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!

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.

Reading List Catch-Up

Since I haven't posted anything in awhile, I haven't taken the chance to comment on the books I've read. That's too bad, really. I had some interesting thoughts at several points along the way and thought, "I should write that down and think about it some more." Blah...it's one of the curses of modern living. I'm too easily distracted by too many other mind-numbing things that I don't take enough time just to sit and think anymore.

So here is what I've read since Sleepy Hollow:

Uncle Tom's Cabin (very cool book...I have boatloads I could talk about...but probably won't)
A Farewell to Arms (on my list of books never to read again)
The Wee Free Men (not a classic, but it was a fun little "fairy tale" book)

Right now, I'm reading Of Mice and Men by one of my favorite authors, John Steinbeck.

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I wrote this while I was at work. I just had an incredibly irritating conversation with someone here about a work-related issue and now I'm too mad to continue writing...

Just in Time for Halloween

The Leadership Challenge is a great book. I forgot how much I enjoy reading it and figuring out ways to make myself better. But now it's time to move on to the next book: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Tales by Washington Irving. I've read Rip Van Winkle several times before, but not Sleepy Hollow (I've seen the cartoon though...). Nor have I read, or even heard of, any of the other stories in the book.

So far, I'm loving the way he describes things. Lots of imagery. Good use of the English language and all that.

On a side note, I had my second Account Rep meeting today and I'm proud to announce that no one said they felt "puked on." Hey, it's an improvement.

Did You See Which Way My Team Went? I'm Their Leader

I finished The Three Musketeers yesterday. Very, very different from what I thought it was going to be like. Still, an interesting read...even if I REALLY don't understand French culture during that time period.

Next up, a non-fiction book: The Leadership Challenge. This is one that I read back when I was an assistant manager at Hastings. I enjoyed it enough to keep the book around and decided that now that I am in a leadership position again, I should read through it again. As a general rule, I dislike management how-to books. I find them trite and somewhat insulting as a reader and as an employee. This one, however, has a number of redeeming qualities and ranks up there with Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Speaking of leadership, I ran my first Account Representative meeting today at work. We actually haven't had one for nearly half a year, so there was a lot of information to cover. Now for a bit of background: In the past, those meetings have generally been nothing more than complaint fests. They were long, drawn-out, irritating, and generally pointless. Today, however, I had 20 things that needed to be covered and only 60 minutes to do it in. That averages to about 3 minutes per topic. I started the meeting exactly on time - before everyone showed up (including my co-lead).

That made some people angry.

I told everyone that we wouldn't be discussing "what if" scenarios and if they had something they wanted to say, they need to get to the point quickly without any long stories.

That made some people angry.

The first question asked started with "But what if..." They didn't get any further because I interrupted them and repeated that we didn't have the time to go over every possible "what if".

That made one person really angry.

I apologized in advance for the fact that a lot of the information in the meeting was only going to be going one way (me to them), but that future meetings would be much more of a two-way dialogue.

The first part made some people angry.

I proceeded to work through the topics. After each one, I paused and asked for any comments. When the comments threatened to drag on forever or when people started re-hashing points that have already been made, I stopped the discussion, asked them to email me any remaining questions and I would answer them then, and moved on to the next topic.

That made some people angry.

While going over some topics, I noticed several people furiously scribbling notes about the changes and/or things that I asked them to be aware of.

That made me happy.

I conveyed all the information that I needed to with five minutes to spare. I thanked everyone for their patience and reiterated that future meetings (scheduled every two weeks) would have more give and take and they would have more opportunity to voice their opinions. I then adjourned the meeting.

That made several people give me sour faces and one to proclaim: "I felt like I've been puked on for the past hour."

After everyone left, my co-lead and I sat in the room in silence for a few minutes. He then turned to me and said, "Welcome to my world."

All For One, and One For the Road

Treasure Island went really fast. Of course, I say that after reading War and Peace just before it. I guess anything would seem short after that. In any case, on to the next one: The Three Musketeers.

This is another one that I haven't read before. I know parts of the story, but I'm looking forward to actually reading it. The edition I have was, at first sight, a little intimidating as well. Each page has two columns of text that make it look incredibly long - but it hasn't been too bad yet. Like War and Peace, I'm enjoying this one - but it takes a little more concentration...the writing style is very different.

I was going to go into an explination of why I'm reading all these books at this time, but I have a really bad headache tonight and don't feel like looking at the computer screen at the moment.

Long Time, No Sea

Sometime I surprise even myself. I finished War and Peace yesterday. It took me a little over a month of reading on the bus to and from work to get through it. I really, really enjoyed that book! I would actually leave home about 10 minutes earlier so I could read while waiting for the bus. It is definately on my re-read list.

But now, on to the next book: Treasure Island. It's kinda strange; I can tell you everything about the story, I've watched several movies about it (or based on it), I've played games about it, but I don't ever remember reading through the whole book. The first few chapters were familiar enough, but I can't remember ever getting about halfway through it. In any case, it's time to correct that issue. Besides, it has been awhile since I've read a good sea faring novel. So I'm off to the Admiral Benbow Inn - Later Mateys! Arrrr!

War and Peace

I finished Huckleberry Finn last week. It had been about two decades since I last read it, so it was nice to read it again. I've also come to the conclusion that I would rather hang out with Huck Finn that I would Tom Sawyer; not because Huck is more of a wild-child, pretty much the opposite. Although Huck is fairly ignorant about a lot of things, he has his head screwed on better than Tom. Tom, being raised "proper" and all, goes out of his way to cause problems for other people. During the last few chapters, I just wanted to reach through and smack Tom upside the head.

Anyway, now that I finished, I've decided to tackle a book that I haven't read yet and that has intimidated me for a long time: War and Peace.

I've generally heard this book described as a story about people with incomprehensible names, going to places with incomprehensible names, doing incomprehensible things. That and the fact that it is a REALLY long book kept me away from it for a long time. But I got started on it this week. You know what? I'm really enjoying it!

Yes, there are a lot of people with Russian names and titles to keep track of (and they seem to be all related somehow and all their stories intertwine), and there are a whole pile of sub-plots (actually, you might say that it is nothing but sub-plots and therefore everything is a main plot...go figure). But I've been surprised at how much I've liked it so far. It doesn't hurt either that it takes place during the Napoleonic Wars, which is one of my favorite periods of history to read about (Go Hornblower!). The writing style (or at least this particular translation) is easy to read. Had I known all of this before, I would have read it a long time ago.

However, I imagine it is going to take me a very long time to get through this as I normally only take time to read while I'm waiting for the bus or I am on the bus going to work.