It's March, so get MAD!

Really looking forward to March Madness this year. It's an annual tradition here at my office--we get everyone in the office (and some who aren't) to fill out a bracket, and post them all on my wall. Then, as the games are played, my friend Mark and I highlight the winners and award points based on rounds, so for round 1, you get 1 point for a correct pick, round 2, 2 points, etc. You get the idea.

Last year's bracket was an absolute mess (thank you very much, George Mason). I think the contest came down to the 15-year-old daughter of one of our staff, and a former college basketball player who fancied himself an "expert" on the game. Needless to say, the 15-year-old ended up winning the whole shebang.

So as not to give anything away (to my Hillsdale friends who read this blog, despite the intermittent updates), I won't be posting my picks or even my leanings here until after the tournament has already started. Sorry. But feel free to post your picks in my comments section!

The Answers

Ok, here are the answers to my previous contest--looks like we had no winners this time. I'll also disclose (because I'm sure you're dying to know) which of these I've read and which I've just . . . skimmed.

Molly (Ulysses--skimmed)
Scout (To Kill a Mockingbird--read)
Benjy (The Sound and the Fury--read)
Ralph (Lord of the Flies--read)
Humbert Humbert (Lolita--skimmed, felt scummy after skimming)
Tom J. (Grapes of Wrath--read)
Daisy (The Great Gatsby--read)
(NO idea--haven't read Beloved) (Beloved--haven't read, probably won't after reading Jess' comment)
Caufield (Catcher in the Rye--read)
Big Bro (1984--skimmed, liked Animal Farm better)

Stay tuned for future contests! Someone'll win that no-prize yet!

Wicked!

An interesting exploration of the nature and root of evil, Wicked sets out some interesting characters and a well-defined setting, but eventually collapses under its own weight, melting away without much fanfare. The story of Elphaba, aka the Wicked Witch of the West, Wicked follows in the tradition of books like For Love of Evil or the one about the three little pigs told from the wolf's perspective--only it's much better written. Maguire avoids an easy hole to fall into right from the start by not telling the story entirely from the witch's perspective.

By doing so, he lets us see his most compelling character, Elphaba, that much more clearly. The Witch--complex, driven without knowing why and uncompromising without knowing what she believes in--commands your attention from the very first. Born with green skin and sharp teeth to a missionary family in Munchkinland, Elphaba seems marked from the very first to stand out. The story traces the rise of the Witch: her short, unhappy childhood; her days at an academy for girls spent studying biology from a garroulous Goat; her battle against the Wizard of Oz and his secret police; and her eventual destruction at the hands of an apple-cheeked girl from Kansas.

Along the way, we learn that she and Glinda, the "good" witch of the North, were actually friends at the academy--though at first Glinda spurns Elphaba because of her poor upbringing and sharp wit. We meet Nessarose, the Witch's sister, last seen wearing the ruby slippers underneath Dorothy's house, and find that she's actually a pious, upright, and moral person, with no arms. And we discover why and how the Witch came to be, and about her relationship with the Wizard of Oz and the Emerald City.

The best part of this novel is seeing how skillfully Maguire brings the land of Oz to life, infusing it with culture and character and populating it with all sorts of interesting folk. There are depths to Oz that the movie only hints at, at least to Maguire's fertile imagination. It's an interesting excercise in world building, something that's remarkably difficult to do for even the best authors. That Maguire has created something new out of Baum's novels is all the more remarkable.

Where the book suffers the most is in the uneven pacing of its plot. An inordinate amount of time is spent on minor characters, and particularly on Elphaba's time at the girls academy. By the time she actually moves out west and sets up shop, you're wondering how the story can be brought to an appropriate close because it quickly becomes clear that there's a lot of story left to be told and too few pages to do it in. Sadly, this turns out to be the case--the ending feels rushed and the book unfinished, almost as if a publisher, tired of waiting for the book, simply demanded that Maguire finish the book or return his advance.

Perhaps the musical was better. Any thoughts?

Musings

Glad to see people are starting to come back and read this. That started me thinking about the point of a blog. All of the marketing literature/white papers that I have read have talked about how you can use your blog to make money (via selling adspace through Google's AdSense program) but you have to have A+ content and a committment to posting. Also, the conventional wisdom about the Internet is that bloggers are like a pack of rabid journalists with instant access to the hearts and minds of loyal readers. Apparently, we're the new creators of myth, rumor, and the occasional grain of truth that spreads around the 'Net in waves. And then you have my view, which is that blogging is really just a way of sharing your thoughts with whomever might be willing to listen, be they friend or stranger.

I don't know . . . what do you think? Why do you blog? Is it for fun? Profit? Both? And is it meeting your expectations?

For me, this has been a lot more work and anxiety than I ever expected, a great example of how a seemingly simple committment can balloon into something much larger than you ever imagined. Granted, my committment to the blog is largely internal--I'm not selling anything, and I have yet to break a legitimate news story. But something in me doesn't like starting something and not finishing it, especially since you, my readers, presumably want to hear what I have to say.

Anyway, sorry for the rambling nature of this post. Hope it sparked some thoughts in you, at least.

Bonkers

Wow, it looks like I have even fewer readers than I thought--or maybe just fewer readers than I thought with literary pretensions. I'll leave it up for a couple more days, just to see if there are any stragglers out there, and give you the answers next week.

In the meantime, why don't I tell you a quick story about Evelyn. She's started to really figure out how this world works in the past few weeks. From walking, to putting things inside of other things, to refusing to eat certain foods at certain times (I don't think there's a food out there that she's consistently refused, except for the "meat" baby food. After tasting those items, I can understand why). We'll often find things where we didn't expect them, like a screwdriver in the refrigerator, or a stuffed animal in one of our pots. And of course, getting into the bathtub can be quite an adventure as well, just because we're never sure what might actually be in there.

The other day, Megan and I were having a conversation about, oh, I don't know what. Evelyn, as is her wont, decided that she needed either or both of our attention right then. And I mean, RIGHT THEN. She didn't take kindly to our admonishment to wait a few seconds, seeing as she doesn't understand the concept of time and all, and so decided to get our attention in a more forceful manner. She walked over to our bathroom cabinet, stood extremely close to it, and bumped her head gently into it. And by gently, I mean VERY gently--I don't think it would have bruised an overripe avocado. Then, she turned to us and cried, loudly, as if saying, "see what happens when you don't pay attention to me? I bump my head and get hurt!"

Megan and I were both trying not to laugh at this point, and needless to say, Evie got what she wanted--our attention. Since then, she's done it a couple more times, never hitting her head hard, but just enough to pretend that she's hurt. Ah, parenting. . .

Literary Contest

Geez, I didn't know it had been so long since I've posted. Apologies to my loyal readers (both of you--thanks Mom and Dad!) Work has been blowing up lately with projects, I'm inundated with writing claptrap, and Fort Wayne has been alternately buried in snow, then ice, but I'm sure you're not interested in excuses, gentle reader, only results.

Had an interesting e-mail from my friend Davis the other day. It listed the top 50 American Novels of the 20th century, according to Radcliffe Publishing (I think--too lazy to check the e-mail right now). Topping the list was The Great Gatsby, by Fitgerald, and rounding out the top ten were books like (ok, now I'm checking) Catcher in the Rye, Grapes of Wrath, and the Sound and the Fury.

Ok, here's an idea for you. I'll give you the names of the books and a character from the book. First one to post a comment matching the characters with the book title wins a "no-prize" (apologies to Marvel Magazine). I'm doing this w/o the help of Google, which means you can too, but of course, if you cheat, you'll be the only one who knows it. Well, you, and God. Enjoy!

Titles:
1. The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Catcher in the Rye J.D. Salinger
3. The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck
4. To Kill a Mockingbird Harper Lee
5. Ulysses James Joyce
6. Beloved Toni Morrison
7. Lord of the Flies William Golding
8. Nineteen Eighty Four George Orwell
9. The Sound and the Fury William Faulkner
10. Lolita Vladimir Nabokov

Characters (Done from memory!!!!)

Molly
Scout
Benjy
Ralph
Humbert Humbert
Tom J.
Daisy
(NO idea--haven't read Beloved)
Caufield
Big Bro

Good luck!

Birthday bliss

Well, we had a wonderful little shindig--pictures to be posted when I can get around to it. Preparations started Friday (Evie's actual birthday) as Megan started cooking and baking for the party itself, which was Saturday. Ham loaf was on the menu (tastes much better than it sounds . . . MUCH better) as well as other fixin's, and Megan decided to make one of those "theme cakes." You know, the ones in the shape of a Care Bear or Pikachu or something similar. Megan decided to do one in the shape of a train, which sounded simple enough.

Well, it wasn't.

After borrowing the molds from a friend, Megan baked the cake itself Friday, and started icing the thing Saturday morning. Two hours later, she was finally finished with it. Sporting Evie's name, a gumdrop coal car, and chocolate sprinkle wheels, the cake was a thing of beauty, befitting a first birthday of a first child, I think. What took the most time was the painstaking process of creating tiny icing "stars" that covered the sides of the cake. Instead of just slathering the icing on, the space had to be filled with little drops of icing, done one at a time. The effect, though painstaking, resembles impressionistic painting, a sort of "Seurat pastry," if you will. After all of that, it took Evie about 5 seconds to get her hands into the cake, an additional 2 seconds for her to discover that it tasted really good, and then about 10 seconds before she had the rest of it on her hands, face, lap, and parents. Good times.

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes. Lucas, if this blog is still around when she can read, you can bet I'll be looking up your comment and showing it to her.

Next time: Marketing Musings

Happy Birthday, Evie!

Today is my first daughter's first birthday. I remember around this time last year, when Megan and I had lunch at a local restaurant on Valentine's Day, and then went in to the hosptial for her induction. At this point, Evie was two weeks late, and according to the prevailing medical wisdom, the womb becomes a hostile place for a baby after about two weeks or so. On the advice of our physician, then, we checked in to DuPont Hospital in order to start the long, painful (for Megan, especially) process of labor.

Two days of increasingly painful contractions later, a different doctor (not our physician, but a very nice lady) recommended a C-section due to failure to progress. At that point, we felt as if we had come that far, we might as well finish the process, so we agreed to the C-section, and not 20 minutes later, I got to see Evelyn's face for the first time.

She was a pretty big baby, weighing in at a massive 10 lbs., 8 oz, with the chubbiest cheeks you'd ever seen. Holding her for the first time, standing in the corridor outside the OR while they finished taking care of Megan, I don't remember feeling much at all, except relief that both the baby and Megan were okay.

One year later, I feel like things have finally started to sink in. Evelyn's life, her views, her character, her memories of growing up--many of those things are directly or indirectly going to be influenced by our parenting and the type of home we give Evie. My prayer is that her childhood is a happy, stable one and that she grows up knowing and valuing the things that are truly important in life, particularly a relationship with God in the person of Jesus Christ.

But that's all for the future, right?

For now, we've got a birthday party planned for tomorrow--I'll try to post pics here on the blog. If you have any birthday wishes or comments, I'll pass them along, though it seems most likely that they won't have much of an impact on her yet, seeing as how she can only say about 20 words or so. More on her party on Monday!

Simpsons Characters a-go-go

Considering the Simpsons, there are a wealth of characters from which to choose a favorite. Homer is probably the favorite of many--it's hard these days to see how/why Bart became so popular so quickly, as Homer has eclipsed Bart in both funny lines and in depth of character. I think it's a little too difficult to come up with an actual favorite character for me--I'm going to have to give you my top three, with little explanations (hey, I've only got 5 minutes here) as to why they're my favorite.

3. Nelson Muntz: From his relentless "haw-haw," tinged with a touch of pathos and smothered with a generous helping of derision, to his curiously cool jean jacket and short, short pants, Nelson can always be counted on to deliver the goods.

2. Mr. Burns: Surprisingly humane at times, devilishly evil at others, Mr. Burns represents a tragic figure, at least in his own mind. The rest of the town just wished he'd go away.

1. Homer: A real struggle to put him here, as I was thinking of going with a "chic" pick like Lyle Langley or Lionel Hutz. However, his mix of humanity and stupidity (some would argue they're the same thing) paint Homer as a curiously existential everyman, both scorned and embraced by this mixed-up world of ours. Homer, ours is indeed a disturbing universe.

The Simpsonzu by *spacecoyote on deviantART

First off, check out this link:

The Simpsonzu by *spacecoyote on deviantART

Anyone who knows me knows I'm a huge fan of both The Simpsons and japanese animation. I think that the artist, Space Coyote, did an excellent job of putting The Simpsons into an anime format. It puts me in the mind of (heh, I just like saying "puts me in the mind of") the episode where Homer gets a peek at what his kids would look like if they were drawn . . . normally. You know, with five fingers and hair that actually separated instead of hair that looked like a starfish and paper bag edge.

Anyway, I hope you at least clicked on the link, and I apologize for not doing my 5-minute update every day. I have a feeling I'll be apologizing a lot, but that would be throwing in the towel before I even begin, so I'll try to fight that feeling and instead, move on to my weekend with a light heart.

By the way, who's your favorite Simpsons character? I'll give my answer in my next post.

Next time: Simpsons Characters A-Go-Go