Pathfinder by Orson Scot Card

It's been a while since I last read a book cover to cover.  Largely because of life taking most of my library into boxes while we prepared to and actually moved.  Christmas cured this problem because my wife got me an awesome book, Pathfinder by Orson Scot Card (my favorite author of all time).  This book is about a young man (13 years old at the start of the book),Rigg, who is raised by a man who is a trapper.  This trapper however spends every waking moment of the boys life teaching him things that have almost nothing to do with trapping.  He teaches him languages, astronomy, rhetoric, politics, finance, math, and other non-trapping things.  The boy absorbs the teachings like most kids would when given no alternatives and is spectacularly intelligent because of the teachings.  (This should start sounding very familiar...think Ender's Game)  While being exceptionally intelligent is important to the story the most remarkable thing about him is the fact that he can see "paths" of people from the past.  He knows where animals, plants, and people have traveled based on the path they leave behind.  He doesn't fully understand the meaning of the paths but his Father teaches him enough to eventually begin to understand what they mean.  When his Father passes in a tragic accident, Rigg must start a journey that is full of twists and turns that will keep your mind reeling at the possibilities.  Rigg, together with Umbo, a childhood friend, start off together and eventually find that they both possess remarkable "skills" that when combined cause time and space to not work the way we come to expect...and that is when things get VERY interesting.
This book is perhaps every bit as good as Ender's Game which for me is about the highest praise I could give a book.  The thought provoking dilemmas and the awesome characters come together to be every ounce the greatness of Ender's Game.  While solidly in the Fantasy genre...it crosses borders in ways that make it equally Science Fiction.  I can't recommend this book enough.  If you want to get it I've tried to make it easy by giving you a link to Amazon.com.  Let me know what you think after you've read it...I can hardly wait for the next part of the series.

Oh the drama and stress...

So it's been a while since I posted last and life as usual has been the barrier to my posting.  We decided that we were going to put our house on the market to sell shortly after my last post.  Since then we have finished some over due projects and put our house in order to sell.  We have also been searching actively for a home.  All of this culminating in the last two weeks of insanity.

First we fell in love with a house and got serious about selling our house.  We had a guy come by and then he brought his wife and they indicated that they were going to give us an offer after their real estate agent got a chance to look at it...and that is where things get frustrating.  We get this news on a Thursday before an awesome camping trip and we're very excited about the potential offer all weekend.  When we get home we're looking forward to having the agent come by and look at the house.  She does so and totally sours our deal.  So instead of making an offer on the awesome house we found we instead sit on it and wait until we have someone else who is interested in our house.  This happens about a week later.  A lady drives by while we're out in the yard and slows to a stop to get a flier from our flier box.  I invite her in and give her the tour.  She's clearly excited about the house.  This is when we start thinking now is the time to get an offer in on the perfect house we like.  So we have our agent draw up paperwork and submit our offer.  Only to find out a day later that the house we placed an offer on is no longer available because the day before that the seller decided to extend a 1 year lease to the current occupants.   We become very bummed.  So we start looking again...just as the lady who wants our house decides she wants to give us an offer for our house.  We're now excited again because now we have an offer and we just need to find a house.  So we find a house and we call our agent to set up an appointment to view it and likely place an offer on it only to find out that it is already sold.  So now we've lost two perfect homes.  Which brings us almost up to date.  So now were looking for additional homes to look at and we find a couple of run down places that we want nothing to do with and finally find something that is nice, comfortable but ultimately a short term solution.  We're ready to make the offer Friday night after leaving our agent and talking a bit.  Then we get home and see an automated email showing a NEW listing.  This house looks awesome.  So the next morning after an awesome event at the Adventure Challenge we drive by and meet the owners doing some last minute cleaning and ask if we can view their home.  They oblige and we fall in love all over again.  This home is AWESOME in so many ways.  We decided to forget the home we were going to make an offer on and instead place an offer on this house.  Again this is Saturday (11th).  We give them 24 hours to respond to the offer (full price).  So Sunday we are waiting to hear and then just before church we get the call that they accept and we're ready to go.  Just before church ends I get another call telling me that they have taken their counteroffer off the table to view another offer.  This is where dreams are destroyed.  About 8:50 pm Sunday we get the call that they accepted the other offer (under suspicious circumstances on behalf of their agent).  So we now have no home and an offer that we have accepted and are ready to move on.  Which brings us to today...searching for a home while finalizing the documents needed to start the lengthy process of selling our home.

It has been a roller coaster three weeks.  Elation, frustration, disappointment, excitement, and ultimately stress that we didn't want or need.  The selling of our home has been smooth and simple (so far).  So we're just going to play things by ear and see where it all goes.  I suspect we'll find a short term solution and start saving money for the "Perfect" home in a couple of years.  However, another "perfect" home could pop up tomorrow and we start the roller coaster all over again.  Heaven forbid

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Ooops! Haven't Posted in a while

So I've been so caught up in work and life in general that I haven't posted in some time.  As this is my catch-all blog I will try and catch up the many happenings in a brief (for me) post.  Hopefully I will get back on the two or three posts a week schedule soon.

Alright since my last post on Sarah: Women of Genesis I have completed that series and must admit that Orson Scott Card is hands down my favorite author of all time.  For the women who follow my blog this series is a must read.  There is reportedly a follow up to Rachel and Leah but no word on when it will be finished.  To all the men who follow this is a must read so you can learn how to recognize your spouse for the incredible being that she is.  I gained a whole new level of respect for the lives that women lead in secret from men.  How a man could write these novels is beyond me...lots of research and a wife over his shoulder no doubt.
I also read Last Song by Nicholas Sparks...yup.  Now that the men have stopped laughing I will continue with my review.  It seems to me that Nicholas Sparks has a real talent for tragedy turned happy ending.  His writing at times was very juvenile and perhaps that was to match the main characters personality because as the seriousness of the book became more clear the youth of the writing became more sober and a little more adultish.  I didn't cry...although I almost did.  I found the story to be predictable like most Hollywood situational romances which at times made for a boring read.  If I were to give it a rating on a scale of 5 I would give it a 3 for entertainment value and certainly not for quality of writing.

Now moving on past the book reviews (I really haven't read much lately). Since my last post I have acquired new gadgetry!  Yup I finally got an Android phone.  I stuck with AT&T so my choices were quite limited as their contract with Apple has made it unnecessary to delve deep into the Android market.  I got the HTC Aria which has the Sense UI.  I love it.  It's the right size (I could have purchased the Samsung Captivate but it was BIG) and price.  The apps that I've downloaded make life easier and it sure is nice to have organization right at my finger tips.  All the "neat" things that smartphones do, make me, a tech geek, just go crazy.  In fact I accidentally went over my Data usage plan...$15 mistake.  Now I have to be more careful and watch my data more closely.  I'm quite happy with almost all of the features of the Aria (probably because I don't know what I'm missing with the iPhone or something else) but one of the things that doesn't seem to be working properly (well) is the gyroscope doesn't register when I've turned it portrait or landscape consistently.  This can be a problem occasionally but I deal with it and still love my Aria.  It scores a 4 of 5 from me.  I'm anxious to get the most recent Android update (2.2) soon so I can enjoy Chrome to Android features.  I may geek out about this phone again at a later date.

Sarah: Women of Genesis Series

Many readers may wonder exactly why a man would be interested in this series.  They may even wonder specifically why I would be reading this book.  The honest answer is that despite the overtly feminine themes and the clearly female demographic that Sarah was written for I am a consummate fan of Orson Scott Card and having read some of his novels with strong female characters I felt like this would be another opportunity to see how a man writes for/like women.  Yup.  I said that men and women do in fact write differently.  It's not a matter of content.  It's not even a matter of the characters and themes, although those do in fact make a difference.  When it comes right down to it when asked I think that most women and men could tell whether an author was male or female simply by reading a book.  Women have used pseudonyms to enter the literature market as men.  Some have done so very successfully.  Rarely have men done something similar.  Why?  I would contend that Orson Scott Card could have successfully done so with this series.  I have read Rachel and Leah before reading this and when I read it again (this time in the proper order) I will review it as well.  That book was so enthralling and classic Card that I was anxious to get time and my hands on the rest of the series.  After reading Sarah I can say proudly that I understand women better as a result.
This book is really an opportunity to see how women's intuition is experienced and more specifically it also helped me understand a little better how to sense the whisperings of the Spirit in my life.  Sarai (her pre-Covenant name) is strong, smart and spiritual.  Abram may have been a holy man from the beginning but the reality is that (at least in the context of this fictional book) the saying that behind every great man there is a greater woman is indeed true.  I found myself admiring Sarai (and by extension all women) for her weaknesses and strengths, her self doubt and confidence.  Orson Scott Card makes the culture of the middle east come to life and pours on modern interactions, which really aren't modern at all, to make this a really entertaining book.  I'm now about half way through Rebekah and while very different from Sarah is, so far, a very good companion to Sarah.  Look for my next review early next week or sooner depending on my ability to finish the book.  Read this book and let me know what you think.

Work is no longer a dirty word.

This week I began work at the Tri-Cities Visitor & Convention Bureau.  Some of the first posts on this blog (well over a year ago now) were about my struggle finding a career.  After this first week at TCVCB (it's a mouthful) I can say that my search has ended and that God's hand was in the journey.  

My new job title is Technology and Website Specialist.  The position I now hold has never existed at TCVCB before.  I applied for the Marketing and PR Director position and was called in, after a little follow through on my application, to, ostensibly, interview for the Directorship.  Upon beginning the interview it became clear that I was not going to be getting that position.  Instead the President of the Bureau started talking to me about their website and about their print copy Visitor Guide and brochures.  She asked me point blank, "Could you make this?".  I answered, almost too confidently, "Yes".  We had a very good conversation about the needs of the Bureau and some of the technology difficulties they had.  She asked me about social media, blogging, search engine optimization and a variety of other wed centered questions.  I felt at ease answering her questions and felt encouraged to provide my uncensored opinions of their website.  In the end I used all the faculty of my degree (both majors) to communicate my ability to provide them with the expertise they needed.  It was an agonizing wait while she interviewed other candidates for the Directorship to see if any of them had the specialized skills that I have in addition to the experience they wanted for the Directorship.  A day or two later than I had expected (and after being depressed but reconciled to not getting the job) I was called to come in for another conversation.  It was the offer to come on as a "website, technology guru".  At long last I had an offer for a career position.  She asked me to think about the offer over night and get back to her the next day.  It took a considerable amount of effort not to call her at 6am and accept.  I did wait until about 9am the next morning to accept and she was genuinely excited to have me accept.  

A week and a half later I had my first day.  It was exciting and a little intimidating.  I was shown to my office (more on  that later) and then we met in the "Board Room" for a team meeting.  I was wearing a tie to work and I felt like I was important.  That first day was a blur.  I felt like the day had barely begun and I was already leaving.  I came home swimming with ideas and excitement about what I was going to do for the website and the print materials.  The rest of the week was encouraging as I got to do some simple fliers and brochures.  I was beginning to see my place in the team and I know it will be defined even more this coming week.  

Work used to be something I dreaded.  The weekends were separated by far too many days and the prospect of doing tasks that were mind-numbingly dull and excruciatingly simple made me irritable.  Now, as we celebrate Memorial Day, I am chagrined by the fact that I have a three day weekend.  Yup, I said it, I would rather go to work than enjoy a three day weekend.  Sick, huh?  Work is no longer a dirty word.  In fact I have officially struck it from my "four letter word" taboo list.  I look forward to using the skills that I gained through hobbies, education and God given talent.  I look forward to exercising my mind with tasks that excite and intrigue me.  I can hardly wait for Tuesday to get back at it and start back to WORK.