Month: January 2024

Unread Shelf: January 31, 2024

On By Luther M. SilerIn Photography, Reading2 Comments

So, yeah, that looks about the same as last month— there’s only one book on there that wasn’t there in the last picture– and then you remember that I’m trying to clear this bookshelf, and that I let it slip last month that some completed (as in “entirely purchased,” not “read”) series had been moved to the Actual Bookshelves in the living room, and, well …

Why does no one know this series exists? Why does no one ever talk about Adrian Tchaikovsky? Has anyone other than me read Shadows of the Apt? I’d be willing to believe that I have at least 3000 pages to go in the remaining volumes.

And, remember, once I finish that Robin Hobb series, there are like five more— more series, not more books— in the same universe if they end up being good.

Back on my bullshit

On By Luther M. SilerIn life

I’ve jumped back into Duolingo again, trying to regain what little Arabic I had learned on the first run, and … man, the way this software works just isn’t going to do it for me. I know how to learn from books, but software still eludes me; has anyone out there actually had any luck learning a language (use whatever definition you want for “learning”) using software of any kind, whether desktop or phone app or whatever? Particularly when the language in question was written in something other than Latin script? Let me know.

Maybe time to get the ol’ meds checked

On By Luther M. SilerIn idiocy1 Comment

I have been in an absolute boiled-shit bad mood all day, and I am tired of virtually everything. In particular, I have never been more tired of the NFL in my life than I am right now; I have generally been content to ignore professional football and the legion of drunken cosplaying dweebs that follow it, but for some reason their fucking opinions keep making their way into my sight recently, and everything they think about everything is dumb.

I absolutely hate the fact that I have to have an opinion about Taylor Swift’s boyfriends again, and I’m especially peeved that this time I’m on her side. Fuck all of this; I’m exhausted.

And while I’m irritated at groups of people I’m generally content to ignore, everyone in their twenties and thirties needs to shut the fuck up about, like, everything. All of your opinions are wrong and most of them are wrong and dumb and you believe in your wrong and dumb things with your entire chests and I’m fucking exhausted over here. Off my fucking lawn, all of you, and by “my fucking lawn” I mean “planet Earth.” Even when your opinions are right you are invariably wrong about what to do about those right opinions and I just can’t any more. I’m losing my shit over here.

I swear to Christ that if I have a rage-stroke and die before the shitgibbon does I will find a way to haunt everyone, forever. Don’t test me, Goddammit.

The end.

ATTENTION

On By Luther M. SilerIn Teaching1 Comment

This was the thermostat in my classroom when I arrived at work this morning– half an hour early, as there was a fairly important meeting scheduled in my room before school and I needed to get some shit done– and I would officially like to state for the record that I cannot.

Good night.

I would post, but …

On By Luther M. SilerIn life

I’ve been on my office working on school shit since finishing dinner, and now that I’m done with school shit, I’m going to go sit quietly in the same room with my son for an hour, during which time neither of us will speak to the other one.

Ah, togetherness.

#REVIEW: ON TOP OF THE COVERS: LIVE FROM THE SUN ROSE, by T-Pain

On By Luther M. SilerIn Music, Reviews

This will be relatively brief, as I apparently didn’t get enough sleep last night and at 7:05 I am entirely willing to go directly to bed the minute I finish this, but after seeing a TikTok video of T-Pain performing Ozzy Osbourne’s War Pigs live, the second I found out that there was a recording available of the entire concert I jumped at it. There is apparently also a cover album with a similar playlist that is studio versions, and I wasn’t aware it existed until searching for a .jpg of the album cover just now. I don’t really know a lot about T-Pain; I thought autotune was mostly his thing and while I’m sure I’ve heard him do a ton of guest appearances in other people’s songs I don’t think I could name anything by him if you paid me. But this album is bananas good; it’s eclectic as hell, running the gamut from Journey to the Guess Who to Marvin Gaye to Chris Stapleton to, again, Ozzy, and while I’ll admit that some of the bits where he’s just chatting with the audience are kind of annoying, this motherfucker can sing, and I listened to the album like three times straight yesterday.

This is one of the best kind of live albums, too– the crowd is tiny; he refers to “a hundred and some” people at one point, and I wouldn’t even necessarily have guessed that many, but you can hear every reaction from someone in the crowd and the recording itself is really clean. It’s occasionally a little too medley-style; I’d have appreciated more than a minute and eight seconds of Luther Vandross’ Never Too Much, for example, and that’s in the middle of about five or six great songs in a row, none of which get more than about a minute and a half. But he makes up for it with sheer charisma and energy, and there are worse complaints I could have had than I want more of this. 

Don’t worry about whether you are a fan of T-Pain or not. Check out the set list (scroll down), and if you think you’ll enjoy the show, you’re probably right. 

A reminder that I know nothing

On By Luther M. SilerIn Politics1 Comment

New Hampshire’s happening tonight, and as of this moment there’s about 11% of the vote in on the Republican side and the shitgibbon is ahead, by a fairly paltry amount. I have no sense whatsoever of where in New Hampshire Nikki Haley might be expecting her votes to come from, so trying to drill down at all doesn’t make any sense, and it’s probably a good time to remind everyone that I don’t know anything at all about politics or how people think, because I still don’t understand how this illiterate, atheist con man got the Republican nomination the first time, much less what’s looking like the third. 

(EDIT: The AP called the race while I was writing this; at this point, I really feel like all we have left is to hope the fucker dies before the election. Preferably as soon as possible. Tonight would be cool. God’s in the bathroom again, apparently.)*

Meanwhile, Biden– who is not on the ballot– is pulling 74% of the vote against Phillips and Williamson. If this isn’t enough to convince a certain slice of what ought to be the Democratic electorate that there is not actually any desire on the part of actual voting Democrats for any other candidate, I don’t know what the hell could do it. I suspect these people, much like the shitgibbon’s cultists, are similarly impervious to reason, but we’ll see.

(SECOND EDIT: While I was writing the first edit, the AP called the race for Biden, too. Which is deeply fucking hilarious. Time for Phillips and Williamson to go.)

Meanwhile: snow day today, and freezing rain is being replaced by Hell Fog, and I’m fully anticipating a two-hour delay tomorrow, because quarter-mile visibilities and kids walking to school don’t mix. There won’t be a close, but my district has had Fog Days in the past, and two-hour delays don’t count against us the way actual closures do. This might bite me in the ass if I have to go in and plan a day on no notice, but … yeah, I’ll risk it. 

* I do actually think Biden can and will beat him again, but I’d prefer to not have to find out if I’m right about that. The fucker exists on cheeseburgers and his brain is made of pudding. Come on, God.

Staring out the window

On By Luther M. SilerIn Teaching2 Comments

…no, I’m not giving you a picture, as it’s dark outside, but the district sent us all home today with an email darkly suggesting we “prepare for a delay or cancellation” tomorrow, as the entire region is expected to be blanketed in ice tonight, and given that fact, I have absolutely no intention of doing any lesson planning tonight, so I’d prefer if they would just get it over with and cancel something. The smaller and more rural districts are already starting to pull triggers, so … let’s just do it now, okay? I want to know when to set my alarm for tomorrow, dammit.