Reasons you might not respond to an email

I started this list as a way of working out my frustration over people not responding to emails I sent. Writing out these reasons has helped me to better understand where people are coming from, and I've realized that *gasp* I have even been guilty of some of these!

Reasons you might not respond to an email:

• you skim and ignore anything not life and death, because....
• you have too many emails
• you consider email to be a lower-priority form of communication
• you think emails are like bulletins: info only.
• you are too lazy to develop an opinion.
• you are too lazy to type their opinion.
• you don't care about the topic or event.
• you forget to go back and reply to an email you read the day before.
• you assume that no reply means "No"
• you enjoy the power-trip of holding the sender in suspense
• your computer doesn't work
• you don't have access to email
• you don't check email often enough, so....
• you don't see the email way down in their inbox.
• the event under discussion is past.
• you share an email account, and someone else has already opened the message, so you don't notice it.

Do you have any additions to the list?
Which ones are you guilty of?

Defining My Genre: Alternate View

You may be wondering why I'm defining My Genre at all, instead of merely saying that I like adventure stories, and listing some of my favorites. Here's why:

I have in my mind a sort of "ultimate story." Every book I read, and every movie I see adds something to that story. The narratives that define My Genre are the ones whose elements most concisely tell my ultimate story.

Now that I've written this series (in a mostly linear fashion, without knowing where I was going) I realize that "genre" isn't really the best word to use. It would be more accurate to say that what I am defining here is "The stories that are most representative of everything I've ever read or watched."

Car stereo theft

Sometime between Friday night and Monday morning, some idiot broke my car window and stole my stereo. I have to laugh at them because the stereo doesn't work, but $108 to fix the window doesn't make me laugh. They also stole a case with some of LR's and my old tapes. Again, not a great loss, but the annoying thing is that they'll probably end up in a dumpster; if only I knew which one! Ryan pointed out that if I hadn't locked my door, it would have saved me a lot of money. I may have to try that....

Defining My Genre: Conclusion

When I was young, my preferred type of book was set in the Far North. Man against Nature, or Animal against Animal, Man and Nature. For most of my teenage and adult life I've read almost exclusively science fiction books. But every once in a while, as with the LEGO sets, I take a totally different track. The last three books I read were The Mists of Avalon (classic science fiction), The Dragon Queen (new science fiction), and The Voice In My Heart (an autobiography of a Burundian genocide survivor). I am currently reading The Raven Warrior (sequel to The Dragon Queen).

I've realized there is a common theme: adventure. Surviving in a harsh environment, traveling through space, riding with King Arthur and his knights, surviving a brutal attack: they are all about feats of strength and daring; about brave people doing amazing things.

That is My Genre.

Defining My Genre: Part 3

For most of my life, when I've built stuff with LEGO bricks, I've built space ships. When I was growing up "Space Lego" was popular, and there were a lot of sets to drool over in the LEGO catalog. I couldn't afford much, but I bought a few small ones and combined it with my brother's old LEGO to build what I could.

I built a thousand and one variations on a number of basic space ship designs, dictated partly by my imagination, and partly by the limitations of the pieces I had. Nowadays, when I build with LEGO, I still often built spaceships. They're fun, and the mechanical nature of LEGO is conducive to making machines, even if they only function in my imagination.

Given my 20-year fascination with building spaceships, I'm still not entirely sure why the one time in my life I spent big bucks on a LEGO set, I bought a pirate ship instead of a spaceship. I've analyzed this decision many times over the years, and the one conclusion I can come to was that the spirit of the pirate ship appealed to me. Swashbuckling, climbing ropes, sailing the high seas in myriad adventures.... I'm not sure why I didn't imagine similar fun things about space travel; maybe I was just needed a break from space. Ironically, my fascination with piracy soon faded, and I used the pieces from my new set to build.....more spaceships!

What does this have to do with My Genre? You will see......

Defining My Genre Part 2

These days, I watch many more movies than I read books, but there are similar standards against which I consciously or unconsciously compare other films. These include:

Star Wars (original trilogy, of course)
The Bourne Identity
Pulp Fiction

There are other amazing films that I enjoy, and that, in my opinion, are the ultimate pinnacle of their respective genre, as if all other works in that genre were just rough drafts of these culminary works. These include:

The Lion King (Disney film)
Serenity (Science fiction/Western)
The Matrix (Science fiction/Action)

Defining My Genre Part 1

While trying to come up with a list of my favorite books for my profile, I realized that the books and films I've enjoyed the most over the course of my life are not necessarily the same as the ones that have had the most impact on me. When I read new books, or watch movies, I subconsciously compare everything to the books that define what I'll call "My Genre." When it comes to my occasional attempts at writing my own books, I find that many of my ideas are also strongly influenced by these formative books:

The Keeper of the Isis Light (by Monica Hughes)
The Chronicles of Narnia (by C.S. Lewis)
The Chrysalids (by John Wyndham)

Just for the record, some books that I enjoyed but were less "defining" include:

The Wolf King (by Joseph Wharton Lippincott)
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh (by Robert C. O'Brien).
Watership Down (by Richard Adams)

2006 Stanley Cup Finals: Game 5

I watched Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals last night, starting near the beginning of the third period. I missed most of the action, as they tied the game up 3 to 3, but got to see the final Goal That Counted in overtime. What a play!

As I watched the third period action, I could see why the Hurricanes were winning the series 3 games to 1, in spite of being plagued by injuries. Their plays were organized, their moves were tight, and they were skating like winners. In contrast, the Oilers were fighting for their lives. They played well, and for the most part avoided penalties, but even they were getting tired by the end of regulation time.

I heard about a fan in game 4 who had a sign reading "Hockey is still Canada's game." NHL hockey had it's birth in Canada, and in spite of the increasing technicality of the game, with video training and high-tech equipment, the Edmonton Oilers proved there is still a place for good old-fashioned Canadian grit and determination.

In the first few minutes of sudden-death overtime, the Oilers were inches away from ending the game, firing 4 excellent shots in less than 4 minutes, one of which rang off the post with a resounding clang. The Oilers knew they were only one goal away from losing the Stanley Cup, and they fought passionately. If the Hurricanes scored, the season was over. A few minutes later, things were looking grim as the Oilers took a penalty. Being a man up for 2 minutes could have been just the break the Hurricanes needed to put away the season. But as the Hurricanes were regrouping in their end and preparing to charge the Edmonton goal, Fernando Pisani of the Oilers stole the puck. Time seemed to slow down as he sped towards the net, one on one with the goaltender. Was this happening? Had he just stolen the puck while his team was short-handed?? Was it possible? Then, could he score against this amazing goalie, who had just shut down the rest of the team 4 shots in a row?

Yes! A feint to the center, and a quick shot to the upper right corner and it was all over. In spite of the Hurricanes' organized play, in spite of their hours of practice and the experience of over 80 games together, the decisive factor in the game was a wildcard; a brilliant short-handed steal, and a one-on-one rush! Because of this good old-fashioned hockey, the Oilers will live to see another game: Go Canada!!!!

The exploits of Simon

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So tired....

Since about 6 weeks ago, I haven't slept for more than an hour or two between 3am and 7am. As I said to Brandon the other weekend, I get 6 and 4 half hours of sleep per night. I'm not sure why this is happening. I've known for years that I naturally wake up after about 7 hours of sleep, which is annoying since I need 8 or 9. Sometimes I think it's because I'm hungry, lately it's often been because of my cat nuzzling me (I banished him to the back room last night, and it was great!). It could be the dawn, but that seems weird, because there should be less light now, with daylight savings time, than there has been in summer's past. It would be easy to blame it on sleeping in a new house, with east-facing windows, but this definitely started weeks before we moved. So I don't really know why I can't sleep.

All this is to say that between work around the house, and being tired, I haven't had the energy to post much. Someday soon I will remember to bring my camera, and then I will have lots of pictures to post!

X-Men: The Last Stand (X-3)

I was really looking forward to this movie, but I was disappointed. The acting and special effects were great, and the story had a lot of potential, but the movie just wasn't put together in a gripping, exciting way.

The superhero characters I have enjoyed getting to know through X-Men 1 and 2 are still there, but instead of doing cool stuff, they just strut around, serving the script. I feel their passion, but not their motivation.

At the end of a huge tragic scene, some of the characters start crying. When this happened, I felt suddenly catapulted out of the mood of the movie; I was just watching the actors cry, and I felt nothing, because the movie had done such a terrible job of telling the story during that scene.

One of the things I like about X-Men 1 and 2 was that the movies and characters are so strongly grounded in reality. X-Men 3 is closer to its comic-book origins, and suffers because of it. The comic-book X-Men have fantastical histories; almost all of them have died and/or lost their mutant powers multiple times. For me, the strength of the first two movies is being able to identify with the characters, even while being awed by their powers. In this movie, reality is a distant memory, and the mutants' powers are little more than a special-effects freakshow.