Thymos

I’m now reading Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers. It’s the novel that inspired both the Tarkovsky movie Stalker and the video game series S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

It’s really well written. I was having a little trouble getting into it at first because it’s different from what I usually read. The story is told from the perspective of a character whom you follow going about their often shady business. It reminded me of the style of film noir detectives. It’s not really my thing, but the book is good enough to keep me reading.

When finished I’m gonna watch the movie with my boyfriend, who has it on DVD. We did this with 1984 as well, which was a good experience.

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Someone like @[email protected] maybe? I don’t know if she’s a member of the technology committee, but she does work on tech issues.

I finished both Julia by Sandra Newman and 1984 by George Orwell. I liked 1984 better, much more depth and great writing, but Julia was good too.

I’ve now started Solaris by Stanislaw Lem. I like it so far, but I feel it could have had a bit more depth to it. Still an interesting story so far.

What’s also frustrating is “al” is a word in Dutch, meaning although or everything. It’s often used at the start of a sentence, thus capitalised and indistinguishable from AI. After reading too much about A.I., which is unavoidable nowadays, it messes with reading everything, because every now and then a sentence starts with “al” and your brain messes up and you have to go back.

So how is that fair then?

So, what if I wrote a book and got it published, but it didn’t sell well. Some big company copies it, puts a lot of effort in promoting it and it becomes a bestseller. I don’t get any of the money for it, but they cite me as the original author. How is that fair?

Me too! I think I saw that same thread.

I think it’s interesting as well, but I do have a few issues with it. I’m looking forward to seeing where the story goes though.

Oh, is this why even opening folders in windows is so slow? Explorer at my work computer shows a message like “still working” for multiple seconds before showing something like 12 files. It’s really shitty.

From The Royal Tenenbaums:

“Why did you specifically have to point out I’m not a genius?”

“I just don’t use that word very lightly.”

I had a driving instructor who was specialised in people with fear for driving. He actually helped me manage the anxiety while driving. Maybe it’s a good idea to find someone like that and take a few lessons? It’s very common to take lessons again after not having driven for a long time.

It seems like they’ll do the exact opposite. The EU is preparing a change to the GDPR to exclude A.I. purposes and the commission has agreed to adopt American car safety standards (which are way lower) during the tariff negotiations.

After I finished Le Guin’s Left Hand of Darkness, I bought The Hainish Novels and Stories. Yesterday I finished Rocannon’s World and started Planet of Exile.

They’re great books, I’m a fan. What I liked about Rocannon’s World is the mixture of science fiction and fantasy elements, and how they’re used to show different perspectives on the same events. Also, I would love to fly one of those windsteeds.

Looking forward to what Planet of Exile has in store.

I threw it across the room after 5 pages. Utter crap.

Thanks, I’m good.

Oh definitely, the tobacco industry is way worse. Tattoo artists (at least in my county) have to follow hygiene regulations and aren’t allowed to tattoo minors, and there don’t seem to be any issues with this. There isn’t any incentive for them to cause harm to their customers, on the contrary, so I don’t blame them for this. If tattooing poses serious health risks like this study suggests, it would suck for everyone involved.

I suppose I would be in that crowd. I’m an atheist, but I think the whole tattooing thing is kinda stupid. To each their own of course, I don’t care if anyone gets a tattoo, but the culture around it annoys me and I think it’s a waste of one’s body. I do like some of the art styles, but why not just print it on a shirt and wear it?

That being said, I think it’s petty bad if it turns out the ink causes a higher risk of disease. Like with cigarettes in the past people weren’t informed about the consequences before making their choices. That sucks and I don’t wish it on anyone.

Cool! Curious to know what you think about it 🙂

I’m currently reading The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. Someone mentioned it in one of the threads here and to my surprise my library had it. It’s a really interesting story. I love how Le Guin is able to create a world that is so different yet feels like a real place.

The only issue I have is that it takes place on a planet aptly nicknamed Winter where it’s so cold all the time. And it’s been a really cold week here too, and reading about the freezing cold only makes me feel colder. If anyone knows any good books set in hot climates, I’m all ears.

Maybe you want to re-read the question? They’re asking about the practical use of linguistics, and this answer combined with your other one is basically “language is very practical so duh, we should study it”.

But what do you do with the results of those studies? That’s what the question is about.