5 February << 2001 >> 13 March
Not much to say lately, so not much I've said.
Actually, plenty to say, just never feel like sayin' it.
Say what?
C'est la vie.
Seance.
Sale: Seventy percent off!
I'm sailing away ...
Say what? Know what I'm sayin'? Sayin' I'm sailin' down to San Diego with Jessica for Washington's Birthday. Said I slept on Paul's floor. Said he lives over by PB, which is righteous, but not super primo in February. I'll be back in the summer.
I say I've been readin' some books lately. Mom sent me Che's Biography for my birthday. Aunt Linda sent me an awesome book called _No More Prisons_ by William Wimsatt. It reads like a manifesto for young people who dream of a better society and want to try and help bring it about. It's short, pretty sweet, has some amount of cursing, and I finished it on Pacific Beach! Ahh, wonderful! You should read it.
Only the introduction to the book talks about the prison problem specifically. He tries to express that maybe the reason why we like to build more prisons is because we are so used to the prisons of working in our little cubicles after being warehoused in schools when we were young. The rest of the book talks about stuff like philanthropy, organizing yourself to drive towards goals, home schooling, and a few other things. It all boils down to being a thinking, self-actualized person. Reading it did me some good.
Ahh, I return to an X-Windows environment, so maybe this entry shall see some pictures.
Let's see. I also finished _Ender's Shadow_ which is a set alongside _Ender's Game_ which is a classic that all young geeks must read to understand the cultural references made by their young geek friends. I'm not as hip to the battle school books as I am on the later books that follow _Ender's Shadow_, namely _Xenocide_ and _Speaker for the Dead_ but then I also watch PBS so my tastes are not to be trusted.
But, it's a good book. If you're down with Science Fiction, read it.
I have had from the library, _Antarctica_ by Kim Stanley Robinson, and _White Man's Grave_ by Richard Dooling. _Antarctica_ is by the same guy who wrote _Red Mars_, _Green Mars_ and _Blue Mars_: a trilogy about the future colonization of Mars. I really enjoyed the Mars trilogy a lot, because it starts with the heroic aspects - actually getting there to set up a colony, then just goes totally happy speculative in the subsequent books, where humanity ultimately pushes towards finding a better way of doing things. _Antarctica_ reads the same way, only it is set on Antarctica instead of Mars, and the time period is more compressed, and you get a similar story as the entire Mars trilogy only it is a lot harder to swallow as a credible scenario because it's all so rushed. Stick with the Mar's trilogy, I say.
_White Man's Grave_ is a lot of fun - this kid goes after his friend who has been in Sierra Leone with the Peace Corps but goes missing. It keeps switching culture and point of view, from Sierra Leone to Indianapolis, Indiana. Your head starts swimming around the different cultures. Like I said - fun! If ya see this layin' around, I say read that one too!
What else? Ahhh, yes, I got around to Ursula K. LeGuin as well. _The Left Hand of Darkness_ is a great read set on a very cold planet where the people are mostly androgynous except for when they meet. Quick and easy, you should read that too.
Lotsa wieners!
What else have I done lately?
I have not taken many pictures. I lent the camera to Dave, as he and Rebecca came up with something truly worth taking pictures of: Baby Ted. Born 27 February, I got to see him in the hospital a day or two later, when he was still without a name. Very very cute kid ... the kind of baby that explains that old cliche where a woman sees a baby and then explains to her significant other that she would really like one too. Not that you'll hear that coming from dannyman any time soon, but damn if that little guy just isn't compelling!
They're poppin' out everywhere. I didn't even know Tammie was pregnant when one day I get an e-mail telling me that as of 7 February, she gots a little baby boy, Jirakit to go along with her little girl Fiona! Damn! And another friend at work is pregnant five months and just today has started with the maternity clothes. Gosh. Careful where you point that thing!
I've been listening to music too. Lately I've been totally down with Wyclef Jean's "The Carnival" but you know what? Some of that Haitian creole is just too hard to sing along with! One thing you'd notice if you worked with me, is that I tend to burst in to song ... just because. Some find this entertaining, others miss it after they've been without it for a while. Not like I sing too well, but I thought I'd check up on the lyrics to "Windy," after Angela mentioned her friend Wendy, and I said that there was a song about Wendy that Angela had never heard of. I had no idea that it was by a band called "The Association" or that the song was really about "Windy" ... live and learn.
5 February
<<
2001
>>
13 March
/journal
dannyman.toldme