10 Years Ago (this April) Danny MacAskill Broke the Internet

This is pre-Red Bull sponsorship, and it announced MacAskill to the world outside of street trials. It remains one of the best trick videos ever, exceeded only by Road Bike Party 1 and 2*, and by the big budget video he did the year after this came out, Way Back Home.

Enjoy again if you have already seen it once. His style has changed since then - he rides mountain bikes now, and does not do as many spin tricks, nor does he jump as high or as far. This is vintage Danny, a bit more raw than in later years, but every bit as good.

* Danny's part in Road Bike Party 2 is absurd. 

The Definition of Insanity

The ignorant cliche that 'Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity' has become very common. It is also wrong. 

There is a very long and detailed reference manual with a great many definitions of insanity. The manual is so comprehensive that it aims to list them all. The above is not one of them. 

Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of STUPIDITY. 

Another example of stupidity: Repeating tired and inaccurate cliches that you saw on Facetagram and Twit. Please stop. Do it for the children. 

More Books! The Emperor of All Miseries

I read the Emperor of All Maladies over the course of a few weeks. It is excellent, and I think that it is one of those books that everyone should read. Over the course of your life you and/or someone you know will get cancer, and this is a good primer on what that means. It may be that you have already had that experience, and in that case you can probably give it a hard pass, because you don't want to live it again. If not, then consider it a primer on a future problem. You can learn it now, at your leisure, or later, under duress.

My issue with the book is that it does not do enough to describe the miseries of the people afflicted. It would be impossible to read if it did, but the consequences of a cancer diagnosis, and the subsequent treatments, and the relapse, are profound. 

This is a book where everyone dies. Sometimes that gets lost in the clinical language and the 'successes' offered by the treatments. Mukherjee does good work to address the challenges of the treatments, and they toll they take on the body, but I think a more critical assessment is necessary. 

If you suffer terribly to extend your life another six, twelve, or 18 months and then your cancer returns (as it often does), then was that really a 'success'? I do not think so. The brutal truth is that at some point most people in the United States will have to make a decision, either for themselves or for someone they love. That was the hardest fact about the book, and that is why you should read it. 

Commercial Success: We'll Keep This Brief

I guess there was a football game yesterday? Whatever. During the game they showed some advertisements, which are mostly forgettable. However, I have been on the receiving end of this kind of text more than a few times, so the commercial made me laugh. Welcome to Monday.

To the Books! Metro 2033

tl;dr review for Metro 2033: Don't bother.

I heard that Metro 2033 was hugely popular in Russia and elsewhere, and decided to give it a read. It is not a good book. My translation was shockingly bad, which didn't help, but even allowing for a very clumsy and budget printing and translation it still was not good. Too long, too many dream sequences that do nothing to advance the plot, too many improbable rescues and too many endings. Also my book did not have a printed map in it, which is kind of bizarre for a book that is set in a real place, describes that place in great detail, and for which DETAILED MAPS ALREADY EXIST.

An aside on the subject of improbable rescues: The original Pixar team that worked on Toy Story had a rule that you could use a coincidence to get you into trouble, but you could not use a coincidence to get you out of trouble. It's lazy writing and lazy storytelling. Guess how many coincidences get the main character of Metro 2033 out of trouble? A lot! I counted three pivotal plot points that were 'solved' by coincidence. That is lame and bad. Every time the guy was about to die I knew some bullshit would happen to get him out of it. Borrrrriiinnnnng. The main character didn't solve anything. He just got lucky and failed forward. Great job, loser.

The only interesting part about the story was the fully realized world in which it occurs. The monsters are terrifying, the environment is terrifying, and the whole world is dark and brutal and miserable. That part is great. The characters? Flat and one dimensional. The dialog? A bad english translation of what was probably crap to begin with. The story? Weak.

Hopefully they will make a movie and tighten it up. I heard the video game is also good, and after seeing how well the world is described I can imagine the game being a lot of fun.