Monthly Archives: January 2025

Havoc by Christopher Bollen

HavocHavoc by Christopher Bollen
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

This book is just plain nasty. The main character, Maggie, is a crazy busybody lady with a mean streak living in a hotel in Egypt because that’s the only place she could go during the Covid lockdowns. She considers it her home now as the longest guest and she takes revenge on anyone who usurps any part of her status there. None of the other characters are quite as nasty as Maggie, but it’s hard to like anyone in the book very much. The writing is pedestrian and the plot deteriorates rapidly all the way to the end.

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I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger

I Cheerfully RefuseI Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This novel was billed as a post-apocalypse sci-fi novel, but sci-fi fans would be disappointed in it, I think. I was. Enger is quite the wordsmith and very imaginative. He was probably some creative writing teacher’s star pupil. But the plot has too many holes and eye-rolling implausibilities for my taste. One minor example that grated for much of the book is when the main character flees the U.S. to go Canada and when he gets there, can’t spend his money since they won’t accept U.S. So he barters away some prized possessions, but when he returns to the U.S., he has no U.S. money and the bartering continues. What happened to his money? His continued physical and emotional impoverishment is an important continuing theme, but not necessary if he has money. It kept me busy while I waited in the clinic waiting room, but that’s about all I can recommend it for.

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What3Words in the News – L.A. Fires and Inauguration

It’s that time again for some newsworthy W3W word combos.

I searched Pacific Palisades for appropriate combinations and the most interesting one in the burned area I found was buzz.entire.city, appropriate for the fire retardant aircraft, but sad because it is near a parish school that was destroyed. The nearby church was damaged, but not destroyed. Close by in Topanga Canyon, in the evacuation zone, was blaze.erase.gone. A few miles farther I found blaze.fries.cars and burns.entire.cities. Those last two are in Los Angeles, near to but outside the fire zone. Ironically, that last one is right between the Chatsworth Fireside and BBQ store and Flame Enterprises.

Moving on to an even sadder event, let’s look at Trump’s upcoming inauguration. Due to the fact Trump was afraid his outdoor crowd size would be markedly smaller than Obama’s in similar weather conditions, he has moved it inside to the Capital One Arena. While I didn’t find a killer combo, that place is large and I found several spots inside it that at least hint at the uncomfortable truth to come. Here’s a list. I’m too lazy to posts the links, but they all go to the Arena. You know how to work W3W if you want to check.

For Melania:

  • enhancement.larger.best (The R must have been dropped)
  • dame.belong.posed

For the rich oligarchs (how they see themselves)

  • dollar.people.noble
  • cost.twice.booth
  • status.above.empire

For his MAGA cult members generally

  • sheep.walks.crew
  • palm.fills.arena

And for our POTUS-to-be:

  • entry.stage.badly
  • loving.fats.thanks
  • trial.myself.blame (if only)
  • robe.season.wasp

 

Devil in the Stack by Andrew Smith

Devil in the Stack: A Coding OdysseyDevil in the Stack: A Coding Odyssey by Andrew Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The author, who began as a non-coder, dove deep into the culture of computers and computer programmers (“coders”). The book describes coding in simple terms as he himself learned how to write code and what the cultures of the coding communities are like. I use the plural because the different computer languages seem to carry their own cultures. He settles into the Python world and despises C. He spent over four years researching and writing the book. It is filled with interviews with iconic coders around the world and the industry. After moving through what it’s like to learn to code, he moves on to how software has changed our lives for both good and bad and describes the promise of artificial intelligence (AI) to produce even greater good and greater evil. He prefers the term machine learning (ML) to AI as he explains why he thinks AI is a misleading term. The book is well-written and readable, even for those outside the computer/coding world.

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