Oatmeal

my knigdom for a knish

I’m 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 — we’ll see what happens!

In the meantime, over the last few weeks I’ve finished a few books! Here are some micro reviews of all the escapist things I’ve been reading to prevent myself from doom scrolling (who am I kidding, I’m still doom scrolling):

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, Douglas Adams

Lots of fun! I love Douglas Adams’ 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 don’t even compare…it’s like saying Batman > Alvin from Alvin and the Chipmunks…both may be rodent adjacent but occupy totally different atmospheres).

The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K, Le Guin

I’ve 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 I’ve 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 they’re all smooshed together into 1 giant file. As “pure” sci-fi goes, I’m an Asimov-stan. His prose can be a bit mechanical, but…I guess that is a little bit the point. A chrome and positronic future.

Mistborn: The Final Empire, Brandon Sanderson

Total and complete garbage…that I can’t 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, I’m 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? Or…be my boring self and read Villette for the millionth time. Charlotte Brontë, 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

Just as there is “podcast voice”—that inquisitive, staccato bedtime-story cadence—there 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.

I’ve been oggling forth in a few different flavors for a little over a year now — I’ve never really gotten into one, per se, but I’m interested in forth nonetheless.

Retro has been the forth that I’ve been the most interested in, mostly for its handy documentation, active IRC channel and literate style — this said, I’ve 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. the wicked IDE), and recently broke for me on macOS Big Sur.

gForth is the logical place to focus, being the “purest” forth…and where I’d like to end up, but I haven’t 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 I’ve been keeping tabs on its development and am excited to see where it goes. Also, it is using fossil over git!

Sparrow

Starting something new on the smol net!

gemini://space.eli.li

For more info on Gemini.

I have spent months looking for Bucatini, now I know why!

Cooper’s hawk