Author: marionvermazen

I am a traveler, hiker, avid reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, Spanish and French language student, knitter and genealogist. I am retired after working for almost 30 years in the Computer Industry. I live in Reno, Nevada with my husband Duke.

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

I just finished reading Outliers by Malcom Gladwell on my Kindle. It is a fascinating book about why some people are so successful. Contrary to what most people think brains and talent play a small roll compared to luck and hard work.

It was fascinating to see how this applied to Bill Gates, The Beatles, and Gladwell himself.

I can't decide what to read next on my Kindle. I have a couple traditional books going but I need a new Kindle book. I almost always have my Kindle with me so I am never left without something to read.

Lovelock and Lovelock Cave

Duke and I like to explore back roads. Through the Reno Newcomers Club we met another couple who also like to explore back roads. It probably is smart to have two vehicles when you are in the middle of nowhere on rough roads exploring. So last week the four of us took two vehicles and went to Lovelock and Lovelock Caves. The area is described in the Moon Handbooks Nevada Guide. Lovelock is about 90 miles east of Reno on interstate 80 and has a population of about 2000 people. It is the county seat for Pershing County and has a small round court house building. According to the Moon Handbook the court house is one of the only two round court houses in the country. We explored inside and went into the court room. The jury box is in the center of the room and the inside of the dome is painted to look like the sky.

003

We drove out to see the tufa formations north of town and then had a great lunch at the Cowpoke Cafe. They had homemade pies but we were too full for desert. Next time we stop there I am starting with pie!

001 

The Lovelock cave is 20 miles south of Lovelock. It is a small cave but it has been excavated by archeologists. The cave was inhabited by Indians 4000 years ago when it was on the edge of a lake. The archaeologists found lots of artifacts including the oldest duck decoys ever found. From the cave we looked out over the Humboldt Sink where the Humboldt River ends. Most of Nevada is part of the Great Basin. None of the rivers or water in the Great Basin ever reach the ocean.

010 

008

If you want to read the sign you can click on the picture.

We took a couple of wrong turns but eventually we found the dirt road heading southwest from the cave and took it to make a big circle back to Interstate 80 and home.

If you would like to see all of my pictures from this trip they are on Flickr here.

Catherine de Medici – Renaissance Queen of France by Leonie Frieda

I speed read Catherine de Medici – Renaissance Queen of France by Leonie Frieda last week in order to finish it in time for the Newcomers Club Book Club. It is not an easy read and the author who is Swedish by birth and apparently speaks five languages loves using unusual words like bobbish, chimera and  tergiversations. In spite of the fact that reading the book is a bit of a slog, it reads like a text book, I did find it very interesting.

Renaissance France is fascinating. Catherine De Medici lived from 1519 to 1589, during the reigns of 5 French kings. One of them was her husband and three of them were her sons. This was a particularly violent period. There were constantly recurring religious wars (at least six), the St Bartholomew's Day massacre (for which Catherine was blamed), Burnings of protestants, and  political assassinations. Catherine survived and perhaps even thrived, shaping French politics through most of this period.

I am glad I read this book. I learned a lot about this period in history in general and French history in particular. It certainly helped me better understand the renaissance and the reformation.

Thanks to my friend Linda here are a few of the obscure words, their meanings and the page references.

Page 25:  tergiversations – changes in opinion or course

Page 107:  shambolic – disorderly or chaotic

Page 337: bobbish – healthy, in good spirits (this word wasn't even in my dictionary. it is in dictionary.com)

Page 337: chimera – an illusion or fabrication of the mind

Page 352:  extirpate – exterminate

Ronni Bennett – Creator of the Time Goes By Blog – Episode 5

Ronni Bennett creator of the Time Goes By Blog is my guest  for episode 5 of the Marion Vermazen Podcast.

Ronni is the author of one of my favorite blogs Time Goes By – What it's really like to get older. She is retired from a very successful career in journalism and television production. Her blog has a vibrant community of followers and is a constant source of information and insight.

If you would like to listen to the interview you can click on the play button that will show up when you move your mouse over the gray bar below.

Marion Vermazen Podcast – episode 5 – Ronni Bennett

Here are links to two of the subjects we discussed.

 Elders for Healthcare Reform

 Ronni's Photo biography

Roni

You can also subscribe to my podcast by clicking on the
link at
the top of the column to the right.

To subscribe in iTunes,
from the iTunes Advanced menu select Subscribe to Podcast and copy the
feed URL.

"  http://marionvermazen.blogs.com/mv-podcast/rss.xml  "

The fun thing about this podcast has been that when I realized I wanted to create a podcast of my  conversations with interesting people I was able to just jump in and do it. I am really enjoying myself and It continues to be a learning experience. This was my first podcast done with both of us using Skype and unfortunately the quality is not as good as I would like it to be. If anyone has expertise in Skype, Podcasting, sound recording, and mixers I would love to pick his or her brain. Drop a comment on this blog or send me an email.

September Events in Reno

One of the reasons that Reno is such a wonderful place to live because there are so many things going on here.

Last weekend Duke and I went to the Reno/ Tahoe Blues Festival. We enjoyed sitting outside on the grass and listening to great music. I must admit I brought a book. It was quite a juxtaposition reading an English Family saga set in Cornwall during World War II while sitting outside in shorts on a hot Reno afternoon enjoying the blues.

September is full of events.

September 2-7 is the Best in the West Nugget Rib Cook-Off. I missed last year because Duke and I were out of town so we are definitely planning to go this year.

September 11-13 is the Reno Balloon festival. We went in 2007 and it was wonderful beyond anything I had imagined.

September 16-20 are the Reno Air Races. Duke went to the Newcomers Club Men's breakfast Thursday morning and heard a presentation about the races. They sound great. We are planning to go this year for the first time.

September 23 -27 is Street Vibrations the annual Reno motorcycle gathering. I don't ride a motorcycle but it is still fun to see all the bikes.