Right now I’m reading a couple of comic books. First is Laika by Rick Abadzis, about the Soviet Space Program and the titular dog. The second one is Tiananmen 1989: Our Shattered Hopes by Lun Zhang, Adrien Gombeaud and Améziane, about events at Tiananmen Square in 1989, when absolutely nothing happened.

Once I’m done with those, I’m finally going back to the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, with Crossroads of Twilight, the tenth book.

God Was Never On Your Side by Motörhead. Lemmy was always highly critical of religion, and I think that is his definitive statement on the matter. He’s an underappreciated writer.

I remember the first raindrop and the first acorn… I knew the dark under the stars when it was fearless - before the Linux Kernel came from Outside.

Just imagine doing that to another person, a person you care about. There are some true monsters in this world.

These will one day be hung in a museum as a warning, lest we forget. Unfortunately, humanity is just an endless cycle of repeating the same mistakes, so nothing will be learned.

The beatings will continue until morale improves.

Crime and Punishment and The House of the Dead are both great.

Russians can be an inscrutable people for sure.

Still working my way through Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Demons. So far it’s ok, but certainly not one of my favorite books from Dostoyevsky. Like with many Russian classics, I have some trouble understanding the mores of 19th century Russian society.

On the side I’m listening to a local radio play adaptation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. It’s pretty good, but I find myself not liking HG2G as much as I once did. Adams is a funny writer, but perhaps I find the plot weak, and that matters to me more these days. Still, some bits are hilarious, and the cast does a great job.

It is not.

Stallman outlined our choices and told us this is where we were headed back in the 1980’s. Since then, we have consistently made the wrong decisions. All is not lost, but the situation is dire.

The choices are there, you just have to be willing to inconvenience yourself.

You must understand: It’s not your TV, it’s LG’s, and they will do with it what ever they want, and not to your benefit. This is the future we chose.

I’m highly reclusive, so this happens a lot.

I’d like to add that you are under no obligation to keep reading a book you don’t like. Doesn’t matter why, doesn’t matter if it’s an esteemed book, if you don’t care to continue, just stop. It’s perfectly fine. Pick up a different book. Don’t waste your limited time doing something you hate.

That’s insane. This is insane.

Since 1975, baby!

I started reading Demons by Fyodor Dostoevsky. It’s about the spread of new ideas, namely nihilism, in the mid-1800s Russia. As such, the topic reminds me of Ivan Turgenev’s Fathers And Sons, which I remember liking. This is a hefty tome, so it’ll take me a while to get through it.

I had this whole plan of what I was going to read next, a few thematic books. When it came time to start, I wasn’t feeling it anymore, so I went to the library and picked up whatever. So now I’m reading the autobiographical comic book Today is the Last Day of the Rest of Your Life by Ulli Lust. After that I’m reading the manga Talk To My Back by Yamada Murasaki.

Dude, you have a serious problem, man. That’s way too much marijuanas.

I usually run updates every night before I shut down my computer. Probably in part a leftover from the time I used Gentoo and I’d leave my computer on over night compiling updates. I’m not saying this is the optimal way, it just feels right for me.

I finished Winter’s Heart the other day, and my ambivalence towards the Wheel of Time continues. I quite disliked the first third of the book, and quite liked the rest. It’s just amazing to me that in a series with thousands of named characters, the only one I find likeable is Min. I also thought Perrin was nice enough, but war trauma and an unhealthy, abusive relationship have changed him in to someone I don’t much care for. At least Nynaeve has mellowed down some.

And yet, and yet, I like the series. At it’s core it’s a really good story, and if Jordan had had some actual focus it could’ve been amazing. I say this should have been six books, max. It’s perplexing to me that he has like three main characters (well, more than that, but let’s focus on the supposedly important ta’veren) and usually one of them will be absent for most or whole of a book. Jordan is way too enamored with his world, writing and work.

But as to the topic at hand, I recently watched Nöthin’ but a Good Time: The Uncensored Story of '80s Hair Metal, and it made me want to re-read The Dirt: Confessions of the World’s Most Notorious Rock Band by Mötley Crüe. I remember it being a surprisingly good book, given it’s the story of a group of dysfunctional musicians committing various crimes and general insanity. What I think makes it especially interesting is the fact that every member gets to tell their side, letting the book speak in many voices. In fact, the book opens with a quote by Wilkie Collins from The Woman in White, about how the story is told by many speakers. I did not expect a Wilkie Collins quote in The Dirt, but here we are. They also constantly shit on each other with little regard for anyone’s feelings, which I feel adds a sense of honesty.