Blogging: A Year in Review

Well, this blogging experiment has been an adventure, and I can not adequately express how happy I am you've all come along on the ride with me. I'm sure regular readers have noticed a significant drop off in posts lately. My apologies. That is due mostly to the frantic-ness of the holiday season, coupled with the time demands of the play (a hugely successful run, thanks to everyone who came out to see the show), and generally less interesting things happening in my life to share.

One of the things that has always fascinated me about the potential of the Internet, and recently of blogs specifically, is the ability to transmit ideas to a community much larger than the one in which you physically reside. To that end, over the last year, readers in 35 states have read (and hopefully enjoyed) my posts, ramblings, and thoughts. The majority of readers, of course, came from Texas, followed by California, in second place, and Colorado and New York tied for third. Outside of Texas cities (lead by Austin, Houston, and Round Rock), Los Angeles came in a commanding first place, of the 116 US cities representing my readership. LA was followed by Portland, New York, and Chicago. My favorite of the cities (due to their names) on the list are: American Fork, UT; Niwot, CO; and Osseo, MN.

On an international scale, readers in 24 other countries found my ramblings, probably because of the traveling proficiency of my group of friends who spent the year combing the far reaches of the world. They include: Canada, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, the United Kingdom, Portugal, France, Germany, Sweden, Hungry, Poland, Croatia, Italy, Greece, South Africa, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia, Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong, China, and Australia. Because of this, I had readers on every continent except Antarctica. Pretty cool, especially considering that many of the readers came at times my friends were not in those countries, or from cities they did not visit.

So to all my readers from the past year, a warm and hearty thank you. I would not have continued this pursuit for a full year if I had not received so many words of encouragement and appreciation. Hopefully you and your families are enjoying a wonderful winter holiday and preparing for another incredible year. We can never know for sure what the future holds, but we can always sparkle with anticipation.

New Yearly Mileage Record

I realize I've been slacking off heavily in the last couple of months on the running front, but I did manage 9 intense months of running since January. That training included three marathons (Austin, Nashville, and Portland) plus many more marathon (or longer) distance training runs throughout the year. During the Nashville training I peaked around 80 miles per week, and for Portland dropped that only slightly for a high of just over 70 miles per week. Because of that effort (chasing the monumentally frustrating Boston qualifying time of 3:10) I have recorded a new yearly total mileage for the year.

As of this morning's run, however short it may have been, I have logged 2,100 miles on the roads during 2009. In previous years, even with rigorous training schedules, I've never come close to the 2,000 mile mark, so I'll very pleased with this achievement.

For some frame of reference, 2,100 miles is roughly the distance from Austin, Texas to Portland, Maine. (Pretty cool symmetry considering I ran the Portland, OR marathon this year.) Yep, that's right, with the distance I've run this year I could have traveled from Austin to the middle of Maine. Crazy.

The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I read constantly, both fiction and nonfiction. There are times when I pursue this interest with a voracious intensity, and time's where it is merely a leisurely pursuit, but it is always a constant in my life. My favorite books are those pages now considered classics, masterpieces mainly from the second half of the 19th century through the first half of the 20th century. For some reason the writing of that period speaks to me with a life, depth, and personality unlike those before or since. Often I stop in the middle of a modern novel to wonder what works released during my lifetime will be considered classics by readers 100 years from now. Every once in awhile I come across a book that so clearly deserves to be on that list it is almost physically painfully to turn the last page. So it was with Carlos Ruiz Zafon's, The Shadow of the Wind.

I have already chronicled my appreciation for the majesty that is Zafon's writing in these entries, so my views on his initial entry into literary circles should be no surprise. The Shadow of the Wind, first published in 2001, is, at it's core, a Victorian romance of mystery and despair, set primarily in Spain's post-civil-war era in the middle of the 20th century. The characters lives are woven incalculably together in a web of torture and need that defies common sense and ignites the imagination. Although published first, Shadow picks up a thread of the storyline born in the same streets of Barcelona that The Angel's Game so masterfully depicted when released in 2008. We are returned once again to the haunting corridors of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books to begin a journey who's conclusion was played out year's before, yet the characters still believe the mysteries are new and that they control their own destiny. As Zafon slowly unravels the mysteries of the past, the reader watches in horror as they are played out again in the present, molding a new generation of souls.

Written with a talent and elegance that can only indicate a masterpiece, Zafon has created a beautiful story of love, betrayal, hope, and destruction that is timeless in it's telling. I will be asked, as I already have been, if Shadow is better than The Angel's Game. The answer is a qualified no. They are two individual books that showcase the complexity of what it takes to be worthy of being called a classic.

"This is who I am now . . . a guy sitting on a train with no answers." - Michael, The Office

A Tiger at Twilight

This week has had a pretty rough start, so I’m in the mood for a rant, an opportunity to blow off some steam. Fortunately, modern society provides a wealth of topics on which to rant. Today’s rant comes to us courtesy of seriously hypocritical gender stereotypes and social inequalities.

Over the last couple of weeks two major mainstream media events have highlighted the all too prevalent issue of gender hypocrisy in American society. First came the opening of the tween (what an awful word) movie sensation Twilight 2. I’m actually not sure of the real title, but it apparently has a lot to do with werewolves this time around, as opposed to the glittering moody vampires on which the first focused. Apart from being a teenage sensation (I can’t make myself use that other word twice in one blog), apparently the male heartthrob leads of the movie are also a big hit with women in their 30’s and 40’s. There has been no end to the embarrassing media footage of screaming, raving mom’s cheering on, leering at, and coming close to physically accosting the stars at premieres and related events.

So movie stars are big news for fan-frenzied mobs at red-carpet events, no big revelation there you say. The problem here is the age difference between to frenzied-fans and the objects of their frenzy. Consider for a moment if 13 year-old girls were being subjected to this type of attention from 42 year-old men. Looks a little different painted with a broader brush doesn’t it? It’s a double standard equivalent to when jokes are made about female teaches sleeping with their junior high school students. When men are the object of the offense it is treated as a joke, where outrage and disgust would ensue in a reverse scenario.

Now on to the second national media event highlighting this issue, Tiger Woods’ now infamous indiscretions, or alleged indiscretions. (Disclaimer: I’ve actually tried to stay away from this story, because it really has no bearing on my life and is a waste of ink. Because of that, I’ve followed the core of the story – hard to avoid - but don’t know all the details.) On last week’s episode of Saturday Night Live, the show’s comedians performed a sketch mocking Woods and joking about the alleged beating of the golf superstar by his wife. Said sketch came after a week of joking, mocking, and insulting comments from the media, all cast in the light of “serious journalistic reporting.” The ugly head of double standards rears.

Again, I ask how appropriate people would have found this issue if the gender roles had been reversed. If a male celebrity had been accused of beating his wife would the public have found it appropriate to joke about it on a nationally televised late-night show? Not to mention the fact that SNL’s poor-taste went even further than just the sketch. The night’s musical guest was Rihanna, herself a recent public victim of physical abuse. This is not an issue of whether to be politically correct or not, this is a moral issue of injustice committed against a person and we are passing on our double standards to upcoming generations.

For right or wrong, American society is based on classical stereotypes of gender roles, and while we have evolved somewhat over several hundred years, some things haven’t changed. Either beatings and excessive attention to minors (the first sign of more serious crimes to come) is wrong or not, there is no place for gender in the discussion by an enlightened and intelligent society. When will we learn that sometimes a cheap laugh at another’s expense is not worth the message is sends to the young and impressionable? How many generations does it take for equality to truly become equal?

Just something to think about. Rant concluded, thank you for listening. You may now return to your regular Tuesday lives.