I actually got a response to my search for scifi with multiple governments. Of course the one response I got was from the one time I asked someone in person, hm. Anyway, while it wasn't exactly what I was thinking of, Martian Time-Slip by Philip K. Dick does fit the criteria.
The book is actually mostly about mental illness and crazy shifting through time stuff (as you might guess from the title). While the story does have some good what is reality stuff, a lot of it seems out dated. The book involves some mix of what was accepted views of schizophrenia and autism and Dick's crazy ideas about them. But not knowing what the state of psychology was in the 60s it's hard to tell where that line is.
I'd read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep or Ubik before I'd read Martian Time-Slip. Both of those seem less dated.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Swine flu
To minimize the spread of swine flu we are supposed to be more cleanly and find a greeting that doesn't involve touching other people's hands. Also wearing a face mask is becoming more socially acceptable.
Can we also get the cool phones, fast trains and sumo wresteling?
Can we also get the cool phones, fast trains and sumo wresteling?
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Big Basin
Went backpacking in Big Basin State Park with Jeremy and Greg over the weekend. We did 10 miles to get to the camp site which included walking past 3 water falls. And stopped for a bit after lunch to watch two newts mate. Once we set up camp we did the two mile walk to the beach. It was very windy so we just watched the wind surfers for a bit and then walked back. Next day we did the 10 mile hike back to the park entrance. The first part of the trip back had a sign that said: Warning, very step, recommended only for horses. I was weirdly energized during that part of the hike which worked out nicely. The rest of the way back was a nice and reasonably level walk. Greg noticed a fire in the distance and Jeremy called it in. Turned out a community center in the middle of the woods had an illegal fire going. Not sure if we stopped the forest from burning down or just caused a non-profit to get fined.
Good times followed by pie at Marie Callenders.
Some pictures here and more here.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Life
Two weekends ago:
Thursday night I went with Emily, Jeremy, and some of their friends to Yuri's Night at the California Academy of Sciences. We didn't do much related to Yuri's Night, other than look at the wacky San Franciscans dress "science-y". Mostly we walked around the museum which was cool since I hadn't been before. They recreated a tropical rainforest inside and after you climb your way to the top of the rain forest you take an elevator down to the aquarium under the rain forest. There's also a whole area decided to environmentalism and a planetarium. Unfortunately all the planetarium shows were sold out by time we got there. Anyone thinking of going should consider watching for Thursday night events - it is cheaper and you avoid all the little kids.
Friday night I went to Julie and Saeed's place where they fed me dinner and I met some of Julie's law school friends. I feel like I should say something really nice since I know Julie will read this. I did have a good time. For once I did well on the x-box movie trivia game since there were a bunch of Serenity questions.
Saturday I went to work for a few hours. Then I headed to San Francisco for the traditional 4th night seder at a coworker's house, where he made sure we had our traditional 8 (not a typo) glasses of wine. He also served the traditional smoked brisket - good stuff. I stayed the night at another coworker's place and then hung out in SF for a bit the next day.
The next week:
Work.
Last weekend:
Saturday I worked most of the day.
Sunday I worked for a bit then had a monster energy drink at lunch. Then I worked really fast for most of the rest of the day. Then I got home and did a bunch of house work. Then I paced back and forth while watching TV.
By avoiding getting a goodnight's sleep I watched True Blood and the first several episodes of How I Met Your Mother. True Bood is really good. Not The Wire good, but still makes me wonder why non-HBO shows exist (well, then I remember not everyone likes to see all a vampire's blood come out its mouth as its body collapses). Although I did feel a little bit like they spelled out "this is a metaphor for discrimination" a little more than required. I liked How I Met Your Mother although wasn't super impressed. My biggest complaint is what's with the laugh track? Didn't we all get past that? It feels like a trip back to the mid 90s. I almost don't want to laugh when it comes on cause who are they to tell me what to find funny.
Thursday night I went with Emily, Jeremy, and some of their friends to Yuri's Night at the California Academy of Sciences. We didn't do much related to Yuri's Night, other than look at the wacky San Franciscans dress "science-y". Mostly we walked around the museum which was cool since I hadn't been before. They recreated a tropical rainforest inside and after you climb your way to the top of the rain forest you take an elevator down to the aquarium under the rain forest. There's also a whole area decided to environmentalism and a planetarium. Unfortunately all the planetarium shows were sold out by time we got there. Anyone thinking of going should consider watching for Thursday night events - it is cheaper and you avoid all the little kids.
Friday night I went to Julie and Saeed's place where they fed me dinner and I met some of Julie's law school friends. I feel like I should say something really nice since I know Julie will read this. I did have a good time. For once I did well on the x-box movie trivia game since there were a bunch of Serenity questions.
Saturday I went to work for a few hours. Then I headed to San Francisco for the traditional 4th night seder at a coworker's house, where he made sure we had our traditional 8 (not a typo) glasses of wine. He also served the traditional smoked brisket - good stuff. I stayed the night at another coworker's place and then hung out in SF for a bit the next day.
The next week:
Work.
Last weekend:
Saturday I worked most of the day.
Sunday I worked for a bit then had a monster energy drink at lunch. Then I worked really fast for most of the rest of the day. Then I got home and did a bunch of house work. Then I paced back and forth while watching TV.
By avoiding getting a goodnight's sleep I watched True Blood and the first several episodes of How I Met Your Mother. True Bood is really good. Not The Wire good, but still makes me wonder why non-HBO shows exist (well, then I remember not everyone likes to see all a vampire's blood come out its mouth as its body collapses). Although I did feel a little bit like they spelled out "this is a metaphor for discrimination" a little more than required. I liked How I Met Your Mother although wasn't super impressed. My biggest complaint is what's with the laugh track? Didn't we all get past that? It feels like a trip back to the mid 90s. I almost don't want to laugh when it comes on cause who are they to tell me what to find funny.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
The Perfect Villain
I bought The Perfect Villain: John McCain and the Demonization of the Lobbyist Jack Abramoff by Gary S. Chafetz a while ago because a friend knows the author. I finally got around to reading it. It would have made a lot more sense to read it before the election, but at that point I didn't need any extra reasons to dislike McCain.
The book describes some of Abramoff's life and work as a lobbyist. The point of the book is to try to show that while he may not have been a great guy and may have cross a few lines, he was no where near the villain that McCain and the Washington Post made him out to be. And that McCain and the Post bent the truth and hid evidence to make Abramoff look worse. My spidey sense was kicking in as I read the book. Partially I'm just wary of any book that comes out against a presidential candidate not long before an election. And the other part is it suggests the truth is rather different from my impression of what is generally accepted (which doesn't mean it is wrong, but requires more supporting evidence). Neither of these is enough to make me think it is false, just enough to make me not sure. Normally with stuff like that I can look it up online and reasonably quickly get at least some sense about it. But I'm coming up with very little on this book. It almost seems like no one read it or no one cares. If anyone knows anything about it or can find any better info I'd appreciate it.
Anyway, even if you ignore the claims about McCain and the Washington Post it still has some interesting info since it details several examples of how lobbyists work. One good example was an Indian tribe that funneled money through charities Abramoff had some control over to a christian right leader so he could lead an anti-gambling movement in a neighboring state to prevent other tribes from starting casinos and creating competition. All of the stories also seemed to involve getting his clients to make large donations to key lawmakers' favorite charities and setting up fact finding missions for senators that happen to involve trips to famous golf courses.
If Chafetz is right about the whole thing then it's that much more to dislike about McCain. But I'm not sure I'd feel that different about Abramoff. Partially because he was doing a lot of questionable stuff. But even more than that, because he plead guilty so I don't feel any conflict about the possibility that he was wrongly convicted since he didn't go to trial.
The book describes some of Abramoff's life and work as a lobbyist. The point of the book is to try to show that while he may not have been a great guy and may have cross a few lines, he was no where near the villain that McCain and the Washington Post made him out to be. And that McCain and the Post bent the truth and hid evidence to make Abramoff look worse. My spidey sense was kicking in as I read the book. Partially I'm just wary of any book that comes out against a presidential candidate not long before an election. And the other part is it suggests the truth is rather different from my impression of what is generally accepted (which doesn't mean it is wrong, but requires more supporting evidence). Neither of these is enough to make me think it is false, just enough to make me not sure. Normally with stuff like that I can look it up online and reasonably quickly get at least some sense about it. But I'm coming up with very little on this book. It almost seems like no one read it or no one cares. If anyone knows anything about it or can find any better info I'd appreciate it.
Anyway, even if you ignore the claims about McCain and the Washington Post it still has some interesting info since it details several examples of how lobbyists work. One good example was an Indian tribe that funneled money through charities Abramoff had some control over to a christian right leader so he could lead an anti-gambling movement in a neighboring state to prevent other tribes from starting casinos and creating competition. All of the stories also seemed to involve getting his clients to make large donations to key lawmakers' favorite charities and setting up fact finding missions for senators that happen to involve trips to famous golf courses.
If Chafetz is right about the whole thing then it's that much more to dislike about McCain. But I'm not sure I'd feel that different about Abramoff. Partially because he was doing a lot of questionable stuff. But even more than that, because he plead guilty so I don't feel any conflict about the possibility that he was wrongly convicted since he didn't go to trial.
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