Over the River & Through the Woods February 25, 2008

Family issues interrupted training somewhat this week. My gramma hasn’t been well for the past two weeks, and her disinclination to eat is making her recovery painstakingly slow. To complicate matters, an ice storm knocked out her land line two weeks ago, so she’s without a way to call for help if there is an emergency. Mom’s got her cell phone there, but Gramma legally blind, and can’t see the cell phone to dial. Plus, she’s not comfortable enough with cell phones to dial by touch… not even speed-dial. So, Mom’s been staying with Gramma for two weeks. It’s been a very difficult couple of weeks for my mom and her siblings. Physically and emotionally draining.

I live close enough to this particular action to be of some service on the weekend. So I headed to Gramma’s place Friday after work (funnily enough, it is literally over the river and through the woods from my current place of residence) and stayed with her Friday and Saturday night so Mom could get some rest.

I think everybody involved was a little better for it by Sunday. Gramma continued to VERY SLOWLY improve…I think…and Mom seemed a bit more rested than she was when I got up there Friday night.

Sunday was supposed to be a 15K race, but because there were no 15K races available and because by the time Sunday rolled around and I was relieved from Gramma-related duties I was thoroughly exhausted… I didn’t get a run of that length in. If Matt hadn’t expressed the desire to go for a 2 mile run himself, I wouldn’t have gone for a run at all. We suited up and headed out for a 2 mile run through the neighborhood.

I’m really glad he wanted to go for a run. I harbor an extremely ambitious desire to one day be able to keep up with Matt on a run of any length. This is ambitious for a lot of reasons…he’s far more athletic than I am, ever was, or may ever be. He’s taller than I am by almost a foot, so his stride is naturally a lot longer than mine. Plus, he’s a soccer player and has been practically since he was a fetus… which means he’s got leg muscles like nobody’s business and knows how to use them. But still, I have been training and thought… maybe… maybe I could keep up for a quarter mile or so… Uh… no. LOL Not even close. I think I matched him for about four steps and he was gone, lol. I’ll admit that it was a little discouraging, but I still did pretty OK. I neglected to wear my watch, so I didn’t have an exact time for the run, but Matt and I estimated that I was scooting along at about a 10:30 pace. Not too terrible.

So, instead of 15K, I did 2 miles this weekend. Boo.

Today’s run was full of pros and cons. I did a five miler at lunch – 2.5 miles out from the office and 2.5 miles back. Four of the five miles are on biking/running trails through the woods. There are even bridges over a stream, and places where the water crosses the trail – so there’s plenty of opportunity to hop on through the water, mud, and gravel. A little tiny taste of trail running for a change. The fifth mile is along a busy road. So, I only had to suck down car exhaust for a fifth of the run, which was nice. (Carbon monoxide is an unfortunate downside of running outside in the area in which I live, so finding a trail that gives me a break from that is pretty cool.) The trail has six places where I have to cross the street. Each place has a pedestrian light, and where there are pedestrian lights available, I use them. I’ve come too close to being run down like an unobservant squirrel too many times to not follow the rules of the road strictly. It’s still not a guarantee of safety when crossing the road, but it is certainly safer than jaywalking. Unfortunately, my insistence on taking every possible precaution against becoming a grease-spot on the road is a big hit on my running time. I guess that I lost between seven and ten minutes waiting for lights. Despite this, the bulk of the run is gorgeous – there’s a lovely little stream to run next to, wildlife scurrying about, and best of all…crocuses. I spotted crocuses in bloom today by the side of the trail. That means that Spring is almost here! Woo hoo!

My time for today’s run was 1 hour 43 seconds for five miles. That’s about a 12 min pace. If you take the waiting at the crosswalks into consideration, that’s really not all that shabby. So, I’m not too disappointed that I didn’t finish it faster. And it was nice to get a little taste of nature out here in this suburban wasteland.

The seven miles I’ve run in the past two days put me over the 90 mile mark for 2008, too! Ten more miles to go to the big 1-0-0!

Book 11: Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream by Barbara Ehrenreich February 25, 2008

Barbara Ehrenreich wrote a book some years ago called Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Making It In America. It was an expose on the struggles of the working poor in the US. I have not shopped at Wal-Mart since reading it (there are plenty of other reasons to avoid Wal-Mart, but that’s another story). In short, I thought well of Ehrenreich for shining light on a world a lot of us are blessedly unaware of.

Bait and Switch was intended to be a similar expose on the struggles of the white-collared unemployed in the US. Once again, the author went undercover, this time as an individual searching for a job in the area of Public Relations.

In short, after nearly a year-long search, she utterly failed to find a job.

I’m not surprised by this given her methods. While she did send out copious numbers of resumes and cover letters in response to advertised positions, she seemed to spend most of her time, effort, and money on the dubious career counseling industry. Her very first self-appointed task was to find and hire not one, but several career counselors and resume writing specialists. I lost track of the amount of money spent on these folks, but it must have been into the thousands of dollars. Then she pursued every opportunity to network…with other unemployed professionals. Most of the book was dedicated to group-therapy-like meetings in which she sat around with her fellow “in transit” employees. These groups ranged from the sad, to the cult-like, to conservative Christian gay-bashing groups.

Everywhere she went she got variations of the same two messages – your unemployment is your fault, and the only way to rectify your situation is to network (often with the intimation that the best way to do this is to fork over big money for the privilege of access to the presenter’s network of contacts). The similarity of the messages isn’t terribly surprising given that she went to the same type of functions over and over again.

I work in corporate America. I got the job I have now because I was fortunate enough to have interned with the company. So, while I work in the environment the author set out to explore, I did not go through the same job search as she did. Still, it seems to me that at least part of the reason her job search was so fruitless is that she focused her efforts in the wrong area. What, pray tell, is the point of asking the jobless for a job?? Go to industry conventions. Go to industry seminars. Go to business retreats – go where there are people working, thinking about their work, and talk to them. A lot of companies these days offer monetary rewards for finding new hires. Give the people working for those companies an opportunity to earn that reward! And the advice of talking to your acquaintances about your job search does seem like a good idea. Talk to your doctor, dentist, the trainer at the gym. You never know who’s going to say “hey, my brother-in-law was just saying that his company just lost their PR person, want his number?”

What baffles me is that despite her failure to find a job using the tactic of networking with her fellow unemployed, she was unable to come up with any other methods to try. Instead, she threw more money at “networking” events and image consultants, who kindly told her that her clothes made her were all wrong, threw out all her makeup, and sold her all new cosmetics.

The plight of the white-collared unemployed does certainly seem to be a serious issue, Ehrenreich’s book is not the place to learn about that issue or what to do about it. Instead of a full exploration of the problem, the book reads like a dire warning: if you have a white-collar job, you’re DOOMED! Given that the message of her most famous book seems to be “if you have a blue-collar job, you’re DOOMED!” It seems that the very large percentage of us Americans are, well… doomed. How depressing.

It’s a shame that Ehrenreich was unable to follow through with her original intent. The subject is most certainly worth exploring. It seems practically criminal to work employees like dogs from the time they get out of college until they reach their 40s or 50s then fire them because their experience deserves higher pay…and all the while salaries for CEOs and other upper management are reported to be higher than ever. Throw in age discrimination (the tendency for hiring managers to favor younger, less experienced, less expensive prospective employers), and you have a system that is severely screwed up when viewed with any humanity. Naturally, the problem doesn’t stop there – the healthcare crisis in this country makes the plight of unemployed white-collar worker even more severe.

Bait and Switch could have made for some excellent reading, I think. Unfortunately, the narrative she did produce is not compelling reading. It’s frustrating…in the wrong way. Instead of being frustrated with the system, I wound up frustrated with a frustrated author. It brings to mind a recent book called Scratch Beginnings – a book written by a college grad who set out to prove Ehrenreich’s book Nickel and Dimed wrong…that it IS still possible to go from nothing (as defined as $25 and the clothes on his back) to supporting himself, owning a car, and living on his own.

Maybe I should undertake the white collar job search experiment myself. Quit my current job and search for another one – then write a book about it the experience. Maybe I’d make a mint…because we know that’s the new American dream.

You Never Know February 21, 2008

One of the phrases I use often is “Well, you never know….” Because, well, you don’t. One thing leads to another and things happen. It’s neat, really.

It can be a lot of fun to start something new and wonder what, if anything will happen because of it. For example, this blog… I put up this blog mostly for my own amusement. I comment on my training for the half marathon, books I’m reading, video games I’m playing, and whatever shiny object has caught my attention for the moment. You know, typical blog fodder.

Well, somehow, my review of Gertude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations caught the attention of the editor for Internet of Book Reviews. Long story short, we exchanged a couple emails and now he’s sending me a book to read and review for his website. It’s not a paid gig, but I get to pick the book to review, and I get to keep the book! Free book! Woo hoo!

The book he’d like me to review is already in the mail and should be here next week. So… cool! Yours truly is moving from amateur book critic to semi-professional book critic! Even if this is the only book review I write, as long as it gets published, I think I can probably legitimately claim to be a part-time freelance book critic, or a semi-professional book critic, or something like that.

Who knew? I didn’t – ’cause you never know!

Book 10: Grave Sight February 20, 2008

 

I am a huge fan of Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series of novels. They’re charming and fun and strike just the perfect tone. They’re nice light reads and thoroughly enjoyable. Harris is a pretty prolific writer – she has several series currently in publication – so I thought I’d give another one a try.

Grave Sight is the first book in Charlaine Harris’ Harper Connelly series. The lead character was struck by lightening when she was in her early teens, and has been able to locate the dead and identify the dead ever since. She’s feels something like a buzzing when she gets close to a dead body. It gets more intense as she gets closer, so she’s able to use that sense to hone in on cadavers. Once she’s close enough, she’s able to immediately tell how the person died by essentially reliving the person’s last moments. This sense of reliving the person’s last moments does not include visions of whoever might have been responsible for the person’s death (in cases of murder).

I was frankly a little disappointed with Grave Sight. The general answer to the mystery was fairly obvious very early on in the book. The setting never really gelled for me, either – the universe Harper inhabits is far more tragic than it is interesting.

Harris’ main characters in the two series I am so far familiar with have quite a bit in common. Both are hard luck stories – Sookie lost her parents as a child, and suffered her share of other trauma, and Harper’s parents were alcoholics and drug addicts that attempted to sell her into prostitution to pay for their habits. Both are close to their brothers. Both have what they might consider “disabilities” (paranormal abilities to you and me).

Despite their similarities, Harper doesn’t have half of Sookie’s charm. The character is still pretty believable, but Sookie has had (and continues to have) the personal resources to stay positive. Harper seems ready to come apart at the seams the second her brother isn’t there to prop her up. Somehow, I never got to care as much about Harper as I did about Sookie.

Harper’s debut wasn’t great, but Grave Sight was an extremely quick read, so I will give the second outing (Grave Surprise) a try and see if things pick up. In the meantime, with all the certainty of someone without creative writing talent, I’d rate this one a pretty solid “Meh.”

Book 9: Gertrude Bell: Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations February 19, 2008

I first heard of Gertrude Bell in an off-hand comment in one of Elizabeth Peter’s Amelia Peabody novels. The titular character mentioned that she didn’t really approve of Gertrude Bell because she fancied herself a king-maker. The Amelia Peabody books are set in late-Victorian Egypt and are written by a woman with a Ph.D. in Egyptology – she knows her history, and the world her characters inhabit is pretty historically accurate. So, off I went to that old standby Wikipedia to see who the heck Gertrude Bell was.

She was the Man, that’s who she was.

Her family was British and extremely wealthy and influential, so her family was able to procure an excellent education for Gertrude, who was highly intelligent and had a talent for languages. (This is worth mentioning because education for women was still controvertial. People were still getting over the idea that education was dangerous to girls’ health – that the effort of learning would overtax girls to the point that they’d up and die. Seriously. People thought that. Educated people.) She was out-spoken, opinionated, and aggressive in an age when women were supposed to be quiet, ignorant, and demure. She was also into one of the extreme sports of the day – mountaineering – and she was amazing at it. She was the first on one or two mountains – beat out the guys! In fact, she was so good that they named a peak after her. Keep in mind that this in before the advent of Gortex, nylon ropes, carabiners, and pretty much all the safety equipment climbers use to keep from, you know, dying. She and her guides pretty much put on a coat and boots and tossed a rope (as in a regular old, incredibly heavy rope that soaks up water like crazy) over their shoulders and headed on up. Wow. Why’d she do it? Because she could. Because she was bored and was looking for a challenge.

Then she discovered Arabic poetry. In a big way. Like some people discover Tivo and are never seen again. It took her nine years, but she mastered the language and became something of an authority on the subject when she published a translation of some classic Arabic poetry. During one of her round-the-world trips (yes, she went around the globe several times) she stopped in the area then called Arabia and fell in love with it. She would spend most of the rest of her life living in, traveling back to, and thinking about that particular portion of the world.

Gertrude became an expert in desert travel. Ever heard of Lawrence of Arabia? He was a buddy of hers – taught him just about everything he knew. As it turns out, desert travel was EXTREMELY dangerous. It wasn’t just the lack of water and dangerous flora and fauna. The people living in the desert were constantly warring with each other, and didn’t hesitate to mess you up (or kill you) if you invaded their territory. Fortunately for Gertrude, she could speak the language perfectly and understood the culture. Women weren’t exactly held in high regard in the culture she was dealing with, so she had that prejudice to deal with, too. You know how she dealt with it? She behaved like royalty. Waltzed right into the sheik’s tent, showed off her talent with Arabic poetry, and expensive presents, and it worked. She had some close calls, of course, but more often than not, she got by on presents, presence, and pure balls. (This is a bit of a simplification, of course.)

Then World War I broke out. She had recently completed an epic trip into the desert and made contact with a huge number of tribes, so she had information that the British military needed. It was the beginning of her political career in the area. Very long story short, she helped identify and crown the first king of Iraq.

The book was pretty good. I get the distinct impression that the author is much more interested in Gertude’s life before her political career in Iraq. Once the book reaches that point in her life, it becomes drier and somewhat less gripping. Up to the point, though, I found myself saying “Wow” every couple of pages. The era in which Gertrude lived, the late 1800s to the early 1920s is a period of interest to me, and I found it interesting to see how one extraordinary woman made a difference during that time. It’s also an interesting look into the history of Iraq – particularly important today. It really never sunk in for me that Iraq is so young a country. Less than 100 years old today. And the mess we’re in about the oil in the region? According to a couple lines in the book, the British got that ball rolling. That conflict is older than the country – people fought over pipelines 100 years ago. Wild.

Wondering why you’ve never heard of Gertrude Bell? One of the reasons is that she was a member of the Anti-Suffrage League. As in, she believed that women should NOT get to vote. I had to read that a couple times for it to sink in – she was so progressive otherwise…why would she take that stance? Turns out she had a pretty good set of reasons. As mentioned before, in Britain at the time women were not educated. They also couldn’t own land – and the current system only gave the vote to people who were landowners. So, for one, she believed that it wasn’t a great idea to give the vote to people who were too ignorant to properly consider and analyze issues. She wanted education for women first. Also, she thought that it’d probably cause a problem if women were all allowed to vote, but men who didn’t own land were not allowed to vote. That…actually sounds pretty reasonable to me. Makes me want to dig up some material on the Suffrage movement in England and the US. So, anyhow, the prevailing theory in the book about why Gertrude isn’t well known is that she was lambasted for her views on Suffrage and generally put on the back shelf because of them.

Anyway, I would recommend this one to anyone with a strong interest in the time period, the woman, or a short history of the creation of Iraq.