Spontaneous ∂erivation

I had kind of a silly nightmare, compared to the ones I usually dread. It was more of a realization, kind of like the Obama dream.

This is going to ramble on a bit.

In my dream, I’d driven my car to where Home Depot used to be. Except there was a Toys ‘R Us instead! Bizarre, but I spent some time walking around.

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I’m a fussy person. I wanted to show books in my library on my blog sidebar—but not just in any old way.

Update: Fixed the code samples and script.

Requirements

• One or more things in the sidebar that shows books in my library.

• I want to show books I’ve read, books I’m currently reading (and, in some cases, re-reading), and books I will read.

• Preferably separated from each other.

• I want to be able to adjust the number of books shown in each category.

• I want someone else to worry about all the little book images and not have to store/resize them myself.

• I want flexibility in linking; sometimes I want to link to reviews I’ve written, for instance, and sometimes direct to Amazon, Audible, Webscriptions, etc.

• If I’m linking to Amazon, I want my Amazon Associates code attached. Optionally, if any other stores have associates programs, I want to use those tags too.

Widgets from Book Social Networks

None of the widgets from Shelfari, GoodReads, or LibraryThing could satisfy these requirements.

The widgets at GoodReads came closest, but in the end they weren’t flexible enough.

Now we descend into high geekery, including ruby code, so the rest of this goes under the cut.

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My weekend reading is here.

(No, you can’t see the three books near the bottom. Those are for my sekrit projekt.)

They are:
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From A Dance with Dragons which will be coming out, we presume, one day.

(I’m sure it’ll be 2009.)

But a new Jon Snow chapter now joins the rotation of the existing Daenerys and Tyrion chapters.

Excitement! Woo!

Going back to waiting for the next book, yo.

Pete Tzinski: Welcome to the old school:

I’d been reading the book off and on for several weeks which is, in and of itself, pathetic. It grows sadder still when you realize that after several weeks, I was only halfway through the book. This was not because of the complexity of the text, nor the density of the ideas, nor the breadth of the story. It was because I just don’t have time to read anymore.

Does that sound familiar? I bet it does, a little.

My only advice: Treat reading like chocolate–a sin to be enjoyed, not a virtue to be practiced.

He says it better than I ever could.

You can argue with him if you like.

But he will just make you look silly.

Go ahead though, it will amuse the rest of us.

Amazon.com: In the Garden of Iden (The Company): Books: Kage Baker:

I went and surfed Amazon a bit, to find out who’s a precursor to my own dystopian person aggrandizing organization of spies, assassins, and troopers. I found a long-running series by Kage Baker about “The Company”, which as far as I can tell, travels through the entire freaking timeline to grab agents and items of value for a greedy company that, of late, is being run by a board consisting of candidates for the Best Short-Sighted Power-Corrupt Psycho Award.

The main protagonist is a man in the Company who wants to bring it down. The Company is so powerful, though, so it’s taking quite a while. Meanwhile, the Company is being eaten from within by faction power struggles.

Kage so owns us all. Nobody can be up against a covert organization more greedy or corrupt or extensive than that. It’s just not humanly possible. The Company doesn’t just aim for secret world domination in the future. They do it all through all of history, man. And they have won.

This did not stop The Matrix, though, or any number of dystopian futures.

My reaction is to entirely rethink the motives of my agency, and to come up with further twists a la Gene Wolfe. For instance: the Company owns through time, but not through space. Another example: being more corrupt is not humanly possible. This leaves other kinds of entities. And yet another: the Company has very human motives of power for power’s sake. So that leaves other motives.

The Matrix differs because a) the “Company” is made up of cyborgs and artificial entities, b) their motives are inhuman as a result, and c) because of (b), their motives are limited so far to world domination. They threaten humanity, whereas the Company would simply co-exist more or less benignly.

So I’m thinking, I’m thinking.

In the meanwhile, the belated Arcady and Zene for Friday is coming up.