Uncle Tom's Cabin--finished

Wow, what a powerful book.  I have probably learned more from this book than any other that I have read in a long time, although Atlas Shrugged is probably close.  The heartache and just being generally pissed off at the injustice of slavery is something that will really stick with me.  Slavery is something I remember studying some in high school and seeing a few things on TV like the History Channel and of course watching Roots a long time ago.  I never delved into it like Uncle Tom's Cabin did.  The heartbreaking scenes where parents and their children were ripped apart and sold separately or possibly even worse when a child was removed so early they couldn't even remember having parents.  It is also tough not knowing where to really direct your anger, the churches in the South that supported the system, the many white people that needed the labor and money from the slave trade, the Northerners that didn't fight hard enough early enough to end this and so on.  This is a book that I must highly recommend to any and everyone.

This now brings me to 21 books read so far this year.  That means only 3 more for my goal of 24 read this year at least--should be do able.  Still working on Desert Light and Faith of My Fathers, might look for a 3rd book now as well.

By the way, I missed the debate tonight, so might try to read up on it.  We did DVR it so I might watch some of it also.

Book Shopping

Well, I ended up at a nearby library tonight and had a few minutes to do some book shopping on their tables out front with the books they are selling.  I was almost embarrassed at the books I was buying for so cheap, but I just couldn't pass them up.  Oh well here they are:

The Matarese Countdown by Robert Ludlum

Orlando by Virginia Woolf

Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky

Pudd'nhead Wilson and The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg by Mark Twain

Across the River and Into the Trees by Ernest Hemingway

By-Line:  Ernest Hemingway.  edited by William White

Men at War edited & intro by Ernest Hemingway

Some good stuff there, at least I think so.  Demons by Dostoyevsky, it ends up I already have under the title The Devils.  I remember reading it and seem to remember liking it.  I now have a nice hardcopy of it, always good.

I don't know much about the Ludllum book, but I liked the Borne book I read so figured I would get this one & see what it's about.

I think I saw parts of Orlando the movie and know of Virginia Woolf.  I have A Room of One's Own somewhere amongst all of my books, a leftover from a college class.  Figured it should be one to add to my growing collection--don't know if it is right yet to call a bunch of used books a collection though.

Mark Twain is probably the one author that I should probably feel most guilty about not reading at least since grade school or junior high.  This book also doubles as a possible book for the kids in a few years.

The Men at War is a rather large collection of short stories that Hemingway put together about men fighting at war.  It also includes an intro by Hemingway.  Since I have been developing a real interest in Hemingway I couldn't just pass this one up.

The other two Hemingway books are more exciting though.  The novel, Across the River and Into the Trees was not very favorably critiqued per wikipedia at least.  While it might not match up to most of the other Hemingway works, I have it now to read and decide for myself and some point in the future.  By-Line is a collection of articles and dispatches that Hemingway wrote in his lifetime.  Sounds pretty interesting, maybe not exciting but still another Hemingway thing to have.

By the way all of these books came for the price of $1.75--just amazing.  $.25 each book, I even told the librarian checking me out that I felt a little guilty getting all of these books for that amount and she just kind of laughed it off.  

I did get 2 miles in tonight before going to the library.  I stopped at two because my right ankle was kind of tight like I rolled it or something.  I don't remember doing anything to it so I figured on not pushing it and seeing how it feels if I get to run on Wed.  

A Sunday

This was a special Sunday in the household.  It was the first time our oldest Rose was an altar server at Mass.  Grandpa was the lector & stayed on the altar to help her out.  She did really good for the first time, I could tell a couple of points where she was a little unsure of herself but with a little help from either grandpa or our priest she got through it.  She was so excited this morning, she was awake & dressed for church by 7:30 and she didn't have to be at church till 9:30 for 10am Mass.  Rose is normally a sleep in and move slow kid, a typical 9 year old I guess.

Thomas was excited to see Rose on the altar also.  Even though I tried to explain to him what was going on, he kept saying, "I want to go get Rose".  I had to take him into the Cry Room a couple of times to get him to settle down.  After Mass, Thomas did his usual routine of checking out the statues in church, Angie came along also.  Thomas really loves looking at the statues and calls the baby Jesus' Angie and the Mary statues Rose.  I guess his sisters are about perfect to him, well except when they have a toy he wants or switch channels or sit in his seat or...you get the idea.

I was a great day out, so the kids were able to play outside at grandma & grandpas a lot.  It made the two younger tired and cranky so when it came time to go to Rose's VB game, they stayed home.  I took Rose and it was just the two of us.  It was nice, but it was also like something was missing with just me watching her game.  I am normally attached to Thomas to make sure he doesn't go running off.  Rose's team won 2 of 3 games and played pretty good except the one game they lost.  Rose was getting her serves over and made a few good bumps also.

I have a lead in my fantasy football.  The guy I am playing has a kicker left and has to make up something like 19 points, should win but put whatever saying you want her--don't count your chickens till they hatch, it's not over till it's over, etc.

Nebraska got stomped by Mizz last night also.  I endured watching 3 quarters of that and finally went over to the baseball game for good.  I have enjoyed many many years of good NE football so enduring a few of these games has to be expected I guess.  I really don't follow it much at all now with the kids and everything so wins and losses don't matter that much now.

I got some good reading in on Uncle Tom's Cabin today also.  What a sad story and a lot of respects.  I cannot even imagine that when this book first came out slavery was still legal and the Civil War was looming.  It is really painful to think that much of what the book talks about really did happen.  It is making respect the Union soldiers that much more for fighting to end slavery, as well to maintain the Union/USA.  It is just a powerful book and am glad I am reading it but at the same time wishing I had read it back in either college or high school days.

Normal Stuff

I am going to hit on the normal stuff that I usually blog about for today.  I finally got a run in, 3.2 miles.  It was slow somewhere around 14:40, 13:40 & a 12:40 for the miles.  The last mile I did 3 interval type runs of under 100m at a faster pace.  It was good, I had to remind my muscles/body that I am capable of faster speeds.  Hopefully, Monday will be a good run and can start building off this.

This was also a garage sale day for Debbie.  I was able to get some reading in this morning and afternoon in.  I mostly hit Desert Light and Faith of My Fathers.  Slow going on both but at least got some progress growing.

I think the run has me a little tired also so calling it early.  By the way I did watch part of the NU vs Mizz game until it just started getting ugly.  Neb has delivered enough of these types of beatings over the years so can't really say this was unexpected.  Only chance Neb had was for Mizz for start turning the ball over and hoping a loud road game would shake them up.  None of that happened.  Knew coming in that Neb just didn't have the talent so just take the beating and hope things get better over the next couple of years.

What to type today?

This is where trying to do a blog entry for 31 days is going to get tough.  While I don't mind typing up stuff about my mundane days, to do it day after day will be tough.  I doubt there are many people out there reading this so I guess it is not punishing that many people.

A couple of weeks ago my wife picked up a copy of The Wizard of Oz VCR tape.  The kids & especially Thomas, love it.  Most days it is getting played, at least a few minutes here and there, not the whole movie generally.  Thomas has certain parts memorized and loves repeating them.  He has been saying, "I want to go home", it took me some time to piece it together that he was just saying a line from the movie and not really wanting to go home.  He likes to dance and act out parts of the movie--it is just funny to see and he really enjoys it as well.  

When Debbie first brought the movie home, I remembered it from the book, Adventures in the Mainstream by Greg Palmer & his son Ned who has DS.  I seem to remember from the book that The Wizard of Oz was one of his favorite movies growing up.  It has been a couple of years since reading that book but I think there were more than a few similarities between Thomas and Ned, in their likes and actions.  I will have to put this book on the re-read fast-track I think.

By the way, it was at a St Louis Down Syndrome Conference 2 or 3 years ago that Greg & Ned Palmer were the keynote speakers and did an excellent speech/presentation of themselves.  It was after that speech that I bought a book and they both signed it.  I know if you would check my very earliest posts I gave credit to this book for my starting to blog.  The book is basically diary entries of Greg, the dad, about his son growing up.  While Greg is a writer and producer of documentaries, the book is written in a style that I think most people would believe they could do that also.  Of course that is selling the author short, but I wouldn't mind writing something sometime, besides a blog no one reads.

Day 2 of 31 for 21

It is another late night, just like I predicted.  I had a class to go to after work tonight and then when I finally got home around 10pm, I spent 2 hours watching the VP debate.  A little listening & reading what people are saying & now here.

I thought it was a good debate.  The big story is that Palin did very well.  I think she was able to connect with the viewers and stuck to simple topics and stayed on campaign messages.  She avoided or at least side stepped some of the questions and follow ups that were not to her liking.  After the debate, her family and parents came up on stage.  Trig was there also and I got to see a momentary shot of his face, what a cute chubby face.  

I was probably at least as impressed with Biden as Palin though.  I wish the race was between him and McCain, I would probably still be voting for McCain but I would feel better about losing to Biden than Obama.  I think Biden did enough in the debate to hurt McCain, especially where he listed why McCain was not a maverick on the issues that matter today.  Maybe it was just Biden reminding me why I was not a supporter of McCain and really have more enthusiasm about voting for Palin than McCain.

I don't know if this does much for the overall campaigns as far as changing the percentages.  I think Palin's solid showing was disparately needed to change the momentum of the McCain campaign.  Should be interesting to see if any bounce comes from this in a few days.  I think it is next Tuesday for the next debate, so that is where McCain needs to do well to get back into this.

Rough Start

This is the first day of 31 for 21 & I almost missed posting something on my blog already.  That is what I get for falling asleep on the couch.  Luckily(?) my wife woke up to go to the bathroom & when I sort of woke up I saw my son Thomas sleeping on the floor in the living room.  I guess somewhere after  I nodded off he came downstairs.  A quick trip to the bathroom ourselves and here I am struggling to get something down on the blog.

Oh well, tomorrow will probably be about the same.  I have a class tomorrow after work on something about cars--one of those classes I need to take to help my job & it's yearly performance record.  Anyway I will miss the VP debate live so Debbie will be taping it.  Once I get home I expect to watch that & then if still awake back here posting something.

Sorry if anyone is expecting any great insight because I doubt it will be found here.  More of just everyday goings on.