Glibertarians.com 2017 Archive

Author: jesse.in.mb

  • What are we reading? May 2017

    It’s the last Friday of the Month, which means it’s time once again for Oprah’s The Glibs’ Book Club:

    SugarFree

    I’ve been reading the Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch off of jesse’s recommendation. I’m through the fifth book and I am really enjoying it. It’s a deft mash-up of The Dresden Files and British police procedurals. I’m not sure how many books he is shooting for, but the formula is set-up for dozens and dozens if he felt like it. And the series is popular enough to have tie-in comics series. The most baffling part of reading them is that it hasn’t been made into a TV series yet. Aaronovitch started as a TV writer and he has the rhythms of serial television down pat.

    Speaking of The Dresden Files, I also read Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera series this month. I liked them quite a bit. They magnify both Butcher’s strengths and weaknesses as a writer. His battle and fight scene are superb; his character’s relationships with women range from baffled to mildly horrified. People are either really, really good or really, really bad; Butcher doesn’t care much for subtle. They are big books, widescreen epics that manage to pull-off the central conceit entertainingly, despite leaning on many of the most groan-worthy of fantasy conventions.

    jesse.in.mb

    Put a hustle on to finish the books from last month as this month’s What are we reading? approached, and have mostly succeeded (Luz Gabas writes better sex than Dan Simmons’ turgid descriptions of erections could hope to match). I’m lollygagging on picking the next read as Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 has been staring at me (literally one eye is poking out from my shelf) for years, and I want to reread Gaiman’s American Gods before I watch the series or Call Me By Your Name by André Aciman before the movie comes out. Ultimately I’ll probably settle on Beach Lawyer by Avery Duff, part of the Kindle First early release program for novels (underrated Prime perk). As far as I can tell many of the novels they select are blander versions of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo with heavy themes of violence against women. Zygmunt Miloszewski’s Rage was the most emblematic of this trend.

     

    JW

    He dead.

    Old Man With Candy

    I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that my reading this month, beyond technical stuff, has comprised re-reading. I have to get out more. Nonetheless, I’m rereading these because I think they’re damn good.

    Tom O’Bedlam is very underrated scifi written by Robert Silverberg, a very underrated writer. Ever since reading Stephen Vincent Benet’s “By the Waters of Babylon” when I was a kid, I’ve had a deep love for post-apocalyptic stories. And I also have a weakness for the sort of novel that develops several different storylines, then skillfully brings them together at the end. Combine that with hallucinogenic ecstasy and a deliciously ambiguous conclusion, this is my favorite Silverberg and a novel that seems almost tailor-made for my tastes in fiction. Chungira-he-will-come, he will come.

    My geeky side drew me to Uncertainty, a retelling of the early history of quantum mechanics. The book’s focus is much more on the personalities and dynamics of the theory’s origins than any explanation of the wonderful weirdness of the new physics, which was just fine for me- get your physics from Feynman. The author, David Lindley, transforms the names I only knew from various equations and theories into three dimensional human beings. As a bonus, he shares my scorn for the pomos and sociological types who, without any actual understanding of the uncertainty principle, love to invoke it to support their confused world-views.

    Riven:

    Still reading Dead Witch Walking… But I swear I’m actually going to start it this weekend. Pinky-promise.

    Brett L:

    I blew through the latest installment of Nathan Lowell’s Golden Age of the Solar Clipper series To Fire Called. Although the books have gotten a little darker, and certainly the universe a little deeper since Quarter Share, it remains the same fun kind of low-calorie high fun series you can inhale in short sittings, feel good about universes where they (mostly) live happily ever after, and capitalism works thanks to having to get a long way from habitable space before you can magically be somewhere else. I’m also slogging through Gaiman’s Norse Mythology.  As someone who liked a couple of his books but doesn’t think he’s THE towering literary figure of the 21st century that this is a labor of love where he has (thus far) failed to sway me to his love of the mythology. I remain entirely bored by the canon mythology. Stay tuned for June when I binge read Neal Stephenson’s attempt to jump into the (thus far British) “magic is real and there’s a government agency for that” genre. And I think in July I’ll be (based on the story arc as I understand it) hate reading Charlie Stross’s latest Laundry File like it was written by an ex-girlfriend I’m still not over.

    SP

    I tend to read several books at once, one of which is usually a mystery or spy thriller. While I’m waiting for the new Scot Harvath from Brad Thor (out on June 27), and the new Chief Inspector Gamache from Louise Penny (out on August 29), I’m reading through the V.I. Warshawski novels by Sara Paretsky. I’m currently on book 11, Blacklist. Set in Chicago and the western suburbs right after 9/11, the usually very lefty Vic is thrown into several puzzles involving events around the HUAC and complications from the Patriot Act. There is much to please a libertarian heart in this one, from diatribes against the gutting of the Bill of Rights to our heroine actively subverting the police. DO NOT read any of the reviews. They all seem to contain spoilers. (What’s up with that?!)

    Also in process: Daybook by Anne Truitt, a look into an artist’s  journals (recommended to me by an older artist I admire whom I was recently privileged to meet); and 3 Steps to Yes: The Gentle Art of Getting Your Way by Gene Bedell. It seems to be working. It’s been much easier to live with OMWC since I started this book.

    Banjos

    Banjos is currently reading Everybody Poops for the 127th time per her toddlers’ request. It is their most holy text.

    sloopyinca

    Sloop is reading The Neverending Story and will have an update when he’s done.

  • Manly Monday

    Since May 2013 I have made note of the annual Herndon Climb at the US Naval Academy. The short version is that the first years must work together to scale a lard-greased (they’re claiming shortening this year) granite obelisk and put a hat on top marking the end of their first year.

    2014, 2015, 2016 here

    This years climb was broadcast live by Fox5DC, and is airing live as I type (but will likely be over by the time you read it), so I’m gonna get back to that, but if you have any interest in lads slathered in grease, grappling in the mud with phallic symbols and each other to achieve something together that they cannot do alone, this might be an event worth following. Update: it took about 2:15/

    Man astride a very greasy obelisk (not this year’s)

  • Belly Up to the Bar: Diet Buster Edition

    White Russian Milk Shake

    (it brings all the boys to the yard, and then gets them white-girl wasted)

    All right so I’m sure we’ve all seen the Big Lebowski and are familiar with a classic White Russian*:

    • 1 part coffee liqueur (we all know it’s Kahlúa)
    • 2 parts vodka
    • 1 part heavy cream (variants include half-and-half or whole milk for those watching fat intake…hopefully that doesn’t include any of you)

    My school newpsaper editorial staff used to get hammered on these the night before copy was due. Someone would bring in a handle of vodka and a gallon of whole milk and we’d shoot for the Ballmer Peak, and aggressively miss.

    As time passed, I realized that a great opportunity was being missed for maximal fat-assery and I set out to combine the deleterious effects of both alcohol and ice cream in (probably not) new and (definitely) exciting ways.

    You will need a decent blender, milkshake/malt mixer or food processor for this to work.

    Put your Kahlúa coffee liqueur and vodka in the freezer, buy a vanilla ice cream made from a custard base (eggs should be an ingredient). You want it to be a rich, dense ice cream, but not as rich and dense as Häagen-Dazs. I’ve experimented here so you don’t have to, the frozen vodka keeps the densest ice creams so solid they don’t blend, but isn’t able to keep the cheaper air-beaten stuff–like Dryers/Bryers or heaven forefend a 5 quart pail of generic–thick. I’d recommend Double Rainbow or Trader Joe’s house brand (potentially the same thing).

    Exact proportions are for suckers here. Put as much ice cream as you want in your blender, add as much coffee liqueur as you prefer and turn the thing on. Add in enough vodka to achieve a Frostee consistency (with a high fat ice cream and very cold vodka it’s more than you’d expect) and serve.

    Start or restart your diet the next day.

    *jesse.in.mb. would like to extend his sincerest apologies to those triggered by the terms “White,” “Russian,” or “classic” in any combination, as well as those who are lactose or A2 protein intolerant, alcohol intolerant, alcoholics, diabetics, fattasses,  averse to coffee and alcohol in the same place at the same time, or averse to dairy and alcohol in the same place at the same time.

     

    Derpetologist’s Spot the Not – Bands with Wacky Names

    1. The The

    2. Full Throttle Aristotle

    3. Barney Rubble and the Cunt Stubble

    4. Satanic Clown Orgy

    5. Hitler Stole My Potato

    6. Gee That’s A Large Beetle I Wonder If It’s Poisonous

    7. Iron Prostate

    8. Jehovah’s Witness Protection Program

     

  • Fur Friday

    It was recently brought to my attention that there is a hot new beard trend involving mascara and references to unicorns. In fact, several people let me know whenever there is a “hot new beard trend” because I am the token bearded-American in their lives.  These people mean well; they’re universally follicularly challenged (often women) and think that their beardo friends are just Ken dolls waiting to be adorned in whatever is trending on Pinterest today. And they also seem blissfully unaware that these “hot new trends” are mostly just two guys from Portland on Instagram with a shtick that has been escalating since 2014 when they stuck some flowers in their beard on a lark and got positive buzz from it. They dabbled in food stuffs and non-flowering plants, returning to more complicated floral arrangements periodically to hold the interest of their followers. At some point they crossed an unforgivable line into glitter beards. I assume anyone else who tried this on the internet has some kind of mental handicap, intense self-loathing or is very good at photoshopping, because only a masochist would put the herpes of crafting (thanks Dimitri Martin) into their beard. I’m not even sure how you would get rid of glitter in one’s beard that did not involve dying and being reincarnated as not-a-fool. More benignly they did Christmas ornaments for this Christmas.

    So remember, kids. Next time you see a clickbaity article talking about a hot new beard grooming trend is sweeping the nation’s men, remember that it’s probably just a few instagram personalities having fun or trolling for clicks and not hot, new, or a trend.

    A bizarre homage to last week’s Manly Monday:

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BKrRbbRAy1j/

    I do believe we wore the same plastic prop ax to the party. One of us will have to go home and change.

  • Tuesday Afternoon Links

    Brett is having his wallet molested by a mechanic, so you get links from me today. And none of them are NSFW except maybe this one and that one.

    “Secret” space plane Boeing X-37B

    Spaceplanes, motherfuckers.

    Tunnel at plutonium uranium extraction plant collapses in Hanford (TW:Autoplay video): The AP reports no workers were in the tunnel at the time of collapse. Workers at the site have now been evacuated. Workers farther away were told to remain indoors. Destry Henderson, deputy news manager for the Hanford Joint Information Center, told NBC News. “There are no reports of injuries, no reports of a radiological release.” Gojira hardest hit. (h/t Playa  Manhattan)

    Good Korea elects a new president after forcing their last one into early retirement for being an utter putz. NYT has a great primer on the election and current geopolitical situation in the region. DAEHANMINGUK (대한민국), bitches.

    When all you have is hunger all news looks like a food pun

    Good Gravy: Trump is Poutine his Chips on the Table to Cover the Kurds

    Sessions to review Obama-era policies on drug-crime sentencing “If new charging instructions are implemented, it would mark the first significant move by the Trump administration to bring back the drug war’s toughest practices — methods that had fallen out of favor in recent years as critics pointed to damaging effects of mass incarceration.” (h/t OMWC)

  • Manly Monday

    Sugar Free sent this my way, but don’t let that scare you off: “Romance novel cover model wanted in Connecticut robberies is arrested in San Diego” David Byers (mildly NSFW) of the (very ritzy, I’ve been there) Solana Beach, CA has apparently been robbing banks (three of them! or one of them twice the story seems muddled) and a gas station in…Greenwich, CT. As far as I can tell he started his life of crime in SD when he stole a rowing machine from his apartment complex gym. Honestly, I’m thinking Zoolander sequel: male Instagram models gone rogue while Derek and friends overcome their increasing irrelevance at the democratization of beauty and save the day. Anyway, Byers randomly resurfaced in NY, PA and AZ before making it back to San Diego where he was driving around applying for jobs while driving a stolen vehicle and of course because he’s a model, he was arrested shirtless (autoplay video warning).

    Something SFW, and something less SFW. Now don’t get me wrong, I would, without question, stick it in crazy in this case, but only with an assumed name and at a hotel. One doesn’t want crazy following one home.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/BHvun0DDkFW/?hl=en

    A SFW example of his professional work (though unless the story is about a closet case with a girlfriend, his photo doesn’t really fit the title).

    When SF sent this my way, the fact that he was a Michael Stokes (mNSFW: man butt and implied nudity) model immediately pinged something in the back of my brain. When I saw the guy’s pictures I realized immediately what it was. Stokes has a type (muscles, bad tattoos) and a style (shiny, bold, uncanny use of HDR) that’s very distinctive and a few years back he did a series–and companion coffee table book–on Veterans who had lost limbs while serving, which began with him shooting Alex Minsky. This launched Minsky’s career as an underwear model, and also a fully clothed model who cleans up well, but where’s the fun in that? The Daily Mail has some fine examples from the book. There’s also a 2017 calendar…because of course there is.

  • Fur Friday

    Because I am hungry and Fur Friday is my petty fiefdom we’re going to skip the sexy bears and Mink Stole this week in favor of a condiment: furikake. For those of you who don’t know, it’s dry mix of shredded nori/gim, sesame seeds, sugar, salt. Common varieties mix it up with various fish flakes (bonito or salmon), and MSG…because Japan. It’s a quick way to make a plain meal of white rice taste like it isn’t a plain meal of white rice, but it’s also used on soups, noodles or wherever you need to punch up the flavor of something. Because I live in a Bladerunner-esque future LA–a jumble of pan-Asian and American influences, but lacking replicants–I can also get that shit sprinkled on kettle corn at A-Frame in Culver. It’s tasty. Buy some, put it in your face. You’ll thank me later. Or you won’t because you’re a bunch of ingrates.

    This use deviates from the authorial intent of furikake as a “rice seasoning”

  • Wednesday Afternoon Links

    Good Odin’s day, fair commenters. I bring you the freshest of links pulled from the sea and slapped down–still wriggling–on your monitors.

    American flights might not cost an arm and a leg, but they’d be more comfortable with fewer appendages

    As if American flights weren’t bad enough already.

    Taiwan moved up six spots on the World Press Freedom Index to #45! Oh, wait. It’s just because everyone else got worse this year, not because they actually improved. For reference the US is #43 (full list here). North Korea is unsurprisingly dead last.

    If he pulls this off I’ll eat my hat.

    Nissan outfitting its cars with tinfoil hats. Protect your phones from prying spooks, buy Nissan. TW: Autoplay video because CNN.

  • Manly Monday

    The lumbersexual and pretensions of masculinity. Once upon a time metrosexual was all the rage. As far as I can tell, men thought that women thought that men would be better if they were lithe, well dressed, controlled their eyebrows to the point of looking like a Kardashian and talked excessively about fair trade organic coffee while writing their next screenplay. Like most style trends, this one bore the seeds of its own destruction and the coiner of the term metrosexual, Mark Simpson, also coined the term retrosexual , which originally referred to people who rejected the trappings of metrosexual style and went for a butcher, less coiffed look (retrosexual eventually got eaten by Don Draper wannabes and means something different now–if it’s used at all).

    Lumberjacks are examplars of manliness with the most dangerous job in America and hundreds of years of rugged masculine history, and killing them and wearing their skin is one of the faster ways to cheat your way to a butcher you. And since people are lazy as fuck about their portmanteaus (cf every political scandal being -gate), we ended up with “lumbersexual.”

    I am, admittedly sitting at my desk, very bearded and in a flannel shirt as I type this (and looking damn fine). So I’m hardly immune to such trends; although like a good hipster, I would contend that I was wearing flannel shirts after grunge had been abandoned, but before it had been rediscovered as a way of taking a decent looking fellow and giving him just a touch of oomph. One doesn’t really even need the flannel as you can see by this musclebear with a beard and a log. Handing someone an axe to make them look like less of a cityslicker does have its limits though:

     

    Your author not pulling off lumberjack drag very well for Halloween last year.

  • Fur Friday

    A recent piece at NPR brought a language trend I’ve been increasingly exposed to and even more increasingly picking up: DoggoLingo. Some of you may live on the internet, or know someone who lives on the internet who has recently taken to calling puppies “puppers” or referring to your roommate’s faintly obese cat as a “catloaf.” This person is a victim of DoggoLingo’s adorable charms. Elements of the classic doge meme make their way into meatspace verbal communications.

    While the NPR doesn’t explicitly reference it, the use of cutesy, onomatopoeia-heavy language is also apparent in the user generated common names of animals, which is what happens when internet is allowed to name things (cf. Boaty McBoatface). While I’d previously regarded these things safely ensconced in image macros on the web, with maybe “trash panda” bubbling into real conversation for obvious reasons, I had a friend recently forget the word rabbit in favor of the internet preferred “booplesnoot,” and have been told to avoid getting too close to seabarps while out paddle boarding. Unfortunately I have little real-world use for my favorite of these:

    Surprisingly not furry
    So majestic. So flappy.

    So go out into the real world, make a casual reference to a danger floof, rate some fat bois 12/10, good puppers and get a good pic of one of them mleming.