Any recommendations for other books?

So I finished reading this book called Ham on Rye, by Charles Bukowski. I don't think I got it.
Actually, I was ready to pack it in half-way through, but I figured that I should at least stay with it. On the surface, it was fairly interesting. However, the narrator annoyed me, as he was helpless and hopeless, and nothing ever seemed to lead anywhere. I can understand the interest the writer holds, though. There's enough material for a reader to analyze and plow through if he or she had the inclination: postmodernism, the writer's use of hyperbole and exaggeration, this, that, the other. I can imagine English majors everywhere crunching away on laptops in dimly lit coffeeshops, using this book to prove a thesis.
During the course of reading it, I kept on thinking back to Keruoac's On the Road and that book's main character, Sal Paradise. The narrator in Ham on Rye is what Sal could have become if he never left home, never met Dean Moriarty, and grew increasingly bitter.

I'm going to smarter myself

ITunes has apparently had this for a while, but I just now figured this out. You can go to the iTunes store and download lectures and all sorts of goodies from Universities (some info).

I ganked a couple from the Wharton School of Business at UPenn regarding the state of the wine industry.

MIT has something called the OpenCourseWare site, so I'll explore that in a while, too.

Juno

I went to see the movie Juno yesterday. Fantastic. It's this year's Little Miss Sunshine, although I suspect it will actually win most of the Oscars it'll be nominated for. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The whole movie was pitch perfect, from the music to the screenplay. Talking of the music, they actually used a Buddy Holly song! I was so happy to hear that, as being included in such a movie will undoubtedly introduce quite a few people who've never heard of his stuff to his music. Anyway, go see this movie.

On an unrelated note, a few months ago some stupid music magazine(I think it was Blender-not sure) named Sting the worst lyricist. How can you be considered the worst lyricist when you've come up with something like this? (From "Can't Stand Losing You")

I guess you'd call it suicide
But I'm too full to swallow my pride

To each his own, I suppose. I guess I like clever word play.

Random notes

1) When I'm at the gym, my mind tends to wander as I do my workout. It wandered here today: I don't know how to ice skate backwards, and I'd really like to learn how to do so. Why I thought of this, I do not know. I'm not a fan of either ice or standing and balancing on thin blades of steel, so taken together, I should doubly despise ice skating on principle, right? Not especially. It's been many years since I've gone last, and I think it might actually be kind of fun to go. I think, after a few minutes on the ice, that I have the "going forward" bit pretty well down, at least to the point were I won't fall consistently. However, my legs just don't seem to understand the concept of ice skating backwards, though I have tried. They stubbornly refuse to not go forward. I am latently jealous of the people that make it look easy.

2) Those reindeer were bastards. I heard the Christmas song "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" as I drove home today. So, first every reindeer taunts, teases, and alienates the red-nosed one because he's different. Then, Rudolph wins Santa's recognition, and all of a sudden, the reindeer bend over backward (which I imagine is hard for a deer) to become Rudolph's friend. Fickle much? Who wants friends like that?

3) A few days ago, I changed the channel right in time to hear what I thought was the beginning of "O Tanenbaum," the one German Christmas song I remember from Switzerland. I was rather pleasantly surprised they'd play that on the radio here, such an old school carol sung in German. The surprise was short lived, as it turned out to be Snoopy's Christmas, by the Royal Guardsman. I also remember Snoopy from when I was young, so I guess it kind of worked.



This video seems to be missing the "O Tanenbaum" bit. Of course.

Books

I had intended to go up to NYC yesterday to see the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center. However, when it's cold, as yesterday was, the city is particularly uninviting...it's kind of hard to take pictures and stuff when you can't feel your fingers (moving casualty #1: I cannot seem to find my gloves. So, the best way to find things one has misplaced is to buy replacements.)

I did manage to head to the library and tracked these down. Both new authors for me...
1) Ham on Rye - Charles Bukowski. This one came highly recommended as the book to read if I wanted to start with his work. Plus, I like sandwiches, so at least the title's won me over. I just broke into this yesterday, yet I can't quite yet ascertain what role, if any, ham and/or rye play. Stay tuned.
2) Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking - Malcolm Gladwell. It's about how people make snap decisions. I've been intending on reading his stuff for a while, so here goes.

On another note, I was expecting and looking forward to snow. Where is it? Clouds, why dost thou withhold the snow?

Editing

About five years ago, my parents and I embarked on an editing project that involved translating a book about the hospitality industry* from German to English. While the project came along at a convenient time for me for a variety of reasons, the process of getting that book ready to print was a stressful one, and one that I didn't think we'd try to repeat.
Ha! We will soon be starting our second book translation in the next few months. This one is along the same lines as the first, but it will be a more in-depth review of providing service in the hospitality industry.
I'm looking forward to this, for some odd reason. For one, it'll actually let me edit again, as I don't do that much at work; my job seems to be preoccupied with figuring out how much work we will edit and how many people we need on hand, rather than with real editing. (Oh, and I also have the [adj. deleted] task of pointing out everyone's mistakes.) There are several things wrong with my job.
Also, while I'll still have no clue how to cook a roast, from what I've seen of this book, I'll learn how to properly carve one. That might be a useful bit of knowledge to have...
Anyway, I'm looking forward to it, and I'll most likely be spending an inordinate amount at my favorite coffeeshop, Small World (I can't really work at home.)

* Not quite as arbitrary subject as it seems. My dad started out as a chef and went to school for hotel management, which he then did throughout his career.

Try and fail. Try again.

I tried something. It was not terribly successful. Nevertheless, I still got quite a nice dose of confidence out of it. How very intriguing. I must try things and be unsuccessful more often. ;)

Christmas songs

There are a few Christmas songs I need to hear before I can really call it Christmas. I've heard all of them already, and it's only December 5. Yay!

1) Happy Xmas (War is Over)
It's John Lennon, so of course I have to hear it. The video is just a wee bit (translation:majorly) depressing:

2) White Christmas
I make no excuses! The traditional one with Bing Crosby, but the Otis Redding one is a killer too:


3) Christmas Wrapping - The Waitresses
How is there no video to this song?!
4) Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer.
I don't know what to say:

5) Do They Know it's Christmas
There are clanging chimes of doom. Gotta love the Anglo-mullet present in this video.

The Princeton Tree

Snow ... yay!

Today, I've made a vow to actually like snow this season.

The past few years, I have developed a rather firm dislike of this form of precipitation. I think that might have come from 1) living in an apartment complex whose management never really bothered to put much effort in getting the parking lots and walkways plowed; and 2) when I lived in a place with a driveway that had a tendency of icing over. So, after you've shoveled the inches of snow, you've come upon the inch of ice underneath. I'm frankly surprised I never really hurt myself out there; even people with the best balance would consider it treacherous.
Anyway, where I'm at now, I don't necessarily have to worry about either scenario. So, snow: we are friends once again! I intend to enjoy every time you grace us with your visits, and I also intend on purchasing a cool sled so that I can speed down you-covered hills really, really fast!

First snow of the season

No country for old men

I went to see "No Country for Old Men" this weekend. Javier Bardem was monumentally creepy as Anton Chigurh, and he'll most likely get an Oscar nod. Actually, pretty much everyone in this movie will - Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin, etc. Their work was the best part of the movie.
The critics were jumping over themselves to find the cleverest ways to say how brilliant this movie was. For me, it might require a second viewing to fully appreciate it.
At least I got to see what West Texas looks like.