All posts by David Todd

book reviews

Book Review: Burnt Sienna, by David Morrell

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On Friday I finished Burnt Sienna, 2000, Warner Books, ISBN 0-446-51964-2, a novel by David Morrell. This is the second of Morrell’s novels I’ve read. The first was The Totem. That was a medical thriller. This was…I’m not sure what genre to put it in. A thriller, I guess.

Chase Malone had been a soldier, having piloted helicopters in the Panama invasion of 1989 and come away from that scarred. Yes, he was wounded, but more importantly he wound up with a dislike for authority of any type. Thus he left the military and took up painting–not houses, as a landscape artist. In ten years he won some renown, and some collectors would pay as much as $200,000 for one of his works. He lived in Cozumel, right on the ocean.

Derek Bellasar, who lived in France, tried to hire him to paint two painting of his wife, one a facial shot and one a nude. Malone turned down the commission, because of his problems with authority. Malone didn’t know Bellasar was a powerful dealer in illegal munitions. Bellasar quickly began interfering in Malone’s life, closing his favorite restaurant and buying his property out from under him. One of Malone’s ex-army buddies showed up. Now working for the CIA, this man talked Malone into accepting the commission, going to Bellasar’s estate near Nice, France, and finding out more about his operation.

The other part of Malone’s assignment was to get Bellasar’s wife out of the compound. It seemed that Bellasar had had three prior wives, all as beautiful as the current one, named Sienna, but they all died in mysterious circumstances about the age of 30, when the bloom of youthful beauty first began to fade. Right before each of them died Bellasar had hired famous artists to paint them, facial and nude.

The story began somewhat predictably. I found myself trying to anticipate the plot (the curse of a wannabe novelist) and being successful at it. I predicted Malone would fall for Sienna, that he would get her out, and how he would get her out. However, all this happened by about the middle of the book; obviously I had miscalculated. Morrell continued to weave his story, giving additional predicaments for Malone to work his way out of. I won’t say much more so as to not give away more of the plot.

The book is an amazingly easy read. Chapters are short, typically two or three pages. Sometimes a chapter break is not even a scene break. Morrell’s writing is spare of excess verbiage, except perhaps in some of the weapons scene. He keeps the story moving. He keeps the plot twists coming. He avoids gratuitous sex and violence. I read it in a little over a week, despite the limited time I had to give to reading. The twenty-five pages a day I had set as a goal was too easy, and I did more than that most days.

I recommend this book to any who like thrillers. It has a few swear words, but it they are sprinkled in very naturally, not gratuitously at all.

Engineering, Fifty Thousand Screaming People, flood studies, Genealogy, Harmony of the gospels, Life Group lessons, reading

4:20 PM, Friday Afternoon

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This has been a full and busy day.

Work wise, I completed the base work on the Little Osage Creek Flood Study. That is, I:

– entered new rainfall data into the hydrology model for the 10-, 50-, 100-, and 500-year rainfall events, and re-ran the run-off calculations. Since I hadn’t run the 500-year before, I had to make adjustments in the overflow structures of eleven detention ponds. By noon, I had a successful run-off model.
– entered the new run-off values into the hydraulics model and re-ran the flood calculations. This was successful at about 3:50 PM. That doesn’t mean I’m quite done with this. I still need to run two phases of ditch improvements and one major future condition, but the hard work is done. Oh, and I still need to write the report, fill out the FEMA forms, and submit it. But with the work today, I consider the hard part done.

I also helped a man in the office with construction site problems.

Personal work wise, I:

– Proofread my article for Internet Genealogy; found a few changes to make; typed the changes; printed the article; proof-read it (in one uninterrupted sitting); found a few more changes to make; typed them; proof-read it and saw it was where I wanted it to be; and e-mailed it to the editor. The article still is not quite finished, because…
– I once again called the professor I wanted to interview for the article, and once again had to leave a message. I’ve found a work-around in case I can’t get a hold of him.
– Mailed my mother-in-law’s income taxes. “So late?” you ask. Yes. She doesn’t owe anything, they don’t owe her anything, she probably doesn’t even need to file at her income level, so yes, quite late, but it’s done for this year.
– Walked a mile on the noon hour.

I approach the end of a day of great accomplishment that made the whole week worthwhile, and somewhat made up for my inefficiencies of the last two weeks, and the two weeks before vacation. I have only 22 pages to go on my reading book, which I will finish tonight and write my review over the weekend. Next in the reading pile is Team Of Rivals, which I am looking forward to. I’m fairly close to finishing the edits on the John Cheney file that I’ve been plodding through a little each night for the last week and a half. I’ll surely have them done by Sunday afternoon, after which I’ll print and file it, file accumulated genealogy papers and clean up my mess in the Dungeon. Hopefully I’ll put genealogy behind me for a while and figure out what to write next. Probably it will be one or two appendixes on the Harmony of the Gospels. Possibly it will be a chapter or two of In Front of 50000 Screaming People. I’ll also consider working on queries for other articles, or fleshing out proposals for the Bible studies I’ve been working on recently.

Too many choices; too little time.

Genealogy, reading, research, Wesley

The Joys of the Day

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This morning, before work, after reading for a few enjoyable minutes in John Wesley’s letters, I had some additional time to do some genealogy work. So I went to the digital library of Brigham Young University (which I discovered only yesterday) and did some more experimentation on how to use the site. I searched for John Cheney, Lynda’s immigrant ancestor on her paternal line, going back to Newbury Massachusetts in 1636 and in Lawford and Mistley, Essexshire, England before that. The search in the “family history collection” returned 33 hits, which I began going through. Some I recognized. Oh, and I admit to taking some work time on this, not starting my business day right at straight up 8 AM. I shall have to make up some time.

One of the hits was a 100 page (approx.) typed manuscript dealing with Cheney families in England. It turned out it was mainly concerned with John Cheney’s English origins. While it did not have the full source citations it needs to have to be fully credible, it’s about the best document on the subject I’ve seen, and worthy of further study. So genealogy was a joy today.

Work was pretty good too. I spent two hours (in two different sessions) with a department head in our office who has a very difficult construction project. I’ve spent much time with him already on this project, but he had two new issues come up that he wanted to get my input on. Such a discussion is good, and enjoyable. I think we worked out the best possible response for him to make. Then it was off to Centerton to deal with the flood study that has plagued me for so long, and resolving one nagging question on the site topography. I’ve dreaded getting back on it, but cannot wait any longer. I finished writing a difficult specification today (another joy), and so I have non-distracted time I can put into this project and get it done. That would be a joy. Oh, wait, I have another one for the City I’ll have to do when I finish this one. At least it is a much simpler flood study. I did the complicated one first.

I left work more or less on time (I’ll make up my time another day) and went to the Bentonville library. Time in a library is always a joy. To be around thousands of books and a hundred different magazines, people studying, librarians working–that’s where I love to be. The hour passed all too quickly, but I found a magazine I might be able to pitch an article to.

Church was enjoyable, a Bible study in Daniel chapter 8.

Now here at home, I read twenty pages in the book I’m working on. Less than 60 pages to go, and it has been an enjoyable read. Now I’m in the Dungeon, on the computer. I worked 30 minutes on the current genealogy project, then this.

How much much joy can a day contain? If it weren’t for having robbed my employer of some time. That was the only blot on the day. Well, buying some chips too. But all in all, I wish all my days were like this.

commuting, trials, Wesley

Spiritual Guidance From John Wesley

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As I continue to spend a few minutes most workday mornings in the letters of John Wesley, I find them a curious mixture. Some of them are for business, about houses rented for chapels and where preachers should be assigned. Some of them are for doctrine and church practices. These tend to be very long and difficult to unravel. Often they take the form of: “You wrote ‘this’, to which I replied ‘this’; then you wrote ‘this’, and I now say this. You would have to have the letters of the other correspondent to truly understand.

But letters of spiritual guidance have, thus far in my reading, been mostly lacking. Until yesterday, when I read a letter Wesley wrote to John Haime, who was either in the army or recently discharged and was a Methodist lay preacher. Here’s what Wesley wrote on June 21, 1748.

Think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which God hath seen good to try you with. Indeed, the chastisement for the present is not joyous, but grievous; nevertheless it will by-and-by bring forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness. It is good for you to be in the fiery furnace; though the flesh be weary to bear it, you shall be purified therein, but not consumed; for there is one with you whose form is as the Son of God. O look up! Take knowledge of Him who spreads underneath you His everlasting arms! Lean upon Him with the whole weight of your soul. He is yours; lay hold upon Him.

No one likes to undergo trials, certainly not trials of enough severity they can be called “fiery”. But fire purifies, so if one approaches the trial with the right attitude and fortitude, the result will be beneficial.

I suppose this also applies to the trials that cannot be described as fiery, the everyday trials that seem bad for a moment but which really aren’t. Such as the driver of the black Kia in front of me, like me poised to turn right at the red light, but who was so timid he/she didn’t take advantage of three or four good gaps to pull out onto Walton Boulevard. Thus my commute was 20 or 30 seconds longer this morning. I called that driver a couple of names (fairly mild; nothing I couldn’t say in front of the wife). It made me feel good for a moment, but bad afterward.

I missed a refining moment this morning. Perhaps it will return today. O look up! Take knowledge of Him who spreads underneath me His everlasting arms! Lean upon Him with the whole weight of my soul. He is mine; lay hold upon Him.

Bible study, Life Group lessons

A re-look at salt

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Our pastor is preaching a series of sermons on the Beatitudes. Since our Life Group just finished a lesson series and had not yet decided on our next series, we (my co-teacher and I) decided to do a series on the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. I get to sit back and listen to my co-teacher on this one.

We began yesterday, looking at Matthew 5:13-16, the salt and light passage. This got me thinking about salt, and what its uses are:

– as a flavoring ingredient. Salt is the king of spices, the one we use too much of, but oh how good it tastes! I have a habit of shaking just a little too hard and a little too long. Supposedly salt brings out the natural flavor of the food, but I wouldn’t swear to that. Obviously, too much salt makes for bad taste; too little salt makes for bland taste.

– as a preservative. Before refrigeration, salt was used often to preserve meats and other foods. In North Carolina, a friend of ours cured hams in his shed. The meat hung there in all seasons. He went out on a regular schedule and did his salt thing with the hams. We ate some at his house, and it was good, salty but still tasty. I’m sure there was a technique he knew about the right amount of salt to use. Too much would have made it unpalatable; too little would have allowed the meat to spoil.

– as a healing agent. Yes, despite the talk of “salt in the wound”, salt actually has healing properties. On board navy vessels, when someone was flogged, the washed the wounds with salt water. That 3 percent salt solution helped the wounds heal. Many other uses of salt are documented. Now, if you put pure salt in the wounds, I imagine that would have a negative effect.

So in all of these, salt is most effective in a certain dose. Too little is ineffective; too much is either bad to taste or unhealthy.

Perhaps this should speak to us about our Christian walk and witness. Our walk has to be pure, but our witness does not have to be the entire salt shaker poured out on every person we come in contact with. The right amount of witness will be attractive, and will build the kingdom.

Or so it seems from my perspective.

memories

Going Back Again

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Last week I was in Rhode Island for the first time in almost five years. Visits there are less frequent now that Dad is gone. Then we went every couple of years to see him (and when we were overseas we made Boston our port of entry and Cranston, Rhode Island our home base for visits to the States), but now it takes a wedding, a funeral, or a business trip to get us east of Chicago. Not many of those come up.

This was the longest time between RI visits for me. Perhaps it was this length of absence, but Rhode Island almost seemed a foreign place. Of course there is the language barrier–accents that are strange after years in the midwest, overseas, south, and for the last eighteen years the border between the south and the midwest, but it’s more than that. Place names are mostly familiar, but not roads. Does RI 37 have an interchange at Pontiac Avenue? I wasn’t sure, but took a chance and it turned out it did. Does this city street extend from Pontiac to Reservoir? I didn’t think so, so I accessed it via Pontiac. Turned out I was right again. But the memories were weak, more instinct based on years of learning how cities and streets develop than memory.

I could write much more about this, but have little time to do so. The visit to the cemetery where my parents and grandparents are buried brought familiar scenes to the fore, a mixture of pleasantness and loss. The trees surrounding Birch Garden in Highland Memorial Park were larger, but it seemed many must have died, for it was not as grown up as I remember it from 1997.

The URI campus was much changed, a mix of familiar and new. Trees bigger. Traffic patterns changed. Frats and Sororities in places I didn’t remember, but with buildings obviously old enough to have been there when I was. The lay of the land and topography seemingly new. New athletic facilities that seemed so large they must have been a waste of taxpayer money. I found I only remembered an axis from Butterfield dormitory to the Student Union and the quad and on to Bliss Hall (the civil engineering building), but little else. Even the streets I used to ride my bicycle on to get to work in Wakefield seemed different. The second dorm I stayed in (only for one semester) I couldn’t have picked out. Maybe if I was on foot, but not from a car.

The years have flowed by, like water in a pipe. Life has taken me down paths I never would have guessed, though the work of my career has turned out quite similar to what I decided on my junior year of high school. Last night Lynda and I were discussing the mini-reunion I had with friends in Cranston last week. That led me to take my senior yearbook from the shelf and spend almost an hour in it, something I haven’t done for probably three decades. So many of the faces were foreign to me, even some of those who signed at their picture. I knew that person? How? It says we were in band together (or English or Chemistry or football or track), but I just don’t remember them. For a lot of years I have limited my ready recall to just those few I was closest to. Maybe that’s how most people do it.

Hopefully I’ll be back in RI new year for my 40th high school reunion. About 680 graduated from Cranston East in 1970. Per actuarial tables, most of us should still be alive, though not all will actually attend. Will seeing people in the flesh bring back the memories? I kind of hope so.

Genealogy, reading, Writing

Trying to Re-focus

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The problem with a vacation is it throws you off your rhythm. When you get back, you have to re-establish your habits, patterns, and practices in all areas of life. At work this week, I’ve been so un-focused on what I need to get done that, instead of CEI paying me, they should charge me for taking up space. Before vacation, I was having a difficult time concentrating at work. I think my desire to complete my work is higher, so from the aspect of rest and relaxation the vacation was a success. Now I just need to work on focusing on what I need to do.

As far as writing and things I need to do around the house, same thing. I have worked very little on my article, very little on such mundane things as paying the bills, working on my budget planning and recording, or household chores. Hopefully I’ll be back to normal on those soon.

The last two nights I managed to get my reading re-focused. The next book in my reading pile was Burnt Sienna, a novel by David Morrell. I had trouble starting it, however, allowing myself to be distracted by the two books of letters I recently purchased (Tolkien and C.S. Lewis). But Tuesday and Wednesday evenings I spend time in Burnt Sienna. I’m not 52 pages into this 379 page book. It’s an easy read, and is holding my interest well.

However, I have found it easy to focus on genealogy–sort of. I’m working on my Events in the Life of John Cheney, who is my wife’s immigrant ancestor to Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 1600s. I have that document quite well along, up to nine pages. My library research in Milford and Fort Wayne turned up some new information about him, however, so I’m adding those events. At the same time, I’m gong through each of over 100 citations and footnotes to correct errors in the way I first entered them. It is quite tedious, with much re-typing needed. My focus hasn’t been perfect, however, and I still get much distracted from the task at hand.

All of which leads me to question the effectiveness of vacations for all people. For me, while the rest and relaxation are good, the loss of routine is bad. All in all, I’d rather be in my routines than off resting.

Health

The Biggest Loser

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Well, our contest at work is over. We began it January 5th with about 20 people. Some of those quit the program; some were laid off. We limped to the finish line yesterday with 10 remaining participants. I had been in the lead since week seven, and had slowly widened that lead–well, I really widened it the week I had food poisoning, but that didn’t last. However, the eleven day road trip didn’t do much for me, even doing isometric exercises while driving. I came back from vacation up about five pounds. So I was worried.

Then, the man who is coordinating the contest sent out an e-mail saying that, due to inconsistencies in how everyone had been weighing, we were to make our final weigh-in with shoes off and pockets empty. I had been emptying my pockets, but not taking off my shoes. That clinched it for me. I came in first, with 7.01% weight loss in the seventeen weeks. I could have done better, but I’ll take it. The prise is a day off with pay, something I don’t really need but will figure out how to use.

Now comes phase two, losing the next 52 pounds to get to the upper end of my ideal weight range. I’d like to be down 25 pounds more by the end of the year, and hopefully cross the next milestone weight by the end of this month.

Stay tuned.

goals

May Goals

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The 5th is a little late to be setting goals for the month, but this is the first chance I’ve had.

1. Complete and submit the article to Internet Genealogy. I’m well along with it right now, and I don’t see this as a problem.

2. Find 3 to 5 more places to submit “Mom’s Letter”. The research is done; I just have to make copies and stuff envelopes.

3. Blog 12 to 14 times.

4. Work on one appendix and one chapter note of the Harmony of the gospels.

5. Write one chapter in In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People.

6. Complete preparation for my two lesson Bible study, Good King, Bad King. It looks now that I won’t be teaching it in May, or any time soon. But I’ve done the research and development, and would like to have it ready on the shelf for some time in the future when I do teach it.

7. Write some closing notes to the Life on a Yo Yo Bible study, perhaps even some promotional items to make it a potentially publishable work, and decide what to do with it.

goals

The April Report

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The month began well, but as can be expected when vacation comes in that month, it did not end all that well.

1. Market “Mom’s Letter” to at least five markets. Some of the markets I’ve selected close to submissions in May, so I have to get that done this month. I accomplished this goal, sending “Mom’s Letter” to exactly five markets. Haven’t heard anything yet, of course.

2. Begin work on “It’s Over Over Here”, my article on Dad’s work with The Stars and Stripes during World War 2. Even if I don’t get the assignment from the magazine, I’d like to write the article. Did not do this. Too many other writing activities took precedence.

3. Complete the beta reading project I’ve committed to. I was doing good on this before my illness, and before tax diversion. I’m 2/3 of the way through this short, young adult novel. I can do this this month. Yes, I completed this. The project was interesting, reading and critiquing a novel whose target audience is teen age girls. Hopefully I did some good.

4. Write at least one chapter of In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. I outlined seven chapters last month; surely I can get one of those written. Nope, did not do this; it didn’t even come up on the radar.

5. Blog 12 to 14 times. This seems to be the thing that is easiest for me, so I’ll bump up my goal a little this month. Yes, I blogged 14 times.

6. Monitor five writing blogs/web sites. This is also easy, and I’m learning much from these sites. I also did this monitoring, something that’s easy to do a day at a time. I have some catching up to do from vacation.

7. Complete the political essay I started on the Baby Boomer generation, and post it to The Senescent Man blog. I’m almost halfway done with this. I completed this, and posted it in four segments at “The Senescent Man” blog. BTW, we three main contributors to “The Senescent Man” got together in real live last Tuesday in Cranston, RI, along with another man, all friends from college, some from high school, some from junior high, and some even from grade school.

8. Get back to writing, at least a little, on the notes and appendixes of the Harmony of the Gospels. I’d like to spend about an hour a week on this, which will give me continued progress by inches. I looked at this a little bit, but did not come even close to spending an hour a week on it. Last month I gave a copy of the work as it stands to my pastor, who told me he is enjoying it, and is anxious to see those appendixes.