The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer
This is the story of William, a typically poor kid growing up in Malawi and his dreams of getting an education and escaping the poor farming lifestyle so many people in Malawi suffer through. He tells the story of growing up, farming, struggling through drought, famine and hunger, and the disappointment of no longer being able to afford to pay for school. In an effort to not fall too far behind his peers, he starts studying from books he can get from the library and becomes fixated on generating electricity from the wind. He scavenges parts from the junk yard, digs up PVC drain pipes to make into blades and works odd jobs so he can pay for some welding. The book spends a lot more time on his life in general than I expected – friends, school, farming, family, drought, etc. – and took a while to actually get around to the wind power. But it was an interesting (true) story, and a good reminder about the many people in the world whose lives can be changed by something as simple as having an electric light in their home for the first time.
X by Chuck Klosterman
Chuck loves two things: sports and music. This book is a collection of articles that he has written over the years on these two topics for places like GQ, Esquire, Grantland, and others. He's a good writer, and I enjoyed the essays on sports. As for the music . . . well, when he decided to devote 34 pages to the band KISS, I chose to skip ahead. I still read his interviews with a lot of 70s and 80s rockers (Van Halen), as well as younger artists (Taylor Swift), but the book would have been better for me if it had been 60% sports and 40% music instead of the other way around.
Artemis by Andy Weir
It must be daunting to try to follow up a first novel that was as successful as The Martian, but Andy Weir has done a decent job of it with Artemis. Set in the near future, Jasmine "Jazz" Bashara is a determined, independent, struggling woman in her 20s who lives in a small town, which just happens to be located on the moon. She makes a living by making deliveries for the people and businesses throughout the permanent moon base, which gives her excellent cover for her second job: smuggling small basic items that aren't allowed on the moon – mostly things like cigars that aren't allowed up there. (Fire is bad when you can't go outside in the event of an emergency.) She gets contacted for a job that is a little outside her normal realm – industrial sabotage – which unsurprisingly gets her involved in a situation that is much bigger than she was lead to believe.
Just like The Martian, Weir does a good job of thinking through what it would be like to be on the moon. I didn't have any issues with the way he deals with things like gravity, air pressure, oxygen generation, food supply, communication and things like that. The plot of his first book was essentially one engineering problem after another, while this book is more of an adventure novel with hiding from the bad guys, breaking in to places, and trying to keep yourself out of jail. The book has some language, particularly sexual references in conversation between the characters. (There's no actual sex in the book – there's all of one kiss – but things are discussed in terms that I wouldn't repeat, or suggest that my mother read.)
Tuesday, March 20
Saturday, March 17
Rex Lee Run Race Report
After many years away from Utah, we were able to run the Rex Lee Run once again. This 5k (there's a 10k, too, though I've never done it) is essentially a full lap around BYU. Officially, this was the first 5k I've run in 8 years, and my PR is 14 years old, set way back in the 2004 Rex Lee Run. I hurt by knee back in December, tried to run through the pain in January, and then got frustrated and basically took the month of February off, trying to get healthy again. The rest has been mostly successful, but it made my dreams of a new PR unlikely.
Early March can be a risky time of year to have a morning race, but the weather was fabulous. Shannon and I both ran the race (she did get a PR by about a minute and a half). I tried to insert myself at the starting line within a few rows of the front, though I still found myself behind Cosmo and a ten year old. The race starts with the firing of the cannon named George Q. and we took off. I hit my first roadblock about 20 feet into the race, in the form of a photographer standing right in the middle of everything taking pictures. I nearly plowed in to him. Not a very smart place to stand at the start of a race, because no one beyond the front row of people can see more than 5 feet in front of them. From LaVell Edwards Stadium, the course heads east toward 900 East, which was definitely steeper than I remember it, before heading down 9th East. I wasn't really sure what sort of pacing to go for. I think I was under 6:30/mi for the first quarter mile, but as it got steeper I knew that was unsustainable, and I backed off and finished the first mile in 6:58.
The second mile features the descent down 9th East, then a short climb up to campus followed by a long downhill off of campus down the ramp. My second mile came in at 6:44. From there, the course was different than the last time I had done it. Between construction changing the campus, and trying to keep the race off of roads, the last mile has a lot more turns than it had in the past. People don't always realize this, but turns are slow. From the Indoor Practice Facility, you turn right and go 440 feet before turning left. Then it's 500 feet and a right turn. 50 feet, turn left. 200 feet turn right. 95 feet turn left. 200 feet turn right. 160 feet, make a U-turn. (U-turns are really slow.) A few hundred feet might seem like a long way, but when you're running more than 13 feet per second, that section I described turns into: 37 seconds, turn, run 4 seconds, turn, run 15 seconds, turn, run 7 seconds, turn, run 15 seconds, turn, run 12 seconds, U-turn. Each turn slows you down, so you have to put the effort in to speeding back up every 10 or 20 seconds. Mile 3 was 6:40.
After that twisty section, the next 1/3 mile is mostly straight-forward (literally) with only 90° turn before you get to finish on a stretch that in only 500 feet manages to pack in about 10 stairs (yes, stairs on a race course), a left turn, a short downhill, cobblestones, a short uphill, a left turn, a U-turn and then 200 feet on the outdoor track to finish. It's not exactly the fastest finish I could imagine. My watch put my last 0.17 miles at 5:22/mi pace. This should catch your eye for two reasons. On is that this is very fast, and evidence that I should have been going faster earlier in the race. The second is that a 5k is supposed to be 3.10 miles, not 3.17. There are a number of factors that go into this distance. First off, a race should be set up so that every runner must run at least the required distance. But if you spend time weaving through traffic, or take wide turns you will end up running a longer distance. Second, my GPS watch has error. I can't say if it is prone under or over measure, or if it varies by day or location. I also have to start and stop it on time, though I can promise that I didn't miss the start line by more than a foot or two, and the finish line by more than 50 feet. (More on that in a moment.) But I do a pretty decent job of running courses to keep my route short, and 0.07 miles is 370 feet. I've mapped the course using google maps multiple times, and can't come up with less than 3.15 miles for the distance. (Not that google maps are authoritative either.) But still, I have a sinking sensation that the course might have been a bit long. 250 feet doesn't sound like a ton, but it's in the neighborhood of 20 seconds. Anyway, it all adds up to an official finish time of 21:14. That was good enough for 3rd place in the 30-39 age group (37th overall out of 808). So here's a picture of me with my medal.
It's 33 seconds behind my 5k PR, and 1:58 behind the 5k pace I set at the Fox and Turkey 4 mile race two years ago, but given the circumstances it wasn't too bad. And finally, a word about that finish. It was difficult to run hard until the last hundred feet or so, and I ran that really hard. Harder than nearly anyone else. Everyone else just crossed the finish line and stopped. Plus there were spectators just past the finish line. And cameras filming the finish line. This is all to say that I was really moving when I came across the line and immediately found myself with no where to go. So if you need a laugh, go watch the video of me crossing the finish line and then freak out as I try to figure out where I can go without running someone over. It's right at the 7:00 mark of this video. (And the link will take you to a few seconds before I come into the picture.)
Early March can be a risky time of year to have a morning race, but the weather was fabulous. Shannon and I both ran the race (she did get a PR by about a minute and a half). I tried to insert myself at the starting line within a few rows of the front, though I still found myself behind Cosmo and a ten year old. The race starts with the firing of the cannon named George Q. and we took off. I hit my first roadblock about 20 feet into the race, in the form of a photographer standing right in the middle of everything taking pictures. I nearly plowed in to him. Not a very smart place to stand at the start of a race, because no one beyond the front row of people can see more than 5 feet in front of them. From LaVell Edwards Stadium, the course heads east toward 900 East, which was definitely steeper than I remember it, before heading down 9th East. I wasn't really sure what sort of pacing to go for. I think I was under 6:30/mi for the first quarter mile, but as it got steeper I knew that was unsustainable, and I backed off and finished the first mile in 6:58.
The second mile features the descent down 9th East, then a short climb up to campus followed by a long downhill off of campus down the ramp. My second mile came in at 6:44. From there, the course was different than the last time I had done it. Between construction changing the campus, and trying to keep the race off of roads, the last mile has a lot more turns than it had in the past. People don't always realize this, but turns are slow. From the Indoor Practice Facility, you turn right and go 440 feet before turning left. Then it's 500 feet and a right turn. 50 feet, turn left. 200 feet turn right. 95 feet turn left. 200 feet turn right. 160 feet, make a U-turn. (U-turns are really slow.) A few hundred feet might seem like a long way, but when you're running more than 13 feet per second, that section I described turns into: 37 seconds, turn, run 4 seconds, turn, run 15 seconds, turn, run 7 seconds, turn, run 15 seconds, turn, run 12 seconds, U-turn. Each turn slows you down, so you have to put the effort in to speeding back up every 10 or 20 seconds. Mile 3 was 6:40.
After that twisty section, the next 1/3 mile is mostly straight-forward (literally) with only 90° turn before you get to finish on a stretch that in only 500 feet manages to pack in about 10 stairs (yes, stairs on a race course), a left turn, a short downhill, cobblestones, a short uphill, a left turn, a U-turn and then 200 feet on the outdoor track to finish. It's not exactly the fastest finish I could imagine. My watch put my last 0.17 miles at 5:22/mi pace. This should catch your eye for two reasons. On is that this is very fast, and evidence that I should have been going faster earlier in the race. The second is that a 5k is supposed to be 3.10 miles, not 3.17. There are a number of factors that go into this distance. First off, a race should be set up so that every runner must run at least the required distance. But if you spend time weaving through traffic, or take wide turns you will end up running a longer distance. Second, my GPS watch has error. I can't say if it is prone under or over measure, or if it varies by day or location. I also have to start and stop it on time, though I can promise that I didn't miss the start line by more than a foot or two, and the finish line by more than 50 feet. (More on that in a moment.) But I do a pretty decent job of running courses to keep my route short, and 0.07 miles is 370 feet. I've mapped the course using google maps multiple times, and can't come up with less than 3.15 miles for the distance. (Not that google maps are authoritative either.) But still, I have a sinking sensation that the course might have been a bit long. 250 feet doesn't sound like a ton, but it's in the neighborhood of 20 seconds. Anyway, it all adds up to an official finish time of 21:14. That was good enough for 3rd place in the 30-39 age group (37th overall out of 808). So here's a picture of me with my medal.
It's 33 seconds behind my 5k PR, and 1:58 behind the 5k pace I set at the Fox and Turkey 4 mile race two years ago, but given the circumstances it wasn't too bad. And finally, a word about that finish. It was difficult to run hard until the last hundred feet or so, and I ran that really hard. Harder than nearly anyone else. Everyone else just crossed the finish line and stopped. Plus there were spectators just past the finish line. And cameras filming the finish line. This is all to say that I was really moving when I came across the line and immediately found myself with no where to go. So if you need a laugh, go watch the video of me crossing the finish line and then freak out as I try to figure out where I can go without running someone over. It's right at the 7:00 mark of this video. (And the link will take you to a few seconds before I come into the picture.)
Yet More Books
Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland
I first read Girlfriend in a Coma a few decades ago. It's a weird book. For a few years, I've been wanting to re-read it, as I'm now much closer to the target audience. Douglas Coupland is the man who literally named Generation-X, and he very much writes for them. While I'm not Gen-X (but NOT millennial, either!), I am now the age that Gen-Xers were when this book was written. The story follows a group of high school friends, particularly Richard whose girlfriend Karen (spoiler alert!) goes into a coma. The story is one of the main characters drifting through life rather aimlessly, until, well, the world ends. Rather than a story of seeing what the world is like without them in it, they get to see what they are like without the world around them. This is one of those books that tries to Say Something About Life. In the end, I don't think it succeeds as well as it wanted to, or at least, it didn't Say Something to me. But it does try, and that was why I was interested in reading the book again as an adult.
Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton
Hmmm, a Michael Crichton book with a dinosaur skull on the cover. But this one is about cowboys and Indians. William Johnson is a rich college kid from Philadelphia in the 1870s who signs up to go fossil hunting for the summer with a college professor. Along the way runs into some trouble with his professor, the competition, women, Indians, gold miners, gun-slingers and just about everyone else. (Who else could there be?) The story is written as though it were true, complete with entries from Johnson's journal and things like that, though it is a novel. (Says so on the cover!) While there are a number of characters in the book who were real, and the story accurately represents the general situation of the times, the main character and his specific adventure is pure fiction. But, its a fun cowboy book, and probably one of Crichton's last, since he died ten years ago.
The Orphan Keeper by Camron Wright
This is the (generally) true story of a boy who was born in India in the 1970s, and then when we was about 8 was kidnapped, sent to an orphanage and then adopted by an American family, who of course had no idea that he wasn't really an orphan. Over the years he has to learn to deal with being an Indian kid in 1980s Utah and then later learning to embrace his Indian-ness, too. The story is very compelling, and I stayed up way too late each night trying to get through. It was fascinating to put yourself in the place of a kid dropped off in America that doesn't speak the language or understand what these crazy people are doing. (Sleeping in beds? Eating cereal for breakfast?) Some details were changed or simplified to make things flow, and the location was anonymized (is that a word?) to make it generically western american, rather than Mormon and Utah County. (But you can stop the signs if you know what to look for.) You should read this book, and as a reminder, you should read another book by Camron Wright, The Rent Collector, even more.
I first read Girlfriend in a Coma a few decades ago. It's a weird book. For a few years, I've been wanting to re-read it, as I'm now much closer to the target audience. Douglas Coupland is the man who literally named Generation-X, and he very much writes for them. While I'm not Gen-X (but NOT millennial, either!), I am now the age that Gen-Xers were when this book was written. The story follows a group of high school friends, particularly Richard whose girlfriend Karen (spoiler alert!) goes into a coma. The story is one of the main characters drifting through life rather aimlessly, until, well, the world ends. Rather than a story of seeing what the world is like without them in it, they get to see what they are like without the world around them. This is one of those books that tries to Say Something About Life. In the end, I don't think it succeeds as well as it wanted to, or at least, it didn't Say Something to me. But it does try, and that was why I was interested in reading the book again as an adult.
Dragon Teeth by Michael Crichton
Hmmm, a Michael Crichton book with a dinosaur skull on the cover. But this one is about cowboys and Indians. William Johnson is a rich college kid from Philadelphia in the 1870s who signs up to go fossil hunting for the summer with a college professor. Along the way runs into some trouble with his professor, the competition, women, Indians, gold miners, gun-slingers and just about everyone else. (Who else could there be?) The story is written as though it were true, complete with entries from Johnson's journal and things like that, though it is a novel. (Says so on the cover!) While there are a number of characters in the book who were real, and the story accurately represents the general situation of the times, the main character and his specific adventure is pure fiction. But, its a fun cowboy book, and probably one of Crichton's last, since he died ten years ago.
The Orphan Keeper by Camron Wright
This is the (generally) true story of a boy who was born in India in the 1970s, and then when we was about 8 was kidnapped, sent to an orphanage and then adopted by an American family, who of course had no idea that he wasn't really an orphan. Over the years he has to learn to deal with being an Indian kid in 1980s Utah and then later learning to embrace his Indian-ness, too. The story is very compelling, and I stayed up way too late each night trying to get through. It was fascinating to put yourself in the place of a kid dropped off in America that doesn't speak the language or understand what these crazy people are doing. (Sleeping in beds? Eating cereal for breakfast?) Some details were changed or simplified to make things flow, and the location was anonymized (is that a word?) to make it generically western american, rather than Mormon and Utah County. (But you can stop the signs if you know what to look for.) You should read this book, and as a reminder, you should read another book by Camron Wright, The Rent Collector, even more.
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