Books, Weather, and Such

Posted Fri Oct 10, 2008 in

I’ve been reading a bit the last few weeks. I finished Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game” a couple of weeks ago. It’s a good story. I have “Speaker for the Dead” on the kitchen table, but haven’t started it yet. I will probably start that before we head for Lubbock next week. Young Son and I are traveling to Lubbock. I have a set of meetings there (and a dissertation defense). I’ll need something for the flight.

I usually either read or write while flying. I write a lot in my journal during the enforced idleness of the flight. There isn’t enough room to get my computer out and get anything done on the aircraft. But, I can read and write.

My last flight I spent a lot of time in a book on copula technology. That was a good investment of my time. I learned a lot and had good notes when I got to D.C. I may spend some time reading the dissertation (which I’ve already read) to prepare myself for the defense. Or, I might just read. We’ll see.

I just finished reading Robert Boatman’s Living with Glocks and Living with the AR-15. Robert Boatman is a controversial writer. He’s a staunch self-defense advocate (the proper interpretation of the second amendment) and expresses that clearly. In our sensitive age, we skirt the issue of self-defense against violence. There seems to be a taboo about openly discussing the issue of self-defense against violence.

I’m of the opinion that self-defense is a basic (inalienable) right of humans. We are an aggressive species (some think a virus — don’t get me started on that one) and without social internal restraint will use force against others to obtain what we want. A segment of the population will always find it easier to prey on weaker members for survival than participating in the larger community. That means the weaker need means to abort violent attempts upon themselves.

I’m also of the opinion that a society that tolerates violence toward its citizens (from internal or external sources) promulgates said violence. Predators who insist on using violence against other citizens should simply be eliminated. That is not a popular position, but it’s mine. I digress — sorry.

Boatman expresses these ideas articulately and repeatedly. He is opinionated. For that reason, many people call him extreme or a nut-case. I suspect he wears those monikers with pride. I don’t always agree with him, but I think he’s on pretty sound footing.

His books reflect his opinions, of course. The Amazon ratings of his books reflect that. The distributions are bimodal with reviewers either loving or hating his books. Such occurrences always fascinate me because they are often a reflection of controversial subject matter. Hence the opinions expressed by reviewers are either wildly positive or wildly negative (depending on the reviewer’s position). Such reviews are not useful because they provide little or no insight into the book.

Boatman’s books are littered with such reviews. My plan is to write a couple of reviews that do a better job of commenting on content regardless of my personal position on some of Boatman’s opinions.

OK — end of rant.

Young Son and I finished the first Avatar season. It’s an interesting story. The story improved substantially with the season finale. The characters deepened greatly. The story line moved to something a bit darker and more complex. I’m going to put the second season on my Netflix list soon. I’d like to see how it plays out.

We’ve also been on a House binge. Even Young Son likes the show. We think House channels Sherlock Holmes expressed as a clinician. The series is holding up pretty well, but when I watch two or three episodes back-to-back, the writers’ patterns emerge — at least for me. That steals some of the magic from the story lines.

Last weekend we had our first bit of snow on the Sierras. Job’s Peak and Job’s Sister both were frosted. The snow crept down the mountainsides to maybe 7,000 or 8,000 feet. It’s still there on the peaks this morning and the forecast is for more weather today and tomorrow. We should start to see snow on the mountains for the remainder of the year. Fall is arrived and winter comes soon.

I love the change of the seasons. I’ll get out and make some images as soon as the weather clears.