The unspeakable has happened...

I lost my camera. I'm almost sure I left it at The Purple Cafe after my graduation dinner, but they claim to have not found a camera. I'm really sad! So, no more posts until I get a replacement, I guess.

This beach is literally only three houses from my sister's apartment. I don't know what I was thinking going to school in the Northeast when I could have lived on the beach in San Diego! 

Even my uncle Billy got prettied up for the occasion, with this fake earring. In San Diego I learned that Billy didn't actually invent the Luv Ewe, which was somewhat comforting to find out. He bought the rights to manufacture and distribute the Luv Ewe from the inventor for about $2k, and over 100,000 Luv Ewes later, that turned out to be a pretty profitable venture.  

Ann took us to a sushi restaurant in La Jolla that had an amazing presentation of food. We all thought that this probably wasn't too comfortable for the fish, though. 

I'm It

Sigh...Re-typing this again after it was lost. Beware of composing posts on blogger, as a sign-in screen will erase everything you just typed.

Anyway, here's my response to listless.info's tag:

WHAT IS THE TOTAL NUMBER OF BOOKS I'VE OWNED?
This is a silly question - impossible to answer, especially because Washington is a community property state. :) John owns way more books than I do, but our books are combined on three 5-shelf book cases. Plus I have all of my business texts (that I haven't sold back) on a couple of shelves in my basement office. I have no way to trace back to all of the books I owned prior to the last ~10 years or so, though.

WHAT IS THE LAST BOOK I BOUGHT?
Startup, by Jerry Kaplan. This is a fascinating book about Go Corporation, the first pen computing company. Despite powerhouse industry contacts plus $75 million in funding, the company never quite made it off the ground. Jerry Kaplan was the CEO and gives his account of the evolution of their struggles in this book. I highly recommend it!

WHAT IS THE LAST BOOK I'VE READ?
Well, that would have to be Startup. I'm currently finishing The Successful Marketing Plan by Hiebing & Cooper, which was recommended by a professor as an aid in my project writing the marketing plan for 3Sharp. I just started Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman on John's recommendation. I usually don't get into sci-fi, but I'm giving this a try anyway.

WHAT ARE THE 5 BOOKS THAT HAVE MEANT A LOT TO ME?
Well, first on the list has to be The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner. (Though I cringe that this is one of Oprah's new Book Club picks.) I read this in English class in high school, which I think was probably a good setting to read it in. Fortunately, I was one of the few people in class who was mature enough to appreciate it. However, without the class or the Cliff Notes, I'm not sure my appreciation would have been as great. I'm really glad to have had this setting to discuss various iterpretations and meanings. Probably the most moving part of the book for me was the end, when Benji was riding in the buggy and it didn't take its usual course. Having a mentally retarded brother, this scene was very realistic for me. I'm not sure if it's related to the mental disability or not, but my brother was definitely a creature of habit. For instance, he had a very structured TV routine, including Simon & Simon, Wheel of Fortune, MacGyver, Joker's Wild, Knight Rider, etc. If anyone tried to change shows, Joe threw a violent trantrum, just like Benji did when his habit was interrupted.

Second would be The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. A lot of stuff in this book seems obvious, but it's things that we often forget about in our daily lives. The first two habits are my favorite - be proactive, and start with the end in mind. I find this a great book to go back and re-read.

My third pick is The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. As a kid, I was really into horror movies and ghost stories. I have memories of my babysitters allowing me to watch movies like The Body Snatchers as long as I sat in front of them so they wouldn't have to see it. But the story that scared me more than anything was The Lorax. I'm not sure why this particular book frightened me so much more than the others, but I still get chills thinking about it.

Another book that has meant a lot to me is Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore. This book discusses the best way to launch a high-tech product and get it adopted into the "main stream". After you read this book, it all makes sense. (Amazing.) My favorite part of the book is the detailing of the different buyer personas and matching them up with each stage of the product lifecycle.

My final selection is The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Unlike most people, I did not read this in high school English class. I just read it ~4-5 years ago, and I'm so glad I did. This is an extremely powerful book, and it gave me the taste of John Steinbeck that I needed to become a fan. I love his character development, which seems to be a consistent style of his judging from Of Mice and Men, The Red Pony, and one other whose title I can't recall.

Extra Credit: WHAT BOOK WOULD YOU WISH TO BUY NEXT?
Okay, I'm not sure I'm going to get the extra credit here, because I honestly don't have to think about buying books for a while. I just finished school, and as I mentioned, John has tons of interesting books on the shelf that I still need to read. I can say that the next books I'll probably read are The Gormenghast Novels by Mervyn Peake and The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck.

Mercyskye, you're it now!

Last weekend we celebrated my sister Ann's graduation from the University of San Diego. A woman at the Indian restaurant she took us to decorated her face in celebration of the event.