Having finally finished Quicksilver, let me just talk books for a bit, but not before noting that today was REALLY REALLY hot, and sucked a lot, in the following fashion:
[18:15] Dwip: So we're all kicking it at work, and Satan walks in, right?
[18:15] Dwip: And he's like "Crap, dude. It's HOT in here. I'm going back to Hell, where it's cool."
[18:16] Dwip: And since Hell is, you know, ON FIRE, you can imagine how work was.
[18:16] Maelfactor: Neat!
[18:19] Dwip: Because I guess it's upwards of 104, and work is a big metal building.
[18:19] Dwip: With no insulation or anything.
[18:19] Dwip: And no air flow.
Also, this picture, thanks to Suzanne, who's graduation party this is at. Because I not only had both cats leaping all over my car, the rooster attacked my license plate.
So, ok, books. Starting with Quicksilver, which is...a strange book. Set in 17th century Europe, it concerns itself a lot with the various scientific changes taking place at the time (Isaac Newton features prominantly, and humorously), and also with the politics, and does both of them amusingly and interestingly. I once said of Guy Gavriel Kay that he could leave one longing for the glorious tapeworm kingdoms of old. Neal Stephenson doesn't QUITE bring up tapeworms in Quicksilver, but I'm guessing you never thought about the humor potential for kidney stones, did you?
Go, read it. I'll be reading the next two.
On a slightly more nonfiction note, Jason Hartley's Just Another Soldier was good, humorous, interesting, and various other things besides. Along with being the author's memoirs of Iraq, it's also part of a trend that seems to be emerging of soldiers blogging their experiences and then coming back and writing books (I read a good chunk of the book back when it was a blog), which I think is fantastical interesting and cool, being the historian that I am. I love the fact that it's easier to find a wide variety of this sort of thing than for pretty much any other war we've ever had, but I just wish more people paid attention to it, which is a rant for another time when I'm more concious.
The third and last book is Paul Bremer's (you should've heard the name) My Year In Iraq, which I think is a highly important book, not so much for the author's conclusions, some of which I agree with, a few of which not so much, but for his depiction of the politics of Iraq and the reconstruction thereof. There was plenty in there that I was either vaguely aware of at the time or not aware of at all, and it's good to have some context. It also brings us straight back to that rant I want to write when I'm more concious.
For now, it's time to go see if I can stomach some NWN.
Because I totally have nothing better to do at work than think these things up. Seriously.
And now, a short play for your entertainment, inspired by the awesome Neal Stephenson book Quicksilver, which I suggest you read, because it's clever. Very clever.
Scene I
Cabinet doors shop, afternoon. Loud machinery sounds in the background. KAREN enters from around the Sandmaster.
Karen: Rails're sanded, panels done. Building time draws nigh. Quick, I must away, 'fore the gluing time approaches, and here come Pam and Erik.
Exit KAREN; Enter PAM and Erik, pushing a cart of panels.
Pam: But where did Karen go?
Erik: Well, it was like this, see...
Scene II
Cabinet doors shop, afternoon. Oddly quiet. KAREN and ERIK are standing at filter table, sanding panels noiselessly.
Erik's Voice (narrating): So there we were, sanding, and there were these squirrel aliens, see...
Enter SQUIRREL ALIENS, bushy tails waving, brandishing ray guns.
Squirrel Aliens: Chitter! Squeak! Chitter chitter squeak! They shoot KAREN, who falls.
Erik: What the...?
Squirrel Aliens: Chitter squeak squeak chitter! They pick up KAREN.
Exit SQUIRREL ALIENS with KAREN.
Scene III
Cabinet doors shop, afternoon. Loud machinery sounds in the background. PAM and ERIK are pushing a cart of panels up to a table.
Erik: And they just grabbed her and ran out. Craziest thing I ever saw.
Pam: ...You're a total smartass, just like the rest of us.
Erik: Yes, yes I am.
Exit PAM; Enter KAREN.
Karen: Well, I'm back.
Erik: Ah, I was just telling Pam how you'd been kidnapped by squirrel aliens.
Karen: Well, I escaped.
So I guess something like four people, six if you count the ones I haven't talked to in five years, are either graduating today, graduated not so long ago, or are close to doing so. Way to go, y'all.
...now get a job. :P
Because you've gotta have something to do while sleep-deprived on a 12 hour shift at work, at thinking this up was as good as anything.
With profuse apologies to Sam Cooke, but not to the hundreds of bots who died to bring you this:
Well don't you know
That's the sound of the men shooting with the chain gu-u-un
That's the sound of the men shooting with the chain gun
All day long they're shootin'
braaaaaap
braaaaaap
braaaaaap
braaaaaap
Well don't you know
That's the sound of the men shooting with the chain gu-u-un
That's the sound of the men shooting with the chain gun
All day long, they shoot so much
'till their Cobra's goin' down
Shooting up the highways and byways
Until the end, the end of the round
You hear them gunning bots' lives away
Then you hear somebody j*
That's the sound of the men shooting with the chain gu-u-un
That's the sound of the men shooting with the chain gun
Can't you hear them chattin'
Mmm, I'm going back one of these days
Goin' to base get some ammo
Which I need so much
But meanwhile I got to shoot this ta-a-nk
Well don't you know
That's the sound of the men shooting with the chain gu-u-un
That's the sound of the men shooting with the chain gun
All day long they're singin', mmm
Wa-a-a-a-a-a-alkin's so hard
Give me choppers, I'm flyin'
* - j, of course, the default chat key in Battlefield 2. Nevermind that anybody who tried to chat that much text would die in short order.
No, not dead, just not with the time/energy to blog much. Been doing lots, though, which we'll just go ahead and talk about.
I've seen a whole bunch of movies lately. MI:3 was, well, not bad, which was surprising, given how badly MI:2 sucked the good suck. A reasonable plot as these things go, good twists and turns, fights, and what have you. OTOH, Tom Cruise is starting to creep me out, for what should be the obvious non-movie reasons.
The Da Vinci Code was actually surprisingly good, though again it's not like I had high expectations for it, considering how much I'm not a conspiracy theory fan. I turned my brain off and went with it, which worked out, much as it did when I watched National Treasure. Well, most of National Treasure. That movie was...oi. Da Vinci Code, OTOH, has a scary monk, played by this man, who rules, because he wins every movie he is ever in.
Munich was...actually I'm not sure what I think about Munich. I saw it, it was good, then it just sort of stopped. But it provoked some dialogue between my mother and I, to the effect of:
Me: You know, I keep having issues distinguishing one skinny male Middle Eastern guy from all the other skinny male Middle Eastern guys.
Mom: You too, huh?
Me: Yeah. Most of them look the same. That might be the point, though.
And later, post-movie:
Me: You know, I bet it takes an awful lot of effort to do a serious dramatic movie set in the 70s and not bust up laughing every time you put the costume on. You were there. So seriously, what were you people thinking at the time?
Mom: *laughs* It is pretty bad, isn't it?
I also picked up Battlefield 2, the Special Forces xpack, and a headset, the first two because Patch 1.3 adds bot coop, and the third because Whir's been whining for ages about headsets. Since he now doesn't have one, I find this funny. However, BF2 is way fun. Funner than fun. I'll let it go at that.
Read some books, too. 1634: The Ram Rebellion was a fun novel, much like the whole 1632 series, dealing as it does with a West Virginia mining town in the wilds of 30 Years War Germany is a fun bunch of novels. Because, as we all know, I'm all up into books like that. Even when they deal with the economics of a peasant rebellion in a 17th century Germany administered by West Virginians. Especially when they do that. I didn't get the degree for nothing.
Still reading Quicksilver. It's an awesome novel, but it's awesome in a way that you have to read part of it, then set it down for a time and go "Dude, that was awesome!" for a while, then pick it up again. I'm getting there. It's next on the list.
I thought Bill Clinton's My Life was a great book, and thought so for a lot of reasons. For one, it's exceedingly well-written and easy to get into, and because while the man might be a little evasive once or twice, he's pretty honest most of the time about most things, including Lewinsky. For two, because of that, and because he goes into a lot of detail about things, it's a good book about how the Presidency works, and how we got where we are, and that's a good thing. For three, I happen to agree with him a lot, and especially when he talks about the current travesty that is both our political parties. It's kind of why I don't talk politics on here much these days, because the Democrats, in the words of somebody from the book "Never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity," and the Republicans seem to be varying between sheer wrongheadedness, complete and utter incompetance, and outright evil done on the theory that the ends justify the means, or in the case of our current President, combinations of all three. We all know it. NSA spying thing? Not surprised. The horse is dead. Can we just get to 2008 now?
Anyway. Go read the book. It's good. I promise.