Jason (jcreed) wrote,
Jason
jcreed

I don't think I really accomplished anything today. Read a bit about Lamport's Paxos algorithm, which seems to sort of appear everywhere at the least provocation in systems stuff, much like Bloom filters.

Oh wait no come to think of it I finished "Freedom". The ending was rushed, but satisfying in a tidy-up-the-loose-ends sort of way. In fact, even the earlier infidelities of the marriage happened in such a way that the reader was coaxed into wanting them, wanting the characters to achieve some kind of happiness, after being convinced that happiness in Walter and Patty's marriage was impossible. But then Franzen dangled the carrot of hope that they might get back together, and then they did. In hindsight it seems a bit cheap, almost. But I strain to feel like I can coherently express any dissatisfaction about the storytelling being... too satisfying. Anyway I enjoyed reading it. Gobs of rich, coursing interiority --- but unlike that of, say, Middlemarch, the psychologizing took place in a late-20th/early-21st-century social/political/cultural context that was obviously more familiar and immediately meaningful to me. (8/10)
Tags: algorithms, books
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    Restrung my electric today, so here's me practicing "Hallelujah".

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    Unpacking stuff, I found a box of completely immaculate strings, so I restrung my acoustic guitar. It sounds and plays so much nicer now!

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