Dimly Lit

I forgot to update the currently reading widget over on the right for this month. In honor of Spring Training I’m reading The Natural. Such a great movie, I’m sure the novel will be great as well.

By the way, does anyone know how to edit the css for LibraryThing’s widget? I’d like to get that to line up better, but haven’t been able to figure out how yet.

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I finally can check something off. Taxes done and filed. Thank you TurboTax…

This of course is partially resulting from “the rise the Uff Da insurgency, led by the enigmatic Pastor Duane Gunderson, who seek a unified Lutheran caliphate stretching from the Great Plains to Lake Huron, and the banning of non-Big 10/Pac 10 apostates from the Rose Bowl. Gunderson remains in hiding, but his influence was seen last year in the widely publicized Lutefisk desecration riots that rocked the Heartland amid the pancake breakfast holidays.”

I mentioned that my goal is to read a book a month this year in order to get myself back into the habit of being a reader. I feel like I should say in my own defense however, that I do in fact read an awful lot. In fact I read the same books many times! Here, then is a list of books that have been read and re-read lately, always out loud and with frequent interruptions as Max asks questions, creates his own storyline, or feels the need to act out a certain part of the story; especially if it has something to do with slaying dragons or fighting an evil knight.

That’s all for now. I know there are more, but I’m at work and can’t remember them off the top of my head. This is a fun stage for me. These are some really good stories that I don’t mind at all reading over and over. I’m actually pretty surprised at the quality of these, so much of what is out there for children is just worthless, but these are good classic stories that aren’t dumbed down.

So, what did I miss out on during my self-imposed hiatus? My one-year blogiversary for one thing! It was on January 19, 2005 that I first posted on Dimly Lit so I guess I’m officially a blogger now. After all most blogs are abandoned within about 3 months of being launched.

More importantly, I missed Ben Franklin’s 300th birthday – a much more impressive anniversary! Actually,  I must admit that missing Franklin’s birthday wouldn’t have bothered me so much had I not found out that there was a specially commissioned “Poor Richard’s Ale” that was available at breweries across the country. I apparently missed the opportunity to sample it when it was available during the month of January. Fortunately for me, it appears that there is a recipe available and I’ve been itching to brew again.

I’m removing the ugly AdSense experiment. Since I managed to pull in a whopping $0.53 in the past 3 months it’s been there, and you have to make $50.00 before Google cuts a check it just doesn’t seem worthwhile. I’ll try to clean up and beautify the template over the next few days. hopefully I won’t break anything!

Looks like LibraryThing is down right now, but I did finish Hannah Coulter last month so I’ll be updating the Currently Reading spot over on the right when I get a chance. I’m still looking for my February book. I’m not counting Getting Things Done - it needs to be fiction or good non-fiction, not a how-to or self-help. Any suggestions are welcome!

Update: LibraryThing is back!

Ok, so back here I made some resolutions. Now it’s a month later and I remember why I don’t usually make resolutions – they’re really hard to keep! Let’s see how I’m doing:

1. Read 1 book per month. – so far so good (not that reading 1 book so far says much, but I did finish the book!)
2. Post less and better – well, my posting less has turned into posting nothing. As the weeks go by I realize that I barely have time to talk with my wife on a real level, much less work up good, thoughtful posts for here. This is one that may fall by the wayside since I do like posting stuff here and enjoy the comments and interaction that I get.
3. Chaos wrangling – This one I’m still working on. I’m reading Getting Things Done by David Allen right now and if I can manage to put into practice the things he’s talking about, I can see it making a difference.
4. Clean off my desk at work – in process…
5. Cardinals game – just waiting ‘til spring- Pitchers and Catchers report in 10 days!

The one that I’m really not following through on at all is the writing thing. So, I’m ditching it. I’ll still try to post some stuff with actual thought once in a while, but if I try to limit my posting to that then I might as well shut this place down ‘cause it would be very quiet around here!