Dear Friends and Family,

I just wanted to thank you all so much for the emails, phone messages, cards, dinner offers, and flowers.  I can’t tell you how much your kind gestures have meant to us.

Baby Emma is doing wonderfully.  She eats, sleeps, and poos like a fiend, which, according to our pediatrician, points to a very healthy baby.  She continues to get more beautiful with each passing day, and somehow Kristen and I find a way to love her more and more as each minute passes.

Kristen has been struggling with nausea due to her pain medication, which, when coupled with a newborn who needs to be breast fed every few hours, is resulting in very little sleep.  We saw our obstetrician today and made some changes, and have already noticed an improvement in her well-being as a result.

Mike and Jill, Kristen’s parents, came to stay with us yesterday when we realized we needed help and this has done much to improve our spirits and Kristen’s health.  Thanks to their extra eyes and love, I’ve caught up on my sleep and we’re slowly trying to get Emma on a regular feeding schedule so Kristen can get hers as well. 

I’ve been conveying your messages to Kristen, and her face lights up with every kind message, card, dinner offer, flower delivery, and voicemail.  I hope you understand that neither of us have had the time or energy to even respond, much less receive visitors.  We can’t wait for each and every  one of you to meet our little girl and appreciate your understanding as we hold off on visits until Kristen has recovered a bit more.

We’re blessed to have so many loving family members and compassionate, caring friends.  Your thoughts, prayers, and positive messages encourage, reassure, and fuel us as we adjust to our beautiful little girl and recuperate.

Always,

Scott

I’m so proud to announce the arrival of our daughter, Emma Claire Foley.  She was born July 9, 2008, at 12:01 p.m.  She weighed in at eight pounds, nine ounces, and is twenty inches long. 

Both Kristen and Emma are perfectly healthy and we are so thankful for such a blessing.

More to come after we get to know our little angel and catch up on sleep!

Part V of :from the Chronicles of Purgatory Station is entitled “Excitor Electrifies!”  It focuses on Purgatory Station’s newest Colossal, Excitor! 

Fresh in from Chicago, Excitor’s first order of business is letting Purgatory Station know all about him.  He chooses Kristina Carlock to be his own personal reporter, but why her?  Furthermore, when Excitor faces his first Mega-Mal, the mercenary called Barrage, will Excitor live long enough to get the fame, fortune, and girl he so desperately desires?

Click “Excitor Electrifies!” to read the latest installment of the unpredictable series, :from the Chronicles of Purgatory Station! 

Maps and Legends was both a real pleasure and incredibly insightful in a multitude of ways. 

This nonfiction book by Michael Chabon, author of Wonderboys and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, offers a variety of essays that will assuredly please all readers.

That’s not to say that all readers will love each and every one of the essays in this book, though.  However, I know there is something for everyone to appreciate and even learn from in Maps and Legends.

Chabon essentially covers four broad topics in this collection.  He expends great energy discussing trends and personalities in comic books, the art of writing, various aspects of literature, and his own diverse influences and personal background.

Since these are four topics that I’m very interested in as well, I loved almost every single essay. 

Chabon is such an interesting man.  The idea that a Pulitzer Prize-winning author takes the time to lament the death of Will Eisner, acknowledge the brilliance of Howard Chaykin, analyze McCarthy’s The Road, and reveal deeply personal secrets (some even real) from his own life all within one collection, it’s just a pure joy for someone like me to experience.

However, I think the most valuable thing I learned from Chabon in his book is that the term “genre” in literature is not a naughty word.  He analyzes the importance of genre, especially in relation to the short story, and disparages the fact that people’s snobbery towards genre is actively executing the short story.

Furthermore, Chabon is utterly transparent in the essays involving his life, so transparent he even reveals he has lied to us and could be lying at any given moment.  That sort of honesty about deception is a breath of fresh air.

If you’re a fan of comic books, the art of writing, or Michael Chabon himself, I really encourage you to give this book a try.  I think you’ll be pleased with what you read.

What can I say?  Putting Hellboy and James Lipton together is like chocolate and peanut butter - it just doesn’t get any better.

I’m proud to admit that the main reason I wanted to see Lars and the Real Girl is because I’m a Ryan Gosling fan.  I loved his work in The Notebook, Stay, and Fracture, so I figured as strange as Lars and the Real Girl sounded, I’d give it a shot.

If you ask anyone, they’ll tell you Lars and the Real Girl is about a guy who falls in love with a sex doll.  On the absolute most superficial surface, yes, that’s what this movie is about.

(SPOILERS)

However, what it’s really about is a repressed young man who absolutely has no idea how to interact with the world.  His mother died giving birth to him, and his older brother left him with their equally antisocial father.  So after the father dies, years later, the older brother and his wife return to share the father’s house with Lars.  Lars, being a genuinely good man, lets them have the whole house and moves into the garage.

Lars forever wears a baby blanket his mother made him around his neck as a scarf.  When he discovers his sister-in-law is pregnant, his awkward behavior intensifies.  You realize that he is suffering from a crippling fear that she will die giving birth as well, but he has no idea how to verbalize or even address these fears.

Enter Bianca.  Bianca is a sex doll Lars orders online.  The minute she arrives, Lars begins acting more normal and even happy.  When he brings Bianca over for dinner, his brother, Gus, and sister-in-law, Karin, are at a loss, but they don’t attack him over it.  Instead they watch as Lars interacts with Bianca as though she’s truly speaking to him, and he then asks if she can stay in the house because she’s very religious and doesn’t want to give the wrong image.  This is very important because it allows the audience to realize that sex with the doll is the last thing on Lars’ mind.  He needed a companion and something to help him get through his anxieties, and Bianca was the answer.

Karin suggests they take Bianca, who, according to Lars, was just in from Brazil, to the doctor to make sure she hasn’t suffered any illness as a result of her travels.  This, of course, is really a subtle way of getting Lars to the doctor.  The doctor pretends Bianca is real, and she later explains to Karin and Gus that Lars is experiencing a delusion, but he’s not schizophrenic.  Her suggestion is to treat Bianca like a real person and see what happens.

Before long, the entire town gets in on the act.  Bianca becomes a thriving member of their community, even getting elected to the school board.  It’s not that the town believes she’s real; it’s that they all love Lars so much that they’re willing to do anything to help him through this possibly life-long phase.

Before long, Lars undergoes several growing experiences that I believe ultimately leads to his relinquishing Bianca, though in a slow, heartbreaking, and natural process … relatively speaking.

(END SPOILERS)

I adore this movie.  My wife and I both were all-but crying at its conclusion because Gosling completely immerses himself in Lars’ quirks and Lars’ emotions.  Plus, the message is so absolutely touching.  I felt ashamed because throughout the movie I kept expecting some jerk to get on Lars’ case, but it never happened.  Lars and Bianca were accepted at Church, at office parties, at the bowling alley, at the hospital-everywhere.  And I felt shame because I forgot that when dealing with people face to face, when dealing with people you know, they will usually do right by you.  People are good.  People do care.  And it took this movie to help me realize I shouldn’t always assume the worst, most people in this world really are kind and generous.

Seriously, I implore you to watch this movie if you haven’t done so.  It’s labeled a comedy, but you’ll be amazed at the emotional depth of it.  It is so much more than just a movie about a guy who falls in love with a sex doll.

So now that we have a baby girl arriving in a few days, Kristen and I are looking for new and innovative ways to save money.

One of the best ways for me to personally save us a few dollars is to cut down on my book buying.  Apparently there’s this facility in most towns known as a “library.”  Now, you’ll have to ask a librarian for sure, but my understanding is they’ll let you take books home for free if you have proof of residency.

I decided to put this “library” to the test.

Today Kristen and I went to the Bloomington Public Library.  We got our Normal Public Library cards yesterday, and we were told the BPL would honor our NPL card, and indeed they did.

You’ll need to know that I did my research on the contents of each library.  I’ve got a few authors that I read regularly, but they’re not what really cost a lot of money.  Depending on the size of the book, it usually takes me at least two weeks to get through a novel, sometimes longer.  Couple that with the fact I bought most of my novels used through Amazon.com, well, we were talking about six bones a book, tops.

No, what really cost the dough were my graphic novel inclinations.  (For those of you who are losing out, graphic novels are typically collected editions of ongoing comic book series or collections of limited series.  Sometimes they’re one-shot releases.)  Most graphic novels cost at least eight dollars used at Amazon, and when you couple that with shipping, well, you’re not really saving money by that point, are you?  Plus, it’s hard to take a chance on anything new when you’re paying that amount.

So before we went to our local Bloomington-Normal libraries, I perused their catalogues to see if they have my favorite literary authors, but also to see if they have any graphic novels I’d like to check out.  (Pun totally intended.  Lame, I know, but I can’t help myself.  It’s a sickness.)

Long story short, they had oodles of both.  I have to admit, though, BPL beat out the Normal Library in terms of graphic novel selection.  I saw several titles at the BPL I wanted to try out.

So today, we were registering with the BPL at their front desk and filling out simple paperwork. 

As they were about to set us free, I asked, “How long can we keep a book?” 

They replied, “Normally, you can keep a book for three weeks.” 

“Awesome!  And how many books can we check out at a time?”

I couldn’t believe my ears when they said, “We can’t let you take more than fifty at a time.”

Swuh-heet!

I saw several novels I’ll check out over the coming months once I finish my Chabon book I just bought (favorite author, had to pay for my own copy), but I did walk out with several graphic novels such as Gaiman’s The Eternals, Ellis’ Nextwave: Agents of H.A.T.E., Azzarellos’ 100 Bullets Volume I, and Sandman Mystery Theatre: Sleep of Reason.  These are titles I always wanted to try but was never willing to buy.

In summation: Libraries rock!  Go visit yours!*

*Unless, of course, you’re interested in one of my books.  You’ll then want to BUY those, preferably directly from me using PayPal at http://www.myspace.com/scottwilliamfoley :)

Volume II of The Border Trilogy, The Crossing is McCarthy’s follow-up to All the Pretty Horses.  The United States-Mexican border is the only recurring character from the previous volume, but the settings and themes are quite similar.

However, The Crossing is unlike its predecessor in the fact that while All the Pretty Horses followed a fairly linear story, The Crossing resembles exact life in that one never knows what the next day will bring and sometimes today’s conflict has no resolution tomorrow.  Nonetheless, we grow and learn from one day to the next, whether we intend to or not.

The Crossing begins with Billy Parham, a teenager, inexplicably deciding to return a captured pregnant wolf to Mexico and neglecting to inform his parents of the trip.  The plight continues for such a lengthy time that I found myself wondering if the entire book would be about the return of the wolf.

It isn’t.

In true McCarthy style, the wolf’s tale comes to an abrupt conclusion.  However, Billy’s story continues on.

He returns home, only to have a horrifying discovery.  He now must return to Mexico with his younger brother on a new odyssey.  They have a mission, but that mission soon gets derailed and practically forgotten.

After a great deal of conflict, Billy finds himself alone once more and returns to America.  He wanders for several years and then resolves to return to Mexico a third time and find his brother.  What he does when he finally locates his brother will both stun and touch you.

McCarthy writes The Crossing in elaborate detail that sometimes can lull your interaction with the book.  However, just as things become almost dull, he jars you back to full alert.  Because of this, I like to compare this book to real life because follow-through is so rare in our day-to-day affairs.  We never know what to expect and predictions are so infrequently accurate we wonder why we bother in the first place.  McCarthy understands such nuances of true life but manages to synthesize such reality with enough drama and conflict to keep the reader invested.  We follow Billy on an epic journey that plays out over years and we watch him grow from a boy to a man, experiencing hardship that would annihilate most people.

I wouldn’t say The Crossing is one of my favorite reads, but I learned a great deal from the author about pacing and description.  I also learned more Spanish from this novel than three years in high school and understand the complexities of horses and camping on the open plain far more than I ever could have imagined, thanks to this book.

I wanted to post a few pictures to supplement my original post, Goodbye, Old Friend.

This is the day I bought the car back in 2000.  I bought it from  Gentry Motor Company in Macomb, IL.

Me, sitting with my car for the last time.

The interior.  Not too bad after ten years of heavy use.

Goodbye, old friend.