Book: James P. Othmer's "The Futurist"

This is a hard book to pin down. Did I like it? Did I not like it? Not really sure. James P. Othmer has written a book full of cynicism and commentary. That book is "The Futurist".

Othmer's main character is a futurist named Yates. The book starts with Yates preparing to give a speech to a conference. After emptying the mini-bar and having a long heart-to-heart with a charming South African prostitute, he gets up on stage and denounces his profession. He outs futurists as totally ignorant about what the future holds, that the futurist goal was to make money by telling people want they wanted to hear, and that he was founding the Coalition of the Clueless.

Leaving the conference, Yates is convinced that his career is over. He is introduced by an acquaintance to representatives of a secretive organization that Yates mistakes for a government organization. Thinking he had no options, he accepts their lucrative and seemingly benign offer to work for them. To Yates' surprise, his career doesn't crash and burn, demand for his honest point of view skyrockets, and the benign offer of the secretive organization is nothing of the sort.

The organization is a capitalist organization who wants to use Yates to sell their ideas to investors and to maximize their profits. After deciding at the conference not to sell out any longer, Yates had stumbled into the ultimate sell out. When he tries to get out, they frame him for terrorism and blackmail him.

The rest of the book tells of Yates' attempt to redeem himself, hide from his deal with the devil, and self exploration. He rescues the South African prostitute, he runs to a tropical island, but in the end he returns to confront his bad decision.

Making a deal with the organization, he sells what remains of his soul for one last task, a task that nearly kills him.

The last chapter, a mere three pages, is a series of one liners about what happens, or maybe does not happen, to Yates afterwards. While a hasty ending often leaves me wanting, there wasn't anywhere else to go with the story and a quick, concise ending had the right feel and worked for me.

So, did I like it? Yes. No. Maybe. Probably yes, I guess. I think what I liked about it was the artistic, expert use of cynicism throughout the book. I can be a cynic at times and Yates is the epitome of cynicism.

I guess I liked it. Somewhat recommended.

The Morning After

The fourth ended in the whistles, rumbles, bangs, and booms of our independence. From my deck the eastern horizon was lit up with myriad bombs bursting in air. The festivities seemed never ending, continuing well past the witching hour. I was lulled to sleep by the rumbles of fireworks exploding and Homer snoring.

But my sleep was short lived as the Wife's Emilie Dickinson adventure began early with a trip to the airport. The gloomy clouds that dominated the day before were gone, replaced with a morning of blue skies and misty haze, punctuated by the silence of celebration's ended.

We kissed our goodbyes and I returned to what now feels like an empty shell of a home. Two hours and I already miss her.

Happy Fourth Of July!

Happy independence day to everyone!

Memorial Park Concert Fireworks
by Homer-Dog

2009 Vacation - Epilogue And Lessons Learned

Our 2009 vacation turned out to be a mixed bag of good, bad, ordinary, extraordinary, cheesy, and cool. The first half, except for our day at Little Bighorn, was dominated by drizzly, gray, rainy days that, at least to me, sucked some of the excitement out of being on the road. What saved the vacation for me was Arches and Moab, UT. Arriving at Moab marked the return of sun, warmth, and new places to visit. Moab, for me, saved the vacation though the stuff we did and saw in western Nebraska comes in a close second.

So, my favorite stop was Moab and my favorite activity was the jet boat ride on the Colorado River. The boat ride was comfortable, relaxing, full of incredible vistas, and calmed me down. By far the most relaxed and most content I felt on the vacation. The Chocolate Mousse Pie we had in Moab helped quite a bit too.

My biggest disappointment was Yellowstone. Not sure what it is about that place. I've been there twice and both times, good weather and bad, crowded and not so much, the park has left me empty. Despite the incredible volcanic features, gorgeous waterfalls, and the wildlife, it left me weary and wanting. I wonder what it is.

So, lessons learned, there are several.

• Until I figure out what I'm doing wrong, stay away from Yellowstone.
• Having a laptop with us helped. We were able to look up information about where we were/were going and it was nice to get directions. It was nice to upload pictures on the road to see if they'd come out.
• Having said this, having a laptop doesn't mean you should Blog. I was a lot more tired at the end of the day than I expected I'd be and adding the burden of blogging kind of stressed me out. I would have rather sit with the Wife and talk about the day instead of what actually happened - The Wife watched TV while I slaved over the lasted post.
• Peru, ruined me. This vacation, a substitute for a Thai/Cambodia vacation we'd wanted to go on, seemed so ... pedestrian, mundane, bland. Oh, there were many things I liked about it and I really did enjoy myself but the idea of exotic Thailand was lurking in the back of my thoughts. Don't get me wrong, the Corn Palace was fascinating but it's no Angkor Wat.
• I like driving - not really a lesson learned as I already knew this, but this vacation reaffirmed it. Driving through the green, rolling, sand hills of Nebraska was a treat.

I'm sure there were more lessons learned and quite a few that I should have learned but was clueless. For those who missed them, here is a link to all the pictures.

And The Geopicty Goes To ...

To all those who took the time to vote for my pictures in the Nebraska Geopicting contest, I would like to say Thank You for making me the second quarter contest WINNER!

I haven't been officially notified yet. The Wife went to vote and noticed that all my pictures had been removed from the voting page. When I investigated I found the contest winner link.

I think that this may be the first contest, not involving random drawings, I've ever one. The prize is $250 paid as either a gift card to a local camera store, a gift card to Cabellas (an outdoors store similar to REI), 250 lottery scratchers, or a digital picture frame. The four quarterly winners are then eligible for a drawing for a laptop (valued at $1,000) - a 1 in 4 chance ain't bad.

So Cool!!!

Backyard Renovations

Some of you may have heard that we were having some work done in the backyard. I mentioned it here a few days ago. The landscaper finally showed up two days late. Bad weather the week before had delayed the start of our project. Bad/unpredictable weather seems to be the norm here in Nebraska. Spices up life a bit.

The work we had done was along the back fence. As you can see in the before picture (Click on the pictures to see bigger versions), the yard was rather bland. We had two trees a a small garden area being held together by rotting railroad ties and a prayer (That's Mary standing in the garden). What is not so apparent from this picture is the slope of the yard. There is a 4 1/2 foot drop from the top of the garden's back wall and the bottom of the back fence. This makes mowing along the back fence a real chore and the Wife and the GodSon (who house sat for us while we were on vacation) can attest to it. After mowing it a couple times, the Wife passed the backyard mowing chore to me. It's a real bear. Or, should I say, it was.

Backyard Before

The landscapers came in and over four days ripped out sod on the slope between the garden area and the evergreen tree on the right. They hauled in dirt to built up and flatten out the slope. Shrubs and short trees were planted along the back and the area was graveled. The garden area was enlarged and the railroad ties were replaced with a block wall.

Backyard After

The after photo shows the results. It came out pretty good. The five trees along the fence in the center are Purple Smoke Bushes. Don't ask me what the rest are. The Wife picked out most of it and she has told me several times but plant names don't stick in my head. She did a good job picking stuff out. If you want to know what it all is, leave a comment and I will ask the Wife. I do know there is a lilac in there somewhere (I think it's behind the evergreen). The garden was left un-planted and will be filled in by the Wife once she returns from the Emily Dickinson Workshop she's heading to next week. I think I'll plant something in the little area around the evergreen.

I can't wait to see how the plantings mature. The trees will grow and block the little street noise we get from the road out back. We have a lot of color from the different foliage. I also can't wait to mow the backyard now. It will be much easier, especially on those hot 100+ summer days.

Our landscapers did an good job but there were some issues as there are with all contractors. He was terrible with being anyplace on time. He wasn't good at communicating. He and his crew would leave each day without saying a thing to us. It's like, "Are they gone?!?" He was supposed to stop by yesterday for the balance of his payment and he never showed. Didn't even call. I guess I can't complain since we owe him and not the other way around.

Elevated Heart Rate

I'm riding my bike on the Big Papio trail, wondering if my heart rate was elevated.

I approached one of the underpasses where the trail passes under the busy street.

This particular underpass was curved so you really couldn't see up ahead.

I zipped down the grade, staying on the right side of the trail in case someone was coming the other way, pedaling hard so that I could make it up the hill on the other side.

I reach the curve, look ahead, and see a lawn mower coming at me in the middle of the trail.

I ain't talking about a wimpy push mower.

I'm talking an industrial size, as-wide-as-the-trail cutting swath of doom, riding lawn mower.

I'm sure my face turned into a mask of abject panic as I put a death grip on my rear brake lever.

My rear tire skidded, the rear end of the bike wagged around like a crazed fish, and, to my relief and amazement, I managed to stay on two wheels.

The mower dude pulled over out of my way and we passed each other with a wave.

An uneventful end to a potentially disastrous event.

Yes, my heart rate was elevated.