Day 57: Twilight

Another book completed from my list.  At this point, I kind of wish that I had put more books to read on my list.  It's especially nice to have found that the library has audio-books for download.

This is the next book I completed in audio-book format that I've been listening to in the car to-and-from work.

I don't know anything of the hype on this book or the series.  I haven't seen the movie.  Based on recognizing it as a vampire novel and that it has been popular, I figured I'd give it a shot.

The book was decent.  It was more of a romance novel that I had expected.  Unlike the previous books in my list, this isn't one where I captured quotes.  I'll consider reading the next in the series.

Day 50: The Heights of Peoria

The girls and I visited my parents who live near Peoria.  Item 22 on the list is about visiting them but also doing something fun while there.

We stopped by "Tower Park" in Peoria Heights.  A few dollars and a few minutes later, we were headed up the glass elevator on the side of the 200 foot tower.   This was a pretty hot day and it was a nice relief to be at the top of the tower where the breeze was much stronger.

Day 43 - Eat, Pray, Love

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

I suppose this isn't your typical "guy" book.  Possibly you might consider it the chick-flick of novels.  However, I enjoyed this book immensely on a variety of levels, which I won't actually cover her.  But as an example, it was a good lesson in diversity.  I learned about Italy, India, and Indonesia, of the countries, culture, people, history, and religious practices.

It was also amazing to hear it being read by the author. I very much appreciated hearing the Italian words rather than just reading them.  I loved that she broke into an imitation of the accent when she was quoting someone's words.

I checked this book out as a downloadable audio book.  It's wonderful that our library system has become sophisticated enough that I can check out a book, download it, and then transfer it to my iPhone.

I love being able to listen to a book while in the car on my commute. Or with my eyes closed, resting on a blanket spread under a tree, or while folding laundry.  If I had my pick, it would always be relaxing in the shade, but it does help the other two less enjoyable activities be more enjoyable.

One thing that I found difficult about an audio book is that you can't highlight or mark something to later come back to it.  I realized over half-way through the book that I could, however, take a quick screen snapshot when I hear something I like to capture the chapter and time-stamp, and then later come back to it.

Some quotes:

• You are after all, what you think. Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts and you are the slave to your emotions.  ... You are never where you are.  You are always digging in the past or poking in the future, but rarely do you rest in this moment.
• Remembering something my guru once said:  You should never give yourself a chance to fall apart.  Because when you do, it becomes a tendency and it happens over and over again.  You must practice staying strong instead.
• Happiness is the consequence of personal effort.  You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it. You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings.  And once you have achieved a state of happiness,  you must never become lax about maintaining it.  You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever to stay afloat on top of it.   If you don't, you will leak away your innate contentment.  
• Attraversiamo, Let's cross over.

Day 31 - What am I going to watch now?

I'm in no hurry to find another TV show.  It's summer time and life is busy.

Last week I completed watching my most-recent favorite TV series: Heroes.  It hasn't been renewed for a 5th season.  I will need to figure out what my next TV show is.

The last couple of TV shows that I watch from the start tend to have a death sentence within the first couple of years.  So watch-out, whatever I pick is probably going to go the way of the dodo bird.

Initial TV show ideas include:

• Firefly
• Lost

Day 31 - Point Omega

Point Omega, by Don DeLillo

I grabbed this fairly short novel (117 pages) on the new releases shelf as I was leaving the library at closing time.  Also it has a wonderful front cover.  I remembered seeing it as a recommendation on Amazon a couple of week prior.  I wasn't going for short--I was going for different.

This fiction novel was definitely different.  I'm pretty sure that if it hadn't been so short, I would not have made it through.  The book consists of 3 characters, the main one has retired from a top secret strategic war planning role as a civilian at the Pentagon.

The story is very much not an action/adventure story as I first imagined.  Instead this is very much a thinking book.  It delves into the each of their heads and their thinking and their thinking-about-thinking.

Different is good to broaden my horizons.  This book was definitely a different experience and I've never read anything like it before.

Day 30 - Flossing is a good thing

Flossing, yuck.  It's never something I've done all that much or consistently.  Thankfully I have pretty healthy teeth and even with out much flossing, I've only ever had 1 cavity.  But flossing is good, is important, and is to be done. OK, OK. I know all that but still haven't done well at it and so that's why it made the list.

I started Item 6 on June 24th, 2010.  This is the day I had my 6-month check-up and cleaning at the dentist.  I figured there was really no better day to start given my teeth were freshly cleaned.

Now I'm over 1 week in and I haven't missed a day.  Eleven more weeks for this item and then to keep doing it for good.  Somewhere a long time ago I heard or read that after 12 weeks a habit should be formed.  That's why I picked 12.

Also, now having read the Power of Less for Item 9 I realized that I had a unknowingly done a couple of other very good things when I set this goal that should help with motivation, namely:

• Anticipate - I set the start date a couple of weeks in advance, knowing that I had my dentist appointment. 
• Set an easy goal - I set the goal to be 4x per week, yet hoping to be doing it every day.  I figured that 4 was a lot better than I had ever done and was pretty much every-other-day.  
• Put up a chart - I put a small chart on my bathroom mirror so I can mark off each day.

So far so good.  I'm getting faster at it too.  I might actually have to buy some more floss one day.

Day 29 - The Power of Less

The Power of Less, by Leo Babauta

I finished the book a few days ago, but I needed to also identify 3 things that I'm going to do with it so I took some extra time.

Some of the interesting quotes from the book include:

• Why must we rush through life?  Slow down and enjoy it more.  Life is a journey--make it a pleasant one.
• Simplicity boils down to two steps: Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest.
• Focus all your energy on creating that one habit.
• Limited focus is digging with that same shovel in one spot until you hit water.

I have identified tasks #10, #11, and #12:

• #10 Power of Less: Reduce and organize my Boy Scout materials 
• #11 Power of Less: Create a time for solitude, use it for 12 times 
• #12 Power of Less: list all my commitments, then make the short list

Another interesting thing with this book was that I used Amazon's Kindle application for the iPhone.  This was the first complete book that I've read using my iPhone.  The reading interface is rather small, obviously.  It was fun to always have a book at my side.  I enjoyed being able to annotate and highlight key points and then later have access to them from the web.

This concludes Item #9.  However, as the key to doing something about it, I now have tasks 10-12.

Day 27 - Into Thin Air

I completed "Into Thin Air" by Jon Krakauer.  This is an account of the tragedy that unfolded on Mt. Everest in May, 1996.  The previous book, No Shortcuts to the Top, that I listened to was a trigger for me to pick this one up when I saw it at the library.

The interesting thing for me in this book is understanding limits, the difficult decisions that need to be made, and the careful eye towards how a number of little things can stack up and overall contribute to a horrible outcome.

I'll think back on these two books the next time I'm trudging up a hill or on a tough trail with my backpack on.  I'll consider that it's probably not as bad as being in the death zone at nearly 29,000 ft. in the jet stream where humans can barely survive.

Day 27 - Movie Night

I was in the movie store the other day and decided I should pick out a movie and start Item #31,   Watch 20 movies that were nominated for Academy Award "Best Picture."  This seemed like a very good idea, but I didn't already have some picked out.

A quick reference on the Academy Awards, I fairly quickly chose Crash.  It won the Oscar for Best Picture in 2006.  Good movie yet disturbing on so many levels. It really makes you think about where our culture has/hasn't come today.