User Friendly, by Spider Robinson
Go get it, go read it.
I don’t agree with everything Spider says or writes, and he has a disconcerting preoccupation with clothing, or the lack thereof, but he is a seriously fine author (who happens to live right my backyard - Vancouver), and this compilation of short stories is VERY good.
Perhaps I’ll add more to this later ….
Seriously Unimpressive
I picked up Walter M. Miller Jr.’s Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman the other day, really anticipating an excellent novel along the lines of his enormously influential A Canticle for Leibowitz some 40 years ago.
Major disappointment.
A hundred pages in, after assorted buggeries in a monastery, other nastiness with priests breaking vows, etc. and just a generally bad, uninteresting story and characters, I dropped it.
What a waste, after such a good book!
[ update ]
Too wierd. As of tonight (March 18, 2005) this blog entry is the number one Google result for the word “unimpressive.”.
The Rape of Nanking, by Iris Chang
This is an amazing historical book about the most forgotten massacre in history: the killing, raping, and torturing of hundreds of thousands of Chinese by the Japanese Imperial Army in the period before and including the Second World War.
Books I’ve read and don’t have time to fully review …
I like to maintains some kind of record of the books I’ve read … I’ve sort of been in that habit for the past few months.
I like to actually do a mini-review of them all, but this week I lack the time … In any case, here’s the list, with a brief comment on each (maybe!).
Too Cool … Turn all the TVs Off
This is way too cool to pass up sticking a very brief note here:
Turn off TVs wherever you go with TV be gone.
Of course, I saw this 4 days ago on Wired, and now it’s all over the blogosphere …. serves me right for waiting too long.
Yes mum, a beaver chopped down a tree onto my car
This must be a quintessentially Canadian story, at least to those who think of Canada as the land of trees, hills, snow, and beavers.
I was working quietly in my office when Carl, one of our developers, sais, “Uh, John, a tree just fell on your car.”
Theory and Practice
The difference between theory and practice is greater in practice than it is in theory.
(This is from Carl, one of our developers.)
I liked this quote, so I blogged it. And yes, are just finishing a major, massive, site upgrade.
Really Stupid Smart People
How could they be so dumb?
They’re the people who can actually answer “yes” to the question: “What are you, a rocket scientist?”
And yet they make incredibly bone-headed mistakes like installing a deceleration sensor upside down or failing to convert from imperial to metric.
Unbelievable.
Kinda restores your faith in the everyday average Joe, huh?
Wolf sounds
Ever need the sound of a wolf growling or snarling?
I just did, and I found it right here.
Very cool!
UPDATE:
This is much more cool … a search engine for sounds.
Wow. Love it.
Now why didn’t Google do this?
Apple’s .Mac: You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave
2 months ago I received a Gmail account. 1 GB free, no need for .Mac, Apple’s email/storage/Sync/everything solution.
So I thought I’d cancel. Nice try. You can’t cancel!
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About
Sparkplug 9 is John Koetsier's blog on life, the universe, and everything,
but mostly the stuff you see big in the tags to the left.
Welcome, enjoy, buy the T-shirt, take a picture, tell your friends. -
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