Sometimes When You Google Search Your Birthday, You'll Find An Old Friend...

In church today they talked about family history. Mormons, of which I am one, hold their ancestors in high regard and doing genealogy work is not just recommended, but commanded. We feel that there is work for those of us living that needs to be done in the name of those who've passed.

All the talks on genealogy and family research piqued my interest, so much so that when I came home, I decided to do some investigating. I looked up information on my father--even found his discharge information from the army at the end of WWII. And, as I'm wont to do at times, I did some google searches. One of the searches was the day I was born.

I didn't expect to see one of the results.

The search turned up an obituary of a college friend, Deron Dickmann.

Deron and I were born on the same day, he in Kentucky and me in Utah. You've probably heard the stat that if you put 30 people in a room, there's a 50/50 chance that two of you share the same birthday. I apologize if I've gotten that statistic wrong, but it's something like that. Back in college we had more than 30 brothers in our fraternity and Deron and I shared both a date of birth and birth year.

I haven't thought about Deron in a long time. He was funny and very social. Seeing his name again I remember the times we'd all go dancing at Club Xenon or we'd go see a movie. Back in college it seemed we had a lot of free time (and the $$ to afford such activities...). If Facebook existed in those days, he would have loved it and we would have loved the posts he would have shared.

 He was diagnosed with leukemia and was responding well. The strokes took away much of the abilities he loved to do. He watched his brothers graduate and get married and even have kids--all things he very much wanted to do, but never got the chance.

Deron passed away almost twenty years ago. I can't believe it's been that long. I've meet several people who were born on the same day as me, but never one born the same day and year. And I've never met anyone quite like Deron and I'm sure I never will again.

Philip K. Dick's "The Man In The High Castle"...A Book Review

In February I attended a literary symposium and one of the first panels of the day and the first panel on which I was a part was on the writings of Philip K. Dick. On the panel with me were several Hugo Award winners (well, one had won a Hugo last year and another won his just last week...), a filmmaker and other noted guests.

I was out of my league, I knew it, but I ended up having a great time. I had read several Philip K. Dick novels. It became clear that I had a lot more to read. In the Dealer Room a gentleman was selling paperback and hardcover novels and it was from him I bought The Man in the High Castle. 

If I were to give an elevator pitch of the book it would go like this: imagine the United States if Hitler's Germany and Japan won WWII. What would life be like for those living in the states?

The book answers this question very effectively. Americans carry on with their lives, but if you're Jewish, you want to stay clear of the the east coast and especially the southern states where German influence and rule is in full swing. Japan rules the west coast states and those people living there must deal with Japanese customs.

What I loved about this book is how it focused on very few characters. As the stories unfold and intertwine, an interesting subplot develops. A man living in Cheyenne, Wyoming wrote a book, The Grasshopper Lies Heavy, which describes a reality in which America and Britain won WWII. The book fascinates and aggravates almost everyone. We eventually get to meet the author as one of the characters interacts with him, though the result of their meeting doesn't answer many questions or tie up any loose ends. In fact, the ending is somewhat ambiguous. I was left feeling that the lives of these characters could fill several books.

This is a relatively short read, but I took my time because I didn't want to miss anything. I wanted to really enjoy it.

Since I attended that panel on the writings and importance Philip K. Dick had on the world of science fiction (and if you don't believe he did, check out his IMDb page: HERE and see how many stories you know that he wrote...), I've bought another Philip K. Dick novel that I'll be starting hopefully soon. I'm preparing my self so that if I'm ever asked to be part of another panel on this particular author, I'll be ready.

My Son Learns Haiku...He Made Four Of Them Today...One Proud Pop Am I

"Dad, do you know what a haiku is?" my youngest asked me as I relaxed in front of the TV. Of course, I did but I asked him what they were.

"They're short poems. I wrote four of them yesterday."

And so, I had him read to me his poetic gems. Here they are.

Grace jumps on my bed

Rolls around until petted

Purring happily

(Grace is one of our cats...)

The water moves calmly

Then falls off waterfalls quickly

Reaching the bottom

Birds fly through the air

They land on the ground, find food

Then feed their babies

Monkeys swing through trees

Picks apples off apple trees

Munching it all day

Not bad for a ten-year old! The kid's got kind of a nature vibe to his poetry. I like it, but I know I'm biased. I've had some experience in haikus. I used haikus in the talent section of my one and only Space Balrogs Post-Apocalyptic team challenge. I think my haikus were well received.

It's heartwarming when the child of a writer shares his creativity with you. It's going to be interesting to see what he comes up with next!

Two Minutes Of Utter Bliss...

I had kind of a surreal experience today. While at work I was checking out Facebook while on a break and I saw a friend post a YouTube link.

The new Star Wars movie trailer had been released. He commented on the link saying something about how geeked out he was, and when it comes to Star Wars, almost everyone geeks out to one degree or another. I decided to watch it.

My reaction was pretty much all the million or so reactions to the two minute movie trailer. I inwardly screamed--inwardly because I was at work.

What was surreal for me was the fact that I was sitting at work and looking across the street to where the old Centre Theater once stood, on the corner of State Street and Third South in Salt Lake City. It was at that theater where I stood in line and later watched Star Wars IV, A New Hope for the first time. It was Memorial Day, 1977, and I was twelve years old.

And now, thirty-eight years later, I'm in a building that didn't exist decades earlier and I'm watching the video on a computer (also, something that didn't exist like we know it decades earlier...) and a wave of nostalgia of utter bliss washes over me as I recall the magic and wonder I experienced across the street those many years ago.

The show will be here in a matter of months, but for a brief two minutes this morning, I existed both in the past and in the future. What an amazingly powerful thing that short little video was for me.

All photos used without permission from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngElkyQ6Rhs

Magna Carta...Happy 800th Birthday!

My friend asked me if I wanted to take a break from work and go see a copy of the Magna Carta. And since the important document was on display practically across the street from my work, I decided to go. I'm not saying that if I had to drive to see the exhibition, I probably wouldn't go.

But, yeah...that's what I'm saying.

I'm glad I went. Years ago I was in England and we visited the area where the Magna Carta was signed. I don't remember much, but I remember it was a beautiful area. Then again, most of England is beautiful. Other than that and learning about the document and its importance in various classes, I haven't thought much about the Magna Carta. 

In addition to the copy on display, there was a lecture by someone involved in bringing the document to town. The room was packed--mostly lawyers. It was interesting, but we didn't stay for the full hour. I was on a lunch break, after all.

In the recorded history of mankind there are few documents that have really changed history. The Magna Carta was one of them, and according to some, the most important. Eight hundred years...quite a legacy!

Proofreading...Oh, The Horror!

I feel I should begin this post by saying that I am a terrible speller and have been all my life. Okay, I'm a better speller than I used to be, and much better than when I was a toddler, but as an adult with an advanced degree in English, I'm not very good.

I think there's even a condition for the way I form words. I haven't done a lot of research into it. For me, I write or type the word and to me, it will look correct, even though sometimes it's not. The vowels give me the biggest headache. Thank goodness my wife is an excellent speller. Many a time I've asked her to help me with a word and 99% of the time she's right. When we both get it wrong, I open Google and use the search function as a Spellcheck.

And I rely too much on Spellcheck--way too much.

Since getting into this writing thing I'm doing, I've read a lot of books, both from established publishing organizations and from self-published authors. One of the biggest slams against self-published works is that they're full of errors, grammatical and otherwise. I've read many self-published books and yes, they have errors. I've also read some from established publishing houses and small press publishers and they have mistakes in those books, too.

So, on tonight's commute, I was reading a book written in 1962 and published by Berkley Medallion Books in arrangement with G.P. Putman's Sons. On page 212, middle of the page, I found an error. I'm not writing about this to sound superior. It's just that as I read books growing up, I never saw the errors. I've often wondered how all those books were published before the age of computers without any errors.

I suppose mistakes in books have been occurring as long as there have been books. This makes me feel a little better that in my own self-published book released last January, there's a few "bugs" I didn't catch. Of course, the more we do something, the better we get at it. That's the theory, anyway. My next project might have no problems at all.

Crisp Rice Treats...

Tonight the Taylors were treated to a real treat. We had a dessert that we never have. The world knows them as Rice Crispy Treats, but we made Crisp Rice Treats a la Trader Joe's instead.

Several years ago we noticed our children (and my wife and me, as well...) were affected by some foods. After doing a little research we discovered that our family has food sensitivities, mostly to artificial things. Each one of us varies in our severity, but basically we eliminated artificial colors, flavors and preservatives from our diet.

At first, it was very tough to find food, but after years of reading labels and doing our homework, we've managed. 

Except we never had homemade crisp rice treats.

Until tonight.

We did a little shopping at Trader Joe's over the weekend and picked up the cereal and marshmallows. It's very hard to find natural marshmallows. We've even tried our hand at homemade marshmallows to some success. Tonight, though, we hit a home run.

So, if you're wanting to have something yummy sans all the artificial stuff, instead of making Rice Crispy Treats, give Crisp Rice Treats a try!