At the end of the Summer I will add a page to this blog with a link to all the books I finished this Summer.
A Quote to Start Things Off
Search Me!
Pictures of Memories I
Tuesday, May 31, 2022
Leap of Dave Summer Reading Blog: Book # 1: God's Forgetful Pilgrims
At the end of the Summer I will add a page to this blog with a link to all the books I finished this Summer.
Friday, May 27, 2022
Family Camp: These "guys" should have stuck to skits.
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Let's see how you feel in 30 years.
Friday, May 20, 2022
Last 5 Next 10: Summer Reading Preview Edition
I like to apportion 100 days of each year for summer reading. These 100 days generally fall between Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends. This year the 100 days start on Sunday May 29th, the day before Memorial Day and end on Labor Day on September 5, 2022. As I mentioned in Moby Dick: My White Whale my only real goal for these 100 days is to finish listening to Moby Dick. I always read at least 10 books during the Summer and expect I'll get at least that many again.
LAST FIVE
Sunday, May 15, 2022
Moby Dick: My White Whale
White Whale - Something that someone pursues obsessively with little chance of success.
In 1993, when I was teaching English Literature while living in Russia I taught the first chapter of Moby Dick by Herman Melville. I had never read Moby Dick before and was only provided multiple copies of the first chapter. The chapter contains probably the best first paragraph of a novel I have ever read. The first sentence, Call me Ishamael is highly regarded as one of the best opening sentences ever written. It is not, however, my favorite opening sentence. That distinction belongs to the first sentence of C.S. Lewis's voyage of the Dawn Treader, "There once was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.".
I have asked Dave from Dave out Loud to come in from out of the loud and read the first paragraph for us.
- The book is a long read at 822 pages. This does not make it the longest novel ever written but it's certainly a long swim.
- The format of the novel is odd. It ranges from traditional story telling to essays on the different species of whales to philosophy.
- Herman Melville has a big vocabularly. If your preparing for the GRE Moby Dick is good preperation for the vocabularly section of the test.
- Melville draws from many classics of western civilization. If you have not read the Bible, Shakespeare, or Plato his ideas will go right over your head.
- Moby Dick was written a couple hundred years ago. The reader may need to do historical research to better understand the lives of sailors in that time period.
- Moby Dick is not only a story about whale hunting. The whole back drop of the story is whale hunting. Why did they hunt whales? They needed whale oil for their lamps and cooking. This is a story about energy and what lengths we will go to provide society with it. I think this goes over many readers heads.
- Moby Dick is a dense book. It must be chewed on and thought about. It's meaning and themes don't explain themselves.
- Moby Dick is about life experiences that many of us can't relate to. Most readers don't understand the terror of the ocean, the hard work of harvesting energy, and the bitter loneliness of being away from friends and family for a long time. Rest assured Moby Dick captures real human experiences.
- The book contains lots of symbols and metaphors and they don't easily explain themselves.
- The whole. Once you add all nine of these things together into one book many people may decide Moby Dick is not a voyage worth taking. Rest assured it is. It will grow you as a person and give a perspective on life that is hard to find anywhere else. You will be glad when you finish this whale sized book.
Wednesday, May 11, 2022
The end of vlogging. Part I the experiement.
Since consolidating my blogs at the end of this past year, I have not made many (if any) original videos from Dave Out Loud. I have posted many other people's videos (Aptly abbreviated OPV) but very few of my own. This is mostly due to being busier than a one armed paper hanging beaver. But there are other reasons as well. I'm just not sure if vlogging is as fun as it was for me as when I started Dave out Loud all those many years
I have decided to try an experiment. 6 months from today is 11/11/22. It will be what would have been by brother's 52nd birthday. I will pay him a video tribute on that day. Soon after that I will see how many original videos I have done since then. If the answer is 3 or less including the tribute. I will evaluate putting an end to my vlogging days.
I still have many ideas for vlogging so I'll try to put them in practice for the next 6 months and see how I do.
Tuesday, May 10, 2022
Streaks are over! White Sox Lose to Guardians in 11, Cubs beat Padres .
I've been waiting for the last few hours for the White Sox to win their 7th game in a row. It did not happen after having a comfortable 4 run lead the Sox allowed 11 of the 12 Cleveland Guardian Runs after the 9th inning and failed to score winning runs in the 9th and the 10th. Losses like this at home are always hard to take, but when ever you are on a plus 5 game winning streak you know it has to end at sometime. It is frustrating that this is the 4th loss in a row to the Cleveland Guardians. They have not beat Cleveland since they changed team names. The best thing to do in this situation is shake it off and come back the next game and start a new winning streak.
While the Sox were losing in extra's the Cubs stopped a 5 game losing streak by shutting out the Padres 6-0. Jason Heyward put 20 points on his batting average by going 2 for 4 tonight bringing it to .232. Even so, his average at the end of April was .270 and previous to tonight's performance, he had only 1 hit in 17 at bats in the month of May. Hopefully the Cubs and Heyward will enjoy tonight's success and build on itf
At the beginning of the Cubs Sox series last week they both owned a record 9 wins and 13 losses. The Sox went 5-1 since then and are now 14-14. The Cubs went the other way with 1 win and 5 losses putting them at 10-18. The Cubs next 5 games are on the road with the Padres and Diamondbacks. The White Sox play 6 more games on their current homestand, 2 more with the Guardians and 4 against the Yankees.
Saturday, May 7, 2022
2022 A to Z Challenge Reflection
The aforementioned Rod Carew is listed 3rd with a batting average of .328. I wont put in the screen shot but from 1976 to 1987 he also batted .328 and was 4th place on the list. He was a consistent hit machine but not a power hitter only hitting 92 homeruns out of 9315 career at bats. I will be making an index of the homerun hitters I did include this year and will be making some lists of who I left out.
These Blogs Are So Last Year
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Does Grief Last Forever?1 year ago
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Growing Up1 year ago