zachariah

Goodness.

2014-03-16T07:58:56Z

I got married on March 11, and when you can't be bothered to post an entry on the day of your wedding, it is perhaps time to hang up your hat as a blogger.

Were you the type to follow common sense, or rules.

But yeah, I am hitched, and happy, and there are about a hundred things worth saying about either of those facts but I won't. The facts are enough.

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Year End Book Post 2013

2014-01-07T19:35:34Z

If it's within the first week of the new year, it still counts as a year-end post. Them's the rules.

The full list is on myGoodreads shelf, but the following were the five books I enjoyed most in 2013. I'm not counting graphic novels or short stories because I tend to rate those uniformly high compared to novels.

Night Watch, by Sergei Lukyanenko -
These aren't in a particularly ordered list, though I do think Night Watch was my favorite book of the year. I'm a huge fan of the film adaptation, so no big surprise there.

Spin, by Robert Charles Wilson -
Sentience, AI, transhumanism, aliens, religion, magic...all of my favorite books included some or all of these elements. Dunno why. Spin made my head hurt, and I want to read it again. That's usually a good sign of a good book, right?

The Quantum Thief, by Hannu Rajaniemi -
This book was all over the place. I liked how literally everything had either embedded computational power or some sort of digital information significance. I loved how the book played with identity, and what it means to be who you are.

vN, by Madeline Ashby -
More AI and religion. I'm looking forward to reading iD this year.

The Habitation of the Blessed, by Catherynne Valente -
So weird. So, so weird. I wish I hadn't read this book so late in the year; it took me forever to stay sitting long enough to read it, but it was one of the most imaginative books I've ever read.

I ended up reading 56% men to 36% women, with 9% mixed. Pretty terrible compared to 2012, when I was doing the 5:1 challenge with Nay, but pretty good compared to 2011, when I had 89% to 11% in favor of men. In 2014, we're doing the 6 month challenge, so depending on how my burnout looks (I tend to read more in Spring and less in Winter), I may get near-parity. It should be interesting.

Alright, assuming I keep my normal posting schedule, I'll be back in 2015. Cheers.

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The intersection of technology and generosity.

2012-12-04T07:20:51Z

I've been planning for a year to purchase a new computer this year with my work bonus, assuming a) I get one and b) it's as big as it has been the last two years. This leaves me with a spare (ancient) computer, which I plan to gift to my nephew, who has developed an amusing Minecraft addiction. With that in mind, I just placed an order for a PC tower and cpu heatsink/fan to facilitate this transition. Combined with the swords and the mobile version of the game, Samuel is well taken care of this year. I got Aaron a Goldeneye 64 watch (gaming reference whaaat) I think he'll geek out over, so all I have left is Jonathan and Jessica. I suck at gifting, so I'm kind of flailing here. Generally we all give each other $20, so we end up getting nothing. Funny, but I'm ready to move on. So that's what's going to be on my mind for the next 10 days or so.

KJ, Sev, Ira, and Phil visited over the weekend. It was really, really fun. I'm an introvert with a hidden extrovert buried somewhere inside, so this kind of infrequent weekend is exactly what I needed.

First post in months (years?) to not be completely locked down, whaaaaat.

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It's a dull knife.

2012-01-02T03:31:17Z

Another year dead and gone. Goodbye 2011. Hello 2012. Crazy, crazy 2012. Just the election alone would make this a mad year, but we've also kind the apocalypse stuff to look forward to as well. Glee!

My reading count for 2011 is final at 9 books. Compared to the 39 of 2010, this is pretty abysmal. All I can say in my defense is that at least my count is higher than Nay's. :D

Plans for this year! They include:

Dessert project! One new dessert recipe each week. Was originally meant to be cookies only, but the inclusion of pudding can really only be a good thing.

She Wrote What? A reading challenge with Nay which will be chronicled over at Lady Business. Yet another opportunity for me to out-bookworm my partner. *diablical laughter*

And that's kind of it, I think. Gotta save plenty of time for Reddit, after all.

Happy new year, kids.

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Mm-bop

2011-08-03T17:11:08Z

This is a test. This is only a test. If this were a real journal entry you'd be far more disinterested.

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Diary of a quiet man.

2011-01-26T04:16:29Z

One of the nice things about having very very few followers on here is not needing to apologize when I use this account for testing scraps of code every now and again.

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On sleep and the timing thereof.

2011-01-25T05:54:07Z

Taking a three hour nap and getting up alert, focused and refreshed at midnight is NOT the right way to do things. Ugh, 7am is going to come early.

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Afternoon ho-hums.

2011-01-24T21:23:59Z

I should have brought 2 red bulls. -_-

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Test a rooni.

2011-01-22T03:48:24Z

haha!

2010-12-28T17:13:53Z

After actually logging into my Goodreads account, I realized there were some books I never gave Nay to add to our count. Turns out I have 39 books totaling a hair over four feet. Perhaps finishing book ten of WoT could serve a really nice purpose after all. >_>

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Yay Literacy!

2010-12-27T07:06:00Z

I'm in the middle of Crossroads of Twilight but I'm reasonably sure I'm not going to finish it before the end of the year, so my official reading count is 36 books. I really want to say I read one or two books that I subsequently forgot to add to my Goodreads list, and eventually forgot the titles of, so my count could be a little higher...but I have a tricksy memory and overactive imagination, so I may just be blowing smoke up my own bottom. We'll call it 36 just to be safe. This is pretty bloody marvelous, as it is at least four times the number of books I read last year. Sure, it falls a little flat of the 100 books I wanted to read, but now that I'm on the far side of the effort I can admit my goals were a little...lofty. Were I to stack the books up, it would reach 45 inches tall, so...not too shabby!

Next year I will of course do better. :D My goal for 2010 was essentially a yearly count. For 2011, I'm changing it to a weekly count of 100 pages. I'm hoping this will help me to avoid the monthlong patches of non-reading followed by trying to cram three books per week. I'm not sure how many books this should amount to, but Renay has an absolute smorgasbord of YA lit hanging around here, so I'll bet I can hit 50 if I try.

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THOOOM!

2010-12-05T03:55:46Z

I had to skip the chess tournament today. Apparently getting seven teeth extracted tends to leave you wanting to stay at home in bed all day. Huh! Bad news is, holy poop! SEVEN! Good news is three of them will be replaced by bridges, and it can be done almost immediately, once my insurance rolls over into the new year. The great news is I have insurance and a job that lets me finally deal with this problem. It won't be easy limiting sweets and soda for the rest of my life, especially right now since we're into the holiday season.

Mama Julia came up to cook for us and help Nay take care of me. This was pretty awesome of her!

Laundry tomorrow, but no other plans. I'll probably end up playing lots of TF2. Is it worth the $10/mo just to play this game? For now, yes it is. :D

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la di da

2010-12-02T07:25:00Z

So the year is coming to a close and all I have for it is this lousy t-shirt. Well, and some other things too I guess. I've been at $newjob for half a year now, and I've settled down into the particular flavor of business programming SAP brings to the table. I can't claim to love it, but I can do it.

I haven't done much else this year. Stopped drawing. Wimped out on my reading challenges. Gained thirty pounds. I've crawled into myself and stopped doing anything. Bad Zachariah! No cookie for me.

I am at least making an effort to not use smilies in every sentence I type. That's going pretty well. :)

Dentist appointment Friday, chess tournament Saturday. Mama Julia's apparently visiting, I'm sure I'll see her a bit. Next week...something.

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Ooh, look!

2010-01-25T06:32:06Z

I feel better.

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Finding things out.

2010-01-23T04:15:46Z

I've said before I enjoy being sick, but thinking back I'm pretty sure I've only ever said that when I was not actually sick. So now that I am, let me amend the ridiculous story I've spread by saying I enjoy being sick when it means I can take powerful, addiction-worthy painkillers and feel like God for a while. If I'm not hurting enough to take a Percocet or better, it just means I'm chewing Ibuprofen and feeling more-or-less human-ish, which is - let's face it - not generally a warm, cozy, agreeable thing to feel like. Being sick reminds me I'm constrained by this degrading flesh, and I can't imagine a single reason I would want to spend time appreciating that.

But then, I'm grumps now, so when I get better I'll probably see something shiny and dedicate a poem here to the nobility of the human condition, or something.

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Headaches all around.

2009-12-29T05:44:40Z

We're getting a new fryer at work to replace the one from 1985 that leaks and catches fire from time to time. This is the highlight of my life right now: new work appliances. :\ I'm ready for the new year, did I mention that?

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Inhaling.

2009-12-27T19:46:01Z

Some kid dropped a little bag of marijuana yesterday while he was buying a couple of cigarillos. A woman saw it on the floor while I was buying a soda and some snacks and pointed it out to the cashier, and when I picked it up to put it behind the counter, she looked at me with a shocked look and said "You work here?!" I realized she thought I had dropped it. 15 minutes later the kid came back to buy something else, but he got a really good look at the floor while he was in the store. Poor dude; we'd already handed it to the police. Apparently it was only worth $10ish, so whatever.

Only a few days until the new year. Guess I'd better start inventing some resolutions.

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If you are a ghost...

2009-10-30T18:40:53Z

It's official - I like M. Night Shyamalan's movies. I watched The Happening last night, and (gasp!) enjoyed it. Something is apparently wrong with me.

I feel iffy about even mentioning it here, but I apparently spoke English fluently enough during the job interview that I now get to have another one. At least it'll be over the phone, so I don't have to dress up.

Rain lately. I don't much like it.

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I did not mean to write this much.

2009-10-27T13:53:20Z

I finished Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman. My thoughts behind the cut.

"When you can't bear something but it goes on anyway, the person who survives isn't you anymore; you've changed and become someone else, a new person, the one who did bear it after all."

( Mildly spoilery. )

Overall, A-. Would read again.

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Violence is the simplest of human interaction.

2009-10-27T02:24:48Z

While posting daily on this journal has been useful in helping me get over the fact that I am no Picasso, I feel I can continue to draw daily without placing the image here. Also, I've no interest in building a compilation of images on my site. I have a DeviantArt account which has been gathering dust for some time, so my present solution is to use it.

Henceforth, whatever I draw daily will be posted here. I've noticed I haven't had much to actually say during my posts, so I expect this journal to go quiet once again. We will see.

I will remark that tomorrow fewer than a dozen of my peers and I have the initial interviews for at least two positions in a local dev company, and that I am nearly vibrating with anxiety and excitement. o____o

I'm ready for the Atlantica level in KH to be over.

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Who put all these motherfucking words on my motherfucking journal?!

2009-10-25T18:22:50Z

Missing two days in a row means I am a terrible person. This is something we already knew. In my defense, I drew on paper and just never bothered scanning it on one of the days, so I did get a little practice. I also cleaned/refilled my fountain pen; I'd like to practice my penmanship a little. My scrawl now is nigh unrecognizable. Normal pens, you say? Blasphemy!

Dewey's Readathon was yesterday, and I didn't take part. The first week it was on my radar it was just another "thing Nay's gonna do", then I realized "hey, this is something I can do!". I hadn't asked off of work, and didn't really have a stack of books I was burning to read, so I decided not to officially sign up this time. I did decide to try to read the massive volume compilation pt.1 of Sandman, but I ended up just finishing Twilight instead. At work. Half the book in two hours, which is pretty good for me (I'm a slow reader). I've taken books to work before, and it always ends the same way - I eat the book and neglect my work. It's not a good habit to form, but it is oh-so-satisfying.

( Image is very small, but I'll cut for consistency. )

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When combined, unexpected results may occur.

2009-10-23T01:52:01Z

I keep trying to type "lj-cut".
( 25 minutes? Hrm. )

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I will prove my worth; I will explain my significance.

2009-10-22T08:15:02Z

I'm slowly getting through Kingdom Hearts. I just beat the Agrabah world, which is probably not very far into the game, but it's farther than I've ever been in-game.

( Morning coffee 'n art. )

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Alternatives.

2009-10-21T03:34:37Z

Got sucked into watching Rehab RX (I think that's what it's called) on TruTV, which may help explain the following.

( Also, I'm pretty sure I was way overdue for this. )

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If it's lumpy, use a whisk.

2009-10-19T17:16:39Z

Tomorrow be the job fair. I need a dress coat. -_-

( Moar! )

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