My Kindle

I like reading, but I wouldn't go so far and say I'm a big reader. One of my goals for this year is to finish one book each month (excluding vacations) - not all too impressive compared to some folks I know.  Also, I have always preferred purchasing a hardcover copy of any book I read so I can build a Gatsby-esque library, just with the pages cut and the understanding that my eyes have spent one minute on each page.

That said, having a collection of books when I'm young (and moving) is totally impractical. Keeping this collection adds weight and boxes each time I move, requires the purchase of furniture to hold the books - which will eventually be thrown out (young person = crappy furniture), and hardcover books are always the most expensive to buy (compared to paperback or an ebook).

And even though I'm a gadget guy (and a fiscal tightwad), I never made the switch to the Kindle (or any other ebook reader) even though it is far cheaper and more practical at my age - I didn't want to give up on my library dream.

But over Christmas, my hand was forced. I received a Kindle from my mother and sister who had been watching me substitue books for underwear every year I came home for the holidays - there's a finite amount of space in a suitcase... I have to prioritize.  At first, I was somewhat torn. I wasn't sure what to think. What about my library, the feeling of a good book in my hands, the satisfaction of turning a page or finishing a chapter, and being able to scribble notes in the margin? How could I tell them, politely, that I just didn't think it was going to work?

Three days later...

I admit - I was wrong. After turning it on, spending $30 on 3 best sellers (compared to a single hardcover) and reading a single book on it, I was convinced -  I just needed a kick in the ass to try it out. It is way more practical, provides far better access to new books, and makes packing for vacation so much better. Forget the suitcase - I can put my Kindle and two pairs of underwear in my backpack now!

What I know to be true

Everyday I realize that there are fewer and fewer certainties in life. While it's not uncommon for me to find out that something I've held to be true for years is in fact false, it is far more frequent for me to learn about something new or something I've been completely oblivious to my whole life. And from these discoveries, I am slowly recognizing that we live in the uncomfortable reality where each of us know very little of what is known - and by definition, nothing of what is unknown. Said differently, each of us understand a very small slice of the pie.

Here's a few things I know (for now):

Happiness is not fleeting. It is not a reaction to events or outside catalyst, but rather is entirely controllable. It is a state of mind. You've either flipped the switch to be in a happy-state or a not-happy-state. Obviously the switch may be improperly wired (for those of us with chemical imbalances), but the vast majority of us have complete control over what type of person and what type of life we want to lead. It is a conscious choice to be an optimist or a pessimist, to be a lover or a hater, to be positive or negative. You write your own definition.

Parking is a bitch. It is also one of the many reasons why I feel blessed to not have car. That said, if I did have a car and I had to park it in the street - there is one spot I would avoid with all of my being. Just outside of my apartment, about 3 driveways down, there is a street parking spot underneath a tree. And just as consistently as the sun rises, a flock of birds crap like they've been drinking water in Mexico for months directly on the windshield of any car in this spot. I saw one guy park his car there for nearly a month, and I'm pretty sure he had to shovel shit off the windshield like it was snow. Don't park there. It is a trap.

Success is relative. It's not about where you end up or what the final score was, but rather it's the summation of what you accomplished. It's the difference between where you ended up and where you started. I'm confident that most people would agree with me here, I just don't witness many practicing this belief. So many of us are focused on people at the very top - the wealthy, the rich, the famous - and look right past some of the remarkable stories of the people around us (and I'm not excusing myself from that statement). That is a tragedy.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly - Jean-Dominique Bauby

I recently finished this improbable memoir written by Jean-Dominique Bauby (1997) - a former french editor for Elle magazine who suffered a massive stroke at 43, leaving him aware of his surroundings but unable to communicate or move due to complete paralysis (aka locked-in syndrome).

In order to write this memoir, Bauby had a nurse or friend read the french alphabet back to him (from the most frequently used letter to the least) and he would blink with his left eye (the right eye was sown shut) to indicate the next letter. Tragic, I know.

Throughout the book Bauby refers to his body, this crippled and seemingly useless collection of flesh, as his diving bell - the curse that keeps him bedridden and unable to live in any capacity that might be regarded as a life. But through the extraordinary weight of this burden Bauby discovers and learns to appreciate one of the most taken for granted capabilities of the human body - imagination. It's through his imagination - his butterfly - that he is able to escape his diving bell and relive his memories or embark on a new adventure.

I know that Bauby's situation was rare - if not unique given his background. But the notion of a diving bell - that thing that brings a person down or makes a person feel trapped - is not unique. We all have one, or several, that hinder our dreams day in and day out. It may take the form of a body, an apartment (for the old and feeble), a job, or some other burden.

But by the same analogy, we all have our butterflies. The things in life that are capable of making us happy. Bauby was able to see past his diving bell, in the most dire of circumstances, and find something that made his life positive rather than negative.

That is what defines our character - what makes us who we are. Whether or not you live by your diving bell, or your butterfly.

Recommended.

Looking at 2009

Even though this is a little late, a few predictions for 2009:

Michigan football will have another tough year. It won't be as disaturous as 2008 was for the Wolverines, but it will still be a disappointment. Overall record at 6-6 with one win between Notre Dame, Michigan St., and Ohio State.

On politics: Rod Blagojevich will get ousted.  The Obama administration will pass a huge (and unnecessary) stimulus plan. 

On the economy: From now until the end of December, the market will see some oscillations leaving the DOW around 9500 at the end of the year. One of the 3 major US car manufactures will go bankrupt or settle for a merger (either case leaving a lot of people out of work). 

On geeky stuff: Apple will release their version of a netbook - a touchscreen, $700 price point. The Sunnyvale company will also continue to see their computer marketshare rise - 15% by the end of the year. The smart phone OS market will continue to trend towards the iPhone OS and Android at the expense of  Symbian and RIM (Windows maintains through expensive distribution deals by MSFT).

On me: I'll move again - I'm not sure how long I can live without heat. Classes will continue going well (and provide a good balance to work) - I'll enroll all 4 quarters. My next rotation at Google will work out pretty smoothly, but I'll come to the inevitable conclusion that I still don't know what I want to do. 

Happy new year.

Microtrends - Mark Penn

Just before I left for Chicago (before Christmas), I finished reading Microtrends (after starting it in April.... sad, I know). Obviously this took me a while to get through, but that was more the result of a dwindling interest in reading rather than a poorly written book by Penn.

Nevertheless, I wasn't all too fond of the book but definitely found all of his arguments and snippets fascinating. To clarify - his writing was great and all of his arguments were compelling, but the medium for this topic and its presentation just did not suit well. Each chapter was only a few pages long and there wasn't really a storyline or compounding argument as you moved from chapter to chapter. Rather, the entire book feels like it was written as independent entries all under the theme of 'small changes in the world'. While this definitely made the read easier for me since I spread it out over such a long time, I prefer books that build.

That said, many of his ideas and observations were definitely interesting and ones that I'd recommend to read about. A few of my favorites:

• Sex-Ratio singles. (the numbers play in my favor 53:47)
• Stained glass ceiling breakers. (the movers and shakers in religion)
• Swing is still king. (politics is still moved by the moderate middle)
  
• High school moguls or teen entrepreneurs. (ever increasing entrepreneurial spirit)
  
• Long attention spanners. (contrary to our A-D-D culture)
• Social geeks. (no longer does being nerdy follow the same cliche)
• International home-buyers. (foreign real estate investment in the US)
  
• Vietnamese entrepreneurs. (per my father: "Communists have capitalism down now.")

Penn finishes off with a good point that I think will drive commerce in the next 50 years - extreme customization:

The great fear of the future has been that mass societies would become faceless societies, with people forced into conformity - everyone looking alike, dressing alike, and being required to think alike. This was seen as almost a necessary sacrifice in order to feed and clothe growing populations with diminishing resources. But I suggest we are headed in completely the opposite direction - a future in which choice, driven by individual tastes, becomes the dominant factor, and in which these choices are reinforced by the ability to connect and communicate with communities of even the smallest niches.

Recommended.

Lamb - Christopher Moore

In what started out as an annoyingly-derisive (my view) novel described as the gospel according to Biff, Christ's childhood pal, Moore pieced together a pretty solid novel which fictitiously accounts for the first 30 years of Jesus' life through the eyes of a fictitious friend. And even though Moore acknowledges that there are many factual gaps in his story (specifically during Jesus' travels to Asia along the silk road), much of the story fits in pretty well with what is known (read: very little) about his life in the Bible.

Even though many might initially consider Moore's work a coy satire poking fun at what many hold dear and true, not more than halfway through the book does he lay (pretty thickly) some serious religious and moral undertones emphasizing what I consider to be two of the most critical parts of humanity: the golden rule and the interconnectedness of us all - regardless of your religion, something most can relate to.

If you can get through the first 100 pages of sass and sarcasm, it's not a bad read which explores what some of the struggles might have been for the human side of the Son of God.

Recommended.