š Liked: The Jane Addams collective
my knigdom for a knish
š Liked: and by islands I mean paragraphs
Iām noodling trying to do weeknotes or a weekly link-log again. It is a bit more work than I may have time for, but I liked the regularity of the ritual — weāll see what happens!
In the meantime, over the last few weeks Iāve finished a few books! Here are some micro reviews of all the escapist things Iāve been reading to prevent myself from doom scrolling (who am I kidding, Iām still doom scrolling):
Dirk Gentlyās Holistic Detective Agency, Douglas Adams
Lots of fun! I love Douglas Adamsā pacing. Like the sherbet of books — not too decadent, but a dessert nonetheless. 10/10, good escapist reading.
A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
This was a return for me. I read this book at least 5 times in high school. It was like visiting a place where I once vacationed. Sparrow Hawk > Harry Potter (to be totally honest they donāt even compareā¦itās like saying Batman > Alvin from Alvin and the Chipmunksā¦both may be rodent adjacent but occupy totally different atmospheres).
The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K, Le Guin
Iāve toted this one around for eons without actually having ever read it. I think it is pretty much the most Ursula K. Le Guin-y book Iāve ever read. This is good. When I was done I listened to a BBC audio drama of this, too. It was dreamy and a little hard to follow.
All the Foundation books, Isaac Asimov
So, I went in expecting to read 1 of the Foundation trilogy and ended up reading a giant pile of books — I think 6 — the copy I have is an epub where theyāre all smooshed together into 1 giant file. As āpureā sci-fi goes, Iām an Asimov-stan. His prose can be a bit mechanical, butā¦I guess that is a little bit the point. A chrome and positronic future.
Mistborn: The Final Empire, Brandon Sanderson
Total and complete garbageā¦that I canāt put down. The story and world-building feel more like the intro chapter to a TTRPG companion, but I love to read those, too, so, Iām hard pressed to level any serious complaints here.
Not sure what comes next — maybe another in the Mistborn series, or the next book in the Earthsea series, perhaps? Orā¦be my boring self and read Villette for the millionth time. Charlotte BrontĆ«, FTW!
No mockery in this world ever sounds to me so hollow as that of being told to cultivate happiness. What does such advice mean? Happiness is not a potato, to be planted in mould, and tilled with manure. Happiness is a glory shining far down upon us out of Heaven. She is a divine dew which the soul, on certain of its summer mornings, feels dropping upon it from the amaranth bloom and golden fruitage of Paradise.
Squirrel squirrel squirrel
š Liked: A Brief History of Peanut Butter | Innovation | Smithsonian Magazine
In reply to: Is Substack the Media Future We Want?
Just as there is āpodcast voiceāāthat inquisitive, staccato bedtime-story cadenceāthere is Substack tone, a semi-professional quality suited to mass e-mail. Some newsletters convey intimacy, in the language of psychotherapy and self-help, but their style is more polished and structured than that of the looser, rangier blogs of the early two-thousands.
š Liked: A HISTORY OF āAETNAā TYPEFACES
Iāve been oggling forth in a few different flavors for a little over a year now — Iāve never really gotten into one, per se, but Iām interested in forth nonetheless.
Retro has been the forth that Iāve been the most interested in, mostly for its handy documentation, active IRC channel and literate style — this said, Iāve accomplished nothing of note in it.
The tooling around factor is totally gorgeous and got me wicked excited, but it seems to be crumbling. It mostly works under linux, but is missing most of the icing (e.g.Ā the wicked IDE), and recently broke for me on macOS Big Sur.
gForth is the logical place to focus, being the āpurestā forthā¦and where Iād like to end up, but I havenāt yet got my brain in the place where I can actually totally grok it, yet and I think I need more libraries than gforth seems to offer.
Last but not least is play-lang, a new arrival on the scene that has got me very interested. Not much to see yet, but Iāve been keeping tabs on its development and am excited to see where it goes. Also, it is using fossil over git!
Sparrow
š Liked: Systems with JT, a YouTube channel doing first impression reviews of amateur operating systems
In reply to: Why Is There a Bucatini Shortage in America?
I have spent months looking for Bucatini, now I know why!
š Liked: Fully documented source code for Elite on the BBC Micro
š Liked: The Lasting Lessons of John Conway's Game of Life
š Liked: Fun with IP address parsing Ā· blog.dave.tf
Cooperās hawk