Sunday, April 29, 2012

A day late and a dollar short

So, I was supposed to get this posted by yesterday, but it didn't work out. (I was tired and those DVDs from Netflix weren't going to watch themselves!)

It's kind of ironic that the first week of the book challenge that I knew exactly what I was going to write about beforehand was also the first week that I failed to get it done during the week itself. Ah, but it is an unjust world, and virtue is only triumphant in theatrical performances. On to the question of best love story. Without a doubt in my mind (though The Princess Bride does run a good race) Anna Karenina wins going away.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Villain, not villein

The former being a scoundrel inclined to commit criminal acts, the latter being merely a serf. Though, the former did derive from the latter, to some degree since it was originally used for a base and vulgar person. And, as we all know, you can't trust those lower classes.

Anyway! On to villainy! This is the third entry (or second, depending on whether or not one really counts my first entry) in the book challenge thrown down by the kind folks at the other Egotist's Club. Clearly the most villainous villain to ever villainize (not my greatest neologism) is Vicious. The epitome of someone who will let no nefarious deed stand between him and his goals, Vicious is... Hum? What?... I'm only supposed to refer to book villains? And Vicious doesn't count because he's only part of the greatest anime ever? Well, bugger.

Okay, let's start again.

Friday, April 20, 2012

Blogger Interface

Blogger has finally forced everyone to "upgrade" to their new interface. I knew it was coming eventually, but I put it off as long as possible. I can't stand the new look. It's too austere and sterile. I'm not much of a minimalist in my style preferences and the new look is far too bare and sparse.

There are some new features that are nice and they've done a nice job of integrating their stats with the rest of the blog features, but I'm not terribly interested in those since I have no delusions about being able to build a large audience; even if I was interested and trying to do so. There's nothing really wrong with it in a large way, but all the little annoyances add up. Probably the biggest thing I don't like is how one can no longer open old posts to edit in a new window from the posts menu. But what can one do?

Saturday, April 14, 2012

The Poor and the Wakeful

'I wonder, James, whether it is not too easy for a rich man to despise money - to mistake the real motives... To pay too much attention to mere words and -'

'Surely to God you would never call me rich?'

'I have ridden over your land.'

'It's three-quarters of it mountain, and one quarter bog; and even if they were to pay their rent for the rest it would only be a few hundred a year - barely a thousand.'

'My heart bleeds for you. I have never yet known a man admit that he was either rich or asleep: perhaps the poor man and the wakeful man have some great moral advantage. How does it arise?'
 ~Master and Commander by Patrick O'Brian

Lord Ruthwen's theme song

I'm not actually going to refer to Byron, but to the character who is compared to Lord Ruthwen by Alexandre Dumas: Edmond Dantés, the Count of Monte Cristo. The whole tone of the book is dark, brooding and vengeful. Though it has lighter moments and it reads quickly like a thriller, at every moment one is quite aware that the Count is merely biding his time, making his plans, drawing the noose tighter before striking. And the music that best exemplifies this, to my mind is Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.



What a marvelous thing it must be, to be able to play this music. Oh, and I should note this is the second week's topic in the 10 week book theme being run by the delightful women over at The Egotist's Club.

Better than Poodle Springs

Gun, with Occasional Music, by Jonathan Lethem was a somewhat frustrating book. I saw it described somewhere as Raymond Chandler characters in the world of Philip K. Dick. I'm not nearly so familiar with Dick's work as I am with Chandler's, but that seems about right to me.

It's an interesting conceit, but Lethem fails for subtle reasons. He captures pretty well the hard-boiled attitude and language (though the four-letter words aren't necessary and Chandler finds elegant was to do without them that add, rather than detract, from his writing) and melds it well with the dystopian sci-fi futurism. He also does a pretty good job of imitating a convoluted Chandler plot that twists and turns all over and still makes reasonable sense at the end.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Clever, allusive post title

You'll have to forgive me, my desktop computer died. I turned it off last night and it wouldn't turn on today. So now it's in pieces on the desk and I'm going to bum a power supply from a friend to see if it's worth trying to restore or if I need to rip out the hard drive and spend a few bucks for a new one. At least if I get a new one, I can spend less than last time and still make a significant upgrade.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Fictional women

In the spirit of participation in things blog-like and literary (Good Lord! The juxtaposition of those two words!) I've decided to join in the weekly revels initiated by the similarly named Egotist's Club. It is a ten-week series, but I'm afraid my participation will be limited to nine.

Friday, April 6, 2012

What price dignity?

I was originally not going to post this after having written it out longhand. But the topic came up again today, and, though I avoided the rancor of the previous discussion, it was clear that opinions had not changed. The originally conceived post after the jump.

When I am a Starship Captain: Part 1 of what may be a continuing series...

  1. I will not be part of an advance landing party along with all the other chief officers.
  2. When I do beam down to a strange planet, I'll take precautions against getting infected with strange diseases via the atmosphere.
  3. If I run across strange objects, my first reaction will not be to walk up and touch them.
  4. When something odd happens on a planet, I won't refuse to explain to the rest of my crew what's going on or neglect to tell the ship.
  5. When all of the other officers of my ship take a position in opposition to my own, I'll at least consider the possibility that they may be right.
  6. My response to people referring to regulations will not be to shout a denigration of those regulations.
  7. I will not order my engineer to break the laws of physics.
  8. I will allow other people to do dangerous things instead of insisting that I must do them all myself.