Blah, Blah, Blah

I saw Karl Rove on Meet the Press yesterday and is it me or does he look like Truman Capote? But I digress. We have been having a drought all summer, but, it has rained for two days straight now and people are already complaining. I just finished DayWatch by Lukyanenko and I enjoyed it, though not as much as NightWatch. I'll have to pick up TwilightWatch soon. I also read where J.K. Rowling is working on a new book, some sort of mystery. I guess it is too much to hope that it will be some sort of Auror/detective novel. I can not possible complain that she has completed the Harry Potter series since the most frustrating literary experiences I have ever undergone are being stuck in a holding pattern for both the george r. r. martin, and Robert Jordan series. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! Have I mentioned that I strongly believe there should be a Constitutional Amendmant forbidding both those guys from engaging in any dangerous or unhealthy behavior? I haven't? Well there should be. I am also rereading the Sorrow, Memory, and Thorn series from Tad Williams. I like it better the second time through, I can't remember why I was down on it.

Weighty Discussions

At work yesterday I had to go to the Toolroom and have some steel braces made for the chairs in the break area for negotiations. It seems the bottoms were breaking out of the chairs. (Please insert your own punchline here.). . .that's what I call heavy negotiations. I know it is bad but I couldn't help myself. Less than one month until our old agreement expires and this week we passed a strike authorization by 97%, so things could get interesting. I won't talk about the two tiered wage agreement, the erosion of the American working class, and the eventual downfall of western civilization (they're interrelated) but I won't. . .today.

DayWatch

I've just started reading DayWatch by Lukyanenko and it is an interesting sequel to NightWatch. He picks up where the first book leaves off but instead of keeping the same protagonist it is written from the viewpoint of the "enemy". It is quite interesting, although, if the reader had absolutely no knowledge of the Soviet era and Russia's current politics it might have parts that would be confusing.

The more I surf around on Blogspot and look at some of the "Blogs of Note" I wonder about the mental health care system in the U.S. 'cus let me tell you there are some seriously wacky sites. I mean there are some cool ones, I've mentioned a few in previous entries, but some of it is just incomprehensible crap. I mean, if it is for their own amusement, like mine is, then these people have some issues. If they are doing it for theoretical readers, then they have some MAJOR issues. Who wants to see a bunch of pictures of you and your drunken college friends? Not me. But hey if that is what you want to post on the Internet at least have some snarky captions or something.

13 seconds to burn

My favorite song from my favorite local band, 19 Wheels, was titled 13 seconds to burn. The refrain goes something like this, 40 years. . .10 months. . .3 weeks. . .4 days. . .20 hours. . .six minutes and 13 seconds to burn. The song is about a guy in prison but some days it could be my theme song. I don't actually have that long until retirement, but sometimes it feels like it. Why, you ask, would I feel that way? (Or maybe you didn't ask but I'm going to tell you anyway.) Here's an example, a few weeks ago I asked that management not make a certain decision because they might have to renege on the employees transfer, they said that if they had to turn it around they would, now that the situation has arisen they are going to make me write a grievance to correct it. AARGH! When I asked why they would want to show themselves to be a bunch of liars, they got mad. Perhaps I should have said they were disingenuous, maybe that would have softened the blow. I think a quote from Ring Lardner (I think) that sums their reply, "Shut up," he explained.

Brave New World

I finished The Traveler and I see that the second in the series is out. I will probably get is at some point, but not right now. I got to thinking about my last Blog effort and in hindsight I'm probably wrong about all of that. I say this because when I got thinking about it The Traveler and books like it probably have more in common with Clockwork Orange or Brave New World, than Lord of the Rings. So maybe it is just my tastes that have changed. I read where a biography of Gunter Grass is coming out, or is out. I know that he was a Natzi Youth and soldier during WWII and had an epiphany after seeing photos of Bergen-Belsen (sp?) but I think I'll read the biography at some point, it would have to be interesting. My next read will probably be DayWatch by Lukyanenko, it is in paperback and I can wait for Dark River by John Twelve Hawks to come out in paperback.

Fantasy vs. Fiction

I just started reading The Traveler by John Twelve Hawks and I'm enjoying it so far. The question that entered my mind while I was reading it was whether the Fantasy/Sci-fi genre is the last bastion of the Novel. It seems that fiction, contemporary fiction I mean, is a lost art. There seems to be so few new authors breaking into that field, Anna Quindlen is one but I can't think of any others. I am wondering if this is just a symptom of my preferences changing. Maybe, I'm just missing out on the new John Irving or Saul Bellow. Maybe these people are out there and I'm just ignoring them.

Another question I have is why the Fantasy genre itself seems to be changing. Ten or fifteen years ago almost any book of this Genre I bought or borrowed would be set in a different world. Full of knights and wizards and strange beings of all kinds. Now however more and more seem to be set in this world, or at least a darkened version of this world, full of wizards and strange beings of all kinds. The Dresden Files, Night Watch, Neverwhere, The Traveler, even Harry Potter deal with a parallel existence to our own. Is this a result of the state of our world? Do people see a darkening of the real world? Are these alternative reality settings a reflection of some subconscious identification with the struggles of the protagonists in these works? It is a cause for thought.

Why my head hurts

I thought about writing a long, bitter, angry, frustrated, entry about my dealings with management, but instead I'll just give one story that should be constructive. We meet with Labor Relations and to discuss one of the Union's Demands regarding employee movement (transfers, shift preference rights, etc.) and Management states that one of our stipulations is completely unreasonable and that they could not live with the repercussions of the language we wanted, at which point we were kind enough to inform them that we submitted the Demand just so we could make the language reflect the way we have been operating for 3 years. Now Labor Relations seemed to find less humor in the fact that they they couldn't live with the repercussions of our Demand, yet hadn't noticed these repercussions any of the dozens of times the situation had actually arisen and been handled in the manner we were demanding. I am not even in the actual negotiations, I've just had some interaction with the management bargainers as a resource for the Union Bargaining committee and my head hurts. I can't imagine what my Union superiors feel like.