Raise the Titanic - Clive Cussler

Naturally, this story begins on that fateful January night in 1912. When the Titanic strikes the iceberg, a passenger corners one of the porters forces him to be a guide. Near the bottom of the Titanic is the cargo hold this passenger has chosen for his final resting place.

Flash forward to present day. The President has a secret agenda and a legacy that depend on the cargo that went down with the Titanic. Enter our hero, Dirk Pitt. The task of salvaging the cargo falls on his shoulders.

First things first, Dirk must find the Titanic at the bottom of the North Atlantic. The activities of National Underwater and Marine Agency do not go without notice. The Soviet Union are quickly interested in the NUMA ships scouring the sea. Things become more complicated when the CIA makes the President aware of the possibility of capturing one of the USSR's top spies. And all the President has to do is allow information to slip out about what Dirk and his people are actually after.

This fast paced adventure is thoroughly entertaining. Cussler has tapped into a story that captures the imagination and makes time stand still. This is Dirks best tale yet.

Killing Rommel - Steven Pressfield

This was a book I listened to on my last trip to the Philippines. At least, I listened to most of it then. I found this book in NetLibrary. After charging my MP3 player, the licence for it was no longer valid and I was unable to finish listening to it until I visited the NetLibrary site with my MP3 plugged in and requested the licence again.

Despite those travails, I thought it worth the effort. I found the plot and the storytelling quite compelling. Although it was billed as a biography on NetLibrary, it is really a work of fiction. The central mission described in the book never happened. The main characters are fictional.

The book itself, develops like a biography would. Giving us a rather complete background of the main character, Lawrence Chapman. Describing in some detail the pivotal developmental moments in his early life and schooling before dropping us into World War II. Chap is assigned to the Long Range Desert Group shortly after he arrives in North Africa. This group did exist at the time and carried out missions beyond enemy lines.

Many of the descriptions of events are accurate even though the story itself is fiction. We are treated to an experience of what life was like for the men of the LTDG. We get exposed to the passion they had for their role in the war and a feel for the turmoil they experienced when taking time to think about their families and friends.

This was a terrific book. Not the biography I was expecting but an accurate and compelling portrayal of life during the desert campaign of WWII. I highly recommend it to any history or WWII buff.

FeedReader3

I made another attempt at using an aggregator to streamline my web surfing. This time I tried FeedReader3. There are no frills with this. The left side contains the list of feeds you have set up and the right side displays the feed you choose to read.

I used it for a couple months and found it quite user friendly and functional. Adding a feed is as simple as cutting and pasting. Organizing the feeds is easy as well with the folder setup. If the feed you are reading includes pictures, they load very quickly within the applet. You also have the option to open the feed you're on in a browser window. Quite useful if you want to explore the site.

I did have some technical difficulties. Fortunately, they did not involve my computer being taken over by addware as another aggregator is prone to do. Rather, it impacted the functionality of my browser. When I would navigate within my browser I would occasionally experience an unrecoverable error. This only happened when the FeedReader3 was active. I would also receive an exception error in the aggregator itself. I decided to try repairing the aggregator to fix the problem. Unfortunately, when I went to add/remove programs it was not in the list.

It turns out, that the FeedReader3 is installed in the root directory. The only option you have is to delete the program and reinstall it. After deleting the program I no longer experienced the error in the web browser. It has been a couple weeks now and I still haven't reinstalled the FeedReader3. It worked out OK. I found nothing on the support pages of the website about the errors I was experiencing so I am not going to reinstall it. Maybe it was something unique to my system, maybe not. Either way FeedReader3 was not a WOW experience. I can and will live without it.

If I hear about another aggregator that has a strong following, I will certainly give it a try.

Million Dollar Hold'em - Johnny Chan, Mark Karowe

Million Dollar Hold'em is a unique book. Written by a world champion at no limit, this book focuses on the concepts necessary to be successful in fixed limit games. There is a lot you won't find in this book. You won't find an introduction to hand rankings or the rules governing how to play Texas Hold'em. This book is aimed at people who have an innate understanding of these things.

The structure of this book is unique as well. Johnny presents a concept. He presents it succinctly and then proceeds to demonstrate it. The vast majority of this book is a recap of hands that have been played. Using these hands to demonstrate the concepts presented. For someone with experience at the tables, this is a very effective method. Often I was able to think back to a hand I played earlier in the week or month and say, "That's what he was doing." Or sometimes, ok maybe more than sometimes, "That's why he called my bluff."

This treatise can be very enlightening. Also of key importance, Johnny assumes the reader has the skills to identify what kinds of plays people are fond of. What kinds of risks other players are willing to take. Most of these concepts work or don't work because you have more than just a guess about how your opponent will react. If you are struggling to identify who is tight aggressive and who is weak passive at a table there is very little this book can help you with.

You always hear that poker is a people game, not a card game. This book shows you just how true that statement is. Is you understand the people you are playing with, this book will help you improve the decisions you are making against them and ultimately, when you make good decisions you will make money.

Final Presidential Debate

I watched the debate this past week. This debate focused on domestic policy. America is in the middle of an economic crisis and the plans that these men put forward to address this issue is likely to be the deciding factor for a significant number of voters. It was this specific issue that prompted me to stay at work and watch the debate in the break room rather than make the 45min drive home.

I was more than a little disappointed in both candidates. Obama is a slick talking, charismatic politicians politician. McCain, not so much. When the topic turned to economics I was ready to hear some courageous talk about how to fix the situation. McCain struggled to articulate any word with more than 2 syllables. Obama deftly ignored the topic completely while using words that are typically associated with economics. In the end, I came to a conclusion about each candidate.

John McCain. He has a plan. I don't know what it is or how it would work. He struggled to put forth examples of what the plan entails but, he couldn't put together a complete sentence that made sense. Let alone that paragraph that would be necessary to convey a concept.

Barak Obama. He has no plan. He knows what he wants but, it has nothing to do with helping the American people. It has everything to do with helping Barak. He is polished and articulate. To bad he has nothing to say.

I should have just gone home. I have no idea which candidate to vote for. I want to vote against them both. After this debate, I weep for Americas future.

King Rat - James Clavell

I reread (sorta) King Rat the other day. Clavell is one of my favorite historical fiction authors. I had a paperback copy that fell apart years ago so, I was excited when I stumbled across it with my torrent program. This time I thought I would let the Stephen Hawking-like Microsoft Reader tell me the story.

I have always found the way Clavell weaves stories together very appealing. In this case, there is no tie to his previous (chronologically) novels. But there is a tie to his next novel, Noble House.

I am very appreciative of the fact that he doesn't go overboard with description. The story is in the characters and he lets them weave the fabric. Very little time is spent describing the environment and yet, I have a vivid image in my minds eye of what Changi prison looks like and how it smells.

Set near the end of WWII, King Rat is a brave exploration of life in a POW camp. The characters are vividly developed and their plight is not glorified. Clavell focuses his attention on the internal battle the individuals wage within themselves. Battling to hang on to their sanity. Balancing their survival needs against their personal morality.

Unfortunately, this brilliant writing does not come through when Microsoft Reader is vocalizing the words. There is no emotion of course and the cadence is so consistent I found myself tiring quickly. After only a few chapters, I gave up on having the story read to me and read it myself. I am sure this feature of the reader has its audience. People who are suffering eye ailments for instance. But if your need for auditory consumption of written material is more long term, I suggest regular audio books.

Phantom Prey - John Sandford

Lucas Davenport gets thrust into the middle of series of murders he would rather have nothing to do with. At the same time he is on the team trying to get the Twin Cities ready for the republican convention. Preparing for security of the participants and crowd control with a limited police staff is quite a daunting task in and of itself.

The daughter of a wealthy entrepreneur goes missing and presumed dead. Shortly afterward, her friends begin to show up murdered. After Weather runs into the mother at their gym, she convinces Lucas to get involved in the investigation.

Sandford uses this story to explore the world of Goth. Lucas meets and talks with a number of different people within this subculture and we get some insight into who they are and how they think. And just like most groups, they have their factions and clicks and competing philosophies. Sandford is taking his art to a new level. He is no longer just telling a suspenseful tale. He exploring the sociological aspects of society. In the decades to come, Sandford may well be required reading in many universities and high schools.