Category: life

Found a book (borrowed it from my son really)…

Castles of Steel.

Logical extension of the last one Lusitania as many of the characters are the same, along with the time-frame and issues. Should be a good read. BTW: My paternal grandfather served in the US Navy during WWI, on one of these Dreadnoughts. In a classic variation on the oxymoron of Military Intelligence, his task was that of a lookout. He stared at the horizon for 8 hours a day.

The ironic part was that he was literally half-blind. Go figure.

I love to read. I have since I was a kid. I almost always have a book with me, and read it when I have any spare time. I usually have a queue of good books to read waiting for me to finish whatever I am working on at the moment. I finished Lusitania last week, and had nothing queued up next. A friend unexpectedly sent me some books from Amazon for Christmas (Thanks John!) so I know I have some stuff to dig into in about a week. I also have bought some books for my older son, who is a voracious reader too. He loves John Keegan, so I bought a few of his works for under the tree. So I should have the first few months of 2006 covered. In the meantime I have nothing to read, and it is an odd feeling.

I’d like to dust off Smith’s Wealth of Nations again, but it is too much for a week, especially a busy week (my youngest’s birthday is this week, and I have a ton of stuff to do at work)… not to mention all that Holiday stuff. Any suggestions for some nice quick, thought-provoking reads? Regular readers of this site know that I prefer the History and Philosophy sections of the bookstore… though a nice biography or novel is not outside the realm of possibilty. Let me know if you have any suggestions.

I had a meeting today at 4pm (yeah, I know it is Friday) at work concerning a business deal. I’ll leave out specific details but it was supposed to be about fixing some problems. I’m not a big fan of meetings but this one was required because the email exchanges were not making things better, in fact it was making things worse. So the hope was to get everyone involved into one room (6 people), and address a list of details and get them crossed of EVERYONE’s list right then and there. I like meetings if stuff can get accomplished, otherwise I avoid them.

Unfortunately it didn’t go well. Five people showed up, having done all their prep work, and ready to meet, but one person arrived with seemingly no desire to get anything done. Well not really, it seemed that they were there to PREVENT anything from getting done. Instead of following the agenda, they wandered, interrupted, and actively prevented any issue from being resolved. It was very frustrating.

Thankfully that person left the meeting, and at least a small amount of progress was made. Very strange experience though.

I finished reading my latest book (see links on right) as I lay around all weekend recovering from my back problems. Here is a quick mini-review:

Very readable, well researched summary of the critical year 1945. Dallas fills in the Political, and Economic strategies in play by the major powers (UK, US, & USSR, along with France, Germany, and what is left of Poland) along with the usual Military history. It makes for fascinating reading, especially for those of us brought up in the USA. Much that is left out of Military histories and the mythology we are accustomed to here in the US are explored: De Gaulle and the French political (Vichy/the Communists) situation. The broad economic and political maneuvers by the US, UK, & USSR. The extent to which the USSR had no illusions as to the “alliance” with the western powers, and how well they were ahead of “us” in terms of embedding intelligence operatives into the foreign governments of all their “enemies” (From Germany to the US).

I always wondered how, in the grand “war councils” between FDR, Churchill, and Stalin the subject of the Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939 was never discussed. This book answers that and more.

The brief window of time in 1990 when the Soviet archives were opened for western view for the first time has produced a fantastic opportunity for historians to fill in sections of the 20th Century’s jigsaw puzzle. This book benefits from that data significantly. If you are at all interested in history, I suggest you read it.

Bill Dickson has gone one full year between blog posts.

When I first met Bill, he told me he wanted to be a writer. A very great man, James D. Howze, who was an Art Professor of mine, (who I studied 2D drawing under my Freshman year) once told me you create ART by making marks on paper. So Bill, I suggest you start banging your keyboard.

You are a far better writer than I could ever be Bill. Start writing again!

I have a herniated disc in my spine. It hurts like hell. I may be offline for a while… be patient.