12/27/09 – 12/31/09
12/10/09 – 12/26/09
12/5/09 – 12/9/09
11/24/09 – 11/29/09
10/30/09 – 11/1/09
About a year ago I bought a collection of Steinbeck novels called THE SHORT NOVELS OF JOHN STEINBECK. It contains six Steinbeck novels and every time I sit down to read one, Steinbeck climbs higher and higher on my list of favorite writers. CANNERY ROW recounts the lives of several residents of a poor fishing community called Cannery Row. There are bums, there are shopkeepers, there are doctors, bouncers and madames. And much like TORTILLA FLAT (another short novel of Steinbeck’s), the tale has all of these characters ebb and flow out of each others lives. There’s a rolling, lackadaisical quality to the story – but the characters aren’t lazy. It’s just the lifestyle they choose to lead. You read CANNERY ROW and there’s a part of you that wants to live in that world – where all possessions are temporary and just getting by is oftentimes more than enough. It’s definitely a story that challenges the lifestyle of a 28-year-old living a fast-paced existence in Los Angeles.
9/29/09 – 10/30/09
Blah…
I know I shouldn’t expect a ton from this type of storytelling: 75+ cliffhanger-ending chapters isn’t exactly realistic or believable. But at least in ANGELS & DEMONS and THE DA VINCI CODE Brown found a way to make it fun and engaging. All of the factoids and puzzles in THE LAST SYMBOL just felt like leftover material that wasn’t quite good enough for his previous two books. Shortlist for worst book I’ve read this year.
8/30/09 – 9/28/09
I’m fascinated by individuals who have the ability to not only know what they want, but who also have the unique gift to carry out these desires on a regular basis. You see this trait frequently in world leaders and that’s probably why I’m such a big fan of historical biographies (particularly those about former presidents).
Meacham’s AMERICAN LION chronicles the life of Andrew Jackson – exploring both the impressive and regrettable decisions of his life. Regardless of how I felt about some of the positions he took – I couldn’t help but be captivated by the conviction and zeal he felt in carrying out the decisions he made. Jackson was not a man who passively watched his young country develop. He repeatedly grabbed the reins and expanded the role of the President to a place it had never been before. And he did this, not (consciously at least) out of a hunger for more power, but for the good of a fledgling nation.
AMERICAN LION doesn’t forgive some of the awful decisions that Jackson made – but it does provide further insight into his perspective at the time and why he felt certain decisions needed to be made. Like many historical biographies, there are extended sections that feel dry and lack the excitement that makes for fast reading – but it’s all good and important and necessary material.
28
Sep
09
Birthdaypalooza 2009
For the past two years, me and my roommate Greg have had joint birthday celebrations – a tradition we’ve since dubbed ‘Birthdaypalooza.’ Last year a group of us drove up to Valencia and spent an incredible day at Six Flags Magic Mountain. For 2009, we took it to the desert – Palm Springs to be exact. Bradley has some family friends who own a house out there, and in exchange for him periodically driving out and keeping the place in working order, they let him use it for the occasional weekend getaway. The video below does an amazing job of capturing the spirit of a weekend filled with chick-fil-a(!!!), invented pool games, terrible tribute concerts and 118 degree heat.
8/23/09 – 8/29/09
A few months back me and Nate (friend and co-worker) were talking and somehow MMA fighting came up. I told him how I’d watched a few of the Kimbo Slice CBS events from a while back and I’d seen a Chuck Liddell fight or two on youtube – but other than that my experience was pretty limited.
Nate is a true MMA aficionado and since that initial conversation we’ve probably had 50 or 60 talks about what’s going on in the UFC. He took me under his wing and started by lending me a DVD called UFC: The Best of 2008. Me and Greg consumed that in about 2 nights, so after that Nate lent me the 8th season of THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER (a reality TV show where 16 unsigned UFC fighters fight their way towards a UFC contract). By this point, me and greg knew most of the big name fighters and were able to have a semi-intelligent conversation with Nate about who has a killer ground game and who I’d never want to fight standing up (Anderson Silva comes to mind).
So after watching The Best of 2008 and the 8th season of The Ultimate Fighter, Nate lent me a book that was recently written by his favorite fighter, Forrest Griffin. GOT FIGHT? is part autobiography and part self-help guide to the mentality and training regimen of a UFC superstar. Griffin earned his UFC contract by winning the 1st season of The Ultimate Fighter (starting its 10th season on Spike on September 16th) and since then he’s gone onto amass a huge following and even briefly held the Light Heavyweight title belt.
GOT FIGHT? is a fascinating, extremely fast read. The anecdotes about Forrest (told by Forrest and several of his best friends) are entertaining and amusing – but the most interesting part of the book for me was learning about the mentality and training that goes into living your life as a professional fighter. Forrest writes with a very grounded and approachable style which makes him both likable and more interesting. If he had written with a ‘holier-than-thou,’ ‘listen to me because I’m awesome’ approach, GOT FIGHT? would have been miserable. But he never takes himself too seriously or gives off any indication that you NEED to listen to what he has to say. He’s much more interested in entertaining his audience than he is in teaching them.
If you have any interest at all in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, I wholeheartedly recommend this book. Although I’d definitely start by recommending UFC: The Best of 2008 first, just so you can get an idea of who these guys are and what they do.
I’m officially hooked and can’t wait for UFC 103 on September 19th.
28
Aug
09
Fantasy Season is Upon Us
For the past two years – Greg and I have had the honor of creating ‘Draft Videos’ for our fantasy football league with our old college roommates. Making these videos and participating in the league is definitely one of our bigger highlights of the year. Especially since we Overlookers now see each other so infrequently and compete against one another even less.
I doubt these videos will be of ANY interest to anyone outside of the 12 guys competing in the league – but I figured I’d throw them up on the blog in case I ever want to look back on these 15 years from now.
2009 (released today):
2008 (for last year’s season):
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