Genji’s Butler

Tim O’Reilly was interviewed about a the benefits of a classical education; to augment the published interview, he posted the complete transcript on O’Reilly Radar. I think he makes some important points about the values of understanding the classics and the role that classical education plays in personal development. I urge all of you to take a look: here

Tomorrow C and I take off on a tedious journey to the midwest- my youngest brother is receiving his masters degree and we are going back to see him walk (or stand or sit) and to spend some time with my family. It’s not going to be a long trip, but it should be just enough time.

I’ve decided to take these things aside from the essentials:

• My Kindle
• A 5 weight fly rod
• My iPod.

You’ll probably notice that I don’t plan on taking a laptop- I’m sure that we’ll take the Mac which C and I will share – I doubt that I’ll really need to use it as between the kindle and the iPod everything I usually require – connectivity-wise – will be available.. besides, it’s the midwest, not Central Africa. There are computers there.

Last week I received my birthday gift, an Amazon Kindle2. My family had all gone in to give me enough to cover about 2/3rds of the cost so I ordered it. The first decision (prior to ordering) was if I wanted to get a Kindle DX or if I wanted the Kindle 2. I decided on getting the kindle 2 – while the form factor of the DX would be good for a textbook I didn’t think it would work well for my casual reading.

I received it on Friday – the box for the sleeve which I ordered for it was larger than the kindle itself. After charging the kindle for the recommended time, I powered it on and went shopping for a book. My first kindle reading was  Use of Weapons by Ian M. Banks. I was able to lose myself in the text just as if it were a paper book- by that measure alone the Kindle meets Amazon’s stated goals. The ability to change font size as my eyes get fatigued is probably the single best thing about the ebooks in general and the kindle specifically. It’s sleekness makes it a bit difficult for my large hands to hold sometimes, but resting it on the sleeve that I use as a case takes care of that problem admirably.

The experimental features- particularly browsing the web aren’t perfect, however being able to hit Wikipedia from anywhere with cell coverage does move this closer to The Hitchhikers Guide. (I do think that Douglas Adam’s description of THHTG’s editorial practices as being the model for Wikipedia.)

All in all, it’s a great tool for me.

This past Saturday was my 32nd birthday. I can’t say that I really did anything spectacular- we went out for lunch and generally I just lazed around. My family all chipped in and gave me gift cards / cash towards an Amazon Kindle, which should arrive by Friday of this week- I’m really anticipating being able to have much of my library in my hand as well as the reduced pricing for the books… it might actually save me money. I didn’t order the Kindle DX- I thought seriously about it, but the form factor is not quite in line with my requirements- also with it being a new product, I would prefer to wait for a while and see how the technical book publishers respond. 

I’ve been reading The Classical World by Robin Lane Fox. It’s a nice general overview of Classical history from Homeric Greece to Hadrian’s Rome. It’s the first book in my classical history reading list. Once I’ve worked through this one, I’ll delve into more depth with texts on various topics. A friend of mine asked if I was on a real History kick lately- I wouldn’t say that this is a new thing, but last year was a good year for new scholarship in the field and my booklist is pretty deep.

I have a confession to make: I’m a rock climber. I know, I know, it’s odd to picture a 6′10″ tall, ~300 lb man hauling his sorry carcass up the side of a rock with only a thin strand of 10.2 mm kernmantle rope between him and splattering on the ground- but I try. I’m not the best rock climber on the planet, hell, I’m not even good. But it was something I always wanted to try and so I started trying about a year ago. 3 weeks ago, I got to go on my first outdoor climbing adventure with a co-worker and some of his friends. We went to Big Rock, a xenolith studded slab near Riverside. As a place to go for a first outdoor climb it wasn’t bad. I managed to make it up a 5.7 and 5.8, though a second 5.7 near the end of the day defeated me (my ankles weren’t up to the strain of another attempt.) Since then, I’ve been going down to the boulders in Santee every weekend for a few hours to work on various problems – I’m trying to improve my technique so I’ll be ready for the next serious climbing.

Today I was doing a little crack climbing over on Mudball Left (the name of the boulder, who picks these?). I did fine on the first crack (the right most one) but the second crack tore up my ankles and wrist something fierce. I’m going to be working that problem for a little bit so that I can really master the sequence of moves I need to do that sort of mis-matched crack climbing well- the middle crack’s right side is about 6″ further forward than the left and it makes the footwork a little odd. Also, I just don’t have some of the confidence that I need just yet. I’ll get there though- with all things it’ll just take some practice. I only climbed for about an hour, though, since by 9:30 am it was already getting to be a bit on the warm side for the rocks.

The next big event for the day, after climbing, was going to the San Diego Symphony to see Brahms 2nd Piano Concerto, Mendelsohnn’s Hebridies Overature, and Devorak’s Seranade for Strings. It was a captivating performance! I don’t think I really took my eyes off the stage for most of the performance. For me, a live symphonic performance is as much a visual pleasure as it is an aural one. A good symphony breathes with the music, all of the performers moving and swaying with the swells and troughs of the piece. This visual, in fact, was appropriate for the Hebridies, since the orchestra swayed like kelp in a tide pool! Devorak’s seranade is a very light and pleasant piece- I thought it was an excellent follow-on to the overature as well as a good way to bridge the audience to the intermission and then on to the technically challenging Brahms concerto. Yefim Bronfman was the pianist; his performance was masterful and light at the same time- the touch that this music needed to really come to life.

It’s been about a week since my parents were here to visit for the weekend, and I’ve been so busy that I haven’t had the time (work has been OMG BUSY) to really write about their visit.

They rolled in on Friday while I was still at work; I had made reservations for them at their favorite hotel for the weekend and they were able to check in without trouble, which is always a good start for a weekend trip! I worked a little late- once I was off I went and picked up C. and went with my parents to get some food. We decided on a Mexican place, Cafe Guadalajara down in old town. Eating is always a challenge for my father- he never knows what will taste good due to the chemo. I won’t bore you with what we ate, but the patio was nice and we had a good time with them.

On Saturday morning C and my mother went to quilt shops and I spoke with my dad about ‘the Arrangements.’ That was a pretty depressing way to start the day, but we needed to talk about it. When the time comes (may it be a long ways away), it’s good to know his wishes. Later on, we had a discussion about regrets and things he wished he’d done differently. I learned a lot about him; I wish I’d known some of it sooner. Once the women returned, we went out to Ruby’s for a milkshake and burger and then down to the Cabrillio national monument to look at the bay and the Pacific for a while.

It was a beautiful day and I enjoyed every minute of it; particularly watching the seabirds as they hovered over the water and the hawks hunting rodents in the Pt. Loma hills. One particularly splendid moment was when a hawk swooped up the face of the hill and flew within 20′ of where we were sitting and you could clearly make out the flexing talons as she diligently searched for a mouse or other small prey. Dad and I spent some time trying to figure out what the destroyer was doing off in the distance as it raced from north to south and back again along the horizon. Eventually, the sun began to set and the park rangers started chasing everyone out, so we headed off to dinner at Arrividerci, a pleasant little Italian restaurant in Hillcrest where they’ve eaten before, and had a good time chatting about the day.

Sunday was a little bit of a bust- Dad and I had planned to go on a fishing charter for the afternoon, but the WoundVac on his leg wasn’t working properly and he had to spend the day fighting to get that corrected. In the end, we wound up going over to their hotel room and playing hands and feet until the part was delivered (by a salesman for the company) and the four of us joined C’s parents for dinner.

They left early the next morning, and I was sorry to see them go- I really don’t see them enough.

I guess the snow delayed my parents on their EPIC ROAD TRIP to Las Vegas. That, and my dad’s residual chemo neausa.

Well, now we know for certain that the holidays are over… my company laid off about 10% of its workforce. I wasn’t laid off- but 2 of the people with whom I worked closely were.  It’s surprising how ’survivors guilt’ effects the people who are not laid off (it’s a pretty well documented phenomenon in the labor force). Thankfully, my company doesn’t believe in the million bites of the apple theory of staff reduction, so there is only expected to be this round. 

It is my feverent hope that the economy improves over the next year- I don’t think that many companies can really survive a more protracted downturn.

Well, it’s a few days into the new year and I find that I haven’t made the required “new year” post. I don’t plan on posting my resolutions here- I’ve made a list of things that need to get done in the next year (along with when, if there was one) and put it in remember the milk. This is good enough for me (and it’ll ensure that at least SOME of it will get done).

I will, however, share some of the highlights with you. This year I will:

• Travel back to KC to see my family in March
• Travel back to KC/Columbia to attend my brother’s wedding in August
• Try to keep my home office cleaner
• be better about updating this blog.

Not so exciting, is it? 

Now, I could bore you with what we did for NYE (nothing) and talk about how we shouted and cheered at the Chargers game, but that’s all that I’d have to mention.

Earlier this year, I posted about my father being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer (Pleomorphic Liposarcoma) and about its etiology.

Yesterday, before the family christmas party we had, the family ‘it’s terminal’ discussion. They mentioned the general mortality for this form of cancer is roughly 80% within 9 months. 

As you can probably guess, this put a damper on the holiday celebration. 

I’m close to my father. While his faults are legion, he’s been a man that I can count on, whose service to his country I respect, and who I’m proud to call Dad. I hope that he’ll be in the 20% who survive 2-5 years, but I’m also a realist. He’s had difficult health for the past several years and the men on his side of the family don’t seem to live much past 65 (I suppose this is something I should worry about- though I hope I take better care of myself than they have). I’ll be travelling to KC a lot more this year- I want to get as much time with him as is possible. Though he’s got a list of things that he’s always wanted to do. He and my mother are going to cruise the panama canal, visit the bahamas, he wants to see a regular season game in every MLB park, wants to be at my brother’s wedding in August, and spend Christmas in San Diego next year. I hope beyond hope that he gets to do all of them. If what I want really had any bearing on cancer he’d be here to see my middle brother, who’s taken a troubled route through life, graduate with his Bachelors degree (maybe 2 years from now, maybe 3); but then again, if I had my wish, he’d live forever.