Thoughts For Today, Ancestral Dreams

A Photograph of H.G. Wells, it makes me want to grow a handlebar mustache.

Thoughts For Today

I went back through my telephone list of contacts for the disadvantaged. I went to each website and looked for a summary paragraph of what each agency did. I added this to the contact list. Then I added a few more contacts which I found on their websites which I had missed. One of my colleagues is writing a telephone script for contacting the agencies, something flexible enough that it won't sound rote. This is more about getting across the same message than selling something.

There has been a follow up to the New York Times article on street lit or urban fiction in libraries on library journal. This article from Library Journal recommends a few urban fiction books.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/CA6602977.html?nid=4683&rid=#reg_visitor_id_2&source=link

I spent some more time ordering books on construction this morning; carpentry, masonry, energy efficiency, roofing, carpentry, and similar materials. I am getting a bit tired of ordering right now. The new Nolo Law catalog came in with some recently published titles.

I have been feeling a bit disjointed today. Not at the top of my form. I am not fond of working on weekends. But, then life is like this sometimes.

On another thought, I have been finding the blog of Blogging Poet quite entertaining. He seems to resonate well with my view of the world. I really can't quite explain it. I like to pretend that I have limited poetic insight. I find it odd that someone would make the avowed claim of being a poet. More than anything, I find his writing to be quite funny at times.
http://bloggingpoet.squarespace.com/bloggingpoetcom/

I tried to read Hot, Flat, and Crowded Why We Need A Green Revolution And How It Can Renew America by Thomas L. Friedman. I simply could not read it. The book is written in a conversational style much like Jim Lehrer's news hour or Charlie Rose. It turns my stomach. The style feels like I am watching PBS and being fed ideas by television. The author constantly quotes authorities usually governmental or scientific that are the most dry and unquestionably authoritative to prove his points. It feels like I am being fed propaganda.

I may agree with the authors points, but his style is almost Orwellian. The authority speaks and you should believe citizens. Some people like to have their opinions confirmed this way, I don't. I can understand why it is number one on the New York Times bestseller list, but I don't like it. For me, this is not a book which I can read.

I ran into another disappointment with Robert Zubrin Energy Victory. A major premise of this book is that wahabism or the form of Islam practiced by the Saudi family is the major cause of the United States oil and terrorist problems. Because of Wahabism we should switch to flexible fuel vehicles. There is plenty of vitriol against the Wahabis as well as some wild claims made about ethanol and methanol being the fuels of choice for our future.

Supposedly there should be a law that mandates all cars be made flexible fuel vehicles from now on. This is not likely to happen for various reasons which I don't want to go into. It is an interesting premise from an impractical book. If you have something against the Saudi Arabians you might really like this book.

Ancestral Dreams

I dreamed I was at Agincourt
I rode a horse and carried a black shield
The sky rained steel tipped arrows
I fell from my horse seeing red and died

I dreamed I was at the Coliseum
I held a begging bowl at the open gate
Too few coins fell for me to eat
I held my belly starving on the stones

I dreamed I was in a village
I chopped at the earth with a hoe
The earth was broken, barren
The lords tax took all I had

I was no prince, no king, no noble
But common with the worlds pain
The generations go with sorrow
Each one following into the next

Good Afternoon

Jules Verne, a man who plays a prominent place in my imagination.

Good Afternoon

Good afternoon. Today, I have Thursday off because I am working this Saturday. I went grocery shopping this morning to catch up with the time I was sick. So, I didn't get a whole lot of reading or writing done this morning. I am about to have a cup of tea. I like to mix lemon zinger tea and chamomile tea. I find it quite soothing.

I'm going to watch a bit of V for Vendetta in a while and drink some tea. Later in the afternoon, I'll probably stop by the library to drop off some books which I checked out.

Sometimes, you get the oddest invitations on Facebook. On November 3, 2008 there is a literary spelling bee. It is a bit expensive for my tastes $75 and $250 for tickets. It is in New York, New York. Still, the attendees and supporters look quite interesting. https://www.clmp.org/spell/ .

I go under the name Charles Dickens on Facebook. It is a kind of joke. You are not allowed to use an anonymous name, and they would not let me be Jack Kerouac.

I was reading Twitter and found an interesting article from the New York Times on Urban Fiction. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/23/nyregion/23fiction.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&partner=permalink&exprod=permalink

Urban Fiction is very popular in our library. People like Teri Woods, Zane, Noire, Michael Baisden, Omar Tyree, and Eric Jerome Dickey. They eat this stuff up. It is not my favorite. I have read Omar Tyree just to see what it is about. I like his writing. I'd say this is the next generation of street literature after Iceberg Slim or Donald Goines. Not all of this writing is about violence and drugs. Zane writes about sex, so does Michael Baisden. There is also a new subgenre, urban christian fiction which has a message. I haven't read any of it yet. It is just one of those things that nags at you a little bit.