The other book about zealots I read was on a much lighter topic than religion, violence, polygamy and society:  Scrabble.

The book “Word Freak” from Stefan Fatsis chronicles the author’s foray into competitive Scrabble.  Initially, Fatsis (a Wall Street Journal reporter) had decided to cover competitive Scrabble from a human interest story – a get to know ‘em piece, but also one with a bit of “hey, look at these crazy obsessed folks” angle – and in the “walk a mile in a man’s shoes” idea, he begins playing competitively.  And he gets hooked.

Word Freak: Heartbreak, Triumph, Genius, and Obsession in the World of Competitive ScrabblePlayers

Stefan Fatsis

The book covers a couple of years of Fatsis’ obsession as he tries to climb the ladder towards the top ranks.  He’s a good writer and his self-observations are pretty funny as he goes from smirking observer to obsessed insider.  He interleaves his story with those of some of the more colorful players that he meets and gets to know.  These folks are really savants – memorizing tens of thousands of words, and analyzing (and re-analyzing) game-strategy – as much as any chess champion.  The ultimate back-handed compliment is “pretty good for a kitchen table player”.  It's a really fun, easy read, and I recommend it for anyone that enjoys the game.

This has been especially fun for me since (as many of you know) I’ve been playing a fair amount of online Scrabble these days – the book was lent to me by a friend who routinely wipes the board with me.  Fortunately, I’ve got enough other things going on in life that I probably won’t fall into a pit of obsession about just-one-thing (like the players described in the book), but memorizing a few word lists couldn’t hurt, right?

* I know, I know – there’s a DLS in there and if you play all seven letters you get an extra 50 points, but I was going for simple.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

I realized that when I was traveling this past weekend that two books that I had read back-to-back possessed a common element: they both* were about groups of people that are outside the mainstream of society and had completely dedicated to the activities within their respective communities.  Fanatics.  Extremists. Zealots.

In “Under The Banner of Heaven”, Jon Krakauer describes the founding of the Mormon faith, the growth of the Church of Latter Day Saints (LDS), and a particular splinter sect, the FLDS (Fundamentalist Church of Latter Day Saints).  The book interweaves the historical research with the details of a brutal 1984 double murder in which two brothers (FLDS members) murdered their sister-in-law and her infant daughter because (they claimed) of a revelation from God.  Whoa.

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith

Jon Krakauer

Now, San Diego has a large Mormon population and most of what I know of Mormonism (and its fundamentalist off-shoots) comes from HBO’s “Big Love”, which while entertaining is probably not exactly 100% based-in-fact.  (Though curiously, I recognized several plots from the show in the accounts of modern FLDS communities and incidents…)  I was glad to get a less fictionalized account, though Krakauer was definitely trying to sell books by staying focused on the prevalent violence and prurient aspects of polygamy associated with the FLDS.

I’m sure the book caused a firestorm in the LDS community, but I found the book both educational and at times riveting.  I thought it was best though when it forced the reader to consider their preconceptions about faith and society.  For example, what distinguishes a “cult” from a “religion”?  When does a faith-based code trump civil authority (lots of “Law & Order” episodes there…)?  Why do we consider someone that says God talks to them as crazy, when billions of people believe they communicate with God everyday through prayer?

* I’d thought to juxtapose the two in a single post, but the content didn’t seem to mesh well, so I’ll try it with adjacent posts.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

Barn_Burnin

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

I have worked in the high-tech realm since about 1999, and as such I have been exposed to the inane quest for the bags of money hidden behind the facade of technical innovation.  I've worked for a company funded by venture capital and, even worse, I've had these types of startups as clients.  There's always a lot of disingenuous excitement about this technology or gadget or idea that may or may not exist sometimes in the future, and if it does will probably be utterly pointless.

Since I don't want to step over the boundaries of my many NDAs, I can't say much about what some of these companies do.  One thing we've worked on lately are wiki-widgets, which apparently pull user-generated-content from a wiki site to a widget that can be displayed on facebook and the like to show off.  I just don't get it.  Why would someone want to advertise the fact that they are contributing to the meaningless drivel of the interwebs... on yet another portal of meaningless drivel?

I don't mean to offend anyone, but I am really getting just about fed up with this whole online social networking hoo-ha.  Anyone who has time to time to have a "second life" should really consider getting a first life, first.  There are things to do out in the world! Wouldn't you rather travel or write a novel or do volunteer work with all that time? I don't understand how anyone has time to be active on facebook or myspace or twitter.  I've done them all.  Only when I am SO DEPRESSED that I can't do anything else do I spend time futzing around with my online life. It's a strange cure for loneliness.

I'm updating my iPhone to the new 2.0 software at this very moment.  I have an iPhone because my ex-boss bought it for me.  I think iPhones are awesome, but I don't use half of the functionality.  I asked one of my co-workers what's exciting about 2.0 and why they were all in such a hurry to download it.  He could not tell me anything except, "because it's 2.0!" I'm starting to think that our culture is developing a dangerous addiction to NEWness, while forgetting what technology is for.  It is supposed to simplify our lives, not make them more complex... not take up all of our time without discernible benefit. Technology is meant to assist us in doing what we really want to do, not keep us from doing what we really want to do.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

So, I went to the gas station this morning to fill my car and realized one thing I really Really REALLY dislike is the invention of the video-embedded gas pump.  Does everyone have these??

Make It Stop Talking

When you activate the pump, the screen lights up and a “host” appears and starts “Welcome to Shell…” and then goes into a spiel extolling their wonderful $4.50/gal product.

Now this wouldn’t be so bad I suppose (how much white noise is there in our lives?) – but the truly maddening thing is when there’s 10 pumps all going off at different times.. “Welcome to Shell…” “…better than other low quality gasolines..” “Welcome to Shell…” “…keeping tires properly inflated can lead to…” “Welcome to Shell…” “…one way Shell is helping the envir….” “Welcome to Shell…” – talk about maddening!

There’s a circle of Hell full of these things, I’m sure.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

It’s sort of hard to believe that the Eureka-Arcata-Redwoods area is in California. Its certainly not the California I live in. Where we are dry and sunny, the northwest corner of the state is a temperate rain forest -- so it’s incredibly lush -- think Jurassic Park without the dinosaurs. Very cool. And foggy.

001 Carson House

The architecture is also very different.  Eureka had several turn-of-the-century Victorians, like the one above (I thought this one was really interesting b/c it had both a redwood and a palm tree in the yard..).  The counter-culture aspects are also pretty different between the different regions. Despite the impact of Hollywood, Southern California is staunchly conservative. In the towns we visited, we literally saw people smoking pot and (once) hash on the street. There are also an inordinate number of people apparently walking all around Humboldt County with their worldly possessions in a knapsack. Bizarre.

That however, is not our style. We stayed at a pretty fancy inn -- though I was gratified that this was not a "doily" inn/b&b (which can be a little much for me). Like in Sonoma though, we paid for the cheapest room and b/c of availability got upgraded -- to like a whole floor to ourselves. Sweet.

011 Wounded

On Saturday, we drove north into Redwood NP -- foggy in the morning and then sort of like perpetual sunset during the day b/c of the fires in the region—the smoke was high in the atmosphere, so you couldn't smell it, but it really did filter the sun all day -- until the fog rolled back in. I have to say I think we both embraced a child-like glee around these colossal trees -- I mean they are truly awe-inspiring. Pictures (at least the ones I take) can’t capture the forest at all. It took a long time for our eyes just to adjust to the scale of the place. We hiked about 5 miles (rt) in an old growth grove -- quiet and lush -- we saw exactly two other people the entire time. Awesome.

013 Scale

014 Hugger

021 Hugger

028 Distant

Later, we then went back to one of the more popular (i.e. car turnout) places and took a ranger-guided-tour (we were the only ones to show so it was like a private tour!) -- which was good too, b/c we'd developed a lot of questions about the biology and ecology of the forest during our hike and our ranger (Jane) was both enthusiastic and knowledgeable and did a great job.

036 Banana Slug

037 Mossy

Next, we stopped back along the coast (in a harrowing rutted-dirt-road ride in our rental Corolla-S) to a cool little "fern canyon" which was exactly what it describes -- you could wade up a creek into a steep (50-70ft) ravine that was just covered with ferns and moss. Talk about looking prehistoric. We also walked out to the beach, which was cold, bleak and windy (beautiful in its own way), and from what I could tell had a small clusters of couples and families smoking pot.

043 Fern Waterfall

047 Headlands

Finally, we stopped at the tiny seaside town of Trinidad – a protected harbor just south the NP – the harbor was full of sea stacks. Gorgeous. We thought of walking around some more (the town was cute, with no sign of dopers) but we were gassed and wanted to clean up for dinner. Maybe that’s where we’ll retire.

048 Beach

049 trinidad

Sunday was a bit of a bust as we spent a good deal of the day re-scheduling flights because of mechanical and fog problems, but we rode them out appropriately – each of us reading through a book or two.

That part of California might be remote and not at all what I’m used to, but I can’t wait to get back.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

this past week or so I have read about 5 books, slept for approximately 10 hours every day, let my to-do list languish, set up my projector and screen, opened a new checking account, organized 1/8 of my kitchen cupboards, washed my duvet, though "I should vacuum" about 400 times, eaten a gallon of ben & jerry's ice cream one pint at a time, sat in the shade on a blanket for 8 hours at the sub pop fest and managed to stand for about 30 minutes to watch Flight of the Conchords play, sent a proposal to Microsoft that involves airbrush art of a winged tiger and two dolphins (no joke).  funny times are these.

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

There’s an old adage in the lab that the most profound scientific discoveries never begin with someone shouting “EUREKA!”  Usually they start with the someone saying "now that's odd..."

Eureka is Greek for “I have found it!”

So this weekend the “it” I’m off to find is Redwood National Park.  The Beloved had some business near Eureka (actually in Arcata) at Humboldt State University and so I’m heading up today to join her for a quick little getaway weekend of NorCal coast and forest.

I Am Here

Have a great weekend!

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

As Americans, we tend to develop some very dysfunctional relationships with money.  It is such a cultural force that it becomes strangely tied to our perceptions of self and self-worth.  For the last 15 years I have spent more than I have made. I am not proud of this, and it has been by choice more than by necessity, but here's why:

1. I grew up poor.  My mom and I usually ran out of money to eat the last few days of the month.  I got all of my school clothes and supplies care of other relatives or from St. Vincent de Paul.  When I started supporting myself at the age of 18 I suddenly had access to more cash than I'd ever seen before and I spent all of it.  Saving seemed like a luxury of the wealthy.  I was living in an expensive city earning minimum wage, so I was stretched every month, but I still bought Lattes and CDs and Doc Martens because I could.
2. Then I got a credit card.  I had been making it on my meager salary for a few years before I was offered my first Visa card.  I wasn't stupid - I planned to pay it off every month and never ever carry a balance.  But then the temptation to buy things I needed... like a bed, a toaster, a sharp knife, a tv.... became too strong with that plastic in my pocket.  Ok, I'll pay it off over a few months. But then there were some vet bills and I broke up with my boyfriend and had to make a deposit on a new apartment.  Soon enough, it was all I could do to keep up with the minimum payments.
3. I married a collector.  My ex-husband and I shopped to feel vital.  He collected records, bicycles, hi-fi equipment, kitchen utensils, sweaters.  I shopped for clothes and books on a weekly basis.  Neither of us was financially organized.  We bounced checks, we covered bills with credit cards.  We went out drinking to forget about it and spent hundreds of dollars a week on alcohol. And we both bought overpriced groceries.
4. I got divorced.  When we split up we had planned a trip to Paris that I took alone.  I paid hundreds of dollars in fees to cancel the package and re-book for myself. Not to mention the cost of living in Paris for 10 days.  Again, I had to pay first and last month rent plus deposit on a new apartment, and I still had no savings, so up went my debt.  I got behind on income taxes from working as an independent contractor for three years and owed a few thousand dollars to the IRS.
5. I was single.  I did a lot of going out for a couple of years after my divorce, indulging in all kinds of expensive things.  I bought myself a whole new wardrobe, several times over.  I was now making enough money to almost match my spending habits, so my debt kind of levelled off, but it is still much higher now than it was when I got divorced.
6. Denial.  Last year I made about twice as much as I ever had in one year.  Even in Seattle, the land of the Microsoftees, I did fair-to-middlin. And yet I found myself on numerous occasions overdrawn because I got too ambitious with credit card payments and did not control my random $200 trips to Whole Foods or Ikea or REI or American Apparel.  As long as I was buying useful things, right?

Read and post comments | Send to a friend

One of our networked computers has ~20000 songs loaded up on it... here's what I'll be listening to this afternoon....

Screenshot

Read and post comments | Send to a friend