Item 16 - Finish 30 8 books - "The Big Lebowski" by Jenny M. Jones

The Polish poster for "The Big Lebowski" (Source)

I've lost count of how many times I've seen "The Big Lebowski". It's one of my favorite movies of all time. I remember my mom told me about when she introduced a friend to it and the friend's immediate reaction was to say "I want to write an essay about that movie." A couple of years later in college I managed to live that dream not once but twice, milking the movie for two papers in two separate classes. Apparently I was just a little early on that trend; the last few years has seen the publication of a fairly large number of books about this wonderful little film that was barely a blip when it came out (including one by El Duderino himself).

There are worse things to devote your time to

This is the first time I've read one of these books, I bought it when it was on sale on Amazon. I enjoyed the behind the scenes look at it, but the overall feel was a bit too much like reading a lengthened Wikipedia article or the trivia section of IMDb. The author used very few original sources and instead depended primarily on other publications, interviews and documentaries. I would have appreciated a bit more of her own interviews or thoughts, because when she did have them they were interesting. She has a very good voice, I just wish I could have read more of that.

I think I might have too many t-shirts

Item 16 - Finish 30 9 books - "Ulysses" by James Joyceand"The New Bloomsday Book" by Harry Blamires

From "Ulysses 'Seen'", something that everybody should check out, not just Joyce fans

This one was a little bit of a cheat as it's the third time that I've read "Ulysses." It's become a somewhat semi-annual tradition for me to start reading it as late in the year as I can and still finish it by Bloomsday. Each year I try to expand on the tradition and make that Bloomsday a little bit extra special. This year I added "The New Bloomsday Book" to the mix. I've read annotations for "Ulysses" before, but never quite so comprehensive."Ulysses" is one of those books that the more you read about it and what it means the better it becomes.

But this entry wasn't going to be about either of these books, I feel the very fact that I read a book about a book while I was reading the first book says enough about the amount that has already been said by other far more intelligent people. Instead, I was going to write about what I did with my Bloomsday to make it remarkable this year. I had a plan to get lamb kidneys and have a whole meal based around that. Unfortunately, I missed my chance to order them as I was distracted by a number of other things going on in my life.

I was able to salvage the day though, I bought some Guinness and got to share it with one of the only other people in my life that enjoys Joyce (and Guinness) as much as I do. My mom has had a few health problems recently (in comedy this is what would be called "Understatement"), so being able to share a beer with her and just getting to chat for a little while was special enough.

Besides, next year is the 110th Bloomsday. Shit's gonna get real.

Pioneer 5K Fun RunItem 20 - Run 6 0 5K's

I love doing this race; the money that is raised is donated to the local high school's athletic program. And this is a seriously underfunded school system. The town it takes place in is so pathologically afraid of raising taxes that they purchased a bunch of hideous modular classrooms rather than upgrade the elementary school because it was cheaper in the short run. Always a good idea: shortchange your children. That never backfires.

The other reason I love this run is because the primary sponsor is the best shoe store in eastern Oregon and they usually have a great swag bag. Hey, I don't always have to be altruistic. I wasn't able to get any good photos of the race this year, unfortunately.

I did get some bad ones, though.

See what I mean? Look how disappointed in me that lady on the right edge is.

I have no idea why I took this photo, even less idea why I'm posting it now.

I did get an okay picture of the swag though.

A pen, chap-stick, a polishing cloth for cell phone screens, a foot buffer, a reusable grocery bag, a t-shirt and a... what the hell?

Yes! That thing! What the hell is that?

Tough Rhino Mud Run Item 29 - Run an endurance/obstacle raceItem 20 - Run 6 1 5K Item 14 - Run a race in costume or in theme

As anyone that grew up with a steady diet of Nickelodeon will tell you, doing Double Dare would have been a dream come true as a child. Of course, you put those sorts of dreams away around the time you hit puberty and suddenly being the center of attention sounds like a punishment. In my case, I had completely forgotten about wanting to ever do the obstacle course style race until I found out that they do them for grown-ups too.

You've got to admit, that looks pretty awesome

I figured I'd knock a couple items off the list at once after a discussion with a friend about how much fun it would be to run a mud run in a white shirt and pants. I decided to go a little further and went with a whole suit. The only item I had to pay for was the jacket, which I got for $3 at Goodwill, everything else I had in my closet and was damaged.

That thing about not liking to be the center of attention doesn't just apply to surly teenagers: it also applies to a moderately well-adjusted twenty-nine year old. I figured there'd be a lot of people running in costumes or themes. Not so much. I spotted two girls in tutus, and a couple groups in matching t-shirts and that was about it. I got a lot of stares and a lot of questions. Actually, just two questions: "Are you really running in that suit?" and "Why are you running in that suit?" And a few times on the run I heard my favorite thing "Oh man, the guy in the suit is beating us!"

I took all that attention in stride, especially that last one. What I will say is that if I ever run in a costume or theme again, I'm going to make sure it's lighter. I must have carried an extra 15 pounds of water over the finish line, not to mention how hot that jacket got. I'm a guy that sweats a fair amount and it was about 80 degrees by the time I finished. So, less is definitely better, at least when running in the summer.

I wonder if I can find one of those tutus in my size.

Item 16 - Finish 30 11 books - "Oz Reimagined" Edited by John Joseph Adams and Douglas Cohen

Ooh, it's all edgy and grimdark

I read "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" (check that out, you can get it for free) when I was seven and ill. I had to stay home from school and had nothing to do so my mom gave my a beat up old copy she'd picked up for fifty cents at a bookstore. I read it in one sitting and after I was well I plowed through the other fourteen books in the original series. There is something so lovely about those first few books, they are strange and funny and touching. And always sincere. You always got the feeling that Baum truly loved entertaining children; despite his best efforts to try to the end the series a number of times, he'd always relent to the wishes of the children that would barrage him with letters.

There doesn't appear to be a lot of that same sincerity in this volume. Most of the stories skew toward the gritty re-imaginings that have become the norm in recent years. I should mention here that I'm not a purist when it comes to new interpretations of other works, I don't think that they must follow the tone of the original to the letter. I enjoyed Gregory Maguire's "Wicked" enough to read the sequel "Son of a Witch" and will probably get around to the other two books in the series at some point as well. I just think that going straight to the gritty is a bit cliche; if you want to see what I mean go to deviantART and search for "Oz re-imagined" or "Oz reimagined." There are some clever ideas on there, but it's largely the same sort of material that would be right at home in this book.

I don't want to seem like there weren't any good stories in this book, there were a few that I really liked. One of my favorites was "The Boy Detective of Oz" by Tad Williams. It served as a great commentary on the very thing that I'm talking about, the habit of authors to distort Oz into a nightmare without much reason. Williams is actually able to have his cake and eat it too, in this way; he gets to do a little of the dreary stuff within a framework where it works, while still telling a somewhat more classical Oz story and gets in a jab at writers whose first impulse is to turn the Tin Woodman into a murderous mechanical tyrant.

There were a some other stories in here that I really enjoyed, one or two that fall into that category I've so scorned in the last three paragraphs. The thing they had in common was some sort of joy lurking in the text. As I said before, sincerity is essential to Oz.

Item 16 - Finish 30 12 books - "The Lottery and Other Stories" by Shirley Jackson

I think I am in the minority of American college graduates in that I never read "The Lottery" when I was in school. Now that I have read it and some of Jackson's other work I wish I had been exposed to it earlier. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the short stories in this book and I always love reading an author who is obviously influential on other writers that I admire but I feel like she would have hit me a lot harder if I had read her when I was younger. I think she is one of those writers who you have to read at a certain stage in your life to fully appreciate; someone that expresses something with their words that you felt in that time that you hadn't been able to properly emote or something that you had never seen before. These are the best authors in the world, on an individual level, because you carry that love and appreciation for them with you for the rest of your life.