Sunday, October 30, 2011

Keeping me humble

Shifter here. So, let's face it, I'm not the kind of guy who needs all that much encouragement to stay humble. I hope. I mean, I run, but I run SLOW. I work, but I don't work as hard as many. I achieve, but if I wasn't so damn lazy I could achieve more. And I'm cool with that, with knowing my place in the scheme of things, or my lack of a place therein.

However, every now and then someone or something comes along to really help me stay humble. I run into somebody who is so freaking SMART that I can't even follow their train of thought. My daughter demolishes me at a game. Etc.

Today, yet another event occurred to help me stay as centered, down to earth, and self-effacing as I need to be. My brother in law, who until I talked him into it had never even done a marathon, finished his first 100 MILE ULTRA MARATHON today. I don't even know why they call it an ultra-marathon. Once you blow by 26.2 miles, and then triple or almost quadruple it, you shouldn't even mention "marathon." Marathons are a Sunday stroll when you're at that level. It's an "Ultra," plain and simple, but since people may want to ask you an "ultra - what?" you have to clarify that it's an Ultra Really Long Run, and for most sane people "Really Long Run" = marathon. But I digress.

The point is, here's Shifter, typing in awe. Nice going bro.

Wednesday, October 05, 2011

See if you can figure this one out :o)

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Tuesday, October 04, 2011

REAMDE

Ok, book update. First off, for those of you who I imagine at one time read this, let me assure you that no, I am not still reading "Empire," although it was a very good book. In the 2 years since I put that up I've read a few other books. Currently I'm working on Neil Stephenson's REAMDE. If you have read any Stephenson books, at least any other than Snowcrash, you'll probably know that it is really hard to summarize what his books are about.

Take Cryptonomicon, my favorite of his. If I was to try to summarize it as I started reading it, I might say it was about an internet startup that was working to help establish a datahaven and nation-free currency. But I would have been wrong. Then a bit further into the book, I might have said it was about a World War 2 marine who got caught up in various secret missions during the war. Oh, and who was addicted to morphine. But I would have been wrong. Then I might have gotten to the part where I realized it was about finding and making use of an enormous trove of Nazi gold. And that would have missed a lot of the point. And on, and on, and on. So when someone asked me to describe REAMDE the other day, I sighed and then floundered around verbally for a few minutes and then said "it's about some high tech thriller type stuff" which is both true and a massive understatement.

So having said that, I'm certainly not going to try to summarize it here. There are people who are paid a lot of money to try to summarize complex novels in dust-jacket size bites, after all. If you want to read one of those blurbs, go to the link above. But I will say that I'm really enjoying it and it has many of the things that I really liked about Cryptonomicon and much less of the things that I really did NOT like about System of the World (which I really, truly, desperately WANT to like, and someday maybe I will, just not yet). Stephenson writes like a true tech guy who knows how to write, which is rare, and his plot this time is moving along briskly. I love that he knows the difference between Linux and Windows, and an EMACS file and a .docx file, and a whole bunch of other stuff that I only sort of understand but don't have to get to know what is happening. I also love that twice tonight while reading I had to use the dictionary feature of my Nook to figure out a word and one meant lesbian (Sapphist). What more can I ask for?

So to sum up, highly recommended unless you want very light reading.