So i just finished reading “The Name Of The Wind” by Patrick Rothfuss. I gotta say I was a little skeptical at first. There’s been some wild critical acclaim for the book. It’s been shelved in the same sentence as LoTR and Pern and hailed as the where to go series post Harry Potter. As an avid fantasy reader I felt obliged to give it a read. While I don’t bite for the Harry Potter hype (it’s good, but I had already been reading fantasy for well over a decade prior to Philosopher’s Stone) I do have to say that I loved this book, though probably not for the same reasons as everyone else.
First, here’s why I loved this book and have already pre-ordered the next volume of the triology. The actual substance is mindblowingly well written. This author has put to words scenarios and described feelings in ways that make you instantly invested in his characters. For me, personally, there is an entire chapter devoted to describing the pains of the adolescent ideals of romance that mirrored my feelings as a youth to the letter. It was almost frighning in it’s paralleliness (<-why I’m not a writer). By about 20 pages in I had to know everything about this character, which is good because the entire trilogy is set up as a narrative memoir more or less.
Now, the plot. An awful lot of the reviews point to the originality of the story as the key element to it’s success. I find that to be a little far from the truth. I’m not saying the plot was contrived at all. I’m just musing that I’ve seen most of the key elements before. The majority of the story takes place in an academic setting at the University which, of course, teaches sympathy (this world’s form of magic). I think it’s safe to say that most people can draw that line fairly easily. Also, the main character is practically destitute and surrounded by wealthy students. Again kind of HP-esque. I’m not saying it was an unwelcome plot. It certainly aides in making you pull for the character. I just wish it didn’t follow on the heels of HP.
Another major plot element, which you may have not noticed as having been used elsewhere, is the magic of names. Knowledge of the true name of an element or being brings complete control over that force. I think I too would have been blown away by the originality of this mechanic had I not already been blown away by it’s use in “The Deathgate Cycle”.
One thing I will say though. I love the use of the bard class as the leading role. It’s done so well in this book that I’m considering playing bard for the first time if I can find a regular game to sit in on around here. It makes me wonder why you don’t see it more often.
Overall I’m super excited about this book. I think I just love it for reasons other than those exclaimed in the major press. Which is good. Here is a book that both the casual reader and the invested fantasy reader can both agree is just plain awesome. Way to raise the bar.
From time to time I get poked fun at for being a “clean freak”. Normally I let things like this slide, but this actually kind of bothers me. If I were in turn to go around and call people slobs to their face should I expect them to not get offended?
I try and keep a clean home. I’m not a dick about it. I don’t make you use coasters when you come over or remove your shoes. All I ask is that if you make a mess, maybe you could help clean it up.
The frequency at which I am repeatedly ridiculed for straightening up has led me to some conclusions. I am of the opinion that my generation is devoid of homemaking skills. I know we’re supposed to be going through some sort of home renovation revolution, but I think that once the construction is done and the stainless steel appliances are installed everyone just sort of forgets that the advertisements they clipped as inspiration did not include big piles of magazines and dirty dishes strewn about the new marble counter.
I also realized that were I to hire a maid to do all the cleaning for me I would be considered “normal”. So, cleanliness in the home is also an attribute that only the rich can hope to attain. Apparently in my past life I was Mexican. I thought that a clean home was a reflection of my hard work, not my wealth. Maybe that’s it. Maybe my generation feels too entitled to clean up after themselves. After all, arent’ we all destined for greatness? Isn’t cleaning up after ourselves beneath us?
If I go to one more persons house that has dirty laundry tossed about and smells like cat piss but has a $2000 TV and $2500 rent overhead I may vomit on the spot. Which is fine, because hey, we just want you to feel comfortable.
So, I finally bit the bullet and upgraded my iPhone to 2.0. I figured, what the heck. What’s the worst that can happen? I know all the reported bugs right? Wrong. Way way way wrong. Not only can I not pull up mail.app without it crashing (an easy fix by comparison), but it would seem that the firmware update amped up the wifi transever.
While I have no documented proof on this yet, I can tell you this. Today I noticed that my wireless mouse was acting poorly. It all started with the left button sticking and sometimes not sending a release message. It then escallated to not moving the pointer at all. I chalked it up to low battery and swapped them out. Still a problem. I tried using my pantleg as a mouse pad and had positive results. I very nearly thought that maybe I had worn out my mousepad. Since that’s a lttle ridiculouse (though I really do need a new mousepad) I diagnosed it as being a blown transistor in the optical circuit. It happens all the time in drives (remember the Playstatio 2?) so why not in an overly used mouse.
Luckily I thought about the problem for a few seconds and realized what had changed between today and yesterday. I installed 2.0 on my iPhone. My cradle sits directly between my mouse and it’s wireless reciever. I moved the phone to the other side of the desk and viola, no more mouse problems. This has never been an issue before so I must conclude that 2.0 boosted the wifi signal thus adding to the 802.1g pollution flying around my desk.
So, we went back to NYC for the first time since the move. It was definately a surreal and different experience than I was planning on. Rachel was working in the office for the week so I had the little G-man all day. I tried to grab lunch at RnT every day, but it just wasn’t in the cards. That and when I did go everyone was super busy and stressed. Did I look like that before we moved?
The heat was great. 100 degrees and humid as hell. I think it’s a little like properly lighting a set. It makes all the accents pop just that much more. You really appreciate a cold beer or shade.
It was so good to see everyone, but I’m also glad to be back home. I nearly killed myself with all the meetings and running around. Maybe next time I’ll try and keep it strictly vacation.
I finally sprung for the 360 this week. I figure I develop for it I might as well get one too if for the very least I can play some of the games that I help make. I gotta say i’m loving it. The interface is beautiful. I love the blade system. Having a wireless Xbox that I can power on and off from the couch is just fantastic. After a little Linux hacking on my server I can completely ditch my hacked gen1 Xbox and use the 360 as my media center to boot without even having to touch the OS.