Show Notes - Week of March 25, 2019

Interesting people:
60 Minutes interviewed Samuel L. Jackson. I would say I am a fan of Jackson (“Kong: Skull Island” excepted), but I don’t think I ever thought of him as a truly interesting person, any more than any other celebrity. The interview gave me three reasons to rethink that. First, Steve Kroft tries to call out his actions on campus in the 1960’s as part of student protests against the Vietnam war (6’ 20”). Jackson’s reply was a cool “That’s just one day in a life.” In other words, judge me by the course of my life, not by one moment that you see as a weakness.

What do you mean I’m not interesting, Tim?

Second, he described his goal for his impact on the stage (13’ 27”):

“You want to light it up to the point that when you leave, people want to go with you. I hope that’s who I am when I show up.”

Third, he desperately wanted to be in the Star Wars prequels, and would not have let ego or pride stop him from doing so, even if the role was only the chance to play a Stormtrooper running across the screen.

Comics:
IDW released The Highest House in March, 2018 and I only picked up the first two issues a couple weeks ago. The comic is beautiful, and the story is rich and deep. I special-ordered the remaining four issues, and I can’t wait for them to come in. It is also a larger-format comic, which provides more room for the art to shine. Fans of comics and of good fiction should check this out.

Life lessons from comics:
Speaking of comics, I finished “Atomic Robo and the Spectre of Tomorrow” (another comic from last March that I just got to now), and there is a brilliant quote that I plan on using.

“One plan is nothing. Two plans is a plan.”

Life lessons from business / self help books:
Another great quote this week came from the performance coach, Peter Jensen, in his book, “Thriving in a 24-7 World”.

“Focusing on everything is focusing on nothing.”\

Good reads:
I just read “Grounded” by Miki Dare, as part of the Tesseracts 20 anthology. Dare created a new world with new ideas with beings that weren’t human in an environment that was totally alien yet entirely relatable, all wrapped around heartbreaking emotion. That is great speculative fiction.

New words this week:
hi·er·o·phant [ˈhī(ə)rəˌfant]
NOUN

a person, especially a priest in ancient Greece, who interprets sacred mysteries or esoteric principles.

whip·saw [ˈ(h)wipˌsô]
VERB
NORTH AMERICAN
whipsaws (third person present) · whipsawed (past tense) · whipsawing (present participle) · whipsawn (past participle) · whipsawed (past participle)

cut with a whipsaw.
“he was whipsawing lumber”
- informal
  subject to two difficult situations or opposing pressures at the same time.
  “the army has been whipsawed by a shrinking budget and a growing pool of recruits”
- informal
  compel to do something.
- stock market
  informal
  subject to a double loss, as when buying a security before the price falls and selling before the price rises.
- cheat or beat (someone) in two ways at once or by the collusion of two others.

(Whipsaw was used in an article about Trump, so yeah, it was the “cheat or beat / collusion” definition.)

New beers:
Three new beers this week. First, two local brews from Analog Brewing. In Another Castle is a peach and mango IPA that I wasn’t a fan of (2.75 / 5). However, their Bull’s Strength strong ale was much more to my liking (3.5 / 5). Finally, the Javalanche coffee stout from Banded Peak Brewing was quite good (3.75 / 5). Reminded me of the Iconic Milk Stout from Stiuation.