Jul 07
Under the tutelage of the estimable Eric MacDonald, I have spent several weeks reading Christian theology. And so far, I have learned only three things:
[1] I am spending my middle age reading drivel about beliefs that have no basis in fact. This seems a total waste of time. I could be reading books about real things instead.
[2] Theologians can’t write. A lot of what they have to say is postmodern or obscure bafflegab, and I’m starting to believe that this obscurantism is deliberate because of reason 3 (below). I have for example, just opened my book (An Introduction to Christian Theology, edited by Roger A. Badham) to a random chapter, which turned out to be “Process theology and the current church struggle” by John B. Cobb, Jr. (Process theology holds that god is not immutable but changes over time, and so does his creation, not totally under his direction.) And there I find this, in a discussion of Alfred North Whitehead (one of the founders of this “school”):
But each occasion transcends the
causality of the past by responding to
it with more or less originality.
This requires that physical
prehensions are supplemented by
“conceptual” ones. Thus, in addition
to prehending past events, an occasion
also takes account of possibilities
ingredient in those events or closely
related to them. Just how it relates
these possibilities to the actualities
it feels is its “decision.” That
means that in a situation that is
inherently indeterminate, there is a
determinate outcome Other
possibilities are cut off.Believe me, the book contains paragraphs far more obscure and pretentious than this one. Can you imagine reading this stuff night after night? Do you see why my head feels about to explode? Eric, why are you doing this to me?
Read on [From Why am I reading theology? - Jerry Coyne - WEIT]
I’ve debated with religionists online sometimes, and it doesn’t take long before they start ‘speaking in tongues’ 
Pure gibberish. And they don’t seem to realise it. Must be a brain thing.
Jul 07
I probably won’t have finished my reread by the time this arrives. I’m spoiler free but if you haven’t read all the published volumes the following speculation is spoilery since it’s about who is alive at the start of the new volume and who might not be at the end
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Jun 22
After the awesome finale of the TV show Game of Thrones I started rereading the books to get up to speed for the fifth volume which comes out in a few weeks. So far on rereading for the first time after nearly five years it’s remarkable how closely the TV series hewed to the first book, A Game of Thrones. Lines of dialogue were lifted exactly from the book, and many others just shortened a little.
Much closer than any other adaptation I can think of, and the better for it.
Jun 04
Nice catch from MacDailyNews: as of the close of market today, Apple is worth more than Microsoft and Intel combined. And some tasty claim chowder on this Bill Gates quote from June 1998, regarding Steve Jobs’s return to Apple as CEO:
“What I can’t figure out is why he [Steve Jobs] is even trying? He knows he can’t win.”
According to Wolfram Alpha, using their mean market caps for the entire month of June 1998 (it was a volatile month amidst the boom), the Wintel combination was worth $339 billion, vs. $3.5 billion for Apple. Put another way, Microsoft and Intel combined were worth 96 times more than Apple then. Since then, you get this.
[From Apple vs. Wintel] via daringfireball
May 20
Reading reviews and comments about the series Game of Thrones so far, at five episodes in, one surprising thing is the number of people who are confusing the characters Robb Stark and Theon Greyjoy. These two are getting mixed up more than any others (although Jon Snow was causing some confusion until he departed for the Wall.)
The actors don’t look much alike so I guess it must be the similar ages and same location that is confusing people. Other characters either clearly look very different or are clearly at a different location. It’s probably because there are so many characters, some of whom haven’t really done anything significant yet, that keeping them straight can be difficult.
May 12
I ordered A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings from Amazon on 29 October 2006. I must have started reading them within a few days and decided to keep on going as I ordered the remainder of the series then in print on 15th November 2006 and read straight through to the end of A Feast for Crows. So when my preordered copy of A Dance With Dragons comes in mid July it’ll be about four and a half years since I finished my first read-through of the previous volumes.
I’ll have to read them all again first.
May 08
Saw Hanna this afternoon. A bit oddly paced and with several dangling plot threads but Saoirse Ronan was excellent in the title role.
May 03
Three episodes into the first season of HBO’s adaptation of A Song of Ice and Fire and I’m a little annoyed because it’s making most of the other shows I watch seem shallow and shoddy. The good thing is that the episodes are so good I can rewatch them a few times
Apr 19
I watched the first episode of Game of Thrones last night. It’s been a while since I read the books so I can’t comment on small inaccuracies, but overall it seemed a remarkably good adaptation. I hope the show achieves sufficiently good ratings for season two to be made.
Discussion of the show here and here and here.
[Edit]
And after just one episode has aired HBO has picked up a second season of the show!
