Books of 2010

So here is the reading list for 2010. It is a real tradition with me and has been infinitely useful to look back at these. Sort of like a photo album I can remember books by. Many warm feelings. Emily is out getting us some lunch and I am just puttering around here at the house. I seem to have already caught a bit of a bug in 2011, but hopefully that will clear up soon. The day is cold but sunny and I am basking in the sun and sipping some nice nescafe. This years list is pretty heavy on sequential author runs since this is the first year I have had a kindle. It is much easier to get fixated on one author and just keep feeding that hunger until you kind of burn out. I still have at least 76 pages of books loaded on the kindle and have already picked out the first few for 2011. It feels really weird to write that! So futuristic.

• All the Myriad Ways, by Larry Niven
  
• The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
  
• Limits, by Larry Niven
  
• Line War, by Neal Asher
• Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk: A Modest Bestiary, by David Sedaris
  
• Polity Agent, by Neal Asher
• The Tank Lords, by David Drake
  
• Brass Man, by Neal Asher
• Understand Western Culture, by Pam Wadeson
• North American Folklore and Folk Customs, by Ellyn Sanna
• Popeye Vol. 2, by Bob Sagendorf
• Popeye Vol. 1, by Bob Sagendorg
• Unusual Tales, by Ken Methold and Clare Vickers
• Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town, by Cory Doctorow
• Thirty Seconds, Thirty Days, by Asimov, Clarke, Sheckley, and Bradbury
• The Line of Polity, by Neal Asher
• A Place So Foreign and Eight More, by Cory Doctorow
• Overclocked: Stories of the Future Present, by Cory Doctorow
• Reflex, by Steven Gould
• Girlfriend In a Coma, by Douglas Coupland
• The Darwin Awards: Evolution In Action, by Wendy Northcutt
• Snuff, by Chuck Palahniuk
• Makers, by Cory Doctorow
• The Scarlet Plague, by Jack London
• The Gabble and Other Stories, by Neal Asher
• Mason's Rats and Bioship, by Neal Asher
• Shadow of The Scorpion, by Neal Asher
• Prador Moon, by Neal Asher
• One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, by Ken Kesey
• Blind Waves, by Steven Gould
• Wildside, by Steven Gould
• Flying Finish, by Dick Francis
• The Danger, by Dick Francis
• Under Orders, by Dick Francis
• Come to Grief, by Dick Francis
• Whip Hand, by Dick Francis
• To the Hilt, by Dick Francis
• Break In, by Dick Francis
• Bolt, by Dick Francis
• Twice Shy, by Dick Francis
• The God Engines, by John Scalzi
• To Outlive Eternity, by Poul Anderson
• Hell To Pay, by George Pelecanos
• Dead Cert, by Dick Francis
• Life, by Keith Richards and James Fox
• Bonecrack, by Dick Francis
• Bolt, by Dick Francis
• The Jungle:The Uncensored Original Edition, by Upton Sinclair
• Hercule Poirot's Christmas, by Agatha Christie
• Murder on the Orient Express, by Agatha Christie
• The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Labours of Hercules, by Agatha Christie
• Poirot Investigates, by Agatha Christie
• Poirot's Early Cases, by Agatha Christie
• And Then There Were None, by Agatha Christie
• The Casebook of Hercule Poirot, by Agatha Christie
• Cannery Row, by John Steinbeck
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, by Agatha Christie
• Tortilla Flat, by John Steinbeck
• Pirate Latitudes, by Michael Crichton
• The Dharma Bums, by Jack Kerouac
• Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, ed. by John Joseph Adams
• A Hole in Space, by Larry Niven
• This Crowded Earth, by Robert Bloch
• The Shape of Space, by Larry Niven
• Solar, by Ian McEwan
• The Mammoth Book of Zombies, ed. by Stephan Jones
• The Reality Dysfunction, by Peter F. Hamilton
• Garcia: An American Life, by Blair Jackson
• Starliner, by David Drake
• Ship Breaker, by Paulo Bacigalupi
• Pump Six and Other Stories, by Paulo Bacigalupi
• Gridlinked, by Neal Asher
• Packing For Mars, by Mary Roach
• Ringworld's Children, by Larry Niven
• The Ringworld Throne, by Larry Niven
• The Ringworld Engineers, by Larry Niven
• Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson
• Zima Blue and Other Stories, by Alastair Reynolds
• Woman of Kleenex, Man of Steel, by Larry Niven
• The Windup Girl, by Paulo Bacigalupi
• Year's Best SF 15, ed. by David G. Hartwell and Kathryn Cramer
• Tales of Known Space, by Larry Niven
• A Gift From Earth, by Larry Niven
• World of Ptavvs, by Larry Niven
• Ringworld, by Larry Niven
• Protector, by Larry Niven
• Red Shift, ed. by Al Sarrontonio
• Anubis Gates, by Tim Powers
• Africa Zero, by Neal Asher
• The Ghost Brigades, by John Scalzi
• Old Man's War, by John Scalzi
• The Fall of Hyperion, by Dan Simmons
• Hyperion, by Dan Simmons
• Live Without a Net, ed. by Lou Anders
• Break In, by Dick Francis
• Typee, by Herman Melville
• Orsinian Tales, by Ursula K. Le Guin
• Longshot, by Dick Francis
• Odds Against, by Dick Francis
• Thirteen Moons, by Charles Frazier
• Wild Horses, by Dick Francis
• Field of Thirteen, by Dick Francis
• Infinity Beach, by Jack McDevitt
• Star Trek Omnibus Volume 1, by IDW
• World War Z, by Max Brooks
• The Dragons of Springplace, by Robert Reed
• To the Hilt, by Dick Francis
• Confessions of An Economic Hitman, by John Perkins
• The Member of the Wedding, by Carson McCullers
• Our Band Could Be Your Life, by Michael Azerrad
• Get Fuzzy: Groovitude, by Darby Conley
• Knockdown, by Dick Francis
• Still a Few Bugs in the System, by G.B. Trudeau
• Young Zaphond Plays It Safe, by Douglas Adams
• The Californios, by Louis L'Amour
• The Steampunk Trilogy, by Paul Di Filippo
• Bill & Ted's Most Excellent Adventures, Vol. 1, by Evan Dorkin
• Star Trek Enterprise: The First Adventure, by Vonda N. McIntyre
• Rose, by Jeff Smith and Charles Vess
• Showcase Presents: Booster Gold, Vol. 1, by Dan Jurgens and John Byrne
• The Mammoth Book of Extreme Science Fiction: New Generation Far-Future SF, ed. by Mike Ashley
• The Steampunk Trilogy, by Paul Di Filippo
• Star Trek 1, by James Blish
• The Golden Apples of the Sun, by Ray Bradbury
• Extraordinary Engines: The Definitive Steampunk Anthology, ed. by Nick Gevers
• Miles Davis: Jazz Master, Pamela Dell
• Coelura, Anne McCaffrey
• The Game of Empire, by Poul Anderson
• A Talent For War, by Jack McDevitt
• The Story of Jazz Bop and Beyond, by Franck Bergerot and Arnaud Merlin
• Space Stations, ed. by Martin H. Greenberg and John Helfers
• The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook, by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht
• Dark Star Safari, by Paul Theroux
• Prey, by Micheal Crichton
• The City Who Fought, by Anne McCaffrey and S.M. Stirling
• Deepsix, by Jack McDevitt
• X-Men: Age of Apocalypse Vol. 2-4, by Various
• It's About That Time: Miles Davis On and Off Record, by Richard Cook
• Batman Chronicles, Vol. 6, by Bill Finger, Bob Kane, and Jerry Robinson
• Essential Dr. Strange, Vol. 1, by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
• Fagin the Jew, by Will Eisner
• Clawing at the Limits of Cool: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and the Greatest Jazz Collaboration Ever, by Farah Jasmine Griffin and Salim Washington
• Isis and Osiris: To the Ends of the Earth, by Jeff Limke aand David Witt
• Batman Illustrated: Vol. 1, by Neal Addams
• Partnership, by Anne McCaffrey and Margaret Ball
• Legion of Super-Heroes: Enemy Manifest, by Jim Shooter, Francis Manapul, and Livesay
• Federations, ed. by John Joseph Adams
• Miles Davis: A Biography, by Ian Carr
• Microcosmic Tales, ed. by Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and Joseph Olander
• The Rebel Worlds, by Poul Anderson
• Batman: Ego and Other Tails, by Darwyn Cooke
• Kingdom Come, by Mark Waid and Alex Ross
• The Adventures of Daniel Boom and Loud Boy: Game On, by D.J. Steinberg and Brian Smith
• The Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara
• A Graphic Biography of Che, by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colon
• Nylon Road, by Parsua Bashi
• It's Not About the Bike, by Lance Armstrong
• Off The Record: An Oral History of Popular Music, by Joe Smith
• The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemmingway
• Wonder Woman: Love and Murder, by Jodi Picoult
• Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth, by Apostolos Doxiadis, Christos Papadimitriou, Alecos Papadatos, and Annie Di Donna
• Maus II, by Art Spiegelman
• Maus I, by Art Spiegelman
• Only You Can Save Mankind, by Terry Pratchett
• Wings, by Terry Pratchett
• Diggers, by Terry Pratchett
• Truckers, by Terry Pratchett
• The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, by Terry Pratchett
• Rainbow's End, by Vernor Vinge
• Smile When You're Lying, by Chuck Thompson
• Kinship With The Stars, Poul Anderson
• The Ship Who Searched, by Anne McCaffrey & Mercedes Lackey
• Nation, by Terry Pratchett
• Norwood, by Charles Portis
• The Book of Exodus: The Making and Meaning of Bob Marley and the Wailers' Album of the Century, by Vivien Goldman
• The Show I'll Never Forget, ed. by Sean Manning
• The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Vol. 3, ed. by Jonathan Strahan

About Time!

Here's Emily with my new uke, Emus. She looks pretty doesn't she?


This is our Christmas pig!

Our friend Maggie and Emily at Heyi Plaza

Heyi Plaza, Emily's fave place to shop.

The snow starting in Ningbo on our campus.

So it has been another long wait between blogs, but this time it was really just because I was lazy. I played another show here in China. It was pretty fun. It seems that their shows are a lot like the old rock shows they had in America, where a bunch of bands would come out and play 2-4 songs and not really a whole set. I played two songs, one on guitar and one on my uke. Emily and her sister got it in Shanghai for me. It is pretty fun and I hooked a piezo pickup in a plastic candy box to it so I can plug it in. The crowd seemed to enjoy it, but they mostly enjoy anybody singing. Abby is leaving for America tomorrow and Emily is pretty sad about it. She is over at Abby's house now to spend the night and spend some extra sister time with her. We haven't really been up to too much. The weather has been really cold, and it snowed which was exciting. The thing that we realized is that in Ningbo it is not as cold temp wise as Greensboro, but hardly anywhere has heat. Once you leave the house in the morning there will usually not be any heat in the buildings. So your classes, the bus, and just walking around in the cold all the time make it seem a lot colder. I enjoy the cold, but Em's hates it. She tends to just want to hibernate, while I want to go take a walk and take some pictures.
++couldn't find camera card, and so I just waited until the next day to finish this blog++
I've been listening to a bunch of old sci fi radio programs (namely Dimension X) on archive.org, and it is really awesome to hear the old radio programs on my nifty laptop in China! They have a lot of old shows available for download or streaming and they are pretty small files if you download them. We are not sure what we will be doing for the coming break. Initially we planned on going to Thailand, but have recently been invited to go with one of our friends on a trip to Cambodia and Vietnam. I would like to go to Thailand, but I am not sure if we will have the time. Emily and I are about to go and visit one of our friends Larkry (pronounced Lucky) that we met at our usual restaurant. She didn't go to college, but speaks pretty good english and likes to visit/practice with us. We are going to meet her at Starbucks as soon as I get off my lazy butt and get going. Not much else to report for now, but will try and think of something interesting later!

Sooooo Long

Well it's been a long bit between posts, but I have been pretty busy. I played a Halloween festival here and added some pics from that. Their band is named Pumpkin and I wrote some lyrics for their song and played with them some. A lot of other bands played and were pretty good. It was called Halloween Rock Eve, but we just called it Pumpinfest. The TV tried to interview me but we ran off before they got around to me. It was really fun, and there were about 400 or so people there. I got sick for a bit but it seems to have cleared up. You can just buy antibiotics over the counter here. Not so great, but useful. We went to Hangzhou and had some adventures around West Lake, and we went to a Ningbo Conference and had lots of food and speakers. They invited me to play there but it was only 20 minutes of a tea break that they already had hired musicians for. Since I don't know any traditional Chinese music I sadly declined. I've been playing some with a band on Campus, but they are pretty terrible. Emily and I are thinking of trying to learn some traditional Chinese instrument and maybe get lessons. I went with Emily to see the new Harry Potter, didn't like it. We have been sneaking off to Starbucks for toffee nut lattes and chicken ceaser wraps. I am supposed to be judging a speech contest next month and Emily and I have both been assigned new classes to teach next week. I haven't been online much, and I have been practicing my guitar a lot. Emily and I are talking about all the stuff we want to do when we get home and we sure do miss everyone. Will try to put up some more later.

Another Week Gone!

Time seems to really fly here, and I think "How could I have crammed so much into so little time?"
But when I really think about it I realize I'm not doing THAT much. My classes are going well with the Thursday evening class being my favorite so far. The class is smaller so that may be it, but it just seems that the kids are more into it if you know what I mean!
My friend Luke, who is in a band named Pumpkin and has been instrumental (ha ha) in helping me find a music store/buying geetars, is having a music festival at his school. The band invited me to play and help them work on a song they were writing and I gladly accepted. The show is officially called Halloween Rock Eve, but Emily and I have dubbed it Pumpkinfest and that is what we will forever know it as! I was flattered that they asked and will do a 4 or 5 song solo set. I'm pretty nervous but also really excited to be doing something with music. I have been practicing pretty hard on my own, but it is really exciting to get together with them and finally have a chance to jam!
Emily has not felt well the past few days, we are hoping that it is just a little bug and nothing she will have to go to the hospital for. We have gone through a lot of television on DVD and streamed over the internet, but now we have just settled down to reading a bunch. I had never read much of Agatha Christie's work, but loved derivative fiction of her Hercule Poirot series. Emily got me that and some Steinbeck I was wanting and that has filled many pleasant rainy hours. It is the season for rain here in Ningbo, and we are biding our time, bustling out for groceries and hurrying back. Emily's sister is about to head out on a bunch of adventures soon, and we both wish her luck and good fortune with those. She writes about China in her own blog and is much funnier than me. I think she is one of the blogs I follow on the side bar.
If anyone has any reading suggestion for me than let me know as I am always happy to read a good book. I have a list on the side with what I have read the current year. I usually cap each year with a blog devoted to just the reading list so there are a few years cataloged here. To be completely honest, that's the only real reason that I have had this blog for so long. I used to enjoy venting on here from time to time, but now I just use it as a book list! Also, it is nice to have a place to put our news and sometimes a funny story or anecdote. I have REALLY tried to not be a "whiny" blog :)
I am off to bed now so I will see you next week at the latest!

Sittin' Around

So it is a lazy Sunday morning, and Emily is catching up on TV while I'm reading about guitars and jam bands. We have finally gotten what we think is going to be our final teaching schedule. I have classes on Monday, two on Tuesday and one class on both Wed. and Thur. It is nice to kind of have a more set schedule instead of just waiting around to see what we will teach (in suspense!). Emily went and watched a Chilean ballet last night, but I bowed out and stayed home to practice my geetar. My plan is to be good enough to play with my brother in law when I get home :)
One of my favorite things in China (that I honestly thought I was going to hate) is the drive to Cixi every Monday. It is really calming to just put on some music from the ipod and look out the window and see such a startling different view of China. We go past inner city, industrial centers, farms, shops, pretty much everything you can think of. It is really calming to see farmers in their fields working so early in the morning.
I've been reading a lot of Larry Niven recently. He has always been a fun author to read but I realized recently that he is definitely one of my favorites. I've also read a little Robert Bloch, and now I'm starting in on my Cormac McCarthy collection. The kindle is really a godsend, as there is very little English literature available here, especially in the amount that I read. And there is no way I could have brought that many books to China.
I really like the guitar store here but it is really far away. About an hour and fifteen minutes via bus. The owner is really nice and is looking into getting Emily a banjo. I hope she gets it so we can practice together and jam some. It is weird because we spend so much time together, but don't really do many of the same things (unless you count being on the internet as something).
We have had the chance to have a bunch of really good meals in China, but honestly the two that stick out most in my mind are Casa Maya, where we had some pretty good Mexican food, and McDonalds, where I had two cheeseburgers. I will never make fun of people that go to a foreign country and eat McDonalds again. I suppose it is silly, but we have definitely sampled the local cuisine by now. It was nice to have something so much like home. The only difference between McDonalds in China and in the US is that the servers are nice to you here.
That's all for now!

On and On

Wowsa. I have not updated this in forever. Soooo, long story short:
We went to a Shanghai Opera, hung out with people at markets, watched someone almost fall off their scooter, went to Lowaitan (and ate FOUR entrees of Mexican food; we were very excited), Emily started cross stitching, I read a lot of books, we watched some TV (Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother mostly), made friends with the security guards by running past them and whistling like a train trying to catch some girls who left a purse in the taxi we had grabbed, played some guitar (started working on scales), joined a technomad group (fun!), danced around the apartment, visited some temples (one of which was 1,700 years old!), read a lot of funny junk online, debated maybe doing more traveling when we are done here (almost surely vetoed in honor of the bunny, but still under discussion), taught classes (I taught 5, Em’s taught 2), are planning on going to get some bikes, shopped and 5 million and 1 “cute” stores with Em’s, worked on lesson plans, tried to join QQ (mostly failed at that one...), danced around, and ate cookies and Dove bars.

I’m not sure what we will do today, but there sure is a bunch here waiting for us! I will try to be on here more, keeping things updated and fleshing out the whole gap I just leapt in a single non-stop sentence, but I won’t make any promises! Lots of love!
JJ

Lots to Do

So I have had a few crazy busy days. Emily and I have spent a couple of nice days with her sister and had some delicious meals. We had hot pot, which is absolutely amazing and is nice and hot (as the name implies). Emily and I also went with Abby to Pizza Hut! It is a “classy” date restaurant here in China with all sorts of really funky foods on the menu that they think might be American-ish like spaghetti noodles with mushrooms and bean sauce. Ick. The pizza was pretty good, though the staff was scandalized that we didn’t want any traditional pizza toppings like whole unpeeled shrimp and hot dogs. I got a sweet watch and Emily FINALLY found some yarn. Today we went adventuring after a hearty meal of cabbage and pork, cucumbers in spicy sauce, fried potatoes with dipping sauce, fried peanuts, shredded pork and celery, and mi fan. We walked pretty far and got lots of funny stares. Emily found some cool stores with nifty stuff she liked and I was the backpack pack mule. Next week we may venture out to Tianyi all on our own and possibly go on an expedition with one of Abby’s friends, Jane. Jane is very nice and lives in Abby’s building. We have met many cool people through Abby. Yesterday was super fun. We took a cab all the way to NIT and met up with a pen pal of mine whose English name is Luke. He is in a cool band called Pumpkin. We met up with him and hung out in Pumpkin’s practice space. Most of the band showed up and we got to jam and hang out with them for a while. Then they took us into town to a little guitar shop that they go to. It seems like a really insular and small (but very nice) music community here. The shop owner is good friends with them and he gave me a great deal on an acoustic guitar that was in the shop. It is a weird brand called Tanglewood from the UK. It is in pretty rough shape (the bridge had come off and is pretty sloppily reglued back on); it sounded better than all but one of the other acoustics there, and the one that sounded better was 1400 yuan, while this one was only 1000. It translates into roughly $150 (more than I would have paid in the US, but not so bad for a decent sounding guitar here in China). After that we went above the shop and jammed for just a bit in the rehearsal space the owner had set up. It was really fun. Then we went out and ate with Abby and had a sing a long at her apartment. A few days ago we went and talked with Maggie’s class. It was really surreal. They wanted photos with us and asked us to sing a Christmas song (we sang Jingle Bells). We agreed to sing to them on the condition that they sing us a traditional Chinese song. They agreed and promptly nominated one girl in the class to be the singer. She sang Celine Dion. I didn’t think it was Chinese, but didn’t argue with them. Tomorrow we go to Cixi to visit the campus and meet some students. We don’t really know what we will officially be doing, but we ahve to catch the bus at 6:50 and won’t get back until 5:30ish that afternoon. I plan on bringing the ipod and kindle :)
So far I only know of classes on Monday and Tuesday, as they still haven’t figured out the schedule for either Emily and I. We feel a little like frauds since we are just hanging out, the lesson plans that we have already written are long done, and it feels like we don’t really have much of a job to do. I am in no way complaining about the work not being bad, but I am ready to start doing the job I came here for so I can see what everyday life is really going to look like once classes start. I am eager to see what the year holds!

Parade

Today is a day of celebration! Emily got her computer up and running with the help of a very nice IT guy and we are back to being a two computer household. It makes me very happy and Emily wont stop dancing around the house. We are relieved to get her computer up and running so she will be less fractious but also it is good to have it as a backup. My computer has had some troubling issues the past few days with overheating and just shutting down. I'm not sure what's going on but I hope it will last the year. It will definitely get more rest with just one person using it now! I'm off to have a cuppa coffee and then maybe Em's and I will have an early dinner. We figured out how to order all on our own (without any helpful semi-english speaking person to translate) from our favorite restaurant. We are going to try a different one tonight so we can have more practice. It looks like we read the schedule wrong and wont be teaching for yet another week so I should have plenty of time to have awesome lesson plans all laid out. I also heard from my Chinese friend Luke and I may have someone to play music with soon. So it is exciting all around. I added lots of pictures to my facebook so everyone can check them out there.

FOOOOOOD!

We had an amazing dinner out last night with Abby and one of our Chinese friends named Maggie. She took us to a restaurant that specializes in Northern Chinese cooking which is predominantly spicy. I have NEVER had food that spicy! We had tofu with peppers and bacon in chili oil, beef with peppers and onions in chili oil, frog in the hottest chili oil concoction I have ever tasted, and cauliflower with ham, green onions, and green peppers with chili oil. It was a spicy meal. I wish I had eaten ice cream after! Supposedly I really like Northern Chinese cooking because I like dumplings and I like spicy. Another of our friends named Nina took us out and said I had a "Northern soul." That may be because I ate two plates of dumplings. We also had delicious beef joints that you got to wear gloves to eat. You picked all the meat off and then sucked the marrow out with a straw! Yum!!! We also were brave and rode the bus and a taxi all by ourselves! Now I have to go with Emily to get a bike, but I will add more later.

A Very Fancy Feast

Today has been a very exciting day for Emily and I. We got a great lunch out at a restaurant our friend Maggie took us to, met some nice people at a convenience store, and had a great dinner with our department and the vice pres. of our school. The food was wonderful and so was the company. While the beginning of our trip was fraught with terror and uncertainty at all of the unknowns, the past few days have become quite easy. We have met and discussed most of our classes and Emily and I have written out our lesson plans. The whole thing seems to be coming together. Saturday Emily's sister is coming to Ningbo so we are very excited to have a familiar face around. Emily and I can't wait to see her and our hearts are already with her on the VERY long flight over. I have finally started catching up on my Doctor Who watching and Emily on her Dugger TV. So it is all coming together! Emily is excited because she is going to get some yarn soon. She wanted me to put that in. Also, I am finally getting used to my Kindle. I was not getting along with it, but it is starting to seem like a true friend (though still not as good as a print book).

Teacher Training

Today was very exciting. Emily and I started our teacher training and met some of the other people that we would be teaching with. They all seem very nice and we may have made some cute couple friends. Emily is excited to be around other people who speak English! We also bought the potable water for our apartment on our own for the first time. There is a complicated ticket/delivery system in place, but it is much simpler to just hand the nice water man cash. Then it is all done! Emily is still going to sleep VERY early in the evenings, but she managed to stay up all the way to 9pm today. She was quite sleepily proud of it. Dinner was an exciting affair at the local "hamburger" stand, where they serve chicken sandwiches and chicken nuggets with sides that include: fish on stick, corn on stick, fries on stick, or chicken leg. I think that nothing complements a chicken sandwich "hamburger" more than a chicken leg. It was super exciting because we got "western style" drinks. THEY HAD ICE!!! Mmmmm...ice. Then we bought ice cream and danced a little bit. The teacher training was very informative, and seems to be very well thought out and set up. The only downside is that, as we are the newbies, Emily and I will have to spend one day a week at a different campus. That doesn't sound too bad until you realize that the bus to there leaves at 7am and returns at 5pm. There is only one bus. The ride is over an hour. I teach 6 classes that day! It won't really be all that bad though since for the most part all of our lessons and plans are laid out for us. The head of our department knows her stuff and really made the process interesting and fun (or at least that's how it looks on paper!). It is time for bed now as I have another exciting day in China ahead of me tomorrow!
Love,
JJ

Say What?

While there have been enough interesting english translations here that we don't even notice them anymore, this one caught our eye.  It came on the back of a shower poof we bought yesterday: "Add some shower juice is it is it make foam to be abundant all over to wipe away, smooth and incomparable before taking a shower. Is it carry on keep-fit massage to whole body, let skin gloss extraordinarily of you happy easily to equal to, fine and smooth and rich flexibly, like bud being generally pleasant." I just want to shower with it right away!!! We have been unusually productive (for us) today, getting lots of the house clean and the rest of our stuff unpacked and stowed away.  The house is looking good, and we are all full of funky snacks we bought at the grocery store.  The plan is to head out to the streets tonight and hit up a noodle shop while shopping for a pillow for Em's and a watch for me.  I REALLY need one!  It is weird how I became dependent on my phone for the time, and I never realized how much I checked it.  I'm off to bring in our laundry from the porch, so that's it for now. JJ

Just checking

This is a test to see if blog via email works in case my sites get blocked again. Hope this shows up! JJ

One More Day

We have one more day left here in Seattle and then we are on our way. The visit here has been awesome with some all time fave Jeremy spots checked and checked again. We hit up the sci fi museum which is totally badass, ate loads of good food, had a comfortable bed, went to an interstellar travel supply store, rode a boat, took some pics, and generally decompressed after the emotionally violent move out. I already miss my family but I think that this is going to be a great adventure that will be a defining point in my life. Succeed or fail it will be an adventure! Emily is sleeping quite soundly now and it is comforting to be with someone you love so much and can share such exciting adventures with. Thanks for everyone's help getting us out of Greensboro, we couldn't have done it without you.
J.

Oi

It's like about 3am and I am wiped. We have been frantically getting stuff done and I am almost at the breaking point. I think when we get to China we will be so relived to have just made it that we won't even be nervous! We got all of our prescriptions and stuff today, and we are moving the stuff we are keeping to Ma's tomorrow. The plan so far is to be out by Wed. at 5. Then we should be crashing at our friend Dottie's and she will take us to the airport on Thur. We did a "planning" pack of all our stuff and it seems to mostly fit, so that's nice. I'm working in the office and Emily just crashed. Just wanted to put this up so everyone can be in the know. We sure have felt a lot of love from friends and family recently and it has been so nice. It makes it a little harder to leave to be honest. I think the hardest thing is leaving my niece. She is so wonderful and beautiful. I have to keep packing now, but I will update as soon as I have another chance.

Why God, Why!!!

One and a half weeks before I move to China. Tons left to do. Not a moment to spare. Netflix adds every season of Stargate to their watch instant. Sigh.

Getting Ready

So I am supposed to be getting stuff ready for the yard sale, but instead I'm watching Star Trek movies, playing with the old Palm Pilot I just found, and eating onion rings and whoppers. As procrastination goes, it couldn't get much better. We are in no way ready for this yard sale, but SOMEBODY (not naming names) thought it would be better to have it THIS Sat. Oh well. We can have another if we have to. Everything seems to e coming together. We have most of our luggage, we found me shoes for a year (no small task), and all our papers seem to be in order. I have been really nervous about the move, but i have hit a pretty calm point as I realize that whatever happens, if I have my mind right, it will be all good. Or, in the words of Capt. Picard, "Cherish every moment, because it will never come again." I think I may be the first person ever to quote Generations. Sigh.

I am not sure how often this will be updated, as the great chinese firewall puts the ixnay on ooglegay apps. Not that it would shock any of you since this is not updated very often at all. I'm looking into updates via email, or maybe just starting a new blog. The only reason I have kept this one is just for a sense of continuity. If anyone has any suggestions let me know.

My last day at Starbucks was this week. It was a little tough to be leaving and I still don't think I completely believe it or have processed it. I can't even believe that it's only 2 weeks until we leave. Yikes. I am hoping to get out and see people and not just spend my time obsessing over what is not or not going with me. Right now I'm trying to catch up on my reading to do list and rereading books I particularly want (i.e. Sterling since he is not so available on da Kindle). I'm having a hard time getting connected with my Kindle, it just doesn't seem like reading a book. Emily loves hers and I am sure I will get used to it. The limited availability of english material in china and the difficulty in procuring enough to feed my voracious appetite makes Kindle the only sane option.

I finished my electronic music class this summer and recorded a nice little ditty that I like pretty well. The teachers were very nice about me going to China and encouraged me to come back. It's funny but these recording engineering classes are really the first time I've ever LIKED school. The people are all kind of into the same stuff I am, and we all can get along and appreciate each other, even if some of our ideas are kind of weird. I am taking along a little digital studio to china so I can have something to record on. Maybe I will even get to record some cool Chinese bands. My email friend Luke in China has a band called Pumpkin that I cannot wait to hear.

My movie just finished and that means I have to do some more work, or at least shift the piles around so emily will think I was being productive (until she reads this of course). That's it for now. I will try to find out what communication format I will be using to blog from China with in the next few days and put it up on here. We don't leave Greensboro until the 26th, so I have some time.
love

I just shook hands with Larry Gatlin!

I just shook Pete Seeger's hand! It was awesome!!!

Staying Home All Day

So I have been wrestling with the whole music/school/China/work thing for the past week. It's not that I am worried about going, it just is very complicated. I have really taken strength from how strong Emily has been about the whole thing. Last night I was puttering around the house thinking about how much I had to do and it was just a little overwhelming.

My Free Chicken Samich

I got a free chicken samich today. It was chicken, and samich. Emily got it for me from the store. It came with a cup of mints, free coffee until Jan., and one free ice cream coupon. Sweet. I worked muchas today. It was not so fun. But free samich made it better. Emily says she doesn't want to work this summer. I say, "Bad Emily!" But really I just want her to be happy. Emily dislikes work but also dislikes frugality. It does not usually work out so well. I am watching a great documentary about Athens Georgia during the 80s music scene boom. I want to move there after China, after moving back to gboro to finish recording college, after getting puppy. Pylon is sweet. Emily made a nice monster doll. She hopes to sell it for cost of living expenses for the summer. It may not work out. Cornbread does nothing all day. He has decided warm weather is not for animals wearing furry rabbit skin coats. I am selling lots of books on amazon. Let me know if you want something before I sell it. I am tired. There is homework to be done that I am putting off until tomorrow. I think that it is perhaps time for ice cream. Chunky monkey here I come.

Watch out horsey!!!

I Want To Believe!

Netflix has added X-Files to its watch instant and I have been hooked! It is so much fun to re watch all these great shows. The big news is that Emily graduated! It was a fun little ceremony and her ma and sis came to see it. We ate a ginormous Chinese Buffet (literally the whole thing!) to celebrate. We are still waiting to hear word on our work visas for China, and are trying to get prepped. I spent most of this evening going through books, DVDs, and VHS trying to get rid of stuff. I have SOOOOOO many books. It is redonkulous. I recently got a kindle as there is a dearth of english language books in China for me to read. Emily and I have spent many an hour over the past week trying to build me a nice kindle library. I don't care for it much, but need to get used to it. There's just something about paper that is so much better. Emily assures me I will grow accustomed to the little "flash" it makes when you flip pages. Cornbread is perturbed by all of the hubbub. More news when I get it!

Things That Start With "C"

So it has been a while, but I'm not gonna cry about it. Tons has happened but I really just wanted to get on here and write how much I LOOOOVE the Mountain Goats. Their music reminds me why I write, play, and listen to any audio format. I think "This Year" should be required listening in school. It would have helped me :)

Things that start with "C," part 1:
Coffee. I spilled coffee all over my keyboard about 2 months ago. Many keys do not work. It is sad. Brevity good. Smile.

Things that start with "C," part 2:
Certification. I just got certified at work as a "Coffee Master," which also starts with c, but lets not beat this horse to death. It was pretty cool and I got some fun gear, but it is really just a way to get me to more productively sell coffee. I really enjoyed learning the information though, and it did remind me that I actually had a passion for coffee, which is why I wanted to work for Sbux in the first place (besides the whole benefits thing).

Things that start with "C," part 3:
Celebration! Emily and I had a fantastic reception and were delighted by how many family members were able to attend. We hope everyone had just as much fun as we did! It really was wonderful getting to see everyone and the whole thing came off just as we wanted.

Things that start with "C," part 4:
Class. I take my last exam this semester in the morning, but the insomnia is kicking in. After that I am free for a week, then I am blessed to start Electronic Music! Synths and pro tools, midi and macs, here I come.

Things that start with "C," part 5:
China. We are still waiting on our work visas to be approved before I make the whole shebang public at work and such, but so far it is looking very good. I am communicating with a cool cat named Luke who is gonna help me shop for guitars when I get there :)

Things that start with "C," part 6:
Computer. Mitch got the laptop running, so I should be writing this on that, but I was in the office anyway... It works well and I have most of my stuff transferred, so now I need to get this one to ma.

That's all for now.

It's the pirate's life for me.

Jamaica Day 7

So it was our final day in Jamaica. It was a beautiful day. First we started with a nice leisurely breakfast and then sat on the beach digesting for a few hours. The sun was out, and all was right with the world. By about the third drink I decided seashell hunting was in order. I found none. We read and sunned and had much fun. The resort had a beach jeopardy game that we handily won. Yessss. The trip to the luminous lagoon worked out and we scarfed some burgers and hopped into the super nice taxi. I had been a little worried about it because most taxis are corollas or nissan sunnys, but this one was the driver's personal suv. Sweet. The driver was a regular resort bus driver but had her son drive us down there. He was a little younger than us and a really cool guy. I felt a little bad because it was a hour and a half drive down there, and hour of sitting for him, and then an hour and a half back. He played the radio and told us stuff about the "real" Jamaica. It was pretty fun. In fact, he and Emily hit it off discussing the ins and outs of Snape's role in Harry Potter. It was pretty cool. The luminous lagoon was absolutely amazing. Disturbance in the water made all the little bio luminescent organisms flare up. We got to swim in the water, and it was like you were glowing. Each movement made the water sparkle and shimmer, leaving trails of light in the water. When you liften your hand/leg/beard out of the water all the little creatures would flare like sparks. To make them glow bright, the lagoon is totally dark. Floating on your back and looking at the stars reflected by brilliant points of light in the water was stunning. It is probably one of the most moving and amazing things I have ever seen. I feel like I can't describe it well enough to do it justice, so I have sort of stumbled about with it. Emily said it was like Avatar in real life. It is silly, but that is how all of natural Jamaica feels. Beautiful. I have to go pack now, but I will try to add some details later.
Love

Jamaica Day 5 and 6

So I got a little lazy, and this is my update for the past two days. Let's see, on Wed (day 5) Em's and I had a hearty breakfast (first the hotel brought us breakfast in bed, but we scoff at just one breakfast. So we went down and ate another!), sat on the beach, chased the surf, and looked for seashells. I also met this man named Carlton, who said he was my friend. He was not. I bought a drum and a cup and even brought the guy lunch (against resort rules). He gave me a necklace "for free" but all of his "handmade" items I later found at the regular tourist trap shops for half the price. Sigh. I thought we had something Carlton... 5 or 6 cups of coffee (and one nap) later, we caught the bus to the catamaran. It was a little rainy, but rum punch has a way of making every stormy boat ride into the best one! Emily got a little sick, but I was too busy laughing at a) people falling over, b) people drunkenly puking, c) people falling over more, and (of course) d) people falling over. It was soooo much fun. I just kept on drinking and dancing. When we got to the harbor we jumped off the boat and swam around. One drunk lady kept trying to float upside down, but we wouldn't let her. Emily was super excited because we got to take quality underwater photos of ourselves and also unsuspecting tourist butts. Good times. We finally got back on board and went home. One thing that was cool was that the catamaran launched from the first hotel built in Jamaica. It was really old and a little dilapidated, but was supremely awesome. It made you just want to go around and explore. It really wasn't that old, but being 10 feet off the ocean and predominantly open to the elements tends to wear on a place. Then we napped. Then we ate. Dinner was at the final restaurant in the hotel and was not very impressive. The food here has been weird, either it's awesome or it sucks. There is not much in between. So a lot of times it is a gamble. But the nice part about it is you can just keep on ordering whatever you want.
addendum: After dinner we went to bed, but woke up at 2am hungry and thirsty. So we went downstairs to the cantina and had hamburgers and french fries and sweet delicious Ting. Mmmmm...


Day 6
We awoke to a belly busting breakfast. Then I groaned for about 20 minutes. Emily went and sat on the beach while I napped for a bit, then I joined her. The drinks they serve are a little heavy handed on the alcohol, so we had to pace ourselves. The seller on the beach didn't have that much great stuff (I'm not sure if I explained in an earlier post, but each day a different local vendor gets to bring some items and set them up on the beach for us to peruse at our leisure. It' s cool because it helps local economy, and it is an easy / lazy way to get people presents). Emily had gone off to have brunch (the meal between breakfast and lunch here) and this guy comes paddling up on a surfboard with a wooden box mounted in the front and a "seat" in the back. So it was like a little flat bottom kayak. In the box he had tons of shells laid out. I was not so interested (I have my own shell pursuits thank you) when he lifted one to his lips and blew it like a big ol horn. I had to have one. Mine doesn't sound so much like a majestic horn as a mortally wounded donkey, but I will keep practicing. While I was doing that Emily was eating. Just as I got back, triumphantly waving my shell, she was mopping up the last drop of katsup with her last french fry, and immediately began asking about dinner. But it was time for shopping!!! I wasn't very excited about it (I'm not really into "things") but I couldn't keep emily away. So we loaded up and headed out. The driver first stopped at a local market with "homemade" items before taking us out to the real shopping center. I immediately got screwed on a purchase. Apparently my beard/face says two things to Jamaicans:
1. This guy is retarded.
2. He REEALLLLY wants to buy your pot.
When in fact only number one is true, that still doesn't stop them from offering me pot constantly. But I am easily duped and feel bad for sellers. Emily says that offering more than the asking price is "bad bargaining" but I feel guilty sometimes. Once we got to the real shopping center we picked up some t shirts, and some delicious beer ice cream. I loved it. I also got some souvenirs for peeps, and a steel drum!!! It sounds pretty awesome and I played and danced around with a shop lady. I wanted a bag from Jamaica too, so I made Emily bargain one down for me. It is sweet, with multiple pockets, rasta colors, a little thing that says "star space" and other choice accoutrements! She got it for me for $24, down from the original asking price of $27. I offered $ 30, but Emily thought that was the wrong plan and took over. We arrived home spent and dirty. The sad news yesterday was that we had planned all week to do Dunn's River Falls on friday. Then we noticed the board that said "Dunn's River Falls Everyday!!!" in big bright letters, and underneath in much smaller letters "except Friday." We were both a little heartbroken, because we already missed the reggae dance class (during the wedding), but there are bigger things in life to think about. Plus they have bacon, so all is not lost. We ate a big dinner and were going to check out the band (who has almost 70 friends on myspace, despite the staffs assurances that they were "very famous in Jamaica") but instead we watched the waves crash from our balcony and went to bed. So that catches us up for now, and I will try to add one tonight as well.
Peace, love, etc.

Jamaica Day 4 -- MARRIED!!!

So the biggest news is Emily and I are married! It was so much fun. We woke up this morning and got all prettied up (Emily got her hair done, nails did, etc.) and headed down. The weather was a little overcast and rainy so we did it in the old 1940s dining room (it reminded me of the Arlington, which made it even more special). They got us all married up with an awesome Jamaican minister, then we ate lots of cake. We even did the Jamaican "feeding the bird" photos. It was hilarious! They all loved our smurf cake toppers, and we even got props on our wedding music. Here's the track list (it was pretty short):
1. "It's Only Time" by Magnetic Fields
2. "Morning Sigh" by Health (the local one)
3. "Ring of Gold" by the Melodians
4. "Question" by Old 97s
Then we went out on a sweet photo shoot. The photographer was really fun and let us do silly things (i.e. Emily lying on piano, me with my butt in the air, Emily attempting to carry me, etc.) Trust me, you will see them! I have never seen Emily look more beautiful, and it was absolutely magical.
Then we went back to our room and napped (10:00 am weddings are hard, especially if you have french toast and bacon, but only two plates, for breakfast). Then they brought us champagne and chocolate (which emily licked off the plate, she has a problem...), and also fun "just married" t-shirts. While we were at dinner they turned down the bed and sprinkled flowers on it. Nice. Tomorrow they will bring us breakfast in bed and then we get massages. Life is pretty hard here for us :)
This afternoon we mostly puttered around and took photos, but did manage to catch a fantastic steel band this evening. I wanted one of their cds but they wanted $30 for it and it didn't even have the song I wanted so I passed on it. They were pretty awesome though. Another cool thing that happened today is that the photographer is also a musician and we started chatting about music (he was the one that liked the melodians). He invited us maybe (he had to check to make sure it was happening) to a locals club on Friday to check out the best local reggae/gospel/etc. talent. It sounds pretty cool and I hope we get to go. Tomorrow we have some shopping trip and then the catamaran cruise. We may try to slip in a little snorkeling. Going on the nine mile tour really whet my appetite to see more of the "real" jamaica, but I doubt that the shopping trip will take us outside normal tourist zones. But I can watch it while we drive through! That's pretty much it. The people in the information/internet center all got a pretty big kick out of me asking Emily just now if we did anything today besides get married. It sounds I little silly I suppose. Off to sleep now, have to get well rested to munch up that big ol breakfast! I think I've gained 50lbs here...

Jamaica Day 3

It's pretty late so I won't write too much. Today was crazy busy and I am exhausted. Nine Mile is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Jamaica is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. Today's Lion Zion Bus (wink) carried us through a city, tiny towns, beautiful rain forest, fields, pastures, gorgeous island streams and majestic mountains. The drive was a little harrowing but our driver did a great job and we all came out okay. Marley's mountain home was simply stunning. We rested on his favorite meditating rock, saw his grave, checked out some gold records, etc. But by far the most amazing part was just being outside in such an amazing place. It was a spiritual fuel. That sort of sounds silly, but I believe it 100%.

It was pretty chilly today (75 or so) and Em's and I debated about wearing a hoodie. Everyone here was bundled up in their finest winter gear. Our host this morning just shivered almost the whole time she was having breakfast. I love it here.

Tomorrow I get married. Eek. I'm a little nervous just because it sort of crept up on me :)
I think that's gonna be it tonight. I am so dang tired. Emily and I are having a fantastic time, and seeing some incredible things. It is just nice to have such a total validation of our idea of having a magic wonderful wedding here. The trip has been great and even though some of the marriage stuff is just formality, icing on our proverbial cake relationship :), it is going to be wonderful to keep going on this trip with someone I absolutely love and adore. Things sometimes get rough, but I know that everything is going to be all right. (thanks bob)
Love and _Vm
jj

Jamaica Day 2

Hello all! It's day two in Jamaica, and what a great day it was. Em's and I slept in and then opened up our beautiful double doors onto the balcony to have a little blue mountain coffee. Then we came down for breakfast, then a nap, then a snack, more coffee, made some reservations and appointments, took a nap, laid in the sun, napped had a snack, ate lunch, more sun, more napping, ate again, etc. I think you are beginning to get the picture. The day was slow and wonderful. It is storming a little, but that just adds some excitement! We ate dinner at the asian fusion restaurant (whose chef was the hardest person to understand ever!). I do well with the Jamaican patois, even though the staff seems to English it up a little with the other hotel guests (who are all "from foreign"), but the chef was from Vietnam and had a Vietnamese/Jamaican accent. Very tough. Her food was great though. There was hardly anyone in the place since it is just some no wall gazebos jutting out over the ocean on a little platform. It was a bit cold and windy (also some rain) but totally manageable. I ordered the beef appetizer three times it was so good! I think that is what prompted the chef to come give me her recipe! The highlight was a couple falling in the rain. I know that is evil, but it was hilarious.

One thing that Emily said I should put up that I almost forgot about was a story from the bus ride. I have been offered weed twice, but the first was by far the most memorable. The day we got here I had been in heavily heated / air conditioned planes, hotel rooms, buses, etc. all day. That said, once we got to the immigration and custom line I was quite thirsty. The resort had a waiting room with free red stripe which I happily gulped. What I didn't think about was the bumpy, swervy, horn blowing 3 hour ride to the hotel. When the bus made a pit stop halfway through I was more than greatful. As I rushed into the boys room to pee I was also thinking about getting a Ting (local JA grapefruit soda) on the way out. Beer doesn't really quench thirst. I peed so long that eventually it was just me and the bus driver tinkling merrily away. He leaned over and said, "Hey mon, you like Bob Marley?" I was startled, and the conversation went a little like this:
"Huh?"
"I said, do ya like Bob Marley mon?"
"Who doesn't!" I exclaimed
"No mon, I mean BOB MARLEY," this last was accompanied by the international "I'm puffing on a joint" sign language.
"Oooohhh." I said. Then stood there looking startled. Keep in mind we are both still peeing.
"I can get it for ya mon, I got the best, jus' let me know."
"Your a good bus driver." Yes, that's what I said. He looked at me like I was retarded. I just nodded and said, "Real good. Thanks. Yeah. I'm good."
By this point I notice that I have stopped peeing, put up and stuff, flushed, and turned to face
him. It is always weird to talk to someone peeing anyway, but acting mildy "special" and then continuing the converstion mere inches from a urinal was just bizarre. I quicklty washed up and left, but still radiated shame. I am not cool.
I bought a Ting on the way out and chugged it in the bus. I tipped him quite well when we got off, thankful for his offer (maybe he thought I was cool enough) but embarrassed by my own lack of smoothness in the situation.

That's about all. Tomorrow we go to mecca, BOB MARLEY'S birth/burial site! I am super psyched. I just finished a book about the making of Exodus and really wish I had brought my reggae rough guide. I even impressed (sort of) a staff person here with my rootsical knowledge. Maybe other peeps think just knowing marley is enough... Emily is ready to go so that's it for now. I'll try to add some tomorrow.

_Vm = it means peace!

Day 1 o Jamaica!

Emily and I woke up early this morning, had a snack and shower and they caught the hotel shuttle to the airport. Puffing my last preflight ciggy, I met a nice girl who had been trapped in airports for three days going from London to Vegas. It was 5:40 in the morning and she was sipping a beast light (ugh) and puffing away. Once on the plane I was psyched to listen to the dub playlist I had made for myself, but found that my cheap headphones didn't quite have the bass fidelity to make the lower sounds audible over airplane roar. It was all good though as I had loaded a lot of Miles. There is no better music to fly to than Miles! The plane was almost empty so we each got our own row. I spent most of the flight daydreaming about meeting cool musicians and thinking of ways to record stuff. Most specifically Craig and I, but also Mitch. I think it would be good practice and he really sounds great. I still haven't heard back from my "advisor" at GTCC yet, but I am only slightly worried. I alluded to going back to school in the last post but didn't go into detail. I am missing the first week of classes (oops) but as soon as I get back from Jamaica I am starting the recording engineering program at GTCC!. I signed up late so I didn't get all of the classes I wanted, but I'm excited about the ones I did get. The advisor guy I spoke to was helpful and cool.

So Emily and I have gotten in and gotten settled. Our room is awesome and I am already so full of fried calamari and rum that I can't even see straight. We got in around 11 and then took an adventurous bus ride across the island. Our hotel is really old and cool, and I already have a nickname, Jesus. I flash the pope sign to the staff like it is a gang sign and they all seem to get quite a kick out of it! We ate, took a nap, ate, took a tour, ate, drank some, ate and then napped again. In just a bit we will go back to eat again. I think I will look like a big balloon when we are married. Nothing is going to fit! :)

Not sure what our plans are for tomorrow, but it is sure to be fun. The place is beautiful, but it is definitely not "real" Jamaica. Hopefully we will get to see some of that, but we may able to. The drive up was amazing, and the mix of almost unbelievable wealth and poverty was insane. I felt like I was in some post-cyberpunk novel! Goats and digicell my friend!

Emily says it is time to eat again, so I suppose that is it for now. I hope we can go see Marley's burial site tomorrow (got to pay respek) and will try to get online again in the evening and update. Don't worry there are lots of pics! Dottie, James, and Mary Ann gave Em's and I a sweet waterproof camera that I have been lugging around snapping everything in sight.
Love til next time
_Vm

Before Marriage (he he B.M.)

So I have been amassing notes along the way for a huge monster blog and figured I might as well get them out of the way since I am getting married. This may not do them justice but it is all the light of day that they will probably ever see. I just put up the annual reading list and while I have no interest in going through an commenting on all of them I do have some thoughts on some of the more recent selections. First off:

Gilead by Marilynne Robinson is one of the better books I have read this year. The story of a dying small town Kansas preacher who leaves a journal for his young son to read is WAY better than some of the other supposedly awesome books I was supposed to read. It is funny, but I found more spirituality in this than in any of the stuff from the Hare Krishna festival. That may sound like a weird statement, but I suppose I am always searching for something that moves me. And not just catharsis, but serious movement. A new angle or way to look at things. The book made me pull out my bible. Which should tell you something.

Another great book i read recently was Genesis by Poul Anderson. He is one of my fave sci-fi writers and this book was pretty out there and awesome. It was admittedly a little abstract, but there were some really cool parts. Here is an excerpt that sums up in a pretty easy way the timeline of earth compressed into a year. I have seen others like this, but Anderson's writing and the simple beauty and wonder of so much time compressed into meaningful chunks made me smile.

"Lets split the difference and call the date three-point-six-five-billion B.C.E....then one day stands for ten million years. Life began when January the first did, and this is midnight December the thirty first, the stroke of the new year. So-along about April, single cels developed, nuclei, ribosomes, and the rest. The cells got together, algae broke oxygen free into the atmosphere, and by November the first trilobites were crawling over the sea floor. Life invaded the land around Thanksgiving. The dinosaurs appeared early in December. They perished on Christmas Day. The hominids parted company with the apes at noon today. Primitive Homo sapiens showed up maybe fifteen minutes ago. Recorded history had lasted less than one minute. And here they were, measuring the universe, ranging the Solar System, planning missions to the stars."
Poul Anderson, Genesis p. 16-17.

It's stuff like that that makes me like sci fi. The thought and ideas that make you go, "cool." I hve in my notes the thought that I need to expand upon this, i.e. the connection of futurist Sterling with the ubiquity of iphones or rfids, or the connection of Gibson to the interwebs, but I don't think anyone but me would be really all that interested in it. Maybe it is something I need to find a stoner friend to talk with who would be equally amused/amazed. I was gonna write a whole bunch of other stuff but it is pretty late and we need to head out. So here are the brief versions.
-We loved Avatar. It was pretty
-Audrey is the cutest baby that ever existed. Period.
-I love my synth
-My professor Parke Puterbaugh wrote a badass book about Phish. It were good.
-I am taking classes at GTCC (more later)
-I sure am excited to be marrying emily. Got my dub mix all ready to go!
-We nailed down the reception location and date
-I bought a classical guitar for $15 (thanks Goodwill!)

There's more but emily is insisting I finish packing and get in the car. So love to everyone that sees this and I hope I see you all soon.

2009 Reading List

So this is the 3rd or so year I have done this. It really helps to have a nice little list you can check back on when your memory fails you. Plus it is an easy way to update! So here it is...

• The Sky People, S.M. Stirling
• Sweet Chaos: The Grateful Dead's American Adventure, Carol Brightman
• Dr. Identity or Farewell to Plaquedemia, D. Harlan Wilson
• Phish: The Biography, Parke Puterbaugh
• Prince: A Thief in the Temple, Brian Morton
• Ororo: Before the Storm, Marc Sumerak & Carlo Barberi
• Yokkaiden Vol. 2, Nina Matsumoto
• Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
• Genesis, Poul Anderson
• Consider the Lobster, And Other Essays, David Foster Wallace
• 99 More Unuseless Japanese Inventions: The Japanese Art of Chingodu, Kenji Kawakami
• The Complete Annotated Grateful Dead Lyrics, annotations by David Dodd, foreward by Robert Hunter
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life, Barbara Kingsolver
• The Amazing Spider-Man: Election Day, Guggenheim, Romita Jr., & Kitson
• Shadow of the Scorpion: A Novel of the Polity, Neal Asher
• Ultimate Spider-Man Vol. 1: Power and Responsibility, Brian Micheal Bendis, Mark Bagley
• Dutchman's Flat, Louis L'Amour
• The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 1, ed. by Jonathan Strahan
• The Big Khan, Neil Kleid, Nicolas Cinquegrani
• Tomorrowland: 10 Stories About the Future, compiled by Micheal Cart
• The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year Volume 2, ed. by Jonathan Strahan
• There Ain't No Bugs On Me, Jerry Garcia, David Grisman, Bruce Whatley
• A.D. New Orleans After the Deluge, Josh Neufeld
• Burn, James Patrick Kelly
• Tiger! Tiger! Tiger!. Scott Morse
• Space Boy, Orson Scott Card
• A War of Gifts, Orson Scott Card
• Generation A, Douglas Coupland
• West of Dodge, Louis L'Amour
• Clubbing, Andi Watson & Josh Howard
• Brass Man, Neal Asher
• The Skinner, Neal Asher
• Man-Kzin Wars IX, Niven, Anderson, Chafe, & Colebatch
• Batman: Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?, Neil Gaiman & Andy Kubert
• In the Garden of Iden, Kage Baker
• The Collected Stories of Robert Silverberg Volume Four: Trips 1972-73, Robert Silverberg
• Living With the Dead, Rock Scully with David Dalton
• The Water of Life: A Tale of the Grateful Dead, Alan Trist & Jim Carpenter
• Prador Moon, Neal Asher
• The Hunter, Richard Stark & Darwyn Cooke
• Hondo, Louis L'Amour
• Concrete: Fragile Creature, Paul Chadwick
• The Empress of Mars, Kage Baker
• The Walk West: A Walk Across America 2, Peter & Barbara Jenkins
• Embroideries, Marjane Satrapi
• Dark Horse: The Private Life of George Harrison, Geoffrey Giuliano
• One More Saturday Night: Reflections with the Grateful Dead, Dead Family, and Dead Heads, Sandy Troy
• There's a Hair in My Dirt!: A Worm's Story, Gary Larson
• Black Milk, Robert Reed
• With These Hands, Louis L'Amour
• Supergirl: Beyond Good and Evil, Puckett, Kelley, Johnson & Drew
• Push, Freeman, Bernardin, Redondo & Minier
• Off the Mangrove Coast, Louis L'Amour
• Mister X: The Archives, Dean Motter
• May There Be a Road, Louis L'Amour
• Heroes Volume 1, Various
• Freddie and Me: A Coming of Age (Bohemian) Rhapsody, Mike Dawson
• Children of the Sea, Daisuke Igarashi
• Button, Button: Uncanny Stories, Richard Matheson
• Beanworld: A Gift Comes!, Larry Marder
• Batman: Face the Face, James Robinson, Don Kramer, & Leonard Kirk
• All Star Superman Volume 2, Grant Morrison & Frank Quitely
• Ultimate Power, Bendis, Straczynski, Loeb & Land
• Batman: Cacaphony, Kevin Smith & Walt Flanagan
• John Constantine: Hellblazer-The Roots of Coincidence, Andy Diggle & Leonardo Manco
• Jonah Hex: Bullets Don't Lie, Justin Gray, Darwyn Cooke, Jimmy Palmiotti & J.H. Williams III
• Gotham Central: Book Two-Jokers and Madmen, Ed Brubaker, Greg Rucka & Micheal Lark
• Green Lantern: Rage of the Red Lanterns, Geoff Johns, Ivan Reis, Micke McKone & Shane Davis
• Zen Guitar, Philip Toshio Sudo
• The Black Star Passes, John W. Campbell
• The Engineer Reconditioned, Neal Asher
• Glacier Terror, David Thompson
• Winterkill, David Thompson
• The Legend of the Mountain, Will Henry
• Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• No One Writes to the Colonel, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Leaf Storm, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Catch A Fire: The Life of Bob Marley, Timothy White
• A Wrinkle In Time, Madeleine L'Engle
• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, Junot Diaz
• High Country Showdown, Ray Gaulden
• Nemi II, Lise Myhre
• Bob Marley: The Life of a Musical Legend, Gary Jeffrey & Terry Riley
• The First Fast Draw, Louis L'Amour
• War Party, Louis L'Amour
• The Rabbi's Cat 2, Joann Sfar
• Tombstone: An Iliad of the Southwest, Walter Noble Burns
• Harp, Pipe, & Symphony, Paul Di Filippo
• Reggae Bloodlines: In Search of the Music and Culture of Jamaica, Stephen Davis & Peter Simon
• Asimov's Choice: Black Holes and Bug-Eyed Monsters, ed. by Isaac Asimov
• Trader to the Stars, Poul Anderson
• Utah Blaine, Louis L'Amour
• Tau Zero, Poul Anderson
• High Trail, Vivian Breck
• You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When it Monsoons: The World on One Cartoon a Day, Mo Willems
• Green Arrow and Black Canary: A League of Their Own, Jusdd Winick, Mike Norton & Wayne Faucher
• The Surrogates: Flesh and Bone, Robert Venditti & Brett Weldele
• The League of Extraordinary Gentleman Century: 1910, Alan Moore & Kevin O'Neill
• Batman: The Man Who Laughs, Ed Brubaker, Doug Mahnke & Patrick Zircher
• Justice Society of America: Thy Kingdom Come, Geoff John, Alex Ross, Dale Eaglesham & Fernando Pasarin
• Starman Jones, Robert Heinlein
• The New York Four, Brian Wood & Ryan Kelly
• Token, Alisa Kwitney & Joelle Jones
• The Big Book of Hell, Matt Groening
• X-Men: Magneto-Testament, Pak & Di Giandomenico
• Nemi, Lise Myhre
• Kitt Peak, Al Sarrantonio
• Batman: Hush, Jeph Loeb, Jim Lee, & Scott Williams
• The Sheriff of Yrnameer, Michael Rubens
• The 14th Dalai Lama, Tetsu Saiwai
• A Graphic Biography of Malcolm X, Andrew Helfer & Randy DuBurke
• The Mammoth Book of Best New Manga Vol. 3, ed. by Ilya
• Batman: Harley and Ivy, Paul Dini, Judd Winick, Bruce Timm & Joe Chiodo
• Faking It: How to Seem Like a Better Person Without Actually Improving Yourself, Amir Blumenfeld, Neel Shah & Ethan Trex
• Joker, Brian Azzarello & Lee Bermejo
• Renegade: The Lost Books, Ted Dekker
• Robin: A Hero Reborn, Grant, Dixon, etc.
• Superman: The Coming of Atlas, James Robinson, Renato Guedes & Wilson Magalhaes
• A Drifting Life, Yoshihiro Tatsumi
• Life Sucks, Jessica Abel, Gabe Soria & Warren Pleece
• More Science Braintwisters and Paradoxes, Christopher P. Jargocki
• Footprints: The Life and Work of Wayne Shorter, Michelle Mercer
• Punk Rock Etiquette: The Ultimate How to Guide for DIY, punk, indie, and underground bands, Travis Nichols
• The Unlikely Voyage of Jack de Crow, AJ Mackinnon
• The Rabbi's Cat, Joann Sfar
• Too Much Hopeless Savages Vol. 3, Van Meter, Norrie, Campbell
• Putomayo Presents World Playground Multicultural Activity Kit (Super fun!)
• The Happiest Man in the World: An Account of The Life of Poppa Neutrino, Alec Wilkinson
• Clapton: The Autobiography, Eric Clapton
• Rabbi Harvey Rides Again, Steve Sheinkin
• JLA Unlimited: The Ties That Bind, Various
• Iron and Silk, Mark Salzman
• Mozart in the Jungle: Sex, Drugs, and Classical Music, Blair Tindall
• The Universal Composer: Beethoven, Edmund Morris
• Re-Gifters, Mike Carey, Sonny Liew & Marc Hempel
• Batman-Arkham Asylum: A Serious House on Serious Earth, Grant Morrison & Dave McKean
• Dungeon-Monstres Vol. 2: The Dark Lord, Sfar, Trondheim & Blanquet
• The Eternal Smile, Gene Luen Yang & Derek Kirk Kim
• Secret Identities: The Asian American Superhero Anthology, ed. by Jeff Yang, Parry Shen, Keith Chow & Jerry Ma
• The Strange Intruder, Arthur Catherall
• Jean and Johnny, Beverly Cleary
• Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life Among the Pirates, David Cordingly
• So You Want to Join the Peace Corps...What to Know Before You Go, Dillon Banerjee
• More Than Drumming: Essays on African and Afro-Latin American Music and Musicians, ed. by Irene V. Jackson
• The Stuff of Life: A Graphic Guide to Genetics and DNA, Mark Schultz with Zander and Kevin Cannon
• America The Beautiful, Moon Unit Zappa
• Runaways: Dead End Kids, Joss Whedon and Michael Ryan
• Arab in America, Toufic El Rassi
• Holes, Louis Sachar
• Will Eisner's The Spirit-Book One, Darwyn Cooke
• Vroom With a View-In Search of Italy's Dolce Vita on a '61 Vespa, Peter Moore
• My Old Man and The Sea: A Fathers and Son Sail Around Cape Horn, David and Daniel Hays
• Usagi Yojimbo Vol. 12: Grasscutter, Stan Sakai
• The Real Frank Zappa, Frank Zappa with Peter Occhiogrosso
• The Sunny Side, A.A. Milne
• Black Jack Vol. 1, Osamu Tezuka
• Redshift: Extreme Visions of Speculative Fiction, ed. by Al Sarrantonio
• Tarzan of the Apes, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Burne Hogarth
• Demo, Brian Wood and Becky Cloonan
• Walt Disney: Creator of Magical Worlds, Charnan Simon
• Walt Disney, Maxine Fisher
• Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne
• Like a Velvet Glove Cast In Iron, Daniel Clowes
• The Batman Chronicles Volume 2, Various
• Walt Disney's Donald Duck Adventures Vol. 6, Various
• Walt Disney's Uncle $crooge Adventures the Barks/Rosa collection Vol. 1: "Land of the Pygmy Indians," and "War of the Wendigo," Carl Barks and Don Rosa
• Walt Disney's Treasures Uncle Scrooge: A Little Something Special, Various
• The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories, Mark Twain
• Pluto 001, Urasawa Tezuka
• Graphic Classics: Oscar Wilde, Various
• Ultimate X-Men: The Tomorrow People, Mark Millar with Adam and Andy Kubert
• OMAC: One Man Army Corps, Jack Kirby
• Comet in Moominland, Tove Jansson
• Finn Family Moomintroll, Tove Jansson
• We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The True, Tough Story of Women In Rock, Gerri Hirshey
• The Soddyssey and Other Tales of Supernatural Law, Batton Lash
• Spiderman: Doom with a View, Various
• Spyboy: Final Exam, Peter David and Pop Mhan
• Monster Zoo, Doug TenNapel
• Street Figher Alpha: Vol. 1, Masahiko Nakahira
• Fantastic Four: Monsters, Moles, Cowboys, and Coupons, Various
• The Summer Book, Tove Jansson
• Jo-Jo and the Fiendish Lot, Andrew Auseon
• Sidescrollers, Matthew Loux
• Light Brigade, Peter J. Tomasi & Peter Snejberg
• Graphic Classics: Jack London, Various
• The Tale of One Bad Rat, Brian Talbot
• Livewires: CLockwork Thugs, Yo!, Adam Warren & Rick Mays
• Justice League Unlimited Vol. 2, Various (delightful)
• As The World Burns: 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Stay in Denial, Derrick Jensen & Stephanie McMillan
• The Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite, Gerard Way & Gabriel Ba
• Soundtrackers: Reggae, Bob Brunning
• The Sun, Steele Hill and Michael Carlowicz
• Beyond the Myth: The Story of Joan of Arc, Polly Schoyer Brooks
• Distant Stars, Samuel R. Delany
• My Brother, Jamaica Kincaid
• Dororo Vol. 1, Osamu Tezuka
• Interviews with B Science Fiction and Horror Movie Makers: Writers, Producers, Directors, Actors, Moguls, and Makeup, Tom Weaver
• The Fifties, David Halberstam
• Screening Space: The American Science Fiction Film, Vivian Sobchack
• Against Interpretation, Susan Sontag
• A People's History of American Empire, Howard Zinn, Mike Konopacki, and Paul Buhle
• The Cockatrice Boys, Joan Aiken
• One Love, One Heart: A History of Reggae, James Haskins
• Moomin Vol. 3, Tove Jansson
• The End League, Vol. 1: Ballad of Big Nothing, Rick Remender and Matt Broome
• Ex Machina: Ex Cathedra, Brian K. Vaughan and Tony Harris
• Meridian: FLying Solo, Barbara Kessel and Joshua Middleton
• Fuzz & Pluck: Splitsville, Ted Stearn
• Girl Stories, Lauren R. Weinstein
• Black Beauty, Walter Farley
• Things Fall Apart, Chinua Achebe
• Blue Beetle: Reach for the Stars, John Rogers and Rafael Albuquerque
• Jamaican Warriors: Reggae, Roots, & Culture, Stephen Foehr
• Archie Americana Series: Best of the Sixties, Various
• The Replacements-All Over But The Shouting: An Oral History, Jim Walsh
• Owly-The Way Home & The Bittersweet Summer, Andy Runton
• The Castaways, Rob Vollmar & Pablo G. Callejo
• Garcia, the Editors of Rolling Stone
• Action Philosophers! Vol. 1, Fred Van Lente & Ryan Dunlavey
• The Facts Behind the Helsinki Roccamatios, Yann Martel
• The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe
• Bourbon Island 1730, Appolo and Lewis Trondheim
• Songs in the Key of Z: The Curious Universe of Outsider Music, Irwin Chusid
• Accordion Crimes, E. Annie Proulx
• Tortures of the Tower of London, G. Abbott
• The Giver, Lois Lowry
• The Unruly American Revolution, Gary B. Nash
• Bill and Ted's Most Excellent Adventures Vol. 1 and 2, Evan Dorkin
• Maximum Light, Nancy Kress
• A Feast of Snakes, Harry Crews
• Cash: The Autobiography, Johnny Cash (with Patrick Carr)
• Houston, Houston, Do You Read?, James Triptree Jr.
• Souls, Joanna Russ
• The Saturn Game, Poul Anderson
• Iceborn, Gregory Benford and Paul A. Carter
• Galactic North, Alastair Reynolds
• Crazy Loco, David Rice
• Love Hina: Volumes 1-14, Ken Akamatsu
• Nova, Samuel R. Delany
• Beaker's Dozen, Nancy Kress
• The New Space Opera, ed. by Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan
• Neutron Star, Larry Niven
• The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fifth Annual Collection, ed. by Gardner Dozois