I’m now working through The Age of Surveillance Capitalism. I’m trying to take it with a grain of salt because it paints a pretty bleak story about big tech, and historically, doomsaying is the most popular of all passtimes when any technology becomes popular, with everything from the novel to the umbrella to the bicycle having at one point or another been a harbinger of mankind’s imminent destruction, the collapse of morality, and look at what the youths are doing!
With that said, I did take a few moments tonight to comb through my app permissions and clean up some stuff that seems excessive.
It’s some really heavy reading (between this and the Chernobyl book I posted about before, I swear I read fun stuff on occasion too. These are just the two holds at my library that came up back to back.)
Next up I’ll be restarting the Wheel of Time series. I read the first 8 or 9 back in the early 2000s, but then there was a year or two’s gap between when I finished the last one and when the next one came out, and I wound up not remembering enough to get back in. Now that the series has finished, it’s high time I gave it another go.
Ugh, finishing up Surveillance Capitalism, and it predictably jumped the shark from, “Hey, these tech giants have capitalized on neoliberal economics to create a system whereby they are basically ungovernable at this point. Oh, and look at all the sketchy things they’ve done to get here,” which is perfectly tenable, to “Oh God, social media is poisoning the youths. These poor, stupid, ignorant teenagers just don’t understand that they are being ruined by this technology. When will they ever go outside without chasing the Pokemanzzzz!?”
If I weren’t 20+ hours into the audiobook with only a few left to go, I’d call it quits.
So…I’ve finished the books…
My idiot self decided to retake the assessment knowing what I know now. And got a different guild. Dunno what to do with any of the info swirling around in my head.
I did the same thing. I chose to stick with my original guild because it felt more like me, but polyguilds are a thing, and as the Guide says - you are the ultimate determiner of where you want to be (it says it prettier than that, but I’m lazy rn).
During TMP, I kept on retaking and retaking because I’m so Ravenclaw it hurts and obviously I ought to be in the guild that has a stack of books on the logo. Nope, Ebenguard every single time.
Then I retook it for the heck of it when the wordmark AG+ bundle giveaway was happening, and all of a sudden it said Flinter! Tried again, and Thornmouth! Third time went back to Ebbie.
All that to say that things change, you can always see aspects from other guilds in yourself, and clearly you need to mention which you got this time because how can you tease us with such knowledge and keep it to yourself.
Thornmouth and Balimora as the two most common guilds to get which is why they’re he biggest here I myself started out as a Thornmouth and then joined Balimora as well. Now I’m part of every guild I think
Oh man, so I restarted the Wheel of Time series on audiobook, and I had forgotten how much of an idiot Matt is early in the series. I’ll try to keep the description of what I just read spoiler free.
They just fled into Shadar Logoth, and here’s my interpretation of what just went down:
If you picture it as a D&D session, what I just got to would go a little something like this:
You enter the abandoned city. A gloom hangs over everything around. There are no birds singing, no natural sounds at all. Even the light seems to spurn this place. A figure approaches you out of the mists. He is dressed all in black, his skin slack on his bones like that of a corpse. His eyes gleam with a hatred of all that lives.
“Greetings, travelers, I am Morgoth the destroyer of all who live and breathe, scourge of the light, dread lord of Kazagnul, Slayer of angels. I am but a treasure hunter seeking my fortune in this city. I have discovered a bounty that exceeds my ability to carry it back. If you three strong young lads will assist me in loading my cart, you are welcome to what remains.”
Reader: "In the immortal words of Admiral Ackbar, ‘It’s a tra-’
Matt: rolls sense motive. Nat 1 -2 WIS “Oh gee, mister. I sure do love treasure. I guess I should drop what I’m doing, leave the badass witch and living embodiment of the blade who protect me behind, and go help you load your cart because this absolutely, positively, is in no way a trap.”
I’m currently rereading, Rumble Fish, I have only read it in eight grade and it’s kind of been in the back of my head. I’m also a fan of the author of the book.
I just finished Stephen King’s IT (it was my second attempt getting through it haha, that’s a lot of pages).
Now I’m rereading Dandelion Wine by Bradbury. I read it several times in high school and loved it, but I honestly don’t remember anything about it, so I’m interested to see if I like it now as much as I did then.
I was just thinking about Dandelion Wine! My aunt gave it to me right before I started high school and said it was the book that made her want to be a teacher, so naturally I loved it. I don’t remember much either, just that it was incredibly summery and is probably a perfect re-read for this time of year!!
Junior year of high school we were supposed to do reports on three books by American writers, so of course I grabbed three of his. Did Death is a Lonely Business, A Graveyard for Lunatics, and From the Dust Returned.
Started reading this book, not sure if you guys have ever heard of it, but it’s rather odd, details this journalist’s search for some books that seem to be lost to time and space, came from this small publishing company that had gone defunct. Anyway, there’s implications of magic and stuff. It’s pretty cool, now if I could only remember the title or anything about it.
I myself started out as a Thornmouth and then joined Balimora as well. Now I’m part of every guild I think 
