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I’m going to show you a few pictures. I want you to guess which of these pictures “pulls my heart strings” the hardest.

So, which of these pictures does the best job “pulling my heart strings?”

*Drum Roll Please...................................................................................

I hope it’s not a surprise that on a blog oriented around books, the correct answer was the only picture of a cover of a book.

This is me formally announcing that The Working Poor by David Shipler will be my SSR book for the weeks and Tumblr posts to come.

So what have I read so far? Well, I’m only 40 pages in, but it’s not as bad as it sounds. I had 30 or so pages of Midnight in Siberia left. Once again, I had to consult Mr. Schaefer to determine that ≈ 30 + ≈ 40 ≈ 70 and 70 < 150. However, my previous post about certain authoritarian figures in my life forgives my shortcomings... in my mind at least.

Anyway, The Working Poor is so good I think I’ll share a part of it:

Being black, Debra also felt herself on the wrong end of subtle racial strains. “Seems like they’re too lenient on the Hispanics,” she asserted. “I was next to one, and she wouldn’t keep up. you know, bread was piling all up, and she puttin’ ‘em in boxes, and flattening them out, and he (the boss) came over and raise hell.” She pretended to speak no English, so Debra became the target of complaint. “Hold on!” she objected. “She can understand as much English as I can understand. Don’t come over here pressing me because she won’t keep up! I done made three boxes to her one. But she runs off that Spanish, gets a Spanish partner and they get going on and on and on and on, you know what I’m saying? Oh, my God, yeah. It’s a lot of that, a lot of that.”

This passage was one of many that shed light on tensions in poor communities I did not expect to find. In hindsight, it was a bit naive of me to have seen all poor people as a unified front against the tyranny of inequality. I guess in that sense, this book has made me less of a Marxist. I can’t blame for poor people for all the divides they’ve erected. When society screws you over with the worst education, housing, healthcare, banking, credit, and representation, it’s hard to have a positive view of the other 7 billion people out there.

Race isn’t the only division that I have just learned about (*sarcasm*). Apparently, there’s some serious friction between poor people and some people who made it out of poverty. Why? Well, it takes a lot to get out if poverty in America. Usually on the order of saving every penny, getting the most out of entitlement programs and charity, and working hard for years. That’s why when some formerly poor people see those in poverty splurging on non-necessities like fresh fruit or cable, they get frustrated. On the other end, the people still in poverty can justifiably be jealous of those that moved up.

It’s all understandable, but totally pointless. Poor people got bigger wealthier fish Americans to fry fry. Stop getting pissed off at the poor Latino, the poor whites, or those no longer poor. Get pissed of at all the people that profit off of poverty and/or try to maintain the status quo. I’m looking at you payday loan centers, car dealerships, legislatures, and finally, that dude who tattooed Mitt Romney’s logo on his face in 2012...

I’m going to spare the internet my rant about Mr. Pyles, but I would like to talk about Stalin. Joseph Stalin is not bae; jackisbae. If he had a Tumblr, I bet his name would be joeStalinissuchapoopface.

Why is Stalin a “poop face?” Well, in the USSR, if you were a male who got in trouble or were associated with anyone who got in trouble (i.e. you’re related to them) it was likely you would find yourself in a forced labour group. You might find yourself mining coal in Siberia, building a hydroelectric dam, moving an entire town because of the flooding said dam would create - That sort of thing. These Gulags as they were called, are not my idea of fun. In fact, many of the workers were worked to death by them. Yet, the men that found themselves in these labour groups were strangely motivated. These men had no choice but to believe that the work they were doing was good for society. Even though the work they were forced to do was inhumane and usually justified by petty or illegitimate crimes, these men diligently worked for the betterment of a society that clearly wasn’t treating them well. Stalin might have put them in those fair circumstances, but they were happy to do the work for him. If you know my situation, I’m sure you can see the similarities with Mr. Pyles.

I’ll stop here before I start that rant I promised I would avoid.

I’d like to take a moment to talk about dic pics. Please, take a journey with me into the young adult male mind. You’re all like, “dude, this girl is so hot, and I know just how I can get her to like me. I’ll just send here a dic pic! I love it when girls send me naked picture so I’m sure she’ll like it too.” What seems so obvious to you as young male, doesn’t always apply to the rest of the world.

Anyway, Midnight is Siberia by David Greene is basically all about dic pics. Us westerners view Russia and its recent history with this confused look on our faces. We don’t understand how a nation that had such a great opportunity to completely overthrow years of authoritarian rule and replace it with democracy and capitalism has reverted back to its old ways. Is it the culture, the KGB, the vodka, something I said? Why has the country supported a government that has undone much of the progress towards democracy in only a decade? These are good questions that David Greene answers well in Midnight in Siberia, but they’re not the most interesting thing revealed in the book. What is fascinating is the Western “narcissism” that almost all of us are guilty of. We have grown so accustomed to democracy and market based economics that we can’t even properly empathize with people that don’t view these two things as progress. It’s a whole new level of culture shock.

So please, for the sake of democracy in Eastern Europe, send Putin a picture of your penis.

In the spirit of some decisions from certain college admissions boards, I am going to quantify my value as a human being using a number: 160. No need to worry, that wasn’t my SAT reading score. Instead, this number sums up all my accomplishments for the week as it represent the number of pages I read. After consulting with Mr. Schaefer, I can confirm that 160 > 150 because when using > or < signs, you make the alligator mouth eat the larger number and have the bird beak eat the smaller one. Math b****.

Oh yeah, reading. It turns out reading for 2+ hours isn’t hard. All I had to do was open the book, run my eyes across the page in a certain pattern, and have my brain interpret what I saw. Interject a few, well-timed page turns here and there and this whole reading thing flies by. Every once in a while, a thought would pop into my head about this book (Midnight in Siberia by David Greene btw) so I guess I’ll share some of those.

I forget if it was the author’s note, prologue, or introduction (yes, this book has all three), but my first impression of David Greene as a writer was that he has massive balls is pretty brave. Near the very beginning of his book that is supposed to take you across the diverse place that is Russia, he starts out making huge generalizations. I’m in no way criticizing this. At no point does Greene claim these generalizations to be more accurate than a generalization can be (that’s a topic to explore all on it own) and he does an excellent job making them feel real. It’s just that generalizations are the sort of thing I expected at the end of the book, not the beginning. But what I think doesn’t matter. David Greene is the one that wrote the book and he did a great job doing it. This idea that a Russian family will invite a stranger to dinner and serve him 18 shots of vodka is made much more dramatic after a few pages generalizing how reserved Russians are in public. 

Anyway, read this book if only because an NPR host makes you look like a total lightweight. 

Filters, people not looking at the camera, horses, and beaches. These are all signs of being basic. Please, If you love someone, tell them they’re basic.

If I’m honest, setting high expectations for my reading goals isn’t really a bang, but it’s what I plan to do, nonetheless.

That means I have to read at least 128 150 pages every week. 

It also means no more of this, “Oh no, we have SSR today and I don’t have a book to read so I’ll just grab one off the shelf.” I will make sure every book is something I want to read and is something I can enjoy finishing.

Also, I’ve been using the term “high-caliber” lately and would like to apply that to the books I’m reading as well. 

The list of books I’ve been meaning to read is long enough that I shouldn’t run out of material. I just need to make sure I read. This reminds me of another quote by the late Isaac Clark:

In the same way that elements like Carbon and Oxygen are building blocks for life, self-discipline is the basis of success. Humanity and all of its achievements would be nothing without it.

Never Forget

RIP in Peace

It's usually a good idea to be diligent and self-disciplined, but I think I found an instance where that isn't the case. You see, I've had a bit of trouble finishing books lately and recently decided to change that. I opened up a fresh can of self-discipline this weekend and finished the last 40 pages of Hegemony or Survival and the remaining two thirds of Snow Crash. While part of me enjoyed the sense of accomplishment I felt finishing something I started, it was awful. I was bored to death reading these two books which I had formerly enjoyed so much. This really confused how I could gone through such a polar shift in regard to these books. 

I've decided never to let something like this happen again. I blame Mr. Clark and his inspiring quotes like, "We're trying to build a house... and self-discipline is the mortar that binds everything together." 

Isaac Clark 

1990-2015 

RIP in Peace

What happens when a usually super motivated group of English students are without a teacher for 85 minutes and have work to do? You guessed it, the transgender jokes start getting passed around like lice at CCS. I'm a bit ashamed, but I'll admit I'm largely responsible. It all started with two things. Nando and this book:

*cue dramatic “movie trailer” voice

In a world where pizzas are always delivered in under 30 minutes, one man has a mission. He is the deliberator in Snow Crash 3-D. 

*cue normal voice

Well that’s all I got. I’m 60 pages in and have no idea what the plot of the book is. What I can tell you is I’m having a hard time putting the book down. Honestly, it wouldn’t matter what the book is about; the world it takes place in is my favorite of any novel. The best way I can explain it is with your imagination. So please, imagine everything bad about America to the cynical mind, add some futuristic technology, and turn it up to 11.

For me personally, this has been a good transition from the politically charged books I’ve been reading lately. The transition is so good because under the surface, there are underlying themes like the corporatization of America, race relations in an increasingly globalized world, privacy rights... I could go on. Anyway...

This isn’t a book that only I can enjoy. I was introduced to this book as a required reading for Dr. Keesee’s history class. While I think I’m the only one that has continued to read the book, I remember the rest of the class either enjoyed it or at least pretended to enjoy it because they hadn’t actually done the reading.

Moral of the story, read:

I'm reading Hegemony or Survival and I've given myself the challenge of solving all of the world's problems. I recently took an afternoon to do this and can happily report that I have solved everything. Yes, everything. Unfortunately, I'm having a bit of a problem convincing the rest of world of my solutions. How do we have intelligent dialogue that actually gets things done in terms of changing public opinion or actual policy? I guess you could say this is one problem I haven't solved yet.

I can tell you one way that isn't effective. Don't write a book like Hegemony or Survival. Even though it's written intelligently on a bunch of important issues, it doesn't actually say anything. It gives its talking points, backs them up by mentioning some examples and moves on. While I agree with the vast majority of the authors points, Noam Chomsky fails to teach anything new. 

So what is the best way to have political debate? I have no idea. I've seen in done both well and poorly in books, video, verbal debate, etc. But none of these mediums is fool-proof. So how do we do it?

Even though I've been a bit critical, Hegemony or Survival is: