In early 2020, it became really difficult to read books. I'm slowly starting to get past that at last, but while Goodreads was super fun for a few years, right now tracking and counting and rating just makes reading feel like a chore and Not Fun as a hobby. I still would like to keep a record of what I read, though. And I used to write book reviews on this blog before getting onto Goodreads. It seems like a nice way to keep a record of what I read without it becoming a number thing. I'll probably still write Goodreads reviews for small authors since I know it can help, but I feel less pressed ..read more

The Bands of Mourning (Mistborn, #6) by Brandon Sanderson I really enjoyed it. Artemis by Andy Weir This wasn't a book for me. The main character is completely unlikable and most characters are one-dimensional. The plot is alright, it's similar to the Martian: problem? Solution! Oops, solution had problems! Etc, which has its ups and downs. The one cool thing that kept me going was Artemis, the city on the moon and how it works, how it all could work and develop. Really cool and dreamy. Another positive point is that it's really easy to skip ahead. Long technical explanation of how or why some ..read more

How to Be a Stoic: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Living by Massimo Pigliucci This works really well as a follow-up to Irvine's "Guide to the Good Life" (and actually references it in a few places.) The book examines some modern issues as well as timeless questions, and uses quotes from Epictetus to look for answers. Insightful. The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life by Mark Manson The author can really lay it on thick with the language sometimes, and the speaking in absolutes only, but y'know, I decided not to give a f*ck and to focus on the message ..read more

The Fractal Prince (Jean le Flambeur, #2) by Hannu Rajaniemi I look at my review for the first book and see delight and enthusiasm. Reading the Quantum Thief was hard work but getting to understand the world and the characters that inhabit it was such a reward, brought such enchantment. Reading the Fractal Prince felt like hard work and that's about it. I had some vague curiosity about one of the characters but everyone else felt so flat. Most interactions felt so negative. Most descriptions felt so confusing. There was nothing for me in this book. Maybe there is a particular mood that's requi ..read more

Bonds of Brass (The Bloodright Trilogy, #1) by Emily Skrutskie An easy-to-read space romance. The mutual pining starts strong from the start and it was just fun to read. The worldbuilding is super interesting and I really, really enjoyed how the politics and moral dilemmas are slowly introduced and explored. What life is like when your country was conquered and colonised. There are no good compromises and you can feel how sick it makes the narrator feel, that no matter what decision they make people will get hurt and die. The Found Family vibes were excellent whenever they popped up but then a ..read more

Three years since my last post, haha. And a couple of hardware failures in the meantime, too. Let's see if I remember how to get set up with Pelican. I dropped off Twitter a while back, but Mastodon is giving me hopeful vibes (could just be the "new-to-me site" feeling, of course!). Either way, wanting to add a link to my Mastodon profile and get rid of the Twitter one has motivated me to dust off this repository. It feels nostalgic to see a RSS feed link in my footer. I suspect I'm not the only one hungering again for a more decentralised web again. Or more like, it never went away but it got ..read more

Whoops! Clearly I'm never going to finish writing up my notes for the conference last year. Better post what I got even if incomplete, before the next one begins :-) I couldn't get a discounted ticket this year and won't be attending. Have fun, everyone there! I was lucky enough to be able to attend UXDX this year as well, thanks to a discounted ticket and my employer kindly allowing me the day off. The venue was again the RDS, with the lovely room that's lined up with actual real books. UXDX is an interesting conferences, that aims to bring down barriers between User Experience and Developer ..read more