Climb a Mountain

To get ready for our big hike, we carbo-loaded the night before.

Playdoh spaghetti and meatballs should do the trick!

Goes down easy, doesn't it ?

I picked Mt Tumalo for our first real mountain hike, as it's relatively small and easily accessed.
The grade was uphill nearly the entire way. The sign at the trailhead said the top was only 1.5 miles away - so I was pretty sure we could make it.
Numerous rest stops were required, and much cajoling.

Nature's playgrounds encountered along the way...

Finally after almost 2 hours, and many viewings of the GPS to prove the top was not far away, the end is in sight.

Victory is ours ! It turns out the hike was 2.1 miles to the top, with a vertical gain of nearly 1500 feet. Pretty awesome for these little hikers.

More Quickie Book and Movie Reviews

Ratings are 0 to *****
Books :

- The logic of life : the rational economics of an irrational world / Tim Harford [***]

Interesting view of life from an economics science point of view. The main premise is that all the choices we make in life - however illogical they may seem - are based on sound economic theory.

- The cider house rules : a novel / John Irving [****]

I only ever saw the movie. The book is possibly better, though somewhat depressing as well.

- Journey / by James Michener [***]

A short book for Michener. Excellent portrayal of the extremes of life and death during the Yukon Gold Rush.

- The man in the iron mask / Alexandre Dumas

Trying to read some classics - just couldn't do it - too much other more interesting stuff to read. Only made it 50 pages or so...

- Simple genius / David Baldacci [*]

Typical blockbuster author crap. He wrote one good book I read a long time ago. I only made it through the first 20 pages before dumping it. I would have given it a 0 rating, but can't really cuz I didn't finish it.

- Theft : a love story / Peter Carey [*****]

This is the 2nd book I've read by Carey - it's completely different and no less amazing. The author uses another original storytelling style - chapters alternate narration between the main protaganist and his idiot-savant brother. The descriptive flow of words in some cases is breathtaking, immersing you in the moment using far-out but apt analogies.

- Common wealth : economics for a crowded planet / Jeffrey D. Sachs [*****]

This is one of the most influential (personally at least) non-fiction works I've ever read. It is a must-read for anyone who cares about the economic/ecological/environmental/etc state of this planet. It looks at the big picture, about how if we are going to keep this planet from becoming a big mess, nations need to start acting globally, rather than using self-contained strategies which are ultimately doomed. It also helped change my perspective from 'me against the world' to 'we're all in this together'. It is not easy going, and must be consumed in small quantities in order to facilitate proper digestion.

- The Pixar Touch: The Making of a Company / David Price [**]

A worthwhile read, if you're a computer / animation geek.

- Fatal misconception : the struggle to control world population / Matthew Connelly.

If I hadn't read Common Wealth ... [see above], I probably would have finished this, but it was going over some of the same material - albeit in greater depth wrt population control - so I abandoned shortly into it. Might pick it up again next year.

- Dinner with Mugabe : the untold story of a freedom fighter who became a tyrant / Heidi Holland. [***]

Another book that took me a month or 2 to finish, but a great portrayal of Zimbabwe's much-maligned (and justifiably so) leader of the last few decades, who has driven his country into the ground.

- The white tiger : a novel / Aravind Adiga [***]

This book won a lot of awards. I thought it was good, but not great. Good insight into rural Indian life.

Movies :

- Iron Man [****]

Entertaining, and well-done for a superhero movie. Better than the SpiderMan movies I thought.

- The Happening [0]

This was one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I picked it up because it said it was the same director as The Sixth Sense, which was awesome. I was a little suspicious when I saw Mark Wahlberg (sp?) as the lead actor - doesn't he suck ? Well the answer is a resounding yes ! The entire movie he had this intense worried frown. His dialog was stilted and artificial. The supporting actors were no better. The female lead was cute, but was she trying to play someone who was retarded (excuse my political incorrectness, but no other word will suffice) ? At first I thought so, but then I realized it was just more bad acting. Pass!

Pumpkin Patch

Millions of pumpkins, pumpkins for free ! (not really...)



Entering the maze to rescue the princess

Mission accomplished! Although it appears Rowan has doubts about authenticity




Took a while to choose 3 pumpkins out of several thousand

Rantpage

Someone mentioned the other day that they missed my rants on this blog, and could I possibly find it in my heart to seriously bitch about stuff or what ?! Yes apparently people read this blog but rarely comment... Let me start by bitching about that ! Nah, not really worth it... Lately I try to avoid negativity, so it's been mostly la-di-da happy-go-lucky summer stuff. But now that Winter is in the process of arriving, I'm starting to realize that yes, there are a bunch of things that are sticking in my craw (wtf is a craw?), and I really need to vent. So let's have at it... (warning about objectionable content and some cussin')

So WTF is up with sick people who still come in to work ? There they are at home, puking their guts out, coughing up a lung, and still they decide "Hey, why not go to work, it'll be boring staying at home playing my PS3 - why don't I fucking spread my germs throughout the whole company, and annoy people with my loud barking cough!". Either these people are totally pussy-whipped by their bosses (good possibility), don't want to use up a sick day when they can make better use of it later in the year to go skiing (more likely), or they are self-centered unaware work drones who have no idea of the consequences of bringing their germ-infested lame-ass biologically inferior bodies into work (most likely). Let's examine some of the scenarios : so they have a deadline for something they need to deliver, and though they are barely conscious, they decide to come in and do some work - which will no doubt be of excellent quality - and they generously share their germs with co-workers, who then repeat the process. So now you've got an entire company of sickos producing inferior quality work. People... stay the fuck home ! Ok I could really go on about this, as it is surpisingly rather entertaining (at least to me). But, I'll just fire one more off and be done. So, Sicko in the office next to me, you've been fucking sharing your barking hacking cough through the thin wall between us for a week now, and I've fucking had enough ! Yes today I'd finally had it up to here (hand held horizontally above head), and I was planning on working late to finish some shit I need to do. But I asked Barker at 5pm how late he would be working - 7pm - so I was out of there in like 10 seconds. Oh, and before I go, there's at least a half-dozen other Hackers there spewing their infestations... but uh the show must go on or something...

Hmm, I can't help but observe my frequent use of the 'f' word in order to make a point. Surely this is indicative of a lack of command of the English language, where a loss for words is easily remedied by inserting 'fuck' here or there. I will try to eliminate this behaviour, either by starting to learn gooder at my English vokabewlarry, or substituting a new word for the 'f' word. And I have just the thing - it came to me yesterday while I was absent-mindedly washing some dishes : Frark!

So what the frark is up with 'campers', who show up at the campground with an 80-foot long giant 2-story RV ? There were numerous such vehicles at the Cultus Lake camping area we were at last month. Some of these people almost never emerged from their air-conditioned behemoths. There was one adjacent to our campsite that I was sure was abandoned, or contained occupants that had passed away, as no one came in or out of it for a 24-hour period. The only clue of the possibility of non-intelligent life was that their 3000 decibel mega-heater kicked in around 4 am, startling me out of my pleasant dream of kissing Valentino by a crystal blue Italian stream - no wait that was just the stupid frarking song I couldn't get out of my head the day before. Anyways it was frarking rude, and I wanted to grab my axe and go over there and start chopping into the motor, but I refrained from such immature behaviour and stuck some earplugs in.
But think of the audacity of these dumbkopfs : there they are in their cozy soundproof sleepchamber, while the machinery that allows this to happen - external generator and heater - is out there belching out noise and annoying all the basic tent campers. How wude!

I guess that's it for now - Happy Thanksgiving!