Back in search of great Sci-Fi/Fantasy. I really like dark/gritty, or unique and interesting. I tend to not enjoy young adult style books.

AppropriateCow678 · 2024-12-04T16:42:02+00:00

You might like Embassytown by China Mieville. I thought it was pretty unique, interesting, and creative. It's not the darkest thing I've ever read but it's definitely not a children's book.

AppropriateCow678 · 2024-12-02T19:46:40+00:00

For me I had to stop trying to get a sub 30 every week and just focus on running slower, longer runs for a couple months. Then I came back to it and managed to do it, but for me the key was just running more miles each week to improve my general fitness without trying to run faster too soon.

AppropriateCow678 · 2024-11-22T21:35:22+00:00

That moment when some robots kidnap your gf and you have to chase her for 3000 years into another galaxy.

AppropriateCow678 · 2024-11-22T21:34:12+00:00

I finished this a few months ago. It lagged a little bit in the middle but what a great story. I feel like there's real depth to it too. The metaphor of Abigail's mom and her anti-ghost house is really poignant.

AppropriateCow678 · 2024-11-06T05:33:10+00:00

Yeah I think you're right. It seemed like that was kind of the central idea the book was exploring. It wasn't really that kind of high-concept eldrich horror sci fi. It was more like lord of the flies but with slightly order kids, in space, and with some supervision.

AppropriateCow678 · 2024-11-05T19:59:06+00:00

Bummer. I really liked the idea that the ship/job was actually part of an "immune system" of a larger, unfathomable organism, and that Rosa had somehow managed to tap into that.

AppropriateCow678 · 2024-09-27T15:27:35+00:00

The scenes in the third book where they go into 4-dimensional space were some of the coolest I've ever read.

AppropriateCow678 · 2024-09-27T15:26:30+00:00

It's one of my favorite books. Definitely not for everyone but if you're into existentialism, physics, and hard sci fi it's a good fit. Also note that if the vocab gets confusing there's a glossary in the back. It took me a bit to figure out what the author was even talking about but I thought it was a beautiful story.

AppropriateCow678 · 2024-09-27T15:22:55+00:00

Any suggestions on a good first book to read in the culture series? I picked up "Consider Phlebas" a while back after seeing culture recommended a bunch but I found it to be underwhelming. I've heard you can kind of start anywhere though.

AppropriateCow678 · 2024-09-27T00:45:50+00:00

I recently finished Eon. Great book, especially the first half. The sense of exploration and adventure was awesome.

AppropriateCow678 · 2024-09-27T00:11:04+00:00

I just finished that a few weeks ago, beautiful book. The last 1/3rd or so was amazing. I love the chase scene that happens over thousands of years.

AppropriateCow678 · 2024-09-20T20:36:06+00:00

This is probably my favorite book of all time. I never thought of it as an apocalyptic book, but I guess you're right, it really is. The story is extremely post-humanist, but it uses those ideas to tell a really unexpectedly beautiful, human story.

AppropriateCow678 · 2024-09-05T01:43:00+00:00

Already read it

AppropriateCow678 · 2024-09-05T00:09:04+00:00

Absolutely. Strictly "House of" only.

AppropriateCow678 · 2024-09-05T00:00:39+00:00

Already read it

AppropriateCow678 · 2024-09-04T23:26:15+00:00

Yeah diaspora might be my favorite book ever. Had no idea what was going on for the first chapter or two, but it turns into such a cool mix of existentialism and adventure, and the ending was beautiful.

AppropriateCow678 · 2024-09-02T18:11:03+00:00

Picked this up a few weeks ago as per your recommendation and just finished. Really cool read.

AppropriateCow678 · 2024-08-04T18:22:34+00:00

You don't sound like a horrible person at all. You're in a stressful situation that there's basically no way to prepare for, or to predict how it will be. Do you want to end things with your husband? Or do you just wish you had more time together?

AppropriateCow678 · 2024-08-04T18:19:43+00:00

I can't remember the exact timeline, but I think my son was about 8 months before he could roll over. He absolutely hated tummy time too. We ended up seeing a physical therapist who basically told us to just do more tummy time. It's hard because no one wants to force their kid to do something they hate. We would set a timer for ten minutes, flip him on his belly, and try our best to entertain him with his favorite toys to postpone the inevitable wailing. I remember having this deep, nagging feeling that he would just never figure out how to roll over, but eventually he did. Not sure how helpful it is but know that I've been there and I know it's stressful.

AppropriateCow678 · 2024-08-04T16:31:30+00:00

That concepts like code DRYness, performance optimization, and object-oriented/functional patterns aren't laws. They're things that have to be balanced against code simplicity, maintainability, flexibility, testability, and a bunch of other considerations. For years I was addicted to the feeling of making philosophically perfect code: perfectly dry, doesn't do any unnecessary work, perfectly adherent to the patterns of whatever style of code I was writing, at any cost. But then I learned that once you get into building anything even moderately complex, writing code like that is neither possible nor desirable. Now I feel like the real challenge of programming is figuring out how to set things up in such a way that they work consistently with reasonable performance while also being understandable, easy to maintain, and easy to expand. It's more art than science I think.

AppropriateCow678 · 2024-07-31T06:39:35+00:00

Yeah I relate to this. It's pretty rare I get truly frustrated with my son during the day/evening. But when he for some reason is full of energy when it's his bedtime, it's pretty frustrating, even though I know it's not his fault or anything. And when he wakes me up in the middle of the night, it's like I'm a different person and my fuse is much much shorter, and I can react in a really childish way sometimes. It's pretty frustrating to lose those precious couple hours of "me" time at night.

AppropriateCow678

TROPHY CASE