2008 Reading List

As one of my goals for 2009, I plan to read six (6) books, as compared to zero (0) books finished in 2008. (See the entry below for my other goals.) The feat would be a good one for me a failed reader, but many of my friends and family do much better and read more books during a good month.

Both my brother and my friend Brian are two people who read a lot. My brother lives in a monastery, and you can see that impacts half of his reading list. (Brian used to travel a lot as a consultant, but not much anymore.) As my brother told me, "If I’m not praying, then I’m probably in my cell reading. That’s part of being a monk, I guess." He is also in graduate student but excluded required reading, as well as books that he did not read cover-to-cover. I thought to ask Brian for a list of his 2008 reads. My brother loves lists, so he had been keeping track along the way.

I wish I read as much as they do. I start out at a disadvantage as both of them read much faster than I do, at least twice as fast. For most novels, I read approximately ten (10) pages per hour. Relatively recent exceptions are the Harry Potter books, which have margins that allow only a couple of dozen words per page, and the Da Vinci Code, which starts a new chapter, skipping to a new page, every few pages. Also, I just don't put the time in, which is a choice I make with the limited time I seem to have with other obligations and hobbies.

Books Read in 2008

K.C./Brother Philip (alphabetically by author, and chronologically for the same author)
1. Aristotle – Categories
2. Benedict XVI – Deus Caritas Est
3. Benedict XVI – Sacramentum Caritatis
4. Benedict XVI – Spe Salvi
5. Derek Bickerton – Language and Human Behavior
6. Benjamin Black – The Lemur
7. Heinrich Böll – The Lost Honor of Katharina Blum
8. Louis Bouyer – The Meaning of the Monastic Life
9. Louis Bouyer – The Roman Socrates
10. Mikhail Bulgakov – The Master and Margarita
11. Paul Cobley – Introducing Semiotics
12. Jean Daniélou – Prayer: The Mission of the Church
13. John Deeley – C.S. Peirce and the Recovery of Signum
14. Francois de Sales – The Spiritual Conferences
15. Charles Dickens – Great Expectations
16. Albert Einstein – Relativity: The Special and General Theory
17. William Faulkner – As I Lay Dying
18. Penelope Fitzgerald – The Bookshop
19. Penelope Fitzgerald – Offshore
20. Penelope Fitzgerald – Human Voices
21. Penelope Fitzgerald – The Beginning of Spring
22. Penelope Fitzgerald – The Gate of Angels
23. Penelope Fitzgerald – The Blue Flower
24. Nadine Gordimer – My Son's Story
25. Brian Greene – The Fabric of the Cosmos
26. Graham Greene – Brighton Rock
27. Graham Greene – Travels with My Aunt
28. Graham Greene – Monsignor Quixote
29. Colin Harrison – Mrs. Corbett’s Request
30. Martin Heidegger – Introduction to Metaphysics
31. Victor Hugo – Les Misérables
32. Basil Hume – To Be a Pilgrim
33. Kazuo Ishiguro – A Pale View of Hills
34. Henry James – The American (in progress)
35. Søren Kierkegaard – Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing
36. Søren Kierkegaard – The Sickness unto Death
37. Robert Kysar – John the Maverick Gospel
38. Laura Lippman – The Girl in the Green Raincoat (in progress)
39. Bernard Lonergan – Understanding and Being
40. Bernard Lonergan – Method in Theology
41. Michael J. Loux – Metaphysics
42. Gabriel García Márquez – Cien Años de Soledad
43. Cormac McCarthy – The Road
44. Ian McEwan – Saturday
45. Flannery O'Connor – Wise Blood
46. Joseph Ratzinger – ‘In the Beginning…’
47. José Saramago – Blindness
48. Angelo Scola – Hans Urs von Balthasar: A Theological Style
49. John Steinbeck – The Winter of Our Discontent
50. Hans Urs von Balthasar – Love Alone Is Credible
51. Hans Urs von Balthasar – Engagement with God
52. Evelyn Waugh – A Handful of Dust
53. Steven Weinberg – The First Three Minutes
54. Ludwig Wittgenstein – Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus


Brian (chronologically)

1. Eat, Pray, Love – Elizabeth Gilbert
2. I Hope They Server Beer in Hell – Tucker Max
3. World War Z – Max Brooks
4. Wish You Were Here – Mike Gayle
5. Fearless Fourteen – Janet Evanovich
6. Plum Lovin' – Janet Evanovich
7. Kitchen Confidential – Anthony Bourdain
8. I Was Told There'd Be Cake – Sloane Crosley
9. In The Woods – Tara French
10. The Book of Joe –Jonathan Tropper
11. Rigged – Ben Mezrich
12. Brand New Friend – Mike Gayle
13. When You Are Engulfed in Flames – David Sedaris
14. Creepers – David Morrell
15. Paradox of Choice: Why More Is Less – Barry Schwartz
16. Mine All Mine – Adam Davies
17. The Spy Who Came For Christmas – David Morrell

N.B.: He started reading The Fabric of the Cosmos by Brain Greene in December 2007, but read most of it in January 2008.

New Year's Resolutions

I used to make New Year's resolutions when I was younger, but I almost always failed, eventually paralyzed by disappointment in past failings. It was at around the time that I stopped making resolutions that I had the resolve to "make things happen." The last few years have been good ones and I have gotten a lot accomplished except on the housework front. Nonetheless, as New Year's Rick-rolled around, I heard people around me discuss their goals for 2009, which I found remarkable enough to list here and to inspire me to try again.

(1) My brother advised that he wants to read 15,000 pages and to run 750 miles. (Without a specific goal, he read more than 17,000 pages and ran approximately 400 miles.)

(2) Some friends at work and I have begun to enjoy fine whiskeys together on a regular basis after work. While we enjoyed 16 year-old The Glenlivet Nàdurra (57.2%), Frank, the host this round, mentioned a goal -- to try every Scotch whiskey served at the Duke of Perth. The list of those spirits with their respective ages follows below.

(3) I have learned from history to some degree. However, as I consider making goals -- not resolutions -- for 2009, I wonder if the syntactical variance (goal vs. resolution) is enough to provide a tactical advantage so as to evade the doom of repeating my history of failed resolutions. It will be an interesting experiment at the very least. So here are my goals for 2009 to improve on 2008. Now that I've made them concrete, there's no backing down.

My Goals
To watch five (5) films in the movie theater.
To read six (6) books.
To shoot 1,000 exposures of photography for artistic purposes (excepting snapshots).
To run 750 miles.
To publish two (2) articles.
To double my per-month savings as compared to 2008.

Duke of Perth's Malt List
Highland
Balblair 16
Clynelish 14
Dalmore 12
Dalmore 21
Dalmore "Stillman's Dram" 28
Dalwhinnie 15
Edradour 10
GlenDronach "Original" 12
GlenGarioch 15
Glengoyne 10
Glengoyne 12
Glengoyne 17
Glenmorangie 10
Glenmorangie "Burgundy" 12
Glenmorangie "Madeira" 12
Glenmorangie "Port" 12
Glenmorangie "Sherry" 12
Glenmorangie 18

Island
Ardbeg (Islay) 10
Ardbeg "Uigeadail"
Bowmore (Islay) 12
Bowmore 17
Bowmore cask strength
Bowmore Darkest Sherry cask
Bruichladdich (Islay) 10
Bruichladdich "Links" 14
Bruichladdich 15
Bruichhabhain (Islay) 12
Carol Ila (Islay) 12
Caol Ila 18
Highland Park (Orkney) 12
Highland Park 18
Isle of Jura 10
Isle of Jura 16
Lagavulin 16
Laphroaig (Islay) 10
Laphroaig Orig. Cask Strength 10
Laphroaig 15
Talisker (Skye) 10
Talisker (Skye) 18
Tobermory 10
Scapa 14
Springbank 10
Springbank "100" 10
Springbank 15

Lowland
Auchentoshan 10
Auchentoshan "Three Woods"
Auchentoshan 21
Glenkinchie 10

Speyside
Aberlour 10
Aberlour 15
Aberlour a 'bunadh
Balvenie (Founders Reserve) 10
Balvenie (Doublewood) 12
Balvenie (Single Barrel) 15
Balvenie (Portwood) 21
BenRiach "Curiositas" 10
BenRiach 12
Benromach
Cragganmore 12
Cragganmore 16
Glenfiddich 12
Glenfiddich 18
The Glenlivet 12
The Glenlivet 18
Glenrothes "1992" 12
Macallan 12
Macallan "Cask Strength"
Macallan 18
Macallan 25
Macallan "Fine Oak" 10
Macallan "Fine Oak" 15
Oban 14
Strathisla 36
Tamdhu
Tomintoul 16

Vatted
Famous Grouse 18

Christmas Tunes: Celebratory, Murderous and Inappropriate

With the current holiday season, I have been playing my Christmas Mix in the car and in my office. A full run-through takes more than three (3) hours, and it gets a bit longer every year. While I enjoy just about every song, arrangement and vocal performance on the mix, a number of songs still lift my spirits more than others. While we've got a handful of days left to play the music, I thought I would list my favorite Christmas carols.

Traditional:
1. O Holy Night
2. Ode to Joy
3. O Christmas Tree
4. O Come All Ye Faithful

Apparently, if it starts with an "O," it's golden. (Yet another happy coincidence is that Jenn and I have the same favorite traditional hymn.) For the sake of consistency, I almost put "O Come, O Come Emmanuel" or "O Little Town of Bethlehem" at the five spot. None after these four (4) stood out in mind particularly.

Non-Traditional:
1. All I Want for Christmas Is You -- Mariah Carey
2. Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime -- The Beatles
3. I Want an Alien for Christmas -- Fountains of Wayne
4. Glad Tidings -- Van Morrison
5. Christmas All Over Again -- Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

On the subject of holiday songs, there are a couple that I occasionally find unsettling. First, I've long suspected that "Winter Wonderland" has subtle assassination undertones. The main characters of the song build a snowman (a winter version of a "straw man"). After they say staged code words to establish contact, the straw man does the hit (i.e., the "job"). The straw man takes the fall, and the main characters conspire to make their plans for their next hit. Mr. and Mrs. Smith live happily ever after in the winter wonderland. Read the lyrics and decide for yourself.

In the meadow we can build a snowman
Then pretend he is Parson Brown
He'll say: Are you married?
We'll say: No man,
But you can do the job
When you're in town
Later on
We'll conspire
As we dream by the fire,
To face unafraid
The plans that we've made
Walking in a winter wonderland.

Second, in a different way, certain versions of "Baby, It's Cold Outside" make me uncomfortable. I can appreciate some renditions that retain the playfulness of a couple debating whether to extend their evening together. However, I find some male vocals creepy. As I fidget in my seat, I only hear the "gentleman" who refuses to appreciate that "no means no." I presume that I have twisted the point of the song, but modern sensibilities and sensitivities have made either me hard of hearing or it hard to hear. I wonder what the equivalent of a "roofie" was in 1944, the year that the song was written.

My mother will start worry. (Beautiful, what's your hurry?) My father will be pacing the floor. (Listen to the fireplace roar.) So really, I'd better scurry. (Beautiful, please don't hurry.) But maybe just a half a drink more. (Put some records on while I pour.) The neighbors might faint. (Baby, it's bad out there.) Say, what's in this drink? (No cabs to be had out there.) I wish I knew how . . . (Your eyes are like starlight now.) to break this spell. (I'll take your hat; your hair looks swell.) I ought to say, "No, no, no sir."(Mind if I move in closer?) At least I'm gonna say that I tried. (What's the sense in hurtin' my pride?) I really can't stay. (Oh baby, don't hold out.)

[Baby, it's cold in jail.]

Top Five Holiday Movies

With the holidays here, many of us will be spending a lot of time with those people who are most important to us. Along those lines, I surveyed some of my family and friends, specifically those with whom I have watched the most movies during my lifetime, and asked for their five (5) favorite holiday movies. Coincidentally, they are the people (excluding the priest) who stood closest to me on the wedding altar. Feel free to discuss or add to you Netflix queue.

My List:
1. It's a Wonderful Life
2. About a Boy
3. Millions
4. Home Alone
5. Die Hard

About a Boy is a subtle Christmas movie, starting and ending with the holiday and relying on the royalties from "Santa's Super Sleigh." If that is too much of a stretch, you can switch it out with Brazil, which takes place completely at Christmastime, even though I do not really consider it to be a Christmas movie.

Jenn, my bride:
1. Love Actually
2. Millions
3. While You Were Sleeping
4. Family Man
5. Muppet Christmas Carol

K.C. (Br. Philip), my brother and best man:
1. It’s a Wonderful Life
2. Home Alone
3. Die Hard
4. Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
5. Millions

I guess it makes sense that my brother and I would have so many similar favorite movies. We used to watch Home Alone every year together. We even quoted the Pepsi commercial at the beginning of the VHS tape. Unfortunately, the more current dvd did not retain the commercial.

Jamie, one of the groomsmen:
1. Bad Santa
2. Planes, Trains and Automobiles
3. Christmas Story
4. National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
5. Love Actually

Brian, the other groomsmen: (in no particular order)
It's A Wonderful Life
Miracle on 34th Street
Christmas Eve on Sesame Street
Muppet Family Christmas
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

I welcome you to leave your suggestions for overlooked holiday films as a comment here or in an email.

Time Magazine's 10 Best of Everything

Time Magazine has recently published "top ten" lists of 2008 topics ranging from current events to pop culture. The author of a few of them happens to be a good friend from college and one of the most talented writers that I know. While a few personal lists intended for this blog wait in the wings of cyberspace, I thought I would post a link to a few of Rebecca Winters Keegan's lists.

Top Ten Awkward Moments:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2008/top10/article/0,30583,1855948_1864014_1864024,00.html
The link is to number 10, and I recommend that you hit the Time.com's link "Back" to progress from 10 to 1. I am happy to report that I was not involved in any of the top ten. I won't push my luck and ask the author about numbers eleven through twenty.

Top Ten Scandals:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2008/top10/article/0,30583,1855948_1863946_1863958,00.html

Top Ten Breakups:
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2008/top10/article/0,30583,1855948_1863878_1864091,00.html

In addition, the following link leads to Time.com's page of its fifty "top ten" lists, which in turn include many other entertaining lists, though not written by my college friend.
http://www.time.com/time/specials/2008/top10

I adore lists of lists in the same way that I enjoy chocolate-covered chocolate with a side of chocolate, wrapped in a chocolate container.

So This Guys Walks into a Blog

You know that old joke about a guy walking into bar. Well, there are innumerable permutations on the joke. So only six (6) months after starting my first blog, I have to start a new one. While http://www.jennandkinnier.blogspot.com/ discusses the adventures of my wife and me including, most recently, our attempt to run our first marathon to benefit the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, this one will focus on lists of mine, my friends, and publications that I encounter. We're just starting out but hope to make Listimosa, a pun on my last name, a good one.

I constantly try to improve on the first blog, which will continue. My friend Peter coincidentally sent a link to a blog by a gentleman named Merlin Mann that covers, among other things, amateur photography. While cruising the site, I discovered his list about what makes a good blog. I enjoyed it and thought it would be good to reproduce here as one of the blog's first lists. (I have done so in accordance with the Creative Common License and the site's rules.)

The information pasted below originally appeared in 43 Folders®, a registered trademark of Merlin Mann. (This is the second person named Merlin who has had a big impact on the 2008 infancy of each of my blogs.) The URL for the original is http://www.43folders.com/2008/08/19/good-blogs. I am enjoying his blog so far and recommend it. By the way, the link at the bottom of his blog entry links to a bunch of humorous "top-five" lists. The lists of lists is quickly growing. This is quickly becoming very "meta," which is my favorite pseudo-intellectual term.

As I think about the blogs I’ve returned to over the years — and the increasingly few new ones that really grab my attention — I want to start with, ironically enough, a list. Here’s what I think helps make for a good blog.
1. Good blogs have a voice. Who wrote this? What is their name? What can I figure out about who they are that they have never overtly told me? What’s their personality like and what do they have to contribute — even when it’s “just” curation. What tics and foibles fascinate make me about this blog and the person who makes it? Most importantly: what obsesses this person?
2. Good blogs reflect focused obsessions. People start real blogs because they think about something a lot. Maybe even five things. But, their brain so overflows with curiosity about a family of topics that they can’t stop reading and writing about it. They make and consume smart forebrain porn. So: where do this person’s obsessions take them?
3. Good blogs are the product of “Attention times Interest.” A blog shows me where someone’s attention tends to go. Then, on some level, they encourage me to follow the evolution of their interest through a day or a year. There’s a story here. Ethical “via” links make it easy for me to follow their specific trail of attention, then join them for a walk made out of words.
4. Good blog posts are made of paragraphs. Blog posts are written, not defecated. They show some level of craft, thinking, and continuity beyond the word count mandated by the Owner of Your Plantation. If a blog has fixed limits on post minimums and maximums? It’s not a blog: it’s a website that hires writers. Which is fine. But, it’s not really a blog.
5. Good “non-post” blogs have style and curation. Some of the best blogs use unusual formats, employ only photos and video, or utilize the list format to artistic effect. I regret there are not more blogs that see format as the container for creativity — rather than an excuse to write less or link without context more.
6. Good blogs are weird. Blogs make fart noises and occasionally vex readers with the degree to which the blogger’s obsession will inevitably diverge from the reader’s. If this isn’t happening every few weeks, the blogger is either bored, half-assing, or taking new medication.
7. Good blogs make you want to start your own blog. At some point, everyone wants to kill the Buddha and make their own obsessions the focus. This is good. It means you care.
8. Good blogs try. I’ve come to believe that creative life in the first-world comes down to those who try just a little bit harder. Then, there’s the other 98%. They’re still eating the free continental breakfast over at FriendFeed. A good blog is written by a blogger who thinks longer, works harder, and obsesses more. Ultimately, a good blogger tries. That’s why “good” is getting rare.
9. Good blogs know when to break their own rules. Duh. I made a list, didn’t I? Yes. I did. Big fan.
And, yeah, you should disagree with potentially all of this. It’s because I have an opinion, and so do you. It’s why you probably have a blog. See? The system works.

Team They Might Be Runners

We successfully completed our AIDS Marathon mission. To start out our new blog, we thought it would be fitting to list the extended They Might Be Runners Team List, which includes all those who donated to the AIDS Foundation of Chicago on our way to the finish line.

They Might Be Runners Team List
Donations to Date: $9,001
Team Donors: 195

Jennifer Cheng and Kinnier Lastimosa
* #1 FANS *
Augusto and Cynthia Lastimosa
* CHEERLEADERS *
Natacha von Will along with Segal McCambridge Singer & Mahoney
Tom Brusstar and Sue Hasegawa
Dick Geddes
Matt and Jenna Buda Farrell
John and Robin Diebold
Don and Mary Valente
Martin and Mely dela Rosa
Reid and Jennifer Quinn Broda
Vince and Joanne Ansiaux along with the Aon Foundation
* SUPPORTERS *
Brian and Amy McGrath
Deirdre Smith
Peter and Jen Preston
Andrew and Eleanor Su
Brad Habansky & Guise Chic
Darrin Weidman
Ellen Girard
Vivian Tang
Andrew and Sara Alderman
Peter Ashmore
Maureen Carroll
Donna Osman
Brian Au
Garrett and Cynthia Arrotti Carter
Ana Watson
Won Kim
Nick and Maja Butovich
Bob and Jen Fabsik
Cameron and Becca Cohen
Alyx Pattison
David Gee
Alex and Marian Brinkman
Anthony Anscombe
Crandon Gustafson
Paul and Sophia Cheng
Lance and Christina Erickson
Eric and Bethany Scheiner
Christine Bielinski
Bruce and Phyllis Carr
James Kelly
Lance Lawson and Jim Wetzel and Our Friends at Jake
Diana Tremback
* BOOSTER CLUB *
Merlin Tripp
David and Catherine Goldhaber
James and Elisa Wright
David Dolendi
Simon Chao
Robert Fabsik, Sr. and Kathy Fabsik
Kirt and Erica Galligher
Theresa Biedermann
Michelle Grasparil
Allen and Cecilia Rupert
Erik Ojala
Christopher Cheng
Dina Merrell
Michelle Lamoreaux
Bob Glaves
Lori Sampson
William and Gloria Erdman
Donna Kowalczyk
Dennis McEleney
Pankaj and Sarah Joshi
Jess Kuchinski
Ashley Scott
Mark Piepsney
Sarah Streicker
Billy Mills
Andrew Cornelius
Jacqueline Nolley
Fr. Bernard Marton
Catalina Sugayan
Tim Lessman
Leesha Hodel
Megan Rundle
Jamie Strohl
Jamie Hull
Eileen Navarro
Marty Kopach, Jr.
Maria Valente
Becky Mayka
Ivan Poullaos
Adam and Kate VanGrack
Chris and Mary Pat Carl
Laura Odom
Hector Rivera
Christy Schnitzler
Jessica Peroutky
Ken and Janine Fabsik
Lakeview Cleaners
Kathryn Smith
Jennifer Biesboer
Frank Rose and Roberta Lencioni-Rose
Patrick and Keturah Christmas
Carol Gerner
Shawn Smith