August 2006
Bears running back Thomas Jones (who has been out with a hamstring injury) will start in tonight’s preseason game against Arizona. Jones is competing with the also injured Cedric Benson for the starting spot. Benson’s strained relationship with his teammates is no secret. He left the last preseason game early and will not play in tonight’s game. Perhaps it was no accident that his shoulder got tweaked after his run in with Urlacher in training camp.
One of Scott’s friends at school is making big plans for her husband’s 30th b-day. That got me thinking since Scott’s 30th is this December. If anyone has any cool ideas for a great gift for me to get him this year, shoot me an email through the contact link. Keep in mind he hates traveling. Thanks in advance for thinking about it!!!
Let me reiterate: If you plan on reading this book, do not read further. I will mention details that may take away from your experience. I will still be vague, but this is still information that I would avoid.
My sister just wrote me in an email that of all of Charlie Huston’s books, Already Dead has a special place for her b/c she is a big fan of sci-fi. I mentioned in my last post that it was my least favorite. I thought I should explain. There was one thing that really bothered me about this book: there is a scene near the end in which one of the villains has caught the hero and hero proceeds to explain that he knows what the villain has been up to and what his sinister plans are. The villain says that he is partially correct and says that there is no problem in revealing the rest since his plan is to kill the hero. The next 2 or 3 pages are spent in explaining to the reader all of the missing pieces.
I despise this cheap manner of pulling the story to a close. Rather than weaving through the story and letting the reader extract the information piece by piece, it’s all laid out in one long stretch. The other thing I hate about this is that much of the missing information was never before mentioned in the book. Hidden motives that the reader neither knows nor cares about are revealed.
Another problem I had was that half way through the book a theft takes place and the author pretty much spells out who is responsible. It takes the rest of the book for the main character to figure out who it is. Now, I am not the kind of person that puts together elaborate clues to guess the ends of movies or books. I try to just go along for the ride an enjoy it. However, there was no disguise whatsoever. You are basically told who is responsible and then the rest of the book proceeds as if you didn’t know — until the “a-ha” moment that the hero discovers the guily party.
My final sticking point was also near the end when the main character is severely injured. The author interrupts every paragraph to mention the hero’s thoughts on the pain. I know what the author was trying to do was to point out that the hero is having trouble focusing on the events going on around him because of his suffering, but I got the point the first time and it wasn’t that effective in conveying the agony–it was just annoying.
That said, this was still a great book. All the characters are well developed and likable (even the ones you love to hate). The author allows you to get so comfortable with the main character that you don’t even care what the plot is. On my sister’s rating system, I would give this one 4 stars and the other two Huston books 5 stars.
I just finished Already Dead by Charlie Huston. This was his first novel. He followed it up with two others: Caught Stealing, and Six Bad Things which I have read some time ago. I am in total agreement with my sister on these books. They are fantastic! I have to say that his books have gotten progressively better. My favorite of the three was Six Bad Things (the sequel to Caught Stealing). Here’s the good news. .
It looks like the sequel to Six Bad Things and a follow up to Already Dead are going to be released this year.
I just pre-ordered No Dominion (releasing on Dec. 26th), and A Dangerous Man, the final book in the Caught Stealing/Six Bad Things trilogy (to be released on Sept 19th)!
The most prestegious award in Mathematics, the Fields Medal, is awarded every 4 years. The 2006 winners are:
Has anyone seen this movie? Primer won the 2004 jury prize at Sundance. I saw it for the first time this weekend and probably need to see it another few times just to pick up on everything that didn’t make sense. I have to say, Shane Carruth could certainly simplified the plot a bit and still made a great movie. It had some cool scenes and was done very well.
If you’ve seen it, tell me what you think and maybe you can explain to me some of the things I missed. If you haven’t, you should. The subject matter isn’t so unique, but the execution definitley is.
By the way, if you haven’t seen it already, I suggest you not do anything to find out about it (not even follow the IMDB link above). I went into it not knowing anything at all and having no expectations. I’m curious as to your reactions going into it blind.
Today was my first time doing this workout:
15 minutes cardio warmup
10 sets of the following exercises (total 300 situps, 300 pushups):
10 situps, 10 pushups, 10 atomic situps, 10 triceps pushups, 10 leg levers, 10 wide pushups
3 sets of the following exercises:
15 squats, 15 lunges each leg, 10 frog jumps, 20 jumpovers, 20 heel raises, 50 dirty dogs
This workout took a little over an hour. The situps/pushups supersets should take 20 minutes for 10 sets, but it took me longer. I’ll work towards increasing the number of sets towards 20 and decreasing the rest time in between.
You may have read this story on CNN. . .
Sam Thompson is a 25 year old volunteer coordinator for Bay St. Louis, MS, which was devastated by Katrina. When he was 17, he shattered his leg and pelvis and broke his jaw and collarbone. He has a titanium rod in his left leg.
Now, to raise awareness and money for the still hurting Gulf Coast, he’s running 50 marathons (26.2mi) in 50 states on 50 CONSECUTIVE days. He may suffer irreparable damage from this stunt but I’m shocked his body hasn’t fallen apart yet. I think his last run is today in Bay St. Louis. Amazing. .or crazy. . or both. Check out his website 50in50in50.com and his blog here.
This is my new favorite show. INHD has a show hosted by comedian Zane Lamprey called Three Sheets. As espected, the premise is that the host “travels around the world engaging in local drinking customs and traditions.”
I just saw the “three sheets in Ireland” episode. What better place to start than the home of guiness and Irish whiskey? Hilarious and educational. Highly recommended. Not to mention it is on the INHD channel so it will shamelessly display how good TV can really look.