THINKING IS STILL FREE
Monday, March 18, 2024
My review of "My Heart Is a Chainsaw" by Stephen Graham Jones on Goodreads
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This is an excellent book. I gave it four instead of five stars because I felt it was a bit too long, at four-hundred pages it felt longer than it needed.
Jade is a troubled teenager that knows everything there is to know about "slashers" horror films like Friday the 13th and Halloween. There's a killer in her little Idaho town and she immediatly realizes that she's in the middle of slasher herself, she must find the "final girl" to help her survive the imminent slaughter.
I like that the book is more than a good scary story. There's food for thought in there, commentary about social conditions of American's first people. There's also ton of slasher knowledge, you can tell the author is a slasher fan, you can totally see the Stephen King influences, specially the short story "The Raft" ...but I don't want to spoil it.
The neatest thing about the book was also the hardest for me to read. The author pulls off writing from the point of view of an slasher-obsessed teenage girl, at times her internal dialogue rambles away with forced metaphors or un-funny puns and it gets a little annoying, however it adds to the vibe of the book I suppose.
I picked up this book because I really enjoyed "The Only Good Indians" by the same author. That book gave me the heebie-jeebies for real. I was looking for a good scare. This book will give you that, but it's somehow "lighter" to read, not as horrific. If you are into that though, go ahead and read it, there's plenty of gore, blood and guts.
-JV
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Monday, March 11, 2024
Ten Years in Seattle
Monday, February 26, 2024
My Review of "The Creative Act: A Way of Being" by Rick Rubin on GoodReads
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is one of the best books I've read.
Rick Rubin gives us his philosophy for creating art. He warns us against the things that block creativity and provides wisdom and tips to foster our best work.
The books reads like daily meditations.
I liked the book so much I read it as slowly as possible because I didn't want to be done reading it. I liked to read a few pages at a time and thought about what it was saying.
I liked the author's style. His words read like taoist book of wisdom.
I liked the perspectives I gained from reading this. I can apply what I read to almost everything creative.
Excellent read
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Friday, February 23, 2024
On Writing
I've been thinking about writing lately.
I am going to write that book. I don't know when or what exactly will be in it but I've known for a while that my true calling is writing. Nothing gives me more joy than the simple act of creating ideas with words. I want to share my voice, my thoughts and experiences with the whole world. It really doesn't matter to me if nobody reads it, it's the act of creating that excites me.
I haven't decided yet if I want to write fiction or memoirs. Novels or essays. Write about tech or write about politics. Why not all? Maybe, but one thing at the time and first things first.
I have a lot to say about the war in Iraq. There are many war memoirs but there aren't any stories written from the perspective of a Venezuelan nerd with ADHD. I did my whole tour, did not leave my post, but I realized in Iraq that I am not a warrior, I freaking hate violence with all my heart.
I have a lot to say about tech. I am fortunate to work in a place where I see the state of the art advance. I love to write code but I am not your typical tech-bro. How many Spanish Speaking people do you know work in big tech companies as engineers? Not many.
I have a lot say about being a Dad. This is the thing that came more natural to me. Loving my kids is easy to do. Not sure I can bring anything new, but then again, maybe I should say it and write it down anyway.
Stephen King had a quote about you are only a writer if you get paid, and use your paycheck to pay the water bill. So if you are starving, and use your words to pay the bills, then you are a writer.
Hmm, well, I don't know. I do write at work. I write technical documents and I write software. Writing software is just another kind of writing, you have different audience, one is the machine that transform the code you write to machine instructions, but the most important audience is other programmers. When you write code, other coders will eventually go over your code when they need to change it or debug it. Well, I digress. My point is that I am writer already, but now I want to write more than software and technical docs. I want to share stories, opinions and whatever else comes to mind.
Stay tuned.
My Review of "Is Math Real?" by Dr. Eugenia Cheng on GoodReads
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
In this book the author wants to let people know that if you hate math it's more likely because of the way you were taught. In fact, if there are things that don't make sense to you and you've asked "dumb questions" then you probably think more like professional mathematicians.
I found this book through to Ali Ward's Ologies podcast
Dr. Cheng talks about many mathematical concepts with an explanation of why and how mathematicians come up with concepts. I was blown away in the section "why is 1 + 1 = 2" because it turns the question on its head. We should think about "When does 1 + 1 not equal 2" for example, when you are painting, if you have one color, adding another color gives you a new combined color, not two colors, in this case 1 + 1 = 1. So then a good definition of *when* does 1 + 1 = 2 is in order.
I like that Dr. Cheng hates it when people try to use math to make themselves sound smarter as if knowing these things makes you a better, superior person somehow (it does not, it's your character)
I liked the little commentary on current events sprinkled here and there, I suppose that some people will balk at that, that's fine by me.
I didn't like that the material for me was introductory, I didn't walk about with new mathematical theory (well, at the end she goes into her category theory research) but it's an introductory book aimed at people who don't do math.
Overall, this is an excellent book. Highly recommend it. Math if for you and for all of us.
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My Review of "The Nineties" by Chuck Klosterman on Goodreads
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book is a collection of essays that cover different aspects of the 90's things like music, tv shows, the internet, politics, historical events of the era, etc. The author gives us his take on things and contrasts with how we see things today.
One main theme of the book is that people tend to judge the past through their current point of view. It's easy and tempting to judge history based on what we know now. He challenges that notion and tells us how we used to see and think differently.
I enjoyed this commentary, but to me, it's just that, commentary. Yeah there is some data and stats but this is a book filled with opinions and generalizations about a culture. Not that he's off the mark, but I don't know what to do with the information I just learned. Reading this felt like reading a entertaining article in a magazine...in the 90's. Fun, engaging but am I a different person after reading this? Did I gain a new perspective in life? Maybe not.
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Monday, January 29, 2024
My Review of "Exit Interview" by Kristi Coulter on Goodreads
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Exit interview covers Kristi Coulter's eleven years at Amazon. This memoir gives the reader an insider's view of the what is like to be a smart, capable woman in an the male-dominated, competitive world of Amazon corporate.
Kristi's frustrating journey comes across as honest and real. It helps that she is incredibly funny. The stories are incredible but as someone who has been at Amazon for five and half years (and counting) I believe 100% of what I read. I don't get to see sexism myself first hand because my team is mostly composed of men but I know enough to know it still happens.
A lot of the points brought up in this book resonate with me. I hate the fact that the women in tech problem is considered a "Pipeline" issue. It's also considered a women's issue or minority issue. When it should be considered a "everyone" problem. Particularly the group that can do the most to fix it: Men. (yes, myself included)
I recommend this book to anyone concerned with non-fiction current affairs. 10/10
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Thursday, January 25, 2024
My Review of "I've Been Thinking" by Daniel C. Dennett on GoodReads
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
"I've Been Thinking" Is a memoir written by the philosopher, cognitive scientist and outspoken atheist Daniel C. Dennett.
This was a fun book, reading it felt like having a beer with a good, well-read friend, full of amusing stories and personal anecdotes. Did you know that Dennet's father was in the CIA? you didn't? sorry for the spoiler. Did you know that Dennet spent time living in Beirut in the 50's but ended up in a farm in Maine? Some people may find his stories pointless, but I enjoyed his description of life in Maine, his academic triumphs, intellectual curiosity and sharp, insightful questions.
I felt cringe when he called out "academic bullies" in the latter part of his book, it is petty to call out personal grievances with other famous authors out in public, even if some of them already
passed away. For some reason that didn't feel...classy.
I loved "Breaking the Spell" and "Intuition Pumps" but I was not able to get through his less political and more theoretical "Consciousness Explained" and "Darwin's Dangerous Ideas"
I say read this book for the journey, you won't be more enlightened in the philosophy of biology or know the nuances of what it means to have a conscious mind. You need to read his other books for that.
I recommend to read it in order to use his life as an example of a life well lived. When I am old, I, too want to be able to reminisce all the good times with my loved ones and my not-so-loved ones as well.
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Monday, December 04, 2023
My review of "Butts: A Backstory" by Heather Radke
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
In this book the author tells us the history and origin of all things butt-related, particularly women's butts. What it means for many to be the owner of a woman's butt and how that relates to race and class. Heather Radke makes insightful observations in a light, funny and sometimes sobering narrative that comes off as honest and moving.
I enjoyed learning the history of many of our cultural hang-ups about this part of the body. She made connections between fashion and racism that I had never noticed or thought about but seem obvious after you see it. It made me conscious of the big difference between walking the world in a male body where I am not objectified for my body parts, I don't have my character or sexuality judged by the size of any of my visible body parts. I learned about the effect our culture and the media has on people. Specially those that don't meet the "normal body" standard, which happens to be a bunch of made up bs anyway, because there is no such thing as an "average" body since all bodies come in various shapes and sizes and there is no "wrong" way to have a body. Bodies just happen to exits, but we place meaning to body shapes and sizes in order to justify the power structures we construct.
Excellet read. 5/5.
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