How to Evaluate a New City

Blog kitt decided around 10:00 on 3 August 2015 to publish this:

Okay, I've determined the appropriate characteristics for evaluating how livable a new town is. These are completely and totally the most IMPORTANT PARTS of a town, not those crazy things like weather or housing affordability or job opportunities or culture or what-have-you like schools.

The four key attributes of a new city, not exactly in the order of priority, are:

  1. Chocolate shops

    What is any town without a decent chocolate shop? Completely and totally worthless, that's what a chocolate-shop-free town is. Sure, the chocolate doesn't have to be from a shop itself, so, maybe a Whole Foods could be sufficient. Receiving chocolate by mail is iffy, so ordering online doesn't always work. Having a chocolate supply (more importantly, a supply of good chocolate) is very important for one's well being.

Lincoln's Melancholy

Book Notes Yeah, kitt finished writing this at 10:30 on 2 August 2015

Okay, I'm really not sure what took me so long to read this book. The subtitle of this book is How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness, so it's basically about Lincoln and how he lived with depression.

I really like this book. I really like this book a lot. I highly recommend this book for anyone who has had a depressive episode, had or has clinical depression, or had or has chronic depression.

The book describes how depression, also known as the manly "melancholy" of yesteryear (yester-century?), was viewed in the 1800s (much, much differently than it is these days); how friends and family rallied around a melancholic person to help; how being sad wasn't considered a failing, it was considered different. Talk about a different viewpoint than these days, where if you're not happy, there must be something wrong with you. I liked the one point in the book where the theory that happy people are actually the unbalanced ones: they have an over-inflated sense of self and their skill-sets, versus depressed people who have a more grounded realistic view of reality.

About half way through the book, I liked it enough to buy a hard copy of the book. It helps that I'm a fan of Lincoln, I suspect. But really, there are enough good quotes in the book that I wish I had it right now to copy them all down right here.

Let me repeat that back to you

Blog kitt decided around 08:01 on 1 August 2015 to publish this:

This was originally posted on The Pastry Box for 1 August 2015.

Door. Alarm.

Blog Posted by kitt at 18:55 on 30 July 2015

Okay, so, as I approach an exit door, I notice there isn't any alarm on it. I push open the door and HOLY HELL THE ALARMS GO OFF. I immediately rush to shut the door, stop the alarms. I haven't done anything wrong, there's nothing wrong with going through this door, it has no signs that say "HERE BE DRAGONS" or "ABANDON HOPE ALL WHO ENTER" or even, "No Exit." I've gone through this door before, but THE ALARMS. CLOSE! CLOSE! CLOSE!

From immediately behind me, an arm reaches over my shoulder to grab the door, just before I have it closed.

"What is it with people slamming doors when alarms go off?" he asks.

I look back him.

"And with you on the WRONG SIDE OF THE DOOR," he continues.

Huh.

He's right.

Feast of the Drowned

Book Notes Posted by kitt at 19:16 on 28 July 2015

Another one of those books that I'm not sure why I have it, but, eh, shrug, I guess I can read it since I'm mildly interested in it (though more for answering, "Why did I buy this again?" than for "I am WAY excited about this book!").

This was a stunningly fast read. As such, I'm fairly certain I bought this book as a free book (thanks to Bookbub), because I can't imagine paying $9 for this book.

Yes, it's a Doctor Who book, but it reads like someone is describing a television episode of the Doctor. Imagine the whole thing being read in David Tennant's voice, and you have the gist of the book.

The Doctor's character is as expected, the mystery solved, some people die, some people don't, the world goes on. Essentially, you're typical Doctor Who episode.

If you're a Doctor fan, have at it, read away (just maybe borrow it from the library). If you're not a Doctor fan, eh, skip it.

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