Is It Too Early For A "Bah! Humbug!" ?

There is a lot that has happened since my last post. Unfortunately, since I've started on Facebook, I haven't taken the opportunity to blog much. Bah...who am I kidding? I just haven't had any thoughts worth writing down lately. I have read a lot more classical books lately. I can't remember which ones came between the last one I wrote about and my current one (and I'm too lazy to go figure it out). The book previous to my current one was "A Midsummer's Night Dream."

(striking a dramatic pose) "Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania." ...and all that rot. It was a quick read and (in all honesty) wasn't overly interesting. Yeah, I'm an uncultured swine. I've accepted this about myself.

Currently, I'm reading "Great Expectations." I haven't read that since high school. I remember so very little about it other than Miss Havisham catching on fire (that does happen, right?) - morbid remembrance, I know. I'm still in the early chapters and enjoying it quite a bit.

The kids are doing good in school and work is going okay. Although, I found out that my spine is all messed up and if I ever have to have back surgery, I probably won't return to that particular job. In any case, I've started physical therapy and go in to see a neurosurgeon every 6 months or so. Fun stuff.

New Day After the Night

I finished up Arabian Nights a week or so ago. It turned out there were only 4 or so stories that had a mature theme. The rest were fine. And that is pretty much my opinion of the book as a whole, "fine." Some of the stories were a bit repetitious for my tastes. Others were pretty neat. It makes me wonder why certain stories have caught the modern imagination instead of others. I was surprised at the number of what I would consider Biblical (old Testament) references (King Solomon being a prominent historical figure in many places.) In any case, it probably isn't one I'll read through cover to cover again, but I might pick it up to reference specific tales.

Onward we go, then. My next book (which I'm already halfway through) is one I had seen on my dad's bookshelf for a long time: Silas Marner. Not having looked overly close at the title before now, I thought I was in for another nautical adventure. Yeah..."Marner" not "Mariner" - the title character is a weaver and not a sailor. Goes to show what I know.

Apparently this is a book that has been read in American schools almost since the beginning. (Not in my case. I knew absolutely nothing about it.) As such, some of the reviews I have read about it were not overly flattering...which tends to happen to books that we are forced to read in our youth. Since it was not a part of my past, I went into it with fresh eyes. So far I really like it. It's not so much a story about a single person; instead it is about a community and acceptance and how personal tradgedies affect everyone. Pretty neat stuff.

And it is a quick read. Like I said, I'm already halfway through it, and I imagine I'll be finished by the end of the week.

New Book and Other Random Thoughts

I just finished Tale of Two Cities. I know there are some people that don't like it; I thought most of the book was fine and the last 3-4 chapters were incredible. I have to admit that it has been a long time since a book almost made me cry.

Going into it, I didn't know much about it other than the title and the very first line: "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times." I was impressed how all the seemingly random chapters pulled together near the end. Even more impressive was when I read that Charles Dickens wrote and published a chapter a week in the periodical he was the editor of. Simply amazing. I don't want to give too much of it away, but the two cities are London and Paris in the years/months/days before and during the bloody French Revolution.

Now I'm on to The Arabian Nights - or more specifically, an abbreviated edition of it (since the whole thing is several volumes long). It's still the original Richard Burton translation, though. First impressions: No paragraphs! Arrg! Just one gigantic wall of text with no convenient place to take a break. Not only that, but it didn't take me long to understand why there have been objections to it over the years. It can be a bit...umm...risque in some scenes. It's definately not a book for kids...even if there are kid cartoons based on many of the stories. It caught me a bit off guard.

On a completely separate topic, I haven't posted as much here as I might have because of Facebook. It's terribly easy just to toss up a one sentence update on little minor events (or not so minor sometimes) that there doesn't seem to be as much need for a long-winded post. (Or maybe there is...since I'm doing one right now.) On the other hand, maybe it will let me focus my writing a little more. Who knows?

Weightlifting/swimming is going great! I'm loving being able to push myself physically. My muscles don't get sore anymore, but I do get tired. I'm pretty sure it's helping me sleep better as well.

Last little item...okay, it's a big one. Early last week I was approached by my boss's boss. Due to a large decrease in revenue from our team, we are going to lose several people. Jobs aren't being cut, they are just being moved elsewhere. Long story short, I was asked if I would be interested in a Facilities Manager type position, as the person currently doing that type of work is the Executive Secretary and she no longer has the time availablity to do it. I said yes, and was officially offered the position yesterday. So, even though I had a recent promotion, I'm moving out of my current role into a completely different field.

I'm excitied but also have a bit of that "deer in the headlights" feeling. The transition doesn't happen until next week, so it has been massively chaotic around here as we scramble to reorganize the team. I'm finally out of customer service! Currently, the position is only for the building here in town, but it will grow to include all the other offices across the country. It's a big opportunity for me and one that I feel honored to have been thought of as being capable for the role. There are still a lot of details to work out; although the responsibilities aren't new, the actual position is. And I'm the first one to hold it!

Workout Wonder

My workouts are going well. I'm even keeping a workout log at a weightlifting website where I can track my progress. So what exactly am I doing? Well, it's called a 5x5 workout. You start with an empty bar (in most cases) and add 5 pounds each workout. So far it has been easy, except for the bodyweight exercises (push ups, pull ups, etc.). I've been trying to work on my form so I don't kill myself as the weights go up.

It has been extremely nice to know exactly what I'm going to do when I get there. I can go it, set myself up, do my workout, and leave...all under an hour. At some point I'm going to add cardio workouts (i.e. swimming), but for now I'm just working on increasing my strength. Now that I'm doing something, I don't feel like I have to get in the pool right now. That being said, I do have a bunch of swimming workouts planned - workout that I have collected from when I was in the swim conditioning class and participating in the Masters swimming at WSU. The question is which to start with; which one will make me look the least like a drowning rat?

If I Was Unbalanced, Could I Do...This? (::insert awkward pose here::)

As a youth, I was never considered a jock or a nerd. Yes, I was athletic and yes, I did think of myself a quite smart (even if my grades didn't reflect it), but I didn't fit into either category. (Looking back, I admit I wasn't smart enough to think there might be more than two possibilities.) I had heard the phrase "jack of all trades" fairly early in life and attached myself to that - only to later hate that I was never passionate about any one thing. But that is going in a different direction than I want to go right now.

In my first year in college, I came across the term "philosopher-king" in my classical reading. This is a concept of someone who is strong physically like a traditional strongman-type "king" but who also trains his mind to be an equally strong "philosopher." The idea was that a perfect ruler would combine both worlds of jock and nerd. At the time, it was a mind-opening concept for me. Even now, I love the thought of living a balanced life of the physical, mental, and spiritual.

So, with that in mind, I've found a gym that has a pool. Now, in addition to my classic reading kick I've been on lately, I'll have the opportunity to workout as well. I'll be alternating swimming workouts with free weights.

3 Month Goals:

• Squat 150 lbs (5 sets of 5 reps)
• Deadlift 225 lbs (1 set of 5 reps)
• Bench Press 115 lbs (5 sets of 5 reps)
• Overhead Press 75 lbs (5 sets of 5 reps)

6 Month Goals:

• Squat 195 lbs (5 sets of 5 reps)
• Deadlift 270 lbs (1 set of 5 reps)
• Bench Press 135 lbs (5 sets of 5 reps)
• Overhead Press 105 lbs (5 sets of 5 reps)

...and I'm starting tonight.

We be Wee People; who be you?

Growing up as a short kid, I got picked on a lot. It's something you learn to live with. As a youth, I still got good humored teasing about being short. (The non-good humor teasing took a completely different tack.) As a middle-aged man (I have a hard time seeing myself as "middle-aged," but there it is...) there is still the occasional look-at-me-aren't-I-funny-messing-with-Steve moments. Generally, I just roll my eyes and move along with life.

So, I come into work today and find a big plastic pot of gold (not the chocolate kind either, bah!) on my desk. Stuck in the pot is a big sign reading "World's Greatest Leprechaun!" with my picture in the middle. (It doesn't help that my ears are slightly pointy.) Everyone found it extremely funny and waited to see how I would react. I put the pot (sign and all) on the cubical divider so everyone passing by could see and sat down to start my day at work. I think it was a bit anti-climatic for some. Ah well...I fully embrace my quirks.

Now for some background (this is a story I told in a team meeting several weeks ago): I ride the bus every day to and from work. Every once in awhile you meet some...interesting...people. So one morning I was at the bus stop when a fellow walks up obviously intoxicated. He starts asking me random questions and I respond politely. Generally I ignore people like that, but this guy was inoffensive and was actually somewhat entertaining. Finally, the bus pulls up and this fellow starts digging through his pockets and says, "Now I gotta come up with a dollar to get on the bus."

I happened to have a dollar coin in my pocket and, feeling unusally maganimous, I flip it over to him and say, "Here you go!" He catches it, looks at it, back at me, and breaks into a big ol' smile. He then says, "You're my best friend ever! You must be a leprechaun - you gave me gold!" As we got on the bus, he proceeded to tell everyone there that I was a leprechaun. It was an interesting bus ride.

The Tribulation of the Choir Director

Let me walk you through my day: First, I had to cover for the Elder's Quorum President today in Ward Council. Normally that isn't a big deal, but since we have the early session this year, I had to be at the church at 7:00 a.m. That means I had to get up at 6. Again, not that big of a deal. However, since the choir was performing today in sacrament meeting, we had rehearsals before church started at 9:00 a.m.

Right after Ward Council, I called home to make sure everyone was ready to be picked up. No worries there. So I race home to find out that Benjamin had thrown up in the 15 minutes it had taken me to get home. Leslie had to conduct Primary today so couldn't stay home and I had to direct the choir so I couldn't stay home. We quickly decided that I would take the non-sick kids to sacrament and then I would come home and Leslie and I would switch.

With the kids loaded up we raced back to the church, thinking I was going to be late for the choir rehearsal. Two people showed up. Two. Normally no big deal. But we haven't practiced in the past few weeks due to several different issues. (Is Valentines day really an excuse to bail out on choir? I mean, church gets out at noon and if someone REALLY needs to be with their spouse that bad that they can't stay for the 45 minutes after church we have for choir practice, who am I to say otherwise?)

So there I was, sitting in sacrament with 4 kids wondering if anyone was going to bother getting up when it came time for the choir to sing. Lucky for me, they did. Not very many, mind you, but at least there were some. (I may be overreacting, but it seems like our ward choir has been getting smaller and smaller since I was called as the director. Meh...whatever...) We sang "Love at Home" - first verse in unison, second verse guys on melody and women on the alto line, and last verse in all 4 parts. We sounded like a typical small ward choir. I'm not judging, but I do have to keep reminding myself that none of us are professionals and with so few of us, I have to really scale back on my music selection (like strictly out of the hymn book. Luckily we have a fantastic piano player who is able to embellish the accompaniment beautifully.

A quick 15 minute run back home saw me rushing in the house and Leslie out of the house. The car engine was never shut off and I felt like high-fiving my wife while yelling "You're It!" Ben was asleep and the rest of my morning was fairly quiet. I think I was supposed to go home teaching today as well, but my companion and I never really touch base with each other and, since I wasn't really at church today, I didn't think about it until just now.

As a brief follow-up from my last post, apparently everyone in my entire world has a facebook account. Who knew? There is a lot of stuff that I just don't quite understand yet and (justified or not) there are a lot of things that the privacy freak in my head is screaming about. (i.e. I wouldn't mind playing a game or two on there, but when it asks for permission for some third party to access my personal information I tend to say, "Huh, what do you know? I didn't want to play that as much as I originally thought...") Overly paranoid? Possibly. I've accepted this about myself. I'm not sure how much I'll use it, but there it is. If someone wants to get in touch with me, they now can.

Hey You...with the Face!

So I did the nigh unthinkable last night: I made a facebook account. I've never really been a fan of social networking sites (for a lot of different reasons). However, I made an exception because I came across some familiar faces from when I was a pre-teen/teenager. Egads...not that I want to relive those years, but it's nice to be able to get in touch and say "Hi!"

Besides, it's interesting to see how the other half lives their online life. I'm chalking this whole thing up in the "Social Experiment" catagory.

ID Badge Creed (With Apologies to Riflemen Everywhere)

This is my badge. There are many like it, but this one is mine. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my badge is useless. Without my badge, I am useless. I must use my badge properly. My badge and I know that what counts in a badge audit is not our intentions, apologies, or the excuses we make. We know that it is the beeps that count. We will make it beep.

My badge is human, even as I am human, because it is my life. Thus, I will learn it as a brother. I will learn its weaknesses, its strengths, its parts, its accessories. I will keep my badge clean and ready, even as I am clean and ready. We will become part of each other.

Before my co-workers I swear this creed.

To Everything There Is a Season...

The process of writing down my thoughts seems strange on a very esoteric level. (Don't worry, I don't know what that means either...it just sounds good.) In my general, everyday life, I have random thoughts (or strings of thought) that are triggered by some sight, sound, other thought, etc. When it runs its course, that is the end of it. It is forgotten.

Taking the time to capture those thoughts in writing is what I consider the hallmark of a great thinker. If you can't organize and relay those random ideas, it is just internal background noise.

But when effort is put into it, even if it is one short sentence, then it can be looked at, expanded (even if over a loooong period of time) and become the bais of something greater. How many times have I heard about someone who wants to write a book but never even starts?

Ursula K. LeGuin (one of my favorite authors as a youth) wrote about this when explaining her response to the question: "How do I become a better writer?" She gives a two-step process: First, learn to type. Second (and I'm paraphrasing here) put something, anything, down on paper. The best way to learn is to do. She also mentions that her response tends to irritate people.

LeGuin has a point, though - one that made a lot of sense to me (and still does). I spent a lot of time in late high school and early college writing whatever came into my head - dreams, observations of classmates, snippets of fiction, random thoughts. I remember even writing about not having anything to write about. I just kept my pencil moving.

In college, my English 201 professor was, by far, the best writing instructor I ever had. I actually enjoyed his class. However, when it came to the final paper, I was at a complete loss. No matter how much I struggled with it (in hindsight, I probably could have spent more time in the struggle), I couldn't get started. So I dithered and delayed until the second-to-last day. (I'm sure none of you have been in that situation.)

In desperation, I just started writing. It was supposed to have been a research paper, but it ended up being some complete farce of fiction where a private-eye detective was looking for a topic. I wish I still had a copy. I was so embarassed that I was turning such tripe in that I came in on the last day, threw my paper on the pile, and left as quickly as possible. (There was no official "final" test - the paper was it.)

To this day, I have no idea what that man thought about my paper. But, by all I hold honorable and true, my final grade in that class was an A. It was the only A I received that semester. I dropped out of college (again) a semester or two later, and I never saw that professor again.

Nowadays, I have gone back to just letting the random thoughts come and go. I feel bad about it, honestly. Especially when I'm reading some of these classic books, I feel I should be recording my thoughts so I can review and expand on them (such as my thoughts about the senator from Uncle Tom's Cabin and how that relates to other areas of politics). The easy thing to do would be to mark it down to personal laziness, but I can't believe that is the whole issue. (Of course, I could just be fooling myself. Maybe it is due completely to being lazy.)

Sure, every now and then I break out with a blog post that goes a bit deeper than surface thoughts and actions. But, admittedly, they are few and far between. I'm not sure I'm at the point where I want to commit to writing every day. Let's face it, writing a stream-0f-consciousness blog post (like this one) is easy. Wrting something with a set purpose is harder. Writing something with any redeemable value is harder still.

Maybe what I need to do is write a stream-of-consciousness book. Yeah...(heavy on the sarcasm) I'm sure publishers would love something like that. I do have some ideas I would like to explore, but this time in my life might not be the right time.

To everything there is a season...

More Updates

Sheesh...seems like I've been playing catch-up too much lately. But, ah well. Here's the latest scoop:

I just finished reading Black Beauty, which I thought I had read before but apparently I haven't. I didn't realize (or forgotten) that it was written from the horse's point of view. It's one that I think I might have to read to my girls. They would absolutely love it.

Since I finished that, I've moved on to The Miracle of Forgiveness. I decided to move off the fiction again and go on to something a little more "weighty." I've read parts of this before, but never cover to cover. I'm only on the third chapter, but I realize I have some spiritual things I need to work on/fix in my life.

Along those lines, Leslie and I bought an exercise bike last week. With the exception of Sunday, we have both put in a half-hour a day so far. I found out a few months ago that I was officially overweight...not but much, but there it is. So I'm doing something about it.