The Writer's Poke

So, she finally arrived. October 9, 2007 at 7:20 p.m. 8 lbs, 8 ounces and 22 inches long.

Who's your favorite author? Pretty boring question, me thinks. But let's spice it up: Who's your favorite author that you've never read? Right now, mine would have to be Christa Faust. I mean, just take a look at her website. How could you not be a fan of Ms. Faust? http://www.christafaust.com/ Currently, I have two of her books staring down at me from my "must read bookcase." But, honestly, I don't want to read her books. What if I don't like them? After all, sometimes things are better to admire from afar. I just fear that if I open Ms. Faust's books and take a look inside, I might not like what I find, and then where would I be? The last time I loved an author before I actually read anything by them? The author's name: Carlton Mellick III. The book: Razor Wire Pubic Hair . What a great title, what an interesting book cover. He was supposed to be the "modern-day Kurt Vonnegut." Nope, he wasn't anything like Vonnegut, and the des...

Doing a blog is fun, although I'm not able to post as often as I would wish. And, it would be more fun if it were set up more like an interactive discussion board. Sure, people can leave their comments, but they generally do so without leaving their name. That makes their comments seem somehow dirty to me. I don't like to live in the anonymous world of not even knowing the names of the people that I have intimate relations with. This is a blog for lovers, not players. :)

If you were going to have a baby girl, what would you name it? Most normal people would go for something like "Ashley" or "Nicole" or "Elizabeth." Not me. I like the name "Guinevere Octavia Fuller." How would you like to be stuck with that name growing up? :)

I was on Amazon looking up Children's Books, and I ran across an interesting fact. Jenny McCarthy has apparently written (and published) four books -- Louder than Words being her latest release. She also wrote the script to the movie Dirty Love . Not bad for someone that got her start as the co-host of MTV's Singled Out . Why do I mention all of this? Jenny and I are basically the same age, but I haven't published a thing. She's supposed to be a blond playmate airhead (which of course she's not), and she's publishing books and making movies. This cannot stand. If Ms. McCarthy can write books, then darn it, why can't I? Jenny, I accept your challenge. The score is 5-0, but I can catch up!

Ticket prices have gone up a lot since 1987. Back then, you could get a front row seat for $15. Saturday's show in Rochester was $50. And maybe Vince McMahon is overpricing his show, just a little... after all, the Mayo Civic Center was only 1/2 full. And on a sidenote, why do pro-wrestling fans have to bathe in sheep-dip before coming to the show? If you haven't been to a live, non-televised event, you probably should go. It's fun to watch the crowd, even if the action in the ring is terrible. When the cameras aren't on, wrestlers spend a lot of time standing around in the ring, rolling out the ring, yelling at the crowd, and basically just killing time. Is wrestling really that boring that they have to do all of these time-killing tricks? Probably not. More likely, wrestlers are on the road 200+ dates per year, and they're simply protecting their bodies. Anything more than 5 minutes of hard action would be too much to endure on a nightly basis. Here's a run do...

Here's another book that I don't have time to read. :) How well do you keep a diary? I kept one for a couple of years, actually. 1993-1994. And since then, I'll take a stab at an entry every once in a great while. To a certain extent, this blog has taken the place of my diary, but after getting Michael's diary in the mail yesterday -- 600 pages for the 10 year period -- I'm feeling a bit inspired. It's time to dust off the notebook and start putting pen to paper once more!

There's a lot to see and do in most places, but when you live in a place, it loses it's ability to be "exotic." Often times, if the choice is: should we go out exploring, or should we stay home and sit on the couch, the couch wins. As part of our Dubuque trip last weekend, and it took us hours to decide to actually go through with going to Dubuque, we decided to stop at Niagara Cave. http://www.niagaracave.com/default.asp Some say this is one of the top caves in the country, and it well might be. But, even so, it's just 40 miles from home, and it took us 15 months to make the drive there. (slow car) Let me rephrase that: Just forty miles, but 15 months to commit to going there. Am I glad we went? Of course, because now I have a weekend full of memories that I wouldn't have had sitting on the couch at home. And generally speaking, I love to travel. So why was it such a struggle to decide to go?

Question: What is between Rochester, Minnesota and Dubuque, Iowa? Answer: About 180 miles of corn fields and little else. My wife and I made the journey to Dubuque last weekend to see Kip Winger in concert. If any of you recognize the name, you're probably about my age. Winger was a hair metal band that was popular for about three years (1988-1991). Not coincidentally, those were the years I was in high school, the time when my musical tastes formed. Kip, now 46, is more than a hair metal memory, and when he plays live without the band, he plays an acoustic 12-string guitar. The guy can really play. Anyway, Dubuque was having a free concert series, and Kip was the headlining act. I'd say about 250 people were there, but 220 were there just to drink, smoke, and socialize. Less than 30 of us were there for the music. Quite sad, really. http://www.myspace.com/kipwingermusic

For Writers: My mother and her five siblings were raised in the Latter-day Saints religion. All told, I probably have about twenty-five cousins or so, and most of them have a few kids of their own. How many of my mother’s siblings, my cousins, or their children have left the faith of their parents? As far as I know, none of them have. In the “Up” documentary series, researchers follow the lives of British children from diverse backgrounds. This series started in 1964, and every seven years, the researchers come back to interview the participants. This series uses a motto based on a Jesuit saying, “Give me a child until he is seven, and I will show you the man.” Not surprisingly, there’s a lot of truth to that saying. Without getting into the whole “nature vs. nurture” debate, why is it so difficult for people to examine the values they were taught in childhood? Not to pick on the LDS faith, but why have none of my immediate family members found a different religion? What would ...

Give it up for the Old Man. Anyone up for a road trip to Key West??

Linda and I have at least one friend that went to the bookstore at 12:01 a.m. this morning to buy her copy of the last Harry Potter book. And, I'm sure there are tens of thousands of people that did the same, giving up sleep tonight to feed their Potter need. Me, I'm a bit behind. Just finished the third book tonight, and I fear that by the time I get to book 7, the secret of who dies at the end will have been revealed. I'm going to do my best not to find out, but since it will probably take me another couple of months to finish the next four books, it seems unlikely that I'll be able to avoid finding out. My guess is that Snape and Voldemort will be the two that die... surely not Harry or Ron or Hermione?? That would be too sad...

For Writers: Chris was a forty year old professional who pushed himself to perform to the best of his abilities at all times. He almost never allowed anyone inside, but from what people could see on the surface, everyone respected his passion and drive. They also considered him to be a loving family man with a caring wife and a well-mannered little boy. Then one day he was traveling for his job and received a phone call from his wife. What she told him in that conversation made him cancel one of the most important work-related events of his life to immediately catch the next flight home. The matter was apparently that serious. Outside of Chris and his wife, no one knows the why behind what happened once he arrived home. With his small son sleeping in the adjacent bedroom, Chris strangled his wife with an electrical cord, leaving her lifeless corpse to rot. The following morning, he put a bag over his son’s head, removing the last breath from his small body. A little bit later, Chris wo...

Based on this video, I'd say Obama has the women's vote locked up. :)

A special happy birthday to one of my favorite writers, Ms. Octavia Butler (god rest her soul).

For Writers: She and her kid sister took a road trip to Ohio one summer to catch three Def Leppard shows. This was 1987, and the band was at the height of its popularity. The kid sister was 16, and she was willing to do anything to meet the band. By the third show, the roadies had taken notice of the two young women, and one offered the girls backstage passes. When they went backstage after the show, the band was nowhere to be found, but the room was filled with assorted roadies and hopeful groupies. “Take your tops off,” one roadie said, “and you’ll get to meet the band.” This was the initiation price all prospective groupies had to pay for the chance to meet the heavy metal heartthrobs. The 16 year old was willing to strip down, as were most of the girls in the room. The older sister refused to take her top off, however, as the thought of a bunch of 40 year old roadies pawing at her chest repulsed her. In the end, the roadies failed to keep their end of the deal, selecting only the ...

For Writers: I hadn’t seen or heard from her in over three years, and then one summer, she sent me a letter. The reasons for us losing touch are too complicated to note here, and may not matter anyway. In short: she had graduated from college and moved on with her life. Her letter was handwritten, which is a nice touch in the age of word processors and emails, and she briefly filled in the gaps of my knowledge. She was preparing to adjunct at a local college, and her wedding was set for that December. Interestingly enough, I was beginning my teaching career as an adjunct at the same college that fall. Seeing her a few weeks later at the teacher orientation session, I noticed that she hadn’t changed that much. On the surface, her look was more professional than it had been as a student, but otherwise, I found it difficult to acknowledge the passing of three years. And though we were friendly to one another that semester, we were by no means close friends. When she wasn’t teaching, she w...

We put the crib together yesterday, and guess who has already made herself at home? Our white fur ball. (Click on the picture for a bigger look)

For Writers: When I graduated from college, it was a hot August day in Illinois . The gym didn’t have air conditioning, and my silk shirt was completely soaked after the first ten minutes. The ceremony lasted for over two hours, and then I went out to eat spaghetti with a couple of friends. Yawn. Graduating is one of those events that people would instinctively put on a personal highlight reel. But at least in my case, the event – the ritual – was an uncomfortable and mundane experience. Symbolically, it represented three years of my life, but it’s hard to capture three years by walking across the stage, shaking a few hands, and having a few pictures taken of you. In life, we often try to capture the culmination of experience through ritual – whether it be a baptism, a wedding, or a graduation. Human beings need rituals, but are ritualized events really the highlights of our lives? Today, consider your own personal highlight reel. What would you include on it? Would rituali...

For Writers: It’s a hip thing to do, to get a tattoo. The idea of joining the inked masses has crossed my mind on a number of occasions, but at this point I’m still ink free. The main reason for that: I haven’t found anything so soaked full of meaning that I wanted to leave an indelible mark on my body with it. Over the past decade, however, many people have started getting tattooed as a kind of fashion accessory. Statistics indicate that over one-third of people in the 18-29 age range now have at least one tattoo. Why? One of the main reasons given is to feel “sexier.” The non-tattooed majority still hold prejudicial thoughts against folks with tattoos, though, with opinion polls indicating that those without tattoos find those with tattoos to be less intelligent, less sexy, and overall, less attractive. Nevertheless, fully one-third of the 100 sexiest women, as determined by FHM magazine, have tattoos. At the moment, tribal tattoos are the most en vogue, followed by crosses, ...