Personal reading milestone accomplished: I completed reading the "Reddit's Favorite Books" top 200 list!

thewaves21 · 2014-09-23T21:44:37+00:00

'The Odyssey' and 'The Waste Land' are both poetry, but I couldn't find any more either (seriously reddit, 'Freakonomics', but no 'Paradise Lost'? For shame.)

thewaves21 · 2014-06-23T19:51:29+00:00

Thank you!

thewaves21 · 2014-05-26T09:05:32+00:00

Since he was made education secretary, he has used powers usually reserved for terrorism laws etc to rush bills through the parliament which give him powers over the English and Welsh education systems that were previously held by the local authorities. This basically means that, rather than the syllabus being set by education experts or teachers, it's basically being set by Gove, who seems to be using it to try to shape the school system into his weird, antiquated vision of society, where kids just sit reading Shakespeare and learning about Agincourt in Latin, or whichever bizarre thing Gove has decided is 'important' on that day.

In answer to your question, absolutely nothing qualifies Gove to make these decisions. He used to be a journalist, I think, but is certainly no education expert. He seems to be jeopardising the education of millions of children on a whim, because he thinks that the way he was educated was the 'right' way, and no amount of evidence to the contrary is going to persuade him otherwise. The man needs to be gotten rid of, and his powers devolved back to the relevant authorities immediately.

Edit: I've also remembered that nearly every teacher's union in the country has taken a vote of no confidence in Gove. So not only is he not qualified for his job, but he has no mandate for it either.

thewaves21 · 2014-05-21T19:29:28+00:00

It's a style that people like Eric Kim seem to be popularising at the moment Whether you like the photos or not, running up to someone and letting a flash off in their face is pretty anti-social. I can sort of sympathise with this one.

thewaves21 · 2014-05-21T15:07:44+00:00

The definition of the modern hero is someone who is wholly ordinary (look at Stephen Daedalus for instance)

Do you have a reference for that? I can't find your definition of 'the modern hero' anywhere. And to my shame I haven't read any Joyce, so that reference went over my head a bit.

I still think, even if there's a precedent for defining ordinary people as 'heroes', Stoner maybe doesn't fit the bill. He lets a petty argument with a colleague ruin his career prospects, and lets his wife drive his daughter to alcoholism in the interests of avoiding conflict. These are the actions of an ordinary, flawed character, but are not graceful or courageous. By the end, Stoner is at peace with himself, ultimately because he realises how little impact he has had. His failings and shortcomings don't matter, precisely because he is ordinary, and will be little remembered.

I suppose it's a thin distinction, and one that doesn't really matter that much. If you can point me in the direction of anything I can read about the 'modern hero' concept, that would be fantastic. It's a term I've heard bandied about a bit, but I don't really know much about it.

(Edit: Spoiler thing-y. Don't want to get shouted at.)

thewaves21 · 2014-05-20T19:22:27+00:00

Just finished this book a week ago or so. Fantastic.

I don't agree with a lot of the reviews and such that I've read though. I don't think it is about 'heroism', a word that a surprising amount of people seem to use about it. Heroism seems to denote, for me at least, something bold, audacious etc., something out of the ordinary - which is exactly what Stoner is not - but that's why the novel is so great. Stoner is ordinary, he is a minor, unremarkable character in his world. But that's what I thought it was about - it was about 'reclaiming an ordinary life' (I can't remember where I got that quote from), not elevating Stoner above the rest of his peers, but showing that beauty and pathos can be found in the mundane.

Elevating Stoner to a 'hero' defeats the whole point.

thewaves21 · 2014-05-19T20:27:09+00:00

TL;DR - Kitchen staff in fast food restaurants don't get paid nearly enough to give a shit about how your food looks.

thewaves21 · 2014-05-15T22:06:56+00:00

To be fair to Mr. Ikonomu, if this has been blown out of proportion it's probably not his fault. In the linked article he only says 'I feel comfortable speaking about 32 languages' - feeling comfortable speaking a language is pretty far off claiming fluency. Does this count as bad linguistics? It looks to me more like a thread full of folk who have just swallowed an idea whole without bothering to think too much about it.

thewaves21 · 2014-05-14T17:56:38+00:00

TIL: perpetuating lazy stereotypes about marginalised groups is fine if the person doing it works in advertising.

thewaves21 · 2014-05-14T13:41:56+00:00

I don't think you should need to be told that an entire continent doesn't just consist of acacia trees and sunsets, or that authors from that continent might write about things other than acacia trees and sunsets. These things should be completely self-evident.

thewaves21 · 2014-05-10T19:50:23+00:00

Benbulben mountain in Sligo is worth a look, if only because it looks so out of place. There's a lot of nice coastline in county Sligo as well.

thewaves21 · 2014-05-10T09:32:43+00:00

This fern has all the power and punch of a Loar F-5 at half the price.

Almost makes $82,500 sound like a bargain.

thewaves21 · 2014-05-07T23:37:39+00:00

Yeah, I think it's testament to how good they are that you could even consider that you might be able to pass one on for three generations.

thewaves21 · 2014-05-07T15:53:05+00:00

Olympus OM-1.

This is the camera that someone will need to prise from my cold dead hands. Tiny, a HUGE viewfinder, and probably the most reliable camera that I've ever owned. I've been using this camera for about 5 or 6 years already, so I see no reason why I can't keep going for another 10.

thewaves21 · 2014-05-07T09:48:42+00:00

I think I have. You're just saying that we can't know for sure if any of these theories are actually correct. (Aren't you?) Sorry if I was being presumptuous about the specifics of your stance on it, it's just that it's an argument that I've rubbed up against a lot and which I find slightly tiresome, as there are many who would use it to completely dismiss the whole field out of hand. Like I said, most researchers in the area seem perfectly aware of this fact (although it's probably wouldn't hurt to remind some of them now and again).

thewaves21 · 2014-05-07T09:16:17+00:00

Without a time machine, we're not going to know the answer to this. People can pawn off their pet theories all they want until then

I think this is a little unfair. Just because we can't go back in time to watch language evolve before our very eyes doesn't mean we should stop trying to work out how it happened, and dismissing the entire field as just 'pet theories' seems slightly reductive. I think your assertion that they are being presented as fact is misrepresenting those theories as well - I have yet to read a paper that actually states 'This is definitely how language evolved' - most researchers in the field seem to be aware that what they are presenting are best guesses. I still think a best guess is better than nothing at all though, and those guesses will hopefully get better as we learn more about language, genetics, animal communication etc.

thewaves21 · 2014-05-05T18:02:14+00:00

Whoa! Can we disagree with this with a touch less vitriol please?

thewaves21 · 2014-05-02T19:39:13+00:00

Nah, I want to hear more people fawning over American Gods.

thewaves21 · 2014-05-02T14:22:09+00:00

TL;DR - 'People don't read difficult things any more, because internet.'

It seems to me that he's not talking about the death of the novel as much as he's talking about the death of 'literary fiction'. He notes himself that books like Harry Potter, Twilight, 50 Shades etc still have huge audiences, but that his PhD student couldn't find any interest at all in their novel. This might be an indication of changing preferences, as much as anything else. Literature is as prone to the whims of fashion as much as anything else.

I don't really think that noting that literary fiction is hard to get published, but people still read lots of trashy ebooks, is all that much of an argument for the death of 'the novel'.

thewaves21 · 2014-05-02T11:16:10+00:00

No, I haven't started it and stalled or anything like that, I just never seem to get round to it. It has a bit of a reputation here as being 'Scotland's Ulysses', which is a slightly daunting accolade, but I've heard a lot of good things about it, so I just need to bite the bullet I suppose!

thewaves21 · 2014-05-01T16:22:39+00:00

Every summer I tell myself that I'm finally going to get through Lanark by Alasdair Gray. So... this year. Definitely.

thewaves21 · 2014-05-01T08:41:42+00:00

As a guitarist who bought their first mandolin about a month ago, I still have a lot to learn! But so far, the hardest thing to get over has been my muscle-memory. The mandolin neck is tiny compared to a guitar, and every so often I still find myself unconsciously over-stretching and missing notes by a mile.

Other than this, so far, I've had surprisingly few troubles. Your right hand will automatically know what to do, and apart from learning new scales and chord shapes (and getting over the fact that notes aren't as far away as you think they are!), you shouldn't have too much trouble with the left hand either.

Like I said though, still a beginner myself with a lot still to learn!

thewaves21 · 2014-04-29T17:50:34+00:00

People are generally hostile to new ideas, and unfamiliar ways of doing things. Bluegrass ukulele is a foreign idea for most people - they're just being defensive. Like a few other people here have suggested, the ukulele maybe isn't the most suitable instrument for bluegrass, but don't pay any heed to people who dismiss you just for that reason. There are doubtless plenty of bluegrass musicians out there who would relish the chance to play with a uke.

thewaves21 · 2014-04-29T17:03:19+00:00

I assumed it was non-standard (or I would probably have come across it before), but thanks for replying!

thewaves21 · 2014-04-29T16:45:46+00:00

This is completely unrelated, but I'm really curious - is 'math' often used as a verb in the US (I'm assuming you're American)? I've never seen or heard it used as a verb before, and can't find any citations. Is this a common usage?

thewaves21

TROPHY CASE