Christmas vacation begins at the end of the day. I am taking off Saturday through the end of the year. I’m staying home most of the time, although I am contemplating some northwoods adventure. For some reason dogsledding has a lot of appeal for me now, although it seems a bit spendy. If that doesn’t work out then icefishing and maybe some cross country skiing. I haven’t had me ski’s out in some time and I either want to use them or get rid of them.

I still haven’t managed to see “Return of the King” yet. With out-of-town guests and a lot of work to finish before the holiday vacation I haven’t had 3 1/2 spare hours. However, I expect that tommorrow I’ll be able to see it.

I’ve been reading “Listening Point” by Sigurd Olson. I am almost done with “Pattern Recognition”, by Gibson. I just finished “John Muir: Rediscovering America”, by Frederick Jackson. That came on the heels of finishing “The Yosemite” and “A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf”, both by John Muir.

What did I think? Well as much as I like John Muir, his prose is easier to take in small doses. I think he writes a swell essay, but book length prose isn’t his strong suit. Definitely a man of his times. I hadn’t realized, until reading “A Thousand Mile Walk to the Gulf” that Muir had spent formative years in Wisconsin, my homestate. I am going to have to check out his haunts on my next trip to Wisconsin.

On Gibson … I have enjoyed “Pattern Recognition” more than any other Gibson book so far. That said I still find it slow at times. I am utterly nuetral on the book. It’s jarring to me to see so much current computer stuff in their, like google and stuff. I really liked the main character’s concept that your soul can only travel at a certain speed and that jet lag symptoms are the result of your soul catching up. I don’t know if that’s original to Gibson, but it’s an intersting concept and it does represent the way it actually feels to me. Additionally, the notion of having a character be allergic to brands and trademarks is a really clever idea.

Frederick Turners biography was very good. He had nice style that seemed academic without being boring or tedious.

And the best news of the week. I finally won a chess match at work. Although I am 1-4-1, it’s a lot better than 0-5-1. Now I just have to claw my way back up the rankings.

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