Things on the mind

[nishatalitha]

Cleaned a room fora dude staying at work today. Okay, we have lots of dudes staying at work, but my partner was convinced that this one was famous and was astounded that I didn't recognise him. I mentioned I didn't watch TV and agreed that he seemed vaguely familiar in that 'oh, he looks like a grown-up version of a guy I went to church/school/work with at high school' kind of way. Having been reminded of this by having to recharge my cellphone, I find that, him being a New Zealander and all, he was in Shortland St. twelve years ago and for three or four years about five years ago. He's still there, so I won't give more details.

However, for the politically minded of you, we had a Dr. and Mrs. English staying there recently.

My new duvet worked out even better than I expected. During the night, I had to remove one of the woollen blankets I'd put on my bed recently and I plan to remove the rest before I make my bed tonight. So, that's good. More stuff to add to my bed when I get really cold. It was so nice being warm. I slept well.

My feet are in the process of going numb, but that's not surprising.

I'm reading a book called When the Devil Dances by John Ringo. The book is the third in a series about a rather violent invasion of Earth and there's not much left, aside from, you know, the people who won't say die. Apart from the issues I have with the gentleman's style of writing, the book has some interesting points about the value of a life, in individuals or in millions. And that reminds me of something I read in the paper recently (at least, I think I read it there), that one death is a tragedy, millions of deaths are a statistic. Numbers get too big for the mind to easily comprehend. And when you're reading fiction you can't even remind yourself that these were once real people, you can't bring it down to the individual level very easily. And so you get blood-gutted.

This isn't my first experience with a SF book doing that. There's always the Lost Regiment series, by someone Forsyth, where you have a massive battle a third of the way in and then another almost at the very end, whereupon the humans regroup and try to survive for just a little bit longer and millions of aliens get slaughtered. I made it through seven of those before giving up (I believe there are nine or ten) and I'm vaguely trying to catch up on the other series, which has made it to five or six books by now. If I read one every few months, I should manage. Everyone blurs into one another after a while and I just skim over the detailed descriptions of weaponry and tactics and read about the people.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Check this link for a very interesting article about the meaning of life/lives. It's a little unscientifically presented but the point gets across. Oh, you also have to ignorethefact that although the theory is called "monkeysphere" he included pictures of apes.

http://www.pointlesswasteoftime.com/monkeysphere.html

I've delivered to your work kitchen twice today, it appears to be a regular fishy reciever. I think it was a girl called Megan who took it both times.

Working Troll. :)

[thurisaz83.livejournal.com]

I've seen that line before! :D

Try Connie Willis' Doomsday Book. SF book - though it doesn't exactly focus on the SF part - that takes millions of deaths and focuses on about 5 of them. Really turns the statistic into a tragedy in an amazing way. :D

*randomly flying by to say hi* :D

[nishatalitha.livejournal.com]

*waves* Lovely to, er, see you.

*suddenly finally gets why people do :D - it's a giant smiley*

*hides*

Will see if someone I know has it and will try it. And what particular line were you referring to?

[bl9-knt.livejournal.com]

hey.
ive read gust front: we were doing so well in that one!! power armour and building a fleet. to bad it wasnt ready.
it reminds me of a MOO2 game where the aliens turn up 10 turns before im ready. we all get eaten. bits of the US hold out.
you are aware were your quote comes from?
"One death is a tradegy, a million are are a statistic"
Joesph Stalin

[nishatalitha.livejournal.com]

I couldn't remember the source of the quote, but it doesn't surprise me at all that it's Stalin. And it was mentioned in the paper recently.

...does it surprise you that I'm contemplating watching the rugby tonight? Wellington Lions vs the British and Irish Lions. And - who do you support now?