Author: Elaine

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Parse error, you say?

I’ve been trying to write here from either my phone or my tablet in the WordPress Android app for several weeks now and keep getting “XMLRPC Fault: parse error. not well formed [code -32700]” in return. So today I turned off all the plugins* (except Akismet & auto-closing comments), which didn’t help right away, but I might give it another try later. If that doesn’t work, I don’t know what’s next. Maybe an error in one of the automatically generated posts? So I’ll write some more from the web interface? Maybe something gone horribly wrong in the theme? (I have updated WordPress to the latest version, FWIW.)

Searching has been of almost no help, so if I do figure out what happened, I’ll post it here.

* Ones I’m suspicious of: Twitter Tools, RSS-Digest, FeedWordPress, Flickr Digest. Basically, anything that posts content for me.

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Top Books of 2011

I suppose I should wait until 2012 to post this, but I don’t think the book I’m in this middle of now will be a 5-star (though it is fascinating so far), so I’m going ahead anyway.

Here’s the books I’ve rated as 5-star in Goodreads, in the order I read them, with links to my reviews:

  • Half the Sky – this, by the way, was my first library ebook.
  • Bird of the River – Kage Baker’s last book, and it totally crushes me that there won’t be any more set in this world. (Which reminds me I need to track down the previous two.)
  • The Checklist Manifesto – checklists are awesome!
  • The Master Switch – the history of communications technologies from the late 1800s to the present, and the ongoing tension between control and openness. Among other things points out the non-inevitability of openness.
  • Nothing to Envy – given the death of Kim Jong Il, totally worth reading. As someone else on Goodreads put it, it reads like post-apocalyptic fiction.
  • Stuff – this one hit me very personally, but it’s also very good writing.
  • 59 Seconds – kind of self-help-ish, yes, but always with specific recommendations and lots of references.
  • Responsive Web Design – very quick read, great graphics, and for a web designer, totally inspiring.

Honorable Mentions:

  • The Entire & The Rose series (4 books), which didn’t quite make it to 5-star level, but was very creative and engrossing.
  • Bloodlands, which was a bit long/huge, and I got a bit lost in it, but it’s stuck with me all year.
  • And some pretty good books about the financial crisis of 2008ish: 13 Bankers, All the Devils Are Here, Aftershock, and Crisis Economics. None quite rose to 5-star for me, but all together they paint a fascinating picture of how our financial system got to catastrophe.

Update, Dec 27: I spoke too soon; I ended up reading one more 5-star book. The Destiny of the Republic is the story of the assassination of President Garfield in 1881. Fascinating characters and great writing, although with some nauseating details. (The book I was reading at the time I originally posted, FWIW, was Inferno: good but not awesome.)

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Today’s Links 12/16/2011

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Today’s Links 12/14/2011

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Wicked River: The Mississippi When It Last Ran Wild

Wicked River: The Mississippi When It Last Ran Wild
author: Lee Sandlin
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2011/12/12
date added: 2011/12/13
shelves: history, ebook, non-fiction
review:
A semi-chronological narrative of life along the Mississippi River, primarily before the Civil War, when the river valley was still part of the frontier. It was a dangerous place, both from nature (storms, earthquakes, the river itself) and from other humans (lots of drunkenness and piracy). Includes the origin of the term “lynching”, which didn’t always mean hanging. Found myself unreasonably amused by the fact that the voyageurs (boatmen, somewhat expendable) were known for their red shirts. Tidbits that I want to use for future D&D games: the Crow’s Nest, an island of pirates in the middle of the river, which was destroyed by the New Madrid quakes; Natchez-Under-the-Hill, the sketchy/wild town down by the river, partially built into the bluffs, with the “respectable” town up above. Ends with Mark Twain’s last visit to the river, when few boats traveled it, the traffic all having gone to rail, and when the course of the river itself was being tamed; in the epilogue, he revisits the “panorama” paintings that were all the rage in the early 19th century, and how the last one disappeared. (Fittingly, part of it may still be hidden under a wall somewhere in South Dakota.) Very engaging; probably wouldn’t have read it if it hadn’t been one of the few non-fiction books available in Overdrive, but glad I did anyway.

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Wicked River: The Mississippi When It Last Ran Wild

Wicked River: The Mississippi When It Last Ran Wild
author: Lee Sandlin
name: Elaine
average rating: 0.0
book published: 2010
rating: 4
read at: 2011/12/12
date added: 2011/12/13
shelves: history, ebook, non-fiction
review:
A semi-chronological narrative of life along the Mississippi River, primarily before the Civil War, when the river valley was still part of the frontier. It was a dangerous place, both from nature (storms, earthquakes, the river itself) and from other humans (lots of drunkenness and piracy). Includes the origin of the term “lynching”, which didn’t always mean hanging. Found myself unreasonably amused by the fact that the voyageurs (boatmen, somewhat expendable) were known for their red shirts. Tidbits that I want to use for future D&D games: the Crow’s Nest, an island of pirates in the middle of the river, which was destroyed by the New Madrid quakes; Natchez-Under-the-Hill, the sketchy/wild town down by the river, partially built into the bluffs, with the “respectable” town up above. Ends with Mark Twain’s last visit to the river, when few boats traveled it, the traffic all having gone to rail, and when the course of the river itself was being tamed; in the epilogue, he revisits the “panorama” paintings that were all the rage in the early 19th century, and how the last one disappeared. (Fittingly, part of it may still be hidden under a wall somewhere in South Dakota.) Very engaging; probably wouldn’t have read it if it hadn’t been one of the few non-fiction books available in Overdrive, but glad I did anyway.

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The Chicks with Sticks Guide to Knitting: Learn to Knit with more than 30 Cool, Easy Patterns

The Chicks with Sticks Guide to Knitting: Learn to Knit with more than 30 Cool, Easy Patterns
author: Nancy Queen
name: Elaine
average rating: 3.81
book published: 2008
rating: 3
read at: 2011/11/12
date added: 2011/12/12
shelves: knitting, crafty, non-fiction, wishlist
review:
Loved the color pictures in this one, and IIRC this had the diagram that finally got me purling successfully. Made one pattern: the “Boyfriend Scarf”, which took me a month (off and on) and which C LOVES. Would probably be my top pick of a knitting book so far.