I'm hired as an assistant electoral officer in the upcoming provincial election, hopefully I get a full time gig pretty soon.

I finished "July 1914: road to War" by Sean McMeekin. Overall, the narrative was well-documented and worth the money in my opinion. It deinitely shed light on the "might-have-beens" of this period, esp. British attitudes towards military intervention; even if my opinion is that structural/geopolitical factors…

Its finished shooting and hopefully should be around soon. They're different shows but Banshee's last season just started up so that's tiding me over.

Probably perfectionism and the commensurate fear that things aren't good enough (schoolwork etc). Paradoxically this has lead to procrastination and less than ideal outcomes in the past because I put off starting things because they won't live up to my standards.

I finished "fatal remedies" by Donna Leon, another in the Commisario Brunetti mysteries. I've read a lot of these (same with Michael Connelly) and while it was fine, I think I'm going to take a break from her for a while. The reason is that the pace was incredibly languid and meditative at the expense of narrative. …

friday: watched the "air" episode of cooked with Michael Pollan on netflix. Its an interesting series with neat scenery in Morocco. I liked the "fire" episode as it had more interesting scenery in the Australian outback.
After they went to bed I streamed some episodes of Longmire, which was a mindless way to pass…

Its really good and well written. Its not a military history, more of a recounting of the diplomatic maneuvering (and often miscommunications) that went on in the capitals prior to August 4 or so. I haven't read the war that ended peace, I'll consider it but I've got several books in the queue ( including a large…

Rob Ford is dead and I really don't give a shit. The media here is trying to do the usual polite remembrances thing and my (left-of-centre) parents even mentioned it last night. This sentiment probably makes me look like a jerk but so it goes.

Still reading "July 1914: countdown to war" by Sean McMeekin and "Fatal remedies" by Donna Leon.

Friday: watched rebellion on netflix. Its a French action/drama set during the 1988 hostage crisis and insurrection in New Caledonia. I appreciated the fact that it was less jingoistic and more nuanced than it could have been. A big part of the plot is how the protagonist's attempts at peaceful negotiation are…

ok, I'll do that next time. thanks.

EDIT: I pasted this from a word document. Does anybody now how to format so that it doesn't resemble a poem?

Its been a couple of weeks since I posted since I've been busy housesitting and looking for work. What reading I've done has been weighted towards the genre side.

I finished "never go back: a Jack Reacher novel" by Lee Child. It was a quick read and entertaining in a pulpy sort of way. I might go back to more in this series in a while when I'm in the mood for something lighter.
I've still got about 100ish pages to go on "natasha's dance: a cultural history of Russia" by…

well sometimes when two ethereal spirits love each other very much…

I finished "spies of Warsaw" by Alan Furst. Overall, it was a quick read and enjoyable except for the out of left field NSFW plot point that I previously alluded to. However, I have read 3 other books by Furst and I am of the opinion that "night soldiers" and "the Polish officer" were better, perhaps because I was…

I had a dream yesterday that I was slogging through this neverending pile of readings from a graduate seminar I had on nationalism 2 years ago while cowboys from hell by pantera played in the background (???). Its weird how your subconsciousness picks up on things sometimes.

I'm still reading "Natasha's dance: a cultural history of Russia" by Orlando Figes and "Spies of Warsaw" by Alan Furst. I was enjoying Spies of Warsaw until NSFW SPOILERS
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… there was a random passage detailing a romantic tryst between the protagonist and his cousin as 17 year olds. WTF Alan Furst? I've read…

Not really, it starts in earnest with Peter the Great's reign and appears to end around 1917/the early years of the USSR. The main throughline so far is how culture/art reflects conflicts over what it means to be Russian (westernizers versus slavophiles etc) as well as being a means of expressing political views in…

Yeah I've read "Night Soldiers", "The Polish Officer" and "Red Gold". Its interesting because "night soldiers" was both longer and wider in scope than the other two.