Lifejournaling, also I talk a bunch about books

[sorcyress]

Stuff done today: I slept in, I slept in longer, I went to the bookstore, bought some books for class, and printed off a copy of the most recent MCAS for my teaching secondary math class. Then I took the MCAS which was unsurprisingly simple --I kick the asses of standardized tests on a bad day, and something aimed at an average _tenth_ grader? Yeah, I could've eaten this for breakfast in middle school, and probably done just as well as I did today.

The real fun comes before next class, when we go over the test and discuss all the false answers, and how a student would pick them and such and such. Also, we will probably be all "why are there eight million questions on mean, median, and mode?" and the professor will be "um...the test is weird?". Because that seemed to be the answer this week.

Anyways, I like this class, and I like the professor, and although we have such an amazingly clear self-selected divide between "undergrad students" and "grad students", I already like several people in the class who I will probably be randomly working with, including at least one I didn't already know. So points!

My other two classes that I've had so far are...less spectacular. We'll see if either gets more interesting as the semester progresses.

The only other thing I accomplished today was finishing Seanan McGuire's "A Local Habitation" which I started a couple days ago. Between this and "Tales from the Securemarket", it suddenly seems like I could actually get points for Just Read More Novels Month, which is rare --I read novels⁰ much less often than anyone thinks I do (or ought) and it is a habit I like getting back into. Bringing books to meals is a huge help, as is time spent on public transit. Huzzah!

(Next up is An Artificial Night, followed by any other Toby Daye novels if there are some and I can borrow them, or possibly some Harry Dresden, because really, fantasy noir is such an _excellent_ genre. Post Dresden will have to be something not-noir though, because as fun as the books have been (I have read three so far), they really are noir-intense in such a manner that I need breathers in between. But like all lit-geeks, I could easily lay my hands on a dozen¹ books I'd like to read some point soon, so I doubt I'll lack for choices.)

And I think the footnotes make this a more than complete post, so we're gonna call it done. I still have many many things to do to get this semester rolling (JOB.) but at least I feel a little more capable. Not having purely awful classes helps.

~Sor
MOOP!

0: I read often, but the internet has supplanted what exactly I read. Blog posts and journaling are big, and I'm finding I actually enjoy long-form fiction on the laptop, like reading straight through fifty chapters of Methods of Rationality, or when I got a copy of Machine of Death.

1: From my seat at my desk I can see World War Z, The Once and Future King, The Pirates! In an Adventure with Communists, A Clockwork Orange, HG Wells' The Time Machine (which reminds me I should finish 20000 Leagues), Bradbury's Dandelion Wine, Starcross (of which I read the first book and it was wonderful fun), Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency², The Lost World, Looking for Alaska, The King of Elfland's Daughter, Lies of Locke Lamora, Furies of Calderon, the prequel to Anasazi Boys, which I just remembered I left in Maryland half read, crap, have to visit the library to pick that back up, and House of Leaves. Which is fifteen. And I have a rough idea of which I want to read first (that list basically goes "Modesty Blaise" --seriously, if there's anyone in the Boston area who would be willing to trust a well-meaning but scatterbrained³ college girl with the Modesty Blaise books, I will love you forever-- followed by "things I can actually get my hands on".

And the future trip to the library to get Anasazi Boys (and pick up Danica McKellar's "Math Doesn't Suck" and "Kiss My Math" to hopefully use as the "pick a text relevant to your field!" section of boring-education-class) reminds me that I meant to order some of the Lovejoy books through inter-library loan, because someone in the Fenway system has them, I know because I researched this when I first read Gold by Gemini.

At any rate, that list never counts the books that I would like to reread, which currently includes the first two ASoUE books, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy trilogy⁴, and oh...Pirate's Mixed Up Voyage, Adventures of Blue Avenger, the usual.

I wonder if the library has the (less good, I hear) sequels to Blue Avenger. Research must be done!

2: I...am always hesitant about the idea of reading this. As long as there exists works of his that I haven't read, Douglas Adams isn't really dead.

3: Which is to say, I will fully intend to read them immediately and return them promptly, but there is life in the way, and I might get distracted or busy, and it will take a while to get them back into your hands. But I am good at remembering who owns what of the borrowed pile, even when it's been like...two years. (Oh hi Spence, speaking of the Dresden Files...)

4: This trilogy probably consists of four books, the last of which is more of a different story set in the same universe, and a short story. I may reread Mostly Harmless, just to check, but I think I'm okay with four novels.

There is no sixth book in the trilogy. Why would you ever say something like that? Are you trying to get my nerdrage on? I honestly have very little of it⁵, but a healthy chunk of what I do have is devoted to keeping the memories of a very weird and formative time in my life and one of my most crucial relationships absolutely untainted. This means Eoin Colfer has never touched the Hitchhikers Trilogy, except in capacity as reader.

5: jere7my's butchery of Lady GaGa aside...

Comments

[blaisepascal]

Have you read "The Private Life of Ghengis Khan", "The Meaning of Liff", "A Christmas Fairly Story", "Last Change to See" or "The Long, Dark, Tea Time of the Soul"? If not, then feel free to read "Dirk Gently", as there will remain DA works you haven't read.

I've not read "Ghengis Khan" or "Christmas Fairly Story" myself. And I'm not even counting unpublished/unfinished works which may have been adapted/completed by third parties ("Doctor Who and Shada", the unofficial novelization out of New Zealand?)

What is your opinion (as in: is it part of the Trilogy) of "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe"?

[jere7my.livejournal.com]

Do you need a copy of Anasazi Boys or Anansi Boys? If it's the latter, you can totes borrow mine.

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

Oh damn, I meant to ask if you could bring me said copy to J&H.

Can I get you to bring it to me on Monday? Much appreciated and such.

~Sor

[jere7my.livejournal.com]

It is in my bag already.

[harena.livejournal.com]

Also, we will probably be all "why are there eight million questions on mean, median, and mode?" and the professor will be "um...the test is weird?"

This made me giggle 'cause no matter how many times anyone (and i think W currently holds the trophy for the highest number)(*totally expects Sor to launch into the mean, median, and mode of these numbers* >.>) explains to me what the heck mean, median, and mode are, and no matter how much sense it makes to me at the time, i can barely retain this information. Averages, i totally, get.. the others, (and totally unable to resist the obvious pun) are just mean to me.

for the record...

[woozle.livejournal.com]

Mean, median, and mode are technically all different types of average.

• mean is what is most commonly meant by average: add all the numbers together and divide by how many.
• median is the slightly complicated one where you sort all the numbers in your list and then take the one that's in the middle (or average the two in the middle, if the quantity of numbers you have is an even number).
• mode is where you look for the most common number, even if it's nowhere near the "average". In this series -- 1,2,3,4,100,100,100 -- the mode would be 100. Mode is only useful in certain circumstances.

We at the Other End of the Desk here at Hypertwin Central hope this is helpful ^_^

Re: for the record...

[blaisepascal]

That's just the arithmetic mean, which is what is wanted in most cases, sure. But when you are computing, say, average annual returns on investments, you need the geometric mean. If you know how fast you went on each (equidistant) leg of a journey, your average speed is computed using the harmonic mean.

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

Mean is average. I don't have anything helpful to remember this one, but mode sounds like most, and median is middle, so if you can remember what the three are, it helps to use those to keep the three straight.

~Sor

[persis.livejournal.com]

The next Toby Daye book comes out in (I think) March.

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

Oh good to know.

I have your copies of A Local Habitation and An Artificial Night, when would be a good time to give them back?

~Sor

recommendation

[woozle.livejournal.com]

You might want to snag this (http://www.amazon.com/Time-Ships-Stephen-Baxter/dp/0061056480/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1296132142&sr=1-1) so you will have it ready to dive right into after finishing The Time Machine. It's a sequel (and one of the few Stephen Baxter novels where most or all sentient life isn't extinguished by the end of the book).

Re: recommendation

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

I will keep that in mind when I get around to The Time Machine! Thank you.

~Sor

[macaroniandtuna.livejournal.com]

My gilt-edged "set the record straight, or at least firmly crooked" (the intro's words, by DA) version of The Guide claims five books, plus "Young Zaphod Plays It Safe."

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

The trilogy consists of four books and a short story. I don't know what these "Mostly Harmless" and "And Another Thing" of which you speak are.

~Sor

[jazzfish]

Mostly Harmless was better than I remembered it being. If you're going to reread them, it's worth a reread. Fair warning: it's as different in tone from Fish and the first three as Fish is from the first three. Mostly, it's a lot darker.

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

That's about what I figure --it's the only book I've only read once, and I figure I should give it another chance sometime.

Darker can be okay. My biggest problem with it is that it comes across so strongly as "You want another Hitchhikers book? FINE. HAVE ANOTHER FUCKING BOOK." and the expected complete lack of love for your work.

~Sor

[jazzfish]

Hm, okay. What I got out of it was "Everything sucks, the world is a lot less light-hearted and funny than it was twenty years ago when I wrote the first ones, so I'll write 'funny' but it's not going to be nearly the same 'funny' as it was."

Admittedly, I'm willing to cut it an awful lot of slack just for the Perfectly Normal Beasts.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_meej_/]

For what it's worth, in my opinion the Dresden Files novels just keep kicking more and more arse. I keep wondering how he'll top himself, and then he does.

The Codex Alera books are pretty good, but they're not as compelling to me as the Dresden ones. (Mostly because, unlike Dresden Files, there's not as much feeling of a rich world around the action; I can imagine many, many other compelling stories in the DF universe. Not so much in Alera.)

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

Awesome. I've read the first...three, I think, and I really ought to get back in touch with my local source for them (both because I'd like to return the ones I have and borrow more, and because, well, I miss him dammit!)

I understand what you mean by the Dresden files having a more compelling world. Part of why I've been loving the Toby Daye novels is because they really do have a spectacular world to run around in.

~Sor

[miriampenguin.livejournal.com]

My husband's just getting me into the Dresden Files. I have the ebooks, though I have a couple other books ahead of them that I was planning to read, and he's started me watching the episodes on Hulu. I am suitably intrigued.

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

Oh yay!

I keep forgetting there's a TV version too. Is it worth watching?

~Sor

[miriampenguin.livejournal.com]

I... am not sure. I've only watched the first 4 episodes, it only lasted 1 season, and I haven't read the books yet.

The pacing is odd sometimes, and Murphy frustrates me. It also feels like it could use more... voice? I'm not sure. Watching the show, I never really thought of it as noir, but now that you mention it as such, I see where it could be, though it doesn't quite live up to that feel. It's... understated? Yet, despite all that, I find myself intrigued by it.

I dunno. Maybe I'm spoiled by Castle* and Mentalist (and the bit of Psych I watched, I guess, too), and thus expect it to be like those, except with supernatural elements added.

I also suspect that it doesn't explain as much stuff as the books do (as evidenced by my husband's occasional commentary during the episodes).


*... Speaking of Castle, do you watch it? It seems like something you'd fancy.

[mekthehatter.livejournal.com]

I loved the series as soon as I managed to calm down the loud "That's not Dresden!" voice in my head.

[tolkienkookad.livejournal.com]

How'd you like the Lies of Locke Lamora? You know the story of my ultra cool birthday present involving that book, right?

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

Haven't read it yet, which is why it's on the list of "things to read" not the list of "things to reread".

I do know your super-awesome story! And it is super-awesome!!

~Sor