The Power of Less (Leo Babauta)

Our lives are too cluttered.  We have too much stuff, too much information, too many activities, too many priorities.  In The Power of Less, Leo Babauta claims that "less is more"- that we will do and feel better by limiting ourselves to the essential in life (and work).  His general principles (paraphrased):

1. Less is powerful

2. Limits are necessary

3. Choose the essential, and simplify (eliminate the non-essential)

4. Have a simple focus- one thing at a time

5. Create new habits

6. Start small

After a description of these principles (part 1 of his book), he then describes these things in practice (part 2).

There was a lot of good stuff in this book.  Having 2015 be my 'year of minimization,' a lot of this book's content reinforced my goals and encouraged me.  There was an ironic element, though- the book is unnecessarily long and overly repetitive.  Many of his statements are repeated (with minor adjustments) three or more times . . . which, given the topic, I found most amusing.  He also goes into a lot of unnecessary areas- talking at length about the necessity of a healthy diet and regular exercise, for example.  Good things, certainly, but it strays a bit from his focus (again, ironic).

Rating: A-

In Defense of Kamino (Clone Wars Vol. 1)

Last year, I started "graphic novel Sundays"- where I would put aside my 'normal' books each Sunday and read a graphic novel.  I enjoyed so breaking up my reading, and thus look to start that trend anew this year.  First up is the Clone Wars comic series by Dark Horse Comics.

From the Star Wars movies, we know that the Clone Wars began at the end of Episode II and concluded during Episode III.  What happened in between?  An awful lot of battles, intrigue, and adventures, you can bet . . . and Dark Horse took 9 volumes to tell us about them.  The first volume in this Clone Wars comic series and set immediately after Episode II, In Defense of Kamino recounts the following stories.

Sacrifice

The Jedi Quinlan Vos, working under cover in the fringes for years, obtains Separatist military plans and tips off Republic forces to avert catastrophe.  It's a victory for the Republic, but is there more to this than meets the eye?

Rating (art): A-
Rating (story): A-

Brothers in Arms, Jango's Legacy, and No End in Sight

These three stories are interconnected.  The Separatists launch an attack on the cloning facility world of Kamino.  Thanks to Vos' tip, the Republic is ready- with many Jedi (and clones) ready to defend the world at all costs.  Still, odds are overwhelming . . . who will prevail?

Rating (art): B+
Rating (story): B

Schism

There is a schism in the Jedi Order- several members, organized by Master Sora Bulq, have broken from the council and refuse to fight in the Clone Wars.  Mace Windu agrees to meet with them and discuss their objections; meanwhile, Count Dooku's assassin, Asajj Ventress, is secretly dispatched to the meeting with a mission: kill as many Jedi as possible.

Rating (art): A-
Rating (story): A-

Overall

As far as Star Wars graphic novels go, this was enjoyable.  We see from the beginning the machinations of Palpatine, who uses his dual identities to tip off each side in turn and ensure the war continues well into the future.  We also see plausible dissent within Jedi ranks, and the conflict that creates.  The art was good; the dialogue could have been better, but hey, this is Star Wars.

Rating : A-

Ignore Everybody (Hugh MacLeod)

In Ignore Everybody, Hugh MacLeod puts forth 40 keys to creativity.  As you might infer from the title, this is not a standard take on this topic.  MacLeod is unconventional, 'snarky,' and definitely provides a interesting perspective.  His main points, in my opinion:
- If you want to be truly creative, don't expect payment.  Keep a 'standard' job and do your creative work on the side. Once you're in it for money, you're beholden to the opinion/desires of others, and creativity diminishes.
- Ignore everybody.  Don't try to stand out from the crowd- stay away from the crowd altogether.  Do your own thing, take ownership in it, and forget what others say.  Be different, and proud.
- Teamwork and consensus can be a bad thing, as it encourages others to seek and become overly reliant upon group approval.  This, again, diminishes creativity and turns many into followers.

Hugh has some good points, and this was an interesting audiobook.  It's very opinionated, of course, and not based on any research- this is just a guy's opinion based on his own life.  In that way, it's like talking to a friend who's had a lot of ups and downs: they have good things to share, but you don't always identify with where they're coming from, or trust that their experience can be translated to general life principles for all of us.  Additionally, this seemed very geared towards 'artsy' types who were trying to make it big in art/movies/books/etc.  Thus, it wasn't quite what I was expecting or wanting (I was hoping to learn techniques for fostering innovation).  Still, it's short enough to warrant a listen- if you can ignore the occasional cursing or inappropriate (sexual) jokes.

Rating: B

Blondel's Song (David Boyle)

In 1192, King Richard the Lionheart of England was concluding the Third Crusade in the Holy Land.  Hearing of machinations against his realm, he returned home on the Mediterranean that winter.  Due to [typically] treacherous seasonal seas and murmurs of betrayal by rival rulers (of France and the Holy Roman Empire, respectively), he attempted to go through friendly territories in mainland Europe to get back to England.  He was discovered, caught, and held prisoner.  His location unknown, legend has it that a troubadour, Blondel, wandered Europe for months searching for the king.  His novel technique- singing a specific song only Richard would know outside each castle and awaiting the second verse- eventually paid off; Richard was located in Austria and ransomed for a huge sum.  According to legend.  Such is the subject of Blondel's Song (published as The Troubadour's Song in the USA).

I put this book down before finishing for two reasons:
- too much back-story: by the time I stopped (halfway through), Richard had yet to be captured, let alone located by Blondel.  This is more of a biography of Richard's time and story than anything . . . so the title is misleading.
- too much speculation: I got tired of reading "maybe," "local tradition has it," and "possibly."  This book is largely an exercise in conjecture.  Yes, there is a legend about Blondel . . . but there are legends about King Arthur and Robin Hood, too, and their authenticity is also suspect.  The bottom line: we know very little, so reading speculation as history gets misleading very quickly.

It isn't all bad- Boyle throws in interesting historical tidbits along the way, and the subject matter is certainly compelling.  I just wish we knew more.  Boyle is not a historian, and in hindsight, this material would have been better conveyed as historical fiction, or fiction with a historical element.  There's not enough here for proper history.

Rating: C+

Empire of Gold: A History of the Byzantine Empire (Thomas Madden)

In Empire of Gold, Professor Thomase F. Madden covers over 1,000 years- from ~300 to 1453- as he looks at the history of the Byzantine empire.  Many people forget that when Rome fell in 476, it wasn't the end of the entire empire- just the western portion.  It had been split into east and west almost two centuries prior, and the eastern half (today we call them the Byzantines, though they viewed themselves as Roman) persisted for almost 1,000 years longer.  This empire was (among other things) the Christian 'buffer' between the increasingly powerful Islamic empires in the east and the Christian kingdoms in the west.  It was finally overrun in 1453 by the Ottoman Turks (whose empire in turn lasted centuries, finally falling after WWI).

A lot happens in a thousand years.  As this course was just 14 lectures (about 7 hours), we get only a taste.  Madden surveys the highlights, to include:
- the expansion or contraction of its borders, to include 'encounters' (wars or negotiations with) Venice, Genoa, Arabic, Persian, Ottoman, Balkan (Bulgarian/etc.) and western European powers
- the Crusades (which began, it can be argued, due to the Byzantines, who requested western European assistance to fight off the Arabs in the 1090s)
- the schism/conflict between the Catholic and Orthodox Church (with the latter being centered in Constantinople, capital of the empire)
- the line of succession of Byzantine Emperors (lots of betrayal/court intrigue here)
- the legacy of the empire (he takes it right up to its influence on the present day)

Some reviews panned this, so my expectations weren't high; I was pleasantly surprised.  Madden's delivery is straightforward, without a lot of flair or side stories of interest (which is what people want, apparently), but he's informative, succinct, and knows his stuff.  Certainly, tons of things are skipped, but that's necessary in a survey course of such short length.  In the end, I wished it had been a bit longer, to connect more of the story.

Rating: B+

A Quest for Dragons

In 1986, Dragon Warrior (screenshots below) came out for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), and I was thus introduced to Role Playing Games (RPGs).  In Dragon Warrior, you walked through an 8-bit world of plains, forests, deserts, swamps, and hills slaying monsters (encountered randomly) and visiting towns along the way to finish minor quests or upgrade your armor/weapons.  Every time you killed a monster, you received gold to procure said upgrades and experience points to 'level up', which increased your strength and abilities.  You learned magic spells, and your quest culminated in an ultimate 'boss' encounter after many hours of gameplay.  More titles came out as the years went on for the NES and newer platforms, but I stayed away for two decades.

In 2007, I purchased a Nintendo DS (NDS), and enjoyed all four NDS titles in this series (now called Dragon Quest): Dragon Quest IV, V, VI, and IX (don't know why they skipped a few).  In the first three, the premise is largely the same as the original game- you just had better graphics, use of both DS screens, and mild variations (like having a team of folks in your party, each getting to develop separately).  Dragon Quest IX was rather different- here, the monster encounters were no longer random (you could see them walking around the screen, and could choose to engage them at your discretion), the world was more 3D, and you could customize your character to a large degree (choosing hair color, build, complexion, etc.).  As with the original, finishing a game took a long time- between 40 and 60 hours.  Game covers and screenshots are below.

Obviously, I felt there was a lot of good in this series:
- It's a turn-based RPG, meaning each step of combat is sequential- you attack or use a spell/item, the enemy attacks, you attack, etc. until one of you is dead.  I enjoyed that, as it felt less stressful than real-time RPGs that had multiple things going on simultaneously.
- The graphics, though 'poor' by many of today's standards, were also appealing to me, as I wanted an escape and wasn't looking for realism.
- Exploring the world (towns, wilderness, etc.) and developing the hero (upgrading along the way) were both enjoyable experiences

Nothing's perfect, though.  Here's what I didn't care for:
- There were times when you had to spend time to 'walk around and kill monsters' just to level up- without furthering the story.  That could slow things down and get monotonous.
- The replay value is low (meaning once you beat the game, playing a new game wouldn't deviate markedly from past adventures, so playing it again all the way through was boring).
- It was a serious time drain (as said above, 40-60 hours per game).

Though fun overall, the negatives were enough to make me sell after playing each of them all the way through.  A good game series, in the end, but with deficiencies.

Rating (for all): B+  

American Hustle

American Hustle is loosely based on the 1970's Abscam scandal, where the FBI used a professional con artist to entrap a number of politicians who took bribes to grease the skids for casinos in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  Here, when an FBI agent [Bradley Cooper] catches cons [Christian Bale] and [Amy Adams], he promises their freedom if they can trap four other cons.  The operation, which starts by targeting the Camden mayor [Jeremy Renner], eventually grows as the FBI believes they can catch bigger fish, and as politicians and mobsters come into the net, eventually they all get in over their heads.  The whole thing is also threatened by [Bale's] unstable wife [Jennifer Lawrence].  Can they get out of this tangled web alive?

This movie was hyped and well-received, and I was really looking forward to it, expecting a sort of Ocean's Eleven "cons within cons"-type arrangement.  That was partly there, but (unlike Ocean's) the movie largely lacked an undercurrent of fun- it was intensely disturbing at times.  Every main character was mentally unstable in their own way, and some scenes were hard to watch.  One of the main themes- everybody cons to survive- certainly comes through, and was an interesting point (in fact, throughout most of the movie you're not sure who's conning whom).  The acting was superb, and there's a lot of interesting stuff here . . . but the disturbing element put me off a bit, as did the fact that the real story was much different and just as (or perhaps more) interesting, so deviating from it seemed unnecessary.

Rating: B-

Maid Marian (Thomas Love Peacock)

The legend of Robin Hood has been told many times in many ways.  Thomas Love Peacock, a satirical author with a hilarious name, delivers his version in Maid Marian.  Peacock's story is largely traditional, but delivered in a very different style.  He begins 'before the Hood:' the wedding of Earl Robert Fitz-Ooth and Lady Matilda Fitzwater is broken up by a knight seeking the former for various crimes against the king (stealing deer, etc.).  Robert flees and becomes Robin; Matilda and her father join him later (and she becomes Marian) when the king turns against them in his hunt for Robin; others join (Friar Tuck, Little John, Will Scarlet, etc.); the merry band has many adventures as they enforce their own brand of justice in Sherwood during the time of Kings Richard and John.  This one ends on a lighter note than most Robin Hood tales: we leave Robin and Marian as they're happily wed and living in the forest.

Thomas Love Peacock is popular enough to have a small society dedicated to him, and I see why.  His wit and writing style are very enjoyable, and this was a fun ride.  It wasn't top-notch- he's not quite a Dickens- but it was very good, and I loved how he sprinkles witty social commentary into this classic tale.  He also includes short, fun poems throughout.  You can read Maid Marian in its entirety here, and see a picture of the author below.

Love his hair!

Rating: A-

Bright Days, Dark Nights (Elizabeth Ruth Skoglund)

Those who experience emotional pain- depression, anxiety, loneliness, etc.- are often stigmatized by both Christians and nonbelievers in our society.  The former sometimes claim such troubles are the result of sin, and thus require repentance rather than assistance.  In Bright Days, Dark Nights, author Elizabeth Skoglund counters that belief and demonstrates that, as with physical ailments, mental/emotional problems can be unavoidable and even expected in the lives of many- even of Christians.  Her primary example is the famous Christian preacher Charles Spurgeon, from whom she quotes liberally throughout the book, giving evidence that he not only sympathized with those so suffering, but also that he himself had similar struggles.

This book makes a lot of excellent points, but I grew to dislike the format.  Skoglund's main ideas are:
1) "emotional problems are not necessarily the result of sin, and thus deserve compassion, understanding, and assistance from other believers"
2) "Charles Spurgeon agrees with this, and I'll prove it by providing page after page of relevant quotes from him"
3) "Charles Spurgeon's quotes point us to God, and we should take comfort in our tribulations knowing that we're not alone- God is with us, loves us, and has experienced the same as Christ"

I agree with all of these points- no problems there.  But, the book has the following problems:
1) Too many quotes by Spurgeon.  I estimate 70% of the book is just regurgitated Spurgeon.  Paragraph after paragraph of "Spurgeon says . . . [insert quote]." He's a fantastic preacher, but it's too much, especially because:
2) The book is far too long for the points it makes.  Many of the quotes convey similar or identical ideas in marginally different ways, from slightly different angles.  It gets to feel like endless repetition.
3) I started to feel like Skoglund was saying "you should agree with this point of view because Spurgeon does."  Again, he's a great preacher, but he's not God.

Overall, good points raise this to an acceptable grade, but there are probably far better ways of conveying them.

Rating: B-

Thor: The Dark World

Released in 2013, Thor: The Dark World is the sequel to 2011's Thor (review) and takes place after 2012's The Avengers (review).  In The Dark World, we learn that the Dark Elves (an alien race that existed long before our universe and thrives in pre-cosmos darkness) tried long ago to return the galaxy to that darkness by using aether, a super-weapon, to destroy the nine realms.  They were thwarted by the Asgardians, led by Thor's grandfather, and believed completely destroyed.  The aether was hidden, and that was thought to be the end of the matter.  It wasn't, of course; it turns out the aether was hidden on Earth, and thousands of years later it binds itself to scientist/Thor love interest Jane Foster when she stumbles upon it looking for Thor.  This 'binding' awakens what remained of the Dark Elves, who were (apparently) in millenia-long hibernation, and they come looking for it, bent on finishing what they attempted long ago: annihilation.  Can Thor and crew stop them in time?

Like the first movie, The Dark World featured fantastic, stunning visuals of Asgard and other realms.  Some plot twists were refreshingly unexpected, but some were totally predictable.  The action and humor were just okay, and the plot definitely had places that could have used more development.  It wasn't as good as Thor, but it wasn't as bad as some superhero movies out there.

Rating: B-

Ghost Rider Ultimate Collection (Various)

I'm a sucker for Ghost Rider.  I enjoy the concept of such a hero, and can't help but love a flaming skeleton on a motorcycle.  I had watched the two movies (reviewed here and here) and was underwhelmed; this was my first venture into the comics.

Ghost Rider: Ultimate Collection is the first 19 issues of the Ghost Rider series.  In it, we find Johnny Blaze in Hell, trying to escape to Earth.  He does so, only to inadvertently bring Satan with him, and the Prince of Lies breaks into 666 pieces- and infiltrates the same number of humans- upon arrival.  Now, Ghostie must hunt down and destroy all pieces to rid the Earth of Satan's presence.  His quest to do so gets harder, however, as each annihilation makes the remaining components stronger.  Can he overcome in the end?

As I said, I'm a sucker for the concept of a Ghost Rider, but I've always been disappointed with the execution.  The story here is pretty bad, not well developed, confusing at times, and features breathtakingly poor theology.  The art can be good, and lots of action is there, but it's not enough.  I once asked someone to recommend a good Ghost Rider story.  His response: "one has yet to be made."  I'm beginning to agree with him.

Rating: C-

So Begins 2015

My goals for 2015 are reading, improving, reflecting, minimizing, and enjoying.  More on each below.

Reading

Big surprise, right?  Well, my goal for 2015 is to read only books I own, get from the library, or have given to me.  No buying books.  I own so many I've never read, and I need to 'read those down.'  In terms of quantity, I should be able to listen to 20 books commuting to work, and read 40 others, but it depends on a variety of factors, so no numbers this year.

Improving

Physically, I have a lot of improving to do.  My goal for 2014 was to lose 10 lbs.  Instead, I gained 10, and now stand at ~195 lbs.  I could blame this on a year in transition, but it comes down to lack of self-discipline.  My goal is to lose 15 lbs this year, and work out more.  In 2014, I did 98 weightlifting sessions, 51 runs for 104.6 miles, and 12 'other' (bike/yardwork) activities.  In 2015, I hope to do 120 weightlifting sessions and 120 runs for 250 miles.  I also hope to stretch more frequently; I hope a consistent stretching routine will help heal the nagging pain in my lower back and calf muscles- injuries that have lasted almost a year, have lessened my running, and need to be addressed.

Part of losing weight is eating better.  To that end, my vow is to have no store-bought candy or sweets for this year.  I can have home-made goodies, but that's it in the sugar department.

Spiritually, I'm a wreck, too.  I need to focus more on the Lord, which means consistent, quality, daily time in prayer and Scripture (among other things).  I also need to have a family devotional time- something we've never done (to my shame).

Reflecting

I've spent the last seven years consuming.  Trips, books, stuff- the list goes on.  One reason I have a blog is to reflect, and so I hope to continue that in 2015.  Oddly, reflecting helps me with my next goal- minimizing- because part of the reason I horde is to remember.  Well, I can remember in cyberspace, without having the physical stuff to go along with it.  So, as I minimize, I'll post reflections.

Minimizing

This was a goal for 2014, too.  I actually did a fair amount of minimizing last year, but that went hand-in-hand with purchases, so my net reduction wasn't that good.  This year I want to ramp it up.  I've realized that I just don't need- or use- nearly as much as I have, and so there's no point in keeping it.  I posted here on some principles I need to remember, and I hope to have them in mind as I go through my things.  I hope to significantly reduce the number of books, movies, legos, games, clothing, and toys I own in 2015.  My goal is to sell $1,000 worth of things, and buy nothing with my own money (so giftcards/etc. are okay).

Enjoying

This sounds like an odd goal, perhaps, but we've struggled re-adjusting to America after coming out of our "7-year high" in Europe. Overseas, we enjoyed new cultures, foods, and sights, and made good use of the time, knowing that it wouldn't last forever.  Back home, we enjoy many things, but find ourselves wistfully looking back on our adventures and thinking "it's over."  What a poor mindset!  Life is an adventure- wherever you are.  Our time back home seems unlimited, but isn't- and we have to remember that.  So, may we treat our time here in Maryland like we treated it overseas- enjoying the cultures, foods, and sights to be found here, and knowing that it is only temporary.