trying to chill

Forewarning—this is a rant, proceed cautiously. Now, I normally didn’t want to post any rants on TTC, but I figured in this case and maybe future cases it’s absolutely justified. HostGator came recommended from some hosting-talk forums, not to mention ’sponsored’ as well. My conclusion is that they probably wasted a ton of money on ads and fake reviews judging from their service.

Let’s start with initial sign-up (this is for HydroBarn). The process went smooth, however, their internal billing system is shoddy. It runs off of a “billing” user account on their server and it doesn’t tie in to your original user account. Did I mention it’s slow as balls? Whatever. Up-time has been acceptable. So I need an SSL certificate for my shopping cart. I need a static IP. Additional $2 a month? Okay, I guess. I purchase an SSL certificate from GoDaddy and I’m greeted with a link to SSL configuration on their web page by a live chat support rep, no problem. Generate CSR, get my certificate. “Now what Mr. HostGator support?” Yet another link to their site. They want to charge $10 to install the certificate. What? WHY?!

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Foundation by Isaac Asimov. Of the books I’ve read thus far, I think this was the most difficult to get through. Not to say that it was bad, but I’m not used to a certain writing style and certain method of progressing through the story. In addition, Foundation was published in 1951, so there are key differences in style and vocabulary. That being said, it was a great book. Asimov’s Foundation series (and in general), as I said, has been and still is the inspiration for many writers.

The Galactic Empire had lasted for 12,000 years and ruled over a million planets. But now it was dying. Hari Seldon, creator of the science of psychohistory, knew that it’s death would be followed by 30,000 years of brutal barbarism and savage warfare. To preserve knowledge and shorten the dark period to a mere thousand years, Hari Seldon set up the Encyclopedia Foundation and staffed it with the best scholars and scientists of the Empire. Then he placed it upon Terminus, a bleak world at the edge of the galaxy. But now the Empire was retreating, leaving the Foundation isolated and unprotected. Around it, little barbarian kingdoms were already beginning their wars in search of dominance. The Foundation knew itself as the only hope of mankind. But what could it do, alone and helpless, against the greed of the warlords who were reaching out to conquer and destroy it.

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Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. I’ve actually been putting this off for a bit because I was a little afraid of reviewing it (you’ll see why later). OSC received some inspiration from the classic Foundation by Isaac Asimov, among other things. It may seem silly but because of this I wanted to start Foundation before I wrote this review. I’d also like to note that of the books I’ve read thus far, this one is easily the best. Yeah, I know that’s not saying much.

Ender’s Game is set far into the future where we find humans preparing for their attempt to [drumroll...] save humanity! They’d been attacked twice by an alien race, the “Buggers,” and believe they may not survive another attack. Ender is 6 years old, a “Third”—3rd child at a time when families are limited to no more than two children—and is believed to be the one. For what? The government is looking for soldiers to lead their fleet and save the world, in this case a Commander, and they’re doing this by monitoring all newborns. Ender’s got an older brother Peter and sister Valentine whom is younger than Peter. Both of them extremely smart but ultimately deemed failures by the government in what they’re looking for. Because of that, however, they allowed a them to have a 3rd child.

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Here’s my next review, but I’ll include another preface. Again we have a book that was adapted into a movie, directed by Steven Spielberg, and it was a huge success in theaters back in 1993. I was fortunate to catch this on TV literally the day after I finished the last page of the book. I realize now it’s going to be hard to deal with these movie adaptations—you simply cannot paint the same picture in a movie that you can with an imagination. This actually shocked me because, growing up, I had always thought “the movie will do a better job portraying the story” and boy was I wrong. Enough of the banter though, obviously if you’re looking for book reviews you already know all this.

Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton. Most people have heard of this and automatically assume it’s just a science fiction tale of dinosaurs in our time, but it’s a lot more than that. We start off with strange lizard attacks in Costa Rican areas and a ravished construction worker who’s brought into a clinic. What the hell happened to him? We’re soon introduced to Dr. Alan Grant who is looking for baby Velociraptor fossils up north. His understudy, Dr. Ellie Sattler, soon receives a fax of a strange x-ray, could this be? He’s interrupted by a gentlemen doing an investigation on one of his project contributors. John Hammond, an older wealthy gentlemen with an aficionado for dinosaurs, appears to be buying up all sorts of suspicious things, including supercomputers, huge quantities of amber/sap, and more. Why?

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I’d like to start off this post saying that reading is pretty great. I’ve only gotten into reading recently, however. I’ve always considered myself a bit of an intellectual (being that I’ve been a computer/geek for so many years), but I never realized what an impact it would have. To quote many a teacher and speaker: “Reading stimulates the mind.” I’ve got more cheese don’t worry. I’ve also proudly joined the “The book is better than the movie” snob club because it’s God damn true. Anyway, here’s my first review:

The Ruins by Scott Smith. It’s a story of two young couples (Jeff and Amy, Eric and Stacy) on vacation in Cancun, Mexico when things turn sour. Their tour guide, Matthias, seeks out his brother Henrich who hasn’t returned from an archaeological dig site with a new found lover. Jeff, the boy scout feeling excited for some real adventure before they head home, decides they should accompany him. Oh, and one of their new found non-English speaking Greek friends “Pablo” decides to join them with a bag of tequila. Where’s this place? It’s a bus ride from their hotel to Coba, a several mile dirty cab ride to the path (during which they’re unsuccessfully advised to turn back), and a few more miles to the site. In another country. In the middle of nowhere.

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