Ken vs. the City

As he celebrated his 7th Tour de France victory with a hearty “Vive le Tour,” Lance Armstrong ascended to that higher plain of reality they call retirement. The thing I like most about Lance has nothing to do with the fact that he’s a cancer survivor (probably the healthiest man in the world right now), from Texas, or so darn good looking. I like Lance because he’s a fighter.

While all pro athletes are fighters, Lance fought hard and became the best in the world at what he does. In the annals of sports history, he’ll appear up there with Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan. Even if you think sports are a waste of time, you have to admire the poignant illustration of the human struggle. God gives each of us mountains to climb and struggle over. And while the gulf between damnation and salvation is impassable for us save for the mercy of God himself, those mountains are there to train for, to fight over, and ascend.

It’s not enough to say “God, deliver me over this mountain.” How can that make you strong? God says to gather your strength and fight. He will coach and train you. He will lead you, and he will show you the strength that’s already inside you by the Holy Spirit. Without God, trying to climb the mountain is like trying to win a bike race without a bike.

Sometimes on Saturday mornings, after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I go out running. I’ve found a few places that are popular with the joggeratti. One of them is where I went today, Battery Park City.

When they dug the foundation for the World Trade Center in the 70’s, they needed a place to put all the dirt. So, in proper New York fashion, they dumped it in the river. Actually the landfill now known as Battery Park City was planned out from the beginning as an extension to Manhattan Island, and a fine job they’ve done too. As you can see from the pictures, the waterfront is very modern and nicely kept. There’s a ton of bikers and runners there just about every weekend. There’s also some great views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, and the Jersey skyline.

I bought the latest Harry Potter book yesterday at the Strand for 18 bucks. Sorry. I couldn’t resist. Those books are like drugs, but in a good way.

What fascinates me most about Harry Potter is that it’s so fun to read. I’ve been trying to pick apart what exactly makes best sellers best sellers, and Harry Potter is the king. I actually heard from a friend that the two highest selling books in the world right now are Harry Potter and the Bible. Go figure. I think it has something to do with fun and accesibility. Harry Potter uses uncomplicated language (it’s a kids book, after all), so anyone can read it. And it’s fun.

I don’t know how many “literary” novels there are out there right now, but it seems that most of them, in spite of any insights into the human condition, contain highfalootin’ language and monotone plots that can only be fully understood, not to mention related to, by a select group of literary snobs.

That said, there’s no way that J.K. Rowling can be considered even a small literary genius. As popular as her Harry Potter stories are, they are pure escapism. And while jr. highschoolers of the future may be forced to read her books too, I don’t think they will be studying her to learn about literature.

I have always despised the labels of “popular novel” and “literary novel”, mainly because it implies that a literary novel can’t be popular and a popular novel can’t be literary. I see no reason in the world why a novel can’t be popular and have lasting literary value at the same time. The principals of good storytelling in no way interfere with the requirements of good literature. Imagine that… stories of value that people actually want to read.

I don’t know about anyone else, but that’s what I’m shooting for.

Jeremy over at The Wealthy Blogger has written a response to my question about generating income when you’re between jobs.

Since I moved to New York, I’ve had an increasing desire to make my own way without having to rely on “the man” for income. I see the need to stand on my own two feet absolutely essential if I’m to live in the world, and I see it as a way to force myself to rely on God for my daily needs. I find the idea of a steady secure job, complete with medical and dental, nice as a supplementary form of sustinence, and I’m certainly not against having a steady job, but I could easily see myself coming to rely on that job rather than God. The only sure way around that I can see, is to take large unsteady steps, thereby forcing me to rely on something other than myself or my circumstances for survival.

Of course my personality is more like that of mild-mannered Clark Kent than the mighty self-confident Superman. Striking out on my own scares the bejeezus out of me. That’s one of the reasons I’m so hesitant to put my money where my mouth is, and I’m trying to reach out to others for moral support. Unfortnately you can’t eat moral support, hence the job I have now (which I like, by the way). Slowly but surely, I’m developing my little plans, and every day I pray for courage.

Ken vs. The City went down for a few hours last night. Something screwed up the template I was using. Never fear, it’s fixed now. I decided to go with something in green this time.

Go Lance!

Yesterday I went to a friend’s birthday party in Central Park. It was nice out, and I got to play bocce ball, which was a lot of fun.

Then I went Roosevelt Island with some other folks to watch the fireworks. I’d never been there before, and the neighborhood reminded me of verticle suburbs with no back yards. The fire works display was spectacular and we had an excellent view. There was music simulcasted on both the radio and TV, and during the Marine’s Hymn they exploded a few square fireworks, which I had never seen before. Those were a real treat.

Afterwards we hung out, like people tend to do. And then someone asked me the inevitable question, “what do you do?” “I’m a writer” I reply, and then I have to explain exactly what I mean by that: what I write about, what I’d like to write about, that sort of thing. Except this time, to my surprise, when I was asked what kind of writing I was trying to get into, the first thing that popped out of my mouth, before I even had a chance to ponder the question, or second-guess myself, was “technology.” I was absolutely astonished.

And then, as the conversation continued I realized that answer was absolutely right. I want to write about technology. Technology is something I get. It’s something I have a unique passion for. I find it fun. I could yak about tech stuff all day. I’ve been looking for freelance work at newspapers, by going (or trying to go) to the main editors, having no luck with the broad approach, but I never even considered specializing. Now that’s something I can “leverage,” as the business people say.

I’m changing my tactics this week, and I’ll let you guys know what happens.

This weekend has been pretty busy. I have Monday off, and I only work up till Wednesday, so I’m in the middle of a whopping 5 day weekend.

There’s swing dancing every Friday at the Lincoln Center and I decided to check it out. I met a few people I knew there. One of them is a swing dancing guru and, while I have excellent musical rhythm, my feet don’t know a downbeat from a backbeat. On top of that, the whole partner dancing thing still makes me a little nervous. Needless to say, I got owned. But I had a lot of fun. There was a little rain, but nothing a well-timed automatic umbrella couldn’t handle. And the music was live and very very “cool,” as the kids say.

Speaking of music, I’ve discovered a new fight song. It’s Kamikaze, the first track on one of Five Iron Frenzy’s last albums, the Cheeses of Nazareth. It’s got me so pumped up this weekend. I’ve listened to that one song at least twenty times already, and I just bought the album on Friday. It was originally supposed to be released in 2001 on their Electric Boogaloo album, but since “kamikaze” is Japanese for planes flying into stuff, they wisely replaced it.

Speaking of September 11th, I just saw the War of the Worlds yesterday. I read in the paper that it’s supposed to be some sort of metaphor for September 11th. There are people running from falling debris and things and one or two mentions of terrorists, but it’s more of a straight up disaster movie than a celluloid metaphor. It’s not really science fiction either because there’s no science in the movie. Spielberg plays on fears of the moment like in Jaws; the cinematographic action and sheer terror are exquisite. However there are a few instances (especially towards the end) where you wonder where Spielberg’s story telling marbles went. It’s definitely worth seeing on the big screen though. This movie is scary.

I can’t believe it’s been almost a week since my last post. I promise I have not abandoned you. When I first started writing this blog I dedicated myself to writing one post each day. Then my computer got a major virus and it took about a week to get all the things I needed to retrieve some stories I had been working on and fix the thing. Blog posts were just never the same after that.

I admit some of the posts were really lame, especially the food ones. Any way, I’m doing my best to get my thoughts out there, so you guys might be hearing more from me from now on.