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The idea of a book based completely in a 2D world where the main character is a square was...interesting to say the least. So I jumped on Project Gutenburg (the best website in the world for me right now) and grabbed it.
Good plan. This is such a fun read. The book's main point is to paint a satire of Victorian culture, something that becomes evident as soon as the book picks up a mallet labelled "Civil Rights" and starts beating your face (which is now labelled as "Oppression") until your brain flies out of your skull (which is now labelled hate or something i dunno this political cartoon joke died before I started to write it). The book literally refers to women as a single lines that are seen by every other shape as almost animals, but they have the ability to quite easily massacre everything in Flatland (cause they are the pointiest). Very good social commentary, if a little strong.
The visuals and concepts of higher dimensions are the main reasons I loved this book and they didn't disappoint, Every single chapter blows your brain with accurate ideas of how a 2D creature might "see". I couldn't possibly begin to explain most of it to you so I'll just say stop being an illiterate slob and go read it, its free cause its older than dirt but, like dirt, its deep, more complex than it seems and brown.
-Nem
Book 2 - Inferno by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournell
Sci Fi writer finds himself in Dante's hell. Oh my.
I have a confession to make. I have never read all of Dante's inferno. Cause its boring as fuck. It's a book that requires a massive amount of footnotes and prefaces to ensure you know who the hell is talking and why. I'm sure at the time it was a rip roaring ride but I'm not an 14th century Italian. What I am is a 20th century nerd. So when I read about a book that starts with a sci-fi writer killing himself and ending up in the very same hell that Virgil walked, I thought Why not.
I don't feel right calling a book "pointless" cause I guess at their heart, alot of books are pointless. but this one doesn't even tell a new story. I guess the inclusion of a bunch of different characters from various times and places is kinda neat but, I dunno, could have been alot more creative. Theres no real message or criticism or anything, unless the author's self insert's constant ramblings to himself count. One main issue I had was that it leads you along for a very long time on two plot points that are both painfully obvious and played as if they are incredible mysteries.
I don't have much more to say about this, it was alight I suppose but I wouldn't recommend it unless you really like the idea.
I have a confession to make. I have never read all of Dante's inferno. Cause its boring as fuck. It's a book that requires a massive amount of footnotes and prefaces to ensure you know who the hell is talking and why. I'm sure at the time it was a rip roaring ride but I'm not an 14th century Italian. What I am is a 20th century nerd. So when I read about a book that starts with a sci-fi writer killing himself and ending up in the very same hell that Virgil walked, I thought Why not.
I don't feel right calling a book "pointless" cause I guess at their heart, alot of books are pointless. but this one doesn't even tell a new story. I guess the inclusion of a bunch of different characters from various times and places is kinda neat but, I dunno, could have been alot more creative. Theres no real message or criticism or anything, unless the author's self insert's constant ramblings to himself count. One main issue I had was that it leads you along for a very long time on two plot points that are both painfully obvious and played as if they are incredible mysteries.
I don't have much more to say about this, it was alight I suppose but I wouldn't recommend it unless you really like the idea.
Book 3 - Mass Effect: Revelation by Drew Karpyshyn
Prequel to Mass Effect, famous RPG, dialogue and alien sex sim.
My secert love of Halo books made me read this. I don't care what you bitchs say this book has a part where a giant rino alien uses magic powers to throw an APC 30 feet into the air so screw all of you. I really enjoyed this as a mindless, space military tie in. Its written functionally enough, got a decent enough plot, clears some issues you may have with the plot of the game and is just really fun to read. If you like Mass effect, you'll probably like this.
My secert love of Halo books made me read this. I don't care what you bitchs say this book has a part where a giant rino alien uses magic powers to throw an APC 30 feet into the air so screw all of you. I really enjoyed this as a mindless, space military tie in. Its written functionally enough, got a decent enough plot, clears some issues you may have with the plot of the game and is just really fun to read. If you like Mass effect, you'll probably like this.
Book 4 - Hell is the Absence of God by Ted Chiang
Angels, God, Hell and Fallen Angels exist as real, frequent, and problematic as Tornadoes.
I kinda liked this book, the message of Humanities place in a world where the promises of angels and the like are actually met is really strong and even through the almost mechanical way its written there's a very dark sadness to the whole affair. The plot revolves around visitations from angels, which sometimes will heal you, sometimes result in your death from the effects of the angel. The people who see these angels hardly even care what the angels have to say, they just want to feel the magic light that surrounds him when he arrives or leaves.
If you can get past how utterly mind-numbingly boring its written, it's actually a really great read. short too so you can't complain about it. Theres far too much story and message and underlying plot for me to get into in these short reviews, but it is a solid experience.
I kinda liked this book, the message of Humanities place in a world where the promises of angels and the like are actually met is really strong and even through the almost mechanical way its written there's a very dark sadness to the whole affair. The plot revolves around visitations from angels, which sometimes will heal you, sometimes result in your death from the effects of the angel. The people who see these angels hardly even care what the angels have to say, they just want to feel the magic light that surrounds him when he arrives or leaves.
If you can get past how utterly mind-numbingly boring its written, it's actually a really great read. short too so you can't complain about it. Theres far too much story and message and underlying plot for me to get into in these short reviews, but it is a solid experience.
Book review idea
So I just got a kindle and I love this thing so much that I've read about twice as much as I usually would in the last week or so. Its insane how much I'm reading now with this thing and its, undisputably, the best gadget I have owned this year. Unless they bring out Rocket boots very very soon, its probably gonna stay that way.
So I had an idea while browsing around for ideas for articles. I read about this one guy who had the bright idea of doing like 10000 movie reviews in one year, through twitter.
What a stupid asshole.
The problems with this seem obvious, only 140 charcters, and most of those will go to telling you what movie it is. No, bad plan. What I may do is try to read one book every 2 weeks and post a short (paragraph) review on here for every one of them. Going from the current date, that would mean I'd read about 12 books. Given I've already read 4 in the past few days, I expect to beat that pretty harshly. The question is will I stick with this idea to the end? Would anyone even be interested? Who knows. All I know is I read alot, I love talking about books and love suggesting them to everyone. I also read alot of werid stuff and think people might be interested in some of them.
This will not interupt usual "RAGHHH" posts, I have one in mind on how much no one gives a shit about space coming up, but I think it'll be nice and refreshing.
So what do you think, invisible, barely existent audience?
-Nems
So I had an idea while browsing around for ideas for articles. I read about this one guy who had the bright idea of doing like 10000 movie reviews in one year, through twitter.
What a stupid asshole.
The problems with this seem obvious, only 140 charcters, and most of those will go to telling you what movie it is. No, bad plan. What I may do is try to read one book every 2 weeks and post a short (paragraph) review on here for every one of them. Going from the current date, that would mean I'd read about 12 books. Given I've already read 4 in the past few days, I expect to beat that pretty harshly. The question is will I stick with this idea to the end? Would anyone even be interested? Who knows. All I know is I read alot, I love talking about books and love suggesting them to everyone. I also read alot of werid stuff and think people might be interested in some of them.
This will not interupt usual "RAGHHH" posts, I have one in mind on how much no one gives a shit about space coming up, but I think it'll be nice and refreshing.
So what do you think, invisible, barely existent audience?
-Nems
Excuses Excuses...
Hey gang
I realise there has been a bit of a drought of updates on here the past month or so, Reasoning is I was on vacation for a while, and now that I'm back, I just straight up havnt had any inspiration for anything and while I do love writing stuff on here, I'm very much aware of the fact that I have absolutly no readers, with that in mind I havnt really been trying very hard to come up with anything.
I'll have a think and come up with a couple topics, maybe flesh out some of the half written ones in the draft folder. Till then.
Nems
I realise there has been a bit of a drought of updates on here the past month or so, Reasoning is I was on vacation for a while, and now that I'm back, I just straight up havnt had any inspiration for anything and while I do love writing stuff on here, I'm very much aware of the fact that I have absolutly no readers, with that in mind I havnt really been trying very hard to come up with anything.
I'll have a think and come up with a couple topics, maybe flesh out some of the half written ones in the draft folder. Till then.
Nems
Exteremism and Stupidity, Younger than you'd think Pt.2: Wiccans Witchs and bears oh my!
So I pretty much dispise Wiccans. I know thats not much of a shock, given my virtol for the vast majority of people, but rarely does a group of people so encapsulate everything I see as wrong with the world. Wiccans manage to be, all at the same time, the worst parts of Christiantity, Veganism, Technophobia, Nostaligia and Hypocritics.
I'm going to talk about the origins of Neo-druids and wiccans, as they are very closely intertwned. That way when your lame fatass friend turns up talking about how much they love the "Godess within me" and how "pure" life used to be, you can laugh at them more than you usually would. As usual though, I wont give you everything. But enough to find out the rest easily.
Lets begin with how old wicca is. Wicca is often seen as an anchient religion, a closely guarded horde of magical secerts passed down through generations and in covens. Hell, they burned Witchs way back right? They were Wiccans I bet.
No dont be stupid why would I even use that subject if it was what you expected? I'm not gonna write a paragraph on how Wiccans have subpar bathing habbits either.Wicca, in and of itself, is about 60 years old, give or take. Yes 60. My Grandfather is older than these "secerts". I will concied one point to the Wiccans for having the Religious Leader most likley to play himself in a a movie about wizards:
Look at that fucking guy. If I showed you a picture and said "hey guess what this guy did" your answer would have to be either Gandalf or Wicca founder.
Thats Gerald Gardner by the way, Founder of Wicca. He claimed that, after spending a couple of his years traveling asia gwaping at the "magical" natives, he came home and was indoctrinated into a coven of anchient pagan witchs which no one else has been able to find. After this conversion he goes off and spreads this new "old" religion around like some kind of horrible, moldy butter (something I'm sure the Wiccans reading are able to picture very well, seeing how they likley just got finished eating a chunk of horrible moldy butter). 60 years later and that fat goth girl is telling you how much shes intouch with a vague, unexplained "godess" (completely leaving how the dualistic part of Wicca, there should be a God and a Godess and Doc Brown up there made up names and everythuing for them).
Now how old a religion is shouldnt make a differnce I guess. Its just as "valid" as one made 2000 years ago. At least it would be if it didnt pretend it was made 2000 years ago to add to the mystic, I guess. I mean for christ sake their 10 commandments are called the Wiccan Rede and are all written in friggin Ye Olde Englishe, their festivals are called Sabbats and they all dress like people who get turned away from Ren Faires for being "too into it".
Wicca is a bit like the English language, in that its a filthy, lying thief without an origanal idea in its head. The vast majority of Wiccan beliefs come from a guy called Alister Crowely, who you may know from a certain song by black sabbath. Basically he made up a whole lot of shit about magic and evil and darkness and was essencially the first dude to go "Hey, if I pretend to be deep and brooding and cool and dark, I get alot of sex!". So he set off on his white horse and became known as the "Most Evil Man Ever" Cowley is a pretty interesting guy I guess, but this isnt about him, only the madcap thing he helped spawn.
Everything else in Wicca has been pretty much made up as they go along, so much so that almost every "Coven" of Wiccans has VASTLY differing rules, ideas and belifs. It has one of the highest numbers of denominations in the entire world.
Their morality code is pretty much the funniest part of the whole thing. As I said earlier, its in Ye Olde, despite being written about the same time as Elvis was alive. It can be summed up as such "Do whatever, so long as no one gets hurt". If that sounds like something a 10 year old would write when making up his own totally rad religion, then congrats, you're not a wiccan. if those seemed like wise words of unfathomable meaning, go fuck yourself. you selfish little shit.
So in conclusion, Wicca is 50 years old, its rules are made up on the spot even to this day and its morality code is some simplistic bullshit with no real meaning. Tadaaa.
Nems
P.S.
Interesting note on the fulidity of the ruleset of Wicca by the way, The Wiccan "Holy Book" is the Book of Shadows (yes really) and it was origanally invisioned that every single wiccan would copy a version of it down from their teacher, changing parts where they saw fit and basically producing billions of differnt texts. I actually love this idea, its utterly fantastic. Except they dont do it, every single copy of the book of shadows is exactly the same as the one Gardners' student copied down. Well done Wicca.
I'm going to talk about the origins of Neo-druids and wiccans, as they are very closely intertwned. That way when your lame fatass friend turns up talking about how much they love the "Godess within me" and how "pure" life used to be, you can laugh at them more than you usually would. As usual though, I wont give you everything. But enough to find out the rest easily.
Lets begin with how old wicca is. Wicca is often seen as an anchient religion, a closely guarded horde of magical secerts passed down through generations and in covens. Hell, they burned Witchs way back right? They were Wiccans I bet.
No dont be stupid why would I even use that subject if it was what you expected? I'm not gonna write a paragraph on how Wiccans have subpar bathing habbits either.Wicca, in and of itself, is about 60 years old, give or take. Yes 60. My Grandfather is older than these "secerts". I will concied one point to the Wiccans for having the Religious Leader most likley to play himself in a a movie about wizards:
Look at that fucking guy. If I showed you a picture and said "hey guess what this guy did" your answer would have to be either Gandalf or Wicca founder.
Thats Gerald Gardner by the way, Founder of Wicca. He claimed that, after spending a couple of his years traveling asia gwaping at the "magical" natives, he came home and was indoctrinated into a coven of anchient pagan witchs which no one else has been able to find. After this conversion he goes off and spreads this new "old" religion around like some kind of horrible, moldy butter (something I'm sure the Wiccans reading are able to picture very well, seeing how they likley just got finished eating a chunk of horrible moldy butter). 60 years later and that fat goth girl is telling you how much shes intouch with a vague, unexplained "godess" (completely leaving how the dualistic part of Wicca, there should be a God and a Godess and Doc Brown up there made up names and everythuing for them).
Now how old a religion is shouldnt make a differnce I guess. Its just as "valid" as one made 2000 years ago. At least it would be if it didnt pretend it was made 2000 years ago to add to the mystic, I guess. I mean for christ sake their 10 commandments are called the Wiccan Rede and are all written in friggin Ye Olde Englishe, their festivals are called Sabbats and they all dress like people who get turned away from Ren Faires for being "too into it".
Everything else in Wicca has been pretty much made up as they go along, so much so that almost every "Coven" of Wiccans has VASTLY differing rules, ideas and belifs. It has one of the highest numbers of denominations in the entire world.
Their morality code is pretty much the funniest part of the whole thing. As I said earlier, its in Ye Olde, despite being written about the same time as Elvis was alive. It can be summed up as such "Do whatever, so long as no one gets hurt". If that sounds like something a 10 year old would write when making up his own totally rad religion, then congrats, you're not a wiccan. if those seemed like wise words of unfathomable meaning, go fuck yourself. you selfish little shit.
So in conclusion, Wicca is 50 years old, its rules are made up on the spot even to this day and its morality code is some simplistic bullshit with no real meaning. Tadaaa.
Nems
P.S.
Interesting note on the fulidity of the ruleset of Wicca by the way, The Wiccan "Holy Book" is the Book of Shadows (yes really) and it was origanally invisioned that every single wiccan would copy a version of it down from their teacher, changing parts where they saw fit and basically producing billions of differnt texts. I actually love this idea, its utterly fantastic. Except they dont do it, every single copy of the book of shadows is exactly the same as the one Gardners' student copied down. Well done Wicca.
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