Oh, wait, only Death Eaters call him the ‘Dark Lord’. Obliviate!

From Society6 .

On the last Friday of each month I’m going to post about what books I’ve began, finished, or made  progress on and some thoughts on those books. Some books will get their own post with a longer review once I’ve finished them.

Began

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris.

God is Not Great by Christopher Hitchens. (audio)

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter
MIT offers a free course on the book for high schoolers. And this is an image gallery based on the book. Some of those would make excellent tattoos if your artist was incredibly talented. (At first, I wasn’t sure why I liked those images so much–then I realised they’re very Burtonesque.)

Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (Chapters 1- ??) by Elizer Yudkowsky.
This is my first fanfiction and it’s very enjoyable. It reminds me of Sophie’s World by Jostein Gaarder (not Sophie’s Choice, which is by William Styron), in that it’s a loose narrative created to explain, well, methods of rationality. (It was philosophy in Sophie’s World, which I recommend.)

The characters’ personalities are nothing like the canon characters, but it’s still highly entertaining and informative. I’m glad to see there are 80 chapters thus far and is still being written.

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov.

Why I am Not a Christian by Bertrand Russell (audio). Wow. This guy really wasn’t keen on the Christians.

Finished

Why I am Not a Christian by Bertrand Russell (audio).

I, Robot by Isaac Asimov
This is one of those books I’ve wanted to read for some time, but it was always pushed back by more recently-published works. Well, the time is now. It’s a collection of short stories written in the future that follows the history of robotics from when first introduced to society to the inevitable outcome. My favourite story is ‘Reason’, which is an allegory about religion and the ways logic can be used incorrectly. If you haven’t already read it I highly, highly recommend it. Even if you’re not a sci-fi fan, this one is excellent.

Comics

I found a comic reader for the iPod (CloudReaders) that’s quite excellent. Whilst trying to decide what to add to it I realised I had an insane number of digital comics. I’ve always enjoyed comic books, but I haven’t read a great deal so I’m looking forward to being able to carry them with me and read them anywhere.

100 Bullets Issue 1

Caffeine : Issues 1, 2. The Caffeine series was published from 1996-1998. I’ve only just got around to reading them because I have an unholy amount of readable media.

Gay Comix Issues 1, 3. This series is a collection of (mostly) autobiographical comics about gay life and society in the early 80s.

Audio and Video

I have discovered iTunes U. Oh boy. It’s an iOS app that allows you to watch/listen to podcasts of educations lectures and information from some of the most prestigious universities in the world.
TED Talks: Understanding Happiness If you’re interested in psychology, what makes people happy and why, or how you can live a happier life, this is for you. Overall, I’d give this 4/5 stars, as the talks could have been longer.
– Nancy Etcoff: On the Surprising Science of Happiness
– Martin Seligman: Positive Psychology. The website he mentions is here .
– Helen Fisher: On Why We Love & Cheat. She talks about what ‘love’ does to the brain (makes you insane).
– Paul Bloom: The Origins of Pleasure
– Dan Gilbert: Why Are We Happy? He also wrote an absolutely fantastic book, Stumbling on Happiness . It’s psychology, but accessible to the layperson.
– Barry Schwartz: On the Paradox of Choice. This one is about how choices are supposed to make us happy, but actually hinder us in several ways.
– Malcolm Gladwell on Spaghetti Sauce. This one follows the previous one well, because it’s also about choice, but it’s about how choice can make us quite happy.
Cambridge Short Ideas
– Seven Ages of the Body
– Bird Tango. Wonderful talk about the parallels between humans dancing and the mating rituals of birds.
– Just Add Water. Interesting talk about the importance of water on living organisms.
– The Music in Me. Very interesting talk about what our music choices say about us. What do you picture when you think of death metal listeners or indy artists or country & western music?
– Forgotten Heroes.
– The Perfect Crew? This one compares the ways to build the best athletic team and the best office workers.
– How Many Lightbulbs? One man sets out to discover the best ways to save electricity–busting some of the current myths about what the average person can do–as well as explains what would be required to divorce ourselves from unsustainable power resources.
– Don’t Eat the Plants. Great talk about the defence mechanisms of vegetation. Even if you’re uninterested in botany, this one is a must-watch.

‘All I can do is urge you to look on the bright side. At least you’re not in Slytherin. Another curious decision on the part of the school, there. To dedicate an entire house to those of the children in its care who are evil. Surely a recipe for trouble…’

I had a set of links chosen for today, but the morning of the day I composed this (Sunday) I was happily putting the new English (the country) versions of Harry Potter on my iPod, and had to add Cassandra Clare’s Draco Dormiens trilogy, as well as Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky.

And I realised my geek card was well and truly safe.

So this post is for my compadres in the–sometimes harsh–world of geekdom, as well the people who seek to join us.

From Tech Republic: 10 Geek Sins That Will Get Your Geek Card Revoked. I’m proud to say I’m guilty of none of these.

If any of those apply to you and you need to re-up your cred try these 15 things . And then hit up Think Geek for some useful things of the geek variety. I’ve done eight of these things, but as I’m 0 for 10 on the first list, I’m confident in my geekself.

And the last one from Tech Republic: 75 Must-Read Geek Books
This was a pretty poor showing–I’d read two books and then all seven of the Harry Potter books, however, I’ve 29 in my library/TBR stack. My question for this one was: No Discworld? Really?

If you’re the sort of person that feels this way about technology in Hollywood films: [click to embiggen]

(That’s Penny Arcade . They’re awesome.)

Then the nice people at Cracked have written for you: 8 Scenes That Prove Hollywood Doesn’t Get Technology

From Mental Floss, we have the 11 Geekiest Family Portraits Ever.

And one more Penny Arcade strip because all IT geeks know someone whose destiny appears to be to destroy any and all electronic equipment within fifty feet (without touching said equipment in some cases.)

And if this post has got your geek juices flowing, you may want to hit up RedBubble , as they have some incredible merchandise–for everyone, but geeks, too.

I did not create these, if you know the artists’ names, please let me know.

Avatars

Wallpapers

Slytherin Common Room

Other

Last weekend my husband and I decided to pick up some Play Doh/Plasticine and whilst we were at the toyshop I asked where their Harry Potter section was. They were out. Except! The very helpful guy went into the back and found a big Harry Potter (about a foot and a half tall), but who wants him? He makes me mutter ‘Goody-two-shoes,’ under my breath.

The very nice guy went into the back again and returned with the only other thing they had:

Dementor! YAY!

French and Saunders: Bergman Days

That Mitchell and Webb Sound: Welcome to Hufflepuff

‘All I can do is urge you to look on the bright side. At least you’re not in Slytherin. Another curious decision on the part of the school, there. To dedicate an entire house to those of the children in its care who are evil. Surely a recipe for trouble…’

Dot Dot Dot
A flash based on a voice track about a review (of another flash)

A Day in the Life of a Hangover (Director’s Cut)

Weird Al: Stop Forwarding that Crap To Me

Weird Al: White and Nerdy

Liz Lemon: The Early Years

Brute Force Doesn’t Always Work

‘NO! They’re running… NOOOOOOOO’

Neil Gaiman and Adam Savage Dorkiness

And this is what Neil Gaiman was referring to:

When Kathy Griffin Met Michele Bachmann

BBC America Advert

I’m a Climate Scientist: NSFW

Jim Henson Gets Told

College Humour: Tim Burton’s Secret Formula

Pretty much every video in the Gentlemen’s Rant series is hilarious, but these are my favourites:

Homophobia:

College:

Twitter:

iPad:

Facebook:

I’ve finally seen the fifth Harry Potter film. I can’t believe anyone who hasn’t read the books could have any clue what the hell was going on. I know they only have so long for a film, but I don’t think a fifteen hour long DVD for the fans would go amiss. Watson was still in over-dramatic mode and Grint was Mr Mumble-Face but Radcliffe has improved a great deal.

What I found most confusing were the things they partially put in but didn’t explain. Like that Harry was the snake–there’s a half second shot of a snake but it’s not obvious that it’s a reflection. Then Sirius’s mother’s portrait is heard whispering behind a curtain but it’s never explained who she is or what the hell she’s muttering about.

I liked the look best of the films thus far (though the third one comes close) and the veil Siruis fell through was much more beautiful and haunting than I’d pictured. And have mercy but Helena Bonham Carter was perfect for Bellatrix, but overall the film felt rushed.

And there wasn’t enough of Rickman or Smith. And they cut my favourite scenes, but I always say that. Whinge whinge gripe complain.

And of course I’ll buy the next two films. Because I’m a good consumer.

[This is a re-post from a now-defunct blog. Original post date: 11 January, 2008]