Graduate Gifts

It's been a long while since I've graduated from anything, and I don't have any graduations to go to this year, but it being the season, I thought I'd mention a couple of books that might be the appropriate gift for a grad...

Dr. Seuss' "Oh, The Places You'll Go" was first suggested to me as a gift for my sister's graduation from high school. I thought the suggestion was nuts. A Dr. Seuss book for an 18 year old? Needless to say, I didn't follow through (sorry, Sara)... My initial prejudices aside, this is a great book to give a grad, or anyone embarking on a new journey in life. Yes, it has that trademark Dr. Seuss psychadelic footprint, and yes it's simplistic, but if Robert Fulghum could make several million dollars off of 'Everything I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten', who am I to say Dr. Seuss isn't relevant?

However, if you share the same thoughts I did initially, and would prefer a more adult read, Ann Patchett just published a book based on her commencement speech at her alma mater, Sarah Lawrence College called "What Now?". Ann Patchett wrote a couple of books that are reviewed (or may be reviewed, depending on how far behind I am) in this blog - "Run" and "Bel Canto" , as well as a book on her relationship with Lucy Greeley (see Author Connections. Her address was touching, funny, revealing, and most of all, relevant. I was so engrossed I read it in one sitting.

Of course you could always get them one of these.

The Classics are Still In

An annual survey of schoolkids' reading preferences shows that Dr. Seuss, E.B. White, and Judy Bloom have staying power. Read all the details in this brief article in the Washington Post.

Quickie review: God and Cosmos, by John Byl

This treatise, subtitled "A Christian View of Time, Space, and the Universe", was given to me by Virginia's cousin's husband, a Baptist minister. It appears to be, at least in part, a rebuttal to Stephen Hawking's "A Brief History of Time", and to be blunt, "God and Cosmos" is much better written and a provides a substantially clearer description of modern cosmological theory than Hawking does. Byl's ultimate aim in explaining the Big Bang theory is to knock it down in favor of a literal interpretation of Genesis, but he sets up his target in a very thorough, comprehensive, and fair fashion. If you're a Christian who is looking for some synthesis or reconciliation between the scientific and religious viewpoints, you'll be disappointed, as Byl's argument is essentially: "Here's what astronomers think about the universe, but they're wrong, because the Bible is right. QED." But if you're just interested in a solid summary of our current understanding of the universe, including a historical review of how this worldview has evolved (oops, loaded word!) over time, this is a good book to read.

Quickie review: Green Clean, by Linda Mason Hunter and Mikki Halpin

Up on my environmental soapbox again! At the February meeting, I reviewed "Cradle to Cradle", an ambitious (even grandiose) proposal for redesigning the entire technological infrastructure of modern society. For this mini-review, I aim slightly lower: how to be environmentally responsible while scrubbing your toilet. "Green Clean" details the wide variety of alternative cleaning products and strategies that you can make at home, out of cheap and safe ingredients.

In nine words, the message of this book is "Chlorine bad. Vinegar good. Petrochemicals bad. Baking soda good." To be a little more specific, the authors explain how most cleaning tasks can be handled by strategically matching the cleanser to the dirt:

• acidic stains like proteins and grease will be neutralized by an alkaline substance like baking soda
  
• alkaline crud (coffee stains, rust, soap scum) can be handled by distilled white vinegar, a weak acid
  
• natural oil-based soaps get most everything else
  

Given that baking soda and vinegar can be eaten, it's pretty clear that they're non-toxic. Most "modern" cleaning products, in contrast, have all sorts of nasty extra chemicals which can really mess with your health, not to mention the larger environment.

As an added bonus, the book is printed on the same super-durable, waterproof, recycleable synthetic paper as "Cradle to Cradle", so if you accidentally drop it in a bucket of water, no sweat!

Caveat: I've only actually tried one of the "recipes" so far, an ant poison made out of sugar water and borax. Seems to work okay. I'll provide updates as I manufacture and test more of the cleansers.

Quickie review: iWoz, by Steve Wozniak

Any of you who follow the computer industry are probably well aware of Steve Jobs, founder and current CEO of Apple Computers, and renowned marketing visionary and temper-tantrum-thrower. But Apple Computers would not have come into existence without "the other Steve" -- Stephen P. Wozniak, the engineering genius who designed and built the first Apple computers, and co-founded the company with Jobs. As described in this autobiography, "Woz" became enamored of digital logic at an early age, and in his 20's, while working for Hewlett-Packard, conceived of a so-called "personal computer" which could be used by anyone. HP was uninterested in building and marketing such a device, but Woz's friend Jobs saw the potential, offered his parents' garage as a production factory, and the Apple I went on sale in 1976. The rest, as they say, is history.

As a card-carrying Apple fanatic, I enjoyed the insider view of the founding of Apple Computer, but of even greater interest was the description of Woz's formative years, when he developed his ethos of technology as an enabler of human potential, rather than technology for its own sake. He gets into a bit of technical detail, but the book is primarily about people, not computers, so if you don't know a NAND gate from a EEPROM chip, you will probably still find it an illuminating tale.