book review

Over the Christmas weekend, I stumbled upon an unbelieveable book sale. One of the books I grabbed was Eats, Shoots and Leaves by Lynne Truss. I highly recommend it. Truss uses incisive British wit and common sense to defend punctuation. I know that reading about punctuation is not necessarily an exciting prospect to some, but Eats, Shoots and Leaves stands well on its humorous and literary merits. This is not like my high school grammar texts. In the interest of full disclosure, I have been madly in love with the intricacies of punctuation for some time, so I have been wanting to read it since hearing about it on the radio a few years ago. However, I was more than surprised at how enjoyable a read it was, regardless of its content.

http://www.eatsshootsandleaves.com/

ask dr. science

If you haven't heard of him, Dr. Science is one of my media heroes.

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optimism

Everything is about to go very well.

(Important note: This is not an election night commentary. This is not a political commentary. Although I appreciate the democratic process and I am grateful to have been born in a country where I can vote, my current cheerful mood has little to do with the early returns that are just coming in.)

From time to time, I just have to believe that good will come of what is happening in my own life and in the world around me. I have just recommitted to be a better optimist. I have added it to my 43 things. I have started keeping better track of the motions of my mind.

It strikes me once in a while, this unshakeable idea that I have every reason to be thrilled with life. When I have this feeling, good things generally happen. Do they happen because I feel this way and expect them, or can I somehow sense good times in advance? This is an interesting philosophical question which I will continue to ponder.

As for right now, I am completely thrilled about gratemusic.com and LDSmusic.us and what we are doing there. I am optimistic about my family and my personal financial situation. I am thrilled about our marriage. I am excited about my education. I don't believe that I will live without inconvenience or difficulty, but I feel that the good will completely override the effect of whatever problems arise.

Perhaps the election does have something to do with my focus on this subject of optimism. All the analysts and the different parties and candidates are talking about the future. On the radio in the morning, there will be many prognositcations about how our next two years will be in America. There are many doomsday voices. There are many who say that our new leaders will fix everything. Neither side is accurate. Some laws and policies have noticeable effect in the lives of the governed, but generally our happiness and our life situations are governed primarily by our thoughts and desires and how we go about realizing them in the framework of God's plan. This new political season ought to be a new season of optimism and new commitment to make life good for ourselves and those around us.

internship

On Monday, I started my internship with the music department at KUNC, our local public radio affiliate. I suppose at this point I have to admit my addiction to public radio. Yes, the news coverage is often more liberal than my personal views, but so much of what they do is well produced and expertly presented.

So I started Monday, and most of my job as an intern is opening mail and sorting through stacks of CDs, weeding out albums that definitely don't fit the station's format. I can't do this with my own CD collection - I just collect music, and the only way it leaves my collection is by being borrowed and not returned or scratched beyond repair. But at KUNC, it's fun. I like hearing all the different styles of whatever people call music, from acoustic banjo albums to "I did this myself on my $50 1985 Casio in my basement" albums, this internship is helping me to remember why I started studying music in the first place. It really is nice work if you can get it.