Musings on Books and Music

Back in Princeton Junction, I'm overlooking the 2 acres of woods in my sister's backyard. It is a warm fall day, although technically it is still summer. I'm downloading all of the talks available from the SIGGRAPH 2007 conference, something that is tying me to my computer at the moment.

Recently, Mars asked me what I liked. At the time, I thought he was referring to icecream, but thinking about it later in the evening, I wondered what do I really like? So here are some things*... (yeah, not a complete list!)

*Note: "Things" is my catch-all word for people, places, activities, etc.

Favorite things, or things that make me happy:

• Having a lovely morning tea (chai or Earl Grey) with someone close in the warm sun, outside when the weather is nice (72 degrees F or higher) or inside in a sunny nook when the weather is cool, with a nice apricot pastry or bizcocho (concha).


• Having a nice cream tea with friends in the afternoon.


• When my niece or nephew spontaneously declares their love for me.

I asked Mars, if he had all the time and money in the world, what would he do? He said he would like to work on stopping Global Warming.

I realized that I don't have a good answer to that question at the moment. In the past, I usually would say, "Working in animation" since that is what I did, and I loved what I did.

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Books on deck:

• The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

Thoughts on the nature of reality. In an odd way, it goes well
with The 4-Hour Work Week.


• Complete Maya Programming volume II by David Gould

Answers the question of what to do once you've started your API programming in Maya. I really like this book so far.

Books up next:

• Unwritten Rules of Social Relationships by Dr. Temple Grandin & Sean Barron

Recently finished:

• The 4-Hour Work Week by Timothy Ferriss (see www.fourhourworkweek.com )

Interesting food for thought. Talk about breaking out of the box! Lots of good thoughts about outsourcing, and running your own business, and deciding what you want to do in life.


• A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
and

• The Pursuit of Happyness by Chris Gardner with Quincy Troupe (see http://www.chrisgardnermedia.com/main/book.htm )

Two good books about hard times in San Francisco / Bay Area.

I really related to Chris Gardner's time when he was homeless. I've recently felt that weird sense of dislocation when you don't have a permanent place to live, as I've been bouncing between the West and East Coast since mid-March.


• Miles, Mystery & Mayhem by Lois McMaster Bujold

One of my favorite authors. We've all got to have a little light reading in our lives, right? Ms. Bujold wrote one of my favourite books, The Curse of Chalion.

Music on deck:

Snakes and Arrows by Rush
I just saw the Snakes and Arrows tour on Monday night. Rush played to a sold out crowd at Madison Square Gardens. Amazing!

The Crane Wife by The Decemberists