What's been up?
Aug. 5th, 2009 09:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nyykiYeah, I know, I haven't been posting much lately. My copy of Symmagic isn't working very well, so it's a pain to actually post to my journal. I need a better client for this.
I just finished Cory Doctorow's Hugo nominee for this year, Little Brother. It did a good job of pissing me off. The book is about a terrorist bombing in the Bay Area, and how the Department of Fatherland Security abuses their power in their paranoia. The thing that really tweaked my nipples was how I know of people who actually think that national security is enough of an excuse to suspend the Bill of Rights, and some of these people have degrees, meaning they took American Government or Civics as part of their core classes, so they should know better. I also see us sliding down that slippery slope with our nation's fear. I'm not afraid of terrorist attacks -- they're a seriously bad thing, but I don't think our measures are doing one whit of difference in preventing the threats on a day to day basis, and Doctorow's book deals with this and other related things quite effectively. Go read it, especially if you're going to Worldcon.
That said, I do think Stephenson's Anathem is a more powerful book, and probably deserves the Hugo more. But Stephenson is a far more complex and intense writer, while Doctorow tends to keep his stuff more in the Cyberpunk and Post-Cyberpunk arenas.
Oh, while I'm on my journal, Dakota Witch, please shoot me an email -- I need to discuss something with you that will make you money.
School starts again in a few weeks, and I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be different -- no music classes this time, except for the possibility of one ensemble and maybe a single private lesson. We'll see how all that goes.
I'm losing a roommate -- J is moving out on September 1. He's starting back to college to finish his Engineering degree, and he feels he needs a more sedate place to get studying done. He has about seven classes to go, so I can see his need for focus -- upper level Engineering classes take a lot of focus.
I just finished Cory Doctorow's Hugo nominee for this year, Little Brother. It did a good job of pissing me off. The book is about a terrorist bombing in the Bay Area, and how the Department of Fatherland Security abuses their power in their paranoia. The thing that really tweaked my nipples was how I know of people who actually think that national security is enough of an excuse to suspend the Bill of Rights, and some of these people have degrees, meaning they took American Government or Civics as part of their core classes, so they should know better. I also see us sliding down that slippery slope with our nation's fear. I'm not afraid of terrorist attacks -- they're a seriously bad thing, but I don't think our measures are doing one whit of difference in preventing the threats on a day to day basis, and Doctorow's book deals with this and other related things quite effectively. Go read it, especially if you're going to Worldcon.
That said, I do think Stephenson's Anathem is a more powerful book, and probably deserves the Hugo more. But Stephenson is a far more complex and intense writer, while Doctorow tends to keep his stuff more in the Cyberpunk and Post-Cyberpunk arenas.
Oh, while I'm on my journal, Dakota Witch, please shoot me an email -- I need to discuss something with you that will make you money.
School starts again in a few weeks, and I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be different -- no music classes this time, except for the possibility of one ensemble and maybe a single private lesson. We'll see how all that goes.
I'm losing a roommate -- J is moving out on September 1. He's starting back to college to finish his Engineering degree, and he feels he needs a more sedate place to get studying done. He has about seven classes to go, so I can see his need for focus -- upper level Engineering classes take a lot of focus.
