O.I.C.

It dawned on me the other day that I had only reviewed one other Kurt Vonnegut book and my readers probably didn't understand why I was so amazed by the author. Well I did read another one that I forgot to put up here due to my fascination with Jimmer. I did read Breakfast of Champions in between Ask the Dust by John Fante and Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut.

Breakfast of Champions was a great book and I really liked it but I wouldn't encourage everyone to read it. It was just enough outside the realm of main stream that I am positive that not everyone would like it like I did. The story is about a writer, Kilgore Trout, who shows up in a lot of Vonnegut's books and Dewayne Hoover who owns a car lot in Midland City just off the freeway. Trout is coming to this small town to accept a writing award at a convention that he has been invited to. Dewayne is deranged and believes that everything Kilgore writes is the literal truth. Kilgore is also a little off but in the end you find him relatively sane.

I thought that this book was really good. A friend let me borrow it and I read it in a few nights. I really like the way that Vonnegut writes and his interesting take on mundane things of the world.

Quotes:

• Charm was a scheme for making strangers like and trust a person immediately, no matter what the charmer had in mind.
• I can have oodles of charm when I want to.
• Ideas or the lack of them can cause disease.
• Teachers of children in the United States of America wrote this date on blackboards again and again, and asked the children to memorize it with pride and joy: 1492. The teachers told the children that this was when their continent was discovered by human beings. Actually, millions of human beings were already living full and imaginative lives on the continent in 1492. That was simply the year in which sea pirates began to cheat and rob and kill them.
• Why are so many Americans treated by their government as though their lives were as disposable as paper facial tissue? Because that was the way authors customarily treated bit-part players in their made-up tales.
• We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane.
• Our awareness is all that is alive and maybe sacred in any of us. Everything else about us is dead machinery.

Vonnegut is Amazing

It has been awhile since I posted a blog about what I have been reading. To be honest a few things that I have read I am embarrassed to let people know about. Alas I am on to a more moving book. I just finished Mother Night by Kurt Vonnegut and to give you a sense of how good I thought it was, I finished it in three days. I couldn't put it down. I know that I have said that other Kurt Vonnegut books were amazing as well and I am probably just on the Vonnegut bandwagon but this book was amazing and I would encourage anyone to read it.

Mother Night is about an American, Howard Campbell, who grew up in pre-World War II Germany. He is a writer and a play write who doesn't care about the war that is about to take place. Campbell is propositioned by a US intelligence officer who wants him to work for the US against the Nazi's. In order to make it work though he would have to become a Nazi and work for the regime. This officer tells him that no one would know that he was a spy and that the United States would hate him. Campbell makes the decision and becomes a radio personality that spews Nazi propaganda. When the war is over he makes his way back to the United States and later is captured by Israeli's and is charge with war crimes against humanity.

Kurt Vonnegut does such a great job in his writing of getting the reader sucked in. Every book that I have read by him keeps me engaged. This book was so good that I can't wait to read my next Vonnegut book.

Quotes:

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

There are plenty of good reasons for fighting," I said, "but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too. Where's evil? It's that large part of every man that wants to hate without limit, that wants to hate with God on its side.

Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile.

Generally speaking, espionage offers each spy an opportunity to go crazy in a way he finds irresistible.

Teach Me How To Jimmer!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Becky and I are not the most romantic people on this planet. We don't hold hands in public, we have never been accused of PDA and rarely do you see us in a long embrace or kiss. Now add two kids to the mix and we don't even share the same cart at Fred Meyer. Regardless it is Valentine's Day and although we don't make a huge deal out of it I know that Becky loves me. A small touch during dinner, a look while we are shopping or a phone call just to tell me that David had pooped for the billionth time that day. It's hard not to know that we love each other. Becky is my best friend, I have loved her since I watched her walk into Papa Kelsey's. She is the most gorgeous woman, loving wife and caring mother that I know.

I LOVE YOU BECKY

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

"Big Changes" is my Middle Name

Some big changes are coming our way again. I cannot speak about them at this time but I am so excited that I couldn't help but post this. As I was thinking about it though I got to thinking that this is the third "Big Change" that we have encountered in the past couple of years. I know that the Lord has something BIG in store for us. Sometimes I feel that we are winding our way down a slowly moving river. We can't see beyond the next bend but we know that the river continues to flow because we we can feel the movement. As soon as we come around the next bend we see the water picking up speed and heading right for a waterfall. We try to paddle against the current but there is no such luck, we are headed for the waterfall. We give in and the ride gets faster and more turbulent. We do everything to prepare ourselves for going over the edge and then we are there and everything happens so fast. We are tossed all over and even lose a few things but when we collect ourselves we are back in the boat on a gently flowing river. As we look back at the waterfall it doesn't look as scary as it did from the front side when we couldn't see the drop. We are coming up on that waterfall now and we are nervous. We know that the Lord will take care of us as he always does and for that I am truly grateful.

...one of these things just doesn't belong.

Brett Keisel who plays football for the Steelers has a beard that is growing out of control. You might ask yourself why I even care? Well Keisel played football at BYU and this manly beard is just one more reason to love him. In the past I have added pictures of myself with a beard but this one is amazing. Maybe someday I can be as cool and manly as Brett Keisel. Take the time to go and Beard yourself here.

JIMMER-TIME!

It has been awhile since I last posted. I do have a new son which keeps me pretty busy once I get home. But to show you what I have been doing at work lately, watch this video. I have watched this once a day since it happened.



GO COUGS!