Southtown

The fifth novel in Rick Riordan's Tres Navarre series is entitled Southtown and provides another fast-paced and thrilling adventure in the life of Jackson "Tres" Navarre. Tres, part-time private investigator and part-time professor of literature, is part tough guy and part renaissance man - a bit of an everyman, just trying to live his life, but he keeps getting into situations that his conscience won't allow him to walk away from. Once that happens he becomes like a dog who won't let go of a bone. This story begins when a small cadre of hardened criminals orchestrates a jailbreak from their prison outside of San Antonio. The leader of this group, Will Stirman, was once the head of a major human trafficking ring. This animal was a murderer, a rapist, and a drug kingpin. This is one man who has a long memory of anyone and everyone who has ever crossed him and means to erase some names from his list. When word of his escape hits the news, Tres' boss at the investigations agency, Erainya Manos, a normally unflappable woman, seems strangely affected, afraid for her own life as well as for her adopted son.

As Tres begins to piece together the past, he learns that Erainya's husband was part of the team that brought Stirman to justice some ten years ago. We have known for some time that Erainya killed her abusive husband just a short time after Stirman's arrest. However, we finally come to understand the real reason why she pulled the trigger when she did, a secret that she has been kept buried and has refused to talk about. In time we come to understand that it is directly connected to Stirman and what happened on the night of his capture. An intriguing story where the dividing lines between black and white are not always so clear and where good people can make bad choices that define them and where bad people can make good choices that help to redeem them. I now move on to the sixth novel in this enjoyable series, Mission Road.

Thanksgiving 2014

Enjoying ourselves is a Biblical mandate. As stated in plain language in 1 Corinthians 15:32, "Eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." This is not a morbid sentiment or one that gives us license to become gluttons. It is a statement that reminds us that we are, each and every one of us, finite creatures, and we should take every opportunity to celebrate our relationships and be thankful for the blessings that we have. So, to all of my online friends who support this site, I wish you peace, laughter, and lots of sumptuous goodies to make you smile. Happy Thanksgiving.

Good Idea, Bad Idea

It is not uncommon for somebody to suggest an idea for a new invention, service, or convenience that everyone will immediately get behind. Folks will respond with remarks of "How clever! or "I can't believe nobody thought of that before!" or "That is a million-dollar idea!" or some other expression ending in an exclamation point. One such sure-fire notion was likely the idea of covering walls in what is called whiteboard paint, which is designed to make a wall into a gigantic dry erase board. In fact, in our new "technology" building at work, they covered every last square inch of the walls in every room with this stuff. Then within a few short months, it looks like they let loose roving bands of hoodlums to cover the place in technical graffiti. However, just like any other white board that is actually used, the ink soon does not come off or stains or just smears. What was initially thought to be a neat innovation has quickly degenerated into an eyesore that demands first cleanup and repair, and second, a more practical solution.

Of course, ideas like whiteboard wall paint that don't deliver on the promises of their initial heady brainstorming period really only have a downside in terms of costs to purchase and then to replace some short time later. However, other ideas of this sort might ultimately lead to world-wide pain, suffering, and loss of the uber-wealthy. One such idea is that of flying cars. Based on a recent CNN report, there are several companies prototyping ridiculously expense car/airplane hybrids. Sounds unnecessarily Spielbergian to me. However, just imagine the carnage that would ensue if we took the selfishness and utter disregard for courtesy and the rules of the road that are on ubiquitous display at every rush hour and put this a mile up in the air. Those of us on the ground would spend most of our time dodging the half-ton hailstones of wreckages that would be raining down upon us. I can hear Arthur Carlson from the old WKRP in Cincinnati sitcom, "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." Oh the humanity.

Start Where You Are

I just finished the Charles Swindoll devotional Start Where You Are (subtitled "Catch a Fresh Vision for Your Life"). The book description on the back cover is what pulled me in,

"Where are you on the journey of life? Just starting out, with exciting new challenges ahead? Or a little road weary, wondering what direction you should turn now? Let Charles Swindoll show you how to start fresh right where you are."

While I enjoyed my time in this book, its contents felt like a bit of a "bait and switch". I was promised one book but Swindoll gave me something else. In truth, I do not think that the book really approached what was defined as its goal given in the book description. I have the feeling that this book was more a collection of random Sunday sermons from Swindoll as opposed to a focused writing on a particular topic.

The major sections were categorized under:

• Paths toward healing
  
• Christian leadership
  
• Developing compassion
  
• A plan for personal victory
  

Within each subsection were a number of short chapters that were easy 5-minute reads. That made this book fully appropriate for working into morning devotionals or a quick reading session here and there throughout the day. It is too bad that Swindoll did not write the book that was promised here, I would have paid money to read that ... oh wait, I already did.

Observations 72

My occasional blog series "Observations" was created to be an outlet to share a variety of topics that pop into my field of view as a result of a condition that many bloggers are afflicted with known as "blogger's eyes". In this state we view the world on the constant look-out for topics on which to write about. Today's blog came about from random odds 'n ends of things that I have noticed over the past few weeks.

• I recently went to see a doctor at one of these "express" medical facilities. I wonder what it says when the nurse was a heavy smoker and the doctor was morbidly obese?
  
• Did you ever notice how quickly a company will direct you to a real-life operator when you want to place an order, but how slowly that same company lets you talk to an operator if you have an issue with their product or want to make a return? "We are experiencing an unusually heavy call volume" plays over and over again no matter what day of the week or what time you call.
  
• There was a sign on a wall in my building at work that said "Dry Paint" ... O.K.
  
• I recently came across a beautiful sentiment from an anonymous source:
  Thus, like the trampled flower whose perfume rises to bless the foot that crushed it, so our hearts should find no bitterness, seek no revenge, wish no ill. The fruitfulness of our own cups must overflow and bless the hand that afflicted us.
  
• Have you ever gone to a public restroom and wanted a bit of privacy but some goob just lingers in the bathroom (not doing #1 or #2) for a completely unreasonable length of time?
  

The Devil Went Down to Austin

The fourth novel in Rick Riordan's Tres Navarre series is entitled The Devil Went Down to Austin and I can tell you that I am definitely loving this series. These books are based around a well-developed protagonist, a private investigator/scholar/everyman named Jackson "Tres" Navarre. A man with deep personal convictions and a wry sense of humor that really just adds to his appeal. Each of the novels was developed to be a stand-alone effort, but one thing that I like is that many of the same "background" characters appear in the different books. This only makes sense when one lives in a relatively small town. However, new foils and antagonists are introduced, but they have been introduced in a rather organic manner, such that they fit into the world that Riordan has established for his lead.

In this story, Tres finds out that his brother Garrett is in some financial trouble. Garrett is actually Tres' half-brother, a sort of hippy who lost his legs in a train accident. However, Garrett is a top-notch programmer, and he has quit his long-held job to go in with a few partners to form his own company developing cyber-security systems. For a time, Garrett's effort was growing and showing promise to be a major success. However, during beta-testing of his product, a number of serious deficiencies became apparent and law suits were filed. All of a sudden the buy-out offers that had been coming in offering their millions were now reduced to offering only pennies. Garrett knows that someone has sabotaged his code and is screwing him out of his planned future. When Garrett's two startup partners are murdered, the evidence all points directly to Garrett as their killer. As Tres gets involved, he meets a number of folks, some seemingly kind and gentle, some marked by pure greed, who all seem to have some connection to this case.

Definitely a professional effort. Crisp, well written, layered, and enjoyable. I move now to the fifth novel in the series, Southtown.

Unknown Unknowns

Back in 2002, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, waxed eloquent when he said:

"There are known knowns. There are things that we know that we know. There are known unknowns, that is to say, there are things that we now know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don't know, and each year we discover a few more of those unknown unknowns."

I think this notion of known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns can be applied to people in a variety of ways. For example, some folks carry themselves with a deserved confidence. They are bright, hardworking, and motivated. They enter into situations prepared. When they speak, their words carry weight and they are taken seriously. I would label these individuals as the known knowns.

There are also people who are somewhat dim-witted or who, for whatever reason, don't do their homework. Yet these folks have enough presence and self-awareness to make it clear to others that there are questions whose answers they don't know or topics where their opinions are vacuous or ill-informed. These folks are the known unknowns.

However, the class of people who I would label as unknown unknowns seem to typically have a very high opinion of themselves, think themselves quite clever, and act as if they are experts, when, in fact, they are completely detached from reality. When they speak it is clear even to a casual observer that they are incompetent and utter gibberish. They often are either wholly naive because they have been insulated and isolated, such that they think that their small world encompasses the full measure of reality, or they are windbags or buffoons. Often those that fall into this latter category have built up such an impenetrable wall around themselves that they are lost causes. They will fall prey to no amount of persuasion or argument. However, those unknown unknowns in the category of naive, sure can crumble when they finally get a glimpse of how little they understand or comprehend about topics or areas where they once thought so highly of themselves.