Brian Garrett

The future is going to be crazy

Revisado: 05-17-22

Definitely lots of very interesting vectors the biological future is going to be taking. I'm hoping that some of the items they are working on are going to have a direct benefit to my longevity, but I'm afraid it's going to happen slightly slower than I want it to. Of course the darker side of this is the "dark science" that could be used in a negative way on humanity. Definitely a good read IMHO.

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A desired read for a long time

Revisado: 08-13-20

I had heard about this book during my younger teen days and it's been on my "I'll read that later list"... I've never been a great book reader until I switched over to Audible. Regardless, this popped up again and I picked it up.

Definitely a great philosophy book and a way of conducting one's own life. I think this will be one of those books that I'll pick up again and read later to get more out of it as I can almost see the metaphor now that the motorcycle is the tool to describe working on one's life to better understand it. Maybe I'm overthinking it a bit. Overall I let the book flow over me as I was listening - the addendum in the end of the book is gut wrenching.

I think as time has gone by since I've finished the book I'm still not able to put it into words very well - I can just say, if you're in the right space, this is a good read.

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There's more to women in aviation than Ms. Earhart

Revisado: 04-09-20

Everyone grows up in this world being told about Amelia Earhart. She was to women in aviation what Lindberg was to the Spirit of St. Louis. I've followed Ms. Shira Teitel on YouTube with her Vintage Space channel for years. Sure she's got a few books out, but I never bothered to read them. No real reason, just wasn't on my radar. She released this book and I was looking for my next read - so I picked this one up. I knew a tiny little bit about other women in aviation due to reading Flygirls and had heard of Jackie Cochran and Jerrie Cobb, but this book dives DEEP into their history and has some amazing stories of their lives as well as their efforts to try to gain an equal footing with their male counterparts. They had every right to be part of the space program, but due to politics and male ego were blocked at every turn.

If you're an aviation buff and enjoys history, this is definitely a must-read.

Now, if you'll pardon me - I'm on to reading the other books by Ms. Shira Teitel. )

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Buckle up - you're in for one heck of a ride!

Revisado: 04-09-20

A friend of mine passed along this title to me to read. It's not something I normally would have read, but I'm glad I read it as an audiobook. Had it been a book-book, I probably would've thrown the book against the wall more times than I can imagine. Certainly not because the book is bad - the boot is AMAZINGLY enlightening. The reason being is the insanity the people of Louisiana subject themselves to. Basically anything government bad. Anything from a company is good. The government wants to clean up the environment the businesses created - bad. The businesses continuing to pollute their environment to make it completely uninhabitable - oh well, at least we have jobs.

The mindset of the deep south is one long contradiction of what makes sense vs. insanity.

Read this book certainly. But be forewarned, you may leave yourself with bruise marks on your forehead from all the facepalming you'll be doing.

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A Fair review

Revisado: 12-26-19

I thought I'd check this book out to see if there was any greater level of detail as to the Concord flight that famously took off in a ball of fire. Nothing much new here other than some of the investigation information and a great level of detail on the pilots and passengers - which I appreciated. In starting the book I wondered if it would be possible had they NOT gone airborne and just forced the plane back onto the ground over the runway had they stood a chance of at least some surviving the inferno. They went into that aspect of things as the post-crash analysis revealed it wouldn't have changed the outcome. Never mind that decision would have had to come against every aspect of training the pilots had and they had no information available at the time to even consider something different.

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Read many books around Steve Jobs

Revisado: 11-19-19

If Lisa Brennan-Jobs wasn't the daughter of Steve Jobs, this would be a very ordinary story about a very dysfunctional family. What makes this book stand apart is we have Lisa's mom, who obviously gave birth to Lisa, on one hand. Lisa's mom struggled to barely even keep a roof over their head while she was growing up (pre-teen), and sometimes wasn't even successful at that. Then you've got her dad - everyone knows as Steve Jobs (who even she refers to as "Steve" - not dad), who has unbelievable amounts of money and could solve all of their problems with a snap of his fingers. But Steve also lacks any level of empathy or compassion for the fate he put on Lisa.

Lisa's recall of even the most mundane details is amazing. I certainly don't have that much color of recollection of my upbringing much less last month. Throughout the story you keep waiting for Steve Jobs to just snap out of it and realize what he's got - and sometimes he does, but in the very next breath he is as vile and vulgar of a human being towards a daughter as anyone ever could be. Again - this isn't really much of a surprise to me.

It's a long journey to get to the end where Steve is realizing his mistakes. By then Lisa has found her voice in who she is in the world. She seems to have triumphed over what could have been a very bad adulthood given her circumstances of feast or famine.

Am I happy I read it? Yes - it gives me another layer of texture on Steve Jobs. In the end I hope she's doing o.k.

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Outstanding book to read!!

Revisado: 10-23-19

I've never read any of Robert Kurson's books, so I didn't know what to expect out of this body of work. It is easily one of the best books I've read this year - and certainly in recent memory. The care and detail put into this book was amazing. There is backstory for each of the astronauts, how they got into flying, met their wives, had kids, sacrifices... it also provides the flavor of the political and social climate at the time and how Apollo 8 saved 1968. I've read a few books on the space program and this one is near the top as one of the best. Gene Kranz "Failure is not an Option" is an excellent book as well, but Rocket Men is so focused on this actual mission it felt as if I was living it.

Do yourself a favor and spend some time listening to this book.

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An entertaining short read

Revisado: 09-03-19

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I'm used to reading books where they get right into the mix of things with regards to the historical topic of the book (in this case WWII). This book starts with Roald's journey to Africa and a fair amount of time getting acclimated to that world at a very young age (well, early 20's). It really starts picking up as he heads off to join the Royal Air Force and heads into battle.

Definitely an enjoyable read.

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Slow start - but wow does it get good

Revisado: 08-29-19

I wasn't sure what to expect out of this book when I got it. The beginning was slow and spent some time laying the groundwork for future things to come. By the time I got to the end of it I was thinking what an amazing movie this would make and to do it around the women and their struggle to find a foothold in aviation through the Bendix races. Everyone knows Amelia, but there were so, so many more women helping to push that rock up the hill - and many of them gave their lives in the pursuit.

The part that I couldn't help but to feel sad about is that I don't feel we've moved as far as we should in promoting women, not just in aviation like this, but in all traditional male roles where it has nothing to do with reproduction (still kinda hard for a man to give birth) and everything to do with the skill of operating in an environment such as aviation. I'm a firm believer that they can accomplish every bit as much as their male counterparts.

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A very hopeful book

Revisado: 08-23-19

Alzheimer's runs in my family, so that's why I picked this book up. It seems to me that Dr. Bredesen has figured out the way forward. I'm probably a few years off from having to get really serious about this, but now that I'm aware of it I will be proceeding post-haste for making this part of my future plans. The program discussed in the book is a primer for the program he's developed and has a program online about (just google it), but the successes and the process he talks about here all makes sense.

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