Kendall Giles

Review: Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton

Kendall — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:35:29 +0000

The Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton, is a book that modern readers will perhaps find hard to appreciate. Not so much from the writing itself — Wharton is one of the masters of literary craft and this book won her the Pulitzer Prize for literature in 1921. Rather, modern readers, raised in an age of independence and the anti-hero, where cultural standards are routinely smacked down with a hammer, may just not understand or have patience for the conflicts and dilemmas raised in the book. In exquisite detail, Wharton brings the cultural boundaries, customs, and mores of upper class New York in the 1870s to life, primarily through the relationships between Newland Archer, May Welland, and Ellen Olenska. The characters are conflicted by having to balance restrictions and customs of their class, and their feelings of duty and honor, against human emotions of love and passion. I think modern readers should really give this book a chance, as it offers a rare insight into a world long forgotten, and if only for that, it deserves to be read.

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Publication of a short story!

Kendall — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 02:15:22 +0000

I just got word that a short story I wrote got accepted to The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature Journal.

I’ll let everyone know when it comes out!

Woop!

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Review: All the Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy

Kendall — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:56:31 +0000

All the Pretty Horses is the second book by Cormac McCarthy book I’ve read, and this author’s prose is like poetry. He really has a way with describing scenes of the countryside, the love of horses, and the tragedy of a man’s destiny within a blind, or indifferent, universe.

The story focuses on the young John Grady Cole, who sets off on an adventure, on horseback, into Mexico with his childhood friend Lacey Rawlins. Along the way the encounter this kid, Jimmy Blevins, riding a beautiful horse. The resulting incidents lead the trio into deeper trials of their character and courage as they face the worst in humanity, love, and the land itself.

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Review: Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy

Kendall — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 18:31:20 +0000

Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West, by Cormac McCarthy, is worth your time, but is probably not a book for the faint of heart. I really enjoyed the story, though I have to feel a little guilty for saying so. The scenery itself is like another of the characters, and all characters are harsh, brutal, and real. The pace of the narration does not drag, and though you try not to flinch at the descriptions of horror and blood, flinch you do, and then you can’t resist turning the page to see what happens next.

Well done.

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Review: The Green Man, by Kingsley Amis

Kendall — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 19:27:45 +0000

I really enjoyed The Green Man, by Kingsley Amis. It starts out as some sort of English comedy — a guy who owns a pub has a drinking problem, has health problems, has a marriage problem, has a mistress problem, and has children problems, then suddenly starts seeing ghosts.

Of course no one believes him, since he’s probably drunk, under stress, or on medication, and it seems the more he tries to get people to believe him, the worse his predicament gets. But as he comes closer to discovering the origins of the name of his pub, The Green Man, the horror starts to take charge over comedy.

The ending is delightful, English, and quite satisfying

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Review: The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson

Kendall — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 02:37:35 +0000

The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson, is one of the classics of the horror genre. Whereas some writers rely on explicit blood, gore, and violence to get across their message, Shirley Jackson evokes horror and supernatural suspense exactly by not being explicit. She creates terrifying moods and images without being hamhanded about the descriptions.

The story centers around a particular house, Hill House, that has a reputation for being haunted. A professor of paranormal psychology wants to conduct an experiment there, and so invites three other people to spend some time there with him so they can record their experiences. Though they all seem to experience strange events that cannot really be explained, one of the party, Eleanor, seems to attract the supernatural manifestations more than the others, eventually leading to a horrible disaster.

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a possum who thinks he is a cat

Kendall — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 15:40:47 +0000

Something made me suspicious, so I looked outside to see what the cats were up to, and found that the critter eating all the cat food was not a cat!

Here’s a short video of what I saw on the porch:

Ya, that’s a hungry possum. What I think is funny is the audio of him eating — crunching away.

I guess now I shouldn’t make the cats feel so guilty for eating so much food…

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Trip to Daniel Island, South Carolina

Kendall — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 02:45:35 +0000

Over New Years, we had the opportunity to visit friends on Daniel Island, South Carolina. The island itself, winner of lots of livability awards, is great—water views, temperate climate, palm trees, and close proximity to Charleston, South Carolina. Charleston itself has won best-places-to-live, world’s smartest cities, Top 10 Worldwide Cities to Visit in 2010, Best Cities in the U.S. and Canada, Best Cities for Technology Jobs, and lots of other livability, friendliness, shopping, and travel destination accolades.

After this visit, I can see why.

The city has a small town feel—folks are friendly and the prices right—yet there are enough residents to attract significant shops and businesses.

The views are excellent, and it is easy to hop from island to island to mainland, as whim may call.

All in all, it was a very fun trip, and a place I am looking forward to visiting again.

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At the End of the 00s, A Personal Lookback

Kendall — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 13:23:36 +0000

Traditionally, the end of the year is a time for reflection about what you’ve accomplished during the past year and a chance to set goals for the coming year. I don’t often post end-of-year reviews, but since today, December 31, 2009, marks the end of not only the year 2009, but also the end of the first 10 years of the 2000s — the end of the 00s — I wanted to at least say something.

On a larger scale, the last 10 years essentially started with the tragedy of 9/11 and ended with a recession. That’s a little depressing, but the positive side is that the next decade can’t help but be better. I hope.

So on a personal level, here are a few highlights from the past 10 years:

Old Friends New Friends

The “coming of age” of social media brought many opportunities for folks to reconnect with old friends and make new ones. I have really enjoyed getting in touch with people via Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, to name a few. I’ve even met people via my website, which is a really neat experience. I believe that the internet and network technologies allow people to become closer to each other, to share common interests, and to learn new perspectives and ideas. There are still some kinks left to work out, such as issues of copyright law with new digital products, or the lack of broadband penetration in the US, but in this past decade we really saw people coming around to appreciating the internet and using it to enrich their lives. Certainly I’ve enjoyed the ride so far.

Travel

I love to travel (but not to go through airports), and over the last 10 years I went to some neat places, including Milan, several towns and villages in southern England, Toronto, Iceland, and Amsterdam. I also got to take my first cruise, to the Caribbean. Within the states, notable visits include Los Angeles, New York, and Hawaii. In hindsight I guess that’s not a lot of travel if you spread it out over 10 years, but it was a lot of fun.

Going for the Brass Ring

After about 10 years of engineering work in industry, I decided to go back to school to complete a PhD. Of course, as many pointed out at the time, this was a rather foolish and difficult undertaking, for many reasons. Faculty jobs are very hard to get, especially if you only want a job in a specific geographic region. In fact, according to a recent Wall Street journal article, in 1960 about 75% of college instructors were full-time tenured or tenure-track professors, but today only about 27% are. Colleges and universities are opting to hire gaggles of adjunct professors rather than one or two tenured faculty members.

From the article:

“When a tenure-track position is empty,” says Gwendolyn Bradley, director of communications at the American Association of University Professors, “institutions are choosing to hire three part-timers to save money.”

Another issue is that the pay in academia is way below industry pay scales, even for tenure-track positions. And given the faculty job requirements of teaching, service, and research, the $/hour tradeoff is even worse.

Moreover, folks warned me about the “half-life” of knowledge, especially regarding mathematics, that I would encounter since I had been out of school for so many years. Indeed, most grad students I ended up going to school with had no gap between their undergraduate and graduate courses — they only had to look at their last semester’s notes on “p-values” and “eigen-decomposition” in order to solve the homework problems, whereas I had to try to remember things from 10-years prior and that I had never had a reason to use during my industry work. The reality of “use it or lose it” made re-learning things everyone else took for granted a little challenging and a necessity for me.

The why-am-I-doing-this difficulties were compounded because I was, in part, funding my grad school effort by keeping my industry job — i.e., working and going to school at the same time — while also dealing with a 300-mile (yes, you read that right) commute. The grad students I was in class with, for the most part, did not also have a family, did not also have an industry job, and just had to commute from an apartment or dorm across campus. Needless to say, this made me question my decision to go back to school every single day it took me to complete my degree. I will note, however, that finally getting that PhD was one of the most satisfying goals I’ve ever achieved.

Health and Fitness

Note that the above ordeal left me quite depleted, stressed, and unhealthy. Add this to the fact that this past decade saw me leave my bullet-proof years in terms of health and fitness. Rather, I seem to have moved into the “ouch, oh, I guess things can break” phase of my life. Thus, I realized that I needed to take a more agressive approach to my health and fitness levels. After a lot of research, I’ve found the best way to stay in shape is through the vigorous application of kettlebells. I supplement my kettlebell usage with the TRX, running, and body-weight exercises, but really, you don’t need anything more than a cannonball with a handle.

On to the Next Decade

What will the next decade bring? I’ve got some ideas for what I want to do, and they center on the maxims of 1.) never stop challenging yourself, 2.) always value family and friends, and 3.) be productive.

So, stay tuned…

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Preview of new documentary: “Bartitsu: the Lost Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes”

Kendall — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 03:04:42 +0000

Here’s a preview of an upcoming documentary on Bartitsu, the art highlighted by Sherlock Holmes and one of the first mixed martial arts:

This documentary is sponsored by Tony Wolf and the Bartitsu Society, and includes lots of great footage, including the earliest footage of jujutsu.

Bartitsu was one of the first martial arts to combine Asian and Western fighting styles (70 years before Bruce Lee’s Jeet Kune Do) and predated modern MMA fighting by about 100 years. This art also provided self-defense skills to the Suffragette movement.

The art is currently undergoing a revival, and work is being made towards collecting funds for a memorial for E.W. Barton-Wright, the art’s founder.

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Kendall Giles

Review: Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton

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Publication of a short story!

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Review: All the Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy

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Review: Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy

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Review: The Green Man, by Kingsley Amis

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Review: The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson

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a possum who thinks he is a cat

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Trip to Daniel Island, South Carolina

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At the End of the 00s, A Personal Lookback

Old Friends New Friends

Travel

Going for the Brass Ring

Health and Fitness

On to the Next Decade

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Preview of new documentary: “Bartitsu: the Lost Martial Art of Sherlock Holmes”

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