That Jim Guy

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[That Jim Guy @jimwraith]

@Tesla @elonmusk
My wife and I bought a brand-new Tesla Model Y yesterday. Absolutely amazing car. It should serve us well when we welcome our first child in July!
Thanks for a great product and process!

[That Jim Guy @jimwraith]

@TheTrueVanguard IDDQD

[That Jim Guy @jimwraith]

@CryoChamber Will there be a Lovecraft collaboration this year?

[That Jim Guy @jimwraith]

If Daylight needs saving this often, maybe it's time to let it take care of its own problems...

#stopsavingdaylight

[That Jim Guy @jimwraith]

@Latterdaytruth Had a stake conference there once as a student. Best memory was walking out of the building afterwards, as it was summer and it had no meaningful air conditioning an apocalyptically uncomfortable pews.

[That Jim Guy @jimwraith]

@elonmusk Can confirm. My wife and I loved the test drive. Wish we could afford one…

[That Jim Guy @jimwraith]

@SenSchumer Sign a clean CR. You are hurting Americans and leaning far too hard into your party's financial hypocrisy. The federal employees you are hurting will never forget, and never vote for you again.

[That Jim Guy @jimwraith]

Splinter Cell: Deathwatch is THE WORST show I've wasted time on that I can think of in living memory.

It is a stone-cold abomination in the face of one of the best video game series ever made. And given the insulting number of years since Ubisoft gave the games any love, I can say that the primary result of this tv show is me hoping the entire franchise stays dead. It deserved better, and whoever made this animated PoS has committed entertainment murder.

@netflix : do better.

Anyway, I'm going to watch literally anything else now...

@SplinterCell is dead. Long live Splinter Cell.

[That Jim Guy @jimwraith]

@earthcurated Hello

[That Jim Guy @jimwraith]

@Seedalicious Truth. Did not like it, or Grindhouse in general. Haven’t revisited once since theater…

[That Jim Guy @jimwraith]

Boyd Thomas

[That Jim Guy @jimwraith]

My Thoughts on a Book...

Wind and Truth by Brandon Sanderson

So, a few years ago, a great friend recommended Brandon Sanderson's books to me, starting with the Mistborn series, which was awesome. I loved it. The first phase was better than the second phase, but both were very entertaining.

Then I read the Skyward series. Also GREAT! And the move from fantasy to science fiction was really great!

I found Sanderson's writing to be easily accessible; by that, I mean distinct, engaging characters, relatable and entertaining stories, and great pacing and narrative arcs. Each book was self-contained, while also being part of a larger narrative arc.

Finally, I decided to tackle Sanderson's Stormlight Archives, which are considered (by many) to be his big accomplishment. And to be honest, the firzt book was a little rough. The pacing was rough, and the scale and scope of the characters was challenging--so many characters, in a medieval fantasy world with an entire dictionary's worth of fantasy jargon. But once I got into it, I really enjoyed it, and hammered through the three other books in the series, including the two spin-off novellas. All fun, but definitely my least favorite of Sanderson's three main series.

And last December, the fifth book in the Stormlight Archives, Wind and Truth (WaT) was released. It took me a few months to start, because I was finishing up another series of books and a few other. Also, WaT was 64 hours long, which was longer than a lot of books I have listened to recently.

Anyway, I started it and...wow...it was ROUGH. Like, so rough, I had to do a sanity check with my main man Darryl Mansel, whoi is the godfather of fantasy and sci-fi literature. It was validating that we shared some of the same concerns.

Bottom Line: I finished the book, but it was my least favorite Sanderson book by a wide margin. It was incredibly repetitive: the narrative itself lent itself to repeating certain story beats over and over and over again. That got dull fast, especially since the prior book ended on a major cliffhanger that had a built-in narrative countdown to a major conflict between the characters. But it was DRAGGED OUT to the point that I completely stopped caring.
Many of the main characters also changed in ways that I found disengaging. TO be clear, I truly appreciate a great characters arc, and having characters who grow and change in logical, relatable ways is an amazing literary experience. But in this case, some of the characters simply changed into people I simply stopped liking very much at all. For example, one character started the series as a very skilled warrior, but in this book, fully embraced his new life calling as a literal therapist. Is there anything wrong with this? No, but I lost interest, particularly since the language used to describe his exploration of this role removed me (the reader) from the suspension of disbelief fantasy books require and shifted into a psychology book adapted to fantasy. Another character suffered from what I now call Boba Fett syndrome: he started the series as an assassin of supernatural skill. But this book tediously documented his journey to being a good person who doesn't want to do bad anymore. Is that a bad arc? No, not necessarily. But the storyline took up 20-25% of the book, and I got so tired of the character whining and being overwhelmingly distraught ALL THE TIME. Just not fun to read.

Fantasy books require patience, and often, that comes in two flavors: the need to learn the jargon describing the rules and setting of the fictional world, and tracking the sheer scale of the events of the films, with quantitatively high numbers of characters, locations, and unique fantasy-centric facets of the world. In both areas, this book exceeded my capacity to stay engaged and entertained. I lost interest, and kept going only because I'm a completionist.

There were other things that I did not enjoy, but they were more reflective of my personal opinions, and I don't usually hold this against a novel. The above complaints are the main ones.

My last thought: this book may be a VERY strong harbinger of what George R.R. Martin is currently struggling with as he enters his 13th(?) year of writing the 6th book in his Song of Ice and Fire (aka Game of Thrones) series. I think Martin is juggling so many characters, across so many storylines, with so many character arcs to cross-interact and bring to a conclusion, that he has gotten lost in the sauce, and may never finish The Wind of Winter (much less the 7th novel...)
Sanderson DID plow through and write WaT, and if he tackled the same challenge that Martin is dealing with (just my theory, btw), then perhaps its best if Martin never finishes.

It seems that fantasy books sometimes end up like soap operas: you hit critical mass with characters and storylines and suddenly, the pace of the books crawl to such an inert speed that you just don't care much anymore. That's what happened to me.

Sanderson said the next book is 6-7 years away, and I hope that time away, and reader feedback, bring a return to form, with at least pacing coming back. If he chooses not to return to the Stormlight Archives, I'm ok with that too...

Anyway, thanks for sticking around for my first review in a long time. Have a good one!

[That Jim Guy @jimwraith]

@MrFreeze2244 You’re the GOAT, my friend. Keep up the great work!

[That Jim Guy @jimwraith]

@helldivers2 F

[That Jim Guy @jimwraith]

This thread is awesome...

[🎸 Rock History 🎸 @historyrock_]

Some of the most incredible guitar riffs in Rock History.

A thread 🧵

1. Back in Black - AC/DC

[That Jim Guy @jimwraith]

I cannot fathom how thoroughly the Democratic Party has annihilated their chances of winning this election.
The deck wasn’t just stacked in their favor, but they were given the time and opportunity to pick their cards.
Instead, they seem to have started eating the cards and drooling over the masticated mush they offer Americans.
Congrats on getting exactly what you deserve.
Glad I’m an independent…both parties suck.

[That Jim Guy @jimwraith]

@gunsnrosesgirl3 Thanks

[That Jim Guy @jimwraith]

#NewProfilePic

[That Jim Guy @jimwraith]

@Seedalicious One of many follies was never articulating that particular fact…
My guess: men, dwarves, elves, orcs, and the other orcs. Plus a hobbit. And eagles. And that dude that turned into a bear. And the worms from Dune.
Wtf…maybe ample time to think is bad…

[That Jim Guy @jimwraith]

New Political Principle:

I will never vote for another incumbent elected federal official until they get rid of daylight savings...

#endspringforward