February 2012
124 posts
Osmos is fun as heck.
January 2012
57 posts
Catching Fire
Just finished the second book of The Hunger Games trilogy. I remain satisfied to a roughly equivalent degree, but the configuration of my satisfaction has shifted.
Whereas, in the first book, Katniss was the bright spot, throughout Catching Fire I found myself wanting her to stop being so dumb and mistrustful of everyone. I mean, the mockingjay symbol is pretty cut and dry. She should have...
The Hunger Games - Finished
I’ve changed my mind about the Capitol culture again. It’s definitely quite grating, especially the hamfisted moralism (which apparently only gets worse in later books). I grudgingly accept its presence as a plot device, setting up everything else, but boy, does it annoy. Collins seems to forget that her bloody version of a reality show doesn’t actually exist, for precisely...
The Hunger Games - Page 278
I’ve decided I’m okay with the Capitol culture. It’s a necessary plot device for the rest of it to make any sense.
And hey, sometimes grotesqueries are frighteningly real. Seems silly, in that light, for me to dismiss it on the notion that decency would prevent it.
The characters continue to be convincing, though frustrating. That frustration is the same I often feel with...
The Hunger Games - Page 97
I’ve decided I’d like to live blog my reading of my holiday haul, unless someone finds this horribly unappealing.
The Hunger Games has not disappointed, overall. The casual brutality of Katniss’ world comes across well. I was a bit worried about the romance aspects, but even these portions have served to keep me mindful of the characters’ ages, and what that means for their experiences.
The...
In the first four pages of The Hunger Games,...
My suspension of disbelief is ruined for the rest of the series.
Embassytown Again
I talked about it before, when I was a good 70 pages in.
I’ve just finished it, just now. And I gotta say, as good as I said it was a few days ago, Embassytown soared even higher. There is not a single wasted element, nothing, nothing that doesn’t hone this narrative.
This book is an example of the kind of art I revere. I had countless moments of aha! You know those realizations...
michifun asked: Have you checked out the band Bon Iver?
Ten Sexy Ladies: Going To The Bank →
tensexyladies:
Get a loaf of this (no way am I fixing that sweet typo): I had to go to the bank today. The bank. Like inside? The building? I don’t think I’ve stepped foot in a bank since Stephen Hawking invented ATMs because who am I, Liberace or whatever with fancy financial things to do? Like I need a small…
I just really like this portmanteau.
friend: It's the hardest thing i have to change about myself
friend: being confident
friend: I need some
friend: is there some kinda juice for that or something?
friend: lol
me: Yeah lemme just squeeze some outta this bravadorange.
friend: sounds delish
I figured out why I like Coldplay so much despite...
It’s because music critics are full of shit.
Just kidding, the real reason is that music critics are right. Coldplay is charmingly bland and inoffensive and consistent and also kind of inexplicably popular.
I love their music precisely because it’s so amorphous. It allows me to just… not think for a while. To just float. Like lying in a warm bath for an hour or so. That...
Anonymous asked: Do you still have a cookie forge?
Okay, so, Embassytown.
This book is like, tailor made for my brain. It’s got a hard sci-fi setting, with exquisitely deep characters, an unconventional but tightly executed narrative structure (chapters alternating between events in the past and the present, with neither losing steam and relevance), and, oh yeah, it is also a big ol’ thought experiment in linguistics and philosophy of the mind.
You should...
spleenbrick:
beesmygod:
gaymzee:
18thcenturyfrenchlesbos reblogged your post: “i’m so depressed,” posted the caucasion…
Nothing bad happens to white people EVER
THAT’S NOT WHAT I WAS SAYING JESUS FUCKING CHRIST
LET
IT
GO
i like the part where you specifically made your post revolve around a “girl” being trendy depressed can you elaborate on that part
standard terrible nerd line of...
Watchinothernews:
Stephen Colbert on this morning’s This Week With George Stephanopoulos.
Going Over That Big Bump
tensexyladies:
I’m driving down the road and as usual I’m thinking the big thoughts. (I do not have small thoughts.) (My smallest thought ever was probably peanut butter and spicy ranch pretzel chains and that still netted me nine large on Kickstarter.) I’m distracted by the gorgeous day, smooth and curvaceous, zaftig and callipygous, smelling like deodorant that smells like mouthwash’d makeouts...
For some reason my sister thinks that I'm still...
Like she’s doing pre-calc stuff and when she gets stuck she texts me about it. I can do it, but it feels like my math gears are all rusted up and I have to force them into working again.
The internet is my lubricant for this.
It’s a bit of an odd feeling to look at something and know that I used to be able to do it in my head but, because I haven’t in years, I can’t...
When I have "naked in a social situation" dreams,...
Instead I’m just like, “Yeah, okay. Deal with it people! I’ll get dressed when I’m done with this.”
Of course I’ve only had such dreams like, once or twice that I can remember.
neil-gaiman:
Mr Gaiman and Mr Hodgman discuss...
Whoa whoa whoa John Hodgman and Neil Gaiman have...
Nobody… nobody told me.
haggady asked: I don't mind serial reading that much, although Gunnerkrigg for example is better in big chunks. Oh yeah, Powernap is another comic with economical pacing and really sharp science fiction worldbuilding.
haggady asked: hmm maybe Helvetica isn't slow, it's just very new and only updates once a week. In the comic you wake up in the afterlife as a naked skeleton and the first thing you utter is your new name. Then you have to join the society of the dead.
haggady asked: Monster Pulse's pacing is so good, it's perfect. It's economical, and there's a good balance between plot and character. It feels weird, probably cause I've gotten used to comics like Dresden Codak, which unfolds slowly, or Homestuck, which careens wildly out of control like the Tazmanian Devil.
haggady asked: Helvetica also has slow pacing (so far) because it's all focused on introducing the setting and how the characters interact with the setting.
hellaciousbrother:
fyeahbadfanvoices:
Vriska....
Dang I just saw a couple of peeps I know on the...
Lookin’ at you, Avi, Deathsbuddy.
Lookin’ at you.
I really want to buy this phone. →
At work a couple of days ago I was making jokes about us having a big red phone to call important people on and I thought, “You know what? This is a legitimate avenue of pursuit. I could do this.”
And it’s only ~$20.
I’m having a hard time thinking of a good reason not to do this…
I mean hell it even has “emergency” right in the name how can I...
Nature's finest gift to you →
haggady:
marelo:
Avi tweeted this at me a few days ago, and I finally got around to reading it today, because of a short series of convoluted tics I have with my technology.
This is precisely a thing I have always loved to point out (though far less elegantly).
We’re not a special compartment of reality unto ourselves, gifted upon the previously barren universe; we, and what we do with...
Nature's finest gift to you →
Avi tweeted this at me a few days ago, and I finally got around to reading it today, because of a short series of convoluted tics I have with my technology.
This is precisely a thing I have always loved to point out (though far less elegantly).
We’re not a special compartment of reality unto ourselves, gifted upon the previously barren universe; we, and what we do with ourselves, are part...
This Three Word Phrase strip is magnificent. →
Glorious, even. Gladiatorially glorious; none other may best it.
michifun asked: Also, you and I follow each other and I still can't "reply" to many of your posts? Gosh darn it bro get it together :P
Anonymous asked: I would love to interact with you with your posts, but you have it so that people you aren't following can't reply to things and I am too timid to reblog!
