During my evening saunter to the bookstore I was delighted to discover a recently published (as of September 21st) sci-fi novel by Iain M. Banks, author of some of the most enjoyable science-fiction you’ll ever read. This new book is called The Algebraist, for reasons I haven’t discovered as of yet, and it was a Hugo Nominee for best novel. Iain Banks is one of those authors I look for every time I make my circuit through the aisles during my visits to the mega bookstores in my area. It is a very short list of authors and I was very pleased and pleasantly surprised to see his new book. I was wondering when he would get around to writing something else. I spent the next two and a half hours blissfully installed in one of the leather chairs back in the business section, which caused me to get home later than expected. I called breen on the walk home to let him know there was a new Banks book, but he quickly became less interested when he found out it wasn’t a Culture novel, the usual setting for Banks’ sci-fi where sleek machine minds run the show with characteristic dry wit. He said he might get it to read for his and Sarah‘s trip to Japan. That’s gotta be a long flight.
10
Oct 05
The Algebraist
07
Oct 05
asides for – 10/07/2005
Scientists Finding Out What Losing Sleep Does to a Body “A large, new study, for example, provides the latest in a flurry of evidence suggesting that the nation’s obesity epidemic is being driven, at least in part, by a corresponding decrease in the average number of hours that Americans are sleeping, possibly by disrupting hormones that regulate appetite. The analysis of a nationally representative sample of nearly 10,000 adults found that those between the ages of 32 and 49 who sleep less than seven hours a night are significantly more likely to be obese.”
20 of your unusual words “So far as I’m aware, no other language has anything equivalent to the Icelandic ‘setja upp gestaspjot’, a verbal phrase denoting the action taken by a cat when cleaning itself, with its body curled tightly in a circle and one back leg sticking directly up in the air. Literally it means ‘put up a guest-spear’ and when a cat was seen doing this it was supposed to indicate that visitors would be turning up.”
Vonnegut, on politics, presidents and librarians “The America I loved,” he writes, “still exists in the front desks of public libraries.”
China to Develop Its Own DVD Format “Up to 80 percent of DVD players are made in China, but makers have to cough up around 40 percent of the cost of each player to license holders, according to Chinese reports.” Good leverage.
07
Oct 05
Grotto dreams
This morning I dreamt I was walking in a dark cavernous grotto littered with classical columns and marble debris. The stone cavern walls and marble debris surrounding the grotto had a blood red glow to it, the light dappled by the water. The large lake in the center glowed like an illuminated swimming pool. If you looked into the water, you could see various tiny humanoid shapes swimming in the distant depths sillouetted against the glow coming from the bottom. I walked to the edge where a merman waited, his upper half raised out of the water with his fish half undulating in the water. He was more like Glaucus than a typical merman, in fact I called him something like Glaucon or Glauca. He talked about someone named J., Jay, or Jesus. While we were talking two scaley humanoid monsters sprang out of the water and tried to pull me under from the rocky shelf where I was kneeling. While I was fighting them off, I pulled a capsule out of nowhere and cracked it open then poured the contents over the monsters. It was something caustic like holy water or acid because it burned them and forced them to let go of me. It must have been scary because I woke up and told myself about the dream so I would have a memory of it later.
06
Oct 05
Document fraud
I currently work for a marketing company where we end up doing a lot of print and web production. We’re listed in the yellow pages, so we get phone calls from the public regularly. Today a woman called with an interesting request. She wanted to know if we could produce a university diploma and transcripts. Incredulous, I asked if she worked for the university in question, thinking maybe she meant some sort of design for a university’s diploma and printed collateral. She replied that she needed it for “novelty purposes”. Riiiiiiight. I said, “We don’t do stuff like that” then I hung up. I wish I had caller ID so I could publicly shame her. What a moron.
Every time someone applies for a job, their credentials should be checked thoroughly. I imagine that people fabricate and lie about this sort of thing all the time. We need to have more documentary proof in general because you cannot trust anyone when they tell you what they’ve done. Many people inflate their own experience and abilities and others just flat lie.
If I ever hire anyone I will want to see proof of work. I will call their employer, their references, and I will Google them. Then I will do a background check for good measure.
06
Oct 05
Rebellion and conspiracy
I finished “Foucault’s Pendulum” this morning. Something that resonated with me is the notion that the associative, connective impulse to see conspiracy all around has less to do with reality (what is that?) and more to do with an essential personal desire to blame something. It is a need to find causes rather than an attempt to accept or understand what is understandable. It’s difficult for me to explain, so I need to think about it more. Peppered throughout the book are quotations from all sorts of places like this one from Karl Popper:
“The conspiracy theory of society comes from abandoning God and then asking: ‘Who is in his place?”
It reminds me of when I first started blogging regularly in 2000 when I was around 22-23. I was very paranoid and obsessed about the various conspiracies threatening to turn the world into a black iron prison, figuratively speaking. It was an unhappy time mostly because of the sense of powerlessness and victimization. Powerlessness in the face of a desire for control and autonomy. I’ve realized that this was one of the growing pains in coming out of the last stages of my adolescence. For so long I defined myself in terms of negation, “I am A because A is the opposite of B and I don’t want to be B because I associate that with some sort of pain or injury”, but beyond that I had no idea who I was. In many ways, I am just now finding that out.
The above quotation makes sense if you think about it in another way. God can represent the child’s view of his parents, the inscrutable creators who are responsible for everything. As we mature, we have to necessarily abandon our parents (God) in order to become complete and whole individuals. Assassinated as powerful symbols our mothers and fathers regain their humanity. Everything that we blame them for has to be resolved because until then you cannot take on the responsibility for your own existence.
“Instead of killing and dying in order to produce the being that we are not, we have to live and let live in order to create what we are.” – Albert Camus
Are feelings of paranoia and rebelliousness related to unresolved emotions? After all, what is rebellion but the expression of negation? Where does the desire spring from? Rebellion is not the same as disinterest or disregard. Rebellion requires an idea or authority to push against. It cannot exist without it’s opponent.
05
Oct 05
asides
Snake bursts after gobbling gator An unusual clash between a 6-foot (1.8m) alligator and a 13-foot (3.9m) python has left two of the deadliest predators dead in Florida’s swamps.
Intro go anywhere disposable scrabble game.
I/O Brush: The World as the Palette: I/O Brush is a new drawing tool to explore colors, textures, and movements found in everyday materials by “picking up” and drawing with them.
10 Foods You Should NEVER Eat! What’s so bad about Bugles? The highly saturated coconut oil that General Mills fries them in –oil that’s about twice as saturated as lard.
AMERICAN DIASPORA “the above map was based on more than 40,000 postings on Internet “safe lists” by Katrina survivors. ePodunk analyzed messages containing both the person’s hometown and the location after fleeing the storm. Pass your cursor over points on the map to see city names and to click to information about the community.”
Watched 40-year Old Virgin last night. Laughed. So. Hard.
05
Oct 05
A Selection of Proverbs
Some to inspire you, hopefully.
- When the student is ready, the master appears. – Buddhist Proverb
- A hero is one who knows how to hang on one minute longer. – Norwegian Proverb
- Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death, and as sweet as love. – Turkish proverb
- Fall seven times, stand up eight. – Japanese Proverb
- All things good to know are difficult to learn. – Greek Proverb
- Eating while seated makes one of large size; eating while standing makes one strong. – Hindu Proverb
- The hammer shatters glass but forges steel. – Russian Proverb
- Listen to all, plucking a feather from every passing goose, but follow no one absolutely. – Chinese Proverb
04
Oct 05
asides
Eureka – 29 is perfect age for a big idea RESEARCHERS investigating the achievements of thousands of innovators have established that 29 is the age at which you are most likely to have your first big, original idea. The age represents the optimum combination of education and energy levels required for great ideas to emerge, according to the study. Courtesy of Business Opportunities Weblog.
Korean creativity. Cute.
The 29 Healthiest Foods on the Planet
General Zod for president in 2008. ” When I first came to your planet and demanded your homes, property and very lives, I didn’t know you were already doing so, willingly, with your own government. I can win no tribute from a bankrupted nation populated by feeble flag-waving plebians. In 2008 I shall restore your dignity and make you servants worthy of my rule. This new government shall become a tool of my oppression. Instead of hidden agendas and waffling policies, I offer you direct candor and brutal certainty. I only ask for your tribute, your lives, and your vote.”
Sharon Stone comes to the defense of Kate Moss. “If you are in here and haven’t made a mistake, I’d like to meet you because I’ve been waiting for Jesus — and today would be the day,” Stone said to loud laughter.” Even Pat O’Brien got better treatment than this.
04
Oct 05
Self-experimentation
Soon I will be a morning person. My goal is to start getting up at 5:30 in the morning every morning, including Saturday and Sunday. I did so for the last two days. It got a lot easier when I moved my alarm clock about ten feet from bed, so I would have to actually walk over and turn it around to shut it off. Last night, I went to bed about 10:30pm and when I got up I still felt sleepy. The first thing I did when I woke up was to eat a bowl of shredded wheat. Then I grabbed an apple out of the icebox and went for a walk. After I walked for an hour I came home and showered and dressed. Around 8am I succumbed to sleepiness and sank into an hour long torpor while fully dressed. I guess that means I need to go to bed earlier. Tonight, I will try to go to bed around 9:30pm to see if that helps. I’m sure the problem is that I had a sleep deficit from the previous day.