reading (The Grim Grotto)

I finished "The Grim Grotto" last weekend, just a little off pace for the first book of the year. This, the 11th in the Series of Unfortunate Events, increases in moral muddiness, morose moodiness, mongrel mushrooms, and marauding meanies. The readers should be considerably grown up since book one, if they aren't when they climb onboard, they will be by the time they hit the beach. The theme words here are becoming increasingly more sophisticated, a word here which means dark and adult. Where in book one we laughed at Snicket's dark prognostications, now the edge has been sharpened up and sprinkled with poison.

1. Lemony Snicket "The Grim Grotto"

reading (Look Me in the Eye)

I finished up "Look Me in the Eye" yesterday evening. This book is a memoir of an Aspergian, who grew up before the world really knew what asperger's was. Robison tells the stories of his youth well and the first part of the book works its way through his youth with a mix of humor and difficulty. The writing is straightforward and sometimes simplistic, but it's fitting for most of the telling. It's the voice you expect to hear. The second half of the book is much more choppy as Robison tries to cover a much larger span of time, while simultaneously making themed chapters. I get the feeling he edited this part much more heavily and cut and pasted bits together, although it could be that it was tough to find stories as wild and interesting as his youth.

Toward the end of the book there is a chapter that's really rough on the reader. It's told simply, but well. He doesn't pull the punch, you have to take it full on in the face. It is real and real sucks. The paperback version ends with an info dump about the most recent research and other facts, which I found to be a good selection, but it feel like the book kept ending, then going on, then ending. That said, I appreciated the information.

I think a lot of us are "on the spectrum" in our youth and slowly learn tricks to pretend we're really social creatures. As I read this book, a lot of it was familiar. Some of it was dead on for me. If I look you in the eye when I'm talking to you I'm only talking with one third of my brain, the other two thirds are concentrating on doing something completely unnatural. I have to admit I'm a bit pissed that Robison had to adapt so far, had to give up so much of what was integrally him, to be accepted in society. He admits he gave up his greatest talents in order to rewire his brain and conform at least partially to society. Think of what we, as a society, loose each time we stamp out anything that is outside the first sigma of the bell curve.

2. John Elder Robison "Look Me in the Eye"

at least it's not congress

Well, I'm still trying to make progress, but I've discovered that if I stop to relax on weekdays, the whole progress thing goes right down the crapper. It's like this: I only have so many hours and if I spend a lot of them at work and a pretty fair number of them sleeping, that doesn't leave much time for eating, daily duties, and making progress on projects. How do people with kids manage? I'd completely loose my mind if I also had to deal with all the needs of an ankle biter.

At least I haven't started to fall behind in a grand and obvious manner, but I'm not blazing ahead either. Losing a day this weekend to lethargy and vague illness didn't help matters. Today I was productive at work and semi-productive at home at least. I've got to find some simple things done to build up momentum again.

I have utterly failed to get anything done on the exercise front. That needs to change.