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Cleaning Up 2019

The start of this year has been a different one for me.

Normally, a new year is a fresh start with goals and accomplishments to set your sights towards. While I have a few things in mind, I’m still cleaning up, 2019.

The Christmas holidays was a very relaxing one. I purposefully made sure to take the time to really just enjoy the season with my family… and I did. I felt at peace for the first time in several years and appreciated each one of those days.

While there was many good intentions to tie up all loose ends during my time off, it didn’t quite happen. So I left 2019 out of sorts.

I was out of my rhythm for the beginning of 2020: work that needed marking, five book reviews to finish, tasks around the house and wrapping up finances for the year. The new year couldn’t begin (in my head) until I finished it all.

That’s when I decided January was going to be a month to end last year and transition to the next. With determination and focus in place, it’s all caught up now.

The last decade is closed for me now and the roadmap for the next one has been set.

I’m excited for what lies ahead.

My Year in Books

I guess you could say I did a bit of reading this year.

There was something different about it though–I actually felt connected to each of the books I read.

While I avidly read the previous years because it was a habit and I had an interest in my selections, I didn’t feel invested. The habit was there, but the mojo was not.

This year, my reading (as usual) was all over the map. Looking back, here’s where my thoughts stand:

Best Book I Read This Year
Rejoice: A Knife to the Heart by Steven Erikson
There were a lot of good choices, but this book is still the most memorable. I still think about it and hope Erikson produces more just like it.

Best Non-Fiction Book
Factfulness by Hans Rosling
This was a tough one, but Rosling truly puts it out there for why we’re wrong about the world and how we can not be swayed by media funnels.

Most Personal
Here is Real Magic by Nate Staniforth
I read it during a very chaotic and trying time. This book really felt like a turning point and revitalized my zeal for life once again.

Best Student Recommendation
Dry by Neal and Jarrod Shusterman
I always appreciate and read every student recommendation. This one stands out as my favourite for this year.

Just Wasn’t For Me
Orphan Island by Laurel Snyder
Recommended by my students, but didn’t hit the mark for me.

Most Fun to Read
The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart
It’s fun. It’s adorable. It’s for every person who has spent time doing road trips and found a bit of themselves in the process.

Book That Will Show You What Good Writing Is
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
I’m pretty sure you can just study this book on how to write well. The story is good, but the writing is stellar.

Most Popular Book Review on this Site
Write Your Book in a Flash by Dan Janal
I still find the title too gimmicky, but there is some good advice to be had here.

Best Book I Would Recommend to Students
Dear Martin by Nic Stone
There were a few in the running this year, but Dear Martin slightly edges them out.

Which Book Should I Read?
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
If you ask me for a recommendation and I don’t know your tastes, this is the book. Although I’m told his latest (Recursion) is even better. I’ll read it and let you know.

There’s a reason to recommend almost any book I read this year and it’s staggering how little I scratched the surface of all the great literature out there. As one student told me, “I had no idea there were so many different kinds of books.”

My goal for the upcoming year is to not participate in any reading challenge.

I think my reading habits are pretty well ingrained and the added bonus of doing the reviews solidifies every “The End” I reach.

On to 2020: the year of even more reading.

What Are You Willing to Let Go?

In a world where the marker for perfect is always moving, I absolutely love this video.

The one question I have when watching is at what point did the 1980s parent turn into the 2019 parent?

I mean, I’m an 80s kid.

What is it that got me to lean more towards the parenting styles of today?

I would say a big part of that is the Internet and watching what everyone else is doing and the great ideas they have. Mix that with the fears, “benchmarks” and the endless research, or what loosely qualifies as research in, in what raises happy healthy kids–it only takes some time to realize you’re trying to live up to an ideal.

That doesn’t actually exist.

No one can really define what the parameters of this ideal are and what the benchmark for perfection is. And let’s say we actually do define it, or give it some rough estimate.

Eventually that marker will change again.

In our lives, the “ideal” has to be something we need to let go of if we want to keep some semblance of sanity.

Otherwise, all we’re doing is constantly comparing ourselves to something we can ever reach towards a finish line that is always moving.

At some point you ask, is this worth it?

Certain things just need to be let go.

New Book Release!

Ten years ago, when I was starting in the teaching field, students challenged me to write a book about a guy who gets dumped a month before prom.

I welcomed the challenge.

I thought it would be a lot of fun to take it on and to explore what High School was really all about. I went to work and thought about how much fun I could make this book, not only for myself to write, but for others to read.

In the end, what I had written was a fictional tale of my high school experience. I remember it was the most fun I had writing a book.

Then I put it in my drawer and I left it there, hoping to come back to it someday.

My good friend, Thomas Jast, insisted it was fun and I needed to release it at some point. Years later, I took it out of the drawer, read through it, and still loved everything about it.

The writing was different and I was also a different person (slightly matured). I figured I could give this book a facelift and release it.

But every time I went to write it again, I just couldn’t get into the same headspace. I just felt like I was ruining the experience by touching it.

Several times I attempted and several times I failed.

That’s when I decided I was going to give it a light edit and release it as is. After all, the worst thing a writer can do is be a purveyor of their own quality of work. That’s never for them to decide.

I’m proud to share and release this book. For those of you willing to step through the portal, you just may get a glimpse into the headspace of my high school experience.

However, if I’ve done it justice, you also might get a little time warp back into your own.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go buy some Crystal Pepsi and refresh my Dippity-do hair gel supply.

Digital Version
Paperback version available at any online retailer

Invest Your Time Like Money

Have you ever spent six hours price matching a product or a service just so you can save $3?

It sounds ridiculous, but we’re subject to that kind of behavior when we don’t recognize that our time is more valuable than the money coming from it.

For many of us, earning another $3, or getting another $3 back into our life, is pretty easy.

That six hours? We’re never going to get that back.

Quality of life isn’t so much the nice things we can have, but also about having the time to enjoy them.

Consider your time an investment.

Fewer Things, Better Book Review

Author: Angela Watson

This is the book I needed to read last year.

Actually, this is the book I needed to read when I first started teaching.

While there are many things in this book that I’ve read before in other contexts, the way Watson puts it together is formidable. This book is a stark solid, and on point, reminder that as a teacher, you can’t do it all.
Side note: This is also a great book for anybody working in a field where they feel overtaxed, never able to accomplish what they want and striving to strike a work life balance.

And the self inflicted martyrdom that comes with trying to do so only leads to burnout.

There were many parts of this book where I just had to stop, nod and say, “Yes, thank you! That’s exactly what I needed to hear right now.”

In fact, many of the things she says in this book are things that I’ve said on my website and in my 15 minutes a day book. However, I could never fully put it in the context of being a teacher.

Watson articulates the reason why I couldn’t transition my thoughts (and actions) on productivity, efficiency, and perfect being the enemy of the good: I’m stuck on the sacred cows of the teaching profession. There are many. And just like getting rid of the sacred cows of writing (see Dean Wesley Smith) will revitalize your love of writing and put you on a path to an enjoyable career, the same can be said for teaching.

I will admit, Watson certainly knows her audience. She definitely talks right to their pain points and she reframes everything in a way that makes you feel like you can handle it again. Now, considering she is a consultant and teacherpreneur, there is a bit of upsell in this book–especially towards her 40 hour a week teacher course.

I’m constantly trying to find ways to improve my craft. I’ve read countless articles and books on the subject, many of which had good ideas and gems, but not wholly applicable to what I’m trying to accomplish. In some instances, it was too theoretical. In other instances, it advocated for a “perfect” system.

This book, however, should be built as the foundation for anything else that you wish to bring into the classroom. I’ve already made a request to get copies for other teachers in my school. So thank you, Miss Watson and I look forward to applying everything you’ve written here.

I Often Wonder

I’m a big fan of the pulp fiction writers from the early 1900s. Their work ethic and attitude towards writing was outstanding.

At that time there was no such thing as author advances, or even treating writing as some kind of high form of art. It was work.

These writers would sit down for eight hours a day, typing story after story, sending them off and getting paid per word if they were accepted. Many of these stories didn’t last beyond the paper they were printed on.

Sometimes a few of the better ones got reprinted. Whatever happened though, they just kept going.

They didn’t treat any particular story with some great thought that this was going to be the greatest piece of art on the planet. They put their egos aside and worked their butts off. In other words, they did what today’s writers fail to do.

I try every day to mimic their attitude a bit more. Keeping in mind, however, it was a different time period. The circumstances under which they were writing were very different and the world they were writing in was also a different place.

But I often wonder if we were to bring those pulp fiction writer writers to today, with all the tools at our disposal, what could they accomplish?

First of all, they were typing on manual typewriters and editing was a big big pain. It was in their benefit to get it right the first time, or with as few errors as possible per page. There was no spell check, grammar check or any on-the-fly editing function. They were also bound to wherever their typewriter was.

Imagine them with the tools we have today.

We have a device that fits in our pocket that can literally transcribe every word you say. We also have larger devices that are paper thin with detachable keyboards you can use anywhere to get some work done. Also, these devices make editing work ridiculously simple.

You can also use these same devices to publish your work to the entire world for free and put that work into distribution systems to get you paid.

I’m pretty sure if you brought those writers to today with the tools that we have, they would put today’s writer to shame.

This is where my contention lies (myself included). We’ve forgotten the work habits of the writers of yesterday, except for a niche few that some academics feel constitute “real” authors of “proper” literature. We haven’t built upon what they did.

Writers are caught up in the business and marketing aspect of publishing and forgot that writing was a simple labor… a labor of love… but a simple labor. You sit down, write, produce and go on to the next story, hoping to get better each time.

Athletes, on the other hand, have learned from their predecessors. They have amazing tools, knowledge, information and equipment at their disposal that the athletes of yesterday would gush over. The difference is they now know that every little thing they can learn about themselves and their performance, and about their previous performances, to better themselves is going to give them an advantage over the playing field.

In many ways, I wish the writers of today could be like the athletes of today and learn from our predecessors, rather than believe we’ve transcended them.

Dark Matter Book Review

Author: Blake Crouch

Wow…just…wow.

It’s been quite some time when a book captured me on the very first page and hooked me all the way to the very last word.

My wife told me about this author and recommended him. I knew I needed to read this because my wife does not recommend books to me unless she knows that I’ll have some interest in it. She’s just as much of a voracious reader as I am, but her recommendations to me are far and few. I know if it’s coming from her, it’s going to be good.

This was very good.

I actually had to stop myself from reading this at night so I could get to bed. But my mind was still swirling and I was still thinking about the book even during my day. I kept wanting to go back to it.

It’s fast paced suspenseful and deals with the nature of the universe, and the theoretical possibility of a multiverse.

It’s one of those books that asks, what if?

Then does it in such a magnificent way that you leave the book going, “Well, now I know.”

What really impressed me about this book is when the big reveal started happening. Rather, what I perceived to be the big reveal. I almost felt as if they came too soon and then the rest of the book was going to fall apart.

Nope. Not even close.

It’s after the big reveal happens that the story really picks up and you really begin to understand what the bigger implications of the mystery behind this novel is.

I’m always thrilled when I find a book that whisks me away into another world and keeps me hooked inside of it.

I can’t wait to dive into his other works.

My Favourite Moments of the Day

There’s a great scene in Good Will Hunting where Ben Affleck tells Matt Damon the best moment of his day is when he walks from the car to the door in the hopes that when he knocks, Will (Damon’s character) won’t be there anymore.

He didn’t say goodbye–just got up and left.

I relate to this scene because my favorite part of the day is when I pull up to my daughter’s daycare. I take her out of the car and we have these few moments where we run to the door, really fast.

And she laughs the entire way.

Then we get inside, do our drop-off routine and she’s off.

In that moment from the car to the door, I forget about any frustrations, lack of sleep or things I have to do for the day.

Anything else on my mind is just gone.

I’m very lucky in that I get another moment like this when I pick up my son from school. He gets his stuff together, then we run from the door to the car and I ask him how his day was.

It’s those two times in the day that I get to be fully present in the moment.

I get to forget everything else that’s on my mind and just enjoy the joy of my family.

I’m thankful I get those two moments in the day.

I’m cherishing those moments.

Because they’re not going to last forever.

All things happen within their season… and then they’re gone.