A Song of Fire and Ice

When you're telling these little stories, here's a good idea: have a point.

Steve Martin, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

This post is about the novels more than the TV series.  I think the TV series is very well done; the books are a bit more problematic.

If I were ever going to write a novel -- and I doubt very much that I ever will -- I would like to try to write a fantasy, with Lord of the Rings as the gold standard one can never really hope to reach.  A Song of Fire and Ice reaches for that standard, and for a book or two it seems to give Tolkien a run for his money, but by the third book, you start to wonder what went wrong, and by the fifth book, with about twenty story lines going, most of the more appealing characters dead, and nothing resolved, it feels like an opportunity squandered due to some strange choices by the author (George R. R. Martin.)

A little background on the books:  So far there are five books in the saga, with another two promised, hopefully finishing the story.  (The author may die first; he complains at the end of book four and book five that writing each of them was a bitch [his word.]  Aww.  Maybe you should have had an ending in mind.)  As I see it, there are three main stories.  This is debatable because it is very hard to tell where it's all going, but it's my post and my blog, so three.  One, the king dies without a clear heir, and about a half dozen lords suddenly think they should be king.  Two, dragons were once used by the ruling family to defeat all of its enemies, but the dragons have all been dead for centuries, until some of the remaining dragon eggs turn out to still have some life in them.  Three, it has been summer for many years now, but winter is coming, and ancient enemies beyond the wall in the North are stirring.

The books definitely have their strengths.  Martin creates an intricate and complex world with a history and a character to each of the many places on the map.  The book only relies on magic a little; mostly it's about the people, but with a little sorcery.  The level of the writing is very adult; this is not a series for twelve-year-olds.  Rather, it is fantasy that will keep an adult very engaged.  Martin gives a wide range of characters depth and distinct personalities and important roles.  Most importantly, this is not a tale of good versus evil; the characters are all some combination of good and evil, and it is never clear which will prevail.  After five books, we have no idea how this story will end.

And so, on to the weaknesses.  I'm not sure that George R. R. Martin knows how this story will end either.  He certainly is having trouble zeroing in on a main idea.  As the books drag on, the story becomes less of a story and more of a soap opera -- the characters have stuff to do, but there is no sense that the story is progressing.  Rather, more and more you get the sense that the story is not even heading toward an ending, ever, just like Days of Our Lives.  One reason the books feel this way is that Martin has created so many prominent characters that it is hard to see how all of them can have a part in the main story or stories, whatever that is or those are.

To give you a concrete example of what I am talking about, some numbers.  Each chapter of the book is told from the point of view of a character, with most of those characters getting multiple chapters, so there are several chapters simply titled "Jon" or "Sansa", for instance.  In the first book, there are eight different points of view.  By the end of book five, we have endured 25 different viewpoints, with eight new ones added in book three alone.  We are starting to wonder by this time if all of these characters really have a key role in this saga.  And these 25 are only a sampling of the hundreds of significant characters in the books.

Another problem is the killing of key characters.  In the beginning of first book, Martin introduces a main family that seems like the protagonists of the series, along with six direwolf pups, one for each child.  By the end of book five, at least two of the wolves are dead, four of the eight family members are dead (although one I'm not 100% sure and one has been revived in zombie-like form), three have gone off away from the main action of the story and may never return, and the last has been forgotten.  When the first main character of the family is killed, it can be seen as an interesting twist.  However, when the rest die, it seems forced, like Martin decided he needed to kill those characters in order to mix things up even though it didn't fit so well in the story.  Like a soap opera, stuff just keeps happening, so we keep reading.

There were times in the 4,000 or so pages that the story dragged, but mostly the books were engaging enough to keep me interested.  It just seems like it could have been so much more.  If I ever do write that novel, I have learned three things not to do from George R. R. Martin:  Don't write a soap opera with no ending, don't kill off your main characters willy-nilly, and don't spread the story so thin that it doesn't seem to be going anywhere anymore.  Stories should have a point.

A Job Interview

Jackie tells me not to name anyone on the Internet just yet, but perhaps you can make an educated guess based on the picture.

I have interviewed for a few jobs during the last year, but this opportunity with an insurance company is the most serious chance for a full-time job with pay and responsibilities similar to what I did at Farmers.  I have already survived a phone interview with HR and a first interview with the hiring VP.  Next round of three interviews is Tuesday.  If I survive those, there is a third (and final) round.

I do not have any concern about my ability to do the job.  I meet every qualification, have insurance experience, and did similar work at Farmers.  However, the position is different enough that I expect it will be interesting.

What worries me a little is that there are several rounds of interviews, which means that they have several candidates that they will narrow down to one.  Easy enough to bring me in with my qualifications to fill some interview slots, then go with someone younger who will find the position challenging and a chance for growth blah blah blah.

The way to try to combat that is to nail the interviews, impress them so much that they feel they have to consider me.  Even if I don't get the job, I could perhaps put myself into consideration for something in the future.

Nailing the interview is a matter of preparation.  There are some simple things, like reviewing the financials and checking the LinkedIn profiles of the interviewers, but my main approach is this:

• Make a list of accomplishments (what my outplacement service called SOAR stories.)  Based on the first interview, some of these stories should include things that did not go so well, not just the great things I achieved.
• Find a list of interview questions, and match the SOAR stories with the questions.
• Then, of course, they will ask different questions, but I will have those stories in my mind and can draw from them to answer almost anything.  The thing to avoid is that feeling after you leave the interview that you could have said something better, that you had a really good example you could have given, but it didn't come to mind.

Here I have some advantage, because most people do not have the breadth of experience to draw from that I have, so this good.  Between now and Tuesday afternoon, this will be my focus.

Pi Day

Update:  I have not been following the admissions process very closely, so I misunderstood the timing.  The earliest we may hear from some of the other schools is March 15, but it could be 2-3 more weeks.  So we wait.  And he did not get into MIT.

It's Pi Day, which means Lucas will hear from MIT today.  They are releasing their admission decision at 6:28PM Eastern time, which baffled me (why not 1:59?) until Lucas pointed out that it's two times 3:14.  I then pointed out to him that it also means the MIT people can release the information and then go home rather than begin to field phone calls and emails.

If he gets into MIT, he almost certainly will go there.  Getting into MIT is the sort of thing you dream about your kid doing from the day they are born, so if he gets in, some little thing like money isn't going to get in the way.  Jackie and I can always live out our senior years in destitution so that Lucas can have the best.  No problem.

Similar story if he gets into Stanford but not MIT.  Similar likelihood -- it's a stretch for him to get into either school, but still possible.

MIT lets people know on Pi Day, because they like to be clever, but everybody else (except we're not sure about Berkeley) releases the information on March 15, so we expect a celebration this weekend.

Here is the complete rundown:  Olin College, an exclusive engineering school in Massachusetts similar maybe to Harvey Mudd in California, already rejected him.  MIT did not either accept or reject his early application, but deferred the decision to today.  We are waiting to hear from everyone else.  Both MIT and Stanford are so difficult to get into, it is only reasonable to expect that he will not get into either; if he does, it will be a pleasant surprise.

The other three are Berkeley, Cornell, and University of Washington.  I would expect him to get into each one if I had to guess individually, but it wouldn't surprise me too much if either Cornell or Berkeley rejected him; a rejection from UW would be a surprise.  Lucas has a 3.9 GPA in his high school classes, 3.5 in his Running Start college classes, 3.7 overall, 710 average SAT scores (lowest was 690), a year of college physics and a year of college calculus already complete, nearly two years of college credits, and some good extracurricular activities between Boy Scouts and archery.  There can only be so many kids in the world who have more impressive credentials.

I suppose that I should point out that we are very proud of Lucas.  It occurred to me recently that he reminds me of my father, which is high praise in my view.  There are differences (I don't remember Dad procrastinating the way Lucas can), but he is very reliable, responsible and competent.  If you tell him to do something, you expect it to get done.  Anyway, it's a good list of schools, and we finally get to find out tomorrow.  Or possibly at 3:28 today.

One Year

This is almost the one year anniversary of my last day at Farmers.  The actual day was March 9; although it was not my official last day, it is the last day I went to work as an ongoing Farmers employee.

This image came up among many in my usual Internet search for the perfect blog picture.  The words "Remember Everything" scrawled in blood are reminiscent of a teen slasher horror movie, which sets the right tone, and they seem like a fitting message for someone who will never forget or forgive.

Perhaps it isn't blood in the picture, but I'm gonna say it is.

By coincidence, I have an interview scheduled Monday for a position that is very similar to the one I held at Farmers.  I will hold off divulging too many details for now, but it is a manager position at an insurance company, so definitely something I can do.  A year later, I suppose that I am psychologically prepared to go back to that world.  Truth be told, I would actually prefer the six-month contracting position I was referred to earlier in the week, but Jackie would prefer the permanent position, and that one is actually progressing whereas the other has gone quiet (which generally means they rejected my resume), and the permanent position is permanent, pays better, has better benefits and is much more likely to secure our retirement, so maybe it's not so bad.  Anyway, I think one thing I have learned is that every job is temporary.  Some assignments just last longer than others.

A lot happens in a year.  My niece got married, Jarrod and I went to California, Lucas and I went to Boston, Lucas and Jackie went to Ohio and Oklahoma and Texas, we got a new dog, the cat died, Jackie got a job, Lucas applied for college, we changed health insurance three times, and I worked at two consulting jobs.  Obama got re-elected.  I'm sure I am forgetting a lot of stuff.  So much for remembering everything.

Anyway, it has been a better year than the one before, or the one before that.  It's worth a little celebrating.