10/7/04 - I finished reading The Dark Tower. I am still having
trouble deciding how much or how little I like it. It is a good book
with lots of action and great characterization. I still cannot get
over the fact that Stephen King used himself as a character. This
series was meant to be his greatest work or his opus. He makes books
outside of the series important to the characters and story which
therefore makes it seem like a marketing strategy. In all of the
greatest works of fiction I cannot think of one work that included
the author as a character. The Odyssey did not have Homer as a
character. Pride and Prejudice did not have Jane Austin as a
character. The Time Machine did not have H. G. Wells as a character.
So either this is a ground-breaking piece of literature or it is an
egotistic slap in the face for the readers. Had I known in the 1980s
that the series would have ended as it did I do not think I would
have begun reading it. At the point when he introduced himself as a
character it was really too late to give up reading it. Perhaps it is
because many of the early readers needed to read the final books to
get a sense of completion he felt he could use the last three to
market himself and the other books. Now, do not think I am completely
anti-King because of this. I still like the other books of his that I
have read. Maybe the last three books in the series were more of an
experiment than a marketing scheme. They also do make sense to try
now as he retires.

I uploaded the latest version of my iTunes play-list. It includes new
music I have added over the last several months from The Streets,
Lazyboy, Coheed and Cambria, as well as some older music from The
Cranberries. I am in a bit of a money crunch until February so I
unfortunately will not be buying more music until then.

Is it my imagination or have web journalists decided they do not need
copyeditors? I cannot say my grammar is perfect but all of the
writing I have done for The End Times and IGN has been copyedited. I
saw somebody's print-out of a sport's story from The Boston Globe's
website and the very first sentence had a typo. It is not just them
either as I saw a typo in a print-out of a story from ESPN as well.
That type of sloppy publishing hurts the medium and speaks poorly of
those outlets.

My son got glasses Tuesday. I have been wearing glasses for as long
as I can remember and I did not expect to dislike them as much as I
do. I tell him they look great. My wife has perfect vision so it was
always possible our son's vision would be from her genes. I was not
very fond of how I looked as a child with glasses and he looks very
much now like I did as a child. I also hate that he will be stuck
with glasses, or possibly contacts, for the rest of his life. When he
went to school yesterday the kids thought it was cool because Harry
Potter wears glasses. While it may be cooler now then it was, it is
still a hindrance to have to wear them and to always have to worry
about losing or breaking them. I have been avoiding the eye doctor
for a few months so I could wait until February when I can afford new
glasses. The lenses in my glasses are scratched and will probably
need to be replaced. When the lenses are new and clean they are very
easy to see-through. However, just the natural oils from skin can
make them hard to see through. They also make them hard to clean. I
hate that he will have to live with that. On the other hand, things
could be so much worse.