7th November, 2008
A Man with a Plan
I just ran across Change.gov from the Office of the President-Elect. Among other information, the Obama/Biden team lay out their ambitious agenda for the next four years (jebus, we have that much shit to fix from the start? thanks, dubya!). I’m a bit saddened to see Science and Arts relegated to the Other Issues section as I believe these things are core for a productive, content society, but I understand that these are also long-term things and there are many “quicker-to-fix” problems that need immediate attention. They also have provided ample opportunities for anyone to give feedback and suggestions. I wonder who will see this feedback and how much weight it will hold in policy creation.
The cynic in me is still wondering how many promises will be broken and how many voices will be swept under the rug, but the dreamer in me is shouting “wow, wouldn’t this be great..!” Only time will tell.
[update] Hmm. Seems they’ve removed all the content from the Agenda section. Not sure what this means…
Posted at 7:50 am | Comment (0)
6th November, 2008
Go Away
“Make it eye-catching”, the marketing people at Knopf probably said about the cover of Nick Harkaway’s book The Gone-Away World. “Like something straight from the late ’80s. And add some fake velvet, too. That would be totally rad, dude.” Then again, maybe they had some budget constraints and all they could come up with was a good deal on hot pink and neon green ink.
Whatever the case, the novel tucked within was well worth reading, but, before I expand on this, let me preface things with this caveat: I’m not sure how serious Harkaway was when writing this book. There are some very serious parts inside, but they are nestled amongst hundreds of pages of dryly witty, sardonic and ofttimes humorous prose. Think Douglas Adams but only darker. I can’t talk much about the plot because there is a huge twist about midway through the book that really changes everything you already thought you knew about the story. I think Mr. Harkaway had a lot of fun writing this novel and I quite enjoyed reading it, even if it did suffer from some largish plot holes. If you don’t go into this novel expecting a literary masterpiece and just go along with the ride, I think you’ll enjoy it as well.
4.2/5 gogs.
Posted at 10:35 am | Comment (0)
5th November, 2008
Yes We Did
Finally, sanity has prevailed.
Posted at 8:05 am | Comments (4)
4th November, 2008
Vote
There was already a line at the polls 15 minutes before they opened, but I was happy to wait. Why? Because for the first time, I’m actually voting for someone at the Presidential level instead of simply voting against someone else.
I believe that Obama will work hard for change. I hope that he can bring change because this country is in definite need of a new direction.
Please remember to vote today.
Posted at 8:03 am | Comment (1)
16th October, 2008
September’s Book Installment, sponsored by October
Sadly, more poor works to report. Although there is a good one at the end.
Circle at Center by Douglas Niles.
I first read Douglas Niles’ book Darkwalker on Moonshae when I was a senior in highschool. I recall enjoying it and the rest of the Moonshae trilogy. From what I remember, the stories were well constructed with solid characters and an involving plot. Not so much with CaC. Instead, I found the equivalent of a straight-to-DVD movie release, seemingly churned out in a weekend’s time to meet an editor’s deadline, CaC doesn’t have much to offer a reader except for a pile of words strung into grammatical order. Don’t bother with this one.
1/5 gogs.
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie.
Mr. Rushdie may be a much-celebrated author worldwide, drowning in awards and fame, but I just could not get into this novel. His writing style in this book, that of page-long paragraphs, comma-less lists and sentences that stretch to the moon made it very difficult to parse. To be fair, my knowledge of Indian history is pretty limited and my reading experience was certainly hampered by this as it an allegory of India’s independence, but the torrent of thoughts, ideas and wordplay that he has included in his story was simply too much to enjoy.
2/5 gogs.
When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris.
Finally, something good to talk about; David Sedaris’ new collection of stories. As usual, Sedaris spins fantastical recountings of his life, liberally peppered with his dry sense of humor as well as some perceptive commentary on all things human. My only complaint is that the book is relatively short ~300 pages in a small form factor. Definitely recommended.
4.5/5 gogs.
Posted at 10:05 am | Comment (1)
10th September, 2008
RSS working again.
Two happy events today. The Earth did not get consumed by a black hole when the Large Hadron Collider went live today and my RSS feed is working again. Let there be much rejoicing.
Posted at 2:21 pm | Comment (1)
9th September, 2008
Four
The number of squirrels that our cat brought to the house this weekend. He only managed to eat three, however, and he spent much of his time post-gorging looking like a pear with his guts stuffed full of squirrel.
Coincidentally, four is also the number of books out so far in George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series which I’ve been re-reading the last couple of months, in eager anticipation of A Dance with Dragons which is slated to come out… sometime. Hopefully this year, but who knows.
I’ll have some other reviews later.
Posted at 10:05 am | Comments (3)
30th July, 2008
RSS feed down…
I managed to break my RSS feed sometime between June and now. Yes, I’m very observant about these things, thank you. No idea what is wrong yet and, so far, Google and the WP Codex have failed me.
Posted at 6:58 am | Comment (1)
29th July, 2008
OMG, so cute… wait, what are you doing?!
I think this photo essay speaks for itself.
[via WFMU]
Posted at 3:00 pm | Comment (1)
21st July, 2008
/wrists
Nothing particularly memorable to report to you today.
Scar Night by Alan Campbell.
Emo! Well, despite the cover art and title, this book really isn’t into dressing in black, although the tale is a bit dark. Starts out strong, but fades at the end. A city suspended by chains over an enormous pit, some decent (although sometimes two-dimensional) characters and plenty of questions that will hopefully be answered in the sequel (or is this part of a trilogy? I forget.) Not bad, but not something I’d re-read.
3.3/5 gogs.
The Reaches by David Drake.
A collection of three of David Drake’s earlier books. From the author’s notes, it seems like this was written more as therapy for himself than to be a bestseller (to my knowledge, it wasn’t). Taking this into account, this is not his best work by far, but those familiar with Drake’s military novels will recognize the darkness in his writing when he explores the cold, clinical side of humanity at war.
3/5 gogs.
Winterbirth by Brian Ruckley
I found this novel a bit difficult to get into. While written skillfully, I just didn’t care about many of the characters within. My interest did pick up towards the end, but the book closed in a cliffhanger more or less (this is book one of three). To add insult to injury, the second installment has yet to be published in the US. Lamecube. I’ll probably read book two when it comes out, though.
3.5/5 gogs.
Posted at 12:08 pm | Comments (2)
4th June, 2008
Conglomeration
More books, crammed into one convenient post. It’s a win-win. Too bad not all the books were winners.
The Born Queen by Greg Keyes.
The final installment of Keyes’ Kingdom of Thorn and Bone trilogy. It filled me full of… not much. Granted, it has been a couple of months since I finished this book, but I hardly remember anything about it. It wasn’t horribly bad, however it wasn’t particularly good, either. Probably worth reading if you’ve already read the first two novels in the series, but you may want to give all three a pass if you haven’t started yet.
3/5 gogs.
A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham.
This book has a glowing blurb on the cover from George R.R. Martin: “…a thoroughly engrossing debut from a major new fantasist”. High praise, and I went into the book expecting Big Things™ because of it. Alas, my expectations were quickly dashed; not because Abraham is a poor writer, (he’s not, he writes rather well) but because the story was so boring. While the story flowed along and the world he painted was believable, there weren’t any hooks to grab hold of you and I just wasn’t interested in reading it. On a happier note, the book is short, clocking in around 300 pages so if you find yourself reading it, don’t fret as the ending will come soon.
2.5/5 gogs.
Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie.
The second book in the First Law series. There are some fantastic gems tucked within what is a quite enjoyable story. Abercrombie continues to deliver what he started in the first novel: a fast-paced adventure with outstanding characters. Definitely add this to your short list.
4.2/5 gogs.
Posted at 11:48 am | Comment (0)
16th May, 2008
Food for Thought
Here is a video of a talk that Mark Bittman gave late last year that pretty much sums up my feelings of the current state of agriculture and the effects that it is having on us as individuals and on the world as a whole.
I’m not advocating giving up meat completely - I like meat and I will probably continue to eat it for as long as I can and, to be frank, bacon is simply too delicious to ever even think of giving it up - but I do have concerns of the toll that mass-produced meat is taking on the planet. The same goes with the incredible reliance on corn in the foodchain. As far as the welfare of individuals go, I guess it’s the same old argument that too much of anything is bad for you.
While the talk covers many important topics, I think one of his really key points is that, at least in this country, people have forgotten how to cook. Instead, they tend to rely on “convenience” foods which tend to be highly-processed and full of all sorts of unhealthy things. I’d hazard a guess that they also tend to have very high carbon footprints when compared to less processed foods like local meats/raw vegetables. We as individuals are just as guilty as big agribusiness for creating the environment that we are currently in due to our demand for convenience.
So what am I doing about it? Well, both my wife and I cook at home and try to keep our consumption of highly-processed foods down (although I’ll admit to eating some snack foods and the occasional frozen pizza). We also joined a CSA this year which should help us reduce the amount of meat our family eats, at least for as long as the growing season lasts. I’ve also tried to be a more aware consumer when shopping; looking for “more healthy” alternatives like free-range and organic foods from sources that are more local. As far as the meat goes, we’ve been pleasantly surprised at how much better a free-range bird tastes when compared to a caged one. It costs a little more, but well worth it in my opinion. What about you? Do you have any ideas or suggestions you’d like to pass along?
Posted at 10:28 am | Comment (0)
13th May, 2008
Stick Me with Needles
The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson.
A couple months ago, I noticed that Brandon Sanderson was given the nod to finish Robert Jordan’s much-loved and maligned The Wheel of Time epic after his (Jordan’s not Sanderson’s, duh) untimely death. At the time, I thought this would be a Good Thing™ as Mr. Sanderson appeared to be a talented, up-and-coming writer at the time with a couple of decent books under his belt and it would be nice to see someone wrap up WoT into a strong finish after Mr. Jordan’s rambling (and some might say, pointless) prose took the tale far from the original plot.
After having read Mr. Sanderson’s latest effort, The Well of Ascension, I now see exactly why he was hand-picked by Mr. Jordan to finalize things; because he rambles on about nothing for hundreds and hundreds of pages. An entire book about a city siege that could have easily been said in a chapter or two. After turning the final page, we are left more or less where we started when the book began, although we do get the added bonus of boredom and frustration with the story; sounds like a perfect fit for someone who is taking over the wheel behind WoT, doesn’t it?
As you can probably tell, I was less than satisfied with this book. I’d suggest giving it a read only after you’ve completed more exciting things like having a root canal or a tax audit. Or both. At the same time. While standing in a pit of vipers. Dressed as a mouse.
2/5 gogs.
Posted at 8:20 am | Comment (0)
6th May, 2008
I should have known…
Psychogeographical maps of the U.S. and some accompanying discussion.
p.s. more book reviews to come soon™.
Posted at 2:23 pm | Comments (3)
5th May, 2008
Politics as Usual
The recent flap over the “gas tax holiday” as proposed by Clinton and McCain tells me all I need to know about the ethics of these two candidates and cements my hope that Obama wins the nomination and the election.
The NYT Freakonomics page has a nice writeup of the fallacy of the proposed “holiday”. I can’t say that I’m surprised.
Posted at 2:41 pm | Comment (0)
