Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. I Thess 5:21

I did not become a reader until half-way through graduate school. A couple of reasons why were:

1. my addiction to television (which I’ve since overcome)
2. my lack of time (I had lots of homework until I finished grad-school coursework)
3. I hated reading because my teachers assigned crummy books that THEY thought I should read. They didn’t bother consulting me on the matter.

Now that none of these conditions apply, I thoroughly love to read. I choose what I want to read. However, there are a number of titles that I never read that I probably should read in order to be considered a learned individual. Therefore, 201o will be the year of the SUMMER READING LIST. I’ve consulted a number of different lists of great books, thought about titles that often come up in “JEOPARDY” questions, asked my wife, and consulted some of my students to compile the following list of 30 titles. The only titles that I eliminated from consideration were:

• titles that were incredibly long (I’ve budgeted 2 weeks per book). I’m sure that “Crime & Punishment” and “War & Peace” are great books, just not for this exercise
• books I’ve read already
• books where I saw the movie (regardless of how true to the book the movie is)
• books by chicks (sorry, Jane Austin, the Brontes, and especially Toni Morrison, were what caused my dislike of reading) The exception is “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, but hey it’s a monster book. If it makes any of you feminists feel any better, I do plan on reading “Pride & Prejudice & Zombies” and “Sense & Sensibility and Sea Monsters.”

Without further delay, here is the list:

1. “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain
2. “Slaughterhouse Five” by Kurt Vonnegut
3. “Animal Farm” by George Orwell
4. “Anna Karenina” by Leo Tolstoy
5. “Moby Dick” by Herman Melville
6. “Around the World in 80 Days” by Jules Verne
7. “For Whom the Bell Tolls” by Ernest Hemingway
8. “The Invisible Man” by H.G. Wells
9. 2 Shakespeare plays I haven’t read-TBD
10. “The Pilgrim’s Progress” by John Bunyan
11. “Treasure Island” by Robert Louis Stevenson
12. “Mere Christianity” by C. S. Lewis
13. “The Hobbit” by J.R.R. Tolkein
14. “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley
15. “The Hound of the Baskervilles” by Arthur Conan Doyle
16. “The Agony and the Ecstasy” by Irving Stone (this is for you father-in-law)
17. “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley
18. “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck
19. “Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger
20. “The Brothers Karamazov” by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
21. “The Prince” by Niccolo Machiavelli
22. “Swiss Family Robinson” by Johann Wyss
23. “Gulliver’s Travels” by Jonathan Swift
24. “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame” by Victor Hugo
25. “Robinson Crusoe” by Daniel Defoe
26. “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams
27. “Ulysses” by James Joyce
28. “Catch-22″ by Joseph Heller
29. “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie
30. “A Confederacy of Dunces” by John Toole

Well, today was an exciting day. It all started around 1:30 am on Sunday morning. Dianne began having some really strong contractions. Based on her past history of quick labors, we called our friend to come over and stay with the kids in the house while we went to the hospital. At the hospital, the contractions remained strong, but started to get farther apart. Even after walking laps around the labor & delivery floor, the contractions remained sporadic, and they sent us home around 7:00 am. Our friend went home, and we fed the kids breakfast. Dianne’s contractions continued throughout the morning and we made plans to drop our kids off at church to stay with friends for the day. I met a friend halfway to church and got back home as soon as I could. Good thing. Dianne was definitely in full-on labor. The contractions were very strong, but still around 9 minutes apart. Most hospitals  tell you not to come in until they are 5 minutes apart for a full hour, so we waited. They got to about 6 minutes, and I could see from Dianne’s face that we needed to go. There was no 5 minutes apart. Everything turned into one long continuous contraction. At this point, the car is running, the stuff is in there, and I am wondering if I am going to get Dianne to the car. She had a sensation like her water broke, and things start to move very quickly. While Dianne is getting into the car, I dial the hospital and tell them we are coming quickly, be ready. About a mile down the road, about 4 minutes from the hospital, Dianne informs me that the baby is coming. I suggest to her kindly that it would be a good idea for her to wait a few more minutes, but her water breaks en route. I get on the phone to 911 while in traffic at a red light. The operator asks if I need an ambulance, and after consulting the birth committee, I decide to pull over into the parking lot of the First National Bank. After pulling into a parking spot, I rush over to Dianne’s side of the car, and the baby was there. Everyone asked if I delivered the baby, but I really didn’t do anything.  I was just the only guy who was there to sign for the package. The ambulance arrived on the scene in about 2 minutes, and I let the professionals take over. Everyone got to the hospital in great shape. Mommy and baby are doing great. She weighed in at 7 lbs 8 oz.

I just finished reading “John Quincy Adams” by Lynn Hudson Parsons. Great biography. It was nice that it was only about 300 pages, unlike the other biographies that I end up reading that have more like 600. The author does a great job of encapsulating our 6th president’s life without using “historian speak” or editoriallizing too much. I believe only David McCullough could write a better bio. I can sum JQA up by saying he was a very learned man, someone with a servant’s heart, a patriot and statesman like his father, but a lousy president and politician. I find it interesting that the author devotes very little time to his actual presidency other than to show how his distaste and therefore lack of “electioneering” pretty much made him easy pickings for his opponents. I can’t say I agree completely with all of his political philosophies, but the man had principles and a devotion to the Union. The fact that he was called into service as a member of the House of Representatives after he was president until the day he died (he actually died in the House) shows his statesmanship. His work as an opponent of the spread of slavery will be his legacy, and though historians are not kind to his years in the White House, no historian can doubt his integrity and love for his country. Overall, this bio gets 4 stars. Thanks for reading.

Shear Lake at Camp Barakel

This past weekend my wife was gracious enough to send me to a much needed men’s retreat at Camp Barakel. I dropped the family off in Ohio with grandparents and I headed on up to northern Michigan. The speaker for the weekend was Tom Harmon who is the father of our best friends in Michigan. He is truly a Godly speaker. I’ve listened to him preach in person a few times, and I’ve downloaded many of his Barakel messages. Perhaps the most needed part of the entire weekend was being away from all media: no wifi, no cell phone (other than to talk to my wife a couple of times), no TV, no football, no newspapers, no Facebook, no Twitter, nothing. It was great being with 300 other Christian men in the midst of the woods, with a beautiful lake right outside my cabin window. The worship services were amazing! Imagine all these big, burly men, singing out wonderful choruses, and genuinely pouring their hearts out to the Lord in song. There were no ties, there were no suits; think lots of flannel and cammo. The messages were just what we needed. Tom Harmon lays it out very plain and simple and the Holy Spirit makes sure each man hears what he needs to hear. There was much time for quiet reflection too. I thanked the Lord for my wife, my children, and the students he has given me charge over. Many tears were shed. It had been 4 or 5 years since my last visit, but I hope to make this a more regular trip. Barakel in hebrew means “where God has blessed.” God surely has blessed Camp Barakel, and I received many blessings by being there.

Yesterday, the Little Man and I had our traditional meal at the Greek Food Festival. I’ve been every year since I’ve been in PA, and various members of the family have accompanied me. However, since it’s usually a very crowded affair, and eating out with all the children usually turns into a fiasco, it’s become a boys night out. We’ve been three years in a row, and each year it gets more special. Traditions need not be elaborate, just something simple you can share with your family.

The Little Man enjoying his baklava sundae

Just finished reading “Predictably Irrational” by Dan Ariely. It was an unabridged audiobook, so my wife claims I didn’t “read” it though. Call it what you wish; I absorbed it into my melon. It was a very fascinating look into why we make the decisions that we do. I especially like how he describes the various experiments he and his colleagues performed. It also helped that the reader had a wonderful british accent, so that made the experience very enjoyable. All in all, I highly recommend this title, and I plan on giving it 4 stars. Cheers.

Wow. That was a little scary. Deleting all the content, editing the PHP file, re-uploading, whoops error. Got it fixed, mistakenly put a comma where there should have been a period. Big relief to see the page load correctly.

Most people view January 1st as a time to start fresh, make a New Year’s resolution and forget about the mistakes of the past. As an academic, I tend to view the start of a new academic year as the time to wipe the slate clean. I love this time of year; the weather is not too hot and not to cold. Football season is just around the corner (this will be the year of the Titans by the way), and a new cohort of students have a arrived on campus. Just like most of my students, I look back on the previous semester and think that I was too disorganized, didn’t get everything I wanted done, and didn’t perform as well as I wanted to. And just like most of my students I say “things are going to be different this semester.” This will be the semester I’m going to:
*be two weeks ahead in all of my classes
*come up with brilliant demonstrations to wow my students
*effectively manage my 4 senior research students and get enough results so that I can write a publication with each one.
*really make connections with some of my students and truly be a mentor to them.
*not get bogged down with grading lab reports.
…and the list goes on and on. They say good intentions pave the way to you know where, but I guess it never hurts to try. I did have a good first day. I am two weeks ahead in my classes. My desk is clean heading into day two. So we shall see how long my two-week cushion lasts. I have a new teaching project I want to start this year, I have some interesting projects planned for my upper-level lab, and I am confident my seniors will work hard on their research. I’ve been really blessed to have the position I have. I never dread going in to work, my colleagues are my friends, and my students always motivate me to be a better professor. Who knows, maybe this WILL be the semester where I realize near Jedi-like teaching abilities, publish a paper or two, and keep my inbox clean. It never hurts to dream.

I’m trying to link my blog updates to my Facebook profile. Please excuse this test, it’s only a test. If this had been an actual status update, it would have been followed by news, photos, or other useless information. Thank you.