Gump & Co.

Gump & Co. by Winston Groom

The book Gump & Co. is a continuation of the story of Forest Gump as seen in the movie and book by the same name. In it, we learn of Forest's travels and adventures throughout the 1980s and early 90s. He once again is involved in numerous historical events such as the Iran Contra affair, the Whitewater scandal, the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, as well as an insider trading debacle, the felling of the Berlin Wall, and the Persian Gulf War. He also briefly played professional football for the New Orleans Saints, was an encyclopedia salesman, was involved with the development of New Coke, served a stint as a pig farmer, and ended up as a wealthy oyster harvester down in the Gulf of Mexico. All was told with various humorous events incoroporated and seemingly impossible coincidences which Forest found himself as a central part of each of these famous events. I've not read the original book but this was a bit less entertaining than the movie of the original.

How to Grow A Beard

-Step 1 don't shave
-step 2 repeat step 1
-Step 3 trim from time to time to keep looking neat (if your name is Grizzly Adams, ZZ Top, or you live in the woods/mountains having limited contact with the rest of the world, step 3 may be omitted)
-Step 4 sculpt/shape in various creative ways with a beard trimmer or keep the traditional look

So I'm at Step 4 now. It's one of those things where you know you should do it but just don't. Kind of like those things in the back of the refrigerator that you know you should throw out but never do. A beard becomes part of one's identity and so parting with all or a part of it can be an event worth consideration. My intent is to take a phased approach toward going back to bare faced. I'll go with the goatee first then at some point may determine to trim back from there either in entirety or another phase. The original reason I grew one was not so much for the aesthetics as the convenience of not shaving every day. This iteration of the beard began in August of 2005. In the fully matured stage of the beard, I usually will trim it up once every 7 to 10 days.


Here's a picture prior to the cutting


And after

5k

On Saturday morning, I ran the House of Hope 5k in south Kansas City and finished 3rd overall with a time of 19:20. I was fairly happy with the result considering my recent training, the rolling hills on the course, and the wind.
Check out the results here.

Quote of the Day

"A goal is like a postage stamp -- you gotta stick to it until you arrive"- a loose quotation often attributed to Josh Billings

A Walk in the Woods

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

This is a memoir of sorts of Bryson's journey on the Appalachian trail in the late 1990s. He and a long lost somewhat crazy buddy from high school hook up and make plans to tackle this 2100 mile behemoth going from North Georgia to Katahdin Mountain in Maine. Though quite out of shape, they embark upon the hike and have good times enjoying nature, including encounters with a moose and some unknown creatures that may or may not have been bears.

Throughout the book Bryson provides humorous tellings of their adventures in his characteristic droll style. One such example was when they had to hike their way through a swamp jumping from log to log and not very successfully staying vertical. After a struggle of 30 minutes to cross a small space, feeling somewhat triumphant, tired, wet, and dirty, a couple hippie looking guys came along hoisted the backpacks over their heads and adroitly crossed the same piece of swamp in a couple of minutes while staying clean much to Bryson and Katz's dismay. Another such incident was on their first day back on the trail after a hiatus when Katz fell behind. When he finally caught back up to Bryson, huffing and puffing and feeling fairly out of sorts, his pack was considerably lighter due to his throwing things off the side of the trail such as food, a water bottle, and sundry other equipment/materials. Bryson says "Stephen I really wish you wouldn't do such things." I'm perhaps not portraying it as funny as it was but in the book it was fairly hilarious.

At various points in the book, Bryson takes an aside to go into detail on the history of the Appalachian Trail both past and present, notable characters along the trail, as well as detailed descriptions of nature and the terrain. One interesting part is when he visits the ghost town of Centralia in Pennsylvania. It was abandoned about 23 years ago due to a coal mine burning in the ground underneath the town. He said that everywhere you could see smoke coming up out of the ground and realized he was standing right above a roaring fire so felt the urgent need to move on.

I've personally done a bit of hiking (a decent amount in the Smoky Mountains part of the AT) and found Bryson's account to be both accurate and enjoyable. Each multi day backpacking trip I've taken has brought memories, beautiful scenery, pictures, and war stories to tell. Even one who is not in the best shape can get out in nature, get some good exercise, and enjoy themself through hiking whether on day trips or overnight backpacking trips. I recommend the book for anyone who wants to get an idea what it's like to hike the Appalachian Trail or just wants some nice, fun reading material.

Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World

Real Money: Sane Investing in an Insane World by James Cramer.

Jim Cramer of Mad Money (on MSNBC) fame was once a hedge fund manager trading stocks and made his investors tons of money. He's retired from that business nowadays and goes more the route of advising people through his radio show, TV show, and website. In this book, he describes the ins and outs of investing and trading on the stock market and strategies for playing the cycles of the market.

One of his rules is that if you are going to invest in individual stocks, you need to spend at least an hour per week keeping up to speed on it. He also recommends diversification by having a minimum of 5 stocks in a variety of businesses sectors such technology, health care, oil, grocery/consumer goods, financial companies such as banks, among others.

He makes clear that he does not advise nearly as aggressive a strategy when looking at retirement versus more discretionary income. Mutual funds are definitely the way to go for a vast majority of people who don't have the time or inclination to truly research and investigate the fundamentals and news of a stock. He provides advice on good mutual fund managers if one wants to go more that route.

I enjoyed the stories from his days as a hedge fund manager also told in his book Confessions of a Street Addict. These helped illustrate lots of his points and rules to live by when trading/investing in the stock market.

Overall, he does a good job at helping the reader to understand the nuances of the stock market which can be esoteric to those not in the know or who don't do it professionally.

My personal advice is that unless one believes they can beat the market or the return of a professional mutual fund manager, he/she should stay away from individual stocks. While the reward can be high, the risk is also very high compared to the diversification of an index or mutual fund.

Tech Tip# 3

A really nice shortcut you can implement when using Internet Explorer to surf the web is ctrl + enter. For example, let's suppose you wanted to go to www.google.com. All you would do is type in google then press the ctrl and enter button and www. .com will automatically be added to the previously entered google. This is my second favorite shortcut after alt + tab.

Florence

After a 2 hour train ride from Rome and enjoying the beautiful countryside, I arrived in Florence (Firenza in Italian) and made my way to the hotel in the rain on foot. Upon exiting the train station I encountered a man looking like a carbon copy twin of Johnny Depp in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean. I would have taken a picture but who really wants to be the guy who gets gutted by a pirate at a train station? ;-)

The hotel was one of the nicer ones that I stayed in with a Bed and Breakfast type of feel at a very reasonable rate. It had a nice view of the city from the top of the roof.

Florence is a neat town to just walk around and check out the sites. There are lots of art museums, cobblestone streets, a nice river walk, and loads of bridges over the river. Michelangelo's David sculpture is housed in a museum here and is fairly huge 17 feet tall. The example of craftsmanship is pretty amazing. One bridge is called Ponte Vecchio and houses numerous gold and silver jewelery shops. In World War II, the Germans preserved this historic bridge though they blew up the others when they retreated from the Allied advance.

One enormous church in Florence that I went inside was called Santa Maria della Carmine. I also saw Dante Alighieri's house of Divine Comedy fame as well as his home church.

There were several street painters doing chalk drawings. One that was fairly impressive was a copy of a Carravagio painting. I also enjoyed listening to the violinists throughout the city.

I think I preferred the food in Florence slightly more though it may have been due partially to the less crowded nature of Florence at night vs. Rome. More gelato was consumed in addition to a fabulous tasting calzone.


Florence Street Scene

Violinist

Arno River

A Church in Florence

Dante's Church

Santa Maria della Carmine

Florence Town Hall

Florence Street

A Cafe in Florence

Via Maffia

Ponte Vechio from the river

Ponte Vecchio inside

Street Painter

The Vatican

I went on a tour of the Vatican with a tour company called Romeing Tours and thought the information provided was quite thorough and insightful. We stood in line for around 45 minutes to get in but I made good use of the time by picking the tour guide's brain on Roman combat strategies. The Vatican is around 100 acres and is actually it's own country with approximately 550 citizens. The Vatican City is said to have one of the most reliable postal systems in the world. I mailed a post card to try it out and it successfully reached its destination.

The parts of the Vatican that I saw included some nice architecture, great examples of art which culminated with the Sistine Chapel as well as the magnificent St. Peter's Basilica. Several pope's lie are buried there with a few being embalmed or bronzed for the viewing public.

On Sunday, I went back to the Vatican at noon where the Pope gave a blessing to all in attendance in something like 12 languages. There was a massive number of people there, similar to a crowd at a football or basketball game. I could see the pope but he was but a small spec far off in the window he stood in to address us.

The Vatican is guarded by a group of 100 Swiss guards who are trained to kill with a battle ax and sword. I didn't see the battle ax but they were definitely armed with swords. Swiss guards must be Catholic, single, between the ages of approximately 20 and 30, male, have Swiss citizenship, and be fluent in 5 languages. Their uniforms are a bit court jesteresqe in appearance.


The Pope Giving a Blessing

St. Peter's Square during Pope's blessing

St. Peter's Basilica
Andrew in St. Peters Basilica

Pietra sculpture

Pope Innocent XI

Nero's Bathtub

Vatican Paintings

Swiss Guards

Pope's Throne

St. Peter's Basilica Dome

Rome

Bongiorno. The following entries on Rome, The Vatican, and Florence are the last in the Adventures of Dre on his sojourn in Europe. Never fear, for more adventures are bound to be around the corner.

Rome was one of the highlight places that I was interested in visiting during my journeys. I've been fascinated with the Roman empire for some time including their military might, long lasting dynasty, and extraordinary technology for the time period.

The Coliseum was pretty incredible. It is not in quite the condition it was shown to be in the movie Gladiatorbut was impressive nonetheless. Gladiatorial games were in fact held there. I actually got to go inside and take a look around. There is no longer a floor and one can see the various basement infrastructures where combatants and animals were kept until their time.

Quite a few objects around Rome are labeled with the initials SPQR (Senatus Populusque Romanus) which mean property of the Senate and people of Rome. For those who have seen the movie Gladiator, Russel Crowe had a tattoo of this on his shoulder and subsequently scraped it off.

Interestingly, the president of Italy resigned from office and then came back all within the time that I was in Rome.

The Circus Maximus was a massive hippodrome which was used most commonly for chariot races. It is an enormous structure but is little more than a massive oval track now.

One fun thing that I did from time to time was simply wander the streets with no particular end goal in mind. This allows a good feel for the city streets and the
musicians, street vendors, and people there. One thing encounter during such an expedition was a wood working shop in the style of Gepetto with Pinnochios and even a life size wooden motorcycle.

I also walked down Via Condotti, the premier shopping street in Rome located just in front of the Spanish Steps. There are fine apparel stores such as Prada, Gucci, Armani, Cartier, Ferragamo, etc.

The food at all times was of high caliber and being a lover of Italian food, I much enjoyed my culinary experiences there. One interesting thing that restaurants/outdoor cafes do is have someone stand by the door or menu and if you slow down to look at the menu they promptly invite you inside and encourage you with very persuasive salesmanship. It is a bit endearing and all a part of the culture.

I partook of an ice-creamlike (but better) substance called Gelato on an almost daily basis. This tasty desert has the consistency of something between ice cream and custard with a smoothie thrown in the mix. If you ever get to go to Italy, you must try some. There are a plethora of Gelaterrias around the streets so ample opportunities avail themselves for consumption.

There were random orange trees in various gardens throughout the city. They looked quite tasty but I resisted the temptation to sample some.

The Pantheon, not to be confused with the Parthenon in Athens, Greece, is an ancient structure built originally for the worship of pagan gods but now utilized as a Christian church. The building is fairly impressive in architecture and contains a nice circular skylight in the roof.

The Roman forum was kind of neat and was basically a set of ruins which much of the nobility lived in during ancient times. When entering it, one felt as though entering a hidden and secret city. The Imperial Forum was another area which competed somewhat with the Roman Forum in majesty.

I'm convinced that hitting pedestrians is a competitive sport in Rome and Italy in general. Italian drivers drive with fairly aggressive tendencies and don't tend to yield to the poor souls who travel on foot. In his book The Broker, John Grisham noted the seeming paradox in the culture, and I concur, of enjoying a leisurely meal of several hours then jumping in the car and driving at break neck speeds. Pedestrians are advised to bring their running shoes and a healthy dose of bravery when crossing streets.

Check out the Bath entry for previous Roman information.


Coliseum

Roman Soldier

Arch by Coliseum

Andrew at Coliseum

Inside the Coliseum

The Pantheon at Night

Inside the Pantheon

The Italian President's House

Roman Road

Trevi Fountain

Gepetto's Motorcycle

Orange Trees

Roman Forum

Roman Forum Fountain

Roman Forum 2

Rome

Chamonix Pictures

Here are a few pictures from the beautiful French Alps. See here for the original commentary.