2008: The year in review

What a crazy year this has been.

I rang in 2008 halfway across the world, in Israel. I suppose it was fitting, because if any one event had the biggest impact on my year, it was Birthright. It changed my religious outlook, changed my social life, and probably was involved in one way or another in every big thing that happened to me after that.
The most significant part of my life, school, was on a good upswing. My second semester junior year and first semester senior year were two of my best semesters, grade-wise. I also took classes that began my real end of college, my big projects. And now, with only one semester left, I'm feeling the heat, so to speak.
Junior year ended with a bang. I ended a long relationship, turned 21, won a trophy (buggy, woo), and then left for Chicago at the end of May. The internship was an eye-opening experience in my life, and will probably be a very important one as I continue to search for a job.
Then, senior year started. The job search combined with that damn lab class helped ratchet up my frustration and stress level in what all other ways should have been an easy semester. Alls well that ends well, though, and breaking 3.5 for a semester GPA was the highest GPA I have thus received at CMU. If it weren't for that lab class, I would have had a 4.0.
And now, I'm here. With things changing as quickly as they have this past semester, I don't know what to expect during my last semester. I guess it's reasonable to assume more adventure of the type I started having this past semester, but that's so vague, it's hard to say it means anything. The only thing to do now is keep an open mind about everything ahead of me. College ends in five months, real life begins. What a thought.

Anathem, by Neal Stephenson

As part of my winter break, I managed to read a book. Yes, one. If it weren't for a stubborn case of sinusitis I'd probably do more, but this one's a doozy anyway. Clocking in at nearly 900 pages, Anathem continues Stephenson's tradition of writing long books. This one, I can say, is worth it.
The conceit of the novel is that, in the world it takes place in, academics are cloistered in maths, which are essentially monasteries, except for academics instead of religion. The story follows Erasmas, a brother in one of these 'maths'.
The plot in the book is engrossing, and the world is well-built, if not a little bit disturbing. A lot of parallels are drawn regarding the way academia is treated in our world, and though it is clearly nothing as extreme as the case presented in the book, it does make you ask some questions as to what Stephenson is trying to say with this.
One thing to say is that Stephenson takes setting his book in an academic cloister seriously, and there's a lot of math, a lot of philosophy, and a fair amount of quantum physics. It makes the book harder to read, yes, but if you're willing to learn along, or have a decent academic background of any sort (I'm neither a physics nor a math major, but was able to keep up with most of the abstract concepts), it will greatly improve your ability to appreciate the book. I don't think you need to be extraordinarily educated to understand things the way Stephenson presents them, but you do need to be patient enough to understand the discussions the characters have on the subjects, possibly rereading them if need be (I did do this a few times, for this and a reason outlined below).
The one thing I find a little irksome in the book was Stephenson's vocabulary, notably the words he made up. For the most part, they add to the experience, and play in heavily towards the end of the book. So, it may have been worth the effort on Stephenson's part. There are 'dictionary' entries spread throughout the text as well as a glossary in the back, though some of these are still confusing. I went through most of the book with only some feeling as to what both 'Deolater' and 'Ita' meant, and both of these terms were fairly important.
All in all, the book was quite good, and kept me hooked for the two days I spent reading it. It is worth noting that reading a 900 page book in two days is not something I normally do, but for Stephenson, I'll put in the effort. After coming out deeply satisfied with this read, it may just be worth it to try the Baroque Cycle again. Maybe.

New thinking

In the throes of my recent illness, I had some time to reconcile my personal caveats with a fantasy setting. Now I have some great ideas.

I don't want to give away too many details. That being said, the concept is the world after a cataclysm has ripped away at the fabric of the universe. In this setting, the fabric metaphor is taken a little literally.

There's the steampunk influence, the post-apocalyptic influence, there's magic, and there's some interesting religious elements. With some variations on material I've already written and some liberal usage of concepts from GURPS Thaumatology, I think it'll be both a unique and very cool setting. My plan is to write more over winter break.

My Weekend

Oh, my weekend...
Well, after classes being over on Friday, I went out with friends, then came home and slept til 11. After that, I proceeded to gather the troops for my GURPS one-shot. It went beautifully, though it took 7 hours to get everyone there (1), make characters (3) and play (3). Still, it was a lot of fun, and we're going to try and play again during finals.
After that, I went to a party with some of the group. No details there, but...

I went to sleep at 9:00 AM Sunday morning. It was epic.

Hrmm...

Friends with Detriments

This simply describes too many of the relationships I've had to ignore.