Ender's Game

Warning! Post is full of spoilers

With that out of the way, I will say that I finished reading Ender's Game a couple of days ago. I had an itch to read some scifi. So I looked at some popular lists and Orson Scott Card's novel caught my eye. I think deep down I really wanted something a little deeper in terms of science. Perhaps next time I'll try an Asimov, or Arthur C. Clarke novel, but I'm quite happy with my experience with Ender's Game.

It doesn't take long to find a plethora of reviews about the book that herald it as a 'great' book, even life changing for many. Sadly, I think I've missed the boat for such an impact. Seems that many feel that a teenage mind would be more moved by the book, but I don't think it's the mindset or maturity of a teenager so much as the cynicism of being an adult that limits our ability to accept certain aspects of the story. One has to remember that this book started its life in 1977. Items like the political back story, the way video games are used, the use of the word fart (kidding), and how children are viewed won't be accepted by some. As for the way 6 to 12 yr olds act (most of the characters are this age) and behave? My feeling is that the minute you underestimate kids, you lose.

The writing style is very direct with description being minimal at times. This seems to bother some readers. In Card's introduction, he explains how writing for the stage, minimalism helps the viewer engage their own imagination. I think this approach works well. Much of what happens takes place in the Battle Rooms on a space station. I think it would be easy to overly describe such a place and this would deter from the story pacing and be limiting to what our own minds can choose to focus on. For me, the actual Battle Room structure wasn't so important as trying to imagine the awkwardness of the null gravity and envisioning the maneuvers and the speed required to make the game challenging.

I recently read Tinkers which is a book that explodes with language that is immensely descriptive, beautifully arranged, and has economy to boot. Yet, Tinkers for me had so much style that I think it made me less interested or able to to relate to the characters. Funny enough, the minimalism in Ender's Game has done the same for some of its readers I think. However, I was able to connect with Ender, Graff, Valetine, and Mazer Rackham very well. Mazer Rackham!!!- you have to love this name. His name might as well have been Laser Beams and Ass Kicking! a guy who had beers with Duke Nukem on the holidays!

There's a lot I liked about Ender's Game. The fast pace of the story, the relationship between Valentine and Ender, and the idea of the 'ansible'. This is a device which allows for instantaneous (faster than light) communication across the Universe. I also enjoyed the military components of the story. Interesting that for some Marine's this is required reading. The last chapter of the book was my favorite part and will most likely cause me to buy the 2nd book in the quartet, Speaker For The Dead.

The Formics! Who were they? I'm not quite sure why they attacked us twice. Wouldn't they have figured out the first time, maybe Earthlings are sentient? In the actual attacks on the bugger homeworld -Bean, Petra, Crazy Tom and the rest, they too were controlling real life soldiers many light years away? I have trouble thinking out the trickle down effect of those type of manuevers. And finally, indeed what a horror to think that not one human made an effort to communicate with the Formics. I mean math really is the universal language, everyone has to have math no? Some things you just have to accept though.

Here's one of my favorite quotes from the story by Valentine Wiggin.

"Welcome to the human race. No one controls his own life, Ender. The best you can do is choose to fill the roles given to you by good people, by the people who love you."

And finally, In Orson Scott Card's intro he has a paragraph that really stands out to me :

"Why else do we read fiction, anyway? Not to be impressed by somebody's dazzling language- or at least I hope that's not our reason. I think that most of us, anyway, read these stories that we know are not "true" because we're hungry for another kind of truth: The mythic truth about human nature in general, the particular truth about those life-communities that define our own identity, and the most specific truth of all:our own self story. Fiction, because it is not about somebody who actually lived in the real world, always has the possibility of being about oneself."

This paragraph explains to me why so many people like this book. Somehow the majority of readers find something very compelling to identify with in this book. This is probably why the last chapter resonates with me.

South and North

Ran outside today. I haven't been running much this past week, so I guess I was feeling all energized today after riding the bike for a few miles. I ran a 5K in the desert by my house. Wow, the heat just beat me down. Some might say, well that's pretty obvious, maybe even stupid. However, the oven heat does a really good job of removing all other distractions from your mind. I'm not thinking, does my leg feel tweaky? Is my quad or hamstring tight? All I'm thinking is, holy mofo it's hot as booooop out here. Drink, run, drink, walk, drink! It kinda forces your mental state to focus on the simple concept of running economy and not think about what boxes I need to go through before our move.

I've told people I live in north Las Vegas, but this picture will give an idea of how north I live. The red arrow is where my house is. The landing strip looking thing to the left, is a huge gun range. The strip is waayyyyy to the right not in the picture.




Earlier in the week I decided to test out the trekking poles Liz bought from REI. Up to the south loop I went. I hadn't looked out the window in a while and as I was driving this is what I saw. I thought, that doesn't look too good, but figured I'd go check it out anyway. Turned out to be not bad at all.



The poles were pretty cool. They were awesome on snowy areas. Running downhill which I couldn't resist for just a little bit, is kinda tricky. It will take more practice. They definitely assist going uphill of course. It's interesting getting more of an upper body workout with the poles. I'm not sold on them yet. I'll test them out more next week hopefully.

Here's a pic from the south loop trail just about 1.5 miles up. You can see a cave in the rock wall on the middle left side. The next pic is directly looking in it. Spooookie! Then finally a look back down. After about 2 miles, I decided to turn around to take it easy. Also the weather was looking rougher. Funny thing though, I found out I still had cell signal here. Who wants a call?

Cathedral Rock

Well, I finally made it back to Mount Charleston. At last I got a chance to check out the South Loop trail. The dogs and I just went up a little bit of it, about a mile or so. From that first mile and reading online accounts, it sounds like the first 4 miles will be pretty steep. Plenty of sections I came across, that I wouldn't be running on as it would just not be very efficient for me. Course my leg doesn't want anything to do with such incline running at this time. So this brings me to trekking poles. It's new, it's fun, it's trekking pole time! And if I dig them, then it's time to buy a Nathan HPL 2.0 hydration vest. See how I turn setbacks into perfect ways to buy more stuff!!

Another factor though is snow. Even in my short walk with the dogs I came across a huge pack of snow on the trail. It's creepy walking over thick snow and seeing a hole, wondering just how deep that hole may be? Apparently snow is the norm for this time of year though, so I'll just have to see how much is really up there.

Here are a few pics I took from the outing.
This is called Cathedral Rock



Like they were really going to turn around for a picture :)



A nice view while standing on slanty/slippery snow pack. You can see the small village near the left.

Tinglemix

Blackholes, supernovas, and gamma ray bursts
Begging, pleading, and supplication
Spicy hummus, flaxseed,and quinoa salad
Love, lust, and red jealousy
Tweezers, knives, and dirt cheap razors
Silence, peace, and blue apathy

Park Bench

I saw you sitting there in the park
your gut wrenching from some irrational thought
like a severed finger painting inside your stomach
you couldn't make it stop
you couldn't stop thinking about it
you couldn't wish it away
you just had to wait

Injuries

June is just around the corner. I've got a jar of sun tea on the wall in the backyard. This means that the heat is in effect. This also means that any trail runs will have to occurr in the mountains. I haven't been there since December. I'll need to go check things out soon to see how much snow is still in effect. I'm pretty sure I want to run to the summit of Mt. Charleston and back before I leave here. That will be a daunting 16 mile run for me. 4000 feet of elevation gain peaking just below 12 thousand feet.

This month I upped my workout schedule by adding cycling. Some of it road, some of it off road. My legs actually felt energized after an hour of cycling and an hour of running. Something tells me I will have to get in a pool soon. Near the end of the month I was pretty sure I could reach 100 miles of cycling and running, but last week my right quad was none too happy. I had to take a few days off with my thigh wrapped and nsaid consumption. So I'm going to fall short of my 100/100 which is a bit of a bummer for me. More like 94/80. I just have to remind myself of my overall effort this month and not get too caught up on random numbers.

Truth be told, it's not a surprise that my legs got pissed. If I convert the cycling load into a conservative running equivalent, and on top of that factor in speed work done prior to angry thigh? It's really no surprise. It's an ongoing learning experience to listen to your body and balance that with your experience and what the experts say is good advice. I can recall talking to an ultrarunner at the shoe shop one day, and he was saying that he's been running for 15 years and it can still be fuzzy as to when to push it or lay off. Risk versus reward rules that day perhaps.

I was recalling the injuries I've had over the past few years. I can't even remember if it was 08 or 09, but I thought, "I'm going to start getting in shape." I picked up my 3 yr old tennis shoes and headed out the door to run in my hilly Nebraska neighborhood. A day or so later, the bottom inside of my foot hurt like hell. Liz said congrats you have plantar fasciitis. I don't even remember how long I had it. I think I just quit for a while and later got new shoes. I feel for people that get that condition.

Next I decided to ride my bike again, because Omaha has the most awesome network of cycling trails. This time my left inside ankle burst into flames. I could barely walk. The doctors were stumped. I got an ankle brace and chalked it up to many years of ankle issues.

Next I was running on the snow with ill fitting snow shoes while pulling my daughter around on the sled. It didn't help that our backyard was at 30 degree incline. Hurt the top of my left foot somehow. This only lasted a few days though.

By March of 10 I'd been injury free for a while and was just begining to get my running groove on. I was also trying the 100 push up program found online. I found myself being inconsistent and being stuck in a rut, so I decided I would try some plyometric type push ups with clapping. I can't be certain because of delayed onset, but that combined with all the house work I was doing caused my impinged shoulder to develop. It's just over a year since I've had that and it's pretty much put to rest, but it will remind me from time to time in the strangest ways. Oh you want to pick up a pair of socks? Pooop! Pain shoots out from nowhere. Strange.

Of course there was the groin injury earlier this year in Feb. It was only a first level strain, but it still took 2 months to get back to normal. So hopefully my quads will be happier sooner rather than later. Should I rest today or run? Guess I'll decide that later in the day.

Pink Cocaine Ramblings

Was spreading pink icing on a sugar cookie this morning and for some reason, I was thinking about time travel. I found myself scrolling way back into the data bank to a time that has become full of question marks. I'm thinking it was 10th grade math class. Algebra perhaps? What was the teacher's name?

The teacher was a short man whose hair had left long ago and been replaced with several prominent brow wrinkles. He wore round spectacles and was maybe slightly hunched in his stance and definitely overweight. He would smile only when referring to his big tan sponge, his upgraded chalkboard eraser, as David (as in Copperfield). He'd thank David for helping him out while putting up that pesky quadratic formula.

Our math teacher had some character to him though. He was quirky and though he could be a hard ass, so long as you weren't the intended target, well it was kinda funny. A few years later as a busboy working at a seafood restaurant, I had the pleasure of conversing with my math teacher. He was quite drunk and the restaurant was empty. I don't even remember the conversation in detail, just that it made me laugh. A few years after that, I learned that he had passed away. I like to remember him happily eating and drinking away telling me crazy stories about his real life. Strange to think how your life may be recorded in the minds of others.

But I digress from my time travel thoughts! I recalled one day taking a test. Everyone with their heads down furiously calculating away. So quiet, that if you stopped maybe you could hear an eraser rubbing or a pencil scrawling. Then, one guy has the audacity to raise his hand, with just a slight exhale to get the teacher's attention. His request was to use the bathroom! Surely it would be denied. After 3 seconds of a stare that was either penetrating or completely vacant, the teacher said "go ahead."

After about 10 min, this student came back from the bathroom. Chad was his name. He actually had a hair style more inline with what's popular today. He came back in flipping his bangs to the side in a way that said, " man I got way more serious shit to take care of." Again he let out a slight sigh upon sitting down. Later I was told by a fellow classmate, that his bathroom trip was to snort some coke. Who knows. Trying to picture a 10th grader snorting coke in the bathroom now? That just seems insane.

At this point, I am half way through my test. You're prolly thinking well you're way too busy watching people go to the bathroom, but in fact, I feel like I'm breezing through this test with ease. It's at this point, that my friend sitting about 4 seats in front of me slams his pencil down. He might as well have yelled out "done bitches!" at the same time. He turns in his paper and receives a questionable stare from the teacher that again is unknowable as to whether it was respect or pure boredom.

After class I interrogated my friend as to how he could've finished so fast. He had no explanation. I said to him, "I think you time traveled dude." He thought about it for a couple of seconds and then pursed his lips and raised his eyebrows to say, "maybe you're right!" And that was the end of it. I'm pretty sure he's been keeping this secret for years. Well played sir..well played.