The End Of An Era...
has come to the McFee home. As of five weeks ago I officially finished shift work. I have been working southern swing, 7 nights (9p-5a) with 2 off days, 7 afternoons (1p-9p) with one off day and 7 days (5a-1p) with 3 days off for the better part of two years. I can't explain the relief and happiness that I am feeling being able to come home daily when my wife does. It was quite a shock when I was asked to come back to days and I really still don't know if I really get it yet. I think as the weekends that I don't have to work continue to stack up it will become more and more apparent to my mind that I am really done.
The work I got to do on shift, working as a shift supervisor, I would not trade for anything. I learned so much and genuinely enjoyed the work. It is missing stuff, events and get togethers, that I won't miss. The guys that I got to work with will be something that I will always get to look back on. But thank goodness it's looking back and still looking on. Day shift here I come.
I did do an interesting thing this year that this blog helped make possible. I was able to keep up with the books I had completed and was able to add up the pages that I had read. This past year I read 11,500 pages! I don't know if that is alot compared to my past or even alot compared to other people but that is almost 32 pages a day. I also listened to my first audio book which I will also review. I don't know if I will keep those up it was interesting listening to a book. It was close to nine hours on the iPod but I guess that may be how long it takes to read 325 pages. Anyway I won't make this one long since I took two months off from blogging.
The Elegance of the Hedghog - Muriel Barbery (3.5 out of 5) This was a really interseting story and told from two different points of view. One of them a very smart young girl in a rich family. She is smart beyond her years and all the things that being rich "entitles" people to are things that she loathes. The other narrator is the concierge (French Super) who though she runs a building full of rich people is considered lower class. The story is about what they learn from each other and the back and forth views is really interesting.
Superfreakonomics - S. Levitt & S. Dubner (4.5 out of 5) Great followup to the 2005 book "Freakonomics". Another great book that looks at people through the eyes of an economist. Not how people spend money but how they interact with each other. Cause and effect and statistics reveal some surprising information like it's more dangerous to walk home from the bar drunk than to drive drunk.Of course all these things come with caveats like the fact that it is only more dangerous for the drunk person since most times accidents involving a car and a person don't tend to injure the driver. Also the interesting ways that people figured things out through statistics and the scientific method. How they used algorithms to help track down terrorists before they commit acts of terror. A long list that includes things like not buying health insurance (since it wouldn't pay out anyway). Great book and a quick read, didn't get a five because it was so short especially after the four year wait for the followup.
The Girl How Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson (4.5 out of 5) Second book in a trilogy. I absolutely loved the first one and this one was great but the first was soo good it is hard to follow it. Follows Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander as they try clear Salander of a murder that she didn't commit or at least Blomkvist hopes she didn't. She is such a loose cannon that anything can happen around her. I am pretty sure I said this last time but this not my usual style of book but I really liked it. The movie for the first book "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" is coming out this summer as well as the final book in the trilogy.
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane - Katherine Howe (4 out of 5) A really neat book that pulled me in because of the cover art which I have discussed before is something that can draw me to a book I know nothing about. The story is about a young college professor looking to find a topic her big presentation that might take her to the next level. She spends the summer in an very old house that was left to her when her grandmother passed away. As she works to clean up the house to sell it she learns something interesting about a former inhabitant of the house. She was a witch that was murdered during the Salem witch trials and she happens to be a relative of the narrator. The more she learns about Deliverance Dane the more she finds out about herself.
Son of a Witch - Gregory Maguire (2.5 out of 5) Good but nowhere close to as good as "Wicked" which this book is the followup too. It is the story of Liir, Elphaba's son, as he tries to find his childhood friend who was in captivity at the end of wicked. It was a disjointed story that I never really felt like I was part of. Still a great idea for a story and I am sure that I will still read the next book focusing on the cowardly lion.
has come to the McFee home. As of five weeks ago I officially finished shift work. I have been working southern swing, 7 nights (9p-5a) with 2 off days, 7 afternoons (1p-9p) with one off day and 7 days (5a-1p) with 3 days off for the better part of two years. I can't explain the relief and happiness that I am feeling being able to come home daily when my wife does. It was quite a shock when I was asked to come back to days and I really still don't know if I really get it yet. I think as the weekends that I don't have to work continue to stack up it will become more and more apparent to my mind that I am really done.
The work I got to do on shift, working as a shift supervisor, I would not trade for anything. I learned so much and genuinely enjoyed the work. It is missing stuff, events and get togethers, that I won't miss. The guys that I got to work with will be something that I will always get to look back on. But thank goodness it's looking back and still looking on. Day shift here I come.
I did do an interesting thing this year that this blog helped make possible. I was able to keep up with the books I had completed and was able to add up the pages that I had read. This past year I read 11,500 pages! I don't know if that is alot compared to my past or even alot compared to other people but that is almost 32 pages a day. I also listened to my first audio book which I will also review. I don't know if I will keep those up it was interesting listening to a book. It was close to nine hours on the iPod but I guess that may be how long it takes to read 325 pages. Anyway I won't make this one long since I took two months off from blogging.
The Elegance of the Hedghog - Muriel Barbery (3.5 out of 5) This was a really interseting story and told from two different points of view. One of them a very smart young girl in a rich family. She is smart beyond her years and all the things that being rich "entitles" people to are things that she loathes. The other narrator is the concierge (French Super) who though she runs a building full of rich people is considered lower class. The story is about what they learn from each other and the back and forth views is really interesting.
Superfreakonomics - S. Levitt & S. Dubner (4.5 out of 5) Great followup to the 2005 book "Freakonomics". Another great book that looks at people through the eyes of an economist. Not how people spend money but how they interact with each other. Cause and effect and statistics reveal some surprising information like it's more dangerous to walk home from the bar drunk than to drive drunk.Of course all these things come with caveats like the fact that it is only more dangerous for the drunk person since most times accidents involving a car and a person don't tend to injure the driver. Also the interesting ways that people figured things out through statistics and the scientific method. How they used algorithms to help track down terrorists before they commit acts of terror. A long list that includes things like not buying health insurance (since it wouldn't pay out anyway). Great book and a quick read, didn't get a five because it was so short especially after the four year wait for the followup.
The Girl How Played With Fire - Stieg Larsson (4.5 out of 5) Second book in a trilogy. I absolutely loved the first one and this one was great but the first was soo good it is hard to follow it. Follows Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander as they try clear Salander of a murder that she didn't commit or at least Blomkvist hopes she didn't. She is such a loose cannon that anything can happen around her. I am pretty sure I said this last time but this not my usual style of book but I really liked it. The movie for the first book "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" is coming out this summer as well as the final book in the trilogy.
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane - Katherine Howe (4 out of 5) A really neat book that pulled me in because of the cover art which I have discussed before is something that can draw me to a book I know nothing about. The story is about a young college professor looking to find a topic her big presentation that might take her to the next level. She spends the summer in an very old house that was left to her when her grandmother passed away. As she works to clean up the house to sell it she learns something interesting about a former inhabitant of the house. She was a witch that was murdered during the Salem witch trials and she happens to be a relative of the narrator. The more she learns about Deliverance Dane the more she finds out about herself.
Son of a Witch - Gregory Maguire (2.5 out of 5) Good but nowhere close to as good as "Wicked" which this book is the followup too. It is the story of Liir, Elphaba's son, as he tries to find his childhood friend who was in captivity at the end of wicked. It was a disjointed story that I never really felt like I was part of. Still a great idea for a story and I am sure that I will still read the next book focusing on the cowardly lion.
posted by John III @ 9:04 PM
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