The New Musings of a Quiet Geek

The first selection from my book group was Collateral Damage: America's War Against Iraqi Civilians by Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian. This maybe the first non-fiction book I've reviewed here. (For now, we'll just say it is.) My conservative readers may say that this book is pure liberal trash but no it isn't. Sure, it ultimately supports a liberal point of view but it was compiled from interviews with a few dozen veterans of the current conflict and points out that several things that seem to us as wrong couldn't be helped because they weren't supplied translators, proper training or the situation didn't give them time to think it through properly. The cultural/language barrier seemed to be the biggest problem faced by the soldiers. This was a perspective that I really didn't give a passing thought before reading the book. As a liberal, I was, of course, bothered by incidents related where the troops were ordered to perform acts to civilians, or the ...

Today, my roommate and I were at Starbucks and I saw a new collection of Canadian artists called Northern Songs . I liked a handful of the choices but wasn't pleased by a few omissions. Googling the album to see what others thought. Doing so, I came across an assignment from a professor of Canadian studies at the University of Vermont (Where else would they have a major like that?) to come up with their own list of tracks. I would love an assignment like this so I'm doing it! The original list: 1. Feist - "Mushaboom" 2. Pilot Speed - "Knife-Grey Sea" 3. Cowboy Junkies - "Sweet Jane" 4. The Band - "The Weight" 5. k.d. lang - "Constant Craving" 6. Rufus Wainwright - "Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk" 7. Sarah McLachlan - "Angel" 8. Ron Sexsmith - "All in Good Time" 9. Kate and Anna McGarrigle "Entre la Jeunesse et la Sagesse" 10. Great Lake Swimmers - "Your Rocky Spine" 11. The Be Goo...

I guess we'll start on Saturday. I had an alumni Homecoming celebration downtown. As usual, nobody from my class came but I was surprised as I entered that a friend from high school was there. It turns out that her sister is the director of Alumni Relations at my college. Somewhat weird I think although I didn't go that far way to college so that may explain it... Sunday we were supposed to go out to eat with family as some of my aunts and uncles were going to be up but lunch was scheduled too early for us so my other aunt and I ended up getting our food to go before heading over to my grandparents. This turned out fine in the end. We started a book group at my church that afternoon. I guess we'll be meeting monthly. I discuss the first book after I finish it which shouldn't be much longer. Monday, my cousin/roommate, my aunt and I met my aunt and uncle who had been up visiting from Jersey. This went well until we got talking politics against my better judgment but what...

Two "major events" have happened to me recently that I thought I'd share with you all and I'll throw in a couple reviews too because, well, why not? On Labor Day, I was invited to the seminary's picnic up at Camp Mechawana which is the state's Methodist camp. Though apparently built about 10 years before, it reminded me a lot of Pilgrim Lodge the summer camp I went for many years as a child. There was a good group in attendance but few of us from the Portland campus. The food was good especially this red-skinned potato salad. I'm not sure what was special about it. (Maybe the mayonnaise?) The second piece of news I wanted to share was that my first royalty check arrived in the mail and I've officially sold 10 copies of Winter Storm as of July 31st. I guess retailers have 90 days to give the publisher the money from sales so the actual number of sold copies is probably much greater... I recently finished The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. This is ac...

This past week gave me a few things to talk about so...Yay! My parents were down so Monday we went out to Applebee's. First off, when I ordered the Strawberry Mojito, I was carded. Am I now at the age I should be flattered by this or is it still an embarrassment? Second off, I don't know what was more annoying the fact I really didn't like it or the fact my mother knew I didn't like it. It wasn't the mojito itself I didn't like. It was the pieces of strawberry and seeds that kept coming up through the straw. I was thinking it would be strawberry flavor... I ordered riblets. One would think that riblets would be small. I still can't figure out the difference between those and actual ribs as they were huge. After dinner we went back to their motel to swim in the pool and sit in the hot tub. Actually, it was hot tubs plural. Because families were taking the last gasp of summer, the pool was crowded. You all know how I hate that. Anyway, we went back up to the r...

If you can't go to the bathroom during the 7th inning stretch, when can you?

I apologize to my readers who have been short changed on blog posts from me but there has really been nothing worth talking about. In the past, I filled this blog up with TV episode reviews. I basically did this because in grad school and, living at home with my parents, I really had no one to discuss what I was watching with. Moving in here with my cousin has given me someone to discuss this with so I don't feel the need to discuss it here. With that purpose gone, that leaves reviews of movies, books, and CDs. I have seen a movie in about a month. I can only read just so fast so I can't crank out book reviews. Reviews of CDs depend on artists I like putting them out as well as having the money to buy them. Living on my own, I obviously have more important expenses. I could discuss my job situation. Simply put, I enjoy my volunteer job considerably but except for a "developing development" that I can't discuss right now, this isn't likely to lead to anything...

Literary Drama: Last night, I finished the Star Trek novel Uhura's Song by Janet Kagan. It was a very good book if drawn out a bit longer than it needed to be. There was one subplot of the mysterious new doctor that really was unnecessary in my opinion. I think it was included to give Spock more to do but I think he had enough to do as it was. The plot involved finding a cure for disease affecting a planet of felinoids. I'm a cat person as my readers should know so this book was right up my alley. As you might imagine, I was pleased that all of the crew played a part in the story with the exception of Sulu. The Spock subplot wouldn't have made sense with Sulu but it still doesn't seem fair... Family Drama: Yesterday afternoon I took bus out to my aunt's for a cookout. When I get there, I discover the reason my uncle, who doesn't live with my aunt, wasn't there was that he had a stroke! That obviously dominated the conversation and colored the mood. The ...

This will be long but probably not too informative because, that's not how I roll... Before I left to go up to keep my father and cat company in the absence of my mother who was at a church youth thing in TN, we watched the live action Alvin and the Chipmunks . Overall, it was a great film and throughout the movie they answered my "But what about this?" questions. (I'm still not sure why Simon could see with the random pair of glasses Dave gave him and not the pair Ian forced him to wear since neither pair was prescription but whatever...) I wanted more music as well. When I heard that the Yankees were coming to town the weekend I was going up to see my father, I thought that was awesome timing. My team failed me. (I will discuss today's trade of Manny when I have all the facts...) Sunday afternoon, we saw The Dark Knight . This movie totally rocked my socks. As you've already heard I'm sure, Heath Ledger was awesome as the Joker. Maggie Gyllenhaal added ...

I was reading TV Guide 's review of Wall-E yesterday and I really don't agree with it. They suggest that it's the best Pixar film to date. I think the exact opposite. They particularly liked that it shows humans will be fat and lazy a millennium to two from now. My thought is "Well, yeah..." but this is not really what I want from a cartoon. You know what I would like from a movie? Dialogue. Even silent movies have more than this movie. If you compare the latest cartoon movies, Kung Fu Panda had many big name stars while Wall-E had John Ratzenberger, Jeff Garlin and Kathy Najimy; in supporting roles! If you want to see a Pixar movie, better choices would be The Incredibles or Finding Nemo . Recently, I finished The Eyes of the Beholders , a Star Trek: The Next Generation novel by A. C. Crispin whose Sarek is one of my two favorite Star Trek novels. Being new at that time, it takes places early in the third season. It was a good book subplots that were in...

The Incredible Hulk movie totally rocked. It was so much better then the Ang Lee massacre. One, they had a villain in Abomination and didn't waste Absorbing Man as the first attempt frankly did. I thought Eric Bana's acting wasn't terrible but casting Ed Norton in this one to me worked better on two levels: One, Norton is less "buff" so the contrast was more appropriately striking and, two, Norton is a writer/director himself which I think helps in the acting. Speaking of acting, I was very worried when I discovered Liv Tyler was supposed to be a cellular biologist but I was relieved when she didn't have a "techno-babble" lines because, ugh. (My roommate was disappointed Banner couldn't get excited. "Not even a little.") I admittedly don't remember Abomination's origin from the comic but somehow making him a Russian-born raised in England seemed like just an excuse to not find a Russian actor. My other nitpick is the favoring ...

It's almost the All-Star Break. The Red Sox aren't leading the division and, despite the fabulous win last night, really can't seem to win on the road. Are they trailing the Yankees? No. The Yankees really suck this season. I really think their reign of terror is over. No, the real threat this season for the Sox is Tampa Bay. I watched the hideous sweep down in St. Pete earlier this week and I still can't fathom what changed for them to make them this good this late in the season. When the team was formed, it was filled with All-Star veterans who frankly were close to retirement and they sucked. Then, they switched it up and filled their team with cheap young talent that may have been better with better coaching but they sucked too. Now, they have natural born young talent and veterans who'd be on the bench on most any other team and given a chance to shine. I'm certainly not switching my allegiance but my "I support two teams..." tee may now be ...

My creation.

My life according to Google Type in the following and choose from the first page. 1: Type in "[your name] needs" in the Google search: -Josh needs support to learn how to express his anger appropriately. 2: Type in "[your name] looks like" in Google search: -Josh looks like he's picking his nose. 3: Type in "[your name] does" in Google search: -What Josh does when he's supposed to be sleeping. (!) 4: Type in "[your name] hates" in Google search: -Josh hates you all equally. 5: Type in "[your name] goes" or "..has gone" in Google search: -Josh goes for his first HIV test. 6: Type in "[your name] loves" in Google search: -Josh loves Unicorns! 7: Type in "[your name] eats" in Google search: -Josh eats a teabag. 8: Type in"[your name] has" in Google search: -Does anyone know if Josh has a girlfriend? 9:Type in "[your name] died" in Google search: -Josh died laughing. 10. Type in ...

This past weekend, I went up with a group from my church and my parents to the Maine Conference UCC's Annual Meeting up at the University of Maine at Farmington. Overall, it was a good meeting. In the past, I'd would go to this with my parents and get "I changed your diapers when you were a baby." Thank God no one said that exact phrase to me this time but I did see people hadn't seen me in years. This year was good because there were an equal number of people who knew me as I am now from the seminary so this was great. Friday night, my father and I thought it would be a good a idea to go grab a beer somewhere. We couldn't find a bar anywhere. In a college town. Do you see the irony here? Here's some more: according to a professor of the school I met, UMF is 75% women and their mascot is the "Beavers." The major issue of the weekend was a vote on a resolution to authorize one of our commissions to "discern" on the conference becoming ...

I will marry Jennie Garth . After a wild honeymoon, We will settle down in Maine in our fabulous House . We will have 13 kid(s) together. Our family will zoom around in a Green Batmobile . I will spend my days as a Pharmacist , and live happily ever after.

Yesterday because our apartment was being fumigated, I was downtown a lot. After work and lunch, I went the local bookstore and they finally agreed to put the copy I left on the shelf and then we'll see how that goes! I've alerted my friends in town so it should go well. Now if Borders agrees to a similar deal, I'll be all set... After that I went to see Kung Fu Panda with Jack Black, Dustin Hoffman, Angelina Jolie and Jackie Chan to name a few. While the movie wasn't " Shrek funny," it still had me laughing pretty hard in places. There was this girl about 4 or 5 years old you was laughing hysterically during most of the film... Last night was my church's pot luck and Annual Meeting which meant no dance group and no money for me but I did get dinner. For the most part, the meeting was straightforward until the end when we discussed the new capital campaign and whether to allow alcohol in the church. The former issue was settled fairly well (The goal am...

For a couple weeks now I've been editing my free author webpage provided by my publisher. I was kind of irritated to have to edit HTML but I did it. Recently, I thought there must be an easier way to do this. I discover in the help section that there's a web editor function! Yay, right? Wrong. I can't see the damn buttons that they say are there. I read the help section again and down at the bottom of the page it says that you must have IE 6 and that IE 7, which I had, can't see it. It doesn't mention any other browsers so I download Firefox 2 and try that. Not surprisingly in hindsight, this doesn't read it either but I love the spell-as-you-go function so I'll keep it around while I sulk... In cheerier news, as I mentioned on Twitter, I finished reading Buried by Robin Merrow MacCready. (I borrowed the copy I had given to my mother.) Overall, I liked it. The mystery of what happened to Claudine's alcoholic mother seemed fairly obvious to me halfway th...

Recently, I finished an "autobiography" of sorts. I read John DeLancie's I,Q , written with Peter David. To me, it was as if Dave Barry wrote a Star Trek book. This was easily the funniest book of the genre I have ever read and I enjoyed it immensely. On Thursday, I went out to one of the few nearby towns on the busline to a job interview. Because the street, I was told to get off at wasn't clearly marked, I missed my stop and took a tour of the town. But the interview itself was fairly laid back and we spend awhile discussing my book. (They wanted me to know they already ordered a copy.) The director mentioned she thought she'd read a review somewhere either in the big city paper or one of the local weeklies. I was flabbergasted but I think now she was mistaken. (Sidenote: one of the weekly publications she thought she might have seen it in not-so-coincidently told me today they haven't but want to!) Due to some shit that went down after I came home from the...

I'll write more at a later date but I so had to share the following video: