Posted by Ryan
December 20, 2008
Upon reading the title of this post you may think to yourself, “self, I think he must have meant ‘Lost World – Jurassic Park’.” If you thought that, I’ve been wondering, is it a book I should read? It’s been on my list for a while now.
Books are awesome. Especially books wherein the story takes place in a different world, or in an alternative or modified version of our own world. It’s as if the books came from those other worlds. They are a gateway to a different reality—often a more desirable one than our own. Separating myself from this world and learning of another allows me to accept things I might not otherwise accept (which can be good and bad), and hopefully use those things to improve my life.
When I moved to New York I packed up the stuff I could bring with me, which wasn’t much, and then boxed up the rest and shipped it to New York. I got most of it last week. Today I got another box, full of books. Earlier this week I got a letter from the U.S. Postal Service stating, “an empty wrapper with your address was found in the mail and it is believed to have been separated from a parcel during handling.” They even tapped the address label to the paper so I could see it.
I can fill out a description sheet and mail it back and they’ll try to find my stuff. I waited until today for the other box full of books to come so I could get a better grasp on what I lost. While I still have both my English and Spanish versions of The Chronicles of Narnia, I lost all my other C.S. Lewis books, which I am very bummed about (I mark up and write a lot in the margins of my books). I also lost my Malcolm Gladwell books, Gordon B. Hinckley’s biography as well as some of his books. 13 is the total number I cannot account for. I’m sure I’ll remember more later.
Oh, I also lost a few movies on DVD. I used to be the proud owner of 6 movies. That number has now been reduced to 1. Pride cometh before a fall, they say.
One funny thing. I packed the books and DVDs in these two boxes and used my socks to keep them from sloshing around. I kept expecting the boxes to come so I didn’t go out and buy socks. It’s been rough. I like socks.
So, in a lost and found, under a machine at a post office, on the side of the road, or perhaps in some happy postal worker’s living room, lay my books. Lost worlds.
Posted by Ryan
December 6, 2008
According to the weather app on my phone, it’s currently snowing in the great outdoors. I actually noticed this by looking out the window before I looked at my phone.
I suppose it’s always snowing somewhere in the great outdoors. It just so happens that it’s snowing in the part of the great outdoors that is viewable from my window.
It’s not snowing much—a light snow is what it’s called. Most snow is light, compared to steel cube of roughly the same size. Some snow is lighter other snow, though. For example, the snow in Northern Utah, specifically in the Salt Lake City area, is especially light and fluffy. It makes for amazing skiing. But that’s not what I meant by “a light snow,” which you probably knew.
When I was young I remember really liking the book Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. I just looked and it turns out it was published the same year I was born. Cool.
So today was cloudy. I also ate meatballs today. They were on top of pasta, smothered in marinara sauce with a slice of garlic bread and a small salad. I also bought a cookie, and my bed frame. And desk. And an ice cream cone, and a hot dog. Oh, and a cinnamon roll. And a bunch of groceries. Oh! And rope. The rope was for taking the old bed frame back. That was an adventure. So if you’ve been following this blog at all you know that I went to IKEA today. I also did 50 push ups in a total of 5 sets, which is 5 more than 2 days ago.
And now I’m going to go dream of raining meatballs, because they taste really good (though I admit I’ve never tried the rain variety).
Posted by Ryan
November 18, 2008
“Outlier” is a scientific term to describe things or phenomena that lie outside normal experience. In the summer, in Paris, we expect most days to be somewhere between warm and very hot. But imagine if you had a day in the middle of August where the temperature fell below freezing. That day would be outlier. And while we have a very good understanding of why summer days in Paris are warm or hot, we know a good deal less about why a summer day in Paris might be freezing cold. In this book I’m interested in people who are outliers—in men and women who, for one reason or another, are so accomplished and so extraordinary and so outside of ordinary experience that they are as puzzling to the rest of us as a cold day in August.
– What is Outliers about?
I’ve been waiting for this book, Outliers, to come out for, well, as long as I’ve known about it. I don’t know how long that is, but it’s felt like a long time.
It finally came out today.
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
- On Audible
- On Amazon
I bought it in both audio and paperback. If you like audiobooks at all I highly recommend the audio versions. He reads them himself and does a fantastic job.
