Stuff we're reading / watching / listening to

[Digit]

Ha. 10-year-old CEO of his own book reselling company of four employees is pretty well set-up. He's got the big oak desk, the corporate stationery, the also 10-year-old marketing director who offers to get him some coffee, the employee handbook which specifies no alcohol or firearms, and even the Reagan bust on his desk.

[Whistler]

I've been reading Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (I think someone recommended it on the Board a few years ago?). It is pretty awesome! Social psychology, genetics, logic, all under the guise of an excellent fanfic. Or in Acius's words, "What Harry Potter would have been like if Harry had been a nerd instead of a jock."

http://hpmor.com/chapter/1

[M.O.D.A.Q.]

I've been reading Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (I think someone recommended it on the Board a few years ago?). It is pretty awesome! Social psychology, genetics, logic, all under the guise of an excellent fanfic. Or in Acius's words, "What Harry Potter would have been like if Harry had been a nerd instead of a jock."

http://hpmor.com/chapter/1

Thank you for posting this! A friend recommended it to me but I had forgotten about it until I saw your post.

[Digit]

An oldie but goodie came up on my Pandora stream. Bon Jovi's Dead or Alive. Slippery When Wet was the first tape I ever got. Good music.

[Whistler]

the HPMOR fanfic isn't complete yet aaaaaah

also: Georgian folk songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbsQJBx ... UmEec5NJeg

[mic0]

Does this count as something I'm reading? A dumb but funny article in silliness: or, someone tries to really eat endless mozzarella sticks.

"Is it possible that man was not meant to ingest infinite quantities of mozzarella sticks?"

ETA: It reminds me of a modern day Notes From Underground or Diary of a Madman, but funnier.

[Portia]

Dostoevsky (um, not Solzhenitsyn, as I thought. Hobbes will send the firing squad shortly) reference FTW.

[Whistler]

Does this count as something I'm reading? A dumb but funny article in silliness: or, someone tries to really eat endless mozzarella sticks.

"Is it possible that man was not meant to ingest infinite quantities of mozzarella sticks?"

ETA: It reminds me of a modern day Notes From Underground or Diary of a Madman, but funnier.

I read this and it was epic. I really felt the boredom.

[mic0]

She's a good writer like that. The boredom was palpable (and I could almost taste the mozzarella sticks, which still sound good to me, but I haven't been through the horrors she's been through).

[Digit]

Ha. CERN announcement to switch to Comic Sans. Note the last sentence when the changes would take effect.

[Tally M.]

I've been reading Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality (I think someone recommended it on the Board a few years ago?). It is pretty awesome! Social psychology, genetics, logic, all under the guise of an excellent fanfic. Or in Acius's words, "What Harry Potter would have been like if Harry had been a nerd instead of a jock."

http://hpmor.com/chapter/1

So, I've been reading this lately as well (Thanks for posting it!). I started it quite a few years, but I think I stopped in like the first chapter when Draco mentioned wanting to rape a girl (don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds, but I certainly thought it was going to be). I'm ABSOLUTELY LOVING IT. Seriously, parts have entered my own HP canon, especially a reanalysis of what exactly it means to be a Ravenclaw. This one, and Pet Project are the only two fanfics I've ever read, and I've loved both of them.

[Whistler]

yeah, I'm glad I have an e-reader, because I'm not sure if I would have tried reading it otherwise.

[Tally M.]

I liked the first half much better than the second half...Some of the plot decisions made were not my favorites.

[Emiliana]

I just finished re-reading the original HP series (which took me only about three weeks...I suspect I should have spent more time grading papers and less time HPing over the last few weeks, but oh well!). My hunger for more, along with these recommendations, has led me to HP and the Methods of Rationality. I'm enjoying it in a lot of ways, but on the other hand part of what I like about the original series is that the magic IS so whimsically unpredictable. So I'm not sure whether I'm going to like Harry trying to rationalize it to death.

[Digit]

Ambition: Why Some People Are Most Likely to Succeed

Funny quote.

Most troubling of all, what about when enough ambition becomes way too much? Grand dreams unmoored from morals are the stuff of tyrants — or at least of Enron. The 16-hour workday filled with high stress and at-the-desk meals is the stuff of burnout and heart attacks. Even among kids, too much ambition quickly starts to do real harm. In a just completed study, anthropologist Peter Demerath of Ohio State University surveyed 600 students at a high-achieving high school where most of the kids are triple-booked with advanced-placement courses, sports and after-school jobs. About 70% of them reported that they were starting to feel stress some or all of the time. "I asked one boy how his parents react to his workload, and he answered, 'I don't really get home that often,'" says Demerath. "Then he handed me his business card from the video store where he works."

[M.O.D.A.Q.]

Fall premieres have begun. New seasons of TV shows. My free time is officially gone.

[Whistler]

your free time isn't gone, you're just spending it watching TV!

[Emiliana]

I just finished Walter Dean Myers' "All The Right Stuff," which was one of the last things he wrote before he died earlier this year. It kind of sucked...

[Digit]

It's not the visuals or even the accents, there's just something distinctly Russian about the chorals in the Red Army Choir's rendition of Get Lucky.

[mic0]

Not me, but my dad just finished the Mistborn series! I got him the first book for Christmas, remembering how we read Harry Potter when I was in high school and how fun it was. He really loved them and just finished the last Mistborn book a couple weeks ago. One thing is, he always calls Brandon Sanderson "Brian" Sanderson. I don't know if he is joking or not, but it is pretty funny.