Someone you Need to Read.

I've fallen in love with T.C. Boyle and his excellent writing. Upon reading the first novel I've read of his, I'm desperate to read more.
The best way I can think of to describe his writing would be to say that it's like a punk song with poetic lyrics. There is so much energy in his writing that it's hard to notice the other features of his writing but there's an abundance of beautifully written descriptions and gentle nuances that wrap you up in the story and make you care about the characters.

I'll definitely be reading more of T.C. Boyle and I want to thank him for the inspiration he's lent me as a writer myself. Cheers.

Writerdom

What does it mean to be a writer? After a long bike ride to the house of a friend, we were sitting on the porch talking about what it meant to be a writer, a poet in particular. He boiled it down to the notion that writers are either interesting or fucked up, meaning something has transpired in their life that has caused them personality-altering trauma.

While I agree that a lot of writers aren't the most normal people, I think lumping the rest of the non-traumatized ones into one overflowing group is rather silly. Everyone is interesting to someone out there.

I suppose what I'm getting at is that I'm struggling with what it means to be a writer. With attempting to write my first novel, the weight of "Authorship" is finding it's way onto my shoulders.
I'll sort it out one way or another.

Speaking of the first novel business, my writing is coming painfully slow. Molasses on a cold day slow. It's not that I have no time to write, it's that I find myself getting wrapped up into other things when I should be using that time for writing. I'll just have to make myself find the time, on top of a paper that I need to write this weekend.


On a lighter note, I've been listening to more Incubus recently. I haven't listened to them in a long while and I dusted off their album and gave it a listen. Amazing stuff.

America?

God told Me to Do it.

I'm typically not one for news from the Middle-East. It's always something that makes me think less of humanity. In this case, it's Religion with a capital "R" that is rearing it's ugly head.

At the end of January, two men were executed for being Mohareb, or enemies of God.

Religion does a lot of nasty things on which I could write an entire book about but when it comes to things like this, it's a truly sad moment. Most likely, these men committed some political crime the details of which are too sensitive to be released, so they are made into demons instead.
It gets so tiring hearing about crimes that are brought on by faith in one form or another. For all the people dying for Religion, you would think that more people would have figured out by now that it's not really a positive influence in the world. Whether it be the crusades or a young Christian man who feels ashamed for having sexually explicit thoughts, Religion, particularly fundamentalism is a damaging force in the world, whether it be on a large scale or on a small scale.

Let This Soak into your Cerebrum

T.C. Boyle and Exploring the Sexual Mind

I've been reading a lot of books lately and I landed picking up a novel by an author I've never read on the recommendation by an old professor, a novel by T.C. Boyle. After the first 5 pages I was really absorbed in the novel.



The plot of the novel revolves around Professor Alfred Kinsey, the first person to publish legitimate research about the sexual behavior of the human animal. You can find an extremely short biography of the man here.

http://www.kinseyinstitute.org/about/kinseybio.html

The novel is so intriguing because it's about what might have happened. The protagonist is a young man by the name of John Milk. He works under Kinsey as he tries to collect as many interviews as possible, trying to discover the true nature of human sexuality.

As an author, Boyle is quite entertaining. It's hard to think of a better novel that I've read in the last couple of years. Boyle knows how to most effectively pace the story to peak the reader's interest without making the novel read like a movie.
I would highly recommend this novel to those who find the premise interesting and I'm definitely going to be reading more T.C. Boyle. Cheers.

The XRS Community Rejoices

I don't talk about my car much on here but I drive a 2005 Corolla XRS and I LOVE IT. I'm on 9thgencorolla.com, easily the best forum for the Corolla 2003-2008. Anyways, the 2ZZ owners have been trying to break the 200whp mark N/A for a while now and it's finally been done by our resident Puerto Rican, Redliner9k. He's the man. 9000 RPM sounds beautiful.

Ramblings of a Tired Man

I walked onto campus at Antelope Valley College today with high expectations and the sharp yet pleasant aroma of cheap cigarettes drifting through the air. My English class turned out to be Contemporary American Literature, 1945-Present, which is far more interesting than the class catalog description of "Special Topics in Literature."
My Philosophy teacher's voice reminds me of the computerized voice you hear on automated phone menus, which might get old, but when you need twelve solid units to have health insurance, you're willing to accept less than perfection.
I missed out on my morning cup of coffee this morning so I was craving some coffee with my pipe when I got home from school. I ended up grinding up some recently purchased decaf coffee and I'm not really stoked about it. It doesn't even smell like coffee. When it's all done brewing it smells like an extremely sweet pipe tobacco, which isn't really a bad thing in my book.
That brings me to my new tobacco review. I've been smoking London Gentleman, which I picked up from that excellent cigar shop I talked about in my recent post. To begin with, it's a relatively mild English blend. Latakia is the star here for sure, but it's not overpowering at all. It packs nicely into the bowl and has a gentle and sweet tin aroma. Upon lighting the bowl, that strong English flavor instantly becomes present, but it's still quite smooth.
This is definitely more of an afternoon/evening smoke but it wouldn't be bad in the morning. I would recommend this tobacco to anyone who enjoys smoother English blends, particularly those in Southern California who can go and buy it directly from the aforementioned shop. You won't be disappointed.

With that said, I'm off to bed. It's been a long day and is most likely going to be a long week.

Cheers.

Decisive Review: Frog Morton on the Bayou

So after smoking nearly an entire tin of Frog Morton on the Bayou, I'm inclined to write up a more complete review for those who would like to know more about a tobacco before they shell out their hard-earned dollars not knowing for sure whether or not they'll like it.

I've gone over the tin aroma before, and so I'll just say that it's great. There's a strong woodsy aroma with an element of sweetness that balances out the strength of the Latakia. It packs nicely into the bowl. Upon first lighting it, I'm always very satisfied with the smokey taste. You're not going to get any overloaded with sugar taste anywhere here. Unlike aromatics, which I tend to enjoy more in small doses, this blend is best enjoyed in the biggest bowl you own. It smokes amazingly cool and sweet all the way down to the bottom, definitely my go-to tobacco if I'm in the mood for a long smoke.

Overall, this is easily one of my favorite tobaccos. I'll definitely buy some more from my local tobacconist if they can keep it in stock. I just wish my local tobacconist had internet prices; I'd much rather pay $11 for a 50 gram tin rather than the $16 I believe I payed in-store. I suppose with shipping it comes out to about the same, but still. I guess you end up paying for the ability to drive home with your tobacco in hand and pack a bowl right when you get in the door.

In other pipe-smoking news, I had a very pleasant experience at DW Cigars on Broadway in Santa Monica, CA. If you're ever in Santa Monica on 3rd St Promenade, walk down Broadway towards the beach and you'll run into this little cigar shop that carries an impressive quality of pipes and tobaccos. The thing I really liked about this shop was the customer service. The gentleman who helped me said something like, "you can either be a customer, which is fine, or you can be a client, which is something I prefer. I'd rather get to know you, so I know what you like." This attitude is rare at best. There are only a few places I've gone to where you are treated more like a person and potential friend rather than a being who is bringing capital into someone's business. I love finding this atmosphere.

I highly recommend pipe smokers to visit this shop although cigar smokers will find much more to enjoy there. They have an extremely well-stock cigar room. I'm no cigar smoker so I can't begin to describe anything about their selection but I can assure you, you'll get great service regardless of why you're visiting. Cheers to the helpful staff.

That's really all I have going on right now. Hopefully I can clean up my messy room today and get some reading done. Cheers.