Ye gods! You can't read anything without stumbling onto a story about Tiger Woods nowadays. I don't play golf. I don't watch golf. I don't even like golf. I'm not now nor have I ever been interested in Tiger Woods. But he's every-freaking-where now! Hell, he's even on my personal blog. The whole stinking issue has blown up so big that it has now reached some sort of celebrity critical mass that is perpetually self-sustaining. Personally I think this says more negative about us as a culture than it does about Tiger.
The man is a golfer. He's a private citizen. Whether he's a good husband and father isn't any of our business. Who cares if he was faithful to his wife or had sex with everything that moved for the last 10 years? (Unless you are a personal friend or family member, of course. Then you care a lot.) Leave the man and his wife alone. Quit clogging up the news media with more and more dirt on the whole affair.
I really kinda hope that every news person that has reported on this beyond what it actually deserved someday has the media focused on them mercilessly for weeks at a time in such a manner that it completely wrecks their lives. After all, we all likely have skeletons in our closet if someone were to dig deep enough.
Dec 17, 2009
Dec 11, 2009
What I've been reading lately.
Robin Hobb - Farseer Trilogy
This is a pretty good fantasy series. The books are long. They didn't seem that long when I picked them up at the bookstore but the paperbacks are 600+ pages and the font is small. Each book took me a lot longer to get through than I expected. The story follows the exploits of a young royal bastard as he becomes the king's assassin. Lot's of courtly intrigue. There's a good love story (actually several love plot lines) in there. The magic is interesting and while not completely unique it is reimagined enough to be new. There's also the near-manditory dragons that have a rather interesting background/origin.
The book is written in the 1st person so there is a lot of good emotional involvement in the lead character. Ms. Hobb does a good job of capturing the emotional rollercoaster ride of a teenage boy as he struggles with responsibility, the opposite sex and his own developing sense of right and wrong. If the books have a weakness it is that they sometimes drag a bit. As I said above, the books are long. Some of the length seems to be unneccessary. There are many tense and exciting scenes but there are too many long periods when the action comes to a near stand-still. Fortunately these parts are infrequent and scattered. If they were all in one spot, it would be a book killer.
Grade: B+
Brandon Sanderson / Robert Jordan - The Gathering Storm
I've been a fan of The Wheel of Time fantasy series for 20 years now. It has the attributes I wanted in a series. It's big and complex. The characters are interesting. The bad guys are bad but understandable. The good guys are flawed but likeable. The storyline is long and meandering. Sometimes it seemed to meander a bit much but Mr. Jordan always seemed to pull it back together. I was disappointed when Jordan died before being able to finish his series. I was relieved to hear that Brandon Sanderson had been hired to complete the Wheel of Time and looked forward (with a little trepidation) to seeing if he would be able to pull the job off.
I'm very pleased with the results so far. The Gathering Storm is a well-constructed story and holds quite nicely to the tradition created over 15+ years by Robert Jordan for the series. It has a solid story arch reminiscent of the books in the first half of the series. The plot is fast-paced with a lot of significant action. Many story lines from earlier books are tied up and concluded nicely (some rather abruptly). There are numerous surprises and answers to long-asked questions.
I find that Sanderson doesn't have the same writing style as Jordan but that he stayed very true to the previous books and his style isn't so different as to be distracting. Sanderson actually does a bit better at internal conflict and emotion than Jordan, in my opinion. I think he understands that as one of his strengths and played to it in the book. The Gathering Storm is a darker and more brooding book than any other in the series but given where we are in the story, that's not inappropriate. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and look forward to the last two books. Get to work Mr. Sanderson!
Grade: A
This is a pretty good fantasy series. The books are long. They didn't seem that long when I picked them up at the bookstore but the paperbacks are 600+ pages and the font is small. Each book took me a lot longer to get through than I expected. The story follows the exploits of a young royal bastard as he becomes the king's assassin. Lot's of courtly intrigue. There's a good love story (actually several love plot lines) in there. The magic is interesting and while not completely unique it is reimagined enough to be new. There's also the near-manditory dragons that have a rather interesting background/origin.
The book is written in the 1st person so there is a lot of good emotional involvement in the lead character. Ms. Hobb does a good job of capturing the emotional rollercoaster ride of a teenage boy as he struggles with responsibility, the opposite sex and his own developing sense of right and wrong. If the books have a weakness it is that they sometimes drag a bit. As I said above, the books are long. Some of the length seems to be unneccessary. There are many tense and exciting scenes but there are too many long periods when the action comes to a near stand-still. Fortunately these parts are infrequent and scattered. If they were all in one spot, it would be a book killer.
Grade: B+
Brandon Sanderson / Robert Jordan - The Gathering Storm
I've been a fan of The Wheel of Time fantasy series for 20 years now. It has the attributes I wanted in a series. It's big and complex. The characters are interesting. The bad guys are bad but understandable. The good guys are flawed but likeable. The storyline is long and meandering. Sometimes it seemed to meander a bit much but Mr. Jordan always seemed to pull it back together. I was disappointed when Jordan died before being able to finish his series. I was relieved to hear that Brandon Sanderson had been hired to complete the Wheel of Time and looked forward (with a little trepidation) to seeing if he would be able to pull the job off.
I'm very pleased with the results so far. The Gathering Storm is a well-constructed story and holds quite nicely to the tradition created over 15+ years by Robert Jordan for the series. It has a solid story arch reminiscent of the books in the first half of the series. The plot is fast-paced with a lot of significant action. Many story lines from earlier books are tied up and concluded nicely (some rather abruptly). There are numerous surprises and answers to long-asked questions.
I find that Sanderson doesn't have the same writing style as Jordan but that he stayed very true to the previous books and his style isn't so different as to be distracting. Sanderson actually does a bit better at internal conflict and emotion than Jordan, in my opinion. I think he understands that as one of his strengths and played to it in the book. The Gathering Storm is a darker and more brooding book than any other in the series but given where we are in the story, that's not inappropriate. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and look forward to the last two books. Get to work Mr. Sanderson!
Grade: A
Dec 10, 2009
Who educates our children?
I like to listen to Ralph Bristol while driving into work at 5 am every morning. The past several days there has been a story about the poor performance of Detroit area students on national standardized tests. Mr. Bristol has put forth the teachers in the Detroit area should be held responsible for this failure to educate Detroit's youngsters through fines, law suits or some form of punitive measures. His point being that we pay our teachers to teach; therefore, our children's education is their responsibility.
I agree with Mr. Bristol about most things but this particular view of education is one of the problems with the educational system in the US today. The public school teachers are most emphatically not responsible for educating our children. We as parents are! I pay my doctor but he isn't responsible for my health. I am. I pay for my local police but they aren't responsible for the security of my home. I am. I pay teachers but they aren't responsible for my child's education. I am.
We pay the teachers to present information and give our children the opportunity to learn. The key there is that it is an opportunity. Teachers can't force a child to take advantage of the opportunity. That is the responsibility of the parents. Unfortunately a large number of parents don't take this responsibility seriously. They don't look at their child's homework, don't enforce good study habits, don't regularly meet with their child's teacher or anything else that should be the bare minimum involvement in their child's education. If the parents can't be bothered to care, why should the teachers?
The strange thing about Mr.Bristol's attitude is that it seems so at odds with his conservative leanings. It seems to say that since we pay taxes the government should educate our children. Should we then suppose that since we pay taxes that the government should be responsible for our healthcare, our retirement and our ability to get and hold a job? It seems a rather liberal stance to be taking. Personally, I don't want the government usurping my responsibility for my children.
I agree with Mr. Bristol about most things but this particular view of education is one of the problems with the educational system in the US today. The public school teachers are most emphatically not responsible for educating our children. We as parents are! I pay my doctor but he isn't responsible for my health. I am. I pay for my local police but they aren't responsible for the security of my home. I am. I pay teachers but they aren't responsible for my child's education. I am.
We pay the teachers to present information and give our children the opportunity to learn. The key there is that it is an opportunity. Teachers can't force a child to take advantage of the opportunity. That is the responsibility of the parents. Unfortunately a large number of parents don't take this responsibility seriously. They don't look at their child's homework, don't enforce good study habits, don't regularly meet with their child's teacher or anything else that should be the bare minimum involvement in their child's education. If the parents can't be bothered to care, why should the teachers?
The strange thing about Mr.Bristol's attitude is that it seems so at odds with his conservative leanings. It seems to say that since we pay taxes the government should educate our children. Should we then suppose that since we pay taxes that the government should be responsible for our healthcare, our retirement and our ability to get and hold a job? It seems a rather liberal stance to be taking. Personally, I don't want the government usurping my responsibility for my children.
Dec 9, 2009
The Burdens of Government
"The marvel of all history is the patience with which men and women submit to burdens unnecessarily laid upon them by their governments. " -- William H. BorahRecently I have found myself repeatedly in awe of how far the American people seem to be willing to tolerate increased government involvement and intrusion into our daily lives. We seem to be perfectly happy with our government meddling in our healthcare, banking, retirement planning, and anything else it decides it needs to have a hand in. Hell, we're even okay with Congress dicating that there be a playoff system to determine a national champion in college football. Really? Really.
Where does our out-of-control government get the authority and the right to redistribute wealth, take over large portions of the private business sector and regulate our lives as if it is a parent sheparding along unruly children? Truthfully, it has neither the right nor the authority. We, the people, have simply ceded our freedoms to Big Brother through fear and apathy. It pains me that someday I'll have to explain to my children how my generation took a land of promise and freedom and left them with a nanny state devoid of opportunity.
We should be ashamed.
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