Welcome! … to my first “official” blog post.

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**** INTRO ****

Hello,

  This is the official launch of my new blog, Nick’s Treehouse Café.  I encourage you to immediately page over to the ‘About’ tab and read what this is all about… it would be silly to repeat it here.  Or try to say it all again, only differently.  So go there… now… and then come back.

   OK, did you go there and read?  If so, welcome back.  If not, what are you waiting for?   …  Hurry up!  … I’ll wait!  … … …  OK, moving on.

   But I do have some more thoughts on why I’m doing this.  First of all, sometimes I see or hear or read something and I ponder on it a bit, and then I just want to tell everyone else my opinion.  Sometimes just to share… sometimes to vent!  Because I’m right, y’know?  LOL!  Or as I said to my buddy Matt the other day, “I’m just egotistical enough to think everyone needs to know my opinion.”  He told me the word I was looking for was “narcissistic”.  

   Also, I just love to write.  The more I do it, the more I want to do it.  I think this endeavor is going to help spur even more creative writing.  Wish me luck.

   NOTE:  I apologize in advance for any awkward changes of font.  This whole blog editing process seems a bit persnickety… several times it changed font on me from one paragraph to the next and doesn’t seem to want to let me change it back.  Subject Matter Expert advice is welcome.

********

   The name… I wanted a cozy, welcome feeling, and I’ve always liked the treehouse idea.  Many Calvin and Hobbes (“The Greatest Comic Strip EVER”) cartoons featured the treehouse.  A treehouse is shelter, it’s a place to hang out, relax, and have fun… and it has a kid feel… you don’t have to “act your age”.  But as I thought more about the name, I also got this mental image of me standing behind a bar, wearing an apron, sleeves rolled up, maybe grilling a steak and pouring an icy cold one from the tap… and, of course, expounding upon my many opinions.  😀  So I combined the two ideas, and there you have it… Nick’s Treehouse Café!

The full Treehouse picture from the Header.

 **** By the way… ****

  In case you didn’t know, I’m kicking this thing off “officially” on my 44th birthday. 
Seemed like a good place to start!           

****  What I’m Reading Now  ****

  I’m currently reading “The Girl Who Played with Fire” by Stieg Larsson.  It’s the second book in the author’s ‘Millennium’ Trilogy.  The first is “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”; the third is “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest”.  

   Since I’m smack-dab in the middle of “Fire”, I’ll primarily make this a review of the first book.  Let me start by saying Stieg Larsson could WRITE!  This man knew his way around a plot.  It makes me sorry to know that there will only be these three books.  (Mr. Larsson died in 2004, shortly after turning in the manuscript for the three novels.)  

   Both the first and second novel take a while setting up the various plot strands, but when they’re all in place, the story kicks into high gear and RUNS at a pace you can’t imagine being sustained for 400 more pages.  But it does.  As I said, the man could write!  You may guess at the answers to the plot twists, but the fun is in getting there.  By the way, some of these plot angles are not G-rated.  You’ve been warned. 

   The main storyline – there are several – involves a mystery about a young woman who vanished, presumably murdered, forty years previous.  But the primary strength of the novels lie in their unique heroine, Lisbeth Salander, a mysterious young antisocial computer hacker, and her relationship with the journalist Michael Blomkvist.  Lisbeth is one of the most original protagonists you’ll ever meet. 

    A recurring theme in Larsson’s novels is male violence towards women.  (The original Swedish title of “Dragon Tattoo” was “Men Who Hate Women”.)  The author divides the world of men between relatively “good” men and men who are various degrees of bad… ranging from merely obnoxious to truly evil.  In Larsson’s world, the bad guys seems to vastly outnumber the good.  … 
Your friendly blogger is not so sure he’s wrong.  

   Overall:  Highly recommended!  

******** 

 Trivia:  These books made me think about what other books I’ve read that are translated from other languages: 

  • The Bible
  • The Iliad ~ Homer
  • The Count of Monte Cristo ~ Alexandre Dumas 

…….. I think that’s about it!

 

 ****  MUSICALITY  ****  

Fun songs that you might not have heard:      

  • Into Action ~ Tim Armstrong
 
  • Boom Boom Goes My Heart ~ Alex Swings Oscar Sings

  • Life, Love, Laughter ~ Donavon Frankenreiter

**** Pigskin Ponders ****     

   I love football, but I’m more a fan of professional football (the NFL) than of college football.  So on one level, I haven’t worried too much about what appears to be the impending demise of the Big 12 (temporarily on hold as of 4 or 5 seconds ago).  As an NFL guy, I don’t really understand the concept of rooting for a group.  Know what I mean?  Like someone yelling, “Woo-Hoo!  SEC, Baby!” I mean, my Cowboys play in the NFC East, but I don’t root for the NFC East.  On the one hand, there are my ‘Boys.  All the other teams are hated rivals.  (How’s that empty trophy case in Filthadelphia, Eagles fans?!?)  

   That being said, I do have an opinion on it.  It seems to me that the great state of Texas … and even Okieland and parts North… have a strong enough football tradition that we don’t need to look to the east or west coast in search of college football significance.  Too many uppity folk on each coast like to look down on us as “fly-over country”.  We don’t need them!  Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska have great football traditions.  Why should Tech want to play in the Pac-12?  Lubbock is over 1,000 miles from LALA-land. 

   C’mon guys… hammer out the differences and keep the Big 12 alive!  Either that or scrap it and rebuild the Southwest Conference! 

     **** NFL snaps **** 

  • Over the last two games, Tony Romo has demonstrated what leadership and courage are all about.  Leading a team chock-full of injuries and inexperience, and playing in a world of pain, he has pulled off two consecutive wins, seemingly by force of will.  Don’t be a hater!  This kid has the determination and guts that legends are made of.     
  • The Dallas defense has played well (some times better than others) in spite of significant injuries at the corner position.  Deserving exceptional praise are DeMarcus Ware (Ryan once described D-Ware as playing like “a bulldozer with a jet engine”!) and Sean Lee (the 2nd year middle linebacker was recently honored as the NFC’s Defensive Player of the Month).
  • I like underdogs and “Cinderella stories”, so I’m impressed with the 3-0 starts of the Lions and Bills.  I think they’re for real, and hope they keep it up!  (Except for the Lions… this week… against Dallas…. y’all can stink it up like old times!)    😉
  • In case you hadn’t noticed, former Red Raider Wes Welker of the Patriots is on pace for a record-setting year for receptions and receiving yards.  Go Wes!  Represent!

 

 ****  Things I Don’t Have An Opinion On  ****
(Either because I haven’t looked into it… or just don’t care to.)

  • The trial of Michael Jackson’s doctor.
  • The trial/appeal/whatever of Amanda Knox
  • Glee

THAT’S ALL UNTIL NEXT TIME, FOLKS!  
Hope you enjoyed my first effort!  Comments very welcome!
~ Nick

 

20 thoughts on “Welcome! … to my first “official” blog post.”

  2. When you first told me when your blog was going to be mostly about polotics, I never pictured this. I was wondering why you wanted me to read it when I don’t care for polotics but now i see why. I was very interested when reading, and will be keeping my eye on you. Thanks for a great read
    p.s. you should do 2-3 trivia each blog, instead of 1)

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  3. Good job on your first blog, Nick. Love the layout. But if you want old geezers like your uncle to read it, you’re going to have to learn how to fix the font size. My old eyes can’t squint enough to read the small print. Help him out, someone. Font criticism aside, congratulations and keep it up. Will be reading or squinting as best I can.

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  4. Love it! I followed all the rules (read the “About” section when instructed, etc.). I like how you included many topics. Personally, I’m a college football fan and don’t care so much for the pros – but I do keep abreast of Wes Welker so thanks for including him here.

    Keep up the good work. I’m subscribing to this blog. Not in a creepy stalker kind of way, but in a “that’s a cool blog” kind of way.

    And, of course, Happy Birthday!

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  6. Nicely done Nick! The writing style is excellent as expected, but I also want to let you know (for market research purposes) that the blog opens in a nice format on the iPhone coming from Facebook. Not all of them do. Some of the fonts are in kind of a tan/yellow color which is kind tough on the eyes, but I doubt they’re the same color on a pc.

    On the girl trilogy, we watched…errrr..read the movie, only the first one though and thought it was fantastic. I have the books in my reading queue, so I may have to bump them up the list so we can discuss.

    Keep writing and I’ll keep reading.

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    • Thanks, Jana! I hadn’t tried reading it from my phone yet, but that’s good info to know. Yes, I intentionally used those colors (khaki and burlywood, or something like that) to get away from white on black. I suspect maybe it looks better on the pc screen than on the phone.

      So the Swedish version of the movie was that good? I may have to go pick it up. I’ve been looking forward to see the American remake this December.

      Thanks for the feedback!

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    • Oh, believe me, Bill… the politics are coming. And I will inevitably hurt somebody’s feelings. I just left them out today because I had other things to write about and just figured that there’s no need to lose any friends on my birthday, LOL!

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  8. As to be expected from you sir, awesome firsty(lol) sorry have this compulsive habit of making up my own words. My hubby enjoyed it as well. Looking forward to more.

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