Grey Patterson – Page 4

I still enjoy having a few of these Noon Pacific things floating around my library, just a fun little reminder of when that was still a thing. ↩
An absolute banger from Mahmood here ↩
“financial advice, but make it electronic music” ↩
It took me a bit too long to notice that this was Juice WRLD, at which point I listened to the ending lyrics and thought “rude” ↩
Honestly I think I just threw this one in because of the whole Byzantine history kick I went on not too long ago. ↩

Review

“How To”

Post author By Grey
Post date 2024-02-24
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Randall Munroe

This book is an exercise in decontextualization. It’s what happens if you take a Roko’s Basilisk style AI and ask it questions; you get things that are technically correct answers, but have left out all the context of, broadly, “being a human.” And, as always with Munroe, it’s hilarious.

For a general idea of what the book is like, one of the early chapters is “how to throw a pool party,” and consists almost entirely of instructions on how to build a pool. Said instructions include notes about how thick you would have to make the walls of an above-ground pool so that the water doesn’t burst out—if you were using Gruyere as the wall-building material. As it explains how the best bet for rapidly filling a pool, ignoring all costs, is to order tens of thousands of plastic water bottles and an industrial shredder—conveniently, the industrial-grade ones include the ability to separate out plastic shreds from liquids, which is probably quite useful to recycling facilities, and in the case of filling a pool means you should install it backwards—there’s an aside about the fact that using an atomic bomb is not an effective way to open water bottles.¹

There’s also some neat guest appearances; Chris Hadfield answers a great many questions about… let’s call it flying a plane, as that’s the inspiration for most of the questions. Serena Williams makes an appearance, demonstrating that in the event of the drone apocalypse, she doesn’t need to worry.²

As with all of his books, “How To” is a delight to read, and I highly recommend it. Check it out.³

One of my favorite jokes used in the book is the repeated instances of “this is a ridiculous question, and so of course the United States military studied it during the Cold War.” ↩
I spent the entire chapter with this tweet stuck in my head: ↩
This is a Bookshop affiliate link – if you buy it from here, I get a little bit of commission. It won’t hurt my feelings if you buy it elsewhere; honestly, I’d rather you check it out from your local library, or go to a local book store. I use Bookshop affiliate links instead of Amazon because they distribute a significant chunk of their profits to small, local book stores. ↩

Tags nonfiction, Randall Munroe, science

Review

“SPQR”

Post author By Grey
Post date 2024-02-17
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Mary Beard

Very much inspired by my reading of the history of the Byzantine Empire, I realized that I also don’t know much about the history of Rome aside from the bits that you pick up by cultural osmosis, growing up here in the West. Bookstores are great for things like this, where you don’t know what specifically you want to read, but you do know the general topic—just wander over to that section and browse, and see what catches your eye! Which is how I arrived at this book.

I mostly enjoyed the read. I filled five or six pages of a memo book with quotes as I was reading, things that stood out to me, which I somewhat did with the thought in mind of pulling some of them for writing this review, but now that I’m doing the writing, I don’t think I’m actually going to follow through on the idea. Suffice it to say, it was well-written, and generally an enjoyable read. Easier to read than Norwich’s work was, at least, aided in part by being a single volume instead of three, and thus feeling like more of a general overview than the curriculum notes for a four-year course of study.

The reason that I don’t want to go for my notebook, though, is that I have one main thought that I’ve kept circling around for the entire second half of the book: the study of history is not neutral. By studying, and teaching, and writing about history, we impose our own views upon it; we, as humans, are not able to view any objective truth. We are subjective creatures. And this thought kept circling around and around in my mind from the moment the word “friend” was used.

Friendship is a fine thing! Lots of people have friends, it’s one of those fundamental human experiences that historians should keep an eye out for. It is not, however, the only thing, and sometimes calling someone a ‘friend’ is a disservice. In this case, when the source material you are citing is a man referring to another man as his “same-gender partner”, discarding that in favor of “friend” is wrong. We have a word for that: erasure.

There is a reason that a through line in anti-LGBTQ sentiment is “these things didn’t used to exist,” and that reason isn’t that said things actually didn’t used to exist; it is that historians over the last couple of centuries have gone to great lengths to pretend they didn’t, to bury or destroy any evidence that they did. And yes, there is an argument to be made that we shouldn’t try to paint historical figures with our modern terminology—but then, that argument only seems to come up when we’re talking about whether or not a historical figure can be called queer.

Historians are, historically, extremely eager to find any possible heterosexual explanation for things, even when doing so requires extensive leaps in logic. Some of Shakespeare’s sonnets were written for men? Well, you see, back then cultural morays about how much affection men could platonically show other men were different. Alexander the Great was so distraught at the death of the man he loved that he demanded he be deified, and that when he himself died, he be buried in the same tomb? They were just the best of friends. President Buchanan was so visibly in a relationship with Senator King that their nicknames in DC were “Uncle Fancy and Aunt Nancy”? Say, is that is why my history classes sorta just didn’t talk about President Buchanan at all? Nevermind, don’t worry, there’s a perfectly straight explanation for this — it’s just gals being pals.

Once that thought was in my mind, it was hard to let go of it and not read this book in a queer-history light, and boy, does it ever not hold up well to that sort of inspection. The only clear mentions of homosexuality at all are a passing remark about a Senatorial insult being someone ‘enjoying nubile slave boys to an uncouth amount,’ and some mention of Hadrian—which is itself rather unavoidable when talking about Hadrian.¹

So, here’s my summary: this is a good overview of Roman history, but it is, like all studies of history, flawed. It got me to break my usual “no writing in books” rule, and correct the word “friend” to “boyfriend” out of something akin to spite; but it also gave me pages of interesting quotes about Rome and the Empire, and taught me a great deal that I didn’t know. Plusses and minuses. It’s worth a read.²

Although, having said that it’s unavoidable, I immediately noticed that the Wikipedia info-box on Hadrian lists three different burial sites for him, but somehow doesn’t have room for the name of the man he loved so much that he had thousands of statues carved in his image all across the Roman Empire, so, modern historians haven’t improved. ↩
This is a Bookshop affiliate link – if you buy it from here, I get a little bit of commission. It won’t hurt my feelings if you buy it elsewhere; honestly, I’d rather you check it out from your local library, or go to a local book store. I use Bookshop affiliate links instead of Amazon because they distribute a significant chunk of their profits to small, local book stores. ↩

Tags history, Mary Beard, nonfiction, Rome

Review

“Test Driven Development by Example”

Post author By Grey
Post date 2024-02-10
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Kent Beck

‘By example’ books really aren’t my cup of tea—going back and forth between a book and the actual thing in order to follow along is too much overhead for either activity to work well, and just reading along without doing it myself leaves the book feeling rather anemic a lot of the time. That said, this book wasn’t terrible; I enjoyed Beck’s writing style throughout the whole first part, he did a good job livening it up with some personality so it didn’t feel like reading a WikiHow article. But where my interest really kicked in was in the third part, where it switched to more of a traditional Programming Book style, just dispensing a bunch of condensed advice.

There’s some good little tidbits in the earlier part, though; I think my favorite one was:

[Automated] tests are the Programmer’s Stone, transforming fear into boredom.

A great way to think about it! Write tests so that instead of worrying something will break as you continue working on it, you just go ‘meh, now I’ve gotta wait for the tests to run.’¹

This was a quick read; if you’ve been doing some form of TDD, it probably won’t continua much that’s new, but it’s a nice way to get an overview. And if you aren’t doing TDD, go ahead and read it; as I said, it’s quick, and Beck makes a better case for TDD than I will in a single blog post. It’s available in the O’Reilly Library.

Although, ideally, it’s not much of a wait – this is the benefit of unit tests, in particular, that you make them small and very quick to run, and with that you’re able to run the relevant segment of them after every change. ↩

Tags book club, Kent Beck, nonfiction, programming

Review

“Confessions of a Recovering Engineer”

Post author By Grey
Post date 2024-02-03
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Charles L. Marohn, Jr.

Having quite liked the Strong Towns book and some of the YouTube channels based on it, I’ve had the sequel-of-sorts on my list for a while, and was finally able to get around to reading it. My overall review is “this is definitely an addendum to Strong Towns” – you can read it on its own, it goes to pretty solid lengths to reiterate material when it’s referencing it, but even with that it doesn’t particularly feel like it can stand on its own.

As a book, I think it’s fairly well-written; the use of a single street and a single incident as something to reference back to throughout is an effective device for centering the policy discussion.

Said policy discussion really comes down to two things. Firstly, that there should only be Roads and Streets — Roads being a thing focused on getting people from place to place quickly, and Streets being a place that people go to.¹ The word/concept “stroad” comes up quite often in the book — a sort of painful middle ground, something trying to do both things and as a result doing both very poorly. Think of how you get to Best Buy, or Walmart, or any other big box store like that; clearly that’s meant to be a Road, because it’s a terrible place to walk around so it can’t be a Street… except it’s also pretty bad at driving on, because there’s people trying to turn onto or off of it, and probably a bunch of stoplights, and a general poor attempt at being a Road. Marohn makes a very good argument for abolishing these awkward things and forcing every piece of driving infrastructure to be either a Road or a Street, and then to be good at being what it is.

Which leads to the second point, and for this I’ll just use his own words:

T one safe, the street must communicate the real level of risk to the driver. In other words, the driver must feel discomfort driving in a manner that is unsafe. (40)

Or, more viscerally: when was the last time you went 45 on a narrow, technically-two-lane-but-for-the-people-parked, tree-lined, watch-out-for-the-kids-playing-basketball neighborhood street? Probably never, because doing 45 there feels deeply unsafe. You didn’t have to look for a speed limit sign to know that you should be going slowly; you can tell that the street does not want you going fast, and that if you try to go fast, you’re gonna have a bad time.

And that’s the design policy he advocates for. Our infrastructure is built around the idea of forgiving drivers for their mistakes… but once you account for human psychology, that means that drivers will make more mistakes, because they know they don’t have to pay as much attention.

And now, really, I’ve kinda spoiled the whole book. Those are the core arguments; everything else is filling in details or repeating points to drive them home. There’s a couple chapters at the end that felt like later additions, and in particular the one about his legal arguments with the state licensing board feels entirely out of place. The whole section on transport technologies is entirely too generous to Elon Musk, but then, at the time this was written, his reality distortion field hadn’t failed yet, so we were all a bit more forgiving.

One last pull-quote, though, to which I’ll add emphasis, because I thought it was a really great way to discuss some of the issues with policing in the US.

Police target areas they perceive as high crime. When they discover criminal activity, which they inevitably do given the approach, it reinforces the initial perception. There is no control group receiving equally aggressive policing to create comparable statistics. (195)

An excellent point about sampling bias, at the end of a chapter that’s a pretty good quick overview of everything wrong with the ‘routine traffic stop’ as a concept.

Overall, this is a pretty good read; go for the first one first, and if you’re still interested in more, give it a read.²

Interestingly, this concept can be broadened – I quite liked his discussion of how transit options like trains and planes are a form of road, whereas, say, a cruise ship is a street. Feels weird to say, but within this framework, it fits! ↩
This is a Bookshop affiliate link – if you buy it from here, I get a little bit of commission. It won’t hurt my feelings if you buy it elsewhere; honestly, I’d rather you check it out from your local library, or go to a local book store. I use Bookshop affiliate links instead of Amazon because they distribute a significant chunk of their profits to small, local book stores. ↩

Tags Charles L. Marohn Jr., nonfiction, strong towns

Playlist

Playlist of the Month: January 2024

Post author By Grey
Post date 2024-02-01
No Comments on Playlist of the Month: January 2024

I actually did fairly well at remembering to write the new year when writing out dates, with the sole exception of writing “2021” on something. Eh, close enough.

How It Was – Yoste on A Few Brief Moments – EP

twentyfive – Yoste on twentyfive – Single

Save Me – Majik on It’s Alright / Save Me – Single

Friends – Yoste on Friends – Single

gatsby – Daniel Leggs on gatsby – Single

If You Want Somebody – Elderbrook on Little Love

Oslo – Yoste on Oslo – Single

I Don’t Want To Lie – Yoste & Vandelux on I Don’t Want To Lie – Single

Hallelujah Anyway – Luke Sital-Singh on Hallelujah Anyway – Single

Lazy – Elliot Moss on Lazy – Single

Call Your Mom – Noah Kahan on Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever)

Bad Dancer – Slopes on Bad Dancer – EP

Jericho – Iniko on Jericho – Single

Want You – Yoste on Want You – Single

Crazy in the Night (Barking at Airplanes) – Kim Carnes on Best of Kim Carnes

The Queen of Everything – Emmit Fenn on How to Fly on the Ground

Machine Learning – J. Maya on Machine Learning – Single

Bette Davis Eyes – Kim Carnes on Best of 80s

Trouble In Your Eyes – Yoste on Trouble In Your Eyes – Single

Where We’ve Been – Thorin Loeks on The Light – EP

Did I Mention I’m Sorry – Petey on USA

The Freedom to F**k Off – Petey on USA

The King – Anjimile on The King

All My Life (feat. Kid Cudi) – 1017 ALYX 9SM on COMPILATION V1

Beneath Oak Trees – Dylan Gossett on No Better Time – EP

The Girl That Never Was – James Blunt on Who We Used To Be (Deluxe)

You Haunt Me (Amtrac Remix) – Sir Sly on You Haunt Me (Remixes) – EP

Summer – Yoste on A Place To Exist

London – Yoste on A Place To Exist

Blue Marbled Elm Trees – King Creosote on I DES

I Get You – Yoste on A Place To Exist

The King’s Affirmation – Iniko on The King’s Affirmation – Single

Without You – Yoste on A Place To Exist

Protégé – Yoke Lore on Toward a Never Ending New Beginning

Hearts Lose – Elliot Moss on Hearts Lose – Single

x – Charles Fauna on x – Single

Can I Ask – Yoste on A Place To Exist

I’m Gonna Cry – Vide on I’m Gonna Cry – Single

Hide & Seek – Amber Run on Spark EP

Lost Again – Yoste on A Place To Exist

Used To – Tep No on Used To – Single

Meaning – Nick Broadhurst on Meaning – Single

My Innocence – Corey Harper on My Innocence – Single

i’m tired – flora cash on i’m tired – Single

Ibiza (feat. Romeo Santos) – Ozuna on Aura

Antes de Morirme (feat. Rosalía) – C. Tangana on Antes de Morirme (feat. Rosalía) – Single

Enough – Lonely in the Rain & XYSM on Enough – Single

Dreams Where Ur Murdered – X Lovers on Virgin

Tomorrow – Harrison Storm on Wonder, Won’t You?

Nobody Knows – The Lumineers on Nobody Knows – Single

Endlessly – Ed Tullett on Lack Thereof

Too Much – Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike, DVBBS & Roy Woods on Too Much – Single

Nashville – No-No Boy on Empire Electric

Safety In Numbers – MAX RAD & Nathan Ball on Safety In Numbers – Single

Pa Ti Estoy – Ozuna, Anuel AA & Chris Jedi on Cosmo

Let Me Down Easy – Ed Prosek & Lucy Clearwater on Let Me Down Easy – Single

everything, everywhere (feat. eaJ) – vaultboy on everything, everywhere (feat. eaJ) – Single

Countless Nights – Dré Six on Countless Nights – Single

Asymmetry – Axel Flóvent on Asymmetry – Single

5am Paradise (Sunset Version) – Old Sea Brigade, Luke Sital-Singh & Avi Snow on 5am Paradise (Sunset Version) – Single

Family of Six – Petey on USA

Throne of Amber – Harp on Albion

High – Stephen Sanchez on Angel Face

Ulterior Motives (re-Vamped Edition) – The Motion Epic on Midnight (re-Vamped Edition)

Randy savage (feat. Rjayondatrack) – Dee Green on Street Lullabies

Heaven Is A Long Way – Divorce on Heady Metal – EP

Independent Queen – Spencer Elmer on Crush – Single

People Watching – Charles Fauna on People Watching – Single

Older (Reimagined) – Betcha on Placebo (Bonus Tracks) – EP

When You’re Gone – James Blunt on Who We Used To Be (Deluxe)

Weh Yuh Deh – Moko on 15 Fridays

Ride wit Me (feat. City Spud) – Nelly on Country Grammar

Devuélveme – Ozuna on Aura

Glimpse of Time – Luca & Nokyo on Glimpse of Time – Single

Someone Somewhere in Summertime (re-Vamped Edition) – The Motion Epic on Midnight (re-Vamped Edition)

Knockoff – Poppy on Zig

Te Amo – Rihanna on Rated R¹

Shook Luv – Moko on Shook Luv – Single

Meet Me In the Middle – FER4Z on Meet Me In the Middle – Single

Dark Thought – James Blunt on Who We Used To Be (Deluxe)²

On Silent – Lonely in the Rain & Anna-Sophia Henry on On Silent – Single

All Alone – Ryder, Skepta & Dré Six on 48 Hours – EP

Falling Behind – Sultan + Shepard & Panama on Endless, Dawn

Encore – Durry on Suburban Legend

Daylight Sun – Harrison Storm on Wonder, Won’t You?

Too Cold – Baitz & Cg on Too Cold – Single

Park Up – Kojo Funds on Park Up – Single

How Do I Feel X3 – Moko on Good Friday

Wooden Door – Cal Trask on Gemini God

1918 – Cal Trask on Gemini God

high school love – Daniel Leggs on at the end of the world – Single

Would You (Summer Edit) – Y.V.E. 48 on Would You (Summer Edit) – Single

Years On – Novo Amor on Years On – Single

high note – Daniel Leggs on american fantasy – Single

Gemini God – Cal Trask on Gemini God³

My Way Home – Harrison Storm on Wonder, Won’t You?

american fantasy – Daniel Leggs on american fantasy – Single

Under The Surface – Sultan + Shepard & Nathan Nicholson on Endless, Dawn

Sad Boy – Cal Trask on Gemini God

Boys Of Faith (feat. Bon Iver) – Zach Bryan on Boys Of Faith – EP⁴

Flip a Coin – Dylan Gossett on No Better Time – EP

Ides – King Creosote on I DES

Can’t Fall Back – Moko on Can’t Fall Back – Single

Amends – Cal Trask on Gemini God

Buyer Beware – Post Malone on AUSTIN (Bonus)

Never Thought (feat. Trevor Daniel) [Devault Remix] – Fossa Beats on Never Thought (Devault Remix) (feat. Trevor Daniel) – Single

Next Year’s Light – Elliot Moss on Next Year’s Light – Single

Carte Blanche – Haux on Carte Blanche – Single

Tangerine – Billy Raffoul on For All These Years

Lift Me Up (From Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – Music From and Inspired By) – Rihanna on Lift Me Up (From Black Panther: Wakanda Forever – Music From and Inspired By) – Single

No Better Time – Dylan Gossett on No Better Time – EP

Saving A Life – James Blunt on Who We Used To Be (Deluxe)

Bad Blood – Allman Brown on Second Son, Pt. 1 – EP

Sorry Usher, I’m just not as excited about your Super Bowl halftime show as I was about Rihanna’s. ↩
I’ve been told James Blunt has music that isn’t depressing as hell, but I have yet to hear any evidence of it. ↩
Usually I don’t put pure-instrumental stuff in this playlist, but I just enjoyed the title enough to give it a pass. ↩
Found because of the music video, which sure did give me some emotions, and then I found I quite like the song, too. ↩

Review

“The Tenth Island”

Diana Marcum

“Travel” is a new book genre to me, and it may be a dangerous one, because about 2/3 of the way through I finally sighed and admitted to myself that I now want to visit the Azores, and added them to the list. Helpfully, I’ve even got a few notes about where specifically to go and what things might be good to visit. Broadly speaking, as described in the book, the Azores are something like Hawaii, but with the old-world European cultural flavor. There was a remark at one point about “in the village where I was staying, the garbage truck was pulled by a mule,” is the idea.

As a book, I found this a good read; Marcum did a really good job of bouncing back and forth between her life and the experience of being in the Azores, and provided a great deal of historical context, as well. It makes a lot of sense when you consider her background as a journalist; the Pulitzer win just locks that feeling in.

There’s a lot of short chapters, which makes for a good bit of light reading, and quite often there’s a good little life lesson or memorable moment tucked in there to end them. A collection of vignettes, rather than a single long narrative. It works well! And who doesn’t love little bits of advice, like:

When traveling, one should forget constant exploration. Go back to the same spots. You’ll be recognized as a familiar face and you’ll discover more.

It was a fun read, nice and light, and I enjoyed it. Check it out!¹

This is a Bookshop affiliate link – if you buy it from here, I get a little bit of commission. It won’t hurt my feelings if you buy it elsewhere; honestly, I’d rather you check it out from your local library, or go to a local book store. I use Bookshop affiliate links instead of Amazon because they distribute a significant chunk of their profits to small, local book stores. ↩

Tags Diana Marcum, nonfiction, travel

Music

“slowdown”

Post author By Grey
Post date 2024-01-20
No Comments on “slowdown”

We got snowed in recently. On the scale of being snowed in, it wasn’t particularly dramatic, but on the scale of being snowed in in Oregon it was a lot more than we’re ever really prepared for.

Anyhow, I decided that, what with all my weekend plans being canceled with prejudice, I might as well spend some time with Logic Pro on my iPad.¹ And I actually wound up with something that I liked! So, after a several-year long gap I’ve now published a second single.

Part of the fun was that this was a one-day project. The title was really a reminder to myself, to slow down, enjoy the feeling of making something, and not get over my skis² and try to make it perfect. And it, at least sorta, worked! Are there things I’d like to keep tinkering with and changing? Yes, of course. Am I going to let myself do that ad infinitum? No, I decided, I won’t.

Anyhow, give it a listen; I hope you’ll enjoy!

Please don’t ask me how long it’s been on there. The answer, in combination with the fact that it is a paid subscription, is embarrassing. ↩
What, did you expect me to not make a single snow day pun? (Fun fact: the alternate title was “snowday”, but I was told that sounded ‘too cheerful’ for what this piece is.) ↩

Review

“What If? 2”

Randall Munroe

One of the tropes of the internet that I really enjoy is the concept of “relevant xkcd”. As it turns out, when you spend nearly two decades publishing three comics a week, you wind up covering a staggering variety of topics, to the point that pretty much any topic will have a relevant xkcd to link to. And, in thinking about that, I’m amazed all over again at Randall Munroe’s work; there is so much xkcd. Thousands of comics… and they aren’t always stick figure things, a few times a year it’ll some sort of complex piece of software, or a gigantic world to explore, or some other exploration of what a “webcomic” really is in light of the technology of the web.

Anyhow, that’s all a digression, because in the spare time he’s apparently got from all of the above, he’s also had time to write a couple books, and all the ones I’ve read are delightful. A couple years later, I’m back to report on the sequel of the last one I reviewed, and it’s… exactly what the title implies. More “absurd hypothetical questions,” answered with a great deal of research. “Can a person eat a whole cloud?” Well, that depends — are you squeezing the air out first? If so, you can! If not, definitely no, and you may actually wind up dehydrated amidst a larger cloud than you started with.

It’s all things like that, and it really shows that Munroe is, in his way, a very effective science communicator. This feels like a great book to give to a curious kid to encourage that curiosity, and get them to ask some really interesting questions in class.¹ It’s a delight, and, in the truest sense, fun for all ages. I absolutely loved this book; give it a read.²

And, based on the notes in some of the questions submitted, a great many of those will quickly be directed back to Munroe, for a continuation of the series. ↩
This is a Bookshop affiliate link – if you buy it from here, I get a little bit of commission. It won’t hurt my feelings if you buy it elsewhere; honestly, I’d rather you check it out from your local library, or go to a local book store. I use Bookshop affiliate links instead of Amazon because they distribute a significant chunk of their profits to small, local book stores. ↩

Tags comedy, nonfiction, Randall Munroe, science

Review

“Doctor Alien”

Rajnar Vajra

I’m really starting to like this ‘small, episodic’ format—it makes it easy to get into things quickly, and also provides clear points at which you can notice that you have once again stayed up too late reading and need to go to bed so you can function tomorrow.

This sorta reminded me of reading, like, an old Sherlock Holmes thing. Or, maybe, Elementary, rather than classic Sherlock Holmes, because of that episodic (and modernized!) vibe. Each one has a nice amount of mystery going on, that feeling that you’re racing the protagonist to figure out what’s really going on. And done in that very satisfying way, too; in the first story, I figured out Patient #1 almost immediately, and felt quite happy when my suspicion was eventually confirmed.¹

The introductory material felt a bit overly-congratulatory, but I found myself agreeing with it eventually. Vajra did a really great job of creating interesting aliens—not only is there a very impressive amount of variety in the physical appearances of the aliens, but there’s also some fun cultural differences on display as well. That latter aspect feels like it’s a rich vein for exploring that hasn’t been nearly thoroughly explored enough, but the former, this may be one of the best explorations of this “aliens can be weird” thing I’ve ever seen.² The aliens are, truly, weird; even with the visual descriptions, there’s a couple that my brain just gave up on trying to visualize, and I wound up as that parable about blind men arguing about what an elephant is.

The third story did a great job of tying things together, and felt like a reasonable close to the series. There’s definitely room for more, if desired, but in these three pieces we’ve got a complete arc, and I was quite satisfied with the ending. Plus, it just had a great sense of cosmic wonder to it, which is a great note to end on. Hopeful science fiction! This is what I want to read.

Overall, I really enjoyed this; it’s a fairly quick read, and manages to hold onto that ”god bless you, old sci fi, you had such high hopes for us”³ kind of vibe while also, like, knowing that cell phones exist. Striking a great balance. Give it a read.⁴

Spoiler:“She’s a baby!” I muttered to myself, over and over, as I read that one. ↩
The other contender I can think of is Robert L. Forward’s Rocheworld series — between the flouwen and the icerugs, he’s got some really interesting alien lifeforms as well. ↩
↩
This is a Bookshop affiliate link – if you buy it from here, I get a little bit of commission. It won’t hurt my feelings if you buy it elsewhere; honestly, I’d rather you check it out from your local library, or go to a local book store. I use Bookshop affiliate links instead of Amazon because they distribute a significant chunk of their profits to small, local book stores. ↩

Tags fiction, Rajnar Vajra, science fiction

Playlist

Playlist of the Month: December 2023

Post author By Grey
Post date 2024-01-01
No Comments on Playlist of the Month: December 2023

Happy new year!

How It Was – Yoste on A Few Brief Moments – EP

twentyfive – Yoste on twentyfive – Single

Save Me – Majik on It’s Alright / Save Me – Single

Friends – Yoste on Friends – Single

Kahan (Last Year) [feat. Kodak Black] – Fred again.. on Actual Life 2 (February 2 – October 15 2021)

gatsby – Daniel Leggs on gatsby – Single

If You Want Somebody – Elderbrook on Little Love

Oslo – Yoste on Oslo – Single

I Don’t Want To Lie – Yoste & Vandelux on I Don’t Want To Lie – Single

Hallelujah Anyway – Luke Sital-Singh on Hallelujah Anyway – Single

Titanic – Atli on Epilogue Of Something Beautiful

Lazy – Elliot Moss on Lazy – Single

Call Your Mom – Noah Kahan on Stick Season (We’ll All Be Here Forever)

Bad Dancer – Slopes on Bad Dancer – EP

Into the Night – Thorin Loeks on Into the Night – Single

What Was I Made For? (From The Motion Picture “Barbie”) – Billie Eilish on What Was I Made For? (From The Motion Picture “Barbie”) – Single

Jericho – Iniko on Jericho – Single

Hoo Art ‘n Hevan – Moko on Two46 – Single

For My Help (Rework) – Hayden Calnin on Of Collingwood (Reworks) – Single

Coal – Dylan Gossett on No Better Time – EP

Trauma Queen (LC Version) – Durry on Trauma Queen (LC Version) – Single

Want You – Yoste on Want You – Single

Crazy in the Night (Barking at Airplanes) – Kim Carnes on Best of Kim Carnes

Tell a Lie – Ed Prosek on The Foreigner – EP

The Queen of Everything – Emmit Fenn on How to Fly on the Ground

Machine Learning – J. Maya on Machine Learning – Single

Bette Davis Eyes – Kim Carnes on Best of 80s

Trouble In Your Eyes – Yoste on Trouble In Your Eyes – Single

Where We’ve Been – Thorin Loeks on The Light – EP

Did I Mention I’m Sorry – Petey on USA

Holy Grail (feat. Justin Timberlake) – JAY-Z on Magna Carta… Holy Grail

The Freedom to F**k Off – Petey on USA

Righteous – Juice WRLD on Legends Never Die

find it – Wrabel on chapter of you – EP

DON’T TELL THE BOYS – Petey on Lean Into Life

Holy Ghost and Hallelujah – flora cash on Our Generation

don’t be so hard on yourself – Wrabel on chapter of you – EP

The King – Anjimile on The King

All My Life (feat. Kid Cudi) – 1017 ALYX 9SM on COMPILATION V1

Beneath Oak Trees – Dylan Gossett on No Better Time – EP

COCKTAIL D’AMORE – Mahmood on COCKTAIL D’AMORE – Single

The Girl That Never Was – James Blunt on Who We Used To Be (Deluxe)

You Haunt Me (Amtrac Remix) – Sir Sly on You Haunt Me (Remixes) – EP

Everglades – Elliot Moss on Everglades – Single

Summer – Yoste on A Place To Exist

Escapar – Enrique Iglesias on Escape

London – Yoste on A Place To Exist

Blue Marbled Elm Trees – King Creosote on I DES

I Get You – Yoste on A Place To Exist

The King’s Affirmation – Iniko on The King’s Affirmation – Single

Sentimental – SYML on Sentimental – Single

Love to See You Cry – Enrique Iglesias on Escape

Without You – Yoste on A Place To Exist

Protégé – Yoke Lore on Toward a Never Ending New Beginning

Casey – Jordan Klassen on Marginalia

Hearts Lose – Elliot Moss on Hearts Lose – Single

x – Charles Fauna on x – Single

Carolina Lies – All The Damn Vampires, Pensacola Mist & Andy James on Carolina Lies – Single

Can I Ask – Yoste on A Place To Exist

Auld Lang Syne – Sleeping At Last on Auld Lang Syne – Single¹

I’m Gonna Cry – Vide on I’m Gonna Cry – Single

Lovin On Me – Jack Harlow on Lovin On Me – Single

The Light – Thorin Loeks on The Light – EP

Northern Attitude – Noah Kahan & Hozier on Northern Attitude – Single

Midnight (re-Vamped Edition) – The Motion Epic on Midnight (re-Vamped Edition)

Beholding – S. Carey, John Raymond, Aaron Parks & Chris Morrissey on Shadowlands

Say Don’t Go (Taylor’s Version) [From The Vault] – Taylor Swift on 1989 (Taylor’s Version)

Hide & Seek – Amber Run on Spark EP

O Come, All Ye Faithful – Pentatonix on A Pentatonix Christmas

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen – Pentatonix on A Pentatonix Christmas

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing – Pentatonix on That’s Christmas To Me

White Winter Hymnal – Pentatonix on That’s Christmas To Me

That’s Christmas To Me – Pentatonix on That’s Christmas To Me

Mary, Did You Know? – Pentatonix on That’s Christmas To Me²

Lost Again – Yoste on A Place To Exist

Ten Feet Tall (feat. Wrabel) – AFROJACK on Forget the World (Deluxe Version)

It’s Sin That’s Got Its Hold Upon Us – King Creosote on I DES

Used To – Tep No on Used To – Single

Meaning – Nick Broadhurst on Meaning – Single

Angels Hold Me – Surf Mesa, SUPER-Hi & Yami on Come True

Your Love – Daniel Etienne & H. Kenneth on Your Love – Single

Anymore – Ed Tullett on Lack Thereof

leavemealone – Fred again.. & Baby Keem on leavemealone – Single

My Innocence – Corey Harper on My Innocence – Single³

i’m tired – flora cash on i’m tired – Single

Ibiza (feat. Romeo Santos) – Ozuna on Aura

Antes de Morirme (feat. Rosalía) – C. Tangana on Antes de Morirme (feat. Rosalía) – Single

Pretty fitting track – as I write this up, I’m in Edinburgh for Hogmanay! ↩
Possibly my favorite Christmas song. “O Come, All Ye Faithful” is also up there, but I keep wanting to do the Latin lyrics. ↩
“I’ll make the excuse that maybe I was abused/ Or maybe then I’d have to actually believe it this time” ↩

Review

“Ocean of Storms”

Christopher Mari, Jeremy K. Brown

Picked at random out of my library of science fiction ebooks, and came up with a good one! The general vibe I have of this book is that, while it could use one more pass from a good editor, it’s got solid bones; the plot tracks fairly well, and feels engaging all the way through, and I was delighted to find that I couldn’t predict the ending ahead of time.

My notes to the authors, should they ever read them:

There’s a little of “as you know, Bob” at times—the explanation of the difference between a fission and fusion reactor felt a bit silly, given that it was happening on the moon. By the time you’re there, you’ve probably picked up enough background knowledge about science in general to get the concept.
Not every story needs a romance arc!¹ The first time around I actually, for the benefit of nobody but myself, pantomimed gagging. It felt forced, and also highlighted how thoroughly male-dominated the cast is.²
The pacing feels a bit odd towards the end—about 50 pages from the end, I started wondering if this was going to end on a cliffhanger to set up the next book.³

Editing notes aside, however, I really enjoyed it! I should come up with some kind of pseudo-award to give out to books that successfully trick me into staying up late reading; this would be a winner. And really, what higher praise can I give? Give it a read.⁴

Well, if you’re writing a romance novel, maybe it does — although, come to think of it, a romance novel without a love story does sound like a pretty interesting exploration of genre. ↩
The president being a woman is a nice touch, but a) I can’t recall her actually having a name other than “the President”, and b) I don’t think she ever talks to another woman, so, there goes the Bechdel test. ↩
Spoiler: It didn’t, the book actually tied things together reasonably well; while it feels like there’s still room for more, it’s less “second movie” and more “spin-off TV series” territory. ↩
This is a Bookshop affiliate link – if you buy it from here, I get a little bit of commission. It won’t hurt my feelings if you buy it elsewhere; honestly, I’d rather you check it out from your local library, or go to a local book store. I use Bookshop affiliate links instead of Amazon because they distribute a significant chunk of their profits to small, local book stores. ↩

Tags Christopher Mari, fiction, Jeremy K. Brown, science fiction

Review

“The John McPhee Reader”

John McPhee

To date, The Control of Nature remains my favorite McPhee book, and the one I’m most likely to recommend to a new reader, but this is a very strong contender. It is, as the title implies, something of a sampler platter of his work; subsections of a variety of pieces, and as a result, covering a far broader topic area than any of his other books. The books are usually more focused, tied around a single theme; in this one, that single theme is John McPhee.

It’s a broader swathe of his work than I’ve read before; if you skim through what I’ve read of his in the past, it definitely has that naturalist perspective locked in, but I haven’t spent time with his “focus on a single person” type things, or his sports coverage. It’s an interesting change of pace; I don’t really expect I’m going to dive into those as much as I have the outdoors, but I won’t go out of my way to avoid it, either.¹

One part really captured me, and immediately added a book to my wish list: the excerpt from The Curve of Binding Energy. Somehow I hadn’t yet found out that he did an entire piece on the progenitor of Project Orion. My favorite nonfiction author, writing about one of my favorite topics? Sign me up.

Overall, I continue to love everything McPhee wrote. I’ve got another of his books in my queue, but I’m deliberately holding off on it, trying to space them out. If I haven’t yet convinced you to read some of his work, give this one a try; it is, like I said, a great introduction to his writing.²

And I figure I will eventually read his entire oeuvre, it does seem to be what I’m working my way towards at this point. ↩
This is a Bookshop affiliate link – if you buy it from here, I get a little bit of commission. It won’t hurt my feelings if you buy it elsewhere; honestly, I’d rather you check it out from your local library, or go to a local book store. I use Bookshop affiliate links instead of Amazon because they distribute a significant chunk of their profits to small, local book stores. ↩

Tags John McPhee, nonfiction

Review

“Urban Trails: Portland”

Eli Boschetto

This was something of an impulse buy, but in the spirit of something I’ve been trying to do more of lately: ‘be a tourist in your own city.’ Get out and explore, find new things that you didn’t know about, generally just get yourself out your ruts.

Now, I’m aware that this post is going up at maybe not the best time of year for being outdoors in the Pacific Northwest, but that’s not a permanent state of affairs, and it’s a perfectly reasonable time to start putting together a todo list for nicer weather. And hey, some people are into the rainy-and-cold outdoorsmanship!¹

Regardless, this was a fun read, and I’ve definitely taken notes for areas I’d like to explore myself. I also had the chance to do some of the exploring already—as I’m writing this, it’s the afternoon of a day where I spent the morning wandering around Hoyt Arboretum, entirely on the recommendation of this book. It’s a good little piece of reference material, and I recommend it!² I’m also looking at another book by the same publisher about biking in Portland, because the mentions of biking in this one are something of an afterthought.

I am not one of those people, but I’m told they exist. ↩
This is a Bookshop affiliate link – if you buy it from here, I get a little bit of commission. It won’t hurt my feelings if you buy it elsewhere; honestly, I’d rather you check it out from your local library, or go to a local book store. I use Bookshop affiliate links instead of Amazon because they distribute a significant chunk of their profits to small, local book stores. ↩

Tags Eli Boschetto, Mountaineers Books, nonfiction

Review

“L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 31”

Post author By Grey
Post date 2023-12-09
No Comments on “L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Volume 31”

(Various authors)

I’m not a big fan of the whole ‘death of the author’ thing, and this book really drove home just why I feel that way. It’s a great example of it, really. It’s a collection of stories written by different authors, so surely we can view it separately from the name on the cover, right?

But to set aside the name on the cover, you have to set aside a great deal of context. The people choosing which stories made it into this collection… work for the L. Ron Hubbard foundation. They chose to work there. They looked at that name, and the legacy of it, and thought “yes, I want to be associated with this.” And, a step beyond that, everyone who submitted a story to this contest did so having, again, looked at the name L. Ron Hubbard and thought “yeah, I’m fine with being associated with that.”

That’s a lot of context to throw away, is it not? And it provides a certain amount of explanation for why some of these stories were the way they were. There’s one in here that reminded me of what I don’t like about Orson Scott Card—it treats the female protagonist as if her only purpose for existence is to make babies. Given that the setting feels like it started from the inspiration “what if Handmaiden’s Tale, but in space?” it takes some gall to have the story end with “anyways then she found the right man and they had kids and then happily ever after!”

When it comes to science fiction, I’d rather read hopeful things. This anthology did not deliver on that; I think the most hopeful story in there was one that’s a man in a mental institution, starting to recover from the fact that his sister responded to their parents dying by trying to murder him for the inheritance. Cheery!

Unlike most of my reviews, I’m not gonna end this with a call to action. This wasn’t a good book. Don’t pick it up—Hubbard’s legacy doesn’t deserve that kind of support. Go look for an anthology of queer fiction instead, those are usually better.

Tags anthology, science fiction