Whine & Cheese

12,204

Last night marked the final night of my personal challenge to read 10,000 pages in 365 days/nights.

I reached that goal at the end of October, but kept plowing on... even to the very last night... staying up fairly late (well, for me... I won't embarrass myself and tell you what qualifies as "late" 10:40pm).

I guess I should end the suspense (because the "title"of the post and the graphic to the left is not enough)...

The final tally is ... 12,204 pages !!!

Which, even for us non-math whizzes, is an easy to figure out 22% (22.04%!) over the goal!

Considering I read just over 8,000 pages in 2006, I thought a 10k challenge would be... well, challenging!   

But not reaching the 10k goal was never in danger.  I sprinted out to a 13k+ pace early in the year and don't think I ever dipped below 12k... even as the days off started to pile up (ironically enough, some people only read on vacations... but trips to NJ/NY, Colorado, and Vegas were responsible for my biggest blocks of days off... which is totally fine with me... if travel is the reason for less reading... than let's have less reading!)

Given this final number of pages, I was considering what next year's goal should be.... two of my ideas ended up being pretty similar -- the "read more than last year" and the numerically pleasing "12345" page challenge -- so I am going to go with the latter... even though I am not sure how I am going to reach it, since I felt I read as much as I possibly could this past year... but I guess that would make it [gasp!] a challenge!

But this year's reading business is not done just quite yet.  I "owe" you one more book read in 2007... and then there's my big recap of the reading year, where I dole out my "best of" lists, etc.  So stay tuned... and then we're onto my 2008 1-2-3-4-5 Challenge... and, don't worry, I'm ditching the thermometer graphic!

Happy (Reading) New Year!

Rocky New Year

Tomorrow is a big day here...

Someone is turning 1 year old!

A couple of shots of Rocky from this morning

While he didn't arrive at his new home until 8 weeks later... and he wasn't quite the first Boston Baby of the New Year (much to his mama's relief, I'm sure!)... little did we know this time last year, that our "Little Rock" was born.  (And nice to finally know the actual birth date of one of my pets!)

While his weight has increased three-fold in the past year (well, 10 months), he is only 18-ish lbs (both his parents were under 20 lbs)... and he's just kind of stretched and filled out... and, oh yeah, those ears "popped"... here is the picture that pretty much "had us at hello":

It's probably a very good thing that his sister already had a home by the time we contacted the breeder or else I may be talking about a double birthday.

While I can't say he hasn't been a challenge at times (slow housebreaking, a lot of chewed furniture, terrorizing felines), he has been a real joy to have... just the happiest and most playful little dog around!  And still pretty darn adorable too!

I'll pop in tomorrow to let you know what the final page tally is in my 2007 reading challenge... but since we're headed into another of those long holiday weekends, let me wish you a...

Happy New Year!

No Country For Old Men (#36)

Time for the next to last (penultimate!) book review-ish post of 2007.  Finished up my last book of the year last night and while I have two more days/nights to start a new book and add to my page count... the final tally of books will be... 37!  I, for one, am pretty impressed (last year it was 25 books)... though I won't get into how many of those books were on the slim side (okay, 8 of them were approximately/only 200-ish pages).

A big motivation for me to read a particular book is to do so before seeing the movie version of it.  For various reasons, we really don't get out to the movie theater these days.  Nevertheless, I am still anxious to read a book so that I have my own visuals in my head... and also to avoid any plot spoilers.  So when No Country For Old Men, the movie, started winning some critics awards (usually a prelude to Oscar nods), I decided that the original work by Cormac McCarthy needed to be moved up the reading list... and quickly!   

Always intending, but having never read anything by McCarthy prior to this year, I ended up being quite impressed with the Oprah-picked The Road back in April... so in addition to the movie, this gave me another McCarthy reading opportunity... which again I intended, but didn't quite expect to do so soon (that is, read two of his books in the same calendar year).

The spoiler-free, book-in-a-nutshell synopsis... a man stumbles across a bloody massacre, the result of a botched drug deal.  He take a sizable amount of money from the scene... triggering a series of often violent events as he becomes a man on the run... not only the law but a psychopathic killer looking for the cash.

With the exception of books I've read in the horror genre (which hasn't been in the last decade or so... or more), this had to be one of the most violent books I've read... made me think I wasn't too sure if I wanted to see the movie... except, of course, that it is directed by the Coen Brothers, who have proven to be masters of the violence... in the most artistic way... with movies like Blood Simple and Fargo.  While I have read some criticism that this book was basically written as a screenplay (which I find hard to believe given McCarthy's reclusive nature), it couldn't have been in better hands than those of Joel and Ethan Coen. It's no wonder that it is being talked up for awards and has made most of the "best films of the year" lists that I've seen thus far.

It is easy to see why McCarthy is viewed as one of this country's greatest living writers.  As with The Road, his prose is deceptively simple... but it is a complex and challenging read.  It's easy to find yourself reading it quickly... and that pacing-wise, it is a true page turner.... but I will freely admit to getting lost a few times. An Amazon reviewer summed it up perfectly, so I will just quote him (here's a link to the review... but a warning that this review does contain plot spoilers!)

If you like your conflicts fully resolved, you may want to look elsewhere; if you're bothered by unconventional punctuation, you may be irritated by this book; if you despise jump cuts and point of view shifts, you may find yourself rereading sections of this book to catch your bearings. Otherwise, however, you may find this one of the most original books you've read in years.

That pretty much sums it up... and oh, you are not going to get a clue that the novel gets its name from a line of the Yeats poem called Sailing to Byzantium.  I am pretty sure that would not have enhanced my reading experience to any degree if I had known that beforehand... but there you go!   If you haven't figured it out, I don't rate my reading experiences based on use of literary references, symbolism and all that other lit-class exam criteria... so, the above is not meant as a deterrence...

It's a very good read... just with some caveats.

2007 10K Reading Challenge:  + 307 pages (Total Pages: 11730 pages) 

Christmas '07: The Results Post

For those of you celebrating, hope you had a very nice Christmas... for those of you who didn't, cocooning for one of the few days when the outside world (well at least in the U.S.) seems to shut down for business... though there are plenty of people working too!

Had a very nice couple of days.  Todd's parents came up from Tucson and everything went quite well.  Now, I think myself and Todd have a pretty good relationship, but the last few holidays where family was involved were... shall I say, a bit tense (made even worse by Johnny Mathis cheerfully singing that "it's the most wonderful time of the year").  But with a couple of years experience under my belt, being aware of my past pitfalls and triggers, simplifying things (mostly involving the mega-meals)... pretty much not putting the pressure to over-achieve... made it a relaxed and glare-free holiday... though I'm guessing 3 bottles of wine over the 2 days were probably quite helpful in lubricating the relaxation cogs and wheels.

Though, at the moment, it all feels like a dream.  This morning, I woke up to an empty house (if myself ... and four animals... can qualify as "empty").  Todd left before sun-up to meet his parents in Tucson (they left yesterday afternoon)... before heading over to New Mexico for a post/inter-holiday visit with the rest of the family for the remainder of the week.  So while Christmas did go well, it was still tiring... and it will be nice to decompress from all the pressures and expectations that did build up to the big day.  Thankfully, I have some "unofficial" vacation time (yet another nice thing about being self-employed, is not having to "show up" or fake it if there's no urgent work... or no work at all!).

Got lots of good stuff... electric razor, shirts, calendars, books (of course!), leather jacket ... and, the always welcome... gift cards and cash!   So, nary a complaint in sight!

Hopefully, I'll be getting a belated Christmas gift this week... The scratch on my Cooper didn't quite get done before Christmas.. but, from what they told me last week it should be back later this week.  I just got a call from the car shop... so it sounds like I should have my car back this year... ummm, barely... December 31st (it's been there since the 12th).  The silver lining is that at least Todd will be back (and still "off").  I was going to attempt to be self-sufficient and started exploring bus routes and schedules...  and while it could be done, it was bordering on a tad too adventurous for me (an almost 2 mile walk just to get to the first of two bus routes!).

I guess that's it for now... after taking Christmas Eve and Day off... I have to get back to hitting the books for the final days of my reading challenge.  While having reached the "challenge" of 10,000 pages back in October, I still have a hundred or so pages to go for another numeric milestone.

Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas!

For those who didn't catch a the sneak peek of this over at Flickr (no coal in Jeff's cyber-stocking this year!) or are on our snail-mail list...

Here is the hotly anticipated much-hyped photo from our holiday greeting card this year!

Elf Rocky & Santa Toby.

We took about 20 photos... and, believe it or not, this one was the very first picture taken!  I decided  to upload some outtakes over on Flickr.  I likely should have used one of them... they are pretty amusing... but my gut told me to go with one where the kids were behaving!

One of my favorite... ok, I am going to go ahead and say it CHRISTMAS!! songs is... "Do You Hear What I Hear?"

(Tangent: I am sooo confused these days.  While I think it is only polite to wish people, particularly strangers, "happy holidays" during this time of the year...  I am experiencing backlash from the backlash over it being politically incorrect to say "Christmas" ... or is it back to being anti-"holiday" and people insisting on "Christmas"?  Soooo very confused.  How 'bout everyone -- whatever the "side" -- just unbunch their panties about the whole thing... it's so anti-holiday... errr, I mean anti-Christmas....ack!)

So yes, one of my favorites songs this time of the year is "Do You Hear What I Hear?"

Said the king to the people everywhere
Listen to what I say
Pray for peace people everywhere
Listen to what I say
The child, the child
Sleeping in the night
He will bring us goodness and light
He will bring us goodness and light

So while the blog-world takes its annual breather for the next few days, let me say that whatever you are celebrating (or not!)... it is my sincere hope that the spirit of the holiday season finds you with plenty of peace, goodness and light.

See you on the flip side (probably mid-next week)!

Even More Out of (i)Tune(s)!

Pretty much year ago today, I wrote a post of how I felt we were so out of tune with "popular" music... bemoaning the fact that we had only 14 of the Top 100 Best Selling Songs sold on iTunes last year.

Well, folks -- it's even worse this year!   

Now we're not timid in our music download purchases.  I just threw together a quick "smartlist" and it showed we had 162 new additions to our music library this year.  While I am sure that's not a whole lot to many of you, it still surprised me a bit ($162!!)... but there were a few albums in there plus a bunch added by alternate means... but I'm still guessing $100+ spent on music this year.

So how hip are we !?!?

We have 8 of the Top 100 Best Selling Songs sold on iTunes in 2007!  And here they are:

#5 - The Sweet Escape - Gwen Stefani
#8 - Makes Me Wonder - Maroon 5
#13 - Rockstar - Nickelback
#25 - Home - Daughtry
#36 - U + Ur Hand - P!nk
#43 - Beautiful Liar - Beyonce & Shakira
#63 - Waiting on the World to Change - John Mayer
$65 - Suddenly I See - KT Tunstall

Now I haven't figured out the breakout by genre of all our purchases -- and I think we are pretty eclectic -- but it doesn't show up much in these.  Here is # we purchased in genre OF  # in that genre in the Top 100

Pop: 6 of 36
Hip-Hop/Rap: 0 of 31
Alternative: 0 of 13
R&B/Soul: 0 of 9
Rock: 2 of 6
Country: 0 of 3
Soundtrack: 0 of 1
Vocal: 0 of 1

Though I am not sure how valid that is... i.e. John Mayer is "Rock" and Daughtry and P!nk are "Pop"?

We'll see how we do next year... given our trend iTunes may have to start paying us in order to get some bestselling songs into our library!!

Bel Canto (#35)

We're down to single digits left on my year-long reading challenge... so it's time to get going on these book posts.  I should be slowing down... but I seem to be doing just the opposite... thinking I will have two more books for you this year (or at least that were read and will "count" for this year).
 

Today's book post is Ann Patchett's Bel Canto.  I can't tell you how many times this book had been in my hands in a book store and put back down.  Years ago, I had read (and liked) a Patchett book, The Magician's Assistant, and this one even had more buzz about it... so I was fairly confident I would like it... it just never got purchased.  But alas thanks to the always sinister "Buy 3 for the Price of 2" offer at Borders it finally slipped in and got on my "to be read" pile.

Ok, the book in a nutshell.  In an unnamed South American country, there's a big birthday party at the Vice President's mansion for a Japanese businessman (Mr. Horokawa) in hopes to lure business to their poor country.  People of note from all around the globe are invited, including Horokawa's favorite opera singer, an American soprano named Roxane Coss.  With the intention of kidnapping the President, rebels crash the party... but with the President unexpectedly not in attendance, a hostage situation ensues... and not your typical hours-long or overnight variety... over four months long!

Although I should know this, the book was inspired by a real event... the 126-day Japanese embassy crisis that took place in Lima, Peru from December 1996 thru April 1997.  I feel less guilty not "getting" the title of the book, which to the best of my memory is not mentioned in the novel.  I guessed it was opera-related and it is... "bel canto" translates to "sing beautifully" in Italian and is also an operatic vocal technique (according to Wikipedia, a light upper register, "sweet" timbre).

It is certainly an interesting scenario.  Given the length of the crisis, things relax and surprising relationships and alliances develop over time amongst the large cast of characters, many who do not speak/understand each other's languages.  Fortunately enough,  Horokawa's assistant and translator (Gen Watanabe) is on hand and conveniently (almost far too conveniently) fluent in more than a handful of languages.

Ultimately, I felt something was just missing... what exactly... I was not sure.  It was entertaining, enjoyable, well-written.  Ironically enough, it didn't hit me until, ironically enough, I read a Q&A with Patchett on her website.  In a question about her literary influences she says of Nabokov, Garcia-Marquez, and Munro that "I don't see any of their brilliance in my work, and I wish I did" and furthermore went on to say about Chekhov, Welty, and Updike  "I only wish they would hurry up and influence me some more." 

So my "light bulb moment" on that missing intangible was the detection of this lack of confidence / self-esteem.  I sensed Patchett wanted Bel Canto to be "great" ... and while it was nominated (and won) many literary awards... I think it missed that very lofty mark of greatness... certainly a struggle that I, and I am sure a lot of us, can relate to.

2007 10K Reading Challenge:  + 318 pages (Total Pages: 11423 pages) 

Clash of the Choirs

It should come as no surprise that we are watching Clash of the Choirs.

I will just toss aside any modicum of political correctness and reiterate my belief that inside every gay man there is a big, black, and beautiful woman wanting to come out... and there is nothing better about a choir than a big, black, and beautiful woman... so committing ourselves to this holiday "event"... and only for 4 nights... was pretty much a no-brainer.

For those of you not watching, the premise is five musical talents recruiting and leading a choir of 20 people from their home town... the public will vote out a choir each night and the winner earns $250k for a hometown charity. 

As viewers, we are forced to choose among charitable organizations for intensive care units for babies, food shelters, battered women, people left homeless by natural disasters.  Yikes!  And if that isn't enough, each choir had personal stories meant to tug at your heartstrings (to varying degrees of success).   Here are the choirs and my thoughts (in order of performance):

Team Nick Lachey
Hometown:  Cincinnati
Song: "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield
Sad Choir Story:  Father and Daughter choir members with wife/Mom going through cancer treatments
Verdict:  Surprisingly enough, the song works great -- quite uplifting and spiritual which was never the vibe I got while listening to the original... and c'mon how darn cute was Nick leading the choir... with that smile that could melt away any ice storm.

Team Kelly Rowland
Hometown:  Houston
Song: "Freedom" by George Michael
Sad Choir Story:  Weepy Hurricane Katrina refugee with a singing voice that has likely sent Simon Cowell to an early grave
Verdict:  After being surprised by Nick's choir's interpretation I was less impressed with "Freedom" as a choir choice.

Team Michael Bolton
Hometown:  New Haven
Song: "Living on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi
Sad Choir Story:  Formerly abused woman... and while not sad, a very cute old lady to win us over (in the post performance interview, the host asked her if singing made her feel "youthful" and she heard it as "useful" and answered it that way!)
Verdict:  Another song that didn't quite make a good choir transition... but my main quibble here was that the performance basically felt like a lead singer with a back-up group of 19 people.  While the lead guy was quite good, it's Clash of the Choirs ... not Clash of the Singer Too Old to Be on American Idol.

Team Blake Shelton
Hometown:  Oklahoma City
Song: "Life is a Highway" by Tom Cochrane (thought I'm guessing these days some folks think it's by Rascal Flatts)
Sad Choir Story:  Multiple military service men... and a pair of hunky brothers, ultimately separated as there was only one spot left in the choir for that singing voice type.
Verdict:  While at least the other celebs were faking it, country singer Shelton was amusing in his "I don't know what the hell I'm doing?" approach to the choir.  But whatever he did (or didn't do) worked... this song took on a spiritual quality when belted out by the choir.

Team Patti LaBelle
Hometown:  Philadelphia
Song: "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" by ???
Sad Choir Story:  Not much... a woman who lost 140 lbs?
Verdict:  Labelle... excuse me, Miss Patti... had, by far, the best bumper piece, providing the laugh out loud moments of the night... giggling under her fabulous hat at the bad auditions and rolling her eyes and yelling at people to stop singing "Lady Marmalade."   But c'mon, did you think for a milli-second that Miss Patti would NOT have a kick-ass choir?!!   

My order of finish:
1st - Choir Miss Patti
2nd - Choir Shelton
3rd - Choir Lachey
4th - Choir Rowland
5th - Choir Bolton

We're #2!

The gay blogging award season is over... well, at least for me... and, as expected... but given my thoughts when this whole thing started, still very pleasantly surprised, I came in #2 in the polling... 31% vs. 27%.

Not a bad showing for a rookie.

Congrats to Queer Beacon for the victory (again something I expected when I saw the entrants)... it certainly is a full-time entertainment blog... and queer!

Congrats also go out to my buddy Scott-O-Rama who (as expected!) added to his cyber-trophy shelf with two awards for Best Personal Blog and Best Blog Writing, the latter nicely shared with his buddy David from Someone in a Tree.

And a big thank you for those of you who voted for me!   Again, I am not sure how the heck I got nominated in the first place... so to make the cut and finish second still is quite an accomplishment... and certainly puffed up what can get to be a deflated blog ego every now and then... while it is cool to say that one blogs for oneself regardless of who and how many people read it... it is still nice to know there are wonderful people out there in the dark.      

Vote 2008: My Reading Challenge

For the weekend before the last weekend before Christmas, it ended up being pretty low-key.  Well, at least for me.  For me, all my gifts for others have been shipped (mostly by their originating companies) or have arrived here and just need to be wrapped.  I voluntarily discharged myself from Todd's Christmas shopping expedition after the first stop... without the dead weight (or "helping"... haha), he was able to get through all that he had left (which was quite a bit). 

Todd's parents will be joining us for Christmas Eve and Day, before they all head over to NM to see the rest of the family the day after the big day.  Food-wise, we're keeping it simple... and what's becoming our tradition of offerings of Mexican cuisine... which I guess is not all that strange... after all, it is called "Christmas" when you want both red & green chile sauce on the same plate.

But now, onto the subject of this post... and it is not so much a vote, but a request for a brainstorming session for what should be my reading challenge for next year.  The 10k page challenge was a good (and quite successful) one.  Given I am on pace to finish up with a smidgen over 12k, a repeat of the 10K challenge doesn't seem... well... challenging.

In the past few weeks, I have considered not having a reading challenge next year.  I feel that I am back in the habit enough that I don't need a goal line for motivation.  And while I know this blog is for "me"... and I have no plans at all to stop doing book-related blogs posts... with the exception of a few folks, me thinks the whole thermometer graphic tracking device was viewed as pretty hokey.

While I will (yet again) attempt to employ reverse psychology don't expect much feedback, here are the options I am considering:

a) No Reading Challenge - just read and blog about the books I read (though, of course, I will secretly maintain my anal-rific ... ooh, that sounds dirty... reading/book spreadsheet)

b) 1-2-3-4-5 Challenge -- upping last year's goal of 10,000 to the numerically pleasing 12,345 pages (and just a bit over what I will end up with this year).

c) More Than Last Year -- kinda generic, but simply topping whatever ends up being this year's final page tally... and in the spirit of "being green" -- it's recyclable each and every year!

d) Something Else -- this is where you come in

Although I would love/welcome new ideas, option "d" comes with a whole bunch of restrictions... basically boiling down not putting a limit the books I can read... i.e. "read this # of books" challenge would discourage me to read "big" books... "read only the classics" is a noble idea (and something I considered), but I want the ability/flexibility to read the "hot" book or an author I that I may be in the mood for.

And speaking of voting... and for the last time...  today is the last day for the 2007 GLBT Verve Awards. While the percentages have changed,  for the past week or so, I haven't budged much from being 2.5-3% out of the winner's circle.  I don't imagine things will change... but if you haven't done so... my fragile ego would appreciate a vote for Best Entertainment / Gossip Blog... of course, ignoring the fact that this post does not qualify as either "entertainment" or "gossip."