I’ve not been sick, really sick, in a long time. This allergy cum bronchitis thing has really kicked my ass. The good news is that I’m pretty much over it! Yay! Yesterday was a bad day, but it’s my own damn fault for not eating right and smoking on Friday night. The smoking has got to go. Bleh. Oh, and let’s not forget the Vile Organ, which has been causing trouble for a month now. That was bugging me yesterday as well.

The good part of being sick is that I definitely got caught up on my reading. I read Marie Antoinette: The Journey, Life with My Sister Madonna, Never Break the Chain, On Writing, Morality (a King short story), One Second After and I read The Gunslinger yesterday. I also read several comics, including Road Rage (by Steve King and Joe Hill) and Last Blood. I’m a slow reader, but so is Steve King, so I figure I’m in good company. :)

Of this selection, the one book that really wrecked me is One Second After by William R. Forstchen. It’s a disaster scenario book about what could happen if the United States is hit by an EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) and everything from the power grid to autos is knocked out. While I do think this book really should be required reading for everyone in this tech dependent world, I gotta say, it’s one of the most disturbing books I’ve read in a long time. Perhaps because it’s set in NC or perhaps because of the sheer plausibility of it, I don’t know, but this book scared the SHIT out of me. It really upset me. I couldn’t stop thinking about it for days after. I have read plenty of disaster books, but the detailed account of a society that completely falls and becomes cannibalistic within 65 days is so very disturbing. I’d still recommend it, but just be prepared to face some horrific scenes.

I love biographies and rock and roll biographies in particular. Never Break the Chain by Cath Carroll is the tale of Fleetwood Mac during the Rumours period and covers the other incarnations of the band as well. Good read. Life With My Sister Madonna by Christopher Ciccone. It’s a good read, pretty much what you’d expect. I think he talks a bit much about Madonna, as opposed to himself, but it’s an insight into the rather selfish, narcissistic nature of Madonna. No big surprise there.

On Writing by Stephen King is the nonfiction tome that was written before and during the time he was hit by a van in 1999. It is part memoir and part instruction manual for the craft of writing. I’ve always loved this book and find it to be very inspirational. I’m not a writer, but I still find the overall lessons of ‘do what you love’ and ‘be the best you can be at it’ to work for any craft. I finished it and promptly gave it to Nick to re-read. We need inspiration!

I read a short story by King that is included in this tiny little book (a short story, really) called Blockade Billy that I found in the bargain bin at Big Lots (where I got Chain and Madonna, btw). Morality is a dark little tale that will leave you with a bad taste in your mouth. In a good way. I’ve always said that Stephen King really shines with his mastery of the short story. He can pack a punch with an amazing economy of words. If you’ll read On Writing, you’ll see why.

Now I’m on a King binge and I’m reading the Dark Tower series again. King has been toying with re-doing the whole collection and I’m all for it. I can see where some edits and rewrites would make the tale more fluid and cohesive. I need to get the newer version of The Gunslinger (I typed the BUNslinger – hmm, totally different idea there!) that he edited and reissued a few years back. I also discovered that I’m missing book VI, Song of Susannah, which I know I’ve read and I know I had at some point. Bah. I just checked the Wiki and King intends to rewrite the whole series. He will remove himself as a character in the later books as well, which I agree with. It was distracting to have him as a character in his own book. There is also interest in doing the series as movies or perhaps something on HBO. Normally, I’d be against trying to do a book series that’s so involved as The Dark Tower as screenplays, but I was happy with the treatment of The Stand as a miniseries, so if they can get good people, I think The Dark Tower series could transfer to the screen successfully.

And with that last sentence, I was drawn to Amazon, where I got the new(er) Gunslinger, replaced my missing Song of Susannah, got the newest installation to The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole and The 100 Secret Senses by Amy Tan. I think this reading binge is going to last for a while. :)

I’ve decided that I’d rather waste my life sitting around reading than sitting around looking at Facebook. I will say, however, that as much as FB is a time suck, I’m starting to use it well for networking in prep for the move to Phoenix. I’ve joined a couple of groups and everyone has been so nice and so supportive of our move. Seriously, I’m blown away by how great everyone has been. I cannot WAIT to get out there! If Nick wasn’t holding the hand brake, I tell you, I’d be there already. We make a good team, my Weasel and I. We offset each other’s innate weaknesses and make a duo that is absolutely more than the sum of its parts.

In other news, our illustrious host, InMotion, has been a huge pain in my ass lately. Their VA datacenter has been cursed with outages (3 in the last 6 wks) so I demanded to be moved to the West Coast datacenter – which they did in a timely fashion. Unfortunately, the moment we hit the West Coast server, they had an outage there. Gods. I really hate the constant downtime, but their support team is very good, which means a lot. The whole reason we left ITX is because their support sucked BALLS. But, nonetheless, if InMotion can’t get their fucking shit together with the down times, I’ll have to move again. I’m looking at WiredTree and 24Shells as our potential new hosts. Their VPS deals are about the same as what I have, with WiredTree only offering phone or email support and 24Shells offering chat as well as phone/email. They are truly neck and neck. We’ll see how it goes. I’m loathe to move the goddam sites AGAIN, but at least these new hosts will do the dirty work for us. If InMotion can get their collective shit together, then we’ll stick.

I’ve not been monitoring my eating for the last two weeks. Why bother? All I eat is mac and cheese and soup. My weight has gone down by a pound or two, so at least there’s that. The snot and soup diet seems to work quite well. Getting back into daily exercise is gonna suhuck.

The train of thought has left the station. I hope this week will end this allergy crap once and for all. I’d like to know what everyone else is reading! Tell me in the comments.