Tuesday, August 12, 2008

There are SO many things I've been wanting to talk about. But I may not get them all in.

Ok, first of all, Beth and Jack and I went to Washington DC to see my brother and his family like 2 weeks ago. It was amazing. Absolutely great. Very very cool to see all of them. Jack developed a real shine to all of them, and was very very bummed out to be leaving them.
















However, as fun as it was to travel, it's nice to be home. It's been very unseasonably cool the last few days, and kind of rainy. It's been nice.

20 Things I Am Thankful For:

1. My wife, who constantly amazes me (with her compassion and her gentle wisdom) and amuses me. She's also pretty hot. So I've got that going for me.
2. My son, who is acquiring the power of speech at a truly astounding rate. I really do have to watch what I say around him now. One slip up and he could be repeating some off-color remark that I made for days.
3. The fact that I'm Southern. I mean, I hate the Rebel flag, and am in many ways not what those outside the South would consider stereotypically Southern, i.e. a hick or redneck. But I have Southern roots, and I'm thankful for them.
4. Old books. And the leisure to read and think about them.
5. Summer watermelon. With salt.
6. Heirloom tomatoes (see my wife, entry 1) from the Farmer's Market.
7. Pulled or chopped pork BBQ. Barbecue, in my heart of hearts, will always be pork. I'm cool with chicken and beef brisket. But pork is where it's at.
8. The success of the basil plants in our backyard.
9. Hank and John Green, for being so awesome.
10. The Teafaerie for making me laugh today. Hard.
11. The fact that I can make a kickass pizza with little to no effort. I'm pretty proud of that too. Making dough is fun.
12. The fact that I have a job that (despite the crazy/stupid things I overhear from the occasional customer [see below] and the occasional crapfest of actual WORK to do) I don't hate. Actually, there's few things in the world that I love more than turning on a reader to either John Green, George R.R. Martin, Iain Banks, R. Scott Bakker, or D.M. Cornish.
13. Iain Banks. The man is a gift. And funny.
14. Fanfilms of lightsaber duels. Some of them are pretty good. And some are awesome. It's pure geekery fun.
15. The fact that Autumn is approaching.
16. Despite how unpleasant it was, I'm grateful that I had my teeth cleaned today.
17. The smell of Burt's Bees Natural Cologne.
18. Butter Chicken. With Basmati rice. And garlic naan.
19. Any chance I have to write. Alone. Uninterrupted.
20. Music.

In other news, be on the look-out Friday for Bigfoot. Supposedly they found a BODY in Georgia (America, not south of Russia), and they're having a press conference about it. A hoax? Probably. But if not, probably one of the most important things to happen to science in an awful long time. I don't think that it's outside the realm of possibility that remnant populations of Homo Erectus could have evolved to be very very large in size, and I also don't think that it's outside the realm of possibility that they could have made their way to the Americas. We'll see, I guess.

As some of you may know, I work in a bookstore. Here are some stupid things overheard lately:

1. 'Where's the nonfiction section?' Um. It's everything. That's not fiction. And there are signs.
2. 'This sticker on this book is in the wrong place. It's on this guy's face.' I know sir. That's where we put all the stickers. 'But I can't see his face.' Why would you want to look at Kevin Trudeau's ugly mug, anyway?
3. 'I don't read much'
4. 'Do you think they're after him?' A remark about Dan Brown, from a woman who was curious about his new book, the Solomon Key, which has yet to materialize. She seemed to be implying that nefarious forces would keep him from selling the book. Or that we wouldn't sell the book.
5. 'That book isn't in [Current Affairs, Self Improvement, Christian Inspiration, pick a subject].' Really? Because I'm pretty sure I actually DO know where it is. Would you like me to find it for you?

That's all for now.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I only discovered Iain Banks this year with Steep Approach to Garbadale. Loved it and tracked down his other novels. Had never read science fiction in my life but because I liked his writing so much, I started reading his sf and have now read all of it. Pretty neat when an author can turn you on to a whole new genre of writing.

4:49 PM  
Blogger Peter said...

Exactly.

I like his 'regular' fiction. But I really prefer his SF. That's just a preference though, I guess.

5:19 PM  
Blogger Melissa said...

Hey.

As much as I'm horrified by the lack of reading in this country, I'll give the "I don't read much" person some slack. They were in a bookstore. They were, in theory, attempting to read something.

That comment seems a little too similar to laughing at the fat person at the gym. Hey, they're at the gym. They're working out. They're trying to get nonfat!

Okay I'm off the soap box.

Naan makes the world better. YUM.

4:38 PM  
Blogger Peter said...

Well. Most of the people I hear saying that are usually young(ish) kids OBVIOUSLY in the bookstore to get something they're required to read for a class.

I.E. they're still probably a slackjawed troglodyte. IMHO.

2:24 PM  

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