Road Trip!

Memorial Day weekend and the unofficial start of summer has arrived. For me, that means 4 entire days off from work(s) and a road trip up to Red Oak, Iowa for my nephew's birthday. And for the first time in a long, long time that I have not checked out a book on CD for the car. Instead, I have 3 eBooks and 3 mp3 audiobooks loaded onto my Nexus 7 and I'm ready to plug it into the car and go.

I'm still trying to come down from my eBook addiction, but I'm not doing a very good job of it. I blame Lee Child, as I was recently introduced to the Jack Reacher novels.

Memorial Day is also a sad time, it means football is still about 4 months off. That's scary.

In an effort to fight off football withdrawal, I've been working on a reading list of football books for the library. It's a lot of work, but friends don't let friends watch hockey.

I think it would be a little unfair to add all the books on my list to the Man Vs Nonfiction project, so I'm going to add just one:

Keep your Eye Off the Ball, by Pat Kirwan.

Pat Kirwan just so happens to be a well respected NFL analyst for CBS and spent some time coaching in the NFL. I'm very excited to crack this one open this weekend. He starts off talking about filling out a roster for a football game like you would at a baseball game . . . You have my full and complete attention Mr. Kirwan.

The NFL Draft and a Death in the Family

This past weekend was great . . . then it was awful.

The 2013 NFL draft kicked off last Thursday night and went through Saturday evening. 7 glorious rounds of bliss. The NFL Draft means something very special to me. It combines my love of football with my love of spreadsheets.

When I was a kid my brother and I would sit in front of the TV with a pad of paper and a pencil. Why? I don't know, I think statistics and tracking things was soothing for me, even back then. Of course this weekend it was my laptop for tracking and my tablet for researching.

And what do I do with this great spreadsheet? Do I submit it to ESPN? Show it off to all my friends and family? Print it off and hang it on my wall? No. I store it away in a obscure folder on my laptop, never to be heard from again.

And after the 7th round was over, with the Tight End from South Carolina going to Indy with the last pick, I settled down onto my couch, picked up my Xbox controller, and was consumed by terror.

After 6 long years, my Xbox 360, my faithful companion, displayed the tell-tale sign of failure, the Red Ring of Death. I did what I could to nurse it back, but alas, my Xbox is dead. I'm sad, but when I think about it, 6 years is a long time for a piece of hardware to last. Especially one that has been used as heavily as mine has.

But I can;t be too upset, I've had plenty of books to read.

I've been on a e-Book tear as of late, reading The Gate Thief by OSC and a couple of 3-book series. My non-fiction project has been brought to a serious halt. I blame the library's new e-book interface that makes it way too easy to check out. I'll get back on the horse soon, just as soon as I finish the China Mieville book, Kraken. . . and then the non e-book (non e-Book? Is there a better word here? Real Book? Solid Book? Actual Book?) Ted Kosmatka book, Prophet of Bones, that I have on hold.

When I do return to the non-fiction area I think it's time to alter my selection process. Plus, I'm pretty sure there have been some additions to the stacks I need to account for.