Saturday, 01 January 2011

Guess what? I started out by writing “Saturday, 01 January 2010,” and only realized my mistake several minutes later. Geez. I need to wake up.

Whenever I attend a funeral, it always gets me thinking about my own mortality. I wonder what people will do to mourn (or celebrate?) my passing. I wonder who will be in attendance. This line of reasoning usually leads me to conclude that I have nothing in writing; nothing set out that clearly says what my wishes are. And, it’s times like this, that I start to think I should write some of this down.

But then I wonder…have lawyers fucked with this, too? I mean, I know the answer is yes, but I wonder: if I write up something that says what I would like done with my body when it expires, and what sort of post-death party I would like the survivors to hold, and how I would like my estate apportioned, and what I would like read at my funeral, would it be respected? Or would some lawyer say, “Oh, well this wasn’t signed by 12 public notaries and placed on file with Dewey, Cheetum and Howe, so it’s not valid. Anyway, we’ll be taking all his money”?

Either way, I’m gonna spell some things out in written form. It’s tough to plan though, because I might live for 7 more decades, or I might live for 7 more days. I know that sounds morbid, but it’s reality, and if I didn’t want to live in reality, I would be a Jehovah’s Witness.

Sunday, 02 January 2011

So, I was hanging out with my friend Ryan the other day, and he was telling me about XtraNormal. I have seen some of the videos created (or perhaps “assembled” would be a more appropriate verb) using this site. They’re entertaining. But they’re not quite right. Probably because using stock footage and selecting from a limited number of options could never make something turn out ‘right.’ Anyway, Ryan showed me a video he was creating regarding Jehovah’s Witnesses (sorry for bringing them up in two consecutive days), and, once again: funny, but not quite ‘right’.

I don’t mean to rip on Ryan, because I can see that XtraNormal is a fun tool to use, but the voices sound funny, the gestures don’t line up perfectly, and sometimes, it’s way too obvious that this was built from the top down. For example, in the video he showed me, the main character was ‘Witnessing,’ so he should have had some literature with him, especially when he was reading directly from the magazine he was trying to offer.

Either way, I’m happy that after a two month absence from the WWW, Ryan has finally contributed to our virtual reality once again. Check out his new videos. Here they are – a beautiful mashing of Ryan’s wit with XtraNormal’s weirdness:

Thursday, 30 December 2010

As mentioned previously, my wife’s uncle died earlier this week. Today was the visitation. We asked Owen if he wanted to go to the visitation and the funeral, and he didn’t seem terribly thrilled with the visitation, so we dropped him off with some of our friends for the evening.

The visitation, though it was only a for a few hours in the evening, took up our whole day. We arrived at the mall before noon this morning and ran to a couple of stores so Jennifer could find a blouse. We were unsuccessful, and at 12:30 we went into my sister’s salon at the mall so that she could do whatever it is she needed to do to Jennifer and Owen’s hair. Then, we went back out into the mall to find clothes – both for Jennifer and for Isla.

By the time we got home, we had only a little bit of time to eat, get dressed in our fancy clothes, and pile back into the car to take Owen – through rush hour – to our friends’ home. Then we drove over to the funeral home.

I should mention that now, as of today, all of Jennifer’s relatives have now seen Isla, including my wife’s sister Kara who has shunned the entire family for about a year now. She positively beamed with excitement at the chance to meet Isla. In fact, after saying hi and quickly asking how I was (or did she even say that? I don’t recall), she asked to hold Isla and, suddenly, she really seemed to care about Isla. The last time I saw Kara was early September of 2009 – before Jennifer was even pregnant – and on that day she simply saw us at the Apple Computer store and turned around and walked out. In the 15+ months since then, Kara hasn’t so much as sent an email inquiring or congratulating Jennifer or me about the pregnancy or birth.

We weren’t sure if Kara was even going to be there tonight, or if she would ignore us like a good little Witness. Turns out, not only was she there, but she acted like a decent human being. As Jennifer pointed out later, since Kara was ‘allowed’ to be with her ex-JW relatives (due to a family crisis), she probably figured she would let herself enjoy it. After all, she really does want to be with her siblings and parents, but the religion is fucking with her brain. So when she started asking Jennifer all sorts of questions, such as how we picked out Isla’s name and how Owen is doing Kindergarten, it might seem strange that she suddenly cared about us. But, indeed, she’s cared about us all along, she’s just been forbidden from following her conscience.

Friday, 31 December 2010

Ah…so here we are at the last day of the year. How smart of me was it to not pick a leap year to write about?

You might think, “Hey, James, don’t you think it was stupid to write about a year in which you’d be going to college and having another baby?”

Well, maybe. But I actually thought writing on this blog would give me a break from doing my college work and, though I suspected it would be tough to maintain this blog during the first few days following Isla’s birth, I thought that the weeks I took off of work for paternity leave would give me ample time to write on this blog (it did).

So, here’s my last day…

We woke up early, breakfasted, showered, and dressed in our fancy clothes. We drove back to the same funeral home in Roseville (with Owen accompanying us this time) in time for the funeral. Following the service, we stayed for a while with Jennifer’s relatives, then ventured one block away to some sort of event center where we dined on very tasty food (most of which had been kindly donated) with the family and friends of the deceased.

We left around 2:00 and, on our way home, stopped at the grocery store to pick up a few things for this evening. We got home at around 3:00, changed out of our fancy clothes, rested briefly, and then got ready and left for our friends’ house for a New Year’s Eve party. We got there around 5:00, ate dinner, drank champagne, and played a round of Outburst and Scattergories. A cranky baby who wouldn’t go to sleep necessitated that we leave around 9:00. Back at home, Jennifer nursed Isla to sleep while Owen and I read books together. Owen and I went to bed at about 11:15, and Jennifer joined us shortly thereafter.

And that’s my year.

Wednesday, 29 December 2010

So now I’m wondering if I should keep this daily blog things going into 2011, too. Really, I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but now that 2010 is almost done, it’s time to make a decision.

Here are some problems with this write-something-everyday format:

For one thing, as you might have noticed, I cheated. A lot. On most posts, you will notice that I wrote about 3 or even four days at a time. I tried to write about each day in the present tense, but sometimes the day had already passed several days ago. This made things tough, because the longer I waited to post a blog (usually due to being  busy), the more I had to write, and if I didn’t have time in the first place, then I really got backlogged when I had to write about 3 or 4 days.

Second, it’s hard to write about some days. I hate to admit it, but some days really had nothing that special going on: I got up, went to work, came home, ate dinner, and, well, nothing that remarkable. So I would write about the weather, or some other websites I found that day, or just some random stuff I was thinking about. At the other extreme, sometimes there was too much to talk about for one day. So this was another way I would cheat: I would find some odd way to squeeze a topic into a specific day. Like this blog post where I wrote about my playlist being played on KQRS several days after it had happened. Why did I do that? Because the day they played my playlist was Halloween, and I figured it was better to write about Halloween, so I instead waited until my “prize package” came in the mail to write about it.

And, sometimes, there were things I felt I shouldn’t talk about. For example, I didn’t think it would be prudent to write about being annoyed with my kids, or having arguments with my wife (or any other good friend); and I thought it was probably wise to not talk about issues relating to my job. I also figured no one wanted to hear too much about any financial issues or health problems (well, if I was really sick that might be interesting, but no one wants to hear, “I had a mild headache all day”). So, when I was sick for several days, I had to stretch to find some other things to talk about. Sometimes that was tough.

Then there’s the issue of turnover: sometimes I really wanted what I wrote to be on the top of my blog for more than one day. If I wrote something I felt was important or note-worthy, then I didn’t want it to get buried in the avalanche of posts. This is tough when I’m trying to write something every day.

And speaking of note-worthy topics, occasionally, I would write a post and think “there, this will generate some comments,” or, “I’ll be interested to see what people think about this,” but then no one says anything. Kind of disappointing.

Anyway, those are just my thoughts.

Tuesday, 28 December 2010

So, yesterday, my friend Ryan asked me (admitting that it was kind of a cliché) if I’d read any good books lately. This is always a tough question for me to answer on the spot, as my mind immediately goes to the books I’m currently reading, but as I talked with Ryan I came to realize that there were, in fact, a few good books I wanted to discuss with him. And, actually, now that we’re over 99% of the way done with this year, I thought I would provide all of my faithful readers (both of them) a list of the books I’ve read in 2010, especially considering the fact that I’m unlikely to finish anymore this year.

There are 35 books on my list, and increase of two over last year. 15 of them are fiction, which is an unusually high percentage, but you’ll recall that I decided to read the Little House series of books this year AND I took a college English course…so, you know, that skewed things a bit.

Here, then, is every book that I’ve finished reading between 01 January 2010 and today, along with some comments, where appropriate.

Almost an Evening (Coen, Ethan, 80 pages)
A play I read for class. I liked it so much I didn’t sell it back to the college book store.
The Atheist’s Introduction to the New Testament (Davis, Mike, 180 pages)
Atlas, Schmatlas: A Superior Atlas of the World (Robinson, Craig, 128 pages)
The Best American Short Stories 2009 (compilation, 348 pages)
Another book I read for class. Don’t let the title fool you: this book had one awesome story, two decent stories, and 17 shitty stories.
By the Shores of Silver Lake (Wilder, Laura Ingalls, 292 pages)
Disproving Christianity (McAfee, David G., 86 pages)
I received this book from the published with the intent that I write a review of it. Here’s the review.
Does Science Make Belief in God Obsolete? (compilation, 44 pages)
Earth (the Book): A Visitor’s Guide to the Human Race (compilation, 236 pages)
Funniest book I read all year. I couldn’t put it down. Have you read it yet?
Earthquakes and Volcanoes (Merrians, Deborah, 42 pages)
This is a book for kids. I read it to Owen. Yeah, it counts.
The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe (Gray, Theodore, 242 pages)
This book is an awesome achievement in non-fiction: informative, passionate text written by someone who’s done the first-hand research and awesome illustrations. Best book I read all year. I loved it.
Farmer Boy (Wilder, Laura Ingalls, 372 pages)
The First Four Years (Wilder, Laura Ingalls, 138 pages)
God Hates You, Hate Him Back (Werleman, CJ, 298 pages)
Here’s another book I was sent for review. My review hasn’t appeared online yet, so no link. Sorry.
The Grand Design (Hawking, Stephen / Mlodinow, Leonard, 208 pages)
Anticlimactic.
The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution (Dawkins, Richard, 470 pages)
Dawkins has the uncanny ability to sucker me in with a mesmerizing first chapter. He does it every time. I think he should take the first chapter of every book he’s ever written and put them into one book. It would be the best book he’s ever written.
The Heathen’s Guide to World Religions (Hopper, William, 232 pages)
Another book I was sent to review. Here’s a link to my review, which is more humorous and less error-filled than the book.
How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk (1999 edition) (Faber, Adele / Mazlish, Elaine, 288 pages)
In Search of Christian Freedom (second edition) (Franz, Raymond, 756 pages)
I started reading this book about two years ago, but I finally finished it early this year. There are about 3 great chapters in this book, and about 600 booooring pages.
Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster (Krakauer, John, 334 pages)
I won this book in the dice game last year, and began reading it the very next day. I love accounts of historical tragedies.
Jesus Lied: He Was Only Human (Werleman, CJ, 224 pages)
Yet another book I was sent to review. I haven’t yet.
John Adams (McCullough, David, 752 pages)
I listened to this book on cassette in my car. Yes, it counts.
Killing Yourself to Live (Klosterman, Chuck, 246 pages)
Lies Across America (Loewen, James, 480 pages)
Second-best book I read all year. Loewen is one of my personal heroes.
Little House in the Big Woods (Wilder, Laura Ingalls, 240 pages)
Little House on the Prairie (Wilder, Laura Ingalls, 338 pages)
Little Town on the Prairie (Wilder, Laura Ingalls, 308 pages)
Wow. Wilder is really over-represented here.
The Long Winter (Wilder, Laura Ingalls, 338 pages)
See what I mean?
The Lovely Bones (Sebold, Alice, 334 pages)
I read this book for class. For my essay, I was going to write “It sucked,” but I decided to shoot for a good grade instead. Did I mention the book sucked?
Night of the Living Trekkies (Anderson, Kevin / Stall, Sam, 256 pages)
Oh look! A work of fiction that was neither written by Laura Ingalls Wilder nor assigned in my class. Second-best fiction book I read all year.
North by Northwest (compilation, 238 pages)
On the Banks of Plum Creek (Wilder, Laura Ingalls, 340 pages)
Out From Boneville (Smith, Jeff, 140 pages)
This shit-storm of a graphic novel only made it’s way into my hands because of the piqued curiosity resulting FROM THIS. Does it suck? Yes. Should it be banned? No.
A Raisin in the Sun (Hansberry, Lorraine, 156 pages)
The fourth, and final, book I read for class. Actually, there was a fifth book assigned, but I didn’t read it cover-to-cover, so listing it here would be cheating. Did I mention that I still managed to get an A on the essay I wrote for that book? Oh yeah, I guess I did.
These Happy Golden Years (Wilder, Laura Ingalls, 292 pages)
Holy Crap, Laura! You keep rearing your head here. Hey, it was a fun collection of books. I plan to encourage my son to read them one day.
Under a Flaming Sky (Brown, Daniel James, 272 pages)
Coincidentally, both the last book alphabetically and the last book I finished reading this year – having just wrapped it up a few hours ago. Like I said, I’m a sucker for historical tragedies.

Sunday, 26 December 2010

Today we spent decompressing. I awoke first and began brewing some tea. Jennifer and Isla got up next and Jennifer checked her emails while she ate breakfast. A tired Owen came hobbling into the living room about a half hour later. He declared that it was time to take the tree down, but I told him it still feels like the holidays to me, so we’d leave it up past New Year’s.

Soon after eating breakfast, Jennifer announced we would be cleaning the living room – at least to make the floor safe for Isla. We collapsed a few gift bags, and removed the packaging from some of Owen’s gifts. We started putting away some of his gifts, too; his new card game went in his room, the soap I won in the dice game went in my bathroom, the bag of nuts Jennifer won went in the pantry. Jennifer posted on Facebook that Christmas threw up in our living room. I quite agreed.

Jennifer’s parents came over this afternoon to take Owen for a couple of days. He’s off from school this coming week, too, and so it’s a great time for him to sleep over at his grandparents’ house. Once he left, I breathed a sigh of relief; ‘cause, man, he’s a lot of work. Jennifer and I sat down at around 3:30 this afternoon and, with Isla calmly nursing and then falling into a nap, we watched an episode of Little House on the Prairie. A really lame, boring episode titled “Chicago.” Yes, it is as bad as it sounds.

Monday, 27 December 2010

So, the first two hours I spent in that weird, dream-like state known as ‘consciousness’ were quite good. From about 8:30 to 10:30 I reveled in my first day of a weeklong furlough from work. I again brewed some tea, and Jennifer and I sat and read quietly. Then we got up to continue our cleaning – without Owen around we planned to get a lot done, and we were expecting company this evening, so I was looking forward to that.

But then Jennifer’s mom called and said we had to come and get Owen.

I was worried that something was wrong with Owen or that he had misbehaved so badly that my mother-in-law couldn’t stand another second with him. Well, the good news is, my son was not the problem. The bad news, though, was that my mother-in-law’s brother Mark had died unexpectedly several hours earlier.

I gotta admit, I didn’t know Mark very well. He made himself rather rare at family gatherings and, apart from briefly saying hello to him when the family convened in Hinckley for my wife’s grandma’s (Mark’s mom) birthday, I hadn’t seen him all year. In fact, now that I think about it, he never meet Isla. Still, I was very sad that someone so close to people that I do know and care about had passed away so abruptly (and young – he was in his mid-50s).

The news of Mark’s untimely passing sent me on an impromptu drive up to my in-laws’ home to pick up Owen. When I got there, Owen was with my wife’s two teenage cousins, who had been dropped off to care for Owen while my mother-in-law went to tell the terrible news to her mom. So the four of us piled into my car, and I dropped my wife’s cousins off at their house and then spent another half hour answering high-strung questions from a nervous and confused five year old.

Mark’s mom did not take the news very well (I suppose that goes without saying) and –long story short – she ended up in the hospital this afternoon after suffering a heart attack.

When I arrived back home, Jennifer wasn’t sure what to do regarding our plans for company this evening (I left it up to her) and we kept anticipating a phone call with more bad news.

Update: my wife’s grandma will be spending the night at the hospital, but it appears her heart is in good condition and will recovery physically, if not emotionally, from the rough day.

Now we wait to find out about news of funeral arrangements.