Centerfield

1. Plan of Attack (Bob Woodward); Da Vinci Code (Dan Brown); Alaska (James Michener)(will visit in 3 weeks).

2. "Small town" (5000 pop.) suburb within 15 minutes of downtown Minneapolis.

3. I take care of the kids while my wife fights developers who want to tear down old forest to turn our "small town" into a bigger town.

1. The Personal Values of Jimmy Carter; Skipping Towards Gommorah, Dan Savage; Why our Drug Laws Failed and What We Can Do About It, Jim Gray...

2. Urban (DC Metro Area)...

3. Not much since I just moved around 6 months ago, but while we where in Seattle I sat on the Board of a local non profit, belonged to a neighborhood group that was trying to save a local greenback area, and did various activities through church...

1. Tom Brokaw: "The Greatest Generation", Michael Perry: "Population 485", Christopher Buckley: "Thank You for Smoking".

2. Big Urban (Washington, DC area).

3. Volunteer Firefighter/EMT.

1. Jonathan Kellerman: "The Murder Book", Bob Carroll, Pete Palmer, John Thorn: "The Hidden Game of Football", Steven Skiena: "Calculated Bets" (My reading doesn't seem to be as lofty as some. :-( )

2. Big Urban (Dallas)

3. Occasionally work at a no-kill animal shelter.

1. Robert Paxton:"The Anatomy of Fascism", "The Nazi Conscience", by Claudia Koonz and Paul Theroux's "My Other Life".

2. Very small urban-Bozeman, MT.

3. Decade long board member of community food co-op. Extensive work in twelve step program.

Don't let my list fool you, SD. Last week I was reading classic SF and Jonathan Gash's LOVEJOY novels. I go through books like popcorn.

1. working on Homer, "The Iliad"; Churchill, "The World Crisis," volume V,
Stephenson, "Quicksilver."

2. Medium-urban: Austin, TX

3. On a committee that runs a monthly contra dance.

[1] "Independent Nation" and I honestly forget where I was before that. Presently engaged in "Ghost Wars" and clearing my reading calendar for the Clinton bio.

[2] About as big & urban as they get ... Houston representing here.

[3] Not really. Although serving as Pres. of my local Democratic organization sometimes feels like charity work.

1. Re-reading "Cryptonomicon" while simultaneously reading "Java and Soap," "JXTA in a Nutshell," and "Google Hacks".
2. Urban area, but not massively so (Grand Rapids, MI)
3. No volunteer work. I do web design/development for (at last count) three small, religious non-profits.

1. No reading of books much any more. Feel far too many books printed up, mostly a waste of too much paper, etc. involved. Many books are only what should be 2-3 articles in a newspaper.
2. Am in what has turned out to be now an urban area and do not care for what has been done here in San Diego. May leave. Like green space and type of living that has eroded too muc here.
3. My volunteer hours? Working on issues in taxpayers' interests. Would like to have a group of similar thinking enough to change things for the better. Although raised to be in office am able to be "political" enough --as am non-partisan in thinking and also (as family members, etc. who were in office ) have a strong interest in use of taxpayer dollars.

1. Renaissance Florence by Gene Brucker, The Chaos Balance by L.E. Modesitt, Jr.. and Benjamin Franklin: An American Life by Walter Isaacson.

2. I live in northern San Diego county. But I want to return to the Boston area, where I went to graduate school. The east coast from North Carolina northwards is also acceptable. I just want out of here.

3. I volunteered at Cal State San Marcos (my alma mater) for six weeks at the information desk to help people find their way around at the new Kellogg Library. It felt like the right thing to do, considering I just got my Master of Library Science.

1. Across the Sea of Suns (Gregory Benford), Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them (Al Franken), The Golden Transcendence (John C. Wright).

2. Hmmm... small urban/semi-rural area. The small college (Pacific University) town of Forest Grove, which is about 15 miles west of Portland, OR.

3. No, I don't. I don't have the time... what with being a single dad with 11 and 16 year old daughters and working full time with overtime.

Kevin, as a married self-employed work-at-home Mr. Mom with a 10-yr-old and an 8-yr-old, I'm awed that you find time to breathe. Seriously.

Mr. Buck--
San Diego County has too many dumbos for me.
And, just the fact that you were permitted to go through a program of a master's in libr sc says it all for my attitude towards univs. and s-called academia. Sorry, but your field = the dumbo types of programs that shouldn't be allowed let alone oversalaried and paid for by taxpayers' moneys. Only dummies wouldn't be able to find themselves around some library.

San Diego County is too dumb for words. Morons
let a wealthy suburb burn down and a section of the county, for one vivid example. They used the money that was supposed to be set aside--via people's Proposition thus law by the way--to overbenefit themselves and spend on social engineering Programs in misuse of taxpayer moneys.
I know the same wanaabe politico whores who diverted the moneys away for their local and county uses are now in the legislature grabbing state moneys to misuse and spend your money on illegals and non-citizens. All the same idiots who lie about revues for building stadiums and what money to be used. They lie about business development here biggest revenue = Military, Tourism industry, Indian gambling and services waiting on people.

Tully, it's a handfull to be sure. And stressful at times. But... it's the row I have to hoe. Fortunately (my girlfriend might not agree... LOL) I'm not a clean freak. If I was and kept my place spotless or even reasonably close to spotless it'd be a much tougher job.

Alex:

"Only dummies wouldn't be able to find themselves around some library."

Who do you think puts all those books and journals in order so that "dummy" can find their way around? Librarians. It takes specific professional skills to manage collections. Have you ever even visited in a small university library? Or even your local public library and asked the librarians what they do? You have no idea what you're talking about. And I'm not going to dignify your ad hominem attack with any further response.

Stay the course JonBuck.

This blog has just about the lowest level of gratuitous ad hominem flaming of individuals to be found on the 'net in a political blog. Please, let's keep it that way.