All I want for Christmas: The Ron Paul Revolution

Bookworm. This is a term that I will gladly own. The following lists will be conquered (meaning the italicized books will be bought) during 2012, except for maybe the last list (non-books)... unless you truly wish to get me a gift.

Respectable reads

A Thousand Splendid Suns (Okay, I have read this book already, but I LOVE it and I don’t have it in my library, this might be the last book I obtain for myself), Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China (A history of China as viewed from the lives of three generations of women in the past century)

An ode to the mother culture

Dine Bahane’: The Navajo Creation Story, Between Earth & Sky: Legends of Native American Sacred Places, How Chipmunk Got His Stripes, How the Stars Fell into the Sky: A Navajo Legend, Dzani Yazhi Naazbaa’/Little Woman Warrior Who Came Home: A Story of the Navajo Long Walk

Stories about solving for q, z, and phi...

Fermat’s Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World’s Greatest Mathematical Problem, The Golden Ratio: The Story of PHI, the World’s Most Astonishing Number, Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea

“A book is never a masterpiece: it becomes one. Genius is the talent of a dead man.” Well stated. This is my nod to the classics. In particular...

Shakespeare Complete Works, The collected works of Charles Dickens, Anything by Oscar Wilde (except for The Portrait of Dorian Gray which I already own)

I am a nerd. I love fantasy, sci-fi, mystery, and thrillers. Past posts support the craziness; these books will simply stave the addiction.

Foundation and Empire novels, The Magician King: A Novel, The Scorpio Races, Super Freakonomics: Global Cooling, Patriotic Prostitutes, and Why Suicide Bombers Should Buy Life Insurance (I don’t know how this one fits any of the genres above)

Ingenious practicality that I want part of:

Fierce Dragon Bookends, The Clapper Sound Activated On/Off Switch, Ron Paul Revolution t-shirts. There are at least five different types I like, a bubble calendar, a 6' long chart of the periodic table...

Note: All of the books have made its way to my Amazon wish-list.

One more note: Is not the picture of the book tree a dream? I love it. Thanks to Ana for sharing it with me!

The night I saw a picture of myself as a wee five-year-old on Facebook

A blog is meant to do what? Rant? Share epiphanies? Obligingly, I will accomplish both in this post.

The Rant: [The following is a descriptive telling narrated by the victim with near accurate recollection of the dialogue that ensued between identified parties.]

It was a dark Monday night when I logged onto Facebook. Whether it was to stalk someone or send a message escapes me. All I know is that the workday had been long, as usual, and I wanted a diversion. The instant my home page appeared, my top newsfeed item displayed a biggish picture of a little girl with fair skin, large eyes reminiscent of an animal or bird, and a head full of black hair with uneven bangs. She was holding a babe with quizzical eyebrows and the fattest cheeks. It was her baby brother! ... and the little girl with a bright yellow t-shirt was ME! Oh. My. Word. I had been betrayed by unknown reasons that would become apparent later that evening. Before I called the person responsible for posting, I threw my head back like the loveable villain Syndrome and laughed at the Navajo baby with the cheeks. Then I scrolled through my phone and dialed the number that belonged to the father of that boy and girl in the photo. If there was anyone who would sympathize with my thinking, it was surely the man who sided with Gene Simmons in being a social network skeptic.

Father: Hello?

Me: DAD! Guess what?! Your youngest son has posted a picture of my five-year-old self on FB!

Father: That goofball, why would he do that?

Me: Obviously to show off his cuteness. I just don’t understand why he had to show off mine too!

Father: Have you talked to him about it?

Me: Aargh! I need to make an outcry like a pirate because I'm caught between two emotions. I don't think I take FB too seriously, but sometimes I let it get the best of me for about five seconds. [In a slightly deflated voice I then whisper...] My five-year-old self would not have approved. [Suddenly, the invisible lightbulb that hovers atop my head switched on as I come to an exciting revelation.] Yes. Yes! That's the injustice of the act! Those pictures from my childhood are a personal catalog of who I am today. My strengths and weaknesses could be discerned from that type of information.

Father: So you're saying that people will discover your Kryptonite by viewing pictures of you as a kid?

Me: Yep. I knew this day would come. That sneaky boy.

The conversation quickly devolved to discuss an array of topics that bordered on the insensible and brilliant. The rant had passed and I could call that younger brother in peace.

The 'epiphanies' mentioned above can actually be distilled down to one: There is no denying, I was a cute kid. This admittance is the peeling away of one more layer around my onion frame of mind.