Whine & Cheese

Netherland (#11)

I am writing this the morning after a big celebrity death day.  Less than 24 hours later, I have already reached the saturation points over the the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.  While the former had long been expected, the second was a quite a shock... though I will politically incorrectly add that I doubted Jackson would ever die of old age and/or that he lasted this long.  The 24 hour news cycle + Internet has just created this hysteria that just gets overwhelming... it's like trying to get a bone out of dog that's not willing to let it go... shake, shake, shake it!  I get to a point very quickly where I just need to shut it off and as I status'd yesterday, put the P in the RIP... let these people rest in peace... and quiet.

So now you're wondering how do I make the segue into a book review?  I was wondering that too, but then it kind of made sense as Netherland by Joseph O'Neill is a book with 9/11 - arguably (or not?!) the greatest 24 hour news cycle event to date - at its core, but hardly makes mention of it... which given my above reaction, tells you it is this kind of subtlety and finesse I like/prefer.

Though first a bit how I got to this book.  I always find book selection and interesting thing. Netherland was one of the most critically acclaimed books of 2008, though oddly enough not seeming to make any of those year-end best-of lists, though it did snag the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction.  Though it received its biggest endorsement of sorts when President Barack Obama told the NY Times Magazine that he was reading it... though I was almost done with the book before hearing that, so I was a ahead of the curve!

Our protagonist is Hans van den Broek (which gives you the first clue behind the title) who finds himself alone in NYC after his wife and child return to London in the aftermath of 9/11... and befriends the mysterious/shady character Chuck Ramkissoon (that's character as in "he's a real character"... not the character in book way, though that certainly applies as well) at one of the many cricket games played around the NY metro area.  Now there's a plot I am sure you haven't read before!  

The story does take some odd twists and turns and perhaps a bit too convoluted for my taste... and there was a whole lot about cricket, particularly at the beginning of the novel... that had me questioning what I had gotten myself into.  And while I won't say that this was my most favorite book of all-time or the year for that matter, it was still an amazing book that I am glad that I read.

There were many instances where O'Neill just floored me with his beautifully poetic prose... which at times seemingly came out of nowhere...

Perhaps the relevant truth - and it's one whose existence was apparent to my wife, and I'm sure to much of the world, long before it became apparent to me - is that we all find ourselves in temporal currents and that unless you're paying attention you'll discover, often too late, that an undertow of weeks or of years has pulled you deep into trouble.

This one had particular meaning to me...

On our way out we passed through downtown Phoenix.  It was seemingly an uninhabited place given over to multilevel garages that, with their stacked lateral voids, almost duplicated the office blocks and their bands of tinted glass.

So not a book for everyone and I am guessing those passages might tell you if you are or or not one of them... a book you might not love, but it difficult not to admire and respect it.

Diet & Exercise

... yes, I have finally got around to facing those to things in my life.

I have mentioned lately that I have packed on some pounds recently.  For a while there, I had just suspected it... but sometime late last year when we wanted to weigh Rocky and did the whole... weigh yourself first, weight yourself holding dog, do the subtraction... method, and when I did Step #1, well I was given quite a jolt.  Looking at pictures of myself (which honestly are a rare thing no matter what the physical condition), it was pretty obvious that this occurred over the last 1-2 years... and the result had been about a 30-35 lb weight gain. 

Now this isn't as bad as it sounds, I was underweight for my height most of my adult life (that stretching from late high school to about 5-ish years ago)... and all this weight just puts me at the tippy-top of the range I should be for my height... or slightly "overweight"... depending on where you look.  Regardless of the official guidelines, I can tell you I was not certainly happy with the appearance or used to carrying around the extra weight.  This has certainly contributed to the whole mid-life crisis I have been feeling lately as it seems like it has been a lot of physical and mental (i.e. dealing with work in this economy and having done this self-employed thing now for nearly a decade now).

I will be the first to admit, I didn't want to deal with the body stuff for a while.  Motivation, self-discipline, will-power... one of them check-marks in my "strengths" column.  Sure I whined and wallowed about it, but I didn't feel like dealing with it, let alone doing anything about it.  Call it "denial" or whatever (I say it was more "indifference"), but if you are going to view this in the "stages of grief" model... more recently I have come around to "acceptance" which brought me to the point where I finally decided to do something about it.

A lot of this impetus is thanks to Todd.  A few months back, he went in for a physical... which he was dreading.  He was suspecting that he would be told he should drop some weight ... and given the high stress and long hours of his job, high blood pressure also would not have been a surprise.  He got both those things, but the bigger/biggest surprise was very high cholesterol.  Instead of immediately throwing him on some kind of drug, the doctor decided to try "dietary intervention" and he has been seeing a dietician / nutritionist on a regular basis.  I think this was a really wonderful approach, as I think it seems like these days everyone (doctors, patients, and certainly pharm companies) are too quick to go to a "take a pill" solution without addressing what can be naturally ... and what's really the source of the problem. 

Part of this was keeping a food diary and he has done that by hand, but also via one of the many web sites that make it quite easy to do.  When you start keeping tabs on this nutrtional info... or heck, even just looking at it... it's no wonder obesity and diabetes has been rising at alarming rates in this country. 

So while we have tidied up our eating since Todd has been doing this, I decided to participate more actively within the past couple of weeks.  I think one of my problems is that my metabolism just shut or slowed down as it I entered into my 40s... and I am hearing way to much how things start following apart at this stage in life.  Now I kind of understand all the bemoaning about reaching tha milestone, 40 was actually an amazing year for me... but this 41 year has certainly sent me back to earth.

My problem is that I did each much at all.  I could go through a day without eating much of anything until dinner time... and if I did eat during the day, it as likely not very healthy... stuff like a few cookies and half a bag of popcorn, I take it qualifies as "not healthy."   So while my body dealt with that kind of eating for awhile, it had enough recently... and my carb heavy grazing and lack of eating, packed on those 30+ lbs, though thankfully for me, again I definitely had room to grow...

Well, this has turned into much more of a ramble than I anticipated (though for me, rambling on is no surprise).  But anyhow, I am now eating 3 meals a day + 2 "snacks"... though dinner is still my primary meal.  I am eating healthier... we've had more fresh fruit and nuts in the house than ever before.  And to simplify things very much, watching the carbs... and shooting for a 2-to-1 ratio between carbs and protein... and always trying to have some protein at every eating opportunity.   Though keeping things into perspective... something like an orange with natural sugars and a couple of cookies might have the same number of carbs, but you can guess which is the better alternative.   And not worrying so much about "fat" and "cholesterol" content, which don't necessarily have to be avoided... but get a bad rap with their names... but again, there's good fat and bad fat.... but again, that's just the very basics.

... okay, haven't got to the exercise stuff either!  But having did the gym thing several years back, we also knew that was something that wasn't going to work for us again.  Todd just wants to get home after his typical 12-hour day at the office (and often longer than that!) and while I have the time and opportunity, I again mention my rocky relationship with self-discipline and will power.  We have been looking into home exercise equipment (mostly ellipticals, which seemed like a good combo between a treadmill and bike), but this weekend we broke down and got a Wii...

...along with its two most famous fitness products, Wii Fit and EA Sports Active.  We test drove each of them over the weekend and both seem to give us a lot of opportunity to give us an on-demand exercise program that can fit into our schedules.  While I haven't explored it fully, I am particularly impressed with Active which gave a very structured 15-20 minute program that left me breathless last night and a tad sore this morning.  The technology is really quite a amazing at how well it tracks your movement... and the Wii Fit board which also is an amazing device, but also a scale...

The good news there is that it did calculate a Wii age ... and for me it was 35, which absolutely shocked me.  That's -6 years, but a lot of that was determined seemed to be determined by a pretty silly balance exercise, so I am not putting that much faith/cred into that.  It did however calc a BMI (body mass index) and there I need to take my 24 (again, borderline normal / overweight), down to 22... which translates to a weight loss of over 20 lbs, which I was thinking I needed to do... before all this, I was thinking 10-15 lbs.

So, we'll see what happens.  At some point, I think my body will know what weight it should be... but I certainly am starting to feel better that I am putting better stuff into my body and at least starting to move around a bit more than I have in a few years.

If you got this far, thanks for sticking around!   You know how I roll... and diet and exercise have moved to the forefront for now, which ain't a bad thing.

Love All

Wimbledon starts on Monday... yes, yes I know what you are thinking... didn't  I just survived Ed's "can't talk about anything else" chatter?... well, yes you did... but this is one of the "what were they thinking?" times on the tennis schedule where two of the biggest crowns on the tennis calendar are contested just a few weeks apart.

It's a pretty interesting time in men's tennis... particularly (some would say, exclusively) among the top two players and two of my favorites (as you know!), Rafa Nadal and Roger Federer.  Just when it looked like Roger was on the decline with Rafa powering past him with last year's Wimbledon, the Olympic gold, and this year's Australian that dissolved Roger to post-match tears... the seemingly impossible happened, Rafa losing at Roland Garros for the first time in 5 years and Roger going on to win the only Slam title missing on his resume.

Now it seems that Rafa is the one reeling... both emotionally and physically, so much so that as I write this the tennis world is waiting for the Spaniard to withdraw from Wimbledon.  The draw was announced earlier this morning and Rafa would have a tough road regardless... so I'm guessing it is the proverbial "rock and hard place" ... better to compete and lose not playing anywhere near 100% or not defend arguably the most prestigious title in tennis at all. 

There is an excellent article about Nadal in this weekend's New York Times Magazine.  While it is pretty much a love-letter to Nadal (one can hardly blame Cynthia Gorney, IMHO), she really was able to communicate the reasons why I seem to love both of the players/men fairly equally (though I'll admit to favoring Rog more since Rafa is his Achilles)... it is strange to feel that way in a rivalry like this... it tends to be "love" one/"hate" (or maybe, "respect but not love") the other.

I'd recommend reading the entire piece, Ripped (Or Torn Up?): Can Rafael Nadal Survive His Own Grueling Style of Tennis?... but it is fairly lengthy and likely for tennis die-hards... but here are some quotes from Gorney that I think perfectly sum up why it is easy to love both these guys:

"He (Nadal) thrills people. Federer thrills people, too, but the Nadal thrill is so different from the Federer thrill that studying the two of them is like a gorgeous immersion course in the varieties of athletic possibility. Federer is elegant and fluid and cerebral, so that his best tennis looks effortless even when he is making shots that ought to be physically impossible. Nadal is muscled-up and explosive and relentless, so that his best tennis looks not like a gift from heaven but instead like the product of ferocious will."

"That Nadal now has the capacity to outplay Federer on multiple surfaces ­ that the signature game of the world’s highest-ranked tennis player is not a beautiful ballet unto victory but an imperfect, bruising, savage refusal to yield ­ this is why Nadal thrills people. This and the biceps. “Every tennis lover would like, someday, to play like Federer,” Philippe Bouin (French writer, covering tennis for 30 years for the sports paper L’Équipe) told me. “But every man wants to be Rafael Nadal. Which is different.”"

UPDATE:  Rafa has withdrawn from Wimbledon.  After reading those quote, you can see why not having these two guys in the draw is a bit sad.. but go Roger!  Time to break Sampras' all-time Slam record with a win at the AELTC!

Shaving Private Ryan

Ok, when exactly is my Entertainment Weekly arriving in the mail?!?!?

Ryan Reynolds is certainly looking good on this week's EW cover...

However, he joins the list of hotties (i.e. someone the gay cyberland seems perpetually drooly about) that I am more familiar with his body, than his body of work.  Chris Evans, Eddie Cibrian... Ryan... I can't say that I have seen anything that they've done acting-wise... but who cares.  Though I do know that Ryan recently married Scarlett Johansson not too terribly long after a lengthy relationship (and broken engagement) to Alanis Morissette.

If there is any movie I would see Ryan in, there is a good chance that it would be The Proposal.  I will whole-heartedly admit a crush on Sandra Bullock.  Sandra is one of those rare folk who can be a saving grace in a so-so movie, and she's certainly made some clunkers... and while this movie looks like your standard romantic-comedy fare where all the best parts have been given away in the trailer, it still looks like a lot of fun... and them, ummm... there's Ryan on top of Sandra... and literally if you've seen the trailer! 

But anyhow, I have a a feeling this week's cover will be face down as it might prove to be too distracting otherwise.

My post title is a spoof of a spoof... there is a porn called Shaving Ryan's Privates (I think, perhaps it's just myth... as I think it is just a joke about what a funny porn title would be... hmmm!?)... but of course, it's a take-off on Speilberg's Saving Private Ryan... but anyhow, I thought it was an appropriate title as Ryan's chest hair seems to come and go...

And just to be a search hit whore:
Ryan Reynolds Entertaintment Weekly cover
Ryan Reynolds EW cover
Ryan Reynolds shirtless

The House on Fortune Street (#10)

Okay, after a brief detour to Book #14, Dead Until Dark, we now stretch all the way back to April for...

The House on Fortune Street by Margot Livesey.  I think one reason for me taking so long to get to this particular book is that it was my top book of 2009 thus far... and in a bit of foreshadowing, it is still my top book and I am currently on Book #17 for the year (that tells you how far behind I am with these posts!).   But I wanted to do it justice and no suprise that this lead to a a good deal of procrastination on my part.

But now that I am at the keyboard and have decided to do the post for this book post, I realize that there really isn't much I can say about it... you know I like to remain pretty secretive when it comes to plot... but in trying to figure out what to say about this book, it just seems like I don't want to say anything since much of what I loved about this book was how the story unfolded.  This is one thing that I love about the Kindle ... while I mourn the loss of having a cover (as I do judge a book by its cover!), I really have enjoyed having the plot spoiled by an inside flap or back cover.  With the Kindle, I find myself going in with minimal knowledge of plot points and that certainly improves the reading experience.

What I will tell you is that this is a wonderfully crafted novel.  It is broken into four parts... and here is where I enter spoiler territory... told by four different characters and in sort of a jigsaw puzzle-like fashion we get their different perspectives... the times and events sometimes overlap, but other times they do not.  I do recall (remember I read this two months ago!) remember being jarred at the start of Part 2... having really become engrossed in the first part, without warning I was at a different time and place with a different character as a the focal point.  It was fascinating to have an opinion of a character and then learn something new about them or get a different take on them from someone else.

Granted some of the subject matter is not the most uplifting.  After dealing with Dahlia and her brain tumor in my previous read (btw, this book, like Dahlia, was yet another winner from EW's 2008 Best Fiction list), this book didn't get much happier... at all.  But what's that famous opening line from Anna Karenina?  "All happy families are alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."  Happy isn't typically entertaining fodder... and a visit to The House on Fortune Street (simply the home of many of the characters in the suburbs of modern day London, though .. .as expected, there is some irony in the street name) was certainly unique in its own way. 

I will certainly be keeping my eye out for more stuff by Livesey... another good find here, not that I need to add anything more to my cyber-pile of books and authors to read.

Express Lane: Issue 65

Remembering Tiananmen - The Big Picture - Here's some amazing (as usual!) pictures from the protests and tragedy at Tiananmen 20 years ago - plus photos from today as well. Fascinating! (6/6/09)

Adam Lambert Responds To Clay Aiken's Blogs - "If he wants to ride my coattails, good for him" Oh, snap! Don't mess with a gay man Clay... well, errr... a gay man who's been doing it a lot longer and much better than you! (5/29/09)

Dancing Danny Gokey with the Stars? - Yikes! Before you get too upset, it could be worse... apparently Gokey's fellow Top 10-er, Scott MacIntyre is also interested - hopefully their IDOL/FOX contracts forbid it! (5/27/09)

Samantha Harris to Join Cast of Broadway's "Chicago" - Ok, they've officially just let anyone star in this show now! C'mon, the woman is challenged by having to read off a teleprompter and do basic math! (5/20/09)

True Blood / Dead Until Dark (#14)

Time to kill the proverbial two bird with one stone... been meaning to do a post about one of my favorite TV shows and since I read the book that inspired it... it seems to makes sense to do a combo post, which means jumping ahead a few books in my book queue... scandalous I know, but I think you can probably handle it!

The show that I am talking about is HBO's True Blood.  Yes folks, we're talking vampires!  Again!  And my regular readers by now, well know my obsession with them (though I have yet to see the film version of Twilight ... and have only read the first two books in that series). 

The second series premieres this coming Sunday, but we spent the last week or so re-familiarizing ourselves with Season 1 has HBO had a bit of a 4-day marathon of past episodes.  Didn't watch the entire season, just the first 6 episodes since that was the point that I forced Todd to watch it... vampires are definitely not his thing, but I was enjoying the series so much that I said just watch an episode or two and if you don't like it you don't have to watch it... and he was sucked (ha!) in as much as I was... well, I am a bit more fanatical about it.

But even if I didn't have this things for vampires, there's a good chance that I still would have watched it as it was created by Alan Ball who was the mastermind behind one of my favorite HBO series (and perhaps, favorite shows of all-time) Six Feet Under... and given his other claim to fame, the movie American Beauty, you know he has a unique, dark, satiric way in his approach to the word and that is certainly the case with True Blood.  The show is sexy, funny (often in a wink and nudge way), violent, and usually a good surprise in each episode... and the cast is pretty awesome too...

One of the youngest Academy Award winnersr, the uber-likable/adorable Anna Paquin stars as telepathic cocktail waitress (yes, you read that right) Sookie Stackhouse... with a quite sassy friend Tara (think Rutina Wesley's take on the character as Wanda Sykes' cousin from Louisiana)... but the three selling points that really got me to get Todd try the show were:

Vampire Bill Comptom, Bartender Sam Merlotte, and Sookie's brother Jason Stackhouse

... or actors Stephen Moyer, Sam Trammell, and Ryan Kwanten....

And good news for the ladies and gay men (thank goodness Alan Ball is gay), all of them get naked... with Jason Stackhouse perhaps being the biggest himbo in television history... and they treat him as such with skimpy or as little clothing as possible (no complaints!).  But they are all incredibly sexy in different ways... Jason for the obvious reasons... vampire Bill for the forbidden and you can see how he smolders in that pic above... and Sam, your average good guy who just happens to fill out a pair of tight jeans quite nicely, thank you very much!

Oh,on a sidenote, two of them are putting on their Southern accents to hide their true roots... Moyer is British... and Kwanten is Australian (*swoon*).

Anyhow, the TV series is based on the books known as the Sookie Stackhouse or Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris.  The 9th book was just published, so this creation certainly pre-dates the whole Twilight phenomenon.  So after having the first season under my belt, I decided to give the first book in the series, Dead Until Dark, a try... and I am glad I waited as the book was pretty much the entire first season of the show.

That said, it was pretty much impossible for me not to compare the book to the TV series... and of course, I had all the visuals already in my head... typically I try to read the book before it comes out as a movie or TV show to avoid having those pictures in my head, but oh well.

I did enjoy the book.  My expectations were low as I didn't really expect it to be a well-written book, ala Stephenie Meyer and Twilight... though this is written for adults... and the vampires certainly act like adults in this one... no viginity is safe and kissing just ain't gonna cut it with this group!   So the writing was a nice surprise, though definitely "beach" material... light and entertaining.

But unlike a movie translation that would tell the story in approximately 2 hours (or less), the 12 hours of Season 1 allowed them to flesh things out (ha!) quite a bit... and while the main plot is similar between the book and the series, dare I say Ball seems to be more "inspired by" and taking things to his own direction.  The book is told from Sookie's perspective... so that limits things and pretty major storylines from the series were not in the book as folks like Jason and Lafayette (a flamboyant short-order cook at the bar) barely make it onto the page and, to best of my memory, Tara has yet to make an appearance.

So while I enjoyed the book, this is one of the rare instances where I really prefer the TV series/movie to the original material.  I hear that the upcoming season does borrow plot from Book 2 in the series, Living Dead in Dallas, but I am not still unsure whether I will read that one... certainly not before watching the show as I'd rather remain unspoiled... but I kind of wish the book and TV series were two separate entities, which granted they kind of are, but the show stilll seems to borrow enough from the book... and that ain't no fun knowing things in advance either, so it's kind of a conundrum! 

Triomphe!

My non-tennis blog readers are likely rejoicing that much of my tennis-related chatter is now elsewhere, but nothing like the good 'ole blog to babble on for a bit and share some pictures. 

But it was a very good day yesterday as Roger Federer won the French Open for the 1st time - completing a career Grand Slam... only the 6th man to do so... and only the second after Andre Agassi in the modern/Open era... given the different surfaces each Slam is now played on, I arguably think it is a much more difficult than the other legends of yore (but that's another debate for another blog post).

Give the triumphant nature of Roger's win, I predicted his next day photo shoot would be here: 

But given the historic nature of the win (Roger also tied Pete Sampras' all-time Grand Slam record of 14), Roger also got to saunter down to the Trocadero for some pix in front of Tour de Eiffel.

Now while I think Roger is an overly snappy dresser most of the time (his BFF Vogue editor Anna Wintour was in his box during the French), it is always nice to see him in more casual attire... but c'mon Roger, you couldn't find a better pair of jeans to put on for the big photo shoot!?  But what do I know, those jeans probably cost more $$ than I make in a month!

I think Roger got the extra photo location too because who knows if he'll ever win the French again... but who knows... despite his impressive bod and physicality, I always have feared that Rafa Nadal's body would betray him and that he would not have the longest of careers... and now there are whispers that he won't be able to defend his Wimbledon title in a few weeks due to knee problems... so again, who knows!

After his win, Fed noted that this elusive win "It takes away so much pressure. Now, I can play in peace for the rest of my career"... I am sure the rest of the players on the tour loved hearing that!   Given his domination of the men's tennis in the past 5 years, it is a little scary to think that pressure was holding him back in some way... ha! 

Should also give a quick note to the women's champ... Svetlana Kuznetsova ... or Sveta or Kuzzie... who now has a second Slam on her resume... this one slightly less, but still surprising as her US Open a few years back.  Sveta is one of those players who seems so talented and has underachieved thanks to being a bit of a head case. Good for her, she was playing an even bigger head case in Dinara Safina at this year's Roland Garros championship.  With Safina double-faulting on match point, it was almost like Kuznetsova couldn't believe that she had won and that it had been so easy... with Safina really crushed by the pressure of being the favorite and #1 ranked player in the world and the somewhat valid criticism of how one can be #1 and never have won a Major.  But then again, the women's game is a bit in disarray... and I personally don't have many quibbles with the ranking system, the numbers don't lie... but it does seem as if no one is really earning it ... or should I say being consistent enough to be considered THE top player. 

Sveta only got the Trocadero photo shoot... and I have to say it is sooooo much better watching the French Open having now been to Paris.  This is my 2nd post-Paris visit French Open... but we pretty much just arrived home when it was on last year (though it really seems like eons and eons ago), so I appreciated it much more this year. 

For you Paris virgins (go! go!), I highly encourage you to make the Trocadero vista the very first place you see the Eiffel Tower.  Granted it is pretty much impossible to not catch a view of the Tower wherever you are in the city, but this is very much the "Voila!" view... and it still gives me goose-bumps thinking about. After I soaked it in for a few seconds, this was my very first picture from the spot... and even though I know it's a shot that has been taken hundreds of thousands of times... it remains one of my favorites from Paris... just because I remember being uncontrollably happy at this very moment! :-) 

And finally (!!), usually at some point during a Slam I do some sort of hunky/beefcake picture review... and given that Rafa was knocked out halfway through (and his countryman and object of W&C drooling Fernando Verdasco not too far behind.... the tournament was somewhat lacking in eye candy. 

But you do know that I love Roger... and he was one a big search engine driver this weekend to W&C, so why not this one of a (Google! Google!) Shirtless Roger Federer that I stumbled onto at some point during the French. 

I am not sure where this one came from... as it seems a bit more "up close and personal" than the usual shirt change on a change-over type of shots that occasionally land on the sports sites, but heck no complaints.  In this era where a lot of 20-somethings are plucked and tweezed and shaved, it is nice to see a bit of hair... though I have no doubt that Rog engages in some manscaping.  

Here is a link to: all my Roger posts... and those who just want to skip ahead to more of the shirtless variety, the weekend search engine hits seemed to heading to this post in particular. 

Master Of My Domain

Good news, bad news.... whineandcheese.net will be around for another 5 years!!  

(A hat tip to Jeff, who used that same title when he recently created his new domain... but c'mon that title is too good to pass up!)

Back at the end of April, I received notice that it was time to renew my domain as it was set to expire in early July... it was quite the eye-opener, as it is hard to believe that this incarnation of my blog w/ it's own fancy URL had been around for 5 years already... only my oldest followers would probably even remember my first venture into the blogosphere... Blog Over Troubled Water... not sure what I was thinking with that name...

That said, I just got around to renewing the domain... yesterday.  Now not that I never seriously considered packing up shop, but the dragging of feet is probably says something.  It wasn't until I heard a local newscaster had lost her domain because it was swooped up when she forget to renew it, that I thought I'd better act quickly... not that I think I am at the fame level of a local news anchor, but apparently there is some way these "squatters" can know when domains expire and take action... and I certainly didn't want that to happen. 

I know things haven't been at their usual activity level, but I guess that's to be expected.  In a few months, I will mark my 6th year of blogging... and I have wondered if there really is anything new to say after 6 years... and as I have documented here a few (many!) times of late, I am in a sort of mid-life "sorting things out" phase that seems to be a more internal process than something that I think is appropriate to be laying out here.... even if I wisely titled part of this blog "Whine" ...  I know there is limited tolerance to reading about it and there is certainly diminishing returns in writing or wallowing in it for too long as well.  

I won't make any promises about what the next fives years will be like (btw, just made more sense to renew for the 5 at a lower cost p/year)... but it will probably be at a slower pace.  I still love sharing my love of books and still had fun doing American Idol posts (vs. other reality shows that have started to wane... 5 years ago I would think it was unimaginable that I would voluntarily not be watching Survivor and Big Brother!)... and there is still the legal eye-candy from time to time. 

And thanks to the friends that I have made over these past years, I don't know if it's sad ... and don't know how to not make it sound creepy/stalker-ish... but consider some of my best friends these days people I have never met face-to-face... but I guess that is the world we're living in!

Ok... we'll re-visit this post in 2014... unless blogs or Tweets or Facebook status are being directly downloaded into one's brain by then without all this unncessary typing!

Tiananmen

If you've watched television news or checked out a news website, there is little doubt that you know that today is the 20th anniversary of the government crackdown on democratic activists at Tiananmen Square... leading to the deaths of hundreds (or thousands) of citizens.

We visited the Square last August though under much different circumstances as the Square, the largest of its kind in the world, was oddly enough a point of pride for the 2008 Summer Olympic Games.... and deservedly so, despite the atrocities that occurred there or for that matter the final resting place for a person responsible for the killing of millions of his own citizens... but it is an impressive, awe-inspiring, striking piece of real estate. 

I know I have written about this before, but I think it bears repeating.  No doubt you have heard of the recent crackdowns on access to the Square and how the government is blocking Internet access on the heels of this 20th anniversary.  And it was no surprise that the Square seemed to be on high alert during the Olympics with the government fearful of any embarrassing situation while the eyes of the world were on Beijing.  At one point, I thought we might never get to walk the Square... but as the proverb goes, the third time was the charm.

But we were very aware of the baggage that Tiananmen holds.  We had two of the friendliest young people as our tour guides, eager to please our group ... but each time our bus approached the Square we were told to not to ask about/inquire about anything the events of 1989 while we were on the Square and you could kind of tell they were uncomfortable even bringing up the subject... and likewise, if there was a police situation, to not photograph it by any means.  Again, such a contradiction to the gal tour guide toting an "I Love Lucy" purse or the young man who adopted Penn as his "Westerrn" name, comparing it to the award-winning actor. 

Here is our first look at the Square, closed at the time...

Often when we go to places where bad things have happened, there is a palpable sense of heaviness... Ford's Theater in the DC or Ground Zero in NYC come immediately to mind... and I suspected that would be the same with Tiananmen... though I will sheepishly admit to not having more than a cursory knowledge what happened beyond the iconic Tank Man... remember this was in the days before the Internet and the early dawn of a world of 24 hour news (which makes me wonder if those two things would have impacted how things played out)... plus having just graduated undergrad college likely had me not focusing on world events.

But none of that heaviness ended up happening, I think there was just so much going on that it was pretty impossible to reflect on the events of 20 years ago.  First, it was just hard to believe that we were finally on the Square... but with some paranoia that we would/could be told to leave at any minute... there was a pretty steady rain... so our visit was entirely from beneath an umbrella... and trying to look around while keeping an eye out for the umbrellas of the other 15 or so people in your group.  It proved so challenging that we did lose the father-daughter pairing (I am sure I mentioned the make-up of our group was very Amazing Race-ish). 

I am guessing it took about an hour for us to find them, though most of our group stayed camped out in tunnels leading in/out of the Square and the Beijing subway... both to stay out of the rain and stay in one place.  With it being summer, the rain, and the hundreds of other people in the tunnel... I just remember how outrageously humid it was while we waiting. 

I am guessing this is not a typical Tiananmen experience... and certainly not reflective, but nevertheless, a memorable one.  After our trip, I did educate myself on Tiananmen... more of it sparked just earlier this year when I read the book Beijing Coma about the events of Tianamen (no surprise that author Ma Jian's works are banned in China) and the whole denial/censorship that it ever happened.  In that book post, I mentioned that college kids today, born post-1989 Tiananmen, when shown a picture of Tank Man thought it was some sort of military parade.  (Side note:  We are recording an Frontline episode from 2006  titled "Tank Man" that airs on our PBS station next week)

I wondered if the Beijing Olympics would usher in some change... or more so, if the country/city could remain unchanged after the Games... but that doesn't seem to be the case on this anniversary... but even in our very brief visit, there is that recognition of the delicate balancing act that is China... very odd to those who take so much for granted, but I still utterly fascinating.