liked. I am excited to read more in the series. It’s an odd choice for me, since it’s a mystery (I don’t usually read mysteries) and one of the main characters is a Episcopalian priest (female, but still, a priest…). I’m not religious. But I do like fiction that features a tension between believers and non-believers (like Contact and The Sparrow). And both the main characters have military backgrounds, which ranks up there with boarding schools as another feature I enjoy in my fiction.
  • Indemnity Only by Sara Paretsky — This one I read for my mystery fiction class, and despite the fact that I generally liked the main character and liked the fact it was set in Chicago (my home town), I didn’t really like the book. Sure, it is a mystery and has a lot of action and a “who-done-it” plot that makes you want to keep reading to figure out what happened. However, I felt like the book moved unnecessarily slowly. There was a lot of “activity” that didn’t really result in much resolution, or wasn’t really critical to the development of the plot. The author makes a point of describing the main character’s clothes, what she had for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, how she slept, her exercise habits, etc., etc. It got really tiresome. So tiresome that I think it distracted from the story and left me thinking, “meh. it was okay.” Maybe I’m just not a mystery fan.

So many good books this month! If you want a sneak peak at the books I finally decided to bring with me on vacation, you can check it out here.

Writing

Big month for blog posts (6)… not much (any?) fiction writing this month, though. Writers write. But I haven’t been writing. I’ve been working. And reading. And, apparently watching a lot of movies this month, as you will soon see…

Swimming

My US Masters Swimming FLOG (Fitness Log) says I swam:

  • 12 of 30 days (target was ~20 days)
  • 19 miles (target was ~30 miles)

Yes, I remember saying in my last “by the numbers” post that I was determined to get 20 days in the pool this month. So, I only swam 12 days (3 days/wk instead of 5 days/wk). I’ve been struggling to get back on the getting up early in the morning schedule. I am also dreading swimming in the dinky three lane pool at the gym and would much rather swim outside. Unfortunately, swimming outside means waking up even earlier because the lap swim hours are 5:30am to 7:00am on weekdays. That’s early. Still, the weather has been so nice, even at 5:30am, that I can’t bear to swim inside. The last few weekday swims have been at the outdoor pool and they have been marvelous. Totally worth waking up early. If only I could remember that feeling when the alarm goes off….

Movies

I don’t even feel like talking about movies this month. We watched a lot of movies this month. Here’s what we watched with “Twitter-style” (140 character) reviews:

  • The Heat — Screening for Twitter employees. Really liked it. Wasn’t expecting to. Funny with strong feminist themes.
  • Double Indemnity — Watched for class. Didn’t like it. Don’t get why this is a “classic” that people love. Lame characters. Lame plot. I don’t like insurance.
  • If…. — Watched because I read it was one of Neil Gaiman’s favorite movies. British boys boarding school. Didn’t get it. Greg really liked it.
  • Cloud Atlas — Pleasantly surprised at how they turned this book into a movie. However, if you didn’t read the book you may not get the movie.
  • Robot & Frank — Cute movie.
  • Despicable Me — Really cute movie. I ❤ Minions. Looking forward to the sequel.
  • Beautiful Creatures — Terrible movie. The book was okay, but this movie was terrible.
  • Beasts of the Southern Wild — Cute movie. Artsy. Greg liked it more than me, go figure.

And that was June… A bit of a lull on progress towards most of my goals, but I did start to catch up on my reading… Next month, vacation! And hopefully a little more productivity outside of work…

Books for vacation

~ EMM ~ 2 Comments

Let’s talk books some more… (I’m almost finished with The Ocean at the End of the Lane and I’m taking a little break to make it last longer…)

Question of the day: How many books is too many books to take on vacation?

I’m going to take some paper books (mostly for the plane, and so I can “free” them when I’m done…) and I’m going to take my Kindle.

Paper books from my pile of unread books that I was thinking of bringing (these were all sent to me by my mom after she was done reading them and I’ve had them forever…):

These are all short and/or light reads that shouldn’t take long to finish, and I can “free” them into the wild once I’m done…

But these aren’t what I really want to read on vacation. So, I just combed through my “someday/maybe fiction” and “someday/maybe non-fiction” wish lists that I keep on Amazon and came up with the following possibilities for vacation reads…

Non-fiction:

Fiction:

I’m not sure if I’ll have dependable wireless connectivity for most of the vacation, so I want to pre-buy whatever I want to have on hand to read. At the same time, I hate buying books on the Kindle and then having them sit there. I probably have at least 5 -10 books I’ve purchased in the past year on my Kindle that I meant to read, and then didn’t read and now am not all that interested in reading. Some Greg has read, so that makes me feel a bit better about it. Still, I don’t want to buy too many books to take with me.

I’d ask which of the above would you recommend I read, but reading is a very personal thing. Different books appeal to different people at different points in their lives. I have a definite idea of the types of books I want to read on this vacation. Most of the above choices fit that mood. But, if you want to vote for any of the above, I will take your opinions into consideration.

What I really want to know is, how many books should I take with me? Keep in mind, I am vacationing with a family of voracious readers. Reading by the lake will likely be one of the main vacation activities.

At the same time, the other thing I was thinking I would do on this vacation is spend some time writing. I’m not sure if I’m more in need of a reading and “filling the tanks” vacation, or a writing and “draining the tanks” vacation. If it’s the later, I shouldn’t bring too many books to distract me. Given the logistics of this vacation, I have a feeling there will be more reading time available than writing time available. So I’ll probably go prepared for either scenario.

Which brings us back to the original question… how many books should I bring with me on vacation?

Foggy Sunday

~ EMM

I don’t usually pre-order books. In fact, before I bought my Kindle last year, I had pretty much stopped buying books. I learned to use the library. I still love the library, and I can still check out books on my Kindle. However, much of my aversion to buying books was the storing of them.

Books take up space. They are heavy. And when you and your husband have acquired almost twenty book-boxes worth of books (even after several bookshelf purges and trips to sell used books back to Powells), you begin to think hard before buying more books. Especially when you are mostly living out of a suitcase and those twenty boxes of books are somewhere collecting dust and slowly collapsing in a storage closet.

So I’d mostly stopped buying books. Until the Kindle. Now books are just (heavily DRMed) bits of data that can easily be stored in that magical data cloud somewhere in Eastern Washington, or some other landscape deemed less than ideal for humans. Now I increasingly find myself forgetting to check the library and just pushing the magical “deliver to my Kindle” button. Amazon loves me. But that’s not new. They’ve loved me since 1999.

Even though I have found myself buying more books, rarely do I pre-order them. Usually I wait for the price to drop down to that magical $9.99 price point before I hit the button. Why should I pay more for my book just because I love the author so much that I have been eagerly awaiting the release of their new book and HAVE TO HAVE IT as soon as it hits the (virtual) shelves. (Yes, I know there are economics and logic behind the initial astronomical pre-order price. I resist it. Deal with it.) I make exceptions for authors I particularly love (like Neil Gaiman) and books I know I am going to read immediately upon release (like Kristin Cashore’s Bitterblue). (Resistance is futile.)

Which brings us to last week, when I (finally) hit the pre-order button on Neil Gaiman’s latest book The Ocean at the End of the Lane. I follow him on Twitter and I read his blog, so I’d known this was coming for a while. And I’d known that it was going to be special. I knew I would read it and I knew I would buy it. (When I first bought my Kindle, I purchased digital editions of American Gods and Neverwhere even though I’d already read them in paperback.) I haven’t read all his books and I’ve only read a handful of the Sandman comics, but I really enjoy his stories. He creates these darkly magical worlds that it is almost possible to believe could actually exist. Or maybe by the time you’re done reading his books you really want them to exist. Either way, I knew I would be buying his latest book.

However, reading a Neil Gaiman book is sort of like enjoying expensive dark chocolate or a perfectly aged bottle of wine. You want to find an uninterrupted period of time where you can really savor it and immerse yourself in the experience without having to jump up and go do something practical. Like work.

So, I hesitated about the pre-order because books (like new music, but unlike new movies) are traditionally released on Tuesdays. Tuesday the work week is just getting started. This was not a book I wanted to read in 30 minute stretches on my commute. This book needed a weekend. Or a dark and stormy night. I hadn’t even read an excerpt and I knew this instinctively  It’s Neil Gaiman, after all. I finally hit the pre-order button anyway — knowing I would resist reading it until the perfect circumstances presented themselves.

I thought I would start it on Friday, after work. But I was too keyed up and it just didn’t feel right. So I waited.

I thought I would start it on Saturday, after my morning swim at the outdoor pool. I might even go to The Depot after my swim and read it there over a breakfast sandwich on a croissant  washed down with a cappuccino. But it turned out that after my swim I needed to go to the grocery store instead. And even after I finally had my breakfast, it still didn’t feel right. It was a bright, sunny, perfect California day and our neighbors were being too loud entertaining their guests on their porch, loud-talking and laughing in their carefully acquired California Bay-Area dialect. I have no idea what they were talking about, even though, with their porch on the other side of our apartment wall, it sounded as though the party was in our spare bedroom. I couldn’t understand what they were saying. I don’t speak Bay-Area Californian (and I hope I never do…). So I vacuumed the bedroom (to drown them out and hopefully annoy them in return) and I waited.

Then, this morning I woke up to fog and a pleasant chill in the air, welcome after yesterday’s heat. I made myself a bowl of yogurt and granola, put on the kettle, and sat down in my 70s-era lime green chair to read. Just as I finished the prologue the kettle whistled. I smiled, looked out the window at the fog settling over Sausalito, set down my Kindle and got up to make my first mug of tea. Today is the perfect day to read this book.

The perfect mug of tea
The perfect mug of tea

Sunday thoughts

~ EMM

Today is Father’s Day. I miss my dad.

Thomas B. Menozzi 1946 - 2002
Thomas B. Menozzi 1946 – 2002 (photo via @nik_x)

For those of you with dads who are alive, go hug them, call them, whatever. And tell them to be healthy and take their cholesterol meds.

My dad was the first person to encourage me to swim competitively. I remember him telling me it was a sport I would be able to participate in for my whole life. And, as was often the case, he was right. I’m so glad I listened to him.

This weekend I swam in my first Long Course Meters swim meet since high school. It was so fun to be swimming and racing in the 50 meter outdoor pool. I swam events that I don’t usually race just for fun. I had a good laugh when I proved once again that my breaststroke is faster than my backstroke. Breaststroke is supposed to be the slowest stroke, but backstroke is my “resting stroke.”

I got some help from Greg to make this Vine “selfie” that turned out better than I’d imagined it… it makes me look like a Phelps impersonator…. watch for the “photo bomb” and remember what I mentioned above about swimming being a lifetime sport — Greg swears he didn’t notice when he was filming…

Another thing I think my dad would have loved is Twitter. He would have had so much fun on Twitter. I’m sad he died before the age of Twitter. We announced a fun partnership this week with Vizify (a Portland-based start-up). The resulting movie is below.

And, lastly, also in honor of Father’s Day. I would like to mention another John Carroll Alum (like my dad) that I miss — Tim Russert — former Meet the Press host and NBC political correspondent. Mr. Russert died five years ago. He reminded me a lot of my dad (and they both reminded me a lot of John Belushi… ). The Washington Post published a nice article remembering Tim Russert this week. Pull quote relevant to my next paragraph:

Tim’s unvarnished passion is the thing that has stuck with me over the five years since his passing. He LOVED politics — the personalities, the statistics, the strategy —  and it showed. When you watched “Meet”, you knew you were watching a political junkie who relished the game and who, to his immense credit, was never overly cynical about politicians and government. He was a passionate optimist in a political world largely populated by pessimists.  And he loved what he did.

I watched Meet the Press this morning for the first time in ages and was so incredibly disappointed. Disappointed in NBC, disappointed in David Gregory, disappointed in politics and the US Government, disappointed in the lazy humans that are just not interested in educating themselves about what’s going on in the world. The state of media in the US has been devolving into sound-bites and half-truths for years now. It makes me sad.

So now I’m sad because I miss my dad and sad because the world is a mess.

But I refuse to be cynical. I’m happy I can swim. I’m happy I work for a company that defends and protects the user’s voice. And I’m hopeful that all of humanity is not sheep.

Now seriously, go hug your dad.

Summer Movies

~ EMM

It all started with Greg asking me to add something to the Netflix queue… that led me to IMDB to watch the trailer for said movie. Then I had to check what’s playing now to make sure I’m not missing anything. Then I had to check whats “coming soon” to make sure I’m not missing anything. And here I am approximately an hour later, with not just one, but SIXTEEN movies added to my Netflix queue.

Let’s see if I can recapture them in chronological order of finding:

  1. It all started with Frances Ha…
  2. Which led me to Hannah Takes the Stairs…
  3. Where I noticed that Robot & Frank was also liked by others who liked that movie…
  4. Then I checked what’s playing now and found After Earth…
  5. Earlier today I had added a few “coming soon” movies like The Internship…
  6. and The Bling Room (I’ll watch anything with Emma Watson — Hermione!)…
  7. and The Great Gatsby (it stars Leonardo diCaprio, but I’ll watch it anyway…)…
  8. and The Kings of Summer which I missed when we had the free Twitter screening…
  9. So I skipped over those until I saw World War Z whose trailer we saw before Star Trek Into Darkness, and which stars Brad Pitt, but I’ll watch it anyway, because… end of the world movie!
  10. I skipped The Heat because I will see a screening of it next week…but I added I’m So Excited on the basis of the fact that I liked Almodovar’s other movies, even though the trailer shows us nothing…
  11. Somewhere in here I noticed Red 2 which is a movie for the Boomer demographic, but Helen Mirren kicks ass, and Bruce Willis and John Malcovitch are funny old dudes at this point — all reasons I ended up watching the first Red movie — so I will probably watch this one too…
  12. Then I saw Despicable Me 2, which was also a trailer for Star Trek Into Darkness, and I remembered I haven’t even seen the first Despicable Me move, so I added both to my queue…
  13. As I was scrolling I noticed Fruitvale Station and realized they made a movie about a recent current event in San Francisco, and added it to the queue…
  14. Then we have Kick Ass 2, which I will admit looks pretty dumb, but again, I saw the first one, and I’ll probably watch this one too, but will likely wait until it’s on DVD…
  15. Then I watched the trailer for The World’s End, laughed, and added that to my DVD queue…
  16. And just now, as I was compiling this list, I noticed that I missed Epic! How could I have missed Epic. Added.

Given what you know about my taste preferences, you might notice at least two glaring omissions from this list. I have not added Man of Steel or Much Ado About Nothing to my list. The later is easy, I want to see it as soon as possible, so I will probably see it in the movie theater. It’s a movie by Joss Whedon, and stars many of my favorites from the Whedon-verse, such as Nathan Fillion.

Man of Steel is a little more tricky… it’s a “blockbuster” and should probably be seen on the big screen for best effects. But I’m growing tired of these stupid superhero movies. Not The Avengers — yet — mostly only because it’s now a Joss movie. But these superhero movies are just cash cows and never seem to have a good story. Just lots of action and “wow” effects. Meh. Not that interested.

Why is Star Trek different? I’m so glad you asked. Because Star Trek is “SPACE, the final frontier.” It’s science fiction. It’s a great big imagining of our future. And I love that. What I also love is that many of the above movies, and the biggest one that I can’t wait to see in November (Ender’s Game!), are also big immaginative science fiction movies. Space! Aliens! Robots! The end of the world!

I can already tell this is going to be a great summer for movies. If we’re finally over the vampire hump and have moved on to space invaders, I’m all in. Of course, I’m also cheap. So I’ll probably wait to see them on the small screen. Thanks, Netflix.

By the Numbers: May 2013

~ EMM

Birthday Month Recap!

Books

Total read: 11 of 36 (target was ~15)

Only read / finished two books this month, both for my Mystery Fiction class:

  • Mr. Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore — This book is a geeky book lover’s dream. The author used to work at Twitter. He almost perfectly captures the Bay Area tech scene as it might be viewed by someone who lives here but isn’t working in technology. This is one of those books that I wanted to hug after I finished it. I read it on my Kindle, so I hugged my Kindle instead.
  • Bones and Silence — Apparently this book is one in a series. I’m not entirely sure why my professor picked this one, which I think is #11 in the series. It worked well as a stand-alone book, but it took me a while to get into it. It’s English, and the author uses a lot of English police / detective slang that took me a while to figure out.
  • The Maltese Falcon — This one is a classic. I think I’ve seen the movie at some point, it was one of my dad’s favorites. But I didn’t remember the story. The story takes place in San Francisco, and that part is really cool. The story was good, and kept me engaged, but I wasn’t really a big fan of any of the characters.

Neither of these are books I would have read if they weren’t on my class syllabus. I’m not sure that mystery fiction is my thing. I used to love mystery stories when I was a kid. But so far, the ones I’ve had to read for class haven’t really grabbed me. I have two or three more books I have to read for this class (sometime between now and October). We’ll see if I change my mind as I read more mysteries and learn more about the genre.

Writing

This hasn’t been a big blogging month, or a big writing month. I meant to do revisions on my “Bridge Beat” story (the one that started off as a class exercise). I’ve decided I need to expand on it. But, I’ve been busy with work and birthday month activities, etc. So, I’ve been putting it off. Time to get back on it.

Swimming

My US Masters Swimming FLOG (Fitness Log) says I swam:

  • 15 of 31 days (target was ~20 days)
  • 24.21 miles (target was ~30 miles)

Second month in a row that I’ve felt like I’ve been slacking off a bit and not getting in my swimming workouts. I averaged about three workouts a week, which isn’t terrible, but I am going to need to step it up a bit (and possibly add in some strength training) if I am going to be in tip top shape by short course meters season this fall.

For starters, in June I want to swim at least 20 days out of the month. That’s been my goal since January, and I don’t think I’ve hit it once yet. This month I will.

I swam in my first open water race this month! Open water racing is to pool racing as cross country running is to running track. It feels a bit as though I’ve been “set free” in the wild to run an obstacle course using skills I’ve honed in the pool for decades. Sort of like only ever running on a treadmill and then running outside in the woods for the first time. Empowering. I am not a hamster.

Movies

We kept Netflix busy this month, averaging about one DVD per week. Plus, we actually saw a movie in the movie theater this month! In 3D! Shocking, I know. As you will soon see, the majority of the movies we watched this month fit with a theme that could be summed up as “good guys going rogue to beat the bad guys…”

This month’s movies were:

  • Silver Linings Playbook — I did not read the book. I saw that the movie got some awards or something, and that it had Hunger Games chick in it, so I rented it and hoped it wasn’t a completely dopey RomCom. At first it seemed like it was going to be a RomCom, but then it redeemed itself and turned out to be an entertaining drama. Greg even enjoyed it, which is saying something.
  • Django Unchained — somehow I hadn’t heard about this movie until I saw a trailer for it on another movie we got from Netflix. I really enjoyed it. The slavery parts were really hard for me to watch. I hate that we treated people that way. And the ending was SUPER cheesy. But, it is a Quentin Tarantino flick, so that shouldn’t be a shocker.
  • No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (part 2) — last month we watched (or re-watched, depending on who you’re talking to), part one of this documentary. This month we watched the second half, strangely enough, on Bob Dylan’s birthday! Weird. This month has been full of weird coincidences like that. I think Bob Dylan is an artistic genius and this documentary has a ton of great interviews and old footage. For someone who wasn’t even born yet, it helps put a lot of that music and surrounding drama into historical context.
  • Gangster Squad — I have no idea why we picked this movie. I think we saw a trailer on another movie we watched and Greg said we should add it to the list. It was not great, but entertaining enough, and better than I thought it was going to be. Watch it if you like good guys going rogue to stop the bad guys.
  • Star Trek Into Darkness — You have to see this if you like “Space, the final frontier.” It is a really good movie. And not just because brimming with hotties. I love space. The effects in this movie are so good. We saw it in 3D which made it even better. Just go watch it, and then come home and stream the next movie on my list this month…
  • Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan (streaming) — I was a little too young to have seen this when it came out, but it is available to stream right now on Netflix, and since we just saw the newest Star Trek movie, which featured Sherlock Khan, I figured we needed to watch this one. It was surprisingly good! And after watching this, the newest Star Trek made so much more sense.
  • This is the End — we got to watch a special screening of this movie for Twitter employees and their +1 guests. Don’t expect anything deep from this movie. It’s basically a stoner flick. It’s funny, and gross, and has a star studded cast (Emma Watson! With an ax!). My favorite part (besides Emma Watson, who is basically the only female in the movie, btw) was the ending, but since I can’t spoil it for you, you’ll have to see it for yourselves.

And there goes another birthday month. I’m pretty satisfied with this one. Can’t wait to see what awesomeness my 36th year has in store for me.