Manhood? / Books: reading versus listening / A dream / On names / Snap removed /…

Read in order to live. Gustave Flaubert

Manhood?

V.A. Koskenniemi writes in his foreword to Pakolaiset (Refugees) by Johannes Linnankoski about Linnankoski: (my translation)

Linnankoski had reached his years of mature manhood — he was almost forty years old — he had left behind years of learning.

Well, I assume I have also reached my years of mature manhood. I have no idea should I start behaving in a different manner, should I take up some mature endeavours, or should I just continue to live as I happen. Strange.

Books: reading versus listening

I prefer reading books. When reading, I choose the speed, I choose to imagine the voices of characters, or of the author. I can also jump back and forth as I please, skim the pages if my interest in some part/argument is small. Most importantly, even while walking and reading, I can write notes in the margins, draw diagrams, underline, argue with author in writing. An audio book would not let me do any of these things properly. So, listening to a book is no proper alternative/substitute for reading. For me, that is.
If I were forced (although I cannot imagine how I could be) to spend ours by driving my own car every day, or even weekly, I most certainly would listen to books. Fortunately, that will never happen, for I value my time too much to spend any of it by driving a car.

A dream

Studying in MIT had been a dream of mine for a long time. Now I have been able to fulfill it. I have another dream: to study political science (and economics and global governance) in the LSE. I hope I can fulfill this dream as well, maybe after working some 4 to 5 years now. Working for 5 years and studying for one would be nice - and prevent unnecessary accumulation of property, a most distracting nuisance.
Beyond LSE I do not have any specific university related dreams. Well, completing a PhD would be nice, but I doubt my patience.

On names

One's name does not tell anything about one's character, for one cannot choose his or her initial name. Parents choose before knowing anything of one's innate character (not getting in to the nature/nurture discussion here). Later, when getting married, one must choose. Some choose to have composite names, in the manner of Kyäharakka-Ruonala. Choosing such a name, or any two part composite name, tells a lot of one's character, I have observed. Only nitpickers, semi-fanatic people with no faculty of judgement choose to call themselves with such names. They are also unsure of themselves, always questioning their own decisions, prone to needless perfectionism stemming from lack of security. All bad traits, in most professions, especially in politicians and public servants.
For my part, I am not going to change my name. For I do not want my name to tell anything about me, just denoting me is enough. Furthermore, I will never vote for anyone with such a composite name. Choosing such name shows that one cannot be trusted with deciding anything on behalf of others.

Snap removed

I removed snap. As Musicnaut pointed out, it is against normal architectural principle. The page itself should not know about automatic previews of linked pages. Although implementing suck previews in browsers would not be good either: it would generated web-wide extra traffic and load. Maybe the whole idea of such previews is not worth the costs.
Anyway, the search engine interface prototype of Snap is worth another look. I will keep on testing it.

Really cold at last

Well, maybe not really, but -16C anyway. I will still walk to the office. It should wake me up.
It is interesting to see, whether a paperback book breaks into loose leaves in freezing weather. Hardcovers do break, I found last week.
Update: the book did not break into looves leaves. The cold weather and slippery sidewalks made reading very slow: I could only read 10 pages of Regarding the pain of others by Susan Sontag.

Alun perin julkaistu kuukausikoosteessa "Blogs January 2007".