Books read 2018: July-September

07/09 Singularity Sky, Charles Stross
07/12 The Shockwave Rider, John Brunner
07/13 Top Secret Recipes, Todd Wilbur
07/14 Zen Flesh, Zen Bones, compiled by Paul Reps (rr)
07/15 The Tao of Pooh, Benjamin Hoff (rr)
07/17 Tao Te Ching
07/20 How to Travel with a Salmon, Umberto Eco
07/23 Mort (DW 4), Pratchett (rr)
07/23 Sourcery (DW 5), Pratchett (rr)
07/24 The Light Fantastic (DW 2), Pratchett (rr)
07/25 Equal Rites (DW 3), Pratchett (rr)
07/26 Wyrd Sisters (DW 6), Pratchett (rr)
07/27 Eric (DW 9), Pratchett (rr)
07/30 Pyramids (DW 7), Pratchett (rr)

08/03 Moving Pictures (DW 10), Pratchett (rr)
08/11 Snow Crash, Neil Stephenson (rr~)
08/15 Reaper Man (DW 11), Pratchett (rr)
08/20 Witches Abroad (DW 12), Pratchett (rr)
08/22 Small Gods (DW 13), Pratchett (rr)

09/02 Lords and Ladies (DW 14), Pratchett (rr)
09/06 Men at Arms (DW 15), Pratchett (rr)
09/08 Soul Music (DW 16), Pratchett (rr)
09/12 Interesting Times (DW 17), Pratchett (rr)
09/20 Maskerade (DW 18), Pratchett (rr)
09/24 Feet of Clay (DW 19), Pratchett (rr)

These 25 plus the previous 36 brings me up to 61 as of the end of September, so well beyond one a week average. Pratchetts are quick reads, that helps a lot, it's easy to knock off two or three a week if I'm not otherwise very busy.

HUGE amount of re-reads, mainly because I started re-reading my Terry Pratchett cannon in June and continued. Of 25 books read, none were physical and five were first-time reads with one, Snow Crash, being what I thought was a re-read but there was so much material that I didn’t recognize I think that I had never read the whole thing through. Most likely I read an excerpt in Analog Magazine or something.

The reason for the dive in to Buddhism is I had a dream that was crazy vivid and made for a really cool short story, but was set at a Buddhist temple. I’ve read two of those books before, so I re-read them and started reading some more. The story is still in progress and is far beyond short story length, in fact it’s forked and spun-off into a sort of origin story for the protagonist. It continues in fits and starts.

On to the comments! I’m going to change the order a bit so that the non-Discworld books are together, which only requires moving Snow Crash.
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Nick Mason on the state of Pink Floyd

Nick is the drummer for Floyd, and talks about the relationship between him, Roger Waters, and David Gilmour. Nick's on good terms with both of them, but it's unlikely the other two will either work well together again. Roger doesn't like David because Roger thinks Floyd should've folded when he left in '85 and thinks writing triumphs over all, David doesn't like Roger because of pretty much the same reasons only opposite.

Nick, now 69, points out that it's all pretty silly as he was 35 when Roger left and it is now half a lifetime ago. Sid is dead, the amazing Richard Wright is dead, so they could never be what they were. It'd be nice if they could put their past behind them and at least be friendly to each other again.

Nick is going on tour next year as Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets and will be going across the USA. Myself, I was never much into their psychedelic period, but that's just me. And he got the blessing of both Roger and David for the name of the band, which is nice and will prevent future lawsuits.

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/pink-floyd-nick-mason-talks-roger-waters-david-gilmour-763670/

Speaking of Pink Floyd, a different - and AWESOME - take on Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2

"Pink Floyd- Another Brick In The Wall Gayageum ver. by Luna" (Watch on YouTube)

Theresa May as Gollum

Well, Andy Serkis as Theresa May as Gollum. And it's beyond brilliant.

"LEAKED: Footage From Inside No. 10 Downing Street!" (Watch on YouTube)

FINALLY I closed the correct tab in my browser!

I keep a lot of tabs open in my browser. I mean A LOT. Several months ago one of them went weird and it prevented my screen saver from activating, which prevented my computer from going to sleep!

And that really sucked.

I couldn't find the screen that was causing the problem. And like I said, LOTS of open windows! Well, today I'm doing my infusion. Normally that's a Sunday thing, but yesterday was kinda busy - so is today, but that's another story - so I'm doing it today. Sitting in front of my computer doing my nebulizer, reading some news, going to do a bunch of Photoshopping after I finish my news while waiting for my infusion to complete, then meeting my wife for dinner and to go see the new Wreck It Ralph movie.

AND MY SCREEN SAVER KICKS IN! W00TIES!

Previously, I'd still been able to put my iMac to sleep, either by telling it to go to sleep, or by flipping the cursor into the top left corner, which is configured as a hot corner to activate my screen saver, and ultimately it'd go to sleep. But it's nice to know that now it'll go to sleep if I walk away and get distracted.

Not that I EVAH get distracted. No sirreee.

FYI, on a Mac, we have a program called Activity Monitor, there's a similar program for Windows. Ours has a Energy tab that will show us if a program is preventing our computer from going to sleep. Very useful little program. Unfortunately Firefox doesn't have any internal diagnostic that'll tell me which tab is hogging resources and causing me grief!

Still, I'm happy that it's resolved.