We've owned a Hoover vacuum cleaner for many years, but it's been on its last legs for about a year.  We've still got a supply of bags, so we weren't in a rush to get a new machine.  About a year ago, it came to my attention that my Visa Rewards card included quite a few models of vacuum cleaners.  We did some browsing, and learned that for about 32,000 points, we could get a new Hoover, or for 42,000 points, we could get a new Dyson.  So, we let the points pile up.

Now, our points pile up very quickly.  We don't use debit cards, preferring to do all our purchases on the rewards card.  This does two things: (a) builds up points quickly, especially in the quarterly bonus categories (gas, groceries, etc.), and (b) leaves our cash to earn interest in the bank for a little longer.  We then make sure that we pay the balance in full, on-time each month, avoiding interest, finance and late fees. (This takes an attention to budgeting that my wife has in spades, and which she has instilled in me over the years.)  Add to that registering the credit card with UPromise, where we get cash back for the kids' education on top of the rewards points, and you can see how the savings add up.

It really did not take long for us to qualify for the Hoover vacuum, though we really wanted the Dyson.  We were debating about holding out for the extra 10,000 points to get the Dyson, when I noticed something on the Rewards website.  Fulfillment for electronics and appliances is handled by Best Buy.  Which meant that, if we ordered the vacuum, we could just drive over to the local Best Buy, and pick it up the next day, paying no shipping.  Nice!

I browsed over to the Best Buy site to make sure our local store had the Hoover model we wanted in stock.  They did, selling for $299.  Here comes the kicker:  those 32,000 points we had could be exchanged for either the Hoover or $320 in cash deposited to our checking account!  We would be getting a "free" Hoover with points worth $31 more than the price of the vacuum!

Hell NO!  What we did instead was as follows:
  a) cashed out the 32,000 points into our checking account
  b) when the funds were deposited the next day, we went to Best Buy, and bought the Dyson we wanted for $399, which meant that we got it for only $100 out of pocket (but less than the $420 worth of points it would have cost through the Rewards program), plus
  c) we got credit card points for the purchase
  d) we got to keep the rewards deposit and the other $100 in our account earning interest for another month
  e) we earned UPromise cash toward the kids' education fund.

All told, I estimate that we came out ahead to the tune of about $45 in savings (when you add up the difference between the retail price and the dollar value of the points, the interest earned, the UPromise cash and new reward points earned.

I recommend that, if you participate in a credit card rewards program, you check the actual retail prices on the items you want to claim as rewards.  You can probably do better by claiming the cash for the points.

Currently Reading:
PINION by Jay Lake jlake - reading at home
STEVE JOBS: The Man Who Thought Different by Karen Blumenthal - reading on my commute

Finished (3):
JUDY GARLAND by Anne Edwards - Going into this 1975 bio, I had only the barest knowledge of Garland - big eyes, bigger voice; Andy Hardy, Wizard of Oz, Minellis, Meet Me In St. Louis, Lufts, A Star Is Born, TV appearances, early death.  Now, granted that one can't ever take a single biography as definitive, but this one certainly gave me a wider picture of the forces that led to her death.  It is, as I'd expected, a sad story, but this book makes it seem that her life was nearly entirely devoid of joy.  Yes, it mentions in brief her happy moments expressing love for the men in her life, and for her fans.  Yet, so much more is about the bad things - bad relationships, bad business decisions, being cheated, the drugs, the depressions, the health issues, and above all, the loneliness.  While I feel that I have to believe that Judy MUST have experienced more joy in her life than is hinted at here, I can feel the tragedy of her demise very keenly right now.  Considering that she's been dead since I was 3 years old, and never knew her as a living entertainer, I can't decide if that makes this an effective bio or not.  I guess I'll have to read one or two more about her to seek a fuller picture, but not for a while yet.  I will, however, pop Oz into the DVD player at first opportunity, and visit with Judy in Technicolor happiness, and hope that she finally found home on the other side of the rainbow.  (ETA: I feel that I should note that I made the acquaintance a few years back with Bert Lahr's daughter, and we shared a few stories about how Oz affected our families.  Ms. Lahr took great pleasure in hearing about the year our family dressed up as the main Oz foursome for Halloween.  There remains much happiness in my heart thanks to that film.)

11/22/63 by Stephen King
THE ALLOY OF LAW by Brandon Sanderson

If anyone would care to make recommendations, or open discussions about particular titles once I've finished, please feel free.

Currently Reading:
PINION by Jay Lake jlake - reading at home
JUDY GARLAND by Anne Edwards - reading on my commute

Finished (2):
11/22/63 by Stephen King - King established a long time ago that time/dimensional travel was possible in his universe, and he uses that concept to good effect in this book.  Though not quite the doorways and "thinnies" of The Dark Tower books, and perhaps more akin to the dimensional travel used in The Talisman, King very effectively transports his protagonist and the reader to the late 1950s on a world-saving mission.  While the story harmonizes nicely with King's established universe, it goes places, particularly in the area of romance, that King has rarely gone before.  He comes out with an ending that I was not expecting, but that works amazingly well and satisfies.  Whether it is a happy ending, or not, I leave up you, my fellow Constant Readers.

THE ALLOY OF LAW by Brandon Sanderson

If anyone would care to make recommendations, or open discussions about particular titles once I've finished, please feel free.

Currently Reading:
11/22/63 by Stephen King (received as a Christmas gift from Amy) - reading at home, nearly done
JUDY GARLAND by Anne Edwards - reading on my commute, continuing the string of Hollywood bios I started reading in 2010.

Finished (1):
THE ALLOY OF LAW by Brandon Sanderson.  Sanderson updates his Mistborn trilogy, basically modernizing the world of Scadrial to the steam age.  His magical system has evolved in the interim, and the heroes of the original trilogy are now figures of myth and worship (or are they?).  I enjoyed this update, though thought it was a bit lacking in some of the rich detail that made the first trilogy so good.  A mild cliffhanger ending, so I'll be looking forward to more in this world.

If anyone would care to make recommendations, or open discussions about particular titles once I've finished, please feel free.

This past weekend, Austin fulfilled one of the nicest Christmas gifts I've ever been given.  He took me to watch my first professional NHL game.

When I was a teen, I played roller hockey.  I was a good player, but not great.  I just loved playing.  I never played ice hockey -- my high school only formed a team when I was midway through high school, and I wasn't that good an ice skater.  I have since learned how to ice skate decently.

This was during the late 70s/early 80s.  I was a die-hard New York Islanders fan.  These were the days of The Dynasty, and my heroes were Mike Bossy, Butch Goring, Clark Gillies, Bobby Nystrom, John Tonelli, Denis Potvin, Mike McEwen, Dave Langevin, Billy Smith, and my all-time favorite, Bryan Trottier.  My Isles jersey (#19 for Trottier) was my favorite article of attire.  I ate, drank and slept Islanders hockey.  These were the days when the Isles played on local TV quite often, and when they didn't, they were on the radio.  Ever listen to hockey on the radio?  My God, but I enjoyed that nearly as much as watching it on TV.

The summer I was moving to college, my team put together a final game against our local rivals.  It was August, outdoors, in full equipment.  At the last second, I took a slapshot and scored the final goal -- snapping my stick. I never played again.

Yet, as much as I loved the game, I never attended a professional hockey game.  I have been to dozens of Mets (and a few Yankee) games over the years, as baseball is a game that my whole family enjoys together.  I've been to one pro football game (pre-season Jets vs. Giants) with my brother, R., who has Giants season tickets (I'm a Jets fan).  I've been to one pro basketball game, when Austin and I took my dad to Madison Square Garden for a Knicks game that was Austin's first pro basketball game.

Last year, my youngest brother, B., also an Islander fan, invited Austin to go to a game with him.  To say I was mildly jealous is putting it... well... mildly.  They had a great time, and Austin suddenly started being interested in hockey and skating.  He heard me talking to my brother afterward about how I'd never been to a pro hockey game.

For Christmas, Austin gifted me with an Islander ticket that he paid for himself.  My dad did the actual purchasing and he threw in a ticket for Austin as part of Austin's birthday present.  Austin received an Isles jersey from R. for his birthday, and he already had an Isles tee-shirt that fit me, so we went to the game properly decked out.

The seats were upper-deck, but right on the center line, so we could see everything.  As luck would have it, though we didn't know beforehand, that night the team inducted Patrick Flatley into the Islanders Hall of Fame.  We got to see Flatley unveil his plaque, and add his name to the HoF banner, and see many of those Islander greats pay tribute to him.  It was wonderful!

We had a great time, and to make it all better, the Isles won the game in the last two minutes, pulling from a 2-2 tie to win 4-2.  Just awesome.

And I owe it all (with a tip of the hat to my dad) to Austin.  Thank you, Austin.  Can't wait to see more hockey with you.

At long last, the anthology SPACE INC., which contains my debut short story "Attached Please Find My Novel", is available for the Kindle and the Nook.

Kindle edition available here

Nook edition available here

SPACE INC. is an anthology about jobs in the future.  It contains stories by James Alan Gardner, Isaac Szpindel, Mindy L. Klasky, Josepha Sherman, Eric Choi, Nancy Kress, Derwin Mak, Doranna Durgin, S.M. and Janet Stirling, Robert J. Sawyer, Michael E. Picray, Alison Sinclair and Tanya Huff.

The anthology was the winner of the 2003 Prix Aurora Award for Best Canadian Science Fiction Work (other than a novel or short).

If you've ever wondered what sort of science fiction story a non-editorial publishing insider might write, check out this book.

In an effort to encourage myself to blog more often, I'm restarting my Book Posts after taking a year off from them.  In 2010, I posted about every book I read for the year (40 total).  I will begin doing so for this year, with my brief comments on each book when I've finished them.

Currently Reading:
11/22/63 by Stephen King (received as a Christmas gift from Amy) - reading at home, as it's too large to carry comfortably
THE ALLOY OF LAW by Brandon Sanderson - reading on my commute.

More to come.  If anyone would care to make recommendations, or open discussions about particular titles once I've finished, please feel free.

Last Friday, we attended Austin's first big concert performance.  He has been taking guitar and chorus as part of his school work this year.  Although he sang in the church choir since second grade, and they did learn some fundamentals of music, voice and musical notation, this is the first time he's formally studied voice.  It's also the first time he's really worked at guitar.  He's owned one since he was about five, but never did more than noodle around with it.

The concert ended up being much bigger than we expected.  The music program at his school is huge.  They have everything from a five-piece rock band, through the full chorus and select chorus, several levels of guitar ensemble, a drum line, a jazz band, concert strings, concert horns, to a full symphony orchestra.  Each group performed two or three songs, and I must say, it was all terrific.  Even the Introductory groups, who were only playing their instruments for a few months, put on lovely performances.

Austin performed first with the full chorus (about 30 boys), looking very dapper in his white shirt, black pants and bow tie (what I called his "tux-pseudo").  He'll wear a more complete tux outfit if he stays with the program next year.  They performed three songs - The Peace Carol, Tears On My Pillow and Santa Claus Is Coming To Town.  They had very nice harmonies, and I could actually pinpoint Austin's voice when I focused on him - no easy trick, as he tends to sing deep and low.

Then, he returned to the stage with the guitar ensemble, and performed Jingle Bells, Largo & Bohemian Folk Song (I was not familiar with the latter two, but it was nice to hear them trying different types of music). Again, a nice performance, though I couldn't actually see Austin, as the conductor was in the way.  Luckily, Amy was able to video him from an angle, and I got to watch him play once we got home.

As always, I'm very proud to see my kids doing public performance.  I never did that sort of thing when I was their age, and had to learn the tricks of being in front of an audience at an older age.  I'm glad they are already developing the confidence to step into the spotlight, and the public speaking/performing skills that I'm sure they will need to succeed in their careers - whatever those careers may be.

These past few weeks have been very hectic.  As reported some time ago, Christina was selected to play a featured role in her high school production of Hello Dolly.  She was originally supposed to only appear in the ensemble, but after one rehearsal, she was asked to understudy the role of Ermengarde.  After the next rehearsal, she was asked to understudy the role of Minne.  After the next rehearsal, she was given the role of Ermengarde.  After a couple of months of daily rehearsals (including one week of rehearsals from 5pm to 11pm), the show opened on Friday, November 11th, and ran for four performances over two weekends.  The production was very well received.  (Brooklyn Daily Eagle short review)

As for Christina, she was kept very busy on stage.  When she wasn't crying or dancing as Ermengarde, she was on-stage as part of the ensemble dancers and singers.  She learned all of the songs in the show, all of the dance routines, and had four costume changes.  The Director told me that, during rehearsals, Christina was able to fill in for anyone who was missing - she'd learned the play that well.

The amazing thing about this production is that, of the eight main characters, four were being played by students who had either never had a lead role before (ie: only performed in ensembles), or had never been in a stage musical at all (including Christina).  Both Dolly and Horace were played by newcomers, and both turned in wonderful performances.  SV, who played Horace, seemed to be channeling Walter Matthau's take on the character, and did a fine job.  MH, who played Dolly, however, made the role entirely her own.  I saw no trace of Streisand or Channing in her interpretation.  Her Dolly was vivacious and charming in a whole new way.

Kudos also to the veteran of the troupe, NP, who played Cornelius.  NP has done other shows at this school, as well as community theater, and he really commanded the stage.  It is a shame that he's a Senior, and going on to college, because we will definitely miss his presence in future productions.  (Yes, despite the exhaustion and hard work, Christina has her eye on a role in next year's show.  That's just fine with us, as she managed to make First Honors during the first marking period, while rehearsing all hours.)

I've posted a ton of photos on my Picasa Web Album.  Feel free to browse, and get a feel for the show.

Last night, I finally got around beginning to organize the approximately 12,000 photos on my hard drive last night.  The majority of the photos are from 2001 to present, since we've had digital cameras, but I have a good sized selection (about 150) of pre-digital photos that I've scanned, going back to 1965.  I decided to use Picasa as my photo library/editor.  I've used it for select projects in the past (editing photos for the kids' yearbooks, for example), but never imported my entire photo library before.  It took a while to import all of my folders which are basically stored in a Family Pictures folder, broken down into Year Subfolders, further broken down by Date of Photo folders.

When it was done importing, I was going to start going through, cleaning up duplicates and bad photos, fixing red-eye, etc.  However, something was running.  I didn't realize that Picasa has a face identifier function. So, I let it run, and started applying names to faces, but just for the a small subset of our extended family, as a test.  It took about 5 hours to process faces from all of the photos.

Then, it gave me sets of similar faces that needed to be identified.  What really threw me was that it was pretty accurate as far as the names I'd already entered.  Sure, there were a couple of instances where it identified Amy's sister as Amy, or vice versa; or identified one of her nephews (and even Austin, in one case) with that nephew's brother.  In a couple of those cases, I actually had to open the photo to be sure of who it was.  Still, it was reasonably accurate.

When it was done running, I was presented with a screen full of faces.  Clicking to the set identified as me, I discovered thousands of images of my face through the years.  In looking through this, I made a few realizations about myself.

The first thing I noted was that I'm getting older.  I know, I know... that shouldn't really be a surprise.  However, until I looked at this collage of myself through the years, I was totally unaware of it.  Even as of yesterday afternoon, if I looked in the mirror, my mind would still see my face as it was around the time of my wedding.  The collage makes it clear that my face has changed quite a bit since then.  I've lost weight, gained weight, lost it again, and it shows.  There are lines around my mouth and eyes that I've never noticed.  And, yes, there seems to be a surplus of forehead where there was none before.

This was a bit like the time a couple of years back when I looked at my younger brother while we were talking.  In the space of two sentences, I went from seeing him as he was in his 20s, to really seeing the 39-year-old man standing in front of me.  It's a very strange feeling to have your self-image jump-cut 20 years in a heartbeat.  Yet, I'm OK with my current appearance (OK, I could stand to drop another 10-15 pounds).  

For another revelation, it is very difficult to find a photo of myself (even sneak-shots and candids) where I am not smiling (or doing something funny or goofy).  Serious photos of me, even in the most posed of the photos, are few and far between.  It made me suddenly aware that, despite some recent financial issues, I really am a pretty happy person.

One other thing I noticed, though less about me, is the progression of the years on my wife, children, parents and brothers.  With the rare exception of a photo or two where someone was truly caught by surprise, they have all aged gracefully, and have a mature beauty.

I am a 45-year-old, with two teen children, and a lovely, loving wife.  When my dad was my age, he had four sons, two in their 20s, and definitely less hair than I have now.  At 45, he was a happy, vibrant man, and remains so 20 years later.  I'll be happy to continue to emulate him, and leave behind that mirror image of the younger me.  That Sean hadn't begun to live yet, but this Sean loves the living he's done.

As has been our custom the past several years, Christina, Austin and I got up before the crack of dawn on Sunday, in order to report to our volunteer duties manning a fluid station on the route of the New York City Marathon.  Friends of mine have been running the first fluid station in Brooklyn, just as the runners come off of the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, for 25 years.  I'd drifted away from the event for a while, before joining back in several years ago when Christina was looking for community service projects.

Working a fluid station is six hours of hard work, but the kids and I really love doing this together.  We arrive on site at 6:00 am, and help unload the supplies, including:

6 pallets of gallon jugs of Poland Spring Water
Approximately 25 cases of Gator Aid concentrate
10 cases of Poland Spring cups
5 cases of Gator Aid cups
50 tables
50 table banners
6 steel sign posts
6 signs (Gator Aid, Water and Restrooms)
20 Gator Aid coolers
20 paddles (for mixing the Gator Aid)
12 brooms
12 shovels
2 cases of clear garbage bags
2 cases of blue garbage bags
12 blue recycling garbage cans
10 gray trash cans
4 cases of Marathon tee-shirts
1 case of Marathon ponchos
Assorted other supplies

Then, we have to set up the tables; attach the banners identifying the tables as Gator Aid or Water; mix the Gator Aid; fill cups about 1/2 full with Gator Aid or Water; arrange the cups on the tables in rows, which get topped with cardboard, and more rows go on top (each table holds approximately 225 cups per level); clear the street of debris; dispense cups as the runners pass; clear the street again between each of the three waves of runners; and clean everything up when the runners have finally passed us by.  What is interesting is that there is a core group of about 25 adults and kids who do the set up and clean up, but at least 25-30 more show up in time to hand out the fluids, and disappear as soon as the last runner goes by.

The nicest part of the whole thing is that the runners are very gracious and thankful for what the volunteers do.  We yell encouragement to them.  It's fairly easy to read the names on their shirts and give them personal encouragement - "GO ELAINE!" or "GO FINEST!" (to a guy in an NYPD shirt) or "Viva Italia!", etc.)  The other cheer that gets the most applause and smiles from the runners is "WELCOME TO BROOKLYN!"  Our station is just about the 3 mile mark on the marathon course, and I just loved the woman last year who heard us say "Welcome to Brooklyn", and replied, "Only three more boroughs to go!"

We had a great time.  While we were all very tired afterwards, Christina actually found the energy to go to a six hour play rehearsal immediately after we finished.

I've posted some photos from the marathon on my Flickr account.  Enjoy.

Today is the first Halloween in 15 years that I've had to work.  Christina and Austin are out and about on their own with their friends today.  No one needed me to make any costumes for them - they handled it themselves. We did have some joint Halloween fun when the three of us wore costumes to the pre-school literacy program that we presented at the public library on Saturday.  Christina was a pirate lass.  Austin a baseball player.  I wore my StarFleet uniform (medical officer, NextGen movie era).

Still, Halloween is one of my favorite days of the year, and I'm not out there for it this year.  I'm consoling myself with the following playlist on my MP3 player (aided by many of you folks who contributed titles during last year's search for new Halloweenish songs):

Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Bobby "Boris" Pickett - Monster Mash
Charlie Daniels Band - Devil Went Down To Georgia
Danny Elfman - This is Halloween
Dave Edmunds - Creature From The Black Lagoon
DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince - Nightmare on My Street
Harry Belafonte - Zombie Jamboree
Judas Priest - Living After Midnight
Lonnie Donegan - Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavor On The Bedpost Overnight
Ne-Yo - Beautiful Monster
Ray Parker, Jr - Ghostbusters
Rockwell - Somebody's Watching Me
Sheb Wooley - Purple People Eater
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Superstition
The Creepies - Teach Me How To Rock and Roll
The Rainmakers - The Lakeview Man
The Who - Boris The Spider
Van Halen - Running With The Devil
Warren Zevon - Werewolves of London
AC/DC - Highway To Hell
Alice Cooper - Welcome To My Nightmare
Alice Cooper - No More Mr. Nice Guy
Duran Duran - Hungry Like The Wolf
Johnny Cash - Ghost Riders In The Sky
Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell
Queen - Killer Queen
The Rolling Stones - Sympathy For The Devil
George Thorogood - Howling For My Baby (or Howling For My Darling, depending on which version you have)
Talking Heads - Psycho Killer
ZZ Top - Sharp Dressed Man
Blue Oyster Cult - Don't Fear The Reaper
Cast of Rocky Horror Picture Show - Over At The Frankenstein Place
Dave Edmunds - I Hear You Knockin'
George Thorogood - Born To Be Bad
Michael Jackson - Thriller
John Lennon - Scared
The Beatles - Helter Skelter
George Thorogood - Bad To The Bone
Grateful Dead - Friend of the Devil
Elvis Presley - Devil In Disguise
George Thorogood - Crawling King Snake
Paul McCartney - Let 'em In
Huey Lewis and The News - Bad is Bad
Steve Martin - Dentist
Screamin' Jay Hawkins - I Put A Spell On You
Bow Wow Wow - I Want Candy
Grateful Dead - Hell In A Bucket
The Kinks - Destroyer
Jumpin' Gene Simmons - Haunted House

I know I've missed a few common ones (Witchy Woman, Black Magic Woman, for instance), but those are generally songs that don't appeal to me.

Any other suggestions?

In any event, have a safe and Happy Halloween!

I spent the day at ComicCon NY, with my kids.  We all put on our geek for the event - Austin wearing a glow-in-the-dark Dr. Sheldon Cooper BAZINGA tee, Christina a Captain America tee, and I wore my Warner Brothers Animation Gossamer/Hairy Monster tee.  The kids also got to show off their "Professional" category badges, provided by Macmillan's First Second Books graphic novel imprint.

Christina was disappointed to TWICE come within one person of getting her photo taken with Seth Myers of Saturday Night Live, only to have him be whisked off by security.  We also missed Chris "Captain America" Evans' appearance, for which she specifically wore her Cap tee.  She did manage to add a few autographed sketches from Archie Comics artists to her growing collection.

Austin was more laid back about acquiring things.  The only autograph he added to his autograph book was Fred Armisen (also of SNL), though Austin admits to not being a huge fan of Armisen's.

I did get to introduce the kids to Peter Beagle, and his manager Connor Cochrane, both of whom have been friends of mine for a number of years.  Although the kids had not yet read or seen The Last Unicorn, they knew that this was someone who had created an important work in our field, and they were suitably happy to obtain a personally autographed DVD from Peter.

At the First Second booth, we launched a collection of 50 comic strips depicting classic nursery rhymes.  We had about 8 of the artists autographing, plus Leonard Marcus, who wrote the intro.  Best of all, was my kids seeing some of the artists asking ME to autograph their copies because of the contract/rights wrangling I had to do to get this project done.  Austin even asked me to autograph his copy.  Before today, I hadn't autographed a book at a con since around 2006.

Both kids really want me to take them to Lunacon, which they understand is less hectic, and more apt to get them close to authors and artists they like.  I can only hope to find a way to manage that for them.

Ultimately, it was a tiring day, spent with two of my favorite people in the world, so tired or not, I end the day quite happy.  I'm confident they feel the same.