God Bless the Royal Martyrs.

Updated book list and college sports #2

Completed:

• The 9/11 Commission Report
• Columbine by Dave Cullen
• Caught in the Revolution: Witnesses to the Fall of Imperial Russia by Helen Rappaport
• World War I: The Definitive Visual History
• World War II: The Definitive Visual History
• The Romanovs 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore
• The Vietnam War: The Definitive Illustrated History
• The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra by Helen Rappaport
• The Race to Save the Romanovs by Helen Rappaport

In progress:

• The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells
• The Civil War: A Visual History

On the docket:

• The American Revolution: A Visual History
• The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power by Max Boot (A book I bought between 8th and 9th grades in July 2003 but never actually read.)
• The Last Days of the Romanovs: Tragedy at Ekaterinburg by Helen Rappaport (Once I obtain a copy.)
• What If? and What If? 2 - A series of essays by historians on what might have been.

As for sports, well, there are none. Over the course of a few hours on March 12th the entire sporting world shut down which means my beloved Iowa State Cyclones women's basketball team never got to play in the Big 12 Tournament or the NCAA tournament. Fortunately the Twister Sisters got probably the best consolation prize of any team by beating the second-ranked and defending national champion Baylor Lady Bears on senior night, March 8th. A back and forth affair that ended when Ashley Joens was fouled with .1 second on the clock in a tied game. She hit the first free throw to bring Iowa State their first win over Baylor in 5 years.

Ashley Joens being fouled in the act of shooting

And, yes, it was a foul, ESPN. It was also unseasonably warm at 70 F so all around it was a great day.

Updated book list and college sports

Completed:

• The 9/11 Commission Report
• Columbine by Dave Cullen
• Caught in the Revolution: Witnesses to the Fall of Imperial Russia by Helen Rappaport
• World War I: The Definitive Visual History
• World War II: The Definitive Visual History

In progress:

• The Romanovs 1613-1918 by Simon Sebag Montefiore
• The Vietnam War: The Definitive Illustrated History

On the docket:

• The Romanov Sisters: The Lost Lives of the Daughters of Nicholas and Alexandra by Helen Rappaport
• The American Revolution: A Visual History
• The Civil War: A Visual History
• The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (re-read from 2005 when I was a high school sophomore)

In non-literature news college football enters the post-season while college basketball enters its second month. Thoughts and musing later.

Trying to find a source of light

With college basketball season over we now enter the doldrums of summer. With that I've taken up reading as a hobby. I recently finished reading an abbreviated history of World War I and I'm currently in the middle of an abbreviated history of World War II. On top of that I'm also reading The 9/11 Commission Report during my break periods at work.

I've also been writing my own (fictional) stories during my lunch break and late at night. Maybe I'll post them here if I ever get around to finishing them. I turned 29 years old within the last month so I'd better not drag my feet too much longer on getting them done.

Happy October!

I hate my life. Everyday I find the urge to give up increasing. My job has taken away all the joy and desire to do anything other than sleep. I want out.

My class held it's ten-year reunion this weekend. I didn't go, partly because of work and partly because I didn't want to be the loser of the class. That was the hardest truth I've ever had to accept. It pretty much guaranteed that I won't be around for the next one.

Fortunately it's the beginning of autumn so maybe I can find a brief respite from the misery for a few months.

Sky King

  Recently a man my age stole an airliner from Sea-Tac airport, performing a loop-de-loop and other stunts before crashing on an island and killing himself. In his conversations with air traffic controllers he remained calm and seemed he was just tired of life.

  It's a feeling I've become familiar with since gaining full-time employment. People say you have more freedom as an adult but I've found I have less freedom as I became an adult in both the physical sense and the emotional sense. Prior to December 2014 I had a rather active life: I'd run and lift weights on the regular, I'd frequently go hiking at a nearby state park, I'd go to movies sporadically. Then I got a part-time job and the hikes went away. A couple years elapsed until December 2016 when I got a full-time job in addition to the part-time job. It was Hell. In 2017 there was never a week without mandatory overtime. I quit seeing movies because I never had the time and I quit working out because my body couldn't hold up. It got so bad there were a few weekends where I didn't sleep for over 36 hours. Eventually, the same month I started this blog, I quit my part-time job. The overtime only got worse. It peaked a 66 hours one week, but it regularly fluctuated between 50 and 60 hours for the rest of the year.

  A curious thing happened in 2018; I didn't work any overtime from January 1st to July 1st. I was able to start exercising semi-regularly again. I was (somewhat) happy again. But then the 50-hour week hit on the 4th of July with a vengeance. Now 50 hours look to be the norm for the foreseeable future. The only real joy I've had recently is adding piecemeal to a fictional story I've been working on for years. But on Friday I found something I've been missing for two decades: a kindred spirit.

Happy 2018!

I survived another year. My goal for the New Year is to slay my personal demons: desires of food, desires of the flesh and other feel-good hedonism that have become so commonplace in society, to start working out more for the health of my mind and body. My ten-year high school reunion is this year and I don't want to be a total loser. Most people think my teetotalism already makes me a loser but I would rather die than compromise my morals to "fit in" with normal society.

DUI = Terrorism

UPDATE: South Carolina trucker charged with 4th DUI in connection with fiery I-295 crash

A South Carolina truck driver is in prison on his fourth charge of driving under the influence after Sunday morning's crash that destroyed his rig, sparked a massive fire, and snarled traffic for hours in the area around the Interstate 95/Interstate 295 split.

Fifty-five-year-old Jeffery Mosier was hauling construction equipment on 95 northbound at the split around 2:40 a.m. Sunday morning when his tractor-trailer hit a construction impact attenuator, overturned and burst into flames, causing a brush fire that affected parts of the Route 141 overpass, Delaware State Police said.

Interstate 295 was closed between Airport Road and Route 13 northbound for about seven hours

Paramedics took Mosier to Christiana Hospital, where troopers tested his blood alcohol level and found him to be under the influence.

Mosier, who was convicted of DUI in 2010, 2011 and 2014, is being held at the Howard Young Prison, charged with refusing to be tested for DUI and failing to remain in a single lane, in addition to the DUI count.

EDIT: According to this story his 2014 DUI arrest took place in Monona County, Iowa (the other two happened in Texas and Alabama). Just brings it a little bit closer to home.

Tree of Ténéré

An interesting tidbit, per Wikipedia:

The Ténéré Tree (French: L'Arbre du Ténéré) was a solitary acacia, of either Acacia raddiana or Acacia tortilis, that was once considered the most isolated tree on Earth—the only one for over 400 kilometres (250 mi). It was a landmark on caravan routes through the Ténéré region of the Sahara Desert in northeast Niger, so well known that it and the Arbre Perdu or 'Lost Tree' to the north are the only trees to be shown on a map at a scale of 1:4,000,000. The Tree of Ténéré was located near a 40-metre (131 feet)-deep well. It was knocked down in 1973, by an alleged drunk truck driver.

Not even a lonely tree surrounded by 250 miles of empty desert in all directions is safe from the menace of alcohol.

How is it even possible?

From the Twin Cities Pioneer Press:

A driver with a revoked license and convicted 14 times of drunken driving crashed into a cage of propane tanks before being stopped by police, according to charges filed this week in St. Croix County.

The incident Monday led to one count of felony driving with a prohibited alcohol concentration-15th offense and a misdemeanor count of driving with a revoked license against Mark Alan Johnson, 64 of New Richmond. He was also cited for failure to notify police of an accident.

A manager at the BP station on Fourth Street in New Richmond reported at 8:46 a.m. that someone had just driven into a cage containing propane tanks on the side of the building.

Gas station employees approached the man after the crash, and Johnson told them his car’s brakes had failed, the employees told police.

Police then learned that Johnson’s driving privileges had been revoked due to alcohol, he was on probation and that he’d had 14 prior drunken-driving convictions. A probation agent requested that police test Johnson for alcohol since he was prohibited from driving with a concentration greater than 0.02.

Johnson told police he’d had a beer for lunch. He blew a 0.036.

There it is. A man with a revoked license and 14 DWIs gets number 15. Expect number 16 in a couple years. Another piece of evidence that alcoholism isn't an addiction but a lifestyle.