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What’s been going on? August flew by. Work has been hectic lately and I haven’t done much outside of work.

I did go to Atlanta this past weekend. My sister was having a birthday party to celebrate her 40th birthday. Lots of friends and family came, you and old. They came from California, Michigan, Mississippi, and Georgia. It was a lot fun to see the family again. I need the go out there to visit more often. Atlanta is a cool place.

Football season starts this coming weekend. We play Jackson State here in Starkville. It’s our first game with our new coach and it’ll be the first game I’ve gone to in 4-5 years. I can’t wait to see JSU’s band play. I hope we have a good season, but I’m not getting my expectations up.

I like that the weather is starting to get cooler. Fall is coming.

I first became interested in Flashfoward by Robert J. Sawyer when I heard that it was going to be made into a TV series on ABC this fall. I heard that it was a good book and wanted to read it before the series came on.

Real life for a minute: Have you heard about the Large Hadron Collider over in Europe? It was supposed to go online last year, but didn’t because of some technical issue. The purpose of the device is to create conditions that existed shortly after the big bang so they can observe some kind of particle. Some people were concerned about this experiment because they feared it could create a black hole that would cause the end of the world. If you haven’t heard about the LHC, you can read about it here.

Back to the book: it was written in 1999, but it’s set in 2009. A group of scientists are firing up the Large Hadron Collider. At the exact second that the experiment starts, everyone blacks out. By everyone I mean the entire planet. The blackout lasts for 2 minutes. During this time everyone gets a 2 minute glimpse into their own future in the year 2030.

There was some chaos caused by the incident. People blacking out behind the wheel, pilots blacking out in the air, etc. Some were upset by the damage caused and the lives lost. For the most part, however, the world was happy to have had the visions. Some saw stuff in the future that they didn’t like and of course wanted to change it. There was a lot of debate about whether everyone saw a possible future or a fixed future. That debate gets resolved later in the book. Eventually, the scientists were able to figure out exactly how it happened.

There were a few times when the book briefly got bogged down in physics, but I just glossed over those sections. I hate physics. Overall, it would a great book and I recommend it to scifi fans. I’m even more excited about the TV series now.

• World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, Max Brooks
• Serenity Found, Jane Espenson
• On Bullshit, Harry G. Frankfurt
• On Truth, Harry G. Frankfurt
• Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, Stanislaw Lem
• The Stormcaller, Tom Lloyd
• The Day Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• The Twilight Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• The Final Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• Inside Straight, George R.R. Martin
• Busted Flush, George R.R. Martin
• The Final Crusade, Chaite Naasiri
• The Darker Mask, George Phillips
• Unholy Domain, Dan Ronco
• The Tales of Beedle the Bard, J.K. Rowling
• The Final Empire, Brandon Sanderson
• The Well of Ascension, Brandon Sanderson
• The Hero of Ages, Brandon Sanderson
• A Memory of Light: The Gathering Storm, Brandon Sanderson
• Flashfoward, Robert J. Sawyer
• Titus Andronicus, William Shakespeare

It looks like that trip to Austin is probably not going to happen. There’s other stuff that’s going to be going on around then. If Austin City Limits was just a couple of weeks later, everything would be fine. It sucks when family and work get in the way of a good time :). It’s okay though. I will go to Texas sooner or later.

I’m about halfway through my off week. I used to think it was a little weird when I heard about people taking vacation and staying at home, but now I can totally see the appeal in doing that. Going on a trip can wear you out as much as working. I wanted to do this back in September and October, but the timing didn’t work out either month. Then the holidays came along and I’ve been extremely busy this year, so it took me this long to do it. Even some of my co-workers noticed that I hardly ever take time off any more.

I’ve been getting up at 8 every morning because I’ll feel like I’ve wasted too much of the day if I sleep until noon. What have I been doing? Reading, playing video games, clearing off my DVR, watching movies, playing with the dog, and taking care of errands that I haven’t been able to because I’m at work. I’ll sleep late on the weekend like I normally do.

I’ve got about 3 months of personal leave time accumulated, so maybe I’ll do this more often. I I’m going on trips in August and October, so there’s no need to go somewhere every time.

The other day I readThe Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling. If you read the 7th Harry Potter book, you might remember that Dumbledore left Hermione a copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard and it contained clues on that were helpful to her, Harry, and Ron on their mission.

It consists of 5 fairy tales for wizard children. It’s pretty short and I even I could read it in 1 sitting. The book doesn’t really add anything to the Harry Potter story that you couldn’t gain from reading the 7th Potter book. I guess it’s mostly for completists like me. Each story does have notes from Dumbledore, which are interesting to read. The author is donating all the proceeds to charity, so I don’t feel like she released this to make more money off Harry Potter.

• World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, Max Brooks
• Serenity Found, Jane Espenson
• On Bullshit, Harry G. Frankfurt
• On Truth, Harry G. Frankfurt
• Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, Stanislaw Lem
• The Stormcaller, Tom Lloyd
• The Day Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• The Twilight Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• The Final Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• Inside Straight, George R.R. Martin
• Busted Flush, George R.R. Martin
• The Final Crusade, Chaite Naasiri
• The Darker Mask, George Phillips
• Unholy Domain, Dan Ronco
• The Tales of Beedle the Bard, J.K. Rowling
• The Final Empire, Brandon Sanderson
• The Well of Ascension, Brandon Sanderson
• The Hero of Ages, Brandon Sanderson
• A Memory of Light: The Gathering Storm, Brandon Sanderson
• Flashfoward, Robert J. Sawyer
• Titus Andronicus, William Shakespeare

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks is pretty entertaining and thought provoking book. I like it more than most of the other books I’ve read recently.

This book is written as if it’s nonfiction. Apparently, there was a worldwide zombie outbreak that lasted 10 years and the book was written 10 years after the end of the outbreak. It tells the story of the zombie war through a collection of interviews with survivors. The interviewees come from all over the world. The story progresses from the first case of the zombie virus until the “present” when the world is still rebuilding.

I’m not expecting a zombie attack, but reading World War Z did make me wonder how we would handle a global catastrophe. In the book, the governments of the world made some costly mistakes. I hope we wouldn’t make those same mistakes.

• World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, Max Brooks
• Serenity Found, Jane Espenson
• On Bullshit, Harry G. Frankfurt
• On Truth, Harry G. Frankfurt
• Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, Stanislaw Lem
• The Stormcaller, Tom Lloyd
• The Day Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• The Twilight Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• The Final Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• Inside Straight, George R.R. Martin
• Busted Flush, George R.R. Martin
• The Final Crusade, Chaite Naasiri
• The Darker Mask, George Phillips
• Unholy Domain, Dan Ronco
• The Tales of Beedle the Bard, J.K. Rowling
• The Final Empire, Brandon Sanderson
• The Well of Ascension, Brandon Sanderson
• The Hero of Ages, Brandon Sanderson
• A Memory of Light: The Gathering Storm, Brandon Sanderson
• Flashfoward, Robert J. Sawyer
• Titus Andronicus, William Shakespeare

Check another item off the list of things I told myself I wouldn’t do. I bought an iPhone. That means I’m only a Macbook away from being a full-fledged member of the Apple cult. I was going to get one of the new 16GB 3GS units, but they were out of black ones so I got a 32 GB. Now, I’m finally free of Sprint! Even though I don’t really like AT&T, they are much better than Sprint. It’s weird that one of the reasons I left Cingular (before they were AT&T) was because they had crappy phones compared to Sprint. Now, AT&T has the cool phone(s).

I’m happy with the phone so far. I’ve downloaded dozens of applications that I’ll probably never use. There’s only one small problem. I live kind of in the middle of no where. I seem to be relegated to the EDGE network when I’m at home. It’s not that big of a deal. I’m probably least likely to use the internet features when I’m at home. Beside, I can always use my wifi connection when I’m here.

I refuse the buy the new iPhone that is bound to come out next year. At least, that’s what I say now.

I ended up canceling my gym membership today. There’s no use in paying when I wasn’t going anymore. I already get up around 6 every morning and I don’t want to have to get up any earlier to work out. Also, I was having trouble motivating myself to go back out to work out after I got home from work.

I did, however, buy Wii Fit about a week and a half ago and have used it almost every day. Some activity is better than nothing. I just hope it doesn’t get boring.

I read Inside Straight by George R.R. Martin a few months ago, but never got around to writing about. It seems like he’s never going to get around to finishing the next book in his A Song of Ice and Fire series, so I decided to read something else by him. Inside Straight is a part of the Wild Cards series. Each book is a collection of related stories written by various authors, and Martin serves as the editor.

The Wild Cards series reminds me a lot of what I’ve heard about the Dr. Who television series. It comes in cycles that last for a few books, then it goes away for a little while, then they bring it back for a while, etc. Inside Straight is the first book in the current cycle.

From what I’ve gathered, about 60 years ago an alien virus that was called the Wild Cards Virus came to Earth somehow. Some people were given superpowers, and they are called aces. Some were hideously deformed, and they are called jokers.

I should have really liked a book about superpowered people, but it was only ok. It focuses on a group of contestants on a reality show for people with superpowers. These people are using their powers in contests to decide who is going to be the next American Hero. There are tragic events going on in the news in Egypt and some of the contestants decide to do the right thing and be real-life heroes. Maybe if they hadn’t spent so much time on the reality show aspect of the story, I would have liked it more. I hate reality shows. It gets much more interesting at the end and I plan on reading the next book in the series.

I don’t think I’m going to get around to even half the books I wanted to read this year.

• World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, Max Brooks
• Serenity Found, Jane Espenson
• On Bullshit, Harry G. Frankfurt
• On Truth, Harry G. Frankfurt
• Memoirs Found in a Bathtub, Stanislaw Lem
• The Stormcaller, Tom Lloyd
• The Day Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• The Twilight Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• The Final Watch, Sergei Lukyanenko
• Inside Straight, George R.R. Martin
• Busted Flush, George R.R. Martin
• The Final Crusade, Chaite Naasiri
• The Darker Mask, George Phillips
• Unholy Domain, Dan Ronco
• The Final Empire, Brandon Sanderson
• The Well of Ascension, Brandon Sanderson
• The Hero of Ages, Brandon Sanderson
• A Memory of Light: The Gathering Storm, Brandon Sanderson
• Flashfoward, Robert J. Sawyer
• Titus Andronicus, William Shakespeare

I’ve been thinking about going to one of the music festivals this summer. All the ones that I saw near here were happening either a little too early (May/June) or a little too late (October). Plus, the lineups were pretty good, but there were only one or two artists that I really wanted to see at each event.

A week or two ago I found out that Pearl Jam was well on their way to finishing a new album and were rumored to be going on tour and also headlining Austin City Limits Music Festival this year. The ACL people didn’t want to confirm that Pearl Jam would be there, but they said it was the worst kept secret around. I went to the website and saw the bands they had confirmed so far. I put that with Pearl Jam and I decided that I need to book a hotel room right away, which I did. The official lineup came out around midnight this morning. It is great!

• Pearl Jam
• Dave Matthews Band
• Beastie Boys
• Ben Harper and Relentless7
• John Legend
• Mos Def
• The B-52s
• Sonic Youth
• Coheed and Cambria (don’t know much about them, interested in hearing them)
• The Virgins (a band I recently discovered)
• Lily Allen (I keep hearing her name, don’t know any songs)

You can check out the complete lineup here.

The festival takes place Oct. 2-4. Austin, here I come!