Spoony Weather

I waited until June to post just to see if that March Farmer's Almanac blurb about raining in March was correct and it was!!!

In April we had a real live author, Teresa James, come to speak to us about her book (now available on Kindle for $5.99) Below Yudaha.  She was wonderful!  She answered all of our questions about writing and publishing our own books.  She laughed with us, she got deep with us, she talked about the nuances of her book with us.  She stepped right into the meeting as if she belonged there, we were immediately comfortable with her.  And she even signed our books for us!  Teresa is definitely an honorary member of the book club and invited to all future meetings. 

I would love to have more authors come to speak... or... have meetings at readings!  Send me an email as soon as you know of readings that may be of interest to the group.  I am taking my husband to a Neil Gaiman reading for his birthday: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/179279 but if I happen to see you there no harm no foul!  Speaking of...  Anyone read Moneyball by Michael Lewis?  I will do a separate post about it because it is one of my all-time favorite books although it is written around a subject I never felt passionate about, baseball. 

For me, Moneyball illustrates how we, as a human race, may observe something for decades and build theories off those observations but then some nut job comes along and scratches the surface and says "hey, did you know all those theories and observations are wrong?" And we all laugh because, of course, we know better as we have decades of observations and who-is-this-guy-to-tell-us-differently.  But the nut job, being nutty, persists in his argument, eventually wins the attention of a few important people that happen to have some influence and suddenly the whole human race, after being hit over the head by the argument for 20 or so years, realize that the nut job may have a point. 

It's kind of like the 100th monkey effect, although the 100th monkey effect was discredited it has brought forth another valid point that new methods of behavior are learned then passed down to the next generation.  It would take baseball management about 20 years to retire the employees that didn't believe in the new stats and hire guys that were raised on the new stats.  ...  Moneyball is fascinating stuff, honestly.  There is humor and some great storytelling even if you don't like baseball and you try to avoid statistics. 

Our Reliquary Build for May was reduced to a mini-build due to a family emergency and then the mini-build was cancelled due to a supply shortage, it was shortsighted of me to try to quickly schedule the mini-build without my supply cohort, Nicole, so I apologize to all that were looking forward to that meeting.  We hope to reschedule the Reliquary Build for September and will keep you posted on the location.

Our next meeting is at the Vallejo Pirate Festival on June 18th and so far we have a good turnout.  We have a few guys that RSVP'd so it looks like I have to be more mindful of FB's private event setting, especially when we have the events at private locations!   We'll synchronize our phones and figure out a good meeting spot as the date approaches.  Once there we'll be piratin', guzzlin' grog, mindin' our loot and guardin' against them yellow-bellied ninjas... Arrrrr! 

post hashed by Angela

  

Prep for Spring Busi-Beesness

Whoah, it’s been a fun and busy few weeks for V-Town Book Club members! This post is a summary of a small part of that business. Please let me know if you know of more business that deserves acknowledgment and I’ll provide the update.

A couple members recently found love (outside of Book Club) and are sweetly entrenched in love’s first bloom. I’m not going to name the love afflicted here but if you have attended a meeting lately then you know who was struck with cupid’s arrow.

Many of us attended Kim’s Happiness Workshop on February 26th, and from Kim we learned to be happy from the inside out. Kim demonstrated her teaching skills and her natural leadership skills while reminding us to be true and thoughtful to ourselves and honor our feelings. The Happiness Workshop was the first of its kind for Kim and she packed a full house. I counted over 20 women in attendance and Kim led us all through the workshop; her friendly, warm energy radiating over us so that it was easy to personally identify with one another even though most of us were just meeting for the first time.

On March 4th, Melissa was awarded Teacher of the Year and I was honored to attend the ceremony as her BFF date. She looked positively radiant as she accepted her award for teaching high school math and algebra at Jesse Bethel High School in Vallejo. Teaching high school in Vallejo takes dedication, courage, and skill. Melissa is 100% engaged in her role as teacher and I see her dedication as she interacts with her students in public, when she talks to me about various ways she’s incorporating technology in the classroom, and when she excitedly describes the latest teaching method that she implemented in order to help her struggling students comprehend math. The award ceremony was held at the Elk’s Lodge in Vallejo and their 70’s leather furniture, comfortable bar and huge stone fireplace (no, I didn’t get a picture…dammit to hell!) would make a perfect Book Club meeting location. Now we just need to become Elks!