The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium: An Englishman’s World by Robert Lacey and Danny Danziger was not coincidentally published just before the turn of the last millennium. Millennial hype aside, the book intends to describe what life was like around the year 1000,  rather than be a history of events occurring in the year 1000. The book’s primary source and focus is the Julius Work Calendar, a document written sometime around the year 1000 describing and illustrating life at the time. While I did appreciate the light tone of the writing, the subject matter bounced around somewhat too much despite the attempt to focus each chapter on a single topic related to a month of the year as described by the Julian Work Calendar. There may have been a few interesting facts and nuggets of information, specifically regarding the origins of certain words in the English language, but overall the book left little lasting impression on me.

1215: The Year of Magna Carta by Danny Danziger and John Gillingham is a very similar book both in its theme and writing style (one of the authors is the same as The Year 1000) but the results are somewhat more enjoyable in 1215. Instead of the Julius Work Calendar, the focus of 1215 is centered around the Magna Carta. The discussions of the document itself are saved until the latter third of the book, with the beginning focusing on life in England after the Norman conquest and then more of what you would describe as the historical aspects of the time, specifically the reign of King John. This broader focus actually makes for a more informative and enjoyable book.

I haven’t read many other books on this subject, but I would say that if you are interesting in learning about medieval England, skip The Year 1000 and give 1215 a try.

Rating for The Year 1000: 5 out of 10.
Rating for 1215: 7 out of 10.

In yesterday’s Yankee game, Derek Jeter was called out on an attempted steal of third base on a play where the replay showed that Jeter avoided the tag at third. But in my opinion, the umpire made the correct call. The throw beat Jeter to the bag, and the third baseman applied a tag on Jeter. The tag missed Jeter only because Jeter held his left hand and arm back as he slid head first into third base, where his body moved forward right into the tag but his hand and arm never got tagged.

When I saw the play originally in real time on TV, there was no doubt in my mind that Jeter was out. Why was that? Because the throw beat Jeter to the bag and the third baseman applied a tag on Jeter right as he hit the base. I truly believe that anyone umpiring third base that day would have made the same call. It was only through Jeter’s clever but unnatural holding back of his arm was he able to avoid the tag and the human eye would only pick up on this in a slow motion replay.

Even watching the replay and knowing that the tag was not applied, I still think Jeter should have been called out. I am a believer that if the throw beats the runner and a tag is reasonably attempted, then the runner is out no matter if the tag actually touches the runner or not. I think that the general principle of the defense executing a play in getting the ball and being in a position to apply a tag upholds the spirit of the law even if it does not conform to the letter of the law.

Also, I think that the most difficult judgment call that a baseball umpire has to make is if a tag has been applied or not. When arms and legs are moving at the speeds which professional athletes move, it can be extremely difficult to judge if a glove grazes someone’s jersey or if it misses by a fraction of an inch. Because of that, I feel that it is reasonable to assume in any case where it could be argued that a tag was or was not made, then a runner should be called out. I realize that this still leaves room for interpretation and judgment by an umpire, but I think this is actually an easier judgment call to make than trying to determine if a glove makes contact with a runner.

Just because I own a CD from a particular band or artist does not mean I am a fan of them. Some people only purchase CDs from which they have heard many of the songs and from artists they are fans of. I own lots of CDs and like to occasionally hear different things or explore new music – sometimes buying music without ever having heard a single note from an album. As you would expect, sometimes I might go on to enjoy the album and buy more from that artist and other times the CD sits on a shelf never to be played again.

Still other times I simply want to listen to a CD to enjoy a few songs knowing full well that I won’t be a lifelong fan of the band. The Steve Miller Band has a few good songs on their Greatest Hits collection that I liked and wanted to own, so years ago I bought the CD. By no means would I consider myself a fan. I can’t name any other album they released, nor can I name a single member of the band. I can’t even remember the last time I played that CD. There are numerous other CDs like that in my collection. Some were bought on a whim, some were bought with the intent of experiencing new music, and some were bought simply because they were cheap. Because of those facts, I realize I am not going to like every single CD I have ever bought.

Book 2 in the “House” trilogy, Dune: House Harkonnen by Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson picks up about 12 years after the end of Book 1: House Atreides. It needs to be reiterated that House Harkonnen is not really about the Harkonnens, but can be more accurately described as “Episode II” in the Dune prequel series (akin to Star Wars Episode II). For a reader, it is not advisable to pick up House Harkonnen without first having read House Atreides.

The similarities between Books 1 and 2 are numerous. The new characters introduced to the Dune Universe in House Atreides appear in House Harkonnen, and relationships and plot lines that started in House Atreides are further explored and developed in House Harkonnen. Probably the most benefit from that progression is the fact that Duke Leto and Duncan Idaho are no longer children or adolescents in House Harkonnen. The storylines focusing on these two characters seem more believable now that these characters have matured.

One of the difficulties in this type of prequel novel is the fact that the authors have to retrofit the story into the events that will come in the start of the original Dune novel. Some of the explanations, motivations, and plot twists can be a bit of a stretch (or a reach of the imagination), but for the most part the authors do a good job of this.

The enjoyment of House Harkonnen can easily be surmised by the enjoyment obtained from House Atreides. If you enjoyed House Atreides, then House Harkonnen is just as good. If you were let down by the fact that House Atreides was not as good as Dune, then you will be just as disappointed with House Harkonnen. For myself, I found that I enjoyed House Harkonnen. By no means is the book a classic in the sense the original Dune novel is, but if you accept that and want to experience the stories that lead up to the events in Dune, then House Harkonnen is worth the read.

Rating: 7 out of 10.

Queens of the Stone Age is one of those bands that I like idea of the band more than their actual music. They continue to receive critical acclaim but I enjoy each album they release less and less. Era Vulgaris is the low point in their catalog. Rated R was the first Queens of the Stone Age album I heard and it was different, intriguing, and created enough of a consistent mood to want to listen to it after 8 years. After listening to Era Vulgaris recently, I don’t feel the need to listen to it again. The songs are all nondescript and unmemorable, with the only exception being “Make It Wit Chu” which has a pop feel to it. The rest of the album feels like a patchwork of outtakes from the band’s previous albums.

Rating: 2 out of 10.

Big Money Tony made a comment to my post titled “Hoping the stock market will come back” which I felt deserved a full post as a response:

BMT, I have two points to make regarding your comment:

First is that you seem to think that the only investment choices available are stocks, real estate, and savings accounts. If you look outside of “traditional investment vehicles” as you put it, you’ll find a wealth of Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) available to the average investor that allow people like you and me to take advantage of both the long and short side of a range of investments simply by buying shares of the ETF through a brokerage account. For example, you could invest in commodities such as gold and oil by purchasing shares of GLD and USO, respectively. If you think that the long term treasury bond market bubble is about to burst, you could buy shares of TBT, whose price is meant to track “twice the inverse of the … U.S. Treasury index” which means that it goes up when bond prices go down. (Full disclosure: while I am not a broker or investment advisor, I do own shares in the above mentioned ETFs).

The second point relates to the bigger picture of “the thing I can not get over is that if you eliminate stock market climbing as wealth building, there is not much left to build wealth on.” This takes me back to my original point about waiting for the market to come back: you and I are not going to get rich off of our investments. It became the American dream in the late 1990s to be able to live off your investments, and I don’t doubt that some people are fortunate enough to do so, but it just isn’t realistic for the vast majority of us. Your statement of “what’s left is lottery or plain hard work in a small business” is correct. There is no get rich quick investment out there.

My investment focus has shifted from “wealth building” to wealth preservation. I see wealth building through investing as no longer being realistic and am more concerned with simply preserving what I currently have. While it may seem easy to preserve wealth simply by putting your money in a savings account, I don’t see it as being that easy. The U.S. dollar is NOT a store of value, as its value is continually being eroded by central bank quantitative easing and spiraling national debt. Which is why the purpose of investing your money in assets (whether they be stocks, real estate, or gold) is simply to preserve wealth rather than to build wealth.

I have to admit that despite in the past having expressed a lack of enthusiasm about the NHL, I found this year’s hockey playoffs the most interesting in a decade. I was never a huge hockey fan, but throughout the 1990s, I followed hockey consistently, and would usually make time to watch big games. But my interest faded around the turn of the century and then the strike/lockout of 2004/2005 really ended any interest I had in hockey. That lack of interest lasted four years, until this post-season. I think I watched more hockey in the past two months then I have the last six years. The matchups of Crosby vs. Ovechkin and then the Penguins run culminating in a game 7 victory in the finals made for compelling viewing. Will I be watching regular season hockey this October? No. But if the young stars of the sport continue to create good post-season matchups, I’ll be watching next spring.

I posted the following as a comment on Big Money Tony’s blog as a response to his hope that the stock market will “come back”:

I’ve come to realize that what we saw from 1997 through 2000 will never happen again in our lifetime. Look at Japan: the Nikkei finished 1989 around 37,000. It’s below 10,000 now. That’s almost 20 years later and it’s down 72%. OK, so you and I don’t invest in Japanese stocks, but how about tech stocks? The Nasdaq topped 5,000 in the beginning of 2000. It’s below 1,900 right now. That’s down 62% in nine and a half years. I’m tired of hearing that stocks are a long term investment. How long does long term have to be? I citied two examples of broad indexes with terrible returns over the past 9 and 20 years. People have been waiting for those markets to “come back” for years and years.

I’m now convinced that the only way these markets will return to their previous lofty values is not through the appreciation of the aggregate growth and value of the companies that make up the market, but rather through a depreciation of the currencies that we measure the worth of these companies. Think about it this way: if there are currently 10 trillion dollars in existence and Microsoft sells for $22 a share, what would a share of Microsoft stock sell for if the money supply doubled to 20 trillion dollars? If all other factors were equal, Microsoft would sell for $44 a share. Has Microsoft captured more market share or been more productive or efficient? In my example, they have not but yet the price of the stock would still go up.

The above scenario is exactly what the powers that be in the government and the federal reserve hope will happen, that simply through money supply growth we will all perceive that we will be richer through higher asset prices (such as stocks and housing prices) when in fact they are just creating inflation which is paid by all of us in the form of a hidden tax.

Is anyone actually still making money by sending out spam e-mails? I can understand how in the year 1999 someone could have bought a product or service from an unsolicited e-mail. But these days I can’t imagine that spamming is still a lucrative way to generate business. Spam filters in e-mail applications and a better educated public lead me to believe that spam would not be effective anymore. But based on the number of messages that get sent straight to my junk mail folder, that belief seems not be true.

Major League Baseball is soon going to come to a point where each team will schedule two pitchers to pitch in a game. With starting pitchers going fewer and fewer innings, the game is headed to a point where teams will need one pitcher to pitch the first four innings and a second pitcher to pitch the next four innings, leaving the remaining inning for a closer or one of the two pitchers if they are pitching well. The pitchers for a Mets game may be announced as Johan Santana and Tim Redding. Santana will pitch innings 1-4 (maybe 5) and Redding pitches the next 4 innings. Bullpens will still be needed to close games and in case one of the two pitchers can’t even get through 4 innings.

The roster issues will work themselves out, either by expanding or simply rotating the second pitchers to the minors on the days they are not pitching (they wouldn’t actually go to the minors, it would just be a technicality to fit 5 extra pitchers on the rosters).

There are numerous reasons why this type of 10 man rotation seems more and more like a real possibility, and I neither attempt to list or explain the reasons here. Rather I simply mean to observe and speculate about the direction the game of baseball is headed.

Many of the movies, tv shows, and music that I consider to be the best were experienced when I was 18 years old or younger. I cannot say the same for the best books I have ever read. With the exception of Dune, the best books I have ever read were all read in the past four years. Add The Pillars of the Earth to that list.

I am aware that Oprah Winfrey picked The Pillars of the Earth as her November 2007 book club selection, but I first heard about this book during the marketing campaign for Ken Follett’s follow-up to The Pillars of the Earth, called World Without End released on October 2007, and bought The Pillars of the Earth at that time. I enjoy reading fiction that uses medieval England as its setting, whether it be historical fiction or through the guise of fantasy, as in A Game of Thrones or The Eye of the World. So based on what I had heard about The Pillars of the Earth I thought it would be the type of book I would enjoy. That thought turned out to be correct.

The setting of The Pillars of the Earth is probably the aspect of the book that distinguishes this book as instantly becoming a favorite of mine. The way the author weaves the important historical events of 12th century England into the story of the fictional town of Kingsbridge is quite ingenious, even if these events play only a small role in the novel. Descriptions of daily life in these times as well as the relevant information about the architectural knowledge of the time add to the flavor and enjoyment of the novel.

The more fiction I read the more amazed I am at the ability of some authors to write long and detailed novels without wasting a single word. The words in the pages of this novel flow as if there were no doubt that they were meant to be. There is never a point in the 980 pages where the book drags, nor is there a point where the reader stops caring about the characters. These characters are yet another reason this book is so special. Even though there are clear antagonists and protagonists in the story, all of the characters have flaws and make what could be seen as bad decisions at some point throughout the story. Over the span of the approximately 40 years that the book covers, the reader sees characters grow up from childhood, others mature in adulthood, and some die.

The only minor aspects that I can find fault with may be the predictability of a small percentage of the plot points, and (without giving too much away) how the inevitable fate of one of the characters comes about.

After reading The Pillars of the Earth I can say it easily stands as one of the top 10 books I have ever read and maybe even near the top 5.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10.

Here’s what I don’t understand about the recent bank “stress tests” performed by the Federal Reserve: if the Fed believes that banks need to have more capital, why doesn’t the Fed simply raise the reserve requirement? Wikipedia defines the reserve requirement as “the minimum reserves each bank must hold to customer deposits and notes. …As of 2006 the required reserve ratio in the United States was 10%.” This means that for every $100 a bank receives in deposits, it can lend out $90 of that deposit. The Federal Reserve sets the reserve requirement for banks in the Unites States, so if the Fed feels banks don’t have enough reserves on hand to meet future needs, just raise the reserve requirement.

In reality, I do understand the political reasons why the Fed does not raise the reserve requirement (raising the reserve requirement causes a contraction of the money supply), but somehow the current thinking at the Fed these days seems to want banks to have their cake and eat it to. They want to have the economy have as much money supply growth as possible (through historically low interest rates and keeping the reserve requirement stable) but still wants banks to have more excess reserves. You can’t have it both ways.

The Code: Baseball’s Unwritten Rules and It’s Ignore-at-Your-Own-Risk Code of Conduct by Ross Bernstein puts in writing the unwritten rules of baseball. Baseball’s unwritten rules, or “code”, is a subject that I find interesting for several reasons. I think that knowing what the unwritten rules of the game gives the ordinary fan a glimpse into the world and mind of the game as experienced by the players, and goes beyond what is experienced from television or from in the stands. Another interesting aspect about unwritten rules is that if they are unwritten how does anyone know what they are and how does anyone agree on them?

The Code could have included more about the history and evolution of these unwritten rules including the changes and debates around which of these are still valid in today’s game. Instead the author chooses to base most of his book on interviews gathered from former players from the 1970s who have a very “old school” attitude towards the code. It ends up making the book seem like various rumblings of grumpy old men complaining about “kids these days” and “in my day, we wouldn’t have let anyone get away with that kind of stuff.”

Much of the code is about retaliation, specifically when and how a pitcher intentionally hits a batter with a pitch. The books makes it seem as if pitchers are constantly beaning hitters and it is just “part of the game.” My opinions regarding much of the code differ from the old school attitudes presented in the book. I think that players should be less concerned about retaliation after being “shown up” and should be more concerned with their own performance. The book also never discusses the limits of retaliation. There has to be unwritten limits on how often retaliation can occur. If every pitcher beaned every batter who had hit a home run off them, those hitter’s on base percentage would be even higher as a result of all those hit by pitches.

Another concept related to the above is that pitchers have to hit batters to “protect their teammates.” How in the world are you protecting your teammates by retaliating? I would argue that pitchers are in fact hurting their teammates by retaliating for perceived violations of the code. If a pitcher beans an opposing hitter as retaliation, then that hitter’s team may feel as if they need to retaliate. If you hit me then I hit you then you hit me back: where does it end? In baseball, it ends when the umpires and the league steps in to eject, fine, and suspend the players involved, which I believe is the correct course of action. Most of the old schoolers disagree with this and think that cowboy justice should be handled by the players themselves and that the league and the umpires shouldn’t get in the way.

I was hoping that The Code would have included more of a debate or dialog about the various interpretations of the unwritten rules as they are in today’s game. But instead the purpose of The Code comes across as the author’s way of meeting and interviewing many of the player’s he admires.

Rating: 4 out of 10.

The punctuation police are out in full force. It is my civic duty to report those of you who type on computers as if they were typewriters. Yes, I learned how to type on a typewriter and was taught that you should put two spaces after a period. That rule no longer applies with fractional width fonts on computers. Typing two spaces after a period on a computer adds too much space after the period. Those two spaces stick out like sore thumbs. There are lots of sources that confirm this, including the Chicago Manual of Style. So break out of your old habit and let go of that itchy trigger thumb on the space bar.

Not Ronaldo who contributed to 2 World Cup wins for Brazil, but rather Cristiano Ronaldo from Portugal, who plays for Manchester United. If you haven’t been paying attention to European soccer over the past two years, you’ve missed some brilliant performances from Cristiano Ronaldo. While he did get off to a slow start this season amidst rumors of his displeasure at United and his desire for a move to Real Madrid, Ronaldo returned to form and has only gotten better as the season progressed. That progression was capped off by tonight’s performance in a 3-1 victory over Arsenal that saw United advance to the Champions League final. Ronaldo was all over the pitch and always in the center of the action in addition to scoring on a rocket of a free kick.

If you haven’t had the chance to see Ronaldo yet, set your DVR to ESPN on May 27 for the final of what has become one of the world’s best sporting events, the Champions League.

When I was 14-15 years old, I listed to Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. When I was 16-17 years old, I listened to Metallica. When I was 18-21, I listened to Pink Floyd. When I was 22-26, I listened to King Crimson. Opeth is the natural progression of all of the above bands. It just took me 10 years to find the next step in that progression.

Ghost Reveries opens with the song “Ghosts of Perdition” starting with a few soft chords then busts in to the guttural vocals similar to how many modern heavy metal bands sound. But Ghost Reveries separates itself from the pack of modern metal by being much more than just heavy metal: it’s progressive metal. For someone who grew up listening to heavy metal and then evolved into listening to prog rock, Opeth combines the best of both worlds. There are four songs on Ghost Reveries that are over 10 minutes long, and the entire album ebbs and flows with contrasts between different rock styles. The overall mood and feel that the album creates is much more complex and interesting anything I’ve listened to in years.

A couple of the (relatively) shorter songs are more prog than metal, such as “Atonement” which sounds like it could be a remake of “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun” from Pink Floyd’s Saucerful of Secrets. “Hours of Wealth” could have fit right in between “Book of Saturday” and “Exiles” on King Crimson’s Larks’ Tongues in Aspic. Most of the other songs play the contrast between soft and loud, heavy and light, distorted and clean guitars, and screaming and singing quite well. The album closes on a soft note, with “Isolation Years” showing that there can be much more to heavy metal than simply screaming vocals and distorted guitars.

Rating: 9 out of 10.

I am not sure why I wanted to read Halo: The Fall of Reach by Eric Nylund. I suppose it is because I enjoyed playing the Halo video games on the Xbox and was intrigued by the story contained in the games and wanted to read more about it. Combining that with what seems to be overwhelmingly positive reviews on Amazon.com got me to give the book a shot. After starting to read it, I am not sure why I finished reading it. I think because the book is a short and fast read I felt it was worth continuing to see if it ever got better. It really didn’t. I had hoped that the book would focus more on the story of the Covenant and/or the ring world of Halo. But the Covenant are only briefly described beyond being the token bad guys and Halo isn’t mentioned until the epilogue. The rest of the book focuses on the origin of Master Chief and Captain Keyes from the game. Their origin and back stories involve fairly typical military sci-fi stuff. If military sci-fi is your type of thing and you want to learn more about Master Chief and Captain Keyes, then this book would be worth a read. But I am not really a fan of military sci-fi and expected the book to focus more on the Covenant, which is why I didn’t really enjoy this book.

Rating: 3 out of 10.

Two news stories that I have come across touting ways to help the environment seem hard to believe. Those stories are:

UN says eat less meat to curb global warming

and

Revealed: the environmental impact of Google searches

The first article goes so far as to say that giving up meat is not enough to save the environment because “vegetarian diets that included lots of milk, butter and cheese would probably not noticeably reduce emissions because dairy cows are a major source of methane, a potent greenhouse gas released through flatulence.” Apparently we are doomed to suffer global warming because of cow flatulence.

The second article asserts that Google’s data centers use large amounts of energy and therefore performing Google searches contributes carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Talk about a stretch. There are probably millions of things you can do that use more energy than performing a Google search. Yet why the Times of London chose to single out Google can only be to bring themselves publicity and not because of any true scientific value. If publicity is the reason, then they have succeeded, because how do you think I found their article? By emitting a few grams of CO2 through a Google search.

Winner of the first ever Hugo Award, The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester is what a Hugo Award winning novel should be. In the 24th century, murder has not been committed in over 70 years because of the existence of telepaths. These telepaths make up a small percentage of society but are able to pick up on a murderer’s thoughts before the act occurs. But Ben Reich, a successful businessman bent on revenge on a competitor, devises a way to pull off a murder.

The main characters of the book are the aforementioned Ben Reich and the telepathic detective named Lincoln Powell who is out to solve the murder case. The cat and mouse game played by Reich and Powell, along with the contrasts and similarities between these characters, is a part of what makes the book enjoyable. But there is a feel to this book that I can’t quite put my finger on which makes it stand out among its peers. While this is not a long book (only 250 pages or so), there are numerous little details that make it different from anything else I have read. The best example of these details is the use of interesting typography representing how telepaths communicate and even play word games with each other in their minds.

Even though it was written in 1953, the book does not seem dated at all. The themes of murder and revenge are timeless, and the only futuristic concept (telepathy) in no way distracts from the timeless quality. The Demolished Man won the Hugo Award in 1953 and (in my opinion) would undoubtedly win that same award if it was released this year.

Rating: 9 out of 10.

A few comments on some recent news regarding the Mets and the Yankees:

I still can’t figure out why the sale of Bernie Madoff’s Mets tickets on ebay was such a big news story. Big sporting events sell for top dollar on ebay all the time, yet for some reason because Madoff was forced to sell his tickets, it’s big news.

Regarding ticket prices in general, why is all of the talk about Yankee stadium ticket prices only on the few seats that sell for four figures? Tickets in the upper deck (or whatever they call it now) sell for $20. I figure that all the emphasis on new stadium ticket prices in New York is some attempt at shock: Madoff tickets sell for $7,500! Yankee tickets cost $2,600! Saying that upper deck tickets cost $20 might be just as shocking because of how inexpensive they are.

Since when did the Mets claim “ownership” of Jackie Robinson? When Major League Baseball celebrated the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier, the ceremony was held at Shea Stadium. Fans enter Citi Field, the Mets new stadium, through the Jackie Robinson rotunda, which has a statue of Jackie Robinson, a sculpture of the number 42, and other things to highlight the career and life of Jackie Robinson. It all looks great but the last time I checked, Jackie Robinson never played for the Mets. He played for the Dodgers.

Speaking of new stadiums, all of the “firsts” mentioned and talked about in the two New York stadiums has worn thin. While I am a fan of baseball history and find it poetic that Babe Ruth hit the first home run in the original Yankee Stadium, I really couldn’t care less that Jody Gerut hit the first home run at Citi Field, never mind who had the first hit, first walk, first RBI, first win, first save, etc., etc., which have been talked about seeming ad infinitum by the local broadcasters in New York. Does anyone really care who had the first balk?