Book review: Flamer

Flamer by Mike Curato

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a cute and affecting coming of age story about a pudgy 14-year-old Filipino boy spending his last summer at scouts camp before starting high school.

Author Mike Curato notes the story is fictional but deftly deploys his real life experience going through scouts, setting the story in 1995, the same time he was in scouts. The result is a story filled with lots of authentic details, ranging from the mundane (you’ll learn about a bunch of different knots) to the mildly horrifying (best summed up as “boys will be boys”).

The titular character Aiden grapples with his identity while fighting off accusations of being gay. A few of the boys are openly hostile to him, throwing slurs about his race and orientation. Things come to a head and for a time turn dark for Aiden, but he ultimately finds the strength to be true to himself.

The artwork here, is terrific–the facial expressions often convey more than any words could. The teasing and threats, the quick dismissal of the same, the gangly awkwardness of teenagers, and the effortless cruelty of boys–all of it is captured in a pleasing black and white style that bursts into color when things get hot (symbolism!)

While this feels like a YA graphic novel, its frankness when it comes to sexuality might make for some squeamishness, depending on the sensibilities of the reader. That said, this is a warm, funny and ultimately touching story. Recommended.

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New Year Resolutions 2021: Let’s get small

Let’s face it, I am bad at keeping my resolutions. Let’s assess my success with the ones I made for this year, and then move onto making shiny new ones for 2021.

Note that I did not anticipate 2020 being THE YEAR OF UNENDING HORRIBLENESS when I made these resolutions. I may have been a bit more modest in my goals if I’d known. Perhaps.

  • Drop to 150 pounds. Grade: D. I am currently tracking on being up for the year. Massive failure, though with some hope for doing better in the future.
  • Be creative. Grade: B. I didn’t really write fiction (I committed to NaNoWriMo then failed to produce a single word), but I did Inktober again, took lots of photos, kept up fairly well on blog posts (don’t count the number of cat pictures). I feel I could have done more if I had been disciplined, so I only give myself a B.
  • Exercise at least three times a week. Grade: C+. I actually did not too bad here, but the wheels came off when the days started getting shorter, and the year ended with me being saddled with Plantar Fasciitis.
  • Read at least 26 books. Grade: B. I will likely end the year with 20 books read and a few more close to completion. This is one where the pandemic completely disrupted a routine (reading on my daily commute) and I never found a good way to adapt. I actually ended up doing most of my reading this year in the bathtub, which turned out to be a surprisingly pleasant way to read. But I do not have baths ten times a week, so I did not hit 26.
  • Eat better. Grade: C+. Maybe I ate marginally better, but there is still work to do.
  • Start stretching. Grade: D. I just didn’t start. But now I have orders to, with my foot injury, so there may be hope for 2021.
  • Investigate other careers. Grade: C+. I started on this, then the pandemic happened and while I haven’t stopped entirely, my pace in terms of investigation has slowed down.
  • Just generally improve. Grade: B-. Considering how awful this year was, I’m happy with a B-.

A pretty middling year. Goodbye, 2020, and good riddance!

My resolutions for 2021 are perhaps the most modest I’ve ever had. We’ll see if I can meet them.

  • Drop to 160 pounds. Maybe by setting my sights lower I will achieve more!
  • Be creative. Keeping this one from 2020:
    • Do one of the following every day (more than one is even better):
      • Write a blog post (Note: Jogging/treadmill workouts do not count)
      • Write some fiction
      • Draw something (maybe Inktober52 would be a good start)
      • Take a photo
      • Write a song (new for 20201)
  • Read at least 20 books. Down from 26. With COVID-19 likely to be a big factor for most of 2021, I think this more modest number is achievable.
  • Exercise at least once a week. Down from three times. Again, setting my sights low to see if I can do more.
  • Stretch. Any stretching at all.
  • Be kinder to everyone, including myself

A pixel art Gum Gum Person

I asked myself, “I wonder if there’s some web-based pixel art maker out there?” So I entered the following as a search in DuckDuckGo:

pixel art maker

And it turns out there is a site with that exact name, and it does exactly what you would expect. I like it when things turn out this way.

Here is my quickly-made pixel art Gum Gum Person. Note that I did this with a mouse using my right hand. I am not right-handed.

I say it’s almost but not quite the stuff of nightmares.

2020: The Review

I could make this easy by saying “1 out of 10, would not do again” and be done with it, but in this most unusual year, let’s take the time to review the good, the bad and the ugly, because while there was a lot of bad and definitely some ugly, there was also good, and it may be instructive to see how good can come out of even very bad things.

This list may be updated as I think of more stuff. It is also a mostly non-personal big picture kind of view. I may focus on my own stuff in another post.

The Good:

  • No nuclear wars or massive asteroid impacts
  • Only one pandemic
  • Trump was not re-elected
  • Work from home meant saving lots of money and time on the daily commute
  • Trail running is a relatively safe pandemic form of exercise

The Bad:

  • There are still two days left for nuclear wars or massive asteroid impacts to happen
  • Only one pandemic is still one too many
  • Trump still got 74 million votes. What is wrong with America? It’s complicated.
  • Work from home also meant suffering through online meetings (still worth it, though)
  • Two words: Plantar Fasciitis

The Ugly:

  • All the people who died who probably wouldn’t have died otherwise
  • The dummies crying about “freedom”, refusing to wear a simple mask and helping to spread a virus that has literally affected the entire planet. Bonus points to the ones who think the whole thing is a hoax.
  • Social media continues to be a net (ho ho) negative on the world. More blogs, less Facebook.

Some shots from the Fraser River

Nic and I hobbled down to the Fraser yesterday and got some shots in before the weather turned (currently a rainfall warning is in effect for the next day). I should also point out that only I hobbled, as Nic’s feet are both working normally and mine are not (more on that in another post).

Photos!

Patullo Bridge, SkyBridge and rail bridge at sunset
Tugboat doing what tugboats do
Ghost by the river bank
Freaky foliage
Golden light and still water

Finally, proof I am not crazy talking to myself

I’ve always felt that talking to myself helped me to clarify thoughts and ideas–not to mention for fiction writing, it’s a great way to sound out dialogue. And now I have scientific proof!

Talking out loud to yourself is a technology for thinking

Not only that, but walking around while talking to myself apparently enhances the effects:

You might have noticed, too, that self-talk is often intuitively performed while the person is moving or walking around. If you’ve ever paced back and forth in your room while trying to talk something out, you’ve used this technique intuitively. It’s no coincidence that we walk when we need to think: evidence shows that movement enhances thinking and learning, and both are activated in the same centre of motor control in the brain.

Now I need to go stretch my legs and loudly think of my next blog post.