I reckoned that I ought to do something that at least feels more productive than sitting around all evening reading Overcompensating.
I've been trying to work out car insurance. My car got all smashed up June 16 by a nitwit in flip-flops, plaid shorts and a Civic EX (if you've been to college this decade, you now know exactly the type of person I'm talking about) who decided neither red lights nor not lying to the cops were facets of legal existence that applied to him. Anyway, my insurance company elected not to investigate the accident, no one in this dickwad town stopped to give me their information to witness it, and the police officer was probably hung over or something, so Fratty Fraterson got off as scot-free as he could have hoped. In a just world, I would be held not at-fault, at least, since I wasn't at fault.
Geico seems to think I'm at fault, at least according to the little accident history thing that pops up and doubles my quote as I'm checking out.
I need to talk to various agents tomorrow. This shan't stand! I'm not paying $600 for an irresponsible insurance company's failing.
A lot of The Who's live tracks are absolutely wretched.
The moon landing anniversary was yesterday. Thus was heralded a lot of praise of the "greatest scientific achievement in history". The thing is, it isn't. Heck, it wasn't at the time. First off, landing on the moon is an engineering achievement, not a scientific achievement. The physics had been known for a century or so.
No, what I count more magnitudinous is not a vast scaling up of a relatively simple system: most of what made the moon landing possible was not scientific genius but government funding. The General and Special Theories of Relativity may be the greatest scientific achievements of all time. The development of the microprocessor may be the greatest technological achievement of all time. The understanding of quantum physics by Schroedinger, et al, the development of Newtonian mechanics, and the invention of electricity or of the internet all rank above the moon landing in my mind.
It was damn impressive, though. It might be better to call it the most impressive scientific achievement.
Now I've gotten myself all riled up, so I think I'll try to calm myself down somehow. Writing? Maybe. Escapism does tend to help one escape. But first...
I've been re-reading the Harry Potter series lately. Oddly, this had nothing to do with the recent movie.
When HP & the Sorceror's Stone was released, I was the same age as Harry. It felt special to be in that age group, most affected by the most effective of the most escapist of genres.
It's been over a decade, now. The books are still extraordinarily good, and unlike some authors (King, Brown), I can't get mad at Rowling even though she's preposterously successful. It is clear from the books that she loved telling stories, and that's why they're such fun to read.
A friend of mine said the Harry Potter books were not very good because they did not fascinate you. I disagreed. They are not deep. They are not insightful. But they are easily the most fascinating books I've read.
I think I'll finish HP3 instead of writing.
By my hand,
~Michael Akerman
