Sylvester was just not...? I guess he just wasn't whatever it takes to make a romantic lead for me. He started off very unlikable and haughty, but that Sylvester was just not...? I guess he just wasn't whatever it takes to make a romantic lead for me. He started off very unlikable and haughty, but that was fine because I love those stories where you can't stand the guy at first, so there's this anticipation while you wait for the author to flip the tables and make you fall for him. You know, all of a sudden you're seeing everything from a different angle and you realize things weren't what they seemed, or maybe he has a come-to-Jesus experience and changes his naughty ways. Either way, I'm here for it because there's just nothing like an enemies-to-lovers romance, in my book. Sadly, Sylvester never really achieved true redemption. Or at least, he didn't cross that finish line sufficiently enough for me.
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On the bright side, the plot was wacky enough for me to be sufficiently entertained all the way through this rather short rom-com. The skinny gist is that Sylvester decides it's time to find a wife, has no real preference one way or another for any of the cool chicks he knows, and gets talked into going to meet his godmother's awkward & plain granddaughter. Phoebe, said awkward & plain young lady, while admittedly very unhappy at home with her father & stepmother, has zero interest in marrying an eligible duke. Why? Because she's secretly a novelist who is planning to leave home and live with her elderly governess. She don't need a man.
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Due to a series of bungled communications, she's also under the impression that Sylvester is definitely going to make her an offer of marriage and that she will be forced to marry him. So she convinces her oldest friend (a young man named Thomas) to sneak her out of the house and deliver her to her grandmother's doorstep. To spice it up, her first novel is just about to be (anonymously) published and she based the villain off Sylvester in a very obvious way. Ouch! And to add an extra special layer of crazy on top, Sylvester is in charge of his little nephew now that his twin brother is dead, and he's fighting with the boy's mother over custody. What? Yeah, that's a whole thing but you don't feel bad for the mother because she's kind of terrible at her job.
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Anyway. The story is nuts and really kind of goes off the rails at the end. But in a somewhat enjoyable way, if you know what I mean? At the end of the day, even though I never really liked Sylvester, I'd still recommend it to Georgette Heyer fans just for the batshit plot....more
Fun Wodehouse tale about the pitfalls of producing a play. Cyril Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps (of the Drones Club fame) inherits a nice nest egg from his uFun Wodehouse tale about the pitfalls of producing a play. Cyril Barmy Fotheringay-Phipps (of the Drones Club fame) inherits a nice nest egg from his uncle and gets immediately hoodwinked into investing in a new theater production starring his boozy actor friend, Mervyn Potter.
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The story was a lot better than I initially thought it would be, especially since I know relatively little about the theater - except that it's an iffy market for investment. But apparently, that was more than what poor Barmy knew.
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Of course, it wouldn't be a Wodehouse story if there wasn't a bit of romance and a full cast of wacky characters. It's clever, humorous, entertaining, and one of the better (imho) stand-alone stories that I've read of his. Recommended for fans of P.G. Wodehouse....more
A bit of a misleading name, in my opinion. But still a good lecture.
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The Greatest Controversies of Early Christian History sounds like you're goiA bit of a misleading name, in my opinion. But still a good lecture.
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The Greatest Controversies of Early Christian History sounds like you're going to hear something about what early church leaders were duking it out over when it came to doctrine, right? Or maybe that was just me. What you actually get is just an interesting look at some (mostly) modern-day questions people ask about early Christianity and its main characters, then Ehrman's answer of what's historically provable, what's not, and why. Almost everything here is something that he's already covered in other books or lectures, but I found this one to be such a nice, concise list of those things that I'll probably end up buying this at some point.
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This isn't a faith-based look at scripture, but it's not an attack on faith, either. It's pretty standard. Faith is faith because you have to suspend a bit of disbelief. And faith and fact are two entirely different things. I wouldn't recommend trying to fit them both in the same lunchbox....more
Magic Mirror on the wall... ohmygod is that a fucking chin hair?!
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Reading this at my age, I see it all in a new light. So the stepmom tries to kilMagic Mirror on the wall... ohmygod is that a fucking chin hair?!
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Reading this at my age, I see it all in a new light. So the stepmom tries to kill Snow White because the kid is getting better looking by the day. And you know what? I can't even hate on her for that one. These young damn women with their taut skin and perky butts? DEATH TO THEM ALL! <--ignore me, I don't mean that, it's just the menopause talking - sisterhood and all that shit
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But I'm betting Snow had been wandering around the castle singing in that squeaky high-pitched voice and talking to fuzzy animals. And here this perimenopausal queen is just wanting a little freaking peace and quiet. It was only a matter of time before the woman snapped and thought to herself: this weird bitch has to go. I mean, how hard can it be to get rid of one chirpy teenager?
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Well, let me tell you, it's harder than it looks. The poor, beleaguered, middle-aged monarch is first foiled by the lying-ass huntsman who should have had her back, and then by those squirrely dwarves that Snow White takes up with in some hippie commune in the woods. Queen can't catch a break. Or so it seems...
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Because. After narrowly avoiding death twice, Snow White then chokes on a magic apple that she should have damn well known not to eat by that point. And for reasons of plot is subsequently put under glass and on display in the woods by the dwarves. That one always seemed...odd.
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Then along comes true love. Or at least a prince who falls in love with her beauty, and decides to tote her off - causing the apple to fall out of her mouth. She pops up like a daisy and immediately marries the guy. But let's face it, marrying a strange prince who wanted to steal her dead body wasn't even the iffiest thing she'd done up to that point. Yeah. Take a moment to let that one sink in.
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At the end of the day, Snow White is a doofus, the prince is a creep, and my sympathies lie with the hot mess of a witch. The moral of the story? Snow White is the patron saint of women who accept drinks from strangers, eat unverified brownies, and climb into white vans. Do not be a Snow White....more
This felt less like a Great Courses lecture and more like a thriller.
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I listened to it with my youngest daughter while I painted these Grinch feThis felt less like a Great Courses lecture and more like a thriller.
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I listened to it with my youngest daughter while I painted these Grinch fence hangers things my neighbor made and she scrolled through Instagram reels. And every now and then Lengel would say something we weren't expecting and we'd both look at each other like DAMN! It was far more entertaining than I expected, and that's coming from someone who typically loves The Great Courses.
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Part of the fun was the way he was pretty ruthless in his description of all of the players without demonizing any of them. They might be skinny and weird, awkward and abrasive, conceited and brilliant, or maybe overbearing and talented, but they were all part of what made the bomb go boom.
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To be honest, I didn't know a lot of the history of WWII when it came to the ins and outs of this stuff, and I felt like I got a new perspective on what it must have been like to be in the middle of that storm - not knowing how it would all turn out. Looking back it is easy to criticize and critique and say if only, but the truth is that none of us were there and none of us had the weight of the world on our shoulders. All that's left for us now is to hope that there's an understanding that while we have these weapons, they should only be for show not for everyday use.
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Short, compact, and full of interesting inside stories on the Manhattan Project. Highly Recommended....more
I'm not a linguist. Sadly, I'm not even bilingual. But that didn't stop me from enjoying McWhorter's romp through the progression of human languages. I feel like I learned SO much through this lecture. It's one of those subjects that opens up more than you think it will at first glance. I've been completely obnoxious around the house for weeks harassing my family with all the tidbits I learned. I know they're annoyed at this point because they scurry to look busy when they see me coming. I can't even begin to list all the cool things he covered. Just know that there are cool things, he covered them, and you should 100% give this one a listen.
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One of the things I found interesting was that we don't speak in the same way that we write - or are told to write, at least. We stop abruptly. Start with conjunctions, end with prepositions, and just run on those sentences like crazy. And that's exactly what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to drop the endings and change the way the words sound. It's not messing anything up, it's progressing language. Language is evolution, not a set of laws. This made me rethink everything I thought I knew about proper grammar. But to be fair, I've been butchering it for years, just without realizing it was ok to do it. Kudos to me!
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I will absolutely be encouraging everyone to listen to this one. Highly Recommended....more
I didn't know how much I didn't know! You wouldn't think learning about the history of our alphabet would be something zesty, but McWhorter's teaching I didn't know how much I didn't know! You wouldn't think learning about the history of our alphabet would be something zesty, but McWhorter's teaching style and humor made this one of the most pleasurable Great Courses I've listened to so far. In fact, I immediately downloaded another of his lectures just to hear him talk. It's like a really intelligent and excited squirrel is teaching you something. <--and I mean that in the most complimentary way humanly possible
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Basically, I picked this one out because 1) it was free with my Audible subscription 2) it was a short lecture at 6 hours and 18 minutes 3) I'm fascinated by how things got their start. But to be completely honest, I'd never given any thought to how each and every letter of our alphabet came into existence. I mean...have you? The symbols and the sounds they represent must have morphed and changed over the years, but I had really NEVER pondered their origins. Why is A shaped like that? Why did our ancestors decide to come up with W? Why uppercase and lowercase? And what the hell is up with cursive?
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McWhorter gives the skinny on how and why we started writing things down, and how that progressed into a way to communicate using different kinds of writing systems like abjad, abugida, syllabary, logography, and this very alphabet. IT WAS SO COOL!
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And part of what made McWhorter one of my new favorites was that in spite of (or maybe because of) the fact that language and writing are his jam, he was very flippant about what most sticklers think are the hard and fast rules. Turns out, the reason there are sometimes weird things that don't make sense when it comes to writing is that it is constantly changing and evolving. Yes, Grammar Nazi. Even punctuation or the lack of it. It always has and it always will. As he pointed out, would anyone be any worse off if we stopped using the apostrophe in contractions? No. They make no difference and will probably someday disappear. Much like the period at the end of a sentence when people text each other
This was my first ever Wodehouse. So as you can imagine, it has a special spot in my heart.
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The dotty Lord Emsworth, the indomitable Lady ConstanThis was my first ever Wodehouse. So as you can imagine, it has a special spot in my heart.
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The dotty Lord Emsworth, the indomitable Lady Constance, the hapless Freddie, and her porkiness...the Empress of Blandings. You root for Lord Emsworth to find the backbone to stand up to his sister and head gardener, and you root for Freddie to not cock it up...whatever it happens to be. This book does have the story of Freddie finally managing to get a girl to walk down the aisle with him. Keeping her proves to be a bit trickier, but he can count on his father to sweet talk his wife into staying his wife. Right?
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Towards the back of the book, Mr. Mulliner regales the local pub with stories from his days in Hollywood. I thought Castaways, the story of people who have been unfortunate enough to wander too close to a studio and have been press-ganged, imprisoned, and forced to finish a movie script, was pretty funny.
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Overall, this is a pretty great selection from the Blandings Castle crew. Recommended....more
A series of misunderstandings, mishaps, mistakes, and a healthy dose of misinformation help to move this humorous story forwaThe Love Boat. Ish?
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A series of misunderstandings, mishaps, mistakes, and a healthy dose of misinformation help to move this humorous story forward. Monty Bodkins and a group of beleaguered men chase love in all its forms while on a ship heading to New York.
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Meanwhile, motion picture mogul Ivor Llewellyn's wife (a force of nature) has ordered him to sneak a pearl necklace through US customs to avoid paying the fee and has sent her sister to make sure he doesn't chicken out. Llewellyn, convinced that customs agents are lurking in the potted ferns listening to his conversations, thinks Monty is working undercover to keep tabs on him.
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The truth is that Monty is simply trying to figure out why his ex-fiancée, Gertrude Butterwick, gave him the raspberry without any explanation. While on board he runs into Ambrose & Reggie Tennyson (no relation to that other Tennyson) who have problems of their own with the women in their lives.
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The whole thing is classic Wodehouse. If you're already a fan, you'll enjoy Monty's connection to Lord Emsworth. And if this is your first time with these characters, you'll still have a good time.
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Jonathan Cecil is the perfect narrator for these novels. <--if you get a chance to listen to him, don't miss out! Recommended....more
The unlikely hero. I remember the first time I read Pride and Prejudice. I imagine every woman does. It's like the first time you have sex. Except good.The unlikely hero. I remember the first time I read Pride and Prejudice. I imagine every woman does. It's like the first time you have sex. Except good.
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At any rate, I had somehow made it to my early 20s without getting the plot spoiled, so when Lizzie got that letter from Mr. Darcy, I was floored to find myself in love with him.
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And I'm not comparing my feelings for Mr. Darcy (and yes, I still have feelings) to Kitty's man. But around the halfway mark, much like in P&P, my feelings started to undergo a shift that I did not originally see coming.
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I do not want to spoil this one for anyone, so I'll just give the skinny gist of the story and leave it at that. Kitty is an orphan who was adopted by her father's rich bachelor BFF when she was young. Now, the old guy is a skinflint, but he's loaded. AND he's leaving everything to Kitty, as long as she marries one of his nephews. One is a stodgy old vicar, one has an exceptionally low IQ, one is an independently wealthy dandy who doesn't want to get married, and one is a handsome rake (Jack) who didn't even bother to show up when his uncle called him for the announcement.
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Now, Kitty is feisty and really doesn't care about her guardian's money, so she turns down the offers that some of her faux-cousins give her. Shocking!
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But she does hatch a plan to go to London and see the sights using the sheer force of her personality against the dandy - who is her friend if nothing else. Since she knows he doesn't want to marry her, she concocts a fake engagement to allow her to visit his family in London, and perhaps even show Jack what he's missing out on. Kitty hits London like a sock full of nickels upside the head, and the hijinks ensue.
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And that's all you need to know. Now quit asking me questions and go read the book. Highly recommended for fans of Regency Romance....more
Maybe I'm just getting used to Lovecraft's wordy ramblings, but I thought these were the best bunch of stories that I've read from him.
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The ThinMaybe I'm just getting used to Lovecraft's wordy ramblings, but I thought these were the best bunch of stories that I've read from him.
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The Thing on the Doorstep
A man kills his best friend and then tells a story to explain why it wasn't his friend that he killed. What in the name of soap opera's evil twin is happening here?! Is it a body-snatching elder god or just some random wizard?
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The Colour Out of Space
The title is somewhat self-explanatory in a weird way. A meteor hits and things on a farm take on a "color" that isn't from this dimension. Of course, the farmer and his family decide to hunker down while strange things grow and creep and seem to drive them all mad. But they could have left at any time! Couldn't they? Couldn't they...? dum, dum, dum...
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The Outsider
This one had a very Poe vibe to it. A man who has been raised in solitude escapes and finds a monster facing him.
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The Doom That Came to Sarnath
A group of now unremembered ancients decide to fuck with a water lizard god and his weird-looking people. Notice how I said they are unremembered ancients? Well, there's a reason for that.
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The Festival
A man is supposed to come back and help his ancestral tribe of people with some sort of festival. He's greeted by a creepy old man that he somehow doesn't realize is a creepy-as-hell acolyte for god knows what. That sort of thing usually doesn't end well, does it?
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I'm not a big fan of Lovecraft, and I don't just mean because of his problematic way of writing anyone who wasn't a WASP. I just haven't found most of his stories all that good. Or maybe it's just that they didn't live up to the hype. I thought these were a pretty interesting set of shorts, though. William Robert kills it as the narrator if you're into audiobooks. Recommended....more
Politics, Religion, and Her. It seems that some things resonate through time.
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So I've only read Inferno, and I thought dear god, i really don'tPolitics, Religion, and Her. It seems that some things resonate through time.
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So I've only read Inferno, and I thought dear god, i really don't get what he's going on about and maybe it would behoove me to look into all the little nuts and bolts of what Dante was talking about. Because to me he just seemed like some guy with a lot of religious fervor and a bone to pick with some people. And you know what? Well, I wasn't all that far off base! Sure, there's a lot more to The Divine Comedy than just a really long poem, but for once in my life I wasn't reading the room as wrong as I thought.
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Ok, and I didn't realize how into this poem so many people were. I mean, like they spend their lives re-reading this and picking it apart and making it into a part of their whole worldview. The two lecturers, William R. Cook & Ronald B. Herzman, were very passionate about it. Sometimes I got the feeling these guys thought this was the real deal. Not gonna lie, that kind of spooked me and caused me to stop taking the lecture quite as seriously.
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I respect that this was an incredible poem, an enduring piece of literature, and a well-thought-out religious outlook. Certainly better than Chick Tracts!
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But it doesn't resonate with me at all because it leans so heavily on belief in God and sin. I just ended up feeling kind of bad for Dante having wasted all this time and effort trying to unpack an afterlife in relation to how we live our lives on earth. That is not me saying this is a useless piece of literature, just that it doesn't hit me in the feels. However, if you ARE the target audience for this, I think these guys are incredibly excited and informed about the subject matter. I would highly recommend this for anyone thinking of undertaking reading this sucker because there is just so much background information that you need to know to even really begin to understand what Dante was saying.
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I probably won't read any more of the Divine Comedy stuff any time soon...or ever? Because if Inferno is supposed to be the most interesting, then I can't see Purgatorio & Paradisio tickling my fancy at all. I'm sorry to say this is just not my bag of cats....more
Am I the only one who didn't know his beard was actually blue? I'm not saying that's a red flag, but if a whole fairytale serial killer story is based Am I the only one who didn't know his beard was actually blue? I'm not saying that's a red flag, but if a whole fairytale serial killer story is based around it...
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So this guy is rich but he has a BLUE beard. <--no idea what the author was trying to say about men with blue beards, but it's a weird thing to have happening on your face. Even back then. He's having a hard time getting a wife because of said blue beard (and I'm assuming all those missing wives), so he invites two sisters to his house to show off all of his goodies. And the younger one decides that after seeing how much $$$$ this guy has that...well, his beard isn't all that blue.
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They marry and all goes well for a little while. Then he has to go away for a bit and gives her the keys to every room in the house. She can go into ANY of them! <--he says Except this one room. <--he says all menacingly NEVER GO IN THAT ROOM OR I WILL KNOW AND YOU'LL BE IN FOR IT! <--he says
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The hell, my man? Of course, she can't resist that room now. <--it's what he wants So after she throws a big wingding for all of her friends (b/c why else marry a guy with a blue beard if not to throw all the lavish parties?), she sneaks into the forbidden room. And guess what? Yes, exactly! A whole pile of dead wives. Just...hanging around all bloated and crusty. And the floor is inexplicably coated with magic blood. Magic? <-- you say Yes, magic. Because she drops the damn key on the floor and the blood won't wash off it. AND NOW HE'S GONNA KNOW.
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So he comes back and finds the key all sticky and gross and says welp, guess I'm gonna have to kill you now and she's like oh wait! give me a minute to freshen up! and he goes ok, but hurry up and she starts whisper-yelling to her older sister to check out the window and see if her brothers are on their way yet, and he's like woman, what's taking you so long? i need to hurry up and throttle you so i can find another wife who isn't so nosey and she's like coming, dear! except she's still whisper-yelling to her sister jesus christ! are they here yet? this mf is gonna kill meeeee! and he's like look, i really need to get on with this because i have a blue beard and it's going to take me FOREVER to find another woman who is willing to marry this mess and our heroine is starting to lose hope because he's now choking the life out of her when her sister finally whisper yells back our brothers are here! and they bust down the door and fuck this Blue Beard uppppp. And she gets all of his money and throws more cool parties.
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So what's the moral of the story? <-- I'm assuming you ask Well, according to this, the moral of the story is that you should obey your husband or it might lead to some choking. Which is basically the advice I give my daughters as I send them out into the world. Except for all of that whole sentence because...for fuck's sake! But it's still a very readable fairytale.
Recommended. Just maybe not as a bedtime story for little kids.
Night Light Audio English 15m by Charles Perrault read by Carrington MacDuffie...more
One of the better fairytales. Like, you could read this one to your kids and not give them nightmares.
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So, a nice widow and her two young daughtOne of the better fairytales. Like, you could read this one to your kids and not give them nightmares.
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So, a nice widow and her two young daughters live in the woods. The girls (shockingly) get along with each other and their mother (shockingly) isn't a cunt trying to kill them. A bear shows up. He's hurt so they help him, and it turns out he can talk. Because that's a thing that happens. But he's a nice talking bear. You know, lets the girls pull his fur, paint his toenails, and whatnot.
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On the flip side, these girls keep running into this assy little dwarf that is constantly getting himself into life-threatening situations. They help him, and he cusses them out for not doing a "better" job of it. Wash, rinse, repeat.
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The girls eventually come across a showdown between the bear and the dwarf, wherein the jerk of a dwarf tries to get the bear to eat the girls instead of himself. The bear takes him out with one big paw and...POOF! He's transformed into a hottie.
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As you can probably tell, the ungrateful gremlin guy was evil - no need to mourn that he was mauled by a bear. And the fuzzy, talking bear was a prince under a curse from this nasty dwarf who wanted his treasure. Snow White ends up marrying the bear prince, with the only downside being she has to shave his back every night. Rose Red ends up with his up-till-now-unknown brother, Prince 2.0. But I'm sure that won't cause problems later.
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And they all lived happily ever after.
Findaway Voices English 15m by Jacob Grimm, Wilhelm Grimm read by Erica Holden, Martin Holden...more
Magic Mirror on the wall... ohmygod is that a fucking chin hair?!
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Reading this at my age, I see it all in a new light. So the stepmom tries to kilMagic Mirror on the wall... ohmygod is that a fucking chin hair?!
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Reading this at my age, I see it all in a new light. So the stepmom tries to kill Snow White because the kid is getting better looking by the day. And you know what? I can't even hate her for that one. These young women with their taut skin and perky butts? DEATH TO THEM ALL! <--ignore me, I don't mean that, it's just the menopause talking
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But I'm betting Snow was wandering around the castle singing in that squeaky high-pitched voice and talking to animals. And here this perimenopausal queen is just wanting a little freaking peace and quiet. It was only a matter of time before the woman snapped and thought to herself: this weird bitch has to go. I mean, how hard can it be to get rid of one chirpy teenager?
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Well, let me tell you, it's harder than it looks. The poor, beleaguered, middle-aged monarch is first foiled by the lying-ass huntsman who should have had her back, and then by these squirrely dwarves that Snow White takes up with in some hippie commune in the woods. Queen can't catch a break. Or so it seems...
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Because. After narrowly avoiding death twice, Snow White then chokes on a magic apple that she should have damn well known not to eat by that point. And for reasons of plot is subsequently put under glass and on display in the woods by the dwarves. That one always seemed...odd.
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Then along comes true love. Or at least a prince who falls in love with her beauty, and decides to tote her off - causing the apple to fall out of her mouth. She pops up like a daisy and immediately marries the guy. But let's face it, marrying a strange prince who wanted to steal her dead body wasn't even the iffiest thing she'd done up to that point. Yeah. Take a moment to let that one sink in.
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At the end of the day, Snow White is a doofus, the prince is a creep, and my sympathies lie with the hot mess of a witch. The moral of the story? Snow White is the patron saint of women who accept drinks from strangers, eat unverified brownies, and climb into white vans. Do not be a Snow White....more
The Empress of Blandings has been pignapped! What, what?
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This has all the earmarks of a great Wodehouse story, and I love the inhabitants of BlaThe Empress of Blandings has been pignapped! What, what?
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This has all the earmarks of a great Wodehouse story, and I love the inhabitants of Blanding Castle. Yes, even Lady Constance and Mr. Baxter. With the ever-wobbly Lord Emsworth at the helm, this installment has everything you could want in a Wodehouse novel, including my favorite character, the effervescent Honourable Galahad Threepwood. You can't go wrong with that one.
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He's busy writing his reminiscences and every peer who ever had an interaction with him in their youth is shaking in their shoes at what "funny revelation" is about to be exposed to the public's prying eyes. Oh, it's gonna be a bestseller.
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Meanwhile, you have two sets of star-crossed lovers, desperately swimming upstream like salmon to mate. Will they make it? Well, there's always the other option.
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But this is a WODEHOUSE novel, silly. True love will always prevail. A fun entry in the Blandings Castle series.
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Audiobook review: I won't be listening to any other Wodehouse books read by John C. Wells because his voice was incredibly annoying. A lot of the characters sounded like British muppets. I ended up speeding up the narration to be done with his nonsense. TERRIBLE. WORST VOICES EVER. YOU'RE FIRED. God, I'm hilarious....more
So much of this went over my head. So veryveryvery much. But I walked out of the room a tad smarter than when I walked in, so we'll call this a win. And So much of this went over my head. So veryveryvery much. But I walked out of the room a tad smarter than when I walked in, so we'll call this a win. And isn't that the point?
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Sean Carroll takes the reader on an adventure that spans years (and years and years) telling a story of all the stops and starts as dedicated scientists drum up the funding for what would eventually be CERN's Large Hadron Collider. And there have been lots of payoffs for their hard work, but the most famous is the Higgs. If you pay any attention to the science-y side of things you'll remember what a huge deal it was when they found the evidence they were looking for to confirm the Higgs boson particle.
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And while quarks, black matter, and string theory are all things I strive to get my tiny dinosaur brain to make sense of, I think I can say now at least that I understand the importance of the Higgs, even if I don't understand everything about particles or physics. Carroll has such an engaging manner that even when what he was talking about was going in one ear and out the other, I was still enjoying myself.
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Ironically enough, I wouldn't even be writing this review right now if it weren't for scientists at CERN needing to share massive amounts of data information with each other, leading to Tim Berners-Lee developing the World Wide Web. Proving once again that the search for answers for the sake of the question typically leads us to new and interesting places.
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The moral of the story is that science is fun, inspiring, and just really fucking cool. Hopefully, we will always have little kids with big imaginations and loads of curiosity, who grow into big kids with even bigger imaginations and loads of international funding, that allows them to continue discovering the secrets of our universe. Recommended....more
Richard B. Spence calls himself an agnostic when it comes to the occult. Is real? Is it fake? Is it a little of both? If I had to take a stance, I'd sayRichard B. Spence calls himself an agnostic when it comes to the occult. Is real? Is it fake? Is it a little of both? If I had to take a stance, I'd say that any mystical experience is just something science can't explain...yet.
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This delves into the mysteries of magic, and the history of societies that belief in the paranormal has spawned. Aleister Crowley and his role in the occult features heavily in a lot of the lectures, and it made me want to find out more about his seemingly very interesting life. There are a lot of fun stories in here and you really do leave the room with a lot more information on occult practices.
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I do think the idea of mind over matter has some kind of basis in some kind of truth. Kind of like visualizing success in something really does up your chances to succeed. My observation in life is that people with a can-do attitude get things done on a level that far surpasses the Debbie Downers, even if both start out on an even playing field. I'm not sure it's magic so much as that your mental state affects not just yourself but those around you. I'm sure you've heard doctors say that patients who have the fighter mentality and are determined to get better are far, far more likely to do just that than the patients who don't. To me, there really is something to the mental aspect of what you can physically accomplish.
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The idea that what you put out "energy wise" is what you get back from the world also seems to be true. From interactions in stores to driving on the interstate, you get what you give. I've noticed that I rarely have problems with strangers, and really don't find driving in heavy traffic all that stressful. But I know people who seem to have issues everywhere they go, with almost everyone they meet, in all conceivable situations. What are the odds that they always manage to run into a whole different group of people than I do? The only difference I can see is that I approach everyone assuming we will soon be fast friends and they side-eye everyone assuming they are out to get them. In that sense, if you're actively looking for the bad, it will find you. Are they putting out "bad energy" or just seeing the worst in people? Is there even a difference? Is that a mystic thing or just an outlook on life? And that seemed to be his overall lesson about the occult practices. It doesn't matter why something works, it's enough that it works.
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Another thing I thought was cool was that he approached entanglement theory as a possible way to reason the occult might have some basis in science. I could picture that being a way that psychics or mediums used someone's favorite sweater or doll as a way to find a missing person. Though to be honest, I don't know enough to even make an uneducated guess on the validity of any of that. But it sounds fun, doesn't it?
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What I would be willing to say is that I know for a fact that there are a lot of things we don't know for a fact. Someday we may be able to unpack all the secrets of the mystical and magical, but I doubt it. And honestly, who would even want to live in a world with no mystery?
