Who is out there?

I've done something I'll likely regret. I've removed the "bloggers only" feature on my comments. But there's a reason:

I have a map that shows me the general locations of where people are viewing me from but not who is looking. And I know that there are some of you who probably don't have blog accounts. Like many of you, I don't comment very often on the blogs that I read, even those I read daily. But I really have no idea who is reading this. So...

If you're reading this, please comment.
1. Let me know who you are.
2. Tell me where you are (Some of my map dots really run together).
3. Tell me how often you check this blog.
4. Optional: Come up with a better name for this blog than the current one.

I hope this didn't sound too weird.

More books

Consider this more of a personal post-it note.

A character in Ngugi wa Thiong'o's The Wizard of the Crow thinks we should read:

Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta

Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangarembga

So Long a Letter by Mariam Ba

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

Fault Lines by Meena Alexander

Women Writing in India, We Were Making History by Susi Tharu

I can't confirm it but I think a couple of those names were either made up or invented when someone dropped their latte on their keyboard.

Another List

The following is another top ten literature list - this one compiled by J. Peder Zane. He had 125 living authors come up with their top ten and then, using statistical analysis came up with the following:

1. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
2. Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
3. War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
4. Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
6. Hamlet by William Shakespeare
7. The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
8. In Search of Lost Time by Marcel Proust
9. The Stories of Anton Chekhov by Anton Chekhov
10. Middlemarch by George Eliot

What bothers me most is not what is included on the list but how little of it I've read. I know I've read three of them, maybe as many as four - didn't I have to read Middlemarch while in college?

Thankfully, no Ulysses.

Beyond Mondo

Following Amanda's lead, here is my list of "things for the future I'd really like to do, some of which seem beyond me while others might really be possible" - also known as my Mondo Beyondo List:

1. Be down to 210lbs by Christmas 2007.
Beyondo: Reach the middle range for my optimal weight - somewhere around 175.
2. Be proficient enough in our new language to be able to teach basic ESL.
Beyondo: Be able to read the next Harry Potter book in the new language.
3. Begin playing a brass instrument again.
Beyondo: Relearn to sightread both the bass and treble clef.
4. Climb either Mt. Kenya or Kilimanjaro for my 40th birthday. (Only 7 years to train! Anyone want to join me?)
Beyondo: Climb/hike a major mountain on each continent other than Antarctica.
5. Purchase a gift for my wife that will make her cry.
Beyondo: Actually surprise my wife with the above-mentioned gift.
6. Learn to ride a motorcycle.
Beyondo: Not get in a motorcycle accident or cause serious injury to myself or others.
7. Eat tofu...by choice.
Beyondo: Order and enjoy squid, octopus or any organ-based dish at a restaurant.

More to be added as they come to me.

Sad

First Jim, now the Cowboys. Is anyone not let down?

Citizen Jonathan

As I was getting the newspaper this morning I heard the rather disturbing sound of a smoke alarm going off in the distance. Somewhere there was that shrill, piercing noise that can only mean that somebody burned popcorn or boiled water.

So in an act of heroic thoughtfulness, I came back inside. (Don't worry, I didn't stay there.) I tracked down my slippers, woke my wife, got my coat and grabbed my keys. Because every hero needs a dorky sidekick or, in this case, a sexy partner in stretch leather, a cape and boots, Amanda set out with me in the wet morning to find the source of this noise.

Together we narrowed it down to not coming from any of the apartments in our complex. It sounded like it was coming from the neighborhood beyond our back wall, which was out of view. Resolved that we couldn't see or smell smoke and that we really didn't know what to tell the fire department if we did call 911 (no idea what the name of the street behind us is), we were ready to give up. Until...

I realized the sound was actually coming from the apartment complex's dumpster. Sitting on top was a mound of replaced smoke detectors. No one had taken the batteries out of them when they got upgraded to smoke and carbon monoxide detectors. I guess the rain shorted one of them out, thus the shrill noise. Battery removed, we went back in for breakfast.

Daily heroic duty accomplished.