Off Topic -- The Ironman @Google and Espana

I just booked Cal Ripken Jr. for a talk at Google on April 17th. If anyone is in the New York area and wants to come meet Cal, please let me know.

To be honest, I can probably only sneak in 2 or 3 ppl so I hope you're ALL not in the New York area.





I've been in Spain and Portugal for the last week, but I'm hoping to finish the book this week. If you've never been to either of those places, go. Immediately. Sevilla, might be one of the most charming cities on the plant, and the southern tip of Portugal (pictured) is pretty intense.

Anyway, just got to the dude on dude action. I had not anticipated that. Future recommends will be vetted for "uncomfortable topics." However, I do think its good to feel uncomfortable when reading a novel. Not to say that every book need have explicit taboo sex with minors, but to be sure we all grew up in a pretty sheltered existence. This is apparent with Frank's comment that Jamal Griffen is the "only black person I know." For a lot of us, he was the only "black kid" around for a good part of our lives. In retrospect, that's pretty weird/sad/amazing. Sumee Oh, Asian. John Worsencroft (sp?), Jew. Vigil, Mexican. The fact that we could boil down entire races, cultures, continents to one or two people, is astounding to me. If the book does anything at all, I hope it opens up some minds of an existence other than your own.

We don't leave in a "colorblind" world, no matter how hard we try to convince ourselves. We all harbor (myself definitely included) thoughts we never let pass through our lips. Reading, listening, learning, interacting with things/people/places outside of ourselves is the first step towards making these thoughts/ideas change into things we can talk about.