Cynical Monkey

I have been reading my way through the Hugo award winning novels for the past 3 years. Cyteen was a novel I was always apprehensive about reading because of its length. After reading Downbelow Station and encountering Cherryh’s writing style I became even more concerned. Cyteen was everything I feared but it was also something more than I expected.

Cherryh’s writing style makes me angry, there is something about the way she mutilates a sentence that makes no sense to me. I don’t understand how a decent editor could overlook the low quality of this writing. Two quick examples, “You or I don’t have to have done anything.”, “They’re not a hell of a lot careful.” Although these sentences are not completely devoid of meaning they both really break my flow when I’m reading. To compound the prose problem, the novel was long and drawn out with many undeveloped and unnecessary side plots and confusing details that didn’t seem to contribute to the story.

Cyteen’s story was a very slow starter for me. I was more than 300 pages into reading it before I felt consistently motivated to pick the book up, but after that I was seldom without the novel. I thought that although the book made a decent political thriller it fell a bit short in the science fiction category. I don’t understand why tt took a setting at a distant star system 300 years in the future to conceive of a political thriller based around cloning. Why go so far when all you need is Earth 10 years from now, and then you would have a story with much more urgent and relevant underpinnings.

In the end I was quite captivated by the story, the way it build slowly and never slows until it all resolves in the final few paragraphs was truly enjoyable story telling. Adding up all of it flaws and flourishes I give it a decent 3/5.

I have been considering creating a blog for a while. Actually this is my third attempt (some of my old posts are below), but I would like to think that it is my first serious attempt.

So why am I writing to you my hypothetical reader? I’m certain that I don’t have too many interesting things to say. I know that making this admission may sound a bit defeatist. My main goal is not to impress but to experiment with the blogging medium and to practice writing with an audience in mind. You might call it exercise for my writing skills.

I will try to write regularly about topics that interest me. I’m hoping that I will be able to post at least once a week. Currently my interests include software development, running, science fiction, and food. I’m sure I will concentrate on many other topics as well.

If you do take the time to read my blog, thank you and don’t hesitate to comment or get in touch.

Person- Law. A human or organization with legal rights and duties.

How did a Corporation become a person (Corporate_personhood). I know I am a person. My brother is a person too. All the “People” I know are persons. How could the law be so twisted and wisdom of the judicial system so lacking. What delusional… idiots could take interpretation of the law so far as to arrive at this conclusion.

“Well technically…”, I don’t care about legal scholarship. The laws of the US were based on ideals and principals. Those ideals and principals are the primary formalization. In my mind, the established laws are simply a secondary formalization that’s a bit easier to apply consistently. When the secondary system differs radically from the primary, the secondary system should be corrected. I don’t care about legal positivism and other excuses that law professionals throw out to justify the historical acts of their profession. If it doesn’t make sense throw it out.

Memetics is the subject of a book that I am reading. The basic idea is that like genes there are ideas or thoughts that are replicated and selected for fitness. These memes spread by human imitation and communication. Memes are selected for their ability to capture our attention in the face of other competing memes, and for their ability to induce in us the need to spread these ideas. A meme is that catchy tune that you can’t stop humming and everybody around you humming it now too. The hard part about accepting this is the fact that we don’t control these memes, in fact the good memes control us. You didn’t mean to hum that tune in a meeting and get it stuck in everybody else’s head. It robs you of a little bit of your free will.

So I was sitting in the dentists office today and that hygienist says don’t worry this won’t hurt. I thought to myself of course it won’t, you don’t need to tell me that. When has it ever really been painful to get your teeth cleaned, but then it happened I got scared and winced as she started. Of course it didn’t really hurt. The painful dentist meme was taking control, in the face of a professional reassurance, my collective experience, and my rationalization I still winced. That’s pretty powerful for just an idea. It makes you wonder what’s really running the show up in your head.

I think that somebody should invent car tires that were hooked to your turn signal switch so that if you change lanes without your signal your tires would explode. Sure there would be a few accidents at first but people would learn fast.

I just got a PDA a CLIE PEG-TH55. I have been standing on the PDA sidelines for quite a few years. I’m sure that may of you are in the same position, can’t really justify the cost against the benefits. I finally just broke down and got one. I’m really surprised at the use that I’m getting out of the thing. I was pretty skeptical, thinking that it would just be a fun toy few days and they I would put it down. I have been using it everyday for three weeks now. I love keeping lists but I always manage to lose my list, having a $350 list you are not as apt to lose it. lol

The thing plays MP3’s you might guess that it is no IPOD but it does well for what I need. It also has a built in digital camera, which is excellent for its purpose taking quick pictures for display on a palm top device. The planner application is nice, but more than anything I play solitaire.

If any of you have suggestions on a good PalmOS Java VM to use. I’m still a little murky on the whole J2ME ecosystem. So many different mobile profiles and different specs. I could definitely use help in that area. I did however get a fun little Scheme implementation, and I have been playing around with that.

If you enjoy the outdoors and you haven't tried disk golf yet you're missing out. I'm from Madison Wisconsin and at least in my area we have a lot of courses springing up. If you aren't familiar with the sport it's golf with a frisbee. Instead of a hole there is a basket. The courses are usually in wooded areas with elevation changes. The disks you use are smaller than frisbees, and are chosen based of aerodynamics (glide, speed, and fade). Glide is hang time, more glide is more precise and longer throwing but more affected by wind. Speed goes hand and hand with glide but faster disks can drive farther and are less affected by the wind, but they are harder to throw accurately. Fade is the tendency of the disk to go left of right at the end of its flight path.

Basically it's a walk in the woods throwing a frisbee, but I never realized how fun it was until I tried it. If you enjoy the outdoors you should give it a try.

Restless man’s mind is,
So strongly shaken
In the grip of the senses;

Gross and grown hard
With stubborn desire
For what is worldly.

How shall I tame it?
Truly, I think
The wind is no wilder.

-Arjuna to Krishna

This reality TV craze has been bothering me for a long time. Most of these programs are unethical, and anti-social.

I've had many discussions with friends about reality TV's ethical considerations. Most of the tune-in factor is the emotional nature of the interactions. The problem is that viewers are treating other people’s exploitations as entertainment. Sure the people on these shows are consenting but when is the consented exploitation of individuals for entertainment really any different than prostitution? The only difference that I see is that reality TV is more socially acceptable. The people on these shows have their different motivations; money, fame, or what-ever, but in the end they are attempting to achieve these goals through exploitation. I think that it is morally wrong to contribute to this exploitation by providing a viewership.

I think that these shows are also very anti-social. Conversations that I have are quickly turning from satisfying into in-depth analysis of Boston Rob's survivor strategy. I remember a quote and I can't find it's source but it goes, “Small people talk about people, medium people talk about events, and big people talk about ideas.” I'm seeing “Big” people all around me turning into small shallow people. People are starting to find the excitement in their own lives by watching fabricated events on TV. I would rather watch something educational or socially redeeming, but I can’t because of all of this reality TV drivel.

I can only hope that the sensational nature of reality TV is going to be its undoing. These shows are going to have to one up each other until they reach a level that the people are going to reject them. In the mean time I will remain a strong critic.