Tess is one of the more depressive novels I've read lately. My wife will attest to the fact that I have a strange affinity to depressing stories. With that in mind, let me say that I really enjoyed this book.

The writing was at times a bit too much for me for the reason that I get annoyed at many 18th and 19th century novels...namely, that Hardy focuses far too much on minute descriptions and in-depth analysis of setting and location. Don't get me wrong, I love a vivid and lush environment and I much prefer a fleshed out character to a flat one. I just sometimes feel that all of the flowery descriptions slow down the story telling element too much. There were a few paragraphs/pages that I tried to skim through in order to get to the next relevant points of plot. Still, I don't know that I'd want to edit out the descriptive text since it does comment on the narrative itself in a metafictional sort of way.

The main characters in this book are wonderfully composed. They are absolutely and completely frustrating but they are superbly crafted nonetheless. I wanted to smack each of the main characters on many occasions.

Tess is far too willing to simply be acted upon and then to bemoan her fate. Alec is an absolute pig (although towards the end of our experience with him, it's debatable just how awful he truly is). And Angel is far too inconsistent to be liked at all...at first he seems almost lovable...then he deserves to be hated...then he seems slightly adequate...then he becomes repulsive again...he's just far too wishy-washy in his behavior and ideals to ever be fully redeemable.

The story itself falls into the realm of realism taken to its extreme. The plot elements felt almost like the Bible story of Job...whatever could go wrong willgo wrong. And even though Tess was generally found to be almost whining about her circumstances rather than trying to make things better for herself, the story was still rather thought provoking since it makes you wonder just how you would handle horrific circumstances and what can truly be done about them. Is it better to try and solve the problem or better to just let fate and happenstance take its toll.

Personally, I try to make the best out of any bad situation...perhaps that's why I like "depressing" stories...they make me realize my life could be worse and they help inspire me to always think of the best possible outcome.

I'm sure this book won't be for everyone. Those who want a happy fairy-tale romp through a girl's life would do better to stay away. Those who are easily frustrated by fallen characters, will find themselves hating all of the primary roles in this book. The book isn't terribly lengthy (~300-400?) but some of the longer descriptive passages do crawl by at times.

Still, I whole-heartedly recommend this book to those who are willing to look imperfection and awful situations square in the face and come away smiling. It's not a happy book. It's not a terribly fast past book (which can also be frustrating...I wanted to shout Just do it to Tess many times).

But it is a wonderfully rich book and definitely worth getting into.

*****
4.5 stars (out of 5)

I know what I'll be doing with my old VCRs.

I was talking online with someone about LDS mission boundaries and we got to looking some up but not having great luck. Then, I found this blog post. Taking advantage of Google Maps, BJ and Tianna have created a collaborative map overlay to map out the various LDS Mission boundaries. It's a pretty cool idea.

So all you LDS missionaries...head on over to the map and add or update your mission boundary.

Great article here that shows the importance of my job.

Basically, a school district paid $4 million for a software system that has been down 4 times since launch (once for ~17 hours), duplicated student ID numbers, double registered students, misrepresented grades (would you like to receive an "E" instead of an "A"?) and provided parents with access to the wrong students' grades.

Unfortunately, even if people agree as to the importance of having someone (preferably a team of someones) test the software, there are a couple of factors that get in the way.

• Time - There's never enough time to exhaust every possible scenario. Even to get a good feel for 80% of the most common scenarios, it's impossible to be certain that every real world scenario has been covered.
  • Furthermore, added time crunch usually comes into play as stakeholders determine that a product must release by a specified date regardless of readiness. Thus, major issues are either never found or are swept under the rug.
• Money - Money drives the Time issue in that the longer it takes to develop a product, the longer before you can start making money on it. Add to that the fact that the people working on the project want to get paid. Corners will inevitably cut. Quality will invariably be sacrificed in lieu of getting the project out so it can start making money...under the assumption that any remaining problems can be fixed in the future...without acknowledging the truth that any issue fixed once in production can cost 5, 10, 20 times or more to fix than it would if it was fixed while in the development life cycle.
• Information - Even if all the time/money/people were available, there still exists the problem that most projects (at least every one I've been involved in) never has all of the information required to adequately design, plan, develop, or test the project. No matter how much planning, brainstorming, and creativity goes into the test plan, without full information about the design, function, user set, environment, etc., there is no way to ensure 100% confidence that the product will get out there without some major issue...some of which may be very noticeable to someone working under a different information set than the testers.

Whenever I see an article like this discussing the failing of some major software product...my first instinct is to laugh at the awful bugs that made it into the real world.

After that, I want to cry, because I know that somewhere, somebody with my job title, is likely getting reamed for not finding these bugs before they made it to the world. I only hope that the test team involved has good records as to issues reported, tests planned (including whether they were conducted or not due to time/budget constraints) and notes from triage discussions related to areas where quality was compromised.

On the plus side, as long as these stories make it into the papers, there will always be a need for somebody to hire me. :)

Less than a month until Wicked and we're stoked.

Here's an interesting vid clip to help me bide the time.

Ah, the joys of Springtime in Utah. Last Friday marked the first official day of Spring...the Spring Equinox...the prelude to Summer.

And yet, in Utah, it was just a tease. Over the weekend, my family and I were beset with winter colds/flu and also enjoyed a handful of winter flurries. The forecast for coming days indicates a couple more snow storms on the way.

Such fun.

lol...hilarious song...even more fun that it comes from one so young. Thanks to BEAT for teens for showing it and introducing me to the backstage musings blog.

Not being Irish or Catholic (or of any saint praising religion), it's sometimes strange to think of the historical, cultural and religious significance of Saint Patrick's Day. That reflection usually only lasts a few minutes for me...and then I don the green clothes and have fun with all the fun and funky traditions. Lynette's hosting book club at our house tonight, but I might take the kids into the back room for some Darby O'Gill and the Little People. Or maybe we'll go hunting for leprechauns and snag a pot of gold.

Whatever your reason for enjoying the holiday, toast some praises to all things Irish and have fun.

Thanks also to Kovidude for turning me on to this great story of a "real life leprechaun" in Alabama.

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

After 9 years of being parent to the only grandkids on my side of the family, my little sister Jenny just had a new baby, the first cousin for my kids on my side of the family.

She went into the hospital yesterday to "get started" around 8 AM. About 12 hours later I called my mom to see if there was any news...sadly (especially for Jenny) there wasn't. She was progressing slowly. Finally this morning at 8:27 AM, the baby was born (she shares the same birthday as my mom, which will be fun).

The kids and I went up to the hospital tonight to see them (Lynette had a church meeting to go to...hopefully she'll get to see her tomorrow). I may be a little biased...but I think she's super cute.

Congratulations guys. :)

I would have posted sooner on this, but I figured it would be more fun to wait until I got some pictures to go with it.

Becoming Cubmaster just 6 weeks before the Blue & Gold Banquet made me quite nervous. Fortunately, I had a TON of great help. We have an AWESOME pack (pair of packs, actually) with great leaders, committee members, spouses...and most especially, GREAT KIDS!

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For our Blue & Gold, our Den Leader Danielle suggested a pirate theme based on some recent birthday party adventures from which she had some decorations. Kids love pirates. I love pirates. It sounded like fun. Our committee chair Merlene suggested the idea of a cake decorating contest to help get the kids/parents involved. That too sounded like fun, so we went for it.



As you can see from the pictures, the decorations were AMAZING! Super kudos to Danielle and her support for getting everything looking so fabulous (I had to work, so I showed up about 30 minutes before the event not sure what to expect...I was pleasantly flabbergasted).

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I wasn't sure how many of the kids would end up decorating a cake or how much they'd get into it. I think all of the kids ended up decorating a cake and as you can see...there was some HUGE effort put into them.

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For the entertainment portion of the program, we had a den skit and then one of our Webelos scouts put on a puppet show to fulfill a requirement for his Showmanship award. It included a great set, a number of homemade marionettes, and a VERY witty script. It was great fun.

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After we ate and watched the performances, there were some great pirate games while our impartial judges awarded different prizes to each of the cakes. Then we handed out scouting awards (there were a TON of awards given), cut up the gorgeous cakes and went home.



All in all, it was pretty successful (much to my relief after all my anxiety). It did run a little long and things got a little rowdy at times, but everybody had fun.

Phew

Last weekend Lynette and I hopped over to Viewmont High to watch their production of Aida. We'd actually seen Aida before and enjoyed it so this was a fun opportunity to see it again. We knew one of the girls in the chorus, so that was fun as well.

For those unfamiliar, Aida is a story set in ancient Egypt during wars between Egypt and its neighbor Nubia. The Egyptian captain (Radames) captures a group of Nubian women and takes them back to Egypt as slaves. One of the women is Aida. From first encounter, he admires her strength and tenacity and is moved to show some compassion and have the women sent to be palace slaves rather than the mines. Radames is betrothed to Pharaoh's daughter Amneris through the devious plotting of Radames' father, Zoser. Radames' father is also slowly poisoning Pharaoh with the hope/plan that his son will gain the throne. As the story progresses, Radames falls in love with Aida and she falls in love with him. It also comes out that she is actually the princess of Nubia. Naturally there's lots of difficulties with their romance and there are also plenty of political machinations going on.

The story is apparently an ancient Egyptian legend which may or may not be true. It was set to music a century or two ago by Verdi as an opera. A decade or so ago, Tim Rice and Elton John updated it for Broadway.

Viewmont's production was very good.

Their sets & costumes were amazing as usual (they always surpass my vision of what a "high school" play would be). The lobby featured papyrus, statues and other Egyptian artifacts including a full sized sarcaphogus (I'd love to know where it came from). The stage was surrounded with a pyramid on each side over and behind which actors wandered. The theatre fly system brought in gorgeous backdrops of the Nile as well as wonderful palace scenes and even another full sized pyramid.

The music was great although I was a little bummed that the orchestra didn't feature "electric" instrumentation. The songs with Zoser often include electric guitars in the broadway version...without them, Another Pyramid and Like Father, Like Son lost some of their intensity. Otherwise, I felt the orchestra was fabulous (though Lynette did ask me, again, why the choir director was the one leading the orchestra...I gave her a brief explanation of Mrs. M and left it at that).

The actors did a fabulous job. I personally felt that Amneris (the second female lead) had a much stronger performance than Aida (actually, I think Amneris was the most powerful performance in the show) and would have rather seen her with the title role.

I always have my suspicions as to how some of the major roles are cast. Sad though it is, there are always plenty of politics involved in the casting...often to the detriment of true talent. *stepping down off soap box*...sorry

Don't get me wrong, I felt that both Aida and Radames did a great job.

Aida did a great job, although I did feel that her second half of the show was much better than her first half. I wonder if she got a little "halftime" pep talk about putting more emotion/depth into her role. She was passionate and well poised as a captured princess.

Radames did well...because of the nature of his character, I had a hard time distinguishing whether it was the character or the actor that was being smug and cocky. At times, it felt like he was being a little too haughty in his role and I wonder if the actor was trying to show off his prowess or if he was getting caught up in the role of the self-righteous captain. Either way, it worked out, but was slightly distracting a time or two.

Stepping away from the primary romantic leads, Zoser is probably the other most intriguing character. As Radames says "evil's a distinctive smell" and Zoser definitely imbued his vile character very well. He had a shortly trimmed beard (whether real or glued on, I don't know, but it looked good) and was able to carry a sneer on his voice that just made him feel slimy. His motions were smooth and fluid. I would have liked to have heard a little more sincere anger in his voice at times, but his general calm, unflappable nature was fairly creepy.

Two of the featured slaves, Nehebka and Mereb were great. Nehebka didn't have many speaking/singing opportunities, but she did great with the Egyptian dances. Mereb played an integral part in the negotiations between characters. His character was well portrayed and came across as sincere and lovable.

The Pharaoh and Aida's father were the other two primary roles. Pharaoh did pretty well at being aloof and regal. His part didn't give him much opportunity for anything else. Aida's father was a bit too over the top for me in the jail scene later in the play. He went from calm and resigned to explosively angry in less than a heartbeat and (in my opinion) without sufficient information. Part of the problem there could be due to the script itself (he blows up at Aida for her romance with Radames, but her previous line doesn't truly give enough indication that there is a really romantic relationship going on). It could be script related since I know sometimes high schools get the "school script", so perhaps that aided in it. Still, it felt he blew up too much too quickly, even with better lead in.

Overall, I felt this was an excellent performance. It plays through Saturday the 14th, so if you're in the Bountiful area, stop on by.

****
4 stars
(out of 5)

Obviously not to be taken too seriously and surely to get some great angst from P&P purists, but I think it's hilarious. It includes illustrations as well which look great. :)

It's a shame it didn't get released earlier, it would've made a great Valentine's Day present. :)

A few blogs I follow have posted this and I finally decided to take the bait and see how I stack up as a reader of "Young Adult literature."

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The following list of books teens love, books teens should read, and books adults who serve teens should know about was compiled IN ABSOLUTELY NO SCIENTIFIC MANNER and should be taken with a very large grain of salt.

Instructions:
Put an "X" next to the books you've read
Put a "+" next to the books you LOVE
Put a "#" next to the books you plan on reading
Tally your "X"s at the bottom
Share with your friends!

X+ 1. Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy / Douglas Adams
2. Kit's Wilderness / David Almond
# 3. Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian / Sherman Alexie
X+ 4. Speak / Laurie Halse Anderson
5. Feed / M.T. Anderson
6. Flowers in the Attic / V.C. Andrews
7. 13 Reasons Why / Jay Asher
8. Am I Blue? / Marion Dane Bauer (editor)
9. Audrey Wait! / Robin Benway
10. Weetzie Bat / Francesca Lia Block
11. Tangerine / Edward Bloor #
# 12. Forever / Judy Blume
13. What I Saw and How I Lied / Judy Blundell
14. Tyrell / Coe Booth
15. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants / Ann Brashares
16. A Great and Terrible Beauty / Libba Bray
# 17. The Princess Diaries / Meg Cabot
18. The Stranger / Albert Camus
X+ 19. Ender's Game / Orson Scott Card
20. Postcards from No Man's Land / Aidan Chambers
21. Perks of Being a Wallflower / Stephen Chbosky
X+ 22. And Then There Were None / Agatha Christie
23. Gingerbread / Rachel Cohn
# 24. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist / Rachel Cohn and David Levithan#
X 25. Artemis Fowl (series) / Eoin Colfer
# 26. The Hunger Games / Suzanne Collins
27. The Midwife's Apprentice / Karen Cushman
28. The Truth About Forever / Sarah Dessen #
29. Little Brother / Cory Doctorow
30. A Northern Light / Jennifer Donnelly
31. Tears of a Tiger / Sharon Draper
X+ 32. The House of the Scorpion / Nancy Farmer
33. Breathing Underwater / Alex Flinn
# 34. Stardust / Neil Gaiman
35. Annie on My Mind / Nancy Garden
36. What Happened to Cass McBride / Gail Giles
37. Fat Kid Rules the World / K.L. Going
X 38. Lord of the Flies / William Golding
39. Looking for Alaska / John Green
40. Bronx Masquerade / Nikki Grimes
41. Out of the Dust / Karen Hesse
# 42. Hoot / Carl Hiaasen
# 43. The Outsiders / S.E. Hinton
# 44. Crank / Ellen Hopkins X
45 The First Part Last / Angela Johnson
46. Blood and Chocolate / Annette Curtis Klause
47. Arrow's Flight / Mercedes Lackey
48. Hattie Big Sky / Kirby Larson
# 49. To Kill a Mockingbird / Harper Lee
50. Boy Meets Boy / David Levithan
51. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks / E. Lockhart
X+ 52. The Giver / Lois Lowry
# 53. Number the Stars / Lois Lowry
54. Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie / David Lubar
55. Inexcusable / Chris Lynch
56. The Earth, My Butt and Other Big, Round Things / Carolyn Mackler
57. Dragonsong / Anne McCaffrey
58. White Darkness / Geraldine McCaughrean
59. Sold / Patricia McCormick
60. Jellicoe Road / Melina Marchetta
# 61. Wicked Lovely / Melissa Marr
X 62. Twilight / Stephenie Meyer
63. Dairy Queen / Catherine Murdock
64. Fallen Angels / Walter Dean Myers
65. Monster / Walter Dean Myers
66. Step From Heaven / An Na
67. Mama Day / Gloria Naylor
# 68. The Keys to the Kingdom (series) / Garth Nix
69. Sabriel / Garth Nix
70. Airborn / Kenneth Oppel
# 71. Eragon / Christopher Paolini
72. Hatchet / Gary Paulsen
73. Life As We Knew It / Susan Beth Pfeffer
# 74. The Golden Compass / Phillip Pullman
75. Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging / Louise Rennison
# 76. The Lightning Thief / Rick Riordan
77. Always Running: La Vida Loca / Luis Rodriguez
78. how i live now / Meg Rosoff
X 79. Harry Potter (series) / J.K. Rowling
X+ 80. Holes / Louis Sachar
X+ 81. Catcher in the Rye / J. D. Salinger
X 82. Push / Sapphire
83. Persepolis / Marjane Satrapi
84. Unwind / Neil Shusterman #
85. Coldest Winter Ever / Sister Souljah
# 86. Stargirl / Jerry Spinelli
87. Chanda's Secrets / Allan Stratton
88. Tale of One Bad Rat / Brian Talbot
89. Rats Saw God / Rob Thomas
# 90. Lord of the Rings / J.R.R. Tolkien
91. Stuck in Neutral / Terry Trueman
92. Gossip Girl / Cecily Von Ziegesar
93. Uglies / Scott Westerfeld
94. Every Time a Rainbow Dies / Rita Williams-Garcia
95. Pedro and Me / Judd Winick
96. Hard Love / Ellen Wittlinger
97. American Born Chinese / Gene Luen Yang
# 98. Elsewhere / Gabrielle Zevin
99. I am the Messenger / Markus Zusak
X+ 100. The Book Thief / Markus Zusak

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Well...I've only read 14 of them, but I really loved most of those that I have read. And I have at least that many on my "to read" list (many already on my bookshelf already purchased under the assumption that they'll be good)

As a parent, I know it can be frustrating to try and find someplace to take the kids or to try and get information about a reputable doctor/dentist/facility. Well, my cousin was also feeling that pain and decided to do something about it.

The result? KidzList.com.

Kidz List is a "One-Stop, Online Resource for all things Kids. It is the answer to all those times you wondered if you were ever going to be able to find a kid friendly restaurant that you could all enjoy a meal at, or the great picnic spot or the fantastic one of a kind pediatrician. We have it all for you in one place – Kidzlist.com "

It started in her neighborhood up in Portland, Oregon and has expanded to now have listings in Seattle Washington, Austin Texas and (my personal favorite) Salt Lake City Utah.

The site is community driven, meaning users provide their reviews and feedback on the listings of the site as well as post their own listings if anything is missing. There's also a "classified" board and a "question" section where parents can ask for and share advice on their burning questions.

I am super excited to see this expand to my hometown.

If you live near any of the supported cities, go hop on and give some reviews and feedback. And if your city isn't listed yet, join up anyway so she can see the growing desire elsewhere (maybe you can help gather info for your town).

It's contests like this that make me wish I had more artistic talent. I could write a story in a Blizzard based theme park, but my drawing would be quickly put to shame. I look forward to seeing the entries and the winners.

For those in the Salt Lake area, Scout-o-Rama is coming up. As Cubmaster for my pack, I get to help with the kickoff tomorrow and hook my boys up with a pile of tickets to sell.

And since my own son is one of the boys, I figured I'd put out a little plug and see if anybody wants to buy a Scout-o-Rama ticket from him. :)

The event is May 2 and a family ticket is a measly $5.

If you're interested, let me know.

Thanks.

:)

mmm....Ubisoft released the Prince of Persia Epilogue as downloadable content today. Now if only my weekend wasn't already so full.

The trailer doesn't show much, but I definitely look forward to more gameplay rather than just running around looking for more light seeds (although the world is gorgeous).

My only complaint...Rated R. Looks fabulous.

Erewhon, as a satire and/or essay, is interesting and has some thought provoking ideas. Erewhon as a novel has a fairly thin but still interesting plot line in an intriguing environment. Unfortunately, meshing the two of these together makes for a difficult book to swallow at times.

I enjoyed the thought provoking elements of the satire that Butler presents. He turns the world upside down in order to have us explore just how "civilized" we truly are. He maintains the same basic structure...that a society should have a government with laws that people can be punished for, education to help them in society, religion to help with their conscience. However, he turns all of these "normal" conventions on their heads to get us to think not about the conventions themselves, but about the way we approach them.

For example, instead of being punished for what we crimes (theft, murder, etc.), the people of Erewhon are punished if they fall physically ill...sometimes being imprisoned or even sentenced to death. And conversely, if a person finds himself in the throes of robbery or some other 'crime', he is instead consoled and properly treated for the recovery of this behavior and looked on with sympathy from friends and family. In this satirical move, Butler asks us to examine our treatment of criminals. The Erewhonians provide rehabilitation for liars, thieves and murderers while simply shutting away those who commit "crimes" of physical illness. While we profess to offer rehabilitation for our criminals, what good does it do to stick them in an 8x8 box for years and then throw them out on the street with a black mark on their "permanent record?" Which system is better for helping with crime? As to illness, the Erewhonian treatment of illness is definitely ludicrous, but to a small degree it has logic in that it quarantines the truly ill and it also cuts down on people feigning illness or complaining over small headaches. In Erewhon, there is truly very little illness and no 'calling in sick', or making an excuse of "I've got a headache."

Butler also satirizes religious devotion (he alludes to religion in terms of the different types of money in the kingdom...the "religious" type having no earthly value yet being esteemed as of great personal worth...and yet citizens of Erewhon barely go through the motions with the 'religious' currency and have a completely different value system for each type of currency).

His lengthiest satirical discourse is with regards to the idea of consciousness. He takes it to the absurd (at least for his day) by suggesting a world in which machines would become self-aware and potentially overthrow mankind as the dominant race (a la Terminator or others). We're not there yet, but I think Butler would have a coronary if he saw how today's technology compared of that ~120 years ago. While the discussion on consciousness has some holes, it's also intriguing, especially when looking at the advancements of the last hundred years. He makes some good arguments and it's interesting to transition those arguments into the natural world and look at the advancements of mankind as a race or of other animals out there. The rise of consciousness or self-awareness is a very interesting topic. I'd be interested to read more of his thoughts since in the book he basically opens the can of worms and sets it on a shelf.

So in terms of the satire, Butler brings forth some interesting ideas.

In terms of the plot, it's a fairly basic adventure novel of the nineteenth century...a man in a distant British colony seeks fame and fortune through exploration and hopefully finding either a place to gain more wealth or to find savages to convert to Christianity or both. The first 50-100 pages contain standard Victorian descriptions of the landscapes and the travels. While poetic and pretty, they did drag on and I wanted to skip beyond them. As our narrator finally gets closer to Erewhon, his travels actually have some drama unfold. Once he finally arrives at the city, he's initially thrown into prison and has some moderate adventure.

The "adventures" he has in the country of Erewhon are very lightweight in terms of adventure. The level of excitement is pretty bland since it is often broken up by dozens of pages of satirical essay exploring strange elements of Erewhonian culture. Again, this is moderately typical of 19th century literature, but I was hoping for a bit more in terms of action within Erewhon itself. The "story" of the book could probably take ~1/3 of the pages (with probably a third of those devoted to description of the countryside and his initial travels) with the remaining 2/3 being devoted to thoughtful discourse on the various absurdities of society.

All in all, this was an interesting and thought provoking book...but I would've preferred the abridged version and/or simply reading the "essays" as essays rather than having them interjected into an adventure novel.

***
2 1/2 stars