reading (catching up)

So I haven't managed to read much this year. That's mostly because every waking hour is busy with other things (aka working around the house). I just don't have much opportunity to sit around for hours and read. I also got involved in several books that bogged me down. I've been reading the complete works of Lovecraft. That will be a while. I've also been reading the Electrical Code. Again, it'll be a while, hopefully I won't have any electrical decisions anytime soon. I also got halfway through Gravity's Rainbow before I gave it up. I've also been reading my way through Grimm's Fairy Tales, the old original ones with sketchy morals and gritty bits. Aside from that I've been reading bits and pieces of "how to" books concerning the house and garden.

So I haven't actually finished many books this year. But here they are:

1. Asimov's Feb 2014
2. Asimov's March 2014
3. Asimov's April/May 2014
4. Asimov's June 2014
5. Asimov's July 2014
6. Asimov's August 2014
7. Cornelia Funke "The Theif Lord"
8. John Grisham "The Testament"

Eight books in 8 months. It'll be a pretty thin year for the books.

the interwebs

I was an early adopter of the Internet and was using it before graphical browsers got a foothold. The modes have evolved. Mailing lists and email migrated to home pages and web links. HTML went from being a way to publish text to a way to express yourself then to a framework for supporting unlimited advertising laced with a modicum of content.

I have yet to lower myself to putting up with Facebook's ads on a regular basis. Livejournal is a hollow shell of what it used to be. Dreamwidth tries, but for me it just doesn't have the momentum necessary to make it feel like social platform and well as a writing platform. Don't get me started on Twitter.

I guess I'm kind of done with the whole Internet thing in its present incarnation. Does the current trend of platforms that require multibillion dollar advertising revenue streams serve the people? Or do the people serve the platforms?

I don't know what I want to do yet, but I'm restless. It may involve posting here or it may involve some other mode. Who knows, I may try to revive some throwback technology like email or writing on paper. Would you like to play?