Book Reviews

Of course, the weather comes first! We're in another cold snap with light snow falling - a beautiful view out my study window. I think I am about over my long drawn out cold and the energy level is creeping up - I'm almost back to my full swimming routine. Also, I've got most of my volunteer work up to date except for checking last month's treasurer reports for the Library Foundation - I always put that last - so I though I'd head to the blog and delay it further.

My cold provided a lot of reading time during the recovery and I've read several interesting books of different types. They all have something to recommend in them. Big Citizenship is an upbeat account of the founding of City Year, a volunteer NGO that now works in city schools around the country and in London and South Africa. Alan Khazei, the co-founder, is a SPS grad and former student of mine. He was instrumental in getting the new public service law thru the Congress. The book isn't particularly well written and there is a good bit of name dropping - illustrating the power of networking in achieving goals. In spite of these drawbacks it is a tribute to what an individaul with an idea can achieve.

The Places in Between by Rory Stewart is a Scot's account of walking, basically alone, across Afghanistan in 2002 after the invasion. He describes the different tribal groups, the snow (it was winter!), the beauty of the country, and one individual's persoanl journey to get to know the people of the region. Stewart is now a member of the British Parliament and was knighted for work done in Iraq. It is well worth reading if you have any interest in what goes on behind the headlines in Afghanistan. I found it fascinating and wish I had read it several years ago, It should be required reading, together with Mortenson's Stones into Schools and Three Cups of Tea, for every soldier in Afghanistan and especially the US leadership.

Another perspective on travel is given in The Routes of Man by Ted Conover. He describes six different journeys on "roads" from icy tarils along frozen rivers in Ladakh (next to Kashmir in the Himalayas) joining a group of high school kids leaving home for boarding school, to 'road clubs' that travel the new highways of China as tourists in their new, fancy cars, to traveling with truckers in East Africa along the route that brought AIDS out of Central Africa to the world. His travel descriptions are very well done but he avoids any judgements or opinated conclusions about how roads are chinging the world - the sub title. The other three roads traveled are in the city of Logos ( a mess,) over the Peruvian Andes with rain forest maghony headed for NYC, and in Palestine ("a war you can commute to.") I learned a lot of interesting bits but missed the analytical side that asks, 'so what?'

I'm almost finished Journey to Ladakh, a book I bought in the 1980s when I was going to Ladakh - I chickend out when the monsoon came early and mud slides took out some stretches of the road. The story is one man, Andrew Harvey's, journey to this isolated and beautiful area, a Tibetan Buddhist region in the Himalayas bordering Tibet and now part of India. It was still quite untouched in the early 1980s. He describes the country with its light and mountains, its crumbling monasteries, streams and rivers, and I can relate to it having been close to Ladakh and in Bhutan and Tibet, and, of course, in the Colorado mountains. The author was interested in Buddhism and he describes his personal meeting with a Rinpoche and how it opened new vistas for his life. Another fulfiling story of journeying.

For total relaxation I read Dick and Felix Francis's mystery/murder story, Dead Heat. Besides the horses, the setting is the restaurant business. It moves fast and is well done - a bit more sex in this one than when Dick was writing with his wife rather than his son!

I think my next book is going to be on Palestine. We had dinner with a very interesting and attractive woman from Palestine last week and several books came up in the conversation. It will have a connection to her visit and a chapter in the Routes of Man. I must say I am enjoying this non-fiction reading spree.

Mirror Man

Sarah, I really like what you have created here. Regardless of the message, the physical head is beautifully done and captures interest immediately. It lends itself to a variety of interpretations, and in that way pulls the viewer in. Nice sparing use of color panels too. There is also a sense of TIME involved here too---how much will I just reflect, and how much allow will I allow into my brain, and what will I do with it there? There is process as well. I am intriguied. Yia-Yia

Just kidding! I stand corrected. It represents a cool exterior and a resistance to letting people see the person behind it.

Mirror Man

This is Sarah's completed first IB Art project. It is called Mirror Man. The gist of the message is that this person is one of those who spend their time trying to be what they see and think they should be (a reflection of the society they perceive) rather than being who they are.

All the Dobbs dwellers have their fingers crossed for you - both for school and lack of cyclone impact.

Hello, it is Rachael! Woo!!
I am incredibly jealous of all the cold weather you all are experiencing. Brisbane is not too bad at the moment, despite the humidity. However, it is nice to have the sunshine back! North Queensland has just recovered from floods and is bracing itself for a massive cyclone to hit sometime in the next day or two. Yasi is enormous and both the hospitals in Cairns have been evacuated down to Brisbane. Crazy stuff!
I have been job hunting for a few months now with little success however I have an interview tomorrow at a supermarket near the airport! Hopefully I'll get the job and get to meet some interesting tourists as I pack groceries! Tomorrow is also the second major offer round for the university courses I've applied to. Fingers crossed I am accepted in UQ (University of Queensland) for either a bachelor of social sciences or a bachelor of arts!
I am enjoying my holiday time, if accepted into uni I have another month left before I restart school. I spent a couple nights with my boyfriend and his family on the Gold Coast a week ago. Luckily I didn't get too sunburnt! We visited Dreamworld the themepark which was fun even though my shoulders got a little pink. Otherwise, I've been filling my time with successully learning how to use the washing machine! My first independant load of washing is waiting to be folded!
I'm very excited about tomorrow and I'll be sure to keep everyone updated!

Love Rachael!

P.s I might update the Kellogg Blog's colour scheme if I can find the button again!

Too Cool For School

Too Cool For School

That was the caption for one of the articles on the front page of the Daily Camera today. I hate too have my comeback to blogging after a little hiatus be related to the weather again (How lame is that?) but it’s really that one thing that keeps disrupting everyone’s lives, so we’ve got to talk about it!

Today was an unprecedented ‘cold day’ for Boulder Valley schools as the high temperature didn’t get above 0F. The district was concerned that the busses would not be ready to handle these kinds of Minnesotan temperatures, and that little tykes would freeze solid waiting for the incapacitated busses to show up. As tonight is forecast to be the “low temperature of the decade”, somewhere around -19F, they’re also calling tomorrow as a ‘cold day’. So, we have an unanticipated weekend in the middle of the week. Since this is my first week of conferences, I got through one night and now and I’m getting way ahead of preparing for the rest. Sadly, we’re getting behind on the planned lessons and the schedule is going to be wacky for a while.

Sorry for the lapse in posting on the blog- Elli justifiably called me on it. We had a nice skype chat the other day. There’s been a LOT going on in the Kellogg house recently with the new year. The school calendar has been going full-tilt, and we’ve been hitting Eldora as much as we can over the weekends to make some turns. When we’re not skiing, we’ve been getting tons of geocaching in. As Team BRR, we’ve found 50 caches since Thanksgiving and placed 6 in our “A Ditch Runs Through It” series. Check it out at:http://www.geocaching.com/seek/nearest.aspx?u=ricokellogg&submit4=Go

Alden celebrated her 3^rd birthday and she has now taken up her rightful position as the head of the family. She got a great dollhouse and has been moving in her friends and furniture and marshalling her brother as a moving and feng shui assistant.

Speaking of moving and feng shui, mom and dad Kellogg (that would be us, Rico and Kate) have been looking into a possible shift in the home location. We’ve found a new development on the far northern edge of town with brand new green-built homes and incredible views to open space with trail access out the back door. We’re deep into the pros and cons weighing phase, but we’ll share any developments as they come up. It’s a mind-numbing proposition, but we’re staying open to the possibility of change!

Stay warm, dry and well!

Rico