06 june 2019
Finished the first book of the story of civilization, and blimey was a journey.
As it was written in 1935 by an American it got pretty heavy going for the last
two parts, on China and Japan respectivley. Will Durant was prophetic in his
predictions: China whould not overcome it's difficulties and ruin would follow;
that in 100 years it would never-the-less be a world power economically; that
Japan, while ignored in kind, was learning all it can from America; and finally,
that it was probably inevitable that a future war between Japan and America was
coming, probably to the suprise of the US.
I sometimes realise that reading even history books effects my mood far more
then it is healthy too. I had trouble sleeping and couldn't tell why for a few
days until I finished it. I need to get better at controlling this affect, as
I do struggle with it. If I think I have upset someone, however minor, I cannot
help to dwell on it for weeks, long after the other party has forgotton I even
exist.
Still, onto Book 2, "The Life of Greece"...
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28 may 2019
Today I have continued reading the first volumn of "The Story of Cilivization"
by Will Durant, what many people consider the seminal work on history of the
twentieth century. Reading about the Indian history, free hospitals in the
400's, predating the Hôtel-Dieu de Paris by between 200-650 years makes you
really realise just how ignored India is in the west, historically speaking.
Also Will Durant, while a stanch liberal in his day, near 100 years later can
sometimes come across as crass with statements that begets the white sausage
-fest that was 20th century academia.
I feel that, while I am enjoying it and taking it in, my memory of it is vague
after a few hours. The long series of name of regions, religious figures,
rulers, and concepts blur once I have moved onto other things. I wonder if 500
pages in, I have any chance of taking in all 12 books, with their hefty page
counts and unfamiliar names. To be honest my greatest fear is my memory. It
has always been a weakness of mine, I have found that my memory no so much
fades but with time dissapears entirely. I honestly do not remember anything
of school, even university and even friends dissapear from my minds eye after
a month or two. It has always been my greatest failing and shame.
Still, one can only try and better themselves and failing to understand history
is preferable then never trying.
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26 may 2019
1 hour is hardly working hard username! And don't give me the "I had to mow the
lawn--" rubbish.
Maybe today I should get something interesting up on my public_html site?
Should really move my local git repos off-site before I ruin my install and
loose my latest dotfiles and projects. verk verk verk!
Been reading some of the other feels out there and I just want to say I am
rooting for you all, ganbatte and keep up the good work and all that. And if
ever gets too much, breath deep and if you need to talk it out with someone, xx
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25 may 2019
Logged in for the first time today. Maybe I should use this as a diary?
Got up, walked dogs, ate muesli (had to look up the spelling of muesli there).
Next up is to do my run, but I am putting that off as I have been running every
day this week, and I may be giving myself shin splints. Once I have run I
reaaaaaly need to start working on some of my coding work.
N.B. Future me, you better have done some work today, I am getting sick of your
sh*t and will be having words if not...
I run linux with huge messy dotfiles so I really should get round to backing
hem up and using them here. wonder if this box has GNU stow? I use so many
bash functions, aliases and shopts that without them I am constantly typing
the wrong thing. Shared unix boxes are cool as hell though, so I am thinking I
should put something on it. I have a stupid start of a html/javascript game so
maybe that?
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