About Me - My Last Name

Note - This was originally published on my other site "The Geology P.A.G.E." but due to the content I have moved it here and backdated the post.

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I found this online regarding my last name (Lehane) and thought it was pretty cool.


Among the interesting tidbits I ran across is the meaning of the origin of the name, which I got from the Ancestry.com website. "Lehane" is a reduced Anglicized form of the Gaelic 'Ó Liáithan', meaning 'a descendant of Liáithan', a personal name from a diminutive of 'liáth' which translates as 'gray'. Therefore 'Ó Liáithan' translates to English as 'a descendant of Gray'. This opens the remote possibility, that the Gray and Lehane family lines share a distant but common ancestry.

Home Remodel - Building a Bar

Note - This was originally published on my other site "The Geology P.A.G.E." but due to the content I have moved it here and backdated the post.

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Building a Bar

I have been steadily working on the new house for some time and I wanted to publish some photos of my current project - the bar. Now the bar I built in my old house was far larger but I spent much less time on it. My hope is that this one will not only be functional, but it would also blend in well with the woodwork.



This first image is of the space that we are putting the bar into. It is next to stairs going up into the rest of the house. The only problem is that the bottom half is a false wall covering the entrance to the crawlspace. This meant that I had to make the bar completely removable if someone needs to get under there.



This is what the bar looks like that I added. I has some problem with the finish on the doors so that will need to be redone but I think it looks good so far. I tried to match the pattern of the walls with the doors but we wanted it darker so it would stand out a bit.



On the inside we wanted to use as a storage space for bar stuff (like cups and shot glasses) so I put in shelves. Not bad looking figuring the entire thing can be removed in under 5 minutes.

The 306 Greatest Books #79 - The BFG

Note - This review was originally published on my other site "The Geology P.A.G.E." but due to the content I have moved it here and backdated the post.

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is The BFG by Roald Dahl. This book can be found on the Observer and BBC Book Lists.

The BFG is a children's book about a little girl who discovers a Big Friendly Giant (AKA the BFG). Along with the BFG, there are other giants who are not so friendly, well, because they eat people. The plot of the story is that the little girl convinces the BFG to take the bad giants down. I found this to be a rather gruesome story for a child but ended up being a perfect children's book. My main gripe, and this is a general gripe with Dahl, was that the made-up words got to be a bit tiresome after a while. The story has clear cut morality issues and includes a heroine who is just your everyday kid. It is a good story for kids that parents do not need to be too worried about, despite the gruesomeness. Overall, the book was enjoyable, but it was just not my cup of tea.

The 306 Greatest Books #78 - Robinson Crusoe

Note - This review was originally published on my other site "The Geology P.A.G.E." but due to the content I have moved it here and backdated the post.

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. This book can be found on the Sybervision and Observer book lists.

While I was reading Robinson Crusoe, I definitely got a Cast Away feeling about the book. I know many people thought that Cast Away was a boring movie, and the book came across the same way. It just seemed to drag on forever. At the beginning of the novel I kept waiting, and waiting, for him to become ship wrecked, and then when he finally was, nothing exciting happened. For a book that seemed to be billed as an action-adventure novel, I got none of that through the narrative. It's not a totally bad book and I rather enjoyed the plot, I just felt it was really slow at times. I found it amusing how, no matter what Robinson did, he seemed to end up with the short end of the stick. One major problem I had with the book though, was that Defoe constantly referred to the Native Americans/Native Islanders as savages and cannibals. I can see how Crusoe might have thought of them that way at the beginning of the story but even after meeting them Defoe continued to show them eating other humans. Sorry, but cannibalism was not that widespread. This is a definite pass for me.

Presenting Our New Dog - Jackson

Note - This was originally published on my other site "The Geology P.A.G.E." but due to the content I have moved it here and backdated the post.

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We had went to buy dog food the other day and they happened to be having what they called a "Super pet adoption". I thought they could fly or something. I was apparently wrong. But anyway, by the time I locked the car the wife was already in the middle of a swarm of puppies.

I saw this one puppy that looked so sad in his cage and he was the same puppy they had up for adoption over a month before. We ended up taking the dog for a walk and I still felt really bad for him because he was 7 and it was likely he was not going to get adopted. So we decided to take him home. Well afterwards I found out he was in a foster home at the time so I felt less bad than before.

Well now that we have him home. He seems to be slowly adjusting. He is much higher energy than either Twix or Aikman, so it is a big adjustment for us all. Twix still is not sure what to do with him. She is the alpha of the family but Jackson is trying to take over so Twix is very unhappy. But hopefully she comes around soon.

The 306 Greatest Books #77 - Trilogy: Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable

Note - This review was originally published on my other site "The Geology P.A.G.E." but due to the content I have moved it here and backdated the post.

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Trilogy: Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable by Samuel Beckett. This book can be found on the Norwegian Book List, with Malone Dies appearing by itself on the Observer Book List.

The trilogy of Molloy, Malone Dies, and The Unnamable at first reminded me of Ulysses, which if anyone has noticed, I despised. But Beckett soon broke away from the incessant ramblings that plagued that novel and gave two really good stories, Molloy and Malone Dies. The novels were written with all the emotion removed and in a rather cryptic way that keeps the reader guessing as you read on. One of the interesting things about Molloy is that as you read through the second half of the story, it begins to feel as if you are getting the prelude to the first half. Malone Dies at first seemed to be completely disjointed from the first novel but reading through it you get the feeling the story may be about the character of Molloy and the book is just a continuation of the first novel. In the third novel, The Unnamable, Beckett returns to the rambling speech that is full of run-on sentences saying nothing. If it was not for the last novel I might recommend this series, but The Unnamable killed it for me. Unfortunately, you need to read all three to get the entire story. So although I somewhat enjoyed parts of it, I can not recommend this as a novel series to be read.

The 306 Greatest Books #76 - Self-Reliance

Note - This review was originally published on my other site "The Geology P.A.G.E." but due to the content I have moved it here and backdated the post.

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson. This book can be found on the Sybervision Book List.

After having read the original Nature, I was not looking forward to continuing to read Emerson, however this was a very short read and that always helps me power through if need be. Reading Self-Reliance had actually improved my opinion of Emerson. I found it difficult to understand what Emerson was talking about a lot of times in Nature. However, Self-Reliance was anything but difficult, it was straight forward and actually provided a good lesson. Self-Reliance was about how man (and woman) have become too reliant on other people and things and that they are no longer their own person. Emerson stated that we need to break free of the things we rely on to truly become individuals. Only the individuals are remembered through history, not the ones who just copied other people. Overall a relatively straightforward and easy read with a positive life lesson.

The 306 Greatest Books #75 - Nature

Note - This review was originally published on my other site "The Geology P.A.G.E." but due to the content I have moved it here and backdated the post.

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Nature by Ralph Waldo Emerson. This book can be found on the Sybervision Book List.

While reading through the 100 Greatest Books I sometimes have difficulty in determining exactly which books the list creator was referring to. This was one of those problem books. It turns out that Emerson wrote three different works entitled Nature and I was resolved to read all of them until I came across a website that stated that his first Nature was published in 1936 was the most prominent of the three. It was also the only Nature work published before Self-Reliance, and since the Sybervision Book List is listed chronologically, I assumed that the original Nature must be the one being referred to. Overall, Nature was not all together as exciting or interesting as I thought it would or could be. By far I feel that Thoreau had the same ideals and intent but had managed to portray them in a better way. So, it turns out that Emerson is not one of my favorite philosophers, but I can see how his work might have been groundbreaking at the time.

The 306 Greatest Books #74 - The Importance of Being Earnest

Note - This review was originally published on my other site "The Geology P.A.G.E." but due to the content I have moved it here and backdated the post.

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. This book can be found on the Sybervision and My Book Lists.

While reading through all of these 100 Greatest Books, there are many which are quick reads and the one consistent thing among the plays is that they are all very fast to get through. You get the introduction, the conflict, and the resolution all within about two hours. The Importance of Being Earnest was even one of the shorter ones, always a highlight for me, and I found it rather funny and enjoyable to boot. The story is about a made-up person named Earnest and two men who pretend to be him. Both of these men end up getting engaged to different women and as you can imagine, hilarity ensues (I had to say that). The play has a very fast paced narrative and the situations are not altogether unbelievable. I rather enjoyed it and will place it on my recommended reading list.

The 306 Greatest Books #73 - Tom Jones

Note - This review was originally published on my other site "The Geology P.A.G.E." but due to the content I have moved it here and backdated the post.

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Tom Jones by Henry Fielding. This book can be found on the Sybervision, Observer, and My Book Lists.

I found that although Tom Jones is a rather long book (my copy was over 850 pages) I greatly enjoyed reading it. The author is more of a narrator than an impartial observer. He readily makes comments throughout the book that makes you feel like you are sitting by a fire listening to him relay the story. It was definitely a different approach than most I have read and I greatly enjoyed it. The story was exquisite. It is about a bastard, Tom, who was abandoned by his mother to be raised by a very benevolent man. Although, I did not readily agree with some of the lessons at the end of the book (like how birth makes more of a difference on who the boy is, not just his character) I still enjoyed it and the ending did bring a tear to my cheek. Throughout the story the author kept making Tom's situation worse and worse and I thought that there was no way to bring him back in a believable manner, but it worked out rather well in the end. I definitely enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone with a few months to read it.

The 306 Greatest Books #72 - Cyrano de Bergerac

I am going back and posting all of my previous book reviews so that they are listed on my site in chronological order. The reviews are dated for the time when I read the book, hence the reason many of them will be listed for times before this website existed. 

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand. This book can be found on the Sybervision and My Book Lists.

My wife found a website that sends a portion of a story each day in your email (DailyLit). I thought that I might try it on some of my shorter stories where purchasing the book did not seem like it was going to happen soon. Well after 62 installments, I finished Cyrano de Bergerac and I not only highly enjoyed the story I also enjoyed the daily portions. The story is about an ugly (due to his large nose) but extremely eloquent and proud man named Cyrano who is in love with a beautiful woman, Roxane. Unfortunately, Roxane is in love with another man, Christian, and asks Cyrano to help Christian talk to her. Eventually she falls in love, not with the handsome Christian but with his "soul" that has been expressed through Christian's words and letters, the words and letters written by Cyrano. The story is humorous, heartfelt, and well written. I definitely recommend this to anyone in the mood for a romantic comedy, even though it is a play.

The 306 Greatest Books #71 - Middlemarch

I am going back and posting all of my previous book reviews so that they are listed on my site in chronological order. The reviews are dated for the time when I read the book, hence the reason many of them will be listed for times before this website existed. 

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Middlemarch by George Eliot. This book can be found on the Sybervision, Norwegian, BBC, Zane's Top 10, and My Book Lists.

I rather enjoyed Middlemarch. It started off slow, but as the book went on it picked up its pace rather well. Although the book was the longest I have yet read on this list, about 900 pages, the plot was simple enough that it was easy to follow throughout the entire book. Middlemarch is a town in England where the book follows the lives of the families living there, mainly two different families and their daughters. The book also delves into a lot of conflicts including doctors versus faith, modern medicine versus traditional medicine, and similar subjects. When I started reading the book I had a brief period where I needed to get used to the language being used but it didn't take me very long and afterwards I could easily understand what was going on. I can easily recommend this book as a great story with good lessons, if you are willing to take the time to read it.

The 306 Greatest Books #70 - Song of Solomon

I am going back and posting all of my previous book reviews so that they are listed on my site in chronological order. The reviews are dated for the time when I read the book, hence the reason many of them will be listed for times before this website existed. 

The next up on my reading of the 306 greatest books is Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. This book can be found on the Observer and My Book Lists.

I rather enjoyed Song of Solomon, however I am not sure if it should go on my personal must read list. It is rather vulgar through most of the story but it tells a very good tale. The story is partly about a black man living in an intolerant society. I read comments elsewhere that this is a work about living as a black person during the early 20th century, but I do not feel that is the primary story being told.  The deeper story is about a man learning about his roots (his people) and learning that family is more important than anything else. The flow of the story carries it along at a great pace and you never know what might happen next, but it all works in the end. Alright, I will put this on my list but with a warning: the story has very harsh language, however it is used with a purpose and fits into the story very well.