I don't think this is a surprise

I got this action hero personality quiz from Howard vonDarkmoor's Web site. Thanks, Howard!

You scored as Batman, the Dark Knight. As the Dark Knight of Gotham, Batman is a vigilante who deals out his own brand of justice to the criminals and corrupt of the city. He follows his own code and is often misunderstood. He has few friends or allies, but finds comfort in his cause.

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0
created with QuizFarm.com

Blast from the past

Yesterday I was back on my university campus for the first time in 16 years, and a wave of nostalgia rolled over me. I found myself smiling, thinking about lots of things ... good times, old flames, even classes I had enjoyed.

I spent some time thinking about this (hey, I'm an American, all we do is overthink our own emotions) while walking and driving around campus, and I found I missed that feeling of "your whole life is ahead of you," the optimism of that. Thinking about it some more, I realized I also missed ... I don't know, it's hard to describe ... the beauty of the chance of falling in love, especially for the first time.

Don't get me wrong. It's not that I don't love my other half, nor that I would want someone else. It wasn't anything like that. It wasn't anything sexual. It was that feeling of ... opportunity? Of knowing that not only is your whole life, your career and more, ahead of you, but so is that one special person.

That feeling, whatever it could be called, is gone from my life. I think that's natural. I think it's part of growing up and growing older. I'm a far cry from the young twentysomething I was back in the early '90s. But still, it was fun to remember that.

And, related, it was fun to relive ... another hard one to describe ... the beauty of vibrant, young women. Stop laughing! Again, I'm not talking about anything sexual (at least not conciously), but there's a purity, a beauty, to young, bright members of the opposite sex that I very, very rarely see in young men. I don't know if a woman can appreciate this (I don't mean to be sexist, I'm literally saying "because I am a man and can't experience things as a woman ... I don't know"), but I think men generally can, at least some of them. Hell, listen to a few Counting Crows songs if you don't know what I'm talking about, especially "Long December." But sometimes there's a certain look, or a tilt of a young woman's head, or a shake of her hair ... and I'm 21 all over again, remembering the anxiety of trying to work up the courage just to speak to her, let alone ask her out.

Then I smile. And I hope young people today still have those experiences, because it's a crazy, scary world.

When I left campus, I got back in my Explorer and turned on the radio. Pearl Jam was belting out "Alive." What fitting end to my day.

Just so ya know ...

... one reason of late I've not been posting on others' blogs is because I'm having technical difficulties. My own blogger.com stuff seems to be working okay, but I get an error message whenever I try to leave messages on other people's blogs at blogger.com.

Not sure why this is happening, but just wanted to folks to know I'm not being rude.

Aaaaaaargh!

While rummaging through boxes full of books, I ran across my old paperback version of "The Count of Monte Cristo." Since I bought a newer paperback version a while back and I'm currently re-reading the book for the first time in something like 20 years, I thought I'd flip through my old paperback copy.

And I discovered a tragedy. My older version is an abridged version. I immediately noted something was wrong when the older copy was only about 500 pages, and my more recent version is about 1,100 pages.

That explains why there are plot elements and whole characters I had forgotten. It also came as a shock to me to realize I have never read the full version of a book by one of my favorite classical authors.

I felt cheated.

I'll come right out and say it: DAMN abridged versions of ANY book. If you don't have the time or interest to read a book entire, then don't read the DAMN thing. If you're a disinterested student being forced to read something you don't like by a teacher, then just go buy the Cliff Notes; yes teachers often frown on them, but Cliff Notes get the job done as far as taking tests.

Read for fun! Read for pure enjoyment!

Three gems

So, I went to my nearest used book store today looking for something by Dumas or Sabbatini that I had not read before. I didn't find anything. One would think Dumas had only written "The Three Musketeers" and "The Count of Monte Cristo."

On the plus side, I found three old paperbacks by some older, but great authors:

1.) The King of Elfland's Daughter, by Lord Dunsany
I hate to admit this, but I've never read this book. In fact, I've not read any Dunsany in 25 years.

2.) Conjure Wife, by Fritz Leiber
It's Fritz. It has to be good. Looks like a horror fantasy set in the modern day.

3.) The Iron Lords, by Andrew J. Offutt
Offutt is one of my favorite Sword and Sorcery authors, though I've not read a ton of his stuff. But then, there isn't a ton of his stuff easily available other than maybe the Thieves' World stories.

My total expenditure: $3.18

Including tax.

You couldn't beat that with a broom.

Blog stats

Funny. Some days I have 10 to 12 people looking at my blog. Other days only 1 or 2, or even none. I'm averageing from 4 to 6 usually.

Not great statistics, but interesting to me. I also seem to get a lot of Google hits for D&D stuff, the word "misanthropy" and Tor/Forge.

Things that make you go hmmmmmmm ...

Reading phases

Anyone who has spent much of their life reading will have gone through at least a few "reading phases," periods where they focused on a particular genre or subject matter.

A few of mine:

A.) In the early 1980s, in junior high school, I went through a major fantasy phase. I lapped up the Thieves' World anthologies, Michael Moorcock, the original Dragonlance series of books, Terry Brooks' early stuff, Fafhrd and the Mouser, Anne McAffrey, and yes, I re-read The Hobbit and Rings. I read a lot of fantasy at that time, but since then I've realized I missed some great authors too. Don't worry, I'm always reading and looking to make up for that.

B.) In the late 80s I wanted to be a horror writer, so I read everything I could find by these folks: Stephen King, John Saul, Peter Straub, Robert McCammon, Dean Koontz, Anne Rice, and a handful of others. I started my first serious novel, a horror novel called "The Storm," about this time, and 20 years later I've yet to finish it (of course I haven't worked on it in 16 years, and I'm not necessarily planning to, though my notes and handwritten manuscript are in a box around here someplace).

C.) In the early 90s, I still wanted to be a horror novelist, so I brushed up on horror-related non-fiction. I scoured through tons and tons of material on serial killers, the occult, mysterious stories and odd history. I still get some strange looks from friends seeing these books on my shelves.

D.) In the mid-90s I went through a spiritual phase. No, I didn't go out searching for Jesus, but I have always had an interest in history and religion and it grew stronger about this time. I perused scores of books with subjects like "the history of Lucifer," "how God changes throughout the Old Testament," "the story of Pilate," etc. I also didn't stick with just Christianity, and I also studied some of the new age stuff (which I was slightly familiar with from my earlier occult readings). I first read the Koran during this time, and I read Robert A. Monroe's three books on out-of-body experiences. Some of my favorite reading at this point were the many books by Dr. Scott Peck, he of "The Road Less Traveled" fame.

E.) In the late 90s I went through a wild west/old west period. I've got tons of books on building log cabins, the history of newspapers in the old west, the history of saloons and prostitution in the old west, and several encyclopedic books about gunfights and gunfighters (Hollywood has almost ALL of it wrong, with a very few exceptions). I also learned a lot about historical firearms during this period, and I also read multiple books on the history of dueling (the old west gunfights were sort of considered duels, though dueling was dying out in the world at that time and most of those old west gunfights were usually more like ambushes and murders than they were true duels).

Okay, that's enough of my ramblings for now. G'night.