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I write words that make computers do things.
Inspired by XKCD's Up-Goer Five, there's a meme going around where people try to describe their jobs (or other technical subjects) using only the thousand most common words in English. The Up-Goer Five Text Editor is quite useful for this. So here's my attempt.
I write words to make computers do what I want them to do. This is hard because ( Read more... ) -
Still Alive
I've posted exactly once since my son was born, and that was a brief bit about NaNoWriMo (which I've since utterly failed). I guess I've been too busy living life to spend much time talking about it ( Read more... ) -
Hey, I remember this thing!
I've been in pretty heavy lurker-mode lately, but November does strange things.
That's right - it's National Novel Writing Month! I'm working on a higher difficulty level than usual this year, what with having an 8 (soon to be 9!) month old son at home. So nightsinger and I have decided to aim for a "starting goal" of 30,000 words, and shoot for 50,000 if ( Read more... ) -
Books 39-51
39. Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach
40. I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells
41-42. The Unwritten, vols. 1-2 by Mike Carey and Peter Gross
43. Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson
44. Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey
45. Hexaflexagons and Other Mathematical Diversions by Martin Gardner
46. Time Lord: Sir ( Read more... ) -
Books: ASoIaF
34-38. A Song of Ice and Fire, books 1-5 by George R. R. Martin
Finished this a month or two ago, but I'm running behind on my book posts.
( Let's just head right into spoiler-land, shall we? ) -
Books 30-33: More Hugo Reading
30. Feed by Mira Grant
31. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin
32-33. Blackout/All Clear by Connie Willis
These were the other novels (besides Cryoburn that I read for the Hugo ballot this year. I also started Dervish House by Ian McDonald, but set it down because it didn't engage me very well and I wanted to get on with the rest of the ( Read more... ) -
Books 14-29, etc
Books
14. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville
15-29. The Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold (15 novels; various novellas)
Perdido Street Station was pretty entertaining. Mieville's excellent at creating stories deeply soaked in a sense of place without ever making the exposition and description so thick that the story itself drags to a ( Read more... ) -
Books 1-13
Haven't been getting a lot of reading done this year, since I've been spending a fair bit of my bus time coding. I think it's short-review time.
1-6. Codex Alera by Jim Butcher
7. Everything Is Going to Kill Everybody by Robert Brockway
8. Shogun by James Clavell
9. Pregnancy, Childbirth, and the Newborn by Penny Simkin et al.
10-13. Percy ( Read more... ) -
Tonight, on Anime Club:
Our host: "Here, have episode one of Star Driver!"
Star Driver: *flashy lights, explosions, unexplained backstory, and a magical boy driving a robot with a fucking plumed tricorn*
Us: "W. T. ....F."
This show is the crackiest crack that I've ever cracked.
And I want more.
Damn you. -
Books 74-76 (goal met!)
74. A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller
75. Variable Star by Robert Heinlein and Spider Robinson
76. Turing: A Novel of Computation by Christos Papadimitriou
75 was my goal. Hooray!
A Canticle for Leibowitz was technically a reread, as I first read it in my science-fiction literature class in college. But it was definitely worth coming ( Read more... )