Cars

I have watched the movie "Cars" more than anyone else on the planet except my son.  I've always assumed that the real life equivalents of the Cars were as follows:

The King - Richard Petty (the movie writers didn't even ask us to think here)

Chick Hicks - Dale Earnhardt (hardest match because Earnhardt was popular while Chick was not)

Lightning McQueen - Jeff Gordon  (another easy match, especially since they both ran off their pit crews)

So, are these correct?  One possible alternative would be Doc = Petty, King=Earnhardt, Chick = Gordon, McQueen=Jimmy Johnson.  There are a number of problems with this alternative so I think it is unlikely (the biggest problem is that Gordon was successful early in his career while Chick was successful late).

Quick Reviews

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

Gladwell's first two books were both excellent, but this book is even better -- his best wook yet and probably the best non-fiction book of 2008 (although Hot, Flat, and Crowded is in the debate, among others).  The book gets a little slow in the middle, but, overall, it is just fascinating.  I think everyone should read this book.  Grade: A

Syriana

How did this movie get nominated for an academy award?  It was terrible --- slow, confusing, and completely without closure.  I know the movie was trying to communicate a certain unpleasant message about oil and the world we live in, but, really, you couldn't communicate that message more coheriently than that?

Book Review: The Appeal by John Grisham

This books sucks. It is terrible. No one should ever be subjected to this book. All existing copies should be gathered together, thrown into a big pile, and burned.

I am a fan of many John Grisham books. They're usually a little fluffy but very enjoyable. I would even describe a few as great. The Appeal, however, may be the worst book I've ever read. I realize that John Grisham intentionally wrote this book in a way that he hoped would cause us to think more critically about the election of judges, but, come on, I do not need to read this crap to learn a lesson. Will I ever read another Grisham book...well, we'll have to see how long the memory of this garbage lasts.

Michael Crichton

For the first 17 years or so of my life, I did not really enjoy reading. It felt more like work than pleasure. Then, for reasons that I will never remember, I received a copy of Red Sun Rising by Michael Crichton. I literally read the book in a single 12 hour period, stopping only to sleep for a little while. It was an amazing book that combined action, advanced technology, a "world renowned expert", and, um, sex. I then proceeded to devour half a dozen other books by M.C. with the best being Sphere. After getting my fill of M.C. I moved on to other, similar authors, such as Tom Clancy, Clive Cussler, Robin Cook, and John Case (I only need to look in the 'C' section of the library to find all my favorites early on!). M.C. played an important role in the development of my current love of reading, and for that, I owe him my respect and gratitude. RIP Mr. Crichton.

Book Review: Hot, Flat and Crowded by Thomas Friedman

Just an amazing and inspiring book about energy, climate, and the world we live in. I hope everyone can read it some day, and I wish it was half as long, but, overall, it's great. My favorite quote:

"This is not about the whales anymore. It's about us. And what we do about the challenges of energy and climate, conservation and preservation, will tell our kids who we really are."

Lava Lake

I'm going to try to document and archive some of my biking experiences....roughly chronologically.

I got my first mountain bike late in high school. I'll never forget the bike because it was a fluorescent green RD Coyote 3. I thought the bike was so light, but by today's standards, it was a tank. Any way, I had this new mountain bike and I wanted to ride it in the mountains. I was discussing my thoughts on possible rides at work (I was a "grocery bagger" at the time) with the new-guy, Travis, and he mentioned that he had gone mountain biking a few times. I convinced him that Lava Lake would be a great destination because it was only 3 miles and I remembered the trail as being relatively smooth. He agreed, and a few days later we were unloading our bikes from the trunks of our cars at the trail head.

Now, over the years, I've learned a few important rules for planning a first time ride:
(1) either talk with someone that has personally ridden the trail or read about the trail in a book,
(2) if (1) is impossible, hike the trail first,
(3) if 1 and 2 are both impossible, be prepared to not ride at all.
(4) make sure biking is legal on the trail.
Of course, Travis and I pretty much broke all these rules. We failed to notice that part of the trail was in a wilderness area, where mountain biking is not allowed. I failed to remember that the trail is extremely rocky with large stones embedded in dirt and sticking out everywhere along the trail. For the first few miles, we basically just pushed our bikes or rode 5 feet before hitting a rock.

You would think that after just a few hundred feet of this misery, that we would call it a day. Of course, we were way to stubborn and stupid for that. We basically slugged along much further than any reasonable person would slug, and we finally made the wise decision to stash our bikes and simple hike that last little bit. The view from the lake was spectacular, but the ride back to the car was unbelievably abbusive. It took 3 solid weeks for my prostate to forgive me for that ride. It took me 5 years before I was ready to try moutain biking again.

An interesting side story is the guy I went riding with, Travis. Travis was a little younger than I, probably 15-16 at the time of this ride, and never really became friends. In fact, I think that this ride may have been the only thing we ever did together outside of work. Travis appeared to me to be one of the most 'normal' people in world. He had normal blond hair, normal blue eyes, normal height and weight; he never said much, but he always had a smile on his face. Any way, a year or two later I learned that he was incredibly mysogonistic and a heavy drug user. The moral of the story, as always, is to not judge a book by its cover.

goodbye...

...to one of the smartest authors I ever read. DFW could write amazingly well about an incredibly wide range of topics. I still cannot believe that such a talented writer could understand such complex mathematics (see Everything and More). Just amazingly sad....