The Cowtown Chronicles

Is labeling the label maker. With a hand made label, not one printed by the label maker.

I’m braving the smoke and heading out to The Chat Room Pub for the opening of Brittany Elidemir’s photography exhibit “milk at dawn”.

Allen over at The Whited Sepulchre has listed what’s included in his “Anti-Library.” An “anti-library,” according to epistemologist Nassim Nicholas Taleb, is a collection of books that you HAVEN’T read. It’s those books that sit on your shelves waiting to be used as research tools, or to increase your store of already accumulated knowledge.

Despite the fact that I’m still sort of confused on what the hell all that means (don’t bother trying to decode the Wikipedia page unless you’re a chaos theorist), I’ve been called out to list what’s in mine, so in the spirit of playing along and ego boosting, here goes:

(Click the links to buy the books on Amazon and give me a little kickback if you do.)

“The God Delusion” by Richard Dawkins – Kept on the mantle for maximum shock value. Never read it.

“The Road” by Cormac McCarthy – This was given to me as a gift recently. I guess I mentioned to someone that I liked post-apocalyptic fiction of the “I Am Legend” sort, and so this came along. Unfortunately I have no time for fiction in my life right now, so it’s been sitting on my shelf since whenever it was given to me.

“The Future of Ideas: The Fate of the Commons in a Connected World” by Lawrence Lessig – (Mine’s autographed!) Prof. Lessig (of Stanford) spoke at UTA on intellectual property and how our current copyright law is making the creation of new content increasingly impossible and costly. At one point I wanted to be a lawyer (I might still go to law school), and I had wanted to focus on public interest law. Then I found out that it costs more than my house cost to go to law school, even to some of the bad ones, and decided that if I did it I’d be better off becoming a slimy corporate lawyer type.

“Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution” by Paul Hawken, Amory Lovins, and L. Hunter Lovins – A treatise on how the next industrial revolution (it’s in the title, see?) will be one that helps the planet instead of taking advantage of the planet. It includes lists of specific companies and upcoming technologies to watch. I’ve only read the first chapter or so, but I could tell right away that it wasn’t really what I was hoping it would be. I wanted ideas and inspiration, instead I got “Go see these guys for product X.”

“Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle” by David Wann – David (no relation, that I know of) is a coauthor of “Affluenza,” a book I also haven’t read and a movie I haven’t seen. Jenna has seen the movie (during a Sustainability class at UTA), and said I’d like it. I don’t think I’ve even read the first sentence in this one, but what I’m hoping to get is affirmation that living simply and ignoring the pressures of “Mother Culture” to consume and waste is good for me and the planet.

“Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and Achieving Financial Independence” by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin – Priorities, man! Which is more important? I mean, REALLY more important? How much money do you need to have those things and people that are really important to you in your life? I’ll bet it’s a LOT less than most people think. There was a great article in Portfolio magazine this month on this very topic. Essentially, our national obsession with growth at any cost is actually making us LESS happy overall than focusing on things that are more important to the average person. Here’s an example: Increase the annual income of the average citizen in Zimbabwe by $100, and you’ve made an enormous difference in their lives. Increase the annual income of the average American by $100, and you’ve effectively done nothing. Yet, every bit of our economic policy is focused on growing the economy, not on those things that truly improve people’s lives.

Various titles from the Apple Training Series, since I fancy myself a budding Apple Systems Administrator. Surprisingly, I only recommend these books for their overview value. They’re really not particularly good training tools.

Doyle Brunson’s Super System: A Course in Power Poker, Hold’Em Poker for Advanced Players (Advance Player), and Phil Gordon’s Little Green Book: Lessons and Teachings in No Limit Texas Hold’em – I’ve actually read every word in all three of these, but you wouldn’t know it if I sat down to play poker with you, so I suppose it’s the same as if I hadn’t.

That’s a pretty limited list, but then my library right now is also pretty small. I suppose I’m already living the philosophies espoused in all my “green” books, since I don’t often buy new books, I generally check things out of the library. Since I only have one bookshelf, I have to make pretty regular trips to Half Price Books to clear the clutter, or else it would probably take over.

Hope you enjoyed my list. What’s in YOUR Anti-Library?

Join me tonight at the Flying Saucer (Now with 100% less smoke!) for the BCS Championship Bowl Game at 7 PM. If the big screen TV is broken, or if can’t get a seat at the bar, we’ll move to a bar to be named later. I’ll try to update this post with details if you’re interested in following.

UPDATE 4:30PM: I just called the Saucer (they have a phone, who knew!?) and the TV is STILL broken. Seriously, guys, get a plasma already…

Anyway, let’s move the party to ummmm… Baker St. Pub on Camp Bowie. Looks like they have decent drink specials, and you un-Americans what don’t drink beer can get a girly drink there.

Look for the big bald guy in a red hooded sweatshirt. (I don’t have any Buckeyes gear at the moment.)

fort worth, personal, football, buckeyes

David Bohl at Slow Down Fast posted recently about the “F List,” sort of a DIY effort to increase awareness of blogs that you think aren’t getting their due. I realize that writing a personal blog in and about Fort Worth means that I’m not likely to ever get national attention, but I figured what the heck, it couldn’t hurt!

By the way, I visited several of the sites that David added to the list, and they’re excellent!

The F List is a great way to recognize those bloggers that have so far been overlooked by the blogging community.

If you’d like to participate, here are the instructions:

1. Create a new post on your blog.
2. Cut and paste the complete list below.
3. Add any blogs you think aren’t getting their due (as many as you’d like).
4. Add these same instructions in your post.
5. Visit the blogs on the list.
6. Watch the list grow.

Here are the originators of the F List:

Make It Great! http://makeitgreat.typepad.com/makeitgreat/
Angela Maiers http://www.angelamaiers.com/2007/12/an-f-listers-re.html
Mack Collier http://moblogsmoproblems.blogspot.com/2006/12/revenge-of-z-lister.html

Here are the 10 originals on the F List:

http://littlemissteacher.blogspot.com/
http://insideschools.blogspot.com/
http://www.toddseal.com/rodin/2007/12/in-my-backyard-please/
http://www.leadertalk.org/
http://www.carla.umn.edu/speechacts/sp_pragmatics/home.html
http://www.slowdownfast.com/blog
http://www.inspirepossibility.com/blog
http://coconutheadsets.com/
http://middlezonemusings.com/
http://www.theideadude.com/
http://sharecompassion.blogspot.com/

Here are David’s additions to the F List:

• The WorkLife Monitorhttp://www.worklifemonitor.com/the_chaos_monitor
• Digital Solid http://www.digitalsolid.com/
• Blogfeeder http://wordfeeder.typepad.com/blog/
• The Urban Monk http://www.urbanmonk.net/
• The Evolution of Dad Project http://evolutionofdad.blogspot.com/
• The Next 45 Years http://www.thenext45years.com/
• How to Have Great Self-Confidence http://confident1.com/
• Equally Shared Parentinghttp://equallysharedparenting.com/blogger.html
  

And here are my additions to the F List:

• West and Clear http://westandclear.com
• The Caravan of Dreams http://thecaravanofdreams.blogspot.com
• Panther City Bicycles Blog http://panthercitybicycles.blogspot.com
• FortWorthology http://www.fortworthology.com
• Pete Geniella Photography http://petegeniella.com
• The Fine Line http://finelinelive.com
• 100khouse http://100khouse.com
• The Story of Stuff http://www.storyofstuff.com
• Location Independent Living http://locationindependent.com
• Austin ModHouse http://austinmodhouse.com
• think like a woman. act like a man. http://rubyredslipper.blogspot.com
• The Blog From Another Dimension http://www.blogd.com
• The Simple Dollar http://www.thesimpledollar.com
• akook!com http://www.akook.com
• Beautiful Confusion http://bconfusion.blogspot.com

(If you decide to participate yourself after reading this, please don’t forget to add me to the list!)

blog

But it turns out that my loathing of making left turns is good for the environment AND more efficient.

w00t! Pete turning right FTW!

While surfing around the Fort Worth Cats website looking for next year’s schedule, I discovered that there’s a new baseball team in the area, the Grand Prairie Airhogs. They’re holding open tryouts on December 15th, if you’re interested, be sure to check it out!

Why does this matter to me? It means more opportunities to see the Cats play, both at home and away, without having to fly to Minnesota! 

I have no plans whatsoever this weekend yet. Usually those start to solidify around Wednesday, if we’re planning that far ahead. I’m curious; what are YOU planning for this weekend, anything fun?

It’s a little late, but whatev…

I’ve removed the requirement to register before you leave a comment. I’ve been wondering if more people would comment if they didn’t have to register. I guess now we’ll find out.

Leave a comment, join the fun!