Author: mathom6

Month 2 – The Modern Library 100 Reading Project

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During June, I finished:

  • The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
  • Lord of the Flies, William Golding*
  • The Call of the Wild, Jack London
  • Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
  • The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer*

Common Themes in a Diverse Selection of Books

Although I picked these books as randomly as possible, I noticed some common themes in them. The Catcher in the Rye, Lord of the Flies, Invisible Man, and The Naked and the Dead are all, to some extent, about young men confronted with a reality that they did not expect.

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Holden gets abandoned by his mother and father, who ship him to boarding schools after his younger brother dies.

All of the children in Lord of the Flies face madness, responsibility, tribalism, threats of death, and actual death in a few cases.

The soldiers in The Naked and the Dead have been thrust into a war that has nothing to do with them. They spend most days sweating in intense heat. At night, the huddle against each other for warmth in chilling rain. Like Lord of the Flies, there’s also the responsibility, tribalism, madness, and just loads upon loads of death.

Invisible Man, I think, is primarily about change. The book’s beauty comes from Ellison’s uses every opportunity to add a new voice. You get the voice of a young black man in college; the voice of that same man as he struggles to make his way in Harlem; yet another voice from that man as he finds authority; and another voice from the man once he embraces his invisibility. He couldn’t have anticipated any of the events that happen to him, but he adjusts to the changing realities as they come.

Let’s Add the Dog, Too, Because He Deserves It

If you accept Buck as a young man instead of a dog, then you can find the same themes in Call of the Wild. I can’t imagine denying that Buck has the same level of consciousness as humans. London gives Buck such a wonderful capacity for thought, cunning, strength, and emotion that you could easily mistake the narrative as one from a person.

On to Month Three

I don’t plan to write much here about the books I read, but I will comment on some things that strike me. What I mean to say is that you shouldn’t expect any book reports from me. Then again, I don’t want post lists without any context or content.

Seeing as how we’re already a week into July, I’ve started month three’s books. So far, I’ve finished 1984 and piked up The Age of Innocense and Women in Love. More on that in a few weeks.

Until then, keep reading.

*Indicates the first time I’ve read the book.

I’m About This Close to Finishing the Master Gardener Association Class!

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Since late March, I’ve been taking weekly Jefferson County Master Gardener Association (MGA) classes at the Louisville Nature Center. I’ve also been reading this tome of an instructional manual published by the University of Kentucky College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment.

Classes have included topics like:

  • Native Plants
  • Entomology
  • Botany
  • Plant Disease
  • Soils
  • Organic Vegetable Gardening (a favorite of mine)
  • Weed Management
  • Woody Plant Care
  • Garden Design

Tomorrow, I turn in my final test. It was an open-book, take-home test, so I’m certain that I’ll pass.

MGA Focuses on Volunteerism

Joining MGA has already taught me a lot of new information about gardening. I’ve been growing vegetables since I was about 8 years old.

My parents taught me most of what I know. And it turns out that not all of that was based in science. Their techniques work, but I’m an evidence-based kind of person, so I’m thrilled to learn better strategies for increasing crop yield and managing pests without using harsh chemicals.

That’s not to say anything negative about my mom and dad. They fostered a love of plants in me and my brother. I wouldn’t have this interest without them.

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My current garden in its early stage: lots of basil, tomatoes, peppers, and squash.

Becoming an MGA member isn’t all about learning how to improve my garden, though. The organization has a focus on volunteerism.

All members must volunteer at least 40 hours of service per year to remain active. They also have to attend continuing education classes to keep improving their skills.

What I Plan to Do as an MGA Member

Louisville has 10 community gardens where people can rent lots for $10 to $20 per year. Some lots are as large as 30 ft by 30 ft, which is bigger than the vegetable garden I have in my backyard.

I’ve already logged some volunteer hours working with gardeners at the Emerson Park Community Garden on Sylvia St. I chose it because I used to live on Sylvia. Visiting gives me a chance to help the community and look at the first house my wife and I shared.

Food literacy is a big deal to me, so I want to help other people learn how they can grow healthy food in sustainable ways. People tend to think of Germantown as a hip neighborhood full of young people willing to spend outrageous amounts of money on modestly-sized homes. For whatever reason, the Germantown bubble hasn’t burst, yet. The reputation continues.

As a former resident, I know that the young hipsters only make up a small percentage of Germantown’s demographics. It remains a blue-collar community. Many of the people living there worked in factories all of their lives. They never had much money. Now, they have even less because they’re too old to work full-time jobs. It certainly doesn’t help that companies all over the country have renigged on their pension promises.

There are people in Germantown who rely on their garden plots for food. They deserve instruction that helps them get more from their efforts.

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A young rooster pepper plant (and some weeds): food is beautiful.

Sidenote: Claudia Foulkes and I will be talking about preventing the spread of plant diseases at Emerson Park on June 20th at 6 p.m. The garden has had a big problem with blight. Claudia and I have found some ways that we hope will limit the impact of the disease. More on that to come.

My Future as an MGA Member

I’m very proud to be involved in a program that helps all people access the food they need to thrive.

I have other ideas about my involvement in the future, though.

After I get some experience, I hope to help more Jefferson County schools develop gardening programs.

There is a shocking number of children who don’t know where their food comes from. I remember a passage from Barabara Kingsolver’s book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, where she talks about children not wanting to eat fresh root vegetables because they came from the [dirty] ground. Some child wanted to know if spaghetti grew on trees.

I haven’t read the book in a decade, so I could have the details wrong. The point remains: children in urban landscapes rarely have opportunities to learn about healthy food.

The absence of food literacy means that many of them will lead shorter lives, suffer more illnesses, and never learn the pleasure that comes from raising and making a good meal.

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Every willing person deserves the joy, beauty, and taste that comes from a healthy squash plant.

It may take a few years before I can convince more schools to start gardening programs. In the meantime, I plan to keep learning and teaching wherever I can.

The Modern Library100 Best Novels Reading List by Month (updated June)

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Here are the books on the Modern Library’s list of 100 Best Novels that I’ve finished, by month.

Why am I telling you this? Go here to find out, because I’m not explaining it again.

2019

May

  • Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
  • Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
  • Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson*
  • The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
  • Ironweed, William Kennedy
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It’s a small stack, but it will grow quickly.

June

  • The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
  • Lord of the Flies, William Golding*
  • The Call of the Wild, Jack London
  • Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
  • The Naked and the Dead, Norman Mailer*

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*Indicates the first time I’ve read the book.

The Modern 100 Reading Project

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low angle view of tower books

Last April, I looked at the Modern Library’s list of 100 best novels and realized that I’ve only read about 30% of them. I didn’t even recognize some of the titles and authors on the list.

It feels strange to spend so much time writing when I don’t know the work of authors that have, undoubtedly even if indirectly, influenced me.

So, I got the idea in my head that I would read all 100 books. Many of the books that I’ve read, I haven’t look at since college, two decades ago. Those include some of my favorite novels like Ulysses, The Sound and the Fury, 1984, and A Clockwork Orange.

I’m including them because I’m a different reader today than I was in my teens and 20s. I want to absorb them, find out how I feel now that I’ve spent more than 20 years writing fiction and non-fiction. Who knows how it will go.

The Rules (May They Please Not Be the Death of Me)

I don’t want to walk away from newly published books for too long. And I know that they will tempt me.

To avoid becoming some kind of hermit who refuses to participate with contemporary books, I’m setting a time limit that I hope will not a) kill me or b) make me hate reading.

With that said, it’s an ambitious schedule for someone who doesn’t see the point of speed reading novels that should bring pleasure to their audiences.

Here are the basic goals that I’ve set for myself:

  1. Finish all novels by the end of May 2021 (that gives me a month’s wiggle room since I started the reading project at the beginning of this May (2019)).
  2. I can skip around and read whichever books appeal to me at the moment. I don’t agree with the Modern Library’s list order. I also think that reading some of these books in a row would kill my desire to finish the project. I need the weight of momentum to keep me going. I loved Ulysses the one time that I read it, but reading it took a lot of time and effort. Starting with it would likely end the project. If I’ve read 50% of the books on the list, though, I’ll feel obligated to get through books like The Great Gatsby (I didn’t care for it the two times I read it) or, shudder, Finnegan’s Wake (the literature professor I read Ulysses with planned to read Finnegan’s Wake in his retirement, and even he was unsure whether he could get through it).
  3. Keep a journal of my experiences reading the books. Ideally, the reading project will turn into a writing project. Standing here at the beginning, I have no idea how that will go. It could end up like Ammon Shea’s Reading the OED (I did this so you don’t have to) or Heidi Julavits’s The Folded Clock (here are the things that happened during this period of my life) or something different that I can’t foresee.
  4. At the very least, publish monthly updates on my progress right here on the blog. I’m not committing to a specific schedule because I’ll buy most of these books used when I run into them.

Read Along and Share the Joy/Misery to Come

If you care to join me, these are the books I completed in May:

  • Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad
  • Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
  • Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson
  • The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemingway
  • Ironweed, William Kennedy

Yes, I’m aware that I need to pick up speed. May is a long month. I should have finished at least six books. In my defense, I’m very near the end of The Naked and the Dead.

Wish me luck.

 

 

Going Low-Tech for More Flexible, Fulfilling Schedules

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If you’re going to work as a freelance writer, you need to learn how to manage time well. I don’t have a boss who stops by my desk throughout the day to make sure I’m on task. I have to take responsibility for meeting deadlines.

I’m Done With These Disappointing Management Apps

Over the last decade-plus that I’ve managed my clients and projects, I’ve tried several productivity apps. You may have tried them, too, since many of them promise to organize your life for little or no money.

Apps that come to mind include:

  • ToDoist
  • Evernote
  • Asana

None of these have impressed me. ToDoist has a habit of rewarding me for tasks that I completed weeks ago. That’s more annoying than motivating.

Evernote made it easy to record ideas quickly, but I couldn’t access the features I wanted without paying a membership fee. It didn’t feel like it was worth $8 per month.

I recently tried to work with a client that used Asana. I hated it from the beginning because the excessive notifications only wasted my time.

Also, people often used the platform to link to Google Documents. I didn’t see the point. If I can’t add documents within the app, then why do I want to use the app at all?

Asana was the proverbial straw. After that, I decided to go low-tech. Apps weren’t helping. Maybe something basic would.

Making an Ideal Schedule (And Trying to Follow It)

Laura Vanderkam’s podcast Before Breakfast introduced me to the idea of making ideal schedules for the day, week, and month.

On Friday evening, I dutifully sat down at my desk, opened a notebook, and wrote down what I wanted to accomplish the following week. I don’t know exactly what my workload will look like next week, but I’ve been writing long enough to approximate how many projects will come my way.

My ideal weekly schedule included items for my personal goals, relationships, and career goals. Under personal goals I jotted:

  • Finish reading Blood Meridian.
  • Brew some beer with my brother.
  • Get some seedlings started for this year’s garden.
  • Go downtown to update my (already late) car registration.

Under career, I had:

  • Write fiction at a cafe with friends.
  • Volunteer at the Nature Center.
  • Communicate with new client.

After that, I had a bunch of blank pages that I could fill out as assignments came in.

The relationship section included things like:

  • Going to see a play with my wife.
  • Seeing a movie with an old friend.
  • Having dinner with my parents.

I liked the idea of creating an ideal schedule. I looked at my notebook, thinking about how I could organize my week to accomplish all of these things.

Then the week happened, and my plans went awry. My friend’s kid got sick, so we didn’t see the movie. I didn’t have the time or willpower to go downtown. Blood Meridian’s gruesomeness wore on me so much that could only slog through 20 or so pages a day.

When it came to work, I discovered that I experience more interruptions than I thought. Deadlines change; clients want to increase word counts; editors forget to confirm completed tasks.

I learned a lot by making an ideal schedule. It’s a technique that I still use. Now, though, I take a more flexible approach.

Making the Ideal More Flexible

When I write schedules in a notebook, everything turns into a mess. Looking over the pages now, I see why I stopped using the notebook. I also why I adopted a new system that made it easier for me to add flexibility to my schedule.

My new approach to time and project management consists of a metal board and magnetic stickers.

Each Friday, I arrange next week’s stickers on the metal board. As things change, I move the stickers to new positions.

Someone cancels a project? No big deal. I just wipe off the sticker.

I don’t have time to make it to the gym today? OK, then I’ll move the “gym” sticker to tomorrow morning.

Sure, I could do this with most project management apps. This way, though, I have a physical reminder of what I want to accomplish. I also have an adjustable map that shows me how to get where I want to go. It hangs on my office wall, so I can’t ignore it. It forces me to find a new time slot when I don’t finish a task.

Metal and magnets are holding me more accountable than apps ever did. And I don’t have the frustrating of trying to read a messy notebook.

I love technology, but I’m managing myself in the most low-tech way I could find. So far, it has given me great results. I might even get my car registered this week.

 

I Made a Shaker Style Coffee Table

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Last Tuesday, I finished my first class at the Ted Harlan Woodworking School. I’ve never built a piece of furniture before, but Ted and his assistant Sean (Shawn, maybe) walked the class through everything from using a bandsaw to reduce tension in wood (there’s totally a joke in there that I don’t feel like making) to flattening surfaces with handplanes.

Before taking Ted’s introductory class, I didn’t even know the difference between a bandsaw and a jigsaw.

Despite not knowing much of anything, the table turned out pretty nice.

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I’m not good at taking pictures and my house is messy, but the table looks great.
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A better view of the tabletop. Also, a better view of all the crap sitting on my guitar amp.

Next, I’m going to take Ted’s jewelry box class, where he teaches how to execute a dovetail joint and further explores the use of handplanes. 

New hobby found!

My Post on Stopping Punycode Phishing Attacks

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Check out my post at Techie Report about stopping Punycode phishing attacks.

As a freelance writer, I get asked to write about a lot of topics. Internet and connected technologies (like smart devices) have become two subjects that I’ve concentrated on. Over the years, I’ve learned a lot about about technology by breaking complex systems into their working parts. This approach has helped me do everything from replace my car’s serpentine belt to designing websites with JavaScript.

No matter how much I learn, I’m surprised by the fragility of software and hardware. Punycode was one of my biggest surprises. It has legitimate uses, especially for people who don’t use English as their primary language, but it leaves a hole in the internet’s security.

If you haven’t heard of Punycode, then you’ll want to check out my post on Techie Report. I still have a hard time believing that such a vulnerability exists.

http://techiereport.com/firefox-takes-a-step-to-stop-punycode-phishing-attacks/