The League of Me and the Cheat Ice Cream Socials

[robotnik2004]

What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention, and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.
—Herbert Simon, way back in 1971

When I admitted to jeregenest that I still haven't read word one of the Harry Potter books or seen any of the movies, this poll occurred to me. There's actually a number of geek culture touchstones that have slipped by me. Not because I'm avoiding them, just because I haven't gotten around to them yet. But time and attention are scarce: so I invite you to help me be a better, more efficient geek in 2005. (I've given you check boxes rather than radio buttons, but please use them judiciously. If you just click on everything, you haven't made my life much easier at all.)

[Poll #412488]

Thank you for your support.

Comments

[seborn.livejournal.com]

I don't know what you should avoid, because I've probably avoided it (and some things you shouldn't) too.

For the damn anime you've never heard of, I recommend Serial Experiment Lain. As is common with anime, it drops you in the middle of action with no idea what's going on, nor does the middle-school protagonist have a clue as she gets email from a friend who's just killed herself, and people seem to know her from a nightclub she's never visited. Things develop from there, computers are involved -- it could turn into the Matrix, but it doesn't. Any series that pauses midway through to talk about Vannevar Bush also wins in my book.

It's not beautiful, but has some nice motifs. A lot of outdoor scenes are stark and washed-out, with a constant hum from the high-tension lines outside the protagonist's house.

[ezrael.livejournal.com]

Rick Klaw's Geek Confidential is highly recommended by me.

[robotnik.livejournal.com]

(Googles.) Cool. I will look for that.

Damnit, that reminds me: your book was supposed to be an entry in that poll. It is on my list of things I definitely want to read. Alas for me, it's a long list.

[ezrael.livejournal.com]

Well, you can get a good dose of my stuff free from the Fantastic Metropolis column right now, and at some point this year (knock on wood) there may be something else you can buy, so as to make it a two-for-one experience. I'd definitely say to get the Klaw first.

[head58.livejournal.com]

Have you truly not read Transmet? Wow. Anyway, I thought it was an interesting bit of 90s cynicism, but got very repetitive after the first 2 years or so.

[jeregenest.livejournal.com]

Thats Warren Ellis.

[telepresence.livejournal.com]

I never read Transmetropolitan. I read perhaps...2 issues, maybe 3, and then the whole Spider Jerusalem cranky clever iconoclast cool curmudgeon thing annoyed me and I gave up. I feel the character and the character's writer tried too hard, and the world itself didn't really grab me.

[brdgt.livejournal.com]

His Dark Materials Trilogy.

[crisper.livejournal.com]

I feel some shame in confessing this, but FIREFLY is the only thing I have seen in many many years that made me think about writing fan-fic.

[peaseblossom.livejournal.com]

Was it Kaylee/Inara fic? Because if it was, I'd like to subscribe to your newsletter.

[crisper.livejournal.com]

Heh. Not slash. Not even so fully-formed an urge as, like, "Serenity crashes on a planet caught up in a Fissionables Rush and, one poker game later, the crew finds themselves part owners of the biggest land swindle on the continent..." or something like that.

More like, "I should find out which comics publisher has the license and pitch them something." Which, until such time as I have a work for hire contract, counts as thinking about fan-fic.

El sol vina para arriba y era bueno.

[equine-cocoon.livejournal.com]

I'm sure the Harry Potter books are wonderful to read, [kids were getting headaches from reading too much; chaos 'n' entropy, baby!] numerous adventure, GT Kids learning how to become adults, and magicians, too. I didn't go out of my way to avoid reading them. Way I look at it, once less "fantasy world" to keep track of, I'm happier without them. But what if they really rock? What if they trigger some life-changing childhood memory which explains the meaning of the universe? I may want to change my vote...