I know that I haven't really updated with anything meaningful in quite some time, but life has been relatively uneventful as of late. I've been passing most of my time by working out (trying to get in shape — other than round — and rid of my gut) and catching up on my reading... Backfire, by Loren Baritz, has taught me many things that I did not know about America's involvement and subsequent failure in Vietnam. As informative as this work may be, it's a rather difficult read due to the upsetting subject matter. The saddest part about it is that I almost feel like it's happening all over again with our involvement in Iraq.

On a lighter note, I also finally got around to reading Mary Shelley's Frankenstein in its entirety, which I thoroughly enjoyed though I was left rather confused as to why there was no Igor/Ygor (however the fuck you wanna spell it). As it turns out, Igor was not written into the story by Mary Shelley, but was introduced by Wyllis Cooper in his screenplay for the 1939 film "Son of Frankenstein". Oh well...

As part of the same collection, I also read Robert Louis Stevenson's The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde . Everyone knows the basic story, even without reading it, so I recommend skipping this one. It at least has an interesting take on the duality of man, but touches on it so briefly that it's really not worth the time it takes to read it. At least I have Bram Stoker's Dracula to look forward to (last part of the "Classics of Horror" collection), though that is being put on indefinite hold at least until I finish reading Carl Sagan / Ann Druyan's Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors , after which I plan to read Morgan Llywelyn's 1916 and Larry Beinhart's American Hero (which was the basis for the film "Wag the Dog"), respectively.

I guess that's all for now.

What a drag it is getting old...