Cogito, Ergo Sumana for 2006 January 25

# 25 Jan 2006, 07:37AM GMT+5:30: Readings: As I was going through a cold this week (am currently 90% over it), I read Jane Austen's Persuasion, whose title I love. Persuasion is very fun for the first 90 percent of it but then once the endgame becomes obvious it is less compelling.

I also read Thomas Hardy's The Mayor of Casterbridge, which is fantastic. Anna Karenina revealed to me why people love epic soap operas, and Casterbridge is smaller in scale but no less epic in the scope of human emotion explored. And it is funny.

Casterbridge couldn't happen today, I think, what with all the bureaucracy and open access to information the First World enjoys. It's like Jane Eyre in that way.

The town of Casterbridge is a minor town somewhere in England, like Stockton. Now I live in the equivalent of London. A weird thing to get used to.

At the Friends of The Library store in San Francisco's Fort Mason, I bought a cheap Blues Traveler CD, entirely because it has "Hook" on it. "Hook" was my first experience, possibly aside from Weird Al and songs from Broadway musicals, with meta songs. It blew my little teenage mind. I still like it.

Filed under: Reading

# 25 Jan 2006, 08:47PM: Fog Creek Stuff: In preparation for my first day on the job tomorrow, I just watched the Project Aardvark movie, which was enjoyable but made me glad I won't have a film crew following me around as I get settled. The DVD has silly extras in the chapter menu.

Now that I've met Joel, I read his essays and hear his voice. His most recent essay includes a section on "Administatrivia," which UC Berkeley folks always called "Administrivia." This reminds me of John Hodgman's excellent Daily Show appearance:

Stewart: It's Hodgman-mania!
Hodgman: Actually, the correct term is Hodgmania.

Anyway, I am nervous about my new job, and then three years from now it will all seem like a blur. So it goes.