Why the hell is there an Estee Lauder ad up on the top of my page. I thought these ads were supposed to be contextual. Oops. I think I just caused the likelyhood for an Estee Lauder ad to appear to have increased. Silly me.
Edit: An interesting observation. While I was typing in the newly created "stupid" label for the post, the auto-correction was suggesting "nerdy stuff." I call shenanigans and uncalled-for-nerd-hate accusations upon blogger.com.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Book Review: A Shadow in Summer
Title: A Shadow in Summer
Author: Daniel Abraham
Reviewed Format: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 356
Rating: 4 Stars
Review: As far as I know this is Daniel Abraham's first full novel. It's beginning to seem a regular thing but as usual, Dusty put me onto this one. I'm pretty sure he found out about it because George R.R. Martin (GRRM hereafter) is a big fan of this new author and mentioned it somewhere (as the book itself can be a little hard to find in a book store and is not particularly well known)... And as GRRM is my pretty much my favorite author in any genre I thought it would make good sense to give it a go. Incidentally, Abraham is a graduate of the prestigious Clarion Workshop, a writing school for fantasy, sci-fi, and horror writers, that Dusty was just invited too-- and which GRRM will be an instructor at.
A Shadow in Summer (first book in a four-volume series Abraham calls The Long Price Quartet) is a fantasy novel set in a world that Abraham created, that to his credit, is very original in a lot of ways. I would say it has something of an "Asian" (incidentally, I abhor the generalized Asian concept-- it's every bit as accurate as taking all peoples and cultures in North and South America and calling them "American" and treating them as some sort of monolithic and closely related bloc) feel to it. The author never identifies it as so, it's just something about the clothes they wear and the distinctly Chinese feeling bureaucracy to the social constructs he used that left me with that feeling. That said, the political structure is his own creation, and without any obvious correlated Earth nation. He's also constructed a very unique magic concept for his world.
To set the stage, without trying to give too much of the plot away, the story follows a handful of significant characters through an intrigue that occurs at court in the novel's setting, a city called Saraykhet, which is a part of a kind of confederation of kingdoms or city-states called The Khaiem. The story did start off with one of those sorts of passages that won't be explained for some time, which made for a slow start but a nice little a-ha later. The setting at the beginning appears to be a very harsh school for young men who are in some way gifted, although I was unsure for a while just what they were gifted in... As you might expect the school is for the selection of future users of the magical concept that Abraham has designed. Magic, such as it is in this world, involves a "Poet" using language to capture/create a god, called an andat, who is the perfect embodiment of some abstract concept. Once an andat has been so captured then the Poet can direct it to carry out practical tasks related to the abstract concept it represents. This gives the Khaiem great power in the world, and it seems each of their great cities is built around (at least) one such andat.
The plot itself is interesting and well constructed and has a bit of everything: some action, intrigue, love, and strong characterization. Abraham, I think, is very strongly influenced by GRRM and it shows. Much like a GRRM offering, the novel tends to read itself with generally clear prose and good dialogue... And Abraham even uses a few phrases here and there that any GRRM reader would recognize right off. Best lesson Abraham may have gotten from GRRM though, has been character development and the use of dynamic three-dimensional characters. This book offers a number of very interesting characters who all experience change in their situations and in themselves and that is what made this book such a joy to read.
If you're a fan of fantasy books, or if you'd like to give the genre a try with something engaging, accessible, and solid, I very highly recommend A Shadow in Summer. I'm looking forward to picking up the next book in the series, A Betrayal in Winter, and seeing which of the characters from the first novel Abraham brings forward and what awaits them. (4 stars)
Author: Daniel Abraham
Reviewed Format: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 356
Rating: 4 Stars
Review: As far as I know this is Daniel Abraham's first full novel. It's beginning to seem a regular thing but as usual, Dusty put me onto this one. I'm pretty sure he found out about it because George R.R. Martin (GRRM hereafter) is a big fan of this new author and mentioned it somewhere (as the book itself can be a little hard to find in a book store and is not particularly well known)... And as GRRM is my pretty much my favorite author in any genre I thought it would make good sense to give it a go. Incidentally, Abraham is a graduate of the prestigious Clarion Workshop, a writing school for fantasy, sci-fi, and horror writers, that Dusty was just invited too-- and which GRRM will be an instructor at.
A Shadow in Summer (first book in a four-volume series Abraham calls The Long Price Quartet) is a fantasy novel set in a world that Abraham created, that to his credit, is very original in a lot of ways. I would say it has something of an "Asian" (incidentally, I abhor the generalized Asian concept-- it's every bit as accurate as taking all peoples and cultures in North and South America and calling them "American" and treating them as some sort of monolithic and closely related bloc) feel to it. The author never identifies it as so, it's just something about the clothes they wear and the distinctly Chinese feeling bureaucracy to the social constructs he used that left me with that feeling. That said, the political structure is his own creation, and without any obvious correlated Earth nation. He's also constructed a very unique magic concept for his world.
To set the stage, without trying to give too much of the plot away, the story follows a handful of significant characters through an intrigue that occurs at court in the novel's setting, a city called Saraykhet, which is a part of a kind of confederation of kingdoms or city-states called The Khaiem. The story did start off with one of those sorts of passages that won't be explained for some time, which made for a slow start but a nice little a-ha later. The setting at the beginning appears to be a very harsh school for young men who are in some way gifted, although I was unsure for a while just what they were gifted in... As you might expect the school is for the selection of future users of the magical concept that Abraham has designed. Magic, such as it is in this world, involves a "Poet" using language to capture/create a god, called an andat, who is the perfect embodiment of some abstract concept. Once an andat has been so captured then the Poet can direct it to carry out practical tasks related to the abstract concept it represents. This gives the Khaiem great power in the world, and it seems each of their great cities is built around (at least) one such andat.
The plot itself is interesting and well constructed and has a bit of everything: some action, intrigue, love, and strong characterization. Abraham, I think, is very strongly influenced by GRRM and it shows. Much like a GRRM offering, the novel tends to read itself with generally clear prose and good dialogue... And Abraham even uses a few phrases here and there that any GRRM reader would recognize right off. Best lesson Abraham may have gotten from GRRM though, has been character development and the use of dynamic three-dimensional characters. This book offers a number of very interesting characters who all experience change in their situations and in themselves and that is what made this book such a joy to read.
If you're a fan of fantasy books, or if you'd like to give the genre a try with something engaging, accessible, and solid, I very highly recommend A Shadow in Summer. I'm looking forward to picking up the next book in the series, A Betrayal in Winter, and seeing which of the characters from the first novel Abraham brings forward and what awaits them. (4 stars)
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Book Review: The Three Signs of a Miserable Job
Title: The Three Signs of a Miserable Job
Author: Patrick Lencioni
Reviewed Format: Hardcover
Pages: 256
Rating: 3 1/2 Stars
Review: I was asked to read this book as a part of a book club at work. This is my first review of a book that isn't necessarily designed as entertainment. As "the plot" isn't really the focus of the book, and it's not likely that I could spoil the experience for a prospective reader by letting the cat out of the proverbial bag. So get ready, cat's on the way and what not.
The subtext to the title is "A Fable for Managers (and their employees)," and that would indicate the book is most likely about trying to keep your employees happy and effective as they execute their jobs. As I am currently a non-supervisory management employee, it means that I read it from the "other side" (though it's not like I wouldn't like to be a manager of people one day) and tried to evaluate if I thought Mr. Lencioni's ideas put into practice would improve my opinion of my management or not.
The book starts of with the fictional story of one Brian Bailey, a successful businessman with humble roots. He started off in operations and climbed the ladder over time before finding himself the CEO of a mid-sized exercise equipment manufacturer. The industry enters into a consolidation mode and Brian decides to sell the company off and retire. He and his wife retire to Lake Tahoe and he gets bored and a little depressed without work. Long story short, he visits an Italian restaurant that's a little down on its luck and he ends up not only thinking through its problems, but meets with the owner and via that discussion ends up invested directly in the business.
The story from that point on serves as a vehicle for Lencioni to deliver his message. His point is that most people tend to think a job is a happy job when the employee is able to do something they love and get paid enough (or even a lot) money to do it. He suggests this model is at best flawed as there are numerous examples of famous athletes, actors, models, and musicians getting paid large sums of money to do what they love and still very unhappy. His theory is that there are three flaws common to jobs, each of which can make a person miserable: immeasurability (the author notes, as I do, that this wasn't a word until he made it so), irrelevance, and anonymity. This boils down to the idea that an employee needs to be able to measure how he makes people's lives better (immeasurability/irrelevance) and not be just a number in a phone book (anonymity).
The "fable" itself is written well enough. It's simple, with prose designed for maximum readability. I feel it'd be disingenuous to criticize Lencioni on his writing as he was absolutely able to deliver his intended message. There was even one night that the book turned into a little bit of a page-turner for me. The message itself I feel a little mixed on. There's no science to the fable... It's all pretty "soft," and Mr. Lencioni certainly wasn't going to write a story that didn't prove his point. That said, he was convincing enough in his arguments that I've found myself using some of the language in my conversations at work and interested to at least test some of it out. I'm not sure they're the absolute answer of making your employees happy, but I also very much doubt you'd make people unhappy by getting to know them and helping them understand how they help people get through their lives. It also points out something that I think is a lesson that should appear in every text for a manager: the job responsibilities of a manager of professionals do include results, but their primary function is to cause their group of professionals to perform effectively and efficiently.
A third of the way through this book, I was ready to put it down and forget about it, but I just got over the hump. I'm glad I did. It's an easy read, and it's going to help get a manager's mind focused on managing his people. From an employee's perspective, it might equip you with some concepts and vocabulary with which to train your boss and make your world a little better. Mr. Lencioni's written several other books, and I've picked out which I'll be reading next: Silos, Politics and Turf Wars. (3 1/2 Stars)
Author: Patrick Lencioni
Reviewed Format: Hardcover
Pages: 256
Rating: 3 1/2 Stars
Review: I was asked to read this book as a part of a book club at work. This is my first review of a book that isn't necessarily designed as entertainment. As "the plot" isn't really the focus of the book, and it's not likely that I could spoil the experience for a prospective reader by letting the cat out of the proverbial bag. So get ready, cat's on the way and what not.
The subtext to the title is "A Fable for Managers (and their employees)," and that would indicate the book is most likely about trying to keep your employees happy and effective as they execute their jobs. As I am currently a non-supervisory management employee, it means that I read it from the "other side" (though it's not like I wouldn't like to be a manager of people one day) and tried to evaluate if I thought Mr. Lencioni's ideas put into practice would improve my opinion of my management or not.
The book starts of with the fictional story of one Brian Bailey, a successful businessman with humble roots. He started off in operations and climbed the ladder over time before finding himself the CEO of a mid-sized exercise equipment manufacturer. The industry enters into a consolidation mode and Brian decides to sell the company off and retire. He and his wife retire to Lake Tahoe and he gets bored and a little depressed without work. Long story short, he visits an Italian restaurant that's a little down on its luck and he ends up not only thinking through its problems, but meets with the owner and via that discussion ends up invested directly in the business.
The story from that point on serves as a vehicle for Lencioni to deliver his message. His point is that most people tend to think a job is a happy job when the employee is able to do something they love and get paid enough (or even a lot) money to do it. He suggests this model is at best flawed as there are numerous examples of famous athletes, actors, models, and musicians getting paid large sums of money to do what they love and still very unhappy. His theory is that there are three flaws common to jobs, each of which can make a person miserable: immeasurability (the author notes, as I do, that this wasn't a word until he made it so), irrelevance, and anonymity. This boils down to the idea that an employee needs to be able to measure how he makes people's lives better (immeasurability/irrelevance) and not be just a number in a phone book (anonymity).
The "fable" itself is written well enough. It's simple, with prose designed for maximum readability. I feel it'd be disingenuous to criticize Lencioni on his writing as he was absolutely able to deliver his intended message. There was even one night that the book turned into a little bit of a page-turner for me. The message itself I feel a little mixed on. There's no science to the fable... It's all pretty "soft," and Mr. Lencioni certainly wasn't going to write a story that didn't prove his point. That said, he was convincing enough in his arguments that I've found myself using some of the language in my conversations at work and interested to at least test some of it out. I'm not sure they're the absolute answer of making your employees happy, but I also very much doubt you'd make people unhappy by getting to know them and helping them understand how they help people get through their lives. It also points out something that I think is a lesson that should appear in every text for a manager: the job responsibilities of a manager of professionals do include results, but their primary function is to cause their group of professionals to perform effectively and efficiently.
A third of the way through this book, I was ready to put it down and forget about it, but I just got over the hump. I'm glad I did. It's an easy read, and it's going to help get a manager's mind focused on managing his people. From an employee's perspective, it might equip you with some concepts and vocabulary with which to train your boss and make your world a little better. Mr. Lencioni's written several other books, and I've picked out which I'll be reading next: Silos, Politics and Turf Wars. (3 1/2 Stars)
Friday, April 2, 2010
Movie Review: Clash of the Titans (2010)
Title: Clash of the Titans
Director: Louis Leterrier
Rating: 2 Stars
I didn't go into the theater with great expectations for this 2010 remake of a 1981 film of the same title. The plot concerns itself with the Greek legend of Perseus. The relation to the actual mythology is downright bad in terms of accuracy, but it's an action movie, so who really cares anyway? Also, I've seen the old one, but don't remember a lot of details, so I can't say how faithful it is to that source material... But, that's not that relevant as long as it stands on its own.
And I'd have to say it stands up okay. The movie was directed by French action-movie specialist, Louis Leterrier. Leterrier's other credits include The Transporter series,
Unleashed with Jet Li, and the 2008 movie The Incredible Hulk
. His work here is really quite good. The action sequences are reasonably interesting and the special effects were a plus. It's simply a well-crafted action movie.
That's about it, though. The film is poorly written with weak dialogue and humor that usually misses. Sam Worthington stars as Perseus. He recently struck gold with Avatar
but was nothing special here. I wouldn't say he was bad, and certainly had little to work with. Liam Neeson appears as Zeus and did fine with what he had to work with. The most sort of irritating performance came from Ralph Fiennes. He's the kind of actor who always seems to take himself too seriously (you have to be pretty pretentious to pronounce Ralph "rafe" I think). It's distracting, and his portrayal of Hades had my buds and I mocking him on the drive home.
The movie was generally ho-hum, but wasn't a bad action movie. I didn't hate myself or want to do myself physical harm while watching it, and can think of a few people I know that I think would really like it. If you want to have a good time watching something with Medusa turning people to stone and the mythology-wrong kraken convincingly smashing the crap out of an ancient Greek city, then go see this. If you want anything else, stay away. (2 Stars)
Director: Louis Leterrier
Rating: 2 Stars
I didn't go into the theater with great expectations for this 2010 remake of a 1981 film of the same title. The plot concerns itself with the Greek legend of Perseus. The relation to the actual mythology is downright bad in terms of accuracy, but it's an action movie, so who really cares anyway? Also, I've seen the old one, but don't remember a lot of details, so I can't say how faithful it is to that source material... But, that's not that relevant as long as it stands on its own.
And I'd have to say it stands up okay. The movie was directed by French action-movie specialist, Louis Leterrier. Leterrier's other credits include The Transporter series,
Unleashed with Jet Li, and the 2008 movie The Incredible Hulk. His work here is really quite good. The action sequences are reasonably interesting and the special effects were a plus. It's simply a well-crafted action movie.That's about it, though. The film is poorly written with weak dialogue and humor that usually misses. Sam Worthington stars as Perseus. He recently struck gold with Avatar
but was nothing special here. I wouldn't say he was bad, and certainly had little to work with. Liam Neeson appears as Zeus and did fine with what he had to work with. The most sort of irritating performance came from Ralph Fiennes. He's the kind of actor who always seems to take himself too seriously (you have to be pretty pretentious to pronounce Ralph "rafe" I think). It's distracting, and his portrayal of Hades had my buds and I mocking him on the drive home.The movie was generally ho-hum, but wasn't a bad action movie. I didn't hate myself or want to do myself physical harm while watching it, and can think of a few people I know that I think would really like it. If you want to have a good time watching something with Medusa turning people to stone and the mythology-wrong kraken convincingly smashing the crap out of an ancient Greek city, then go see this. If you want anything else, stay away. (2 Stars)
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