Asus 1015PEM

Bought an Asus 1015PEM. Overall, a solid netbook, did my homework and checked it out online of course. One thing is the arrow keys are ridiculously small. I hereby pre-emptively nominate this post for WhiteWhine.com. :\ Eh, i'll adapt. My first netbook years ago took some getting used to.

A rock of time

Been busy lately. And in hectic periods, my vestigial humanity frays and what little patience I have for life's constant stream of interruptions evaporates. God how I hate the little things, so very much. Just want a space of time and silence so I can have a chance to try and think long, slow, deep thoughts. I want a bugger-off-I'm-thinking hat that says "Persons from Porlock will be shot."

And I'll tell and think it and speak it and breathe it

And reflect it from the mountain so all souls can see it

Then I'll stand on the ocean until I start sinkin'

But I'll know my songs well before I start singin'

-Dylan, A Hard Rain's Gonna Fall

I love Stephenson's Anathem because I would sign up for the Unarian math in a heartbeat, and I'm fairly sure I'd work my way up to a Decenarian stint. What William Gibson called opting out of the commodification of novelty.

Adult Hard

But the riot inside moves on

So, house burned down 3 months ago, almost all of my dead-tree books went up in smoke. Anywho, mostly I've been reading my ebook cache and online stuff, but the first hardcovers I re-bought were Neal Stephenson's Anathem and Iain M. Banks's Surface Detail.

Webcomics

Ursula Vernon's Digger has ended. I read it partway through about a year ago, came back and saw The End, went archive-diving and got caught up. Amazing, harrowing epic, with a unique protagonist that's the perfect point of view for the story. Obvious parallels with Pratchett, but clearly its own thing. Hope it wins the awards and recognition it richly deserves.

The comments in Digger are pretty good too, nerdy and informative. Thats how I found TopWebComics. Finished reading Scandinavia and the World and Twilight Monk, trawling for some other stuff to read.

It's cool how Vernon didn't campaign for votes, Digger's (brief) spike in the rankings was real grassroots stuff coming from the commentariat. And Digger will stand as a milestone long after this year's popularity contests are forgotten.

• Bob Dylan "cover" of Rebecca Black's Friday still makes me laugh.
• Wind and Mr. Ug: Didn't pay attention to the title at first, so I was 2 minutes into the video before it hit me and my head exploded. Greatest math nerd story evar.