People in LA, possibly most anywhere, whilst alone in public, scribble furtively in little notebooks.
Not unlike, one might note, the one I’m writing in now.
I wonder if anyone else is scribbling about the pointlessness of their own writing. Given that this is Los Angeles, probably.
I’ve had this site for a long, long time. In one incarnation or another, I’ve had it since the first days of Blogger when I was dating a girl who knew the guy that did the thing and I had (in my mind) the opportunity to turn what was a hobby then into what is a business now. Alas, I lacked the foresight or the fortitude or both and I simply plunked away at the keys, often several times a day. My interest waned, as you can see from my once bi-yearly posts nowadays, and the landscape has changed precipitously. Back in the day, there was no Facebook, or Myspace, and only barely Friendster and everyone trying to talk to each other on AIM. There was no easily accessible way to post about your emo angst or (not yet invented) cat videos.
So you blogged.
Now it’s so much easier to hashtag an instagram post and be done with it in 20 seconds.
But now no one writes anything anymore, and can’t discern a there from a they’re, and thus falls modern civilization.
[Superintendant Chalmers sees Principal Skinner’s kitchen on fire]
Superintendant Chalmers: Good Lord, what is happening in there?
Principal Skinner: The Aurora Borealis?
Superintendant Chalmers: The Aurora Borealis? At this time of year? At this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your kitchen?
Principal Skinner: Yes.
Superintendant Chalmers: May I see it?
Principal Skinner: No.
Yes, I have that kind of camera that people make music videos out of these days; and yet I instead went ahead and utilized 1989 technology to create a shorter, grainier video without sound. I’m not sure what you’re getting at. Ladies and gentlemen, the mighty Dettifoss:
I’ve been doing some quick calculations. As of this moment, I have read 318 books. I’ve actually read many more than that, but I’m only counting novels. No disrespect to Dr. Seus or Clifford (the BIG red dog), but I’m not sure that they count so much as “reading” a book as they do as “observing” one.
My mother being a reading teacher, I started reading at an early age, pre-kindergarten in fact. It is this single characteristic to which I attribute entirely any academic success I’ve ever had. Not necessarily because I read and retained anything erudite, but more because I feel like the act of reading helped mold my brain into a semi-sharp instrument. Be it comic books or Melville, reading is always positive. It requires imagination, it improves your vocabulary…it’s the best thing since sliced bread.
At any rate, I started reading early. I’m not sure when I started reading real novels (the kinds I’d count on my list…which is here by the way), but I’m going to assume that I was about 12. Doing the math, that means I’m reading 12 books a year, a book a month on average. And it’s definitely an average not a reflection of reality. For whatever reason, I’ve been reading a lot over the last 30 days, and I’ve so far read 7 books within the last month.
I wonder how high my tally will get?
The more into the technology of our day and age I get, the more I seem to enjoy the moments without it. Between my iPhone, iPad, 3 laptops, smart tv, xbox, wii, and on and on, I’m very technically connected…but increasingly feel more and more separated.
The irony of typing this post out on my iPhone does not escape me.
I went camping for the first time in a long time, recently. It wasn’t as smooth as my days as a Boy Scout, but it was interesting how quickly the needle fell back into the grooves. I had no cell service of any kind while out there and I saw stars that I’ve not only not seen forever, but maybe have never seen. And it was there, miles and miles away from what was usually deemed “important” on a day to basis, with no ability to post anything, call anyone, or look up something anyhow, I felt more connected than I had in a long time.
I like shooting.
It’s fun, and, in the best possible way in that it’s challenging as well. Not having grown up in a gun house, I found out that I was naturally pretty good at shooting through the Boy Scouts. Skeet shooting was pretty easy and target shooting quickly became so.
I always really liked target shooting over skeet. Shotguns were too loud and dumb and inaccurate. Target rifles were stealthy and temperamental and smart. You needed patience. You needed control. Even after earning my rifle merit badge I would spend hours in our backyard with my little pellet gun, laying in the prone position and slowly squeezing off rounds into a target 25yds away. I saved the best ones…the ones with 5 shots within a quarter-sized area and always tried to better my score.
As I got older, my Dad would take me to the shooting range every once and a while. We’d rent Glocks and 45’s and spend an hour shooting at man-shaped targets. It’s funny that how odd that was never occurred to me…to be clearly training how to shoot a guy. Maximum damage in the chest where there’s the biggest area and most possibility for damage. Headshots are impressive but not tactically advantageous.
In recent years, a lot of people, with a lot of guns, that are short on sanity, have killed a lot of people. There are the philosophical arguments as to whether these people would still kill people regardless of if guns were around to help them. Would they go on a massive wooden club spree? Would they bludgeon people with frying pans if AR-15’s weren’t available? And that argument is used to (usually) attempt to prove that guns don’t kill people, people do. I don’t want to get in a debate on this, but there’s one thing for sure: if people kill people or guns do, guns sure make it a whole hell of a lot easier.
I stopped by a large magazine rack over the weekend. The kind that has every US magazine you could think of plus several imported from around the globe. I was looking for guitar magazines, and was having a very difficult time of it, and eventually found two buried behind some non-related teen magazines. What I had no trouble finding, however, were the 10 gun magazines, all at eye level, front and center. The one with the the “defense for housewives” article that features a triple-barreled semi-automatic tactical shotgun. For the little lady who just needs to feel a little safer.
I like shooting. But I don’t like it enough not to give it up completely.
More on the AR-15
For the amount of times I post these days (infrequently), and the number of readers I have (one. me), I still seem to retain a level of loyalty for this site not in keeping with its apparent importance.
I do, at least, find use in the reading list…
…
Mom: You know we’re good friends with the dry cleaners, I mean, we’ve been going there for years and we know the father very well.
Me: The father?
Mom: Yes, the father ran the dry cleaners for a long time and now his son, Anthony, does.
Me: And they’re Latino? [ed. we were at a Mexican restaurant and I had to keep translating what the waiter was saying…even though he was speaking English]
Mom: What?
Me: Latino?
Mom: No, they’re Asian. Anyway, I think what they do is that they get each other jobs because when you come to this country you have to have a job to stay. And then they stay for a little bit and then move on somewhere. At least I think that’s what happens, there’s some people I just never see again…
Me: Helping out their people.
Mom: Right. Anyway, some of these people I can’t understand. at. all. I usually just stand there and smile while I try and decode what my choices are [makes motions with hands like machinery in motion]. Or sometimes I just can’t figure it out and start laughing. Don’t I Jerry? [turns to Dad]
Dad: huh?
Me: So what do you do?
Mom: Usually I just smile for a little while and then just say ‘yes’ [laughing]
Me: [laughing] Well how bad could it be, right? It’s laundry.
Mom: [still laughing] Right! [Turns to Dad] That’s why sometimes your shirts have starch in them!
Me: [uproarious laughter]
I was always good at english in school…whereby “English” I really mean all of the classes that weren’t math or the sciences. I was also really good at those classes, if I’m allowed to boast, but I was less good. Or, at least, they came with a bit more effort than did the literature-based classes, which required no effort at all. My mother always thought I should do something word-related…like be a writer or a lawyer.
Instead, I chose the hard route. I went into Engineering, which is a subject heavily-dependent on the subjects that I had to work at to be good at. And I did this on purpose…the English stuff seemed like cheating to me. I mean, if it was so easy to come by, could I have really earned it honestly?
This short little story should prove to illustrate why, when re-counting my book list of read books, I discovered that I had mis-counted by two. Good at literature, not quite so much at math.
