(no subject)

I dug back a ways in my folder of photos-yet-to-be-shared and realized I hadn't even uploaded, let alone shared the proof of snow and cold on our nearby mountains. Shame!

That snow is long since gone, alas. That was probably the most significant precipitation event we've had since monsoon season, and that was well over a month ago. Welcome to the desert.

I just finished a book, the Secret History of Moscow, and I am left sadly disappointed. I picked up the book due to the title and then decided I wanted to read it based on the back and its description of people turning into birds and secret underworlds. It had the potential to be good. That was something I kept thinking throughout it, pointing at a piece mentally and thinking, here's potential. But something was largely lacking and it took me until the end to really figure out what. I didn't care about any of the characters, not one bit, and the main one actually annoyed me more than anything. Not that I'm sure she was the MC, since the POV was also off. It tried for 3rd omniscient, but then sometimes couldn't decide if it wanted to be 3rd limited or not.

So bad characterization, or possibly a lack of characterization, coupled with a plot that didn't always seem to know what it was doing. Granted, it wasn't bad, just the sort of plot you could tell was trying. After Among Others and Bloodshot (omg that is characterization done well), it just seemed so "eh."

What I did like about it: I liked the use of Russian fairy tales, I liked the jumps into side character's stories (even though it took me a while to like it), and I liked sense of mid-90s Russia it managed to grab.

On to day 20! Only 10 more, and then I'll have to come up with actual blog posts again. Ha ha!

Day 20 - How important you think education is
Simple: pretty fucking important. So important that I do not regret an iota of my college education, even though it will never land me a job. It helps you see and understand the world, to empathize with other humans, to rationalize, to logic it up, to make sense of history and future. But above all, it helps you know what it is that you don't know, which is far less dangerous than not knowing what you don't know.