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America has always been screwed up
Sometimes the news is overwhelming and awful and directs me towards just checking out entirely, but a salve comes from an unexpected place and reminds me that things have always been terrible and today is not an aberration, and oddly, the knowledge that America has always been screwed up gives me a sort of vaccine to today’s sickness.
For whatever reason, two weeks ago, the town of Grimsby (Lincolnshire, England) came up in conversation with my family, and I offhandedly remembered that Elton John had a song about Grimsby on his album Caribou (1976), and today I decided to listen to the album while I was coding. Dang if one of the album tracks, “Ticking”, isn’t about a gun nut going berserk in the USA and leaving death in his wake.
And immediately, a litany of songs of senseless violence sprang to mind. Boomtown Rats’ “I Don’t Like Mondays” (1979). 10000 Maniacs’ “Jubilee” (1989)…. (perhaps you have your own memory to add to the list — please comment if you do).
I am conflicted to see in retrospect how I grew up in a stew of senseless violence and internalized it all as just another part of being American.
Fuck that.
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JINX
Finished Matt Gemmell’s JINX a few weeks ago and forgot to write about it. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Compared to the first two Kestrel books, Matt seems to have upped his writing to a level where I can really recommend this book to folks as a standout. The dialogue is witty and understated, often based in the contrasts between the the different personalities – when I wasn’t paying full attention, I found myself rereading a few lines to fully appreciate the banter between the characters.
I’m really looking forward to what comes next!
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“Corporate Engineers”
Brent writes a love letter to his team at Audible: My Wildly Incorrect Bias About Corporate Engineers and Gus responds in turn very kindly: Brent on Biases and Retirement
I share Gus’ amusement, but with a few additional angles. As a longtime Microsoft developer, I was exactly the kind of “Corporate Engineer” Brent might have a bias about, and, I hope, exactly the kind of engineer who had some subset of talents that Brent might appreciate and enjoy working with. Hanging out with Brent and Gus and the rest of the Xcoders family has been an enjoyable and fulfilling part of my career, so this discussion really makes me smile.
And Gus’ words make me smile even more so, as he adds “Only crazy people are willing to put up with having to file business taxes, mess with social security, find healthcare, deal with all the stuff you have to handle to be indie.” Now that I am in the position of having to file business taxes, mess with social security, find healthcare, and deal with all the stuff, I feel even better about my decision to quit Microsoft. The indie side of my work now is much more satisfying.
Hope I see you all soon, I’m very sorry to miss your retirement party, Brent!
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