I bought this at the bookstore
Bookstore Haul: Volume 9 — It’s not about the Nogis.
Japanese Demystified 3rd Edition — I need to accelerate my Japanese learning. I need to at least be slightly conversational. How am I going to talk to my idol oshis? Not too sure. This is the third book I bought. I have flash cards. I have translation programs. I have apps. But I don’t put the time in. I really need to put the time in. That is all. Just do it.
Bookstore Haul: Volume 8
This is long overdue. I think I started it on the 23rd of August. Only just posting now. I need to do this quicker.
Git For Teams. Now I will now how to work with people. Using Git!
I tell my co-workers about who should be their best buddies. That term, the way I use it in this context, isn’t for people, but items – tools or techniques – that they should make themselves highly familiar with and which will make their daily chores better. Then there are the enemies, or rather, just one at the moment. Enemies again are tools that they need to battle with on a daily basis, a necessary evil.
I say my second buddy is my current Configuration Management tool. He will get you out of sticky situations. Don’t like the code you just wrote? Revert. Who broke the build? Blame. Need to explore alternatives? Branch. Need to deliver? Tag and release. A good CM tool is just the best.
My one and only enemy is Jenkins. It’s a Continuous Integration server. It is opaque to me. It’s got buttons that run jobs. But what they do? I don’t know. Then there are the happy weather, the sad weather, and the stormy skies. Stormy is bad. It always seems to be that.
Jenkins: The Definitive Guide is a book which I hope will make me understand Jenkins. And use it correctly. Eventually, the enemy will be an ally.
Git In Practice is a book to make my second good buddy a good buddy again. Lately, he’s been punching me in the face. I need to know why.
I forgot that I am doing this series. Whelp, it isn’t the first time I don’t post anything until later. Just look at how long it takes me to write up a movie post…
Now why did I get another book? I haven’t even gotten through the myriad of ones purchased already for this series. All books are languishing on the nightstand not being read. Do I really need another one?
The book I had gotten was William Finnegan’s Barbarian Days, autobiography of a journalist/surfer. I’ve read some of the book before. I may even have already a copy! Who knows?
Also bought was Monocle magazine’s annual city ranking issue. Now that makes me want to go visit Japan…
Avoided buying a book tonight. I wanted to, but Lorde knows I have too many sitting on my nightstand waiting to be read. I just like buying books (and things) and not reading them at all. I kind of suck that way.
Anyhow, in their last 2 46 Hour Marathon TV special, the members of Nogizaka46 played several games of Ultimate Werewolf. And because I just watched an English sub of one of these games, I ended up getting the box.
Now, after reading the instructions, the game in the box is totally different than that which Nogis played.
But who am I gonna play this with?
A long time ago, I bought another game at B&N. It was a party card game. I have yet to play it with anyone.
I guess if I blogged this before, then I’ll have to blog it again. Once more then…
Before going to the Filipino Festival, I hurried off to the bookstore to use my coupon for Harney & Sons Fresh Brewed Iced Tea. It was two tins for $15. Each tin contained 6 sachets of tea to make 2 quarts or so.
I know, I know. WTF. But I have to use that coupon because I received it. It’s like wasting money. Which it totally isn’t because it is wasting money if you buy the item anyhow. Do I need iced tea? Not really, but I do like to pretend to. Now I already had a tin of their iced tea, the raspberry flavored one, and I wanted peach and the orange. Unfortunately, they did not have the passion fruit or the pomegranate.
I usually follow the directions on the back. Steep a sachet in 2 quarts of boiling water. Add another couple of quarts to it. Serve it over ice. It’s not sweet so I would usually make up some simple syrup and add that in. It’s a good summer time brew.
Fuck do I go to the bookstore lots. Super bored today even though I went to see my niece do her dancing thing. Plus I ate at Phubs — a brilliant place to eat Phô and 1/2 Bahn Mí. I couldn’t take the drubbing the Orioles were experiencing and stage48 is more AKB than Nogi, so off to the bookstore I went for coffee and desert.
Silent Voice Vol. 7 by Yoshitoki Oima. It’s the final volume of a pretty great manga. I’m a sucker for redemption stories about love. I first read this on Crunchyroll’s digital manga and I finished it up in one night. Seven volumes! Kodansha released the manga on paper for the last year. I’ve re-read it again and it still is very powerful. I think it’s one of the manga to keep on the bookshelf. That’s why I bought all seven volumes.
The Wrecking Crew by Thomas Frank. I was actually looking for his latest but then I didn’t like the premise. So I went with this book instead. I’ve always thought that the GOP is terrible at governing because they do not believe in it. They always say the government is the problem and yet they want to participate in it. Wolf. Sheep’s clothing. Like putting a pyromaniac as fire chief. The GOP will wreck shit because they don’t believe in a working government and when they break it they’ll always say it was because government never works. Fuck those fuckers. Fuck them in the ass. Shit is wrong. They are wrong. Fuck those fuckers.
A second time on the weekend? Yes, when I am truly bored with nothing to do. This time I went to the Columbia store because it has a better selection. I wonder why that is. Their computer book selection is 1000 times better. So is their manga. Throw it a more interesting cook book section, and it’s a wonder why I don’t go there often. Twenty-five miles away? O, that’s why.
Anywhoo, let’s look at what I bought today.
Pragmatic Unit Testing in Java 8 with JUnit. I’m starting to get into Test Driven Development. It’s not like I haven’t but at work I have a task where it fit right in to do TDD. As I write the code and the tests, I often wonder if I am doing it well. No one else at work has tried it this way. So I need advice and I usually find it in books. This one is the only one on UnitTesting that was at the store. I’m hoping to glean some advice from it and apply it to work.
The blogs been bleak lately. I haven’t written anything good. It’s nothing but movie reviews and links of the day with not much to say and terrible writing. The movie reviews are quickly jotted notes making no sense. The links of the day only interest me. Then there are the idols. Nobody but me knows about idols. I doubt my readers do. What little I have of them. I need to mix things up and get back to some writing. Good writing would be helpful. But any writing at the moment would be great.
Let’s try something different…
I go to the bookstore just about every week. I usually buy something which I end up not reading. I buy it and put it on the nightstand. It stays there for years before I decide to read it. Maybe I can write reviews of what I read.
But first, let me write about what I bought and the motivation to buy it. Maybe writing why will help me read the book.
Yotsuba&! Volume 13. The best manga out there. I love how it makes me feel so happy to see the fun adventures of Yotsuba, the 4 year old, kawaii kid. She’ll worm her way into your heart. You should be reading this.
The Complete Peanuts: 1999-2000. I have several of the early volumes but haven’t bought any of the latest. This is the last book of the run. It’s got the final chapters of the Peanuts strip. I adore the Peanuts strip. If I could draw, I would love to do a comic strip. Maybe it should be my next profession.
Silver Screen Fiend by Patton Oswalt. I have a need to read some stories about movies. Hopefully, Patton Oswalt’s diary of the movies he’s seen as he gained fame will help me with my movie viewing writing. Like I said, this blog is just bad movie writing. But in it contains the movies that I have seen in the theaters these past 12+ years. Maybe, like Oswalt, this is my Silver Screen Fiend.
