Douglas Blaine

Since I am terrible to buy gifts for at Christmas time, books are among the most convenient items for me to send out in the holiday wish list to the extended family.

This in turn leads to the November and December personal book buying freeze.

Add to the above that I had a 15% off coupon from Barnes and Noble that expired on 12/19 and you’ll be able to predict my next line:

I found a loophole.

Back in the begining of November when the request for the list comes in and the formulated list goes back out it makes sense to have all the books on it that you want at the time. Might as well suggest ten books and get five then to suggest five and get three. But come mid-December with 15% off burning a hole in your pocket it suddenly feel more like shooting yourself in the foot.

But I hit apon a plan that I would go in and either buy a newly released book like Old Man’s War by John Scalzi or really anything in hardcover that I might like but had not known was available. Or I would purchase one of the numerous classics that I tell myself I will read some day (the list of things I have not read but want to is alarming) but have not yet read.

Could not find John’s new book or A Wizard of Earthsea. So I bought Ender’s Game instead.

Now I am stuck.

I am rereading Lord Fouls’s Bane and the subsequent five novels in the first two Chronicles of Thomas Covenant in anticipation of the third and Final Chronicles coming out (came out but is locked down by my desire to reread what came before and the holiday wish list phenomenon). But Ender’s Game looks to be a faster and more satisfying read since its trilogy is completed.

Do I continue to read the various Chronicles or slip on over to Card?

I made my first purchase of original artwork this evening for a Christmas present for my wife–and I.

The purchase was made online from a fellow Philmonter, Dawn Chandler. “late autumn afternoon, ute park, new mexico” is a watercolor triptych measuring 5 x 2 for each panel. The paucity of color and the subtle figure-ground are traits that only another resident of northern New Mexico could appreciate. I like the careful use of tone to underdo the iconic subject as much as to underscore the enigmatic ‘structures’ in the foreground.

From Dawn:

“There’s something very special to me about that watercolor triptych of Baldy from Ute Park that you are considering. One of the reasons it appeals to me so much is because the palette is toned down and yet it captures so well the mood and feel of autumn (perhaps my favorite season). I remember well the afternoon when I took the photo that that grouping is based on: I was returning to Taos after a day of PSA work at the Ranch and was in need of a wintery scene for the PSA Christmas card. There was fresh snow on Baldy, and as I came through Ute Park, the late afternoon sun was cutting through the fields there in a line of light, and illuminating a row of trees. I was there at just the right moment to capture the light breaking through and hitting those trees.”

From another email…

“[…]This is one piece that I have been tempted to keep for myself…The “quietness” of the piece calls me….I enjoy the way the central shape suggests a tree or grouping of trees, but also suggests a small house…and I guess I like to image myself living there….”

Merry Christmas

Dustin is the second guy in line to bail on ‘AOL’ to go to NetZero instead. I think his big line is “Hello.” He also nods and makes googly eyes.

What Dustin is saying about it.

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