Bertrand Russell's 10 rules for thinking clearly

Lifted from the BoingBoing article I read earlier today:

The rules:

1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything.
2. Do not think it worth while to produce belief by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light.
3. Never try to discourage thinking, for you are sure to succeed.
4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory.
5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found.
6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you.
7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter.
9. Be scrupulously truthful, even when truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it.
10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness.

And now it's 2026

So what do you have for us, 2026?

Improvements over the last few dumpster fire years?

Or more of the same?

Looking back on 2025

Upon reflection, I have a few thoughts on 2025.

Fuck AI.

Tech bros can fuck the hell off.

Fuck the "K-shaped" economy.

Fuck this shitty job market.

Fuck AI recruiters. Yes, that's a thing now.

Fuck this not-very-slow implosion of the environment.

I could say a lot about current US politics, but there's only so many ways I can say "Fuck [x]" before getting flagged by someone for the gulags when they start being a thing in a year or two.

Fuck the return of measles and other diseases.

Fuck anti-vaxxers and fucking morons who refuse to accept science.



All-in-all, fuck 2025. It's lived up to the other years of this dumpster fire of a decade and it can go fuck itself.

"The Malevolent Eight" by Sebastien de Castell

Back in July of 2023, as my world was turning to shit in a truly spectacular fashion, with so much more to come later, I finished a book I'd found: "The Malevolent Seven", by Sebastien de Castell. I had a few thoughts on it.

De Castell wrote a sequel and I blazed through it.

"The Malevolent Eight" takes place some months after the conclusion of "The Malevolent Seven". It stars the same characters, with the addition of a completely demented new one named Temper. And it goes in the same batshit crazy directions.

I have to say, I'm hard-pressed to figure which of de Castell's works I enjoy more: his Greatcoats short stories (the longer stories are a bit harder for me to digest) or this series.

The snarky narration of the Malevolent series is a special sort of fantastic, and "The Malevolent Eight" delivers that in spades. And it goes that much further with the addition of the new character.

Overall, the story has much the same sorts of twists and turns as the previous book had (and follows a lot of the patterns I've found with de Castell's protagonist journies, for good or ill).

I'm honestly not sure he's going to try for another book in this world. The ending works as a conclusion but has just enough ambiguity that I could see him squeezing out another if he's inspired. Or takes the right drugs. I mean this book is nuts.

I thoroughly enjoyed this as a crazy romp through epic battles of... um... not really "good" and "evil" so much as... well... read the book and you'll see.

Plus there's a kangaroo. Sort of.

Thoughts on "The Mercy of Gods" by James S.A. Corey

Last night I finished "The Mercy of Gods", the latest novel by the creative team who calls themselves James S.A. Corey, the writers behind "The Expanse" series.

Initially set on Anjin, a lost human colony, it follows the lives of a team of researchers who are caught up in a nightmare when Anjiin is invaded by an alien race known as the Carryx.

The invasion is brutal and vicious, ending with the humans of Anjiin enslaved to the Carryx and many of their best and brightest, including the protagonists, being abducted from their home and taken to the homeworld of the Carryx to be of use.

I'll be honest: I struggled to get through the first third of the book. It felt like a bit of a slog, and after the invasion, it felt like a banquet of despair served in a slog. It wasn't really the sort of story I was inclined to read when everything in the real world seems to be going to shit.

At the recommendation of a friend, I persisted and, a little over halfway through, I found it hard to put the book down. The overall story is, to my mind, a depressing and brutal tale, but there were things in the story that intrigued me and suggested things could get better in future novels.

One thing I'm wondering is if this is set in the same universe as the Expanse, only millennia later. If that's the case, kudos to the subtle insertion by the authors.

While I found the tale itself a bit hard to wade through, the storytelling is excellent. I highly recommend the book, for what that's worth.

Pondering 2025

Yeah, so it's 2025

I have no idea what to expect, based on the last four years or so.

Okay, I have an idea what to expect, but not sure what to say without sounding... you know what? Fuck it. I don't care.

2025, try not to be a dumpster fire, okay? I expect you'll be one anyway, but try to be less of one.

Won't happen, but it's worth a try.

2024 can go f*** itself

As the subject line says: fuck 2024

Truths of human behavior

If you're walking on any kind of thoroughfare, like a sidewalk, people will stop at the narrowest point to block passage so they can check their phone or whatever the fuck.

Related: if you're walking along any sort of thoroughfare and someone is stopped to do some kind of personal adjustment (texting on the phone, putting something away in a pocket or purse, whatever), they will conclude their activity as soon as you're within a pace of them and they will start moving without looking, usually to cross your path so as to crash into you.

Deadpool and Wolverine

So I saw Deadpool and Wolverine last night.

Loved it! It was geeky in the extreme and laden with cameos galore. I expect one really kind of has to be deep in the comic books and a number of the movies to make sense of the film, such as there was sense to be made. I'm positive I missed tons. Didn't matter. Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman were pure win and everyone else rocked it. Nice entry into the MCU.

Godzilla: Minus-One

So I finally caught Godzilla: Minus One on streaming.

Simply outstanding!

This movie was so far and again superior to the latest Godzilla and Kong flick that it defies description. They're completely different in just so many ways.

Godzilla: Minus One, set in the last days and the first few years after World War 2, centers areound a Japanese kamikaze pilot who opts to not do the whole kamikazee thing. He initially encounters pre-radioactive Godzilla on an isolated Pacific island and survives an attack that kills pretty much everyon other than him and one other guy. The story then follows the pilot as he makes his way through post WWII Japan and tries to make a life for himself, helping a young woman who is a fellow survivor, and adopting a little kid.

Yes, there's human interest in a kaiju film and it's actually engaging and interesting. Hollywood could stand to take some notes here.

Anyway, the story follows the familiar tropes. US nuke testing mutates Godzilla and we get a radioactive fire breathing monster that's decided to stomp on Japan for some reason. There's attempts to stop Godzilla. They don't work. And then they do.

All told, it's simply the best Godzilla flick I've seen in years. I'm curious about the last few moments with the human characters. There's something that happens to a character that's a bit mysterious. And, of course, there's the indication that Godzilla will be back.

I hope this studio does more. That movie was just outstanding.

Godzilla x Kong: The New What-now?

So, I just went to see Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.

That was a thing.

It's good to see the studio is learning not to waste money on big-name actors in kaiju films. I couldn't tell you who any of the lead actors were. Not at all. The only one I recognized was the little girl from the previous film who could do sign language with Kong. Now she's a sullen teen. That's a thing.

Yeah, so... Godzilla x Kong... what to say about it. Hm... let's start with the good stuff, shall we?

• Kaiju dentistry. Yes, I'm being serious.
• Kong getting his Kong on a lot.
• Baby Kong.
• Utterly pointless destruction of humanity's creations from ancient times (good-bye pyramids!)
• Godzilla's preferred bed.
• Crystal gravity pyramids.
• The little girl has superpowers.
• MOTHRA!
• Lots of monster on monster action. Eventually. Like in the last half hour or so.

Right, so the bad...

• Waaaaaaay too much pointless exposition.
• Just who the fuck were all these people on screen?
• Really awkwardly-bad attempts to add human interest to the film. I'm fairly confident the audience gave zero shits about the main heroine and her relationship with her daughter.
• Hippie kaiju dentist.
• Taking waaaaaaaaaay too long to get to any sort of point.
• Technobabble.
• Camera angles. Unnecessarily weird camera angles.
• Kaiju cavities.
• The script could have benefited from any sort of editorial process to trim down the bullshit by a good 90%.
• Incredibly awkward title.

So, in the end, I enjoyed seeing Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. More accurately, I enjoyed the last... oh... 25% of the film. There were some nuggets earlier on, but the film was mostly a meandering hot mess that tried to hard to come up with a plot that wasn't there. I'll admit, I was a bit unimpressed with the villain monsters, too. Oh, the fights were good, but they lacked the real oomph that Ghidorah or Mecha-Godzilla had. Such is life.

Strange New Worlds

I spent New Year's Eve binging season 1 of "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds".

Billed as a spin-off of "Star Trek: Discovery" (which is, itself, allegedly a spin-off of the Star Trek franchise), its association with "Discovery" kept me from watching it.

I tried to get through some episodes of "Discovery" while on an international flight. It was shockingly-bad. Like, horrifically bad. Weird alternate-Klingons and lots of labels that were vaguely "Star Trek" while having a show that was painful to watch.

I switched to something else mid-flight and wrote off the franchise.

A friend suggested I give "Strange New Worlds" a chance. It's a sort-of prequel to the original series of "Star Trek". Set during the time Christopher Pike commands the Enterprise, before James T. Kirk takes over. It's got a quirky and fun crew and it really captures the explorer's feel of the original series. There's sime time-travel shenanigans in it, but they keep that sparse, thank goodness. And the stories feel solid and self-contained.

I loved it. I'll have to give season two a try at some point.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!

And fuck 2023

2023 can go f*** itself

The blog title expresses my sentiments regarding 2023 well enough.

This year has been a shitshow.

I was one of the waves of tech layoffs early in 2023. Finding new work has been... challenging... amid the ocean of other people in the same situation.

I sustained several injuries from hobbies. None serious, but all-together, they've been problematic.

Several friends died over the course of the year. Each one was a shock.

And the capper was when my father passed away.

Gotta say I'm still struggling with that one. There's a 'Dad-sized' hole in my life that I can't quite figure out how to process.

In the interests of fairness, it hasn't all been bad. The layoff meant I could spend time with my father before his passing, and that worked out remarkably well. I've also been able to help out family in the midst of all this, which has also been nice.

And I can't recall the last time I've managed to get so much sleep!

The year's been a constant source of anxiety, from the personal to just watching the news and seeing the wars and the violent rhetoric and the rise of - let's be honest here - nazi-like sentiments in my homeland.

Fucking shitshow all around.

I will not look back on 2023 with any fondness. If 2023 were a person, I'd be tap dancing on its face until it stopped being fun. And I think I'd get a lot of fun out of that.

I certainly hope 2024 is better (though the jury duty summons I got suggests that won't be the case... that's almost funny, really).

So, as I raise a glass... fuck you, 2023. Fuck you and good riddence.

Ah, that felt good.

For anyone reading, I hope the coming year brings you good fortune, good health, and all the good things.

In the spirit of the season

Attention shoppers

There's three months left until Xmas. That time's gonna blaze by fast...

What We Do in the Shadows - Season 5 reaction

I just finished "Exit Interview", the final episode of season 5 of "What We Do in the Shadows".

Damn!

I have to admit, I thought season 4 was weak tea. I dared to wonder if the show was getting into a rut.

Then this season happened.

Potential spoiler if you haven't seen season 4:



















At the end of season 4, Guillermo asked his vampire friend Derek to turn him into a vampire. Season 5 deals with the fallout of that while adding "The Guide" as a regular to the cast.

It's been utter genius. Brilliant, demented, and unpredictable genius. I have to say, I didn't see most of it coming when season 5 hit its finale.

I was a fool to doubt the writers. This show maintains its place as the best out there.

Zha'Ha'Boom (Babylon-5 the Road Home)

Just saw the latest offering from J. Michael Straczynski in the Babylon-5 universe: "Babylon-5: The Road Home".

An animated movie set before the various spin-offs but before the actual ultimate episode, "The Road Home" is a treat for fans of B-5. It's got hilarious dialog, great action (lots of BOOM), and offers greater insight into how the Babylon-5 story is told.

It's whet my appetite for the upcoming CW remake of the series, which I'd fear if anyone other than JMS were behind it.

If you're a fan of Babylon-5, this is a must-see. Just don't say lost in spa[censored due to copyright].

Review: "The Malevolent Seven" by Sebastian de Castell

So what kind of story do you have when your protagonist is an unabashed mercenary who makes deals with devils for spells to crush his foes?

More accurately, what kind of story do you have when that one is the good guy?

That's the latest offering from Sebastian de Castell, the author of the Greatcoats series. I enjoyed the Greatcoats series overall. Oh, there were parts of it that didn't set well with me, but overall it was an okay read. I found De Castell's "Tales of the Greatcoats" collection of short stories to be more enjoyable, mostly because the reader is spared the multiple chapters of narrative self-loathing and authorial sadism that is such a common thing in so many stories that are out these days.

"The Malevolent Seven" is set in an entirely different world. A world of magic, of angels, of demons, and of battle mages. Cade Ombra is one such mage and he's got a very complicated background for a simple mercenary mage. A series of events has Cade and his (sort of) friend Corrigan take on a job to kill seven virtuous mages for cash. If only the job were that simple. If only all the cast were that simple as well.

"The Malevolent Seven" is a delightful story. It's got a fun pace. Oh sure, the protagonist, Cade, is a tormented whiner who is really a hero among rogues in a shitty world (not unlike his setting for the Greatcoats) but it was a quick and fun read. De Castell doesn't shy away from moral questions any more than he shies away from having his characters wade through literal shit from time to time.

A part of me hopes there will be a sequel. The other part of me hopes he leaves the story where it is, set with a curiously-optimistic ending. I think I'll be fine either way, truth be told.

Review: "The Traitor" by Anthony Ryan

The latest in Anthony Ryan's series known as "The Covenant of Steel", the third novel entitled "The Traitor" follows "The Pariah" and "The Martyr" in the testament of Alywn Scribe, a former outlaw turned knight and lover of the Risen Martyr Evandine Coulain.

As one might tell from the title, the story is about as cheery and loving as the previous two books, as Ryan continues to abuse his protagonists viciously amid scenes of carnage and torture.

For all that, the story is an enjoyable enough romp with a lot more closure and coherence in it than the "Raven's Shadow" series. There are parallels in numerous characters between the two series, but I find enough differences that I don't give "Raven's Shadow" too much thought as I've made my way through "The Covenant of Steel".

Alywn Scribe's journey continued to keep my attention throughout "The Traitor", though there were few surprises. I found a few plot points introduces in "The Martyr" were left unresolved as "The Traitor" concluded, but Ryan hints there may be another series along one day.

Oddly, the one thing I found that really stood out in "The Covenant of Steel" was how Ryan handles the otherworldly powers. In his other series, magic is usually tied to vaguely godlike entities that are callous and indifferent, if not outright malign. In "The Covenant of Steel", there is, at least, some acknowledgement that there's benign powers out there, albeit ruthless ones.

The series was a fun read. I look forward to more from Anthony Ryan.