My book choices.
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Vernor Vinge, A Fire Upon the Deep (www.amazon.com), (391 pages)
From Wikipedia: "A Fire Upon the Deep is a science fiction novel by American writer Vernor Vinge, a space opera involving superhuman intelligences, aliens, variable physics, space battles, love, betrayal, genocide, and a conversation medium resembling Usenet. A Fire Upon the Deep won the Hugo Award in 1993 (tied with Doomsday Book by Connie Willis).
[...]
A human civilization high in the Beyond (see below for an explanation of the Zones of Thought) dispatches an expedition to a planet in the low Transcend, having learned of a massive 5-billion year old archive of data there which had been off the Known Net for all that time. It offers the possibility of unthinkable riches for the ambitious young civilization of Straumli Realm, and an expedition of archaeologist programmers is dispatched to open the archive and discover its secrets."
This has been on my list a while. Probably the hardest of hard scifi. Delicious.
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Brandon Sanderson, Mistborn: The Final Empire (www.amazon.com), (646 pages)
From Publisher's Weekly: Sanderson's eerie second fantasy (after 2005's Elantris), set in a mist-haunted, ash-ridden world, pits Kelsier, "the Survivor of Hathsin," against the immortal Lord Ruler's 1,000-year domination of both the Great Houses and their serflike "skaa." Through Allomancy acquired in the Ruler's most hellish prison, Kelsier can "burn" 10 metals internally, fueling superhuman powers he uses to assemble rebels in a loose plan to destroy the nobility, the empire and the Lord Ruler himself. Kelsier uses Vin, a street urchin with the same Mistborn powers Kelsier possesses, to infiltrate the Great Houses' society, where she falls in love with philosopher prince Elend Venture. This mystico-metallurgical fantasy combines Vin's coming-of-age-in-magic and its well-worn theme of revolt against oppression with copious mutilations, a large-scale cast of thieves, cutthroats, conniving nobles and exotic mutants. The fast-paced action scenes temper Vin's interminable ballroom intrigues, while the characters, though not profoundly drawn, have a raw stereotypic appeal.
I have what seems like a third grade reading level, so 600+ over a holiday month might be ambitious. However, this was recommended to me by an intoxicated physicist bridesmaid at a wedding, and I decided I need to read it. Also, Brandon Sanderson: The Man Who Finished the Wheel of Time.
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Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, Forging the Darksword (www.amazon.com), (~400 pages)
From Wikipedia: The Darksword series of books, written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, which tells the story of a young man, born without magic in a world where everyone is born with it, who has been prophesied to destroy the world in which he lives. The series consists of the initial three books (The Darksword Trilogy), a supplemental role-playing volume, and a single-volume sequel.
This last September, I waited an hour in a sweaty, downtown Seattle hotel, only to be packed in a room with other sweaty nerds, wanting to be taught how to write magic systems into fiction. The panel was... not what I expected, and mostly just referential to the panelists' writer friends, their Dungeons and Dragons-based novels, and this book (but what they had to say about this book made it sound awesome).
Schizophrenia diagnosed by simple eye test (www.scotsman.com)
Interesting thing is that it's purported to be 98% accurate.
We do some purchasing of educations toys/devices, but not constantly. I am afraid those would be too little and too easy to steal. People would steal them even if they didn't understand about needing the base too.
Currently the library is looking at purchasing these early literacy stations (basically colorful computers with very kid specific programs) http://www.awelearning.com/en/markets/libraries/in-the-library/the-early-literacy-station/ (www.awelearning.com)
Assassin's Creed: stuck waiting for a rare NPC to spawn to advance my game. Switched to other games, a patch is coming out supposedly this weekend that may fix it.
Halo 4: lots of fun. no boss battle? seriously?
Hitman: Wow. They've upped the difficulty to not-fucking-around levels. The game in modern graphics engines looks amazing. I'm already sucked in.
Hitman's combat, if you decide to go full-on assault instead of Silent Assassin, is AWESOME. The cover and weapon control changes compared to the last hitman game (blood money) are great. Though I wish the weapon selection and customization things were more like that game, since there isn't the same level of customization.
That was a totally awesome game. I played it on Thursday, before the exam, as a reward for my study break. Even though it's not supposed to be competitive, I couldn't help but grief a little when I'd find the other player, especially when the big flying snakes were about. It'd be soooooo satisfying to trip the pounce, then go stand next to the other player. I don't think that was what the developers had in mind, but that alone was worth the time and money.
I think we all know why I'm posting this here.
10 Genres of Metal in 3 Minutes (www.youtube.com)
I have to say, after watching it, I still don't care what the differences are, but I can acknowledge that there are stylistic variations in the genres.
Ranger: "Guys, c'mon, we have to keep moving here, you heard her, the lizard men are coming, and we failed the check. We're not getting into that room."
Beastmaster: "No, no, fuck that, I rolled a 14 before bonus, there's no way that counts as a critical failure."
Priest: "You know the table rules, minus 5 for staring, we all agreed, and you agreed."
Beastmaster: "I'm getting married, man, have you no semblance of mercy? A 14!"
DM: "Do you want to roll for the merciful DM check?"
Beastmaster: "Yes!"
DM: "Gentleman?"
Ranger: "Sure."
Priest: "Yeah."
Monk: "I'm... I'm just happy we're all here."
DM: "Roll."
Beastmaster: (rolls) "Ahhhhh *fuck*." (gets up, hands on head)
Priest: "What was it?"
Monk: "Ha, a 2!"
Beastmaster: "Balls!" (pacing around)
DM: "Alright, gentleman. Let's keep rolling. It's my table, my rules, you pay me by the hour, and we haven't even gotten our first quest done yet. Here, as in real life, actions have consequences."
Great find.
Sometimes, it's just about wanting the right things. Straight men wanting buxom topless women to DM their DnD games seems ridiculous. The math of how many women play DnD that are unattached, attractive, and exhibitionist is such a tiny fraction of the overall population. There are, however, alternatives (www.smbc-comics.com).
Leaving for lunch today, see a lady struggling to get an armload awkwardly through the door:
Josh: "Need help with the door?"
Lady: "No, I've got to load more up, but thanks." (sets items down, walks back)
Josh: "Sure."
Nothing weird about this one. If I document the weird ones, I should document the reasonable exchanges as well. Or rather: the fact that I didn't say that all of the items wouldn't fit in her Corolla (which I happened to see her driving on the way in to work),
Good news. Bad news.
Good news: It's official. My "temporary-no more than three months-we promise" assignment of managing two branches will finally end after 4+ months (not too far behind, for government work) on October 22nd. I'll be back to managing just my branch.
Bad news: If the mayor passes his "Plan A" budget (which is not the most likely thing) I'll be leading a "crew" that floats between three branches while another crew works opposite us.
I'm really good at my job. I'm fairly good at these other things, but I promise I'm awesome if I was allowed to do just my job for a while.
Client makes giant fuss about having an equipment installation detail on drawings be what they call their "proprietary installation detail." When asked for the detail to incorporate into our set, client then sends a photo of an existing installation, and a manufacturer's recommended installation manual.
*throws table*
I need another reality/perspective check. I tend to be the "relative who gets blocked on Facebook because he corrects/mocks family members' spelling and/or grammar," so in this situation my reputation sort of precedes me. However, a younger, female, teenage relative has been at home sick this week, during which her Twitter feed has consisted solely of re-tweets like the following:
[17:37:26] RT @ItsAGirIThing: The worst way to miss someone, is to have them sitting right next to you & you know you can never have them.
[14:08:32] RT @WeThinkForGirls: Life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that made you smile.
[14:08:44] RT @CauseWereGirls: I don't care what they say or what they think, I'm in love with you and that is all that matters to me.
[14:09:33] RT @ReIatable: That one best friend that turned into a stranger.
[14:10:16] RT @LovePhrase: Whatever you dream of doing one day, don't give up on that dream because you never know where it can take you. ♥
[14:11:07] RT @LovePhrase: There’s always that one special person that no matter what they’ve done to you, you still just can’t let them go.
If one goes far enough back in my own feed, or my prior forum activity, or really anything I've ever said on the Internet, you'll likely find examples of intense emotionalism akin to the above. However, my concern here is the undercurrent of thoughtless, insulting anti-feminist schlock that seems to outpour from these accounts (as well as passed along by my cousin).
I am perhaps not as well informed with the plight of the privileged, upper-middle class white teenage girl, but I can't decide if my cousin is doing this ironically/humorously, or if she truly buys in to this dependency fetishism. She provides no commentary to indicate either way, and my only other information to go off of is she is a die-hard fan of the Twilight series, and that she's a senior in high school.
As one of the "non-crazies" in my family, I feel I owe them an honest opinion, but I have no confidence that such a thing would be well received. Also, coming from a creepy, awkward, single male cousin, and not a parent, gives my message (though well-intended) less credence.
Any thoughts?
There was a time during idkfa v3's development that the database models were similar enough that I could have had a "historical" mode, where logged-in users could choose to view new v3 posts with old v2 posts.
Good thing those data models diverged, I guess. :)
I'd like to claim that our teenage years were somehow less insipid, but they were probably no less so. I mean... damn, we listened to Trapt, man.
Trapt.
It's no good Josh, just leave it be. Teenage girls are not to be trifled with, even when you think it might be for the benefit of everyone else around them.
Don't try to understand, don't try to help... just leave it be and either mock the potential train wreck to come, or rejoice in their development into a real and not vapid person later.
Besides, bitches who say shit like that are probably friend-zoning the shit out of that same guy or and even better one. I'm glad sometimes I don't have daughters.
My advice would be to send her links to feminist/self-assured posts/articles/websites, saying that you think she'd like them. Things you think are interesting insights into empowerment of the individual - she may not read all of them, but phrasing it that way will at least get her to look at them at first. Give it as advice and she's likely not to think twice on it, or to write it off.
To quote Galaxy Quest:
"It doesn't take a great actor to recognize a bad one."
I can recognize the vapid Internet comments, but I really don't have that much to offer in terms of a solid, philosophical, well-cited basis for why such things are objectionable. All I have is the fierce, independent woman inside me, and a slew of Joss Whedon female character tropes.
Ah. Well, that's a bit more difficult. About all I have are gtfothinspo.tumblr.com which is a good pro-feminist body-positive site. I guess the rest of it I just kind of pick up through osmosis and the people I spend time with. I guess just if you see anything that strikes you as particularly powerful, send it her way. Maybe if you're talking with her mention some really fierce characters you know - Zoe's always a good one - and how they represent different facets of femininity?
For Christmas get her Mists of Avalon by Bradley. It is a feminist retelling of the Arthurian legend and while it has its own issues, it is still a better female role model than Twilight.
Other recommendations: Anything Margaret Atwood (especially Cat's Eye or Handmaiden's Tale), Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquival, A Yellow Raft in Blue Water by Michael Dorris (such a good strong female characters book that I keep forgetting it is written by a man).
I thrived on teenage angst, that's an unavoidable stage. Most of us survive it, the unlucky do not (Romeo and Juliet as you recall were teenagers). And yes that codependency/first love/first crazy crush are part of that. Going through it gives you emotional maturity (hopefully as an adult).
However, throughout my teenage years my parents and librarians fed me a steady stream of books like those mentioned above (all of which I read as a teenager and re-read at least once as an adult) that when I was ready to shuck off teenage angst gave me a solid psychological footing to be an independent woman.
So far as Cat's Eye goes, it has real characters, but she just seems like a pretty horrible person in the end. And I don't mean her treatment of her "friend" - because that can still be viewed as the teenage responses to ongoing relational issues between the two of them. I mean her relationship with her husband and her children - even her adult life kind of sucks and she's still not that great of an individual. This doesn't make it an awful book, in fact it makes it a really interesting character study and fascinating to discuss, but I don't know that it's a good one if you're trying to go for strong female role models and self-sufficiency.
In the break room:
Lady: "Are you new?"
Josh: "Yeah, couple months now."
Lady: "Where do you work?"
Josh: "I work in I.S."
Lady: "Ah, so what do you do?"
Josh: "I sort of work with ___, keeping the data flowing, sorta."
Lady: "Ah, all that interesting stuff." (walks away)
Though I can't really convey it here, she said "all that interesting stuff" in a way that meant the absolute opposite.
I can't decide if people just fear/dislike/misunderstand my association with my department in particular, or my association with technology in general.
Maybe it's just people doing the usual self-deprecating, "I don't know anything about technology" shtick (as they whip their iPhone out of their pockets). Maybe I just identify too closely with technology to recognize a joke, or an attempt at one.
I'm with the other two. Break room chats never have very satisfying interactions. It always basically trails off awkwardly.
It's an interlude chat. You can't say "have a nice day/evening/weekend" because you'll probably see them again before they leave for that. You can't say "nice talking to you" because you really didn't talk long enough for that to be true.
It's not a real social interaction, it's a passing moment while you get your food/caffeine fix.
There's no generally socially accepted way to deal with these so most people just walk away. The other alternate is looking at 20 million iPhone pictures of their grand children.
