Importance of Marriage

In my continued efforts to be silent no longer, I thought I’d post this nice piece on marriage written by a former divorce judge from Georgia.

In so many ways, she nails it right on the head.

Book Review: World War Z

I don’t know what it is about Halloween, but I always find myself attracted, even if only briefly, to the horror genre of book and film. This year was no exception, and on the recommendation of a friend, I picked up this book.

World War Z, by Max Brooks, is an oral history detailing the experiences of a host of characters during the great zombie war. The book is set in the  not-too-distant future and runs with the premise that a viral invasion has caused the undead to rise again in typical zombie-esque fashion. The thriller details the war from Ground Zero (Patient Zero) to approximately twelve years after.

The Good

There’s much I could say here… Max Brooks has a fluid, natural style to his prose that is so uncommon for one as unpublished as he is (this was his second book). To say that his writing reads well would be too benign; no, his writing pours from the page with a simplicity and comprehension relegated to a handful of truly great authors.

More than the prose, however, is the remarkable depth of research into both hypothetical apocalyptic scenarios and, more particularly, the range of human response. Beyond accounting for every conceivable response in the scope of human emotion, Brooks is intelligent enough to recognize that there are even greater heights and deeper depths that the truly stressed mind will reach.

His descriptions of individual and national responses to the crisis are deeply chilling, disturbing, and much more frightening than the undead, but they are also natural, believable, and utterly unshocking. Any other writer would have created this book in a way where each scenario played out in surprising disbelief, but Brooks has created an expectation that when the unbelievable and shocking happens, you not only believe it, but you accept that there truly was no other way.

The Bad

My only real complaint here is the language. The book is certainly not something your grandmother would read.

I debated listing the horror aspect, but if you pick up a zombie book and are disturbed by the horror…. Leave it to say that you took the first step.

Conclusion

I think this book is probably mislabeled as horror. It’s truly not scary. It’s not a book that is going to keep you up at night thinking of the moaning dead lurching through windows and doorways, although that is certainly a large part of the story and the imagery is resoundingly horrible. But this will keep you up at night pondering the reprehensible nature of what an apocalyptic world might actually be like. And while that is psychologically disturbing enough, Brooks paints the happiest possible ending without descending into Disney or Hollywood styles.

A treasured read. Truly. Probably not one I will return to again in the near future, but also one I will not soon forget. It’s being made into a movie currently, and I can sincerely say that I hope it’s not rated R even though I have little to no expectation that it won’t be.

One final accolade… It is truly rare that you encounter a genre-defining work, especially in a genre as old and worn as zombies, but World War Z is not just genre defining; it is arguably the opening salvo of a true literary mastermind. In the future, it would not only surprise me to see World War Z as the standard by which all zombie literature is compared, but to see Max Brooks appropriately seated as the keeper of this particular gate.

A full Four Stars for this one.

Election Day 2009

It seems like we were just here not that long ago….

Local elections only for me with a new mayor and two council positions open. I’m fairly confident my selection for mayor will win and quite possibly both council positions as well. I suppose that’s a good thing, but I readily admit I’m kind of not really that concerned with the mayor; both would be overall good candidates I think with an equal measure of political yuck associated.

But the Council…. One race, city-wide council rep, is completely beyond my interest. It’s been dominated by one person from the get-go, and the election is merely a formality. Besides, as with the mayor, I think either candidate would be acceptable.

The other race has been somewhat bitter with a strong candidate in one corner and a nameless entity in the other. This race has seen an anti-group speak much louder than an actual opposition. Instead of presenting a clear alternative, the opposition has stepped forward with an “anyone but…” approach that has been wonderfully bitter and angry.

In large measure, it has defined my political frustration this last year.

It seems that politics in general have disintegrated into stopping the other party more than actually offering a solution. I felt that way in the past, and I definitely feel that way with both parties currently. Not all, of  course, but there is certainly a measure of hindrance rather than discussion that I find distasteful.

I think it was Louisiana governor Jindal who said that an opposition party’s primary duty is to offer constructive alternatives, a thought that truly practiced would lead to great success. But I don’t see that anymore from either party.

From Obama’s sham of bipartisanship to republican stall tactics, all I see lately is a me-first, party-first mentality that seems bent on political failure. Ideas and thoughts are no longer encouraged, especially in the public forum where opposing camps immediately label outsiders as fools while simultaneously choosing to ignore and reject out of hand any other options. Tell me: Who is more foolish? The person who suggests something different or the person who rejects those thoughts based on preconceived notions of right and wrong?

I miss the true political dialog of constructive debate. Watching this council race has shown me quite clearly that many of us have lost the fine art of developing alternatives, presenting them in meaningful ways, and building on mutual foundations. Instead of introducing an alternative, we are too eager to impede.

I’ve found it interesting that the most commonly used phrase in relation to this council member is “stop so-and-so.” Where is progress in this argument? Where is the constructive moment? Where is the opportunity?

No, I’m afraid I’m going to support that candidate simply because the alternative appears to be an empty vacuum of negativity. If they had offered a solution, I would have taken a hard look at it. From where I sit, though, all they are offering is to stop.

Sorry, stopping isn’t an alternative; it’s an acceptance of failure.

Review: Transformers 2

We watched this from Redbox this last weekend, and it deserves its own special type of review:

DO NOT WATCH THIS FILM!!!

There I said it.

Seriously, this is hands down one of the dumbest films I’ve ever seen. And it’s not just the film as much as it was the stupidity of the sexual references. I haven’t seen stuff that stupid since the playground in 6th grade.

I regret that the movie ever entered my home. I really should have researched it first, and I take the blame for not doing so. I give this film a perfect tie with another bomb, Hancock.

Zero stars.

Thanks for wasting a few hours of my life. If there is a third, I will NOT be watching it. I never should have watched this one… or the first one….

Travis… Why didn’t you save me from yet another stupid movie?!?!?

Update: Swine Flu

Katherine’s fever finally broke Sunday morning. It took three days, and we had a couple scares of 103+, but she’s feeling better. I think the sign that she was truly feeling well again was when we realized that her talking had increased from about 1 word a minute up to 150 with gusts approaching 300.

She’s still the only one that got sick, though several coworkers have called in this morning saying they were ill. I think I may have been a carrier…. Does it make me a bad person if I find that slightly humorous?

The worst part of the whole experience was that Katherine didn’t get to do anything for Halloween. She was most depressed by that. She’s been counting down for a long time, and the saddest part for me was coming home from work on Friday and finding her in her Halloween costume slumped on the couch. I think it had just set in that she was not going to go trick-or-treating, and she was truly heart broken. It made me want to reach up and pull down the moon for her….

I think we’re going to get together with Nosurfgirl’s family this weekend and do a mini-Halloween just for Katherine. Nosurfgirl has four daughters all around Katherine’s age, and I could just see the huge princess party that’s going to be with all of them dressed up and marching around the house trick-or-treating. We still haven’t carved our two pumpkins either, so we’ll hold those aside for this weekend as well. Should be fun, and Katherine will be thrilled to go trick-or-treating even if it isn’t really Halloween.

Swine Flu

It’s not quite official, but I’m calling it anyway.

Time of Arrival in the Loveless household: roughly 7:45 this morning.

Well, that’s when it first started showing anyway. Katherine came into our room at 6:00 this morning and crawled into bed with me. She likes to sleep in my arms when she’s not feeling well, so that was the first sign. After I left, Courtney got suspicious of Katherine’s behavior and took a temperature: 102. That combined with a serious case of lethargy, a lack of desire to eat, a strong dry cough, and a strong change for happy boisterous to constant sleepiness is enough for me.

It promises to be a long week, but we’re ready for it.

I never had aspirations that we’d avoid swine flu this year; It’s a new disease with no resistance in the human body. I wouldn’t be surprised to see total infection rates jump quite high around the world. I’m not really worried though. We’re all healthy and strong people, and I’ve hopefully passed the legendary Loveless immune system on to my children. And if I haven’t, there are plenty of worthy priesthood holders who will join me in blessing my family, and Courtney is a wonderful mommy-nurse.

Honestly, the only person I worry about is Myron. He’s still young enough to worry me, though I think even he will do just fine. The only other thing I worry about is me and my schedule. This week is ward conference, and I have a lot of things that need to get done in relation to callings and home teaching assignments, teaching on Sunday, and so on. I’ve decided that I’m going to head off to the church tonight to get as much done now just in case Katherine shares with the rest of us.

But the worst part of it all is that there is an extremely sad princess at home who is probably just now realizing that she doesn’t get to go to any of the Halloween parties (there were three) or trick-or-treating. She’s been counting down to this holiday for at least three weeks now. Once everyone is better, I think we’ll do a little mini-Halloween with some friends and have them go door to door around the house.

But for now, the H-word in our house is verbotten.

Our Poltergeist Balloons

A story appropriate for Halloween I think….

Last weekend, Katherine got a Halloween helium-filled balloon at a Primary activity. On Monday, she got a second balloon, but this one was not filled with helium. As a joke, I tied the two together with the non-helium balloon hanging at the end of a long string. That balloon hangs about five feet off the floor. That’s the setup….

Last night, Courtney and I are lying in bed around 2:00 AM when we hear this scratching sound on the ceiling. I’m easily spooked, so of course I come wide awake. There, across the room, is this balloon slowly dragging across the ceiling with this second balloon floating like a disembodied orange head beneath it.

Why is that freaky, you might ask. Indeed you might. Here’s why:

We had no idea how the balloon got in our room. We left it in the living room and somehow during the night it dipped low enough to clear the door to our bedroom and come in to our room. Then it rose back to the ceiling and scraped its way across the ceiling. You have to remember as well that we have 10.5 foot ceilings, so that balloon dipped about four feet to clear the door.

Throughout the night, the balloon kept dragging its way around the room, all the while making a muffled scraping sound, like the claws of some slathering beast come to steal us from our beds. When I woke up this morning, it was floating right above my head.

I did not sleep well.

The mystery solved: We put the balloon back in the living room this morning and watched as the air currents from the heating vents pushed it around the whole living room. Then, to our surprise, when it got close to a door frame, the balloon on the bottom was pushed through the door by the air currents, which then, of course, pulled the balloon on top down and through the door. Air currents. Case solved….

…

…

Or was it….

If you don’t hear from us ever again, we’ve been killed in our sleep by our evil balloons. And if that does happen, we leave those same balloons to NoSurfGirl and her family….

Buh WAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

How can I resist?

It is now officially October 27. The snow is on its way and we’re supposed to have upwards of 4 inches by this evening. It’s cold, it’s windy, and I just drank a big glass of hot chocolate.

And all of this begs the question: How can I possibly resist putting up the Christmas Tree?

Courtney and I are on opposite sides of this fence, of course, so I’ve decided to grant the tie-breaking vote to the five-year-old. Something tells me she’ll vote in favor of Christmas coming quite early this year….

Sigh… I do this to myself every year. I get such a huge thrill out of the Christmas season that it’s hard for me to resist putting up the tree in early November. Unfortunately, this year I think I shall control myself until after Thanksgiving. See, we have a certain thing in our house that likes to grab and pull and yank and touch, touch, touch, touch, touch! It’s even worse lately because this thing has started to walk.

We never had to change our decorating habits with Katherine. She was always a good girl when it came to leaving the tree alone, but Myron…. I told Courtney when he was first born that he had a terrible sense of humor, that he was a tease, and that we were in for it. I’m not sure if it was a self-fulfilling prophecy or not, but I’ll leave it at simply saying that I was right.

It’s a good thing we love him.

Still, I think the longer the tree stays in the box this year, the happier we’ll all be.

“Chestnuts roasting on an open fire… Jack Frost nipping at your nose….”

Turning 5

I find it incredibly hard to believe, but Katherine is now officially 5.

I kept trying to think of something clever or witty to write for her birthday, but I just don’t know what to say beyond a heartfelt “I love you.”

She’s such a special person to me, and I’m wrapped around her finger even more now than when she was born. As long as she doesn’t ever figure out how much influence and control she has over me, I think I’ll be okay.

The Huns are Coming

I had to capture this little gem before it got lost in memory….

A few days ago I came home to find Katherine in full princess regalia; crown, jewels, dress, slippers… the works. She had a very stern look on her face, and it was obvious that something very important was happening. She had in one hand, three sets of markers connected end to end. This is how the conversation went down:

Me: Hi, Katherine.
Katherine: (no response)
Me: What are you doing?
Katherine: Making guns.
Me: Oh really… Why?
Katherine: The Huns are coming.
Me: (trying not to smile or laugh) Oh…
Katherine: We have to go up to the mountains to kill them.
Me: (feeling slightly concerned) Uh…
Katherine: You go get the car….

You must realize, of course, that she was absolutely serious. Completely.

I think someone has been watching Mulan a little too much. The nice thing is that even if the Huns do just happen to show up, Katherine Warrior Princess will be there to save us all with her marker guns.

Heaven help us all if she ever actually starts acting out her fantasies.