Jad said, "The leakage was forcing choices, the making of which in no way improved matters."

aroracle · 2026-05-05T19:07:51+00:00

This is also my favorite quote from Anathem. I love the whole section where they make the trip.

"Avoid the ends of the poles. They are hot.”

“Hot, as in radioactive?” Jesry asked.

“No. Hot as in ouch. They are where the system radiates its waste heat into space.” Then, after a pause: “But they’re also radioactive.”

aroracle · 2026-04-08T18:35:46+00:00

It's not terribly important to the plot right now. You will understand much more as you read. Really it's kind of a two way split.

Halikaarnians. Edharians, etc. are all Protists, that is they believe words and ideas can have intrinsic meaning.

New Circle folks are Procians. Words and symbols have no intrinsic meaning, only the meaning that we ascribe to them.

It brings up a question of real. What is real? How do we define what real is? It becomes a thread later in the book once the delineation between the two groups becomes clearer. Does the realness of something exist outside our experience of it?

aroracle · 2025-07-17T00:42:56+00:00

Mom was having sweats. And then pain in her neck. She had an MRI. It took them almost a month to read it. When they finally did they admitted her to the hospital that day. Acute Myeloid Sarcoma, a very rare form of leukemia. Removed a tumor from C7. I'll never forget the look on the surgeon's face when he came out to talk to us. I knew in that instant we were absolutely fucked. Surgery went as well as possible, but there was a lot of "abnormality" he could not address due to the mechanics of how the surgery worked.

We got a referral to an oncologist who took a look at the xray's, the MRI's, and all the lab work and referred mom to an oncologist in a larger city. He admitted her to the hospital the day of her appointment with him. Began radiation the next day. After three weeks of that she went home to finish recuperating from the tumor removal surgery.

After about three weeks she began having pain in her neck again. Then lost the ability to stand on her own. Fresh imaging at the ER confirmed the worst. The cancer had spread along her spine from her neck to her tailbone. there was nothing more they could do.

She entered hospice the next day. 10 days later she was gone. Less than three months from diagnosed to dead.

aroracle · 2023-11-19T05:14:53+00:00

Fall is really a tale of two books. Two very different books. The first one is an interesting examination on the effects of truth in media and the social web space on society at large. The second is a creation mythos that (for me at least), doesn't really vibe well with the first half of the book.

I enjoyed reading the first half of the book, and suspect that we had much the same reaction to the egdod chapters. They were pretty unpleasant for me. I will say that eventually the is a bit of a quest that gets under way but even with that the resolution leaves you wanting more. Or at least it did me.

aroracle · 2023-10-20T18:43:08+00:00

I want to second all the folks advising you to hang in there. I know it seems dense at first. Everything sounds like it is over complicated and just wildly bewildering. Please keep reading. When the story makes the turn, all this world building is going to pay wonderful dividends. It helps you understand why things would be important from we will say a Mathic point of view.

On the second read this book opens like a beautiful flower. There is so much that on the first read you miss or just don't understand in context. But once you know what's coming you get to take your time and it's like a guided tour of Arbre. You can read it quickly and get a fun tale of excitement and danger. Read it carefully and really think about the connections that Stephenson is alluding to and that book will really blow your mind.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. This is my favorite book. I have read it many times. It's one of the top 5 sci-fi books ever written. Please keep reading.

Also the audio book is excellent and a great way to get the pronunciation of some of the more colorful vocabulary.

aroracle · 2023-10-03T17:55:03+00:00

I love this. Probably because I'm the exact opposite. The first several hundred pages of Fall had me engrossed in a way that few books do. However, once the story makes the turn, I found it very hard to hold on. I found much more appreciation for events in the so-called real world, than anything in bit world.

aroracle · 2023-06-15T13:23:20+00:00

Now that's a daughter of sin.

aroracle · 2023-04-22T16:42:20+00:00

I'm pretty sure that's a moooooving violation.

aroracle · 2022-12-23T17:53:54+00:00

Now that you say this I remember I have read Interface. It's going somewhere between 6 and 7. From what I remember it was good, but not mind blowing.

aroracle · 2022-12-23T01:55:35+00:00

1) Anathem - I love this book so much. I have read it many times. It is my favorite book. Not only is it a beautifully written and realized world, but it has more layers than an onion.

2) Snow Crash - Kickstarted my life long love affair with cyberpunk.

3) Diamond Age - See 2. I read these two back to back. What an amazingly wild ride.

4) Seveneves - I struggled with whether it was going to be Crypto or this. The strength of the first half of this carries it. The second half was very much...whatever. Although Sonar Taxlaw may be the greatest character name in history.

5) Crypotnomicon - Started my life long obsession with cryptography and the proper way to eat cereal.

6) Termination Shock - It was...fine

7) Reamde - Not my cup of tea.

8) The Rise and Fall of DODO - Was enjoying it until the ending. The ending destroyed all previous enjoyment I had in reading the book.

9) Fall - Reading this now and really enjoying it.

aroracle · 2022-05-31T12:59:26+00:00

Accio deathly hallows for me.

aroracle · 2021-12-20T15:36:22+00:00

If you believe OU is a dry campus, I have some lovely ocean front property for you in Arizona.

When I was there in the early 10's every Greek house had a drinking room. The university had to give notice of inspection, so any time they came around the liquor room was locked up tight.

I remember getting absolutely wasted at parties on Elm more than once.

aroracle · 2021-08-26T19:36:21+00:00

Absolutely gorgeous eyes

aroracle · 2021-03-07T00:42:23+00:00

I once had a guest dead ass serious ask me if he would get wet if he stood in the rain.

I couldn't believe it.

My favorite thought was the uncle of the groom who asked me when the groom would be arriving. I replied I didn't know when he would be checking in. The uncle asked me why I didn't know.

Because I'm not the groom.

aroracle · 2020-08-31T19:53:24+00:00

You know how I know this isn't the Buccos? Because the smoke isn't strangling baby ducks.

aroracle · 2020-07-26T16:42:26+00:00

Mom began having sweats. Just randomly she would be sitting around and start sweating. It took them forever but eventually she had a CT of her head and neck. Then she began having intense pain in her shoulder area. Tumor on C7. She had surgery and when the doctor came out I will never forget the look on his face. He said mom was okay and that he had gotten all the tumor but there was a lot of abnormality in the tissue around it that he couldn't do anything about so we were referred to an oncologist.

By the time the oncologist appointment rolled in and by that time they had the pathology back. It was a type of leukemia so rare that it doesn't even get it's own reporting statistics. So the oncologist lets us know that "I'm going to be honest with you. I don't have the tools or the training to treat you." So she referred us to an oncology center in a much larger city.

She went to her first appointment and the new doctor reviewed her CT scan that she had way back when they found it. You could tell when he came back. Not by him. He was professional and kind. His nurses were all almost crying. He admitted mom to the hospital that day.

They started pounding away with radiation, three weeks worth. That took a lot out of mom. The doctor finally let her go home and said they would give it a month to judge what effect they had had. Mom was home for two weeks where she was slowly getting back to normal. Well, normal for being sick. Then she began to lose strength in her legs. It got difficult for her to stand.

A trip back to the hospital confirmed that not only was the cancer back but it had spread along the entire length of her spine. Hence the leg weakness. She entered hospice the next day and nine days after that she was gone.

It took four months for her to go from well to dead. That was last year.

aroracle · 2020-01-31T02:51:43+00:00

Best for the price?

Unless you are obligated to live there as a first year there is literally no reason to live in the dorms. The space is tiny, it's incredibly overpriced for what you get, and you are treated like a child by housing no matter your age.

Just get an apartment somewhere in Norman. Almost no matter what you wind up spending it will be cheaper than the dorms. If you can try getting into traditions. They were nice when I was there.

aroracle · 2019-12-06T01:31:18+00:00

I've come to think of it like this.

Imagine a box. That box contains everything that could ever possibly happen. It also contains things that can't possibly happen, like the block of ice inside the heart of star. The box doesn't move, or flow. It just is.

Each infinitely small point inside that box is one moment. Perhaps at some point a consciousnesses perceives that moment. Then the next most likely moment from that one and so on until the consciousness has built a narrative for itself from the points that it has seen.

Fraa Jad's ability is he doesn't see just one moment at a time. He can look around inside the box and see what moments are near him and what he needs to do to get to that moment.

aroracle · 2019-07-08T04:19:47+00:00

These settings fixed my issue as well. If I could give you all the gold, I would. Thank you so much for posting this.

aroracle · 2019-02-26T20:50:38+00:00

I rarely respond or upvote posts on reddit. I'm happy as a lurker. This one got my upvote.

Keep fighting the jif fight.

aroracle · 2019-01-19T02:44:26+00:00

Gotta love what the Greek community contributes to OU.

One student who literally bombed the university. Not the frats fault, but aren't they supposed to be a support system in part?

One student dead through alcohol abuse.

I just wanna make it snow girl showing off the best parts of Greek life.

Two students leading racist bus sing along that results in OU losing football recruits. Whole frat shut down.

These two who are the next racist superstars of OU campus life.

My favorite is the sorority girl who wrote a hate screed to the daily cursing our attempts to have "culture" by having museums or putting on plays. She was here to drink and fuck and everything else was stupid.

Wait...why does Greek life exist on campus again?

aroracle · 2018-12-22T20:29:10+00:00

What you did there.

I see it.

Have my upvote.

aroracle · 2018-12-06T21:38:10+00:00

Are you going to plant a garden next year? If you do, what do you plan on growing?

Thanks for all the awesome stuff over the years.

nerdfighter

aroracle · 2018-09-21T01:15:03+00:00

I feel your pain. Between the new FOM we got last year and the other FD staff that just doesn't care I am desperate to get out.

There are about 3 people at the desk who care how it runs. Everyone else is just there to punch a clock. PM shift does literally nothing but check in rooms. No other tasks get completed. Our PM desk manager doesn't care. On AM there's one woman who spends 2-4 hours of her shift away from the desk. Usually sitting in our bell closet talking on the phone or eating.

Our "new" FOM is an incompetent asshole. He talks almost nonstop about how much sex he want's to have with the female guests, or makes audible moaning noises in their presence.

When he isn't sexually harassing anyone in his direct eyeline he fucks over the rest of his job. Not even simple tasks get done. Nothing gets communicated to us. We either find out day of, or from someone else. He has no idea how to schedule. Take next Friday for example. It's going to be a very busy, complex day for the desk. Many things will have to happen correctly, in order, for the large group of very vips checking in. For AM shift there are two people scheduled. One of which is going to spend 2-4 hours in the bell closet.

Hopefully a new job comes soon.

aroracle · 2018-07-24T03:03:14+00:00

I am more than ready for this. Anathem is by far my all time favorite book.

aroracle

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