I Found a Park!

I was heading to the gym for another 32-64 laps when I noticed a County Park sign.  I turned in and found a little piece of awesome.  Northeast Metropolitan Park is mostly sports fields (although they seem to be developing more of the land into parkness), but also has a lot of walking trails.  Most interesting to me is a lot of unmaintained land, including a 50-60 foot hill, which feels more like exploratory hiking than laps.  Also, the hill is the only slope I've found in the area to include up/downhill in my walking.  The park also had great benches and various features/touches I look forward to exploring.  I bet it's insanely crowded once sports leagues get going (at least 18 soccer/football fields and 8 baseball fields), but until then it will be a nice outdoors changeup to the gym's walking track.

In addition to helping my walking efforts, this is also going to count as my New Thing goal for January - this is what I want from that effort, to see more of what my community offers.

Stone of Farewell by Tad Williams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Still engaging if not completely original.  The butterfly meeting hall particularly stands out as a memorable scene.  It's interesting how focused Williams is on the novelty of a wolf as a mount/partner for one of his characters, while Eddings and Jordan had already taken this concept much further by the time these books were written - must've been a late 80s thang.  Given that the last book is 50% longer than the first two, I wish he had put more of the action and maybe a few more answers into this book, but fortunately I start the next one tomorrow!


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Book Review: The Dragonbone Chair

The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read this trilogy back in high school, and I'd remembered it started slowly, but had forgotten how slowly.  It feels like Martin's Game of Thrones in that it creeps towards even acknowledging magic, keeping the facade of medieval dreariness for at least two-thirds of the book.  In general it's a typical kitchen-boy-finds-adventure story, but the world and cultures are rich enough to keep it fresh.  Looking forward to finishing the trilogy again.


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2011 in my rear view mirror

I'm ready for 2011 to be done.  It picked up 2010's bad karma, and ran with it like Vince Young in the Rose Bowl.  Now my work situation feels better than it has in far too long, I still have family and friends that make me laugh in even the crappiest weeks, and I will make 2012 better.  How so?  Here are the (hopeful) plans:

1. Climb a mountain.  Not scaling/rappelling or anything - gravity and I have an agreement to just not challenge each other - but hiking to a summit.  Preliminary plans point to Guadalupe Peak in the fall.
2. Swim in saltwater on a real beach.  I grew up in Hawaii, and want to get back to this at least occasionally.  I don't know if any of the Texas coast counts, but possibly Padre.
3. Read Wheel of Time.  All 15 books.  The author (well, second author - the first passed away after 12 books) live-tweeted finishing this series that's taken over 20 years, and I can't wait to devour the entire thing.  You may not see me much between July and September.  Some of you will note I've made this plan twice before - not my fault the author wants to "sleep" and "eat" and "see his family" instead of conforming to my schedule.
4. Do something new every month - reading new books won't count, nor will eating at a new place.  I'd thought about doing this last week, but too many out-of-town visitors and other great people filled up my schedule. If you have an idea for something I should do (Central Texas-accessible is most likely to make the list), let me know.
5. Write.  No reason not to have at least a few notes on any book I read or movie I see.  A few stories have been percolating, and I have a feeling politicians and others will make me mad enough to need to respond.  This won't all be blogging, but I'll try to make sure friends who are here, on Facebook, or on Twitter can find anything I make public.
6. Get involved.  I enjoyed being HOA Treasurer this year, and I will find a new organization to play with this year.  Friends of the Library?  A new church?  Tax-Aid?  Political campaign?

That's the plan - I'll try to update each of those goals each month.

To wrap up, a couple of lists for 2011 that I think are worth mentioning:

• Best Movies: 50/50, The Descendants, The Guard, Midnight In Paris, Muppets, Rise of the Planet of the Apes
• Worst Movies I Saw: Bad Teacher, Green Lantern, Our Idiot Brother
• Most Disappointing Movies: Bridesmaids, Everything Must Go, Hugo, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• Best Books I Read: The Wise Man's Fear, Asimov's Robot/Foundation/Empire, Ready Player One
• Worst Books I Read: The Windup Girl, Eddings' The Dreamers (I get a sour taste in my mouth just typing the title)

Chicken

Rick Perry has been my governor for 11 years, and still no politician has disgusted me like the Republicans playing chicken with the debt ceiling.  The President offered up the holiest of Democratic Holy Grails to find a significant practical solution, and Cantor stormed off the playground.  Boehner and McConnell turned into actual chickens, renouncing their ability and their responsibility to manage the government's debt.  I guess that's what they call leadership.  Even Tea Party idol Reagan raised taxes when it was necessary, and he didn't get entitlement cuts out of it.

There were 2 times I was proud of President W.  The first was his diplomatic and subtle support to oust the Taliban in 2001 - for all the crap that followed, that was a quick strike that no one thought was possible.  The second was when he tried to broker a serious solution to immigration that would increase enforcement while recognizing our responsibility for the millions of illegal immigrants we've attracted and employed.  It didn't go anywhere, and probably enhanced his lame-duck status, but it was an attempt to solve a problem that was bigger than a sound bite.  It's the same way I feel about Obama's proposal to cut $4 trillion with a majority from spending cuts - only Nixon can open relations with China, and only a healthcare expander can touch entitlements.

But I'm sure everyone's now looking forward to enduring this fiasco again in 6-24 months when both sides are even less inclined to compromise.  I've never liked Pelosi or Reid, but they look like classic statesmen (statespeople?) next to these Chicken Littles.

Quick Movie Thoughts and Tidbits

Enjoyed the movie - a good capstone for the series.  McGonagall, the UnChosen One, and Snape got a little more love than the book, and Mrs. Weasley and others a little less, but two hours well-spent.  I'll post more thoughts in a week or so when everyone's had a chance to see it (and I've seen it again).

Found another blogger's post with more Harry Potter analysis than I've come up with: visit it if you dare.  (Some vulgarity if that bothers you.)

Finally saw the most awesome fact-checked journalism this morning.  These are 2 statements that were one after the other in an ESPN basketball story:

The United States, by virtue of winning the world championship in Istanbul last summer, is the only team to have qualified thus far for the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Great Britain, the host nation, also has been awarded a spot in the 12-team field.

Final Harry Potter What-If

I've been asked if this is now just a reading blog.  Reading will always feature here, since you're supposed to write what you know, but I will try to get to some real-world topics.

Tomorrow.

Not today.

Today is HARRY POTTER PREMIERE DAY!!!  Yeah I'm more excited than Rowling is, and I don't get to go swimming in a freshly-filled money pool tomorrow.  I can't help it - it's almost as good as the days new books came out.  Sadly this will also be the good-bye to the regular Harry Potter What-If series.  I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have.

What If Harry hadn't friended Ron on the Hogwarts Express?  Seriously, what would he have missed?  What did Ron EVER provide that a substitute partner-in-crime (Dean? Seamus? Neville?)?  The Weasleys would all still have been in the Order, his path to Ginny would have been far more open, and I just can't see what would be missing.  Harry's foster family would be missing, although if he dated Ginny, I think they would've loved him just as much.  The locket wasn't wrong - Harry and Hermione were doing fine without him.