Summer 2016 plans

Here are some preliminary summer 2016 goals. Aim high, fail big, etc.

Travel

• Go to Tangle Lakes Inn between Paxson and Cantwell.

• Hike Horse Tail Falls in Whittier.

• Walk 25 miles in a day.

Fitness

• Be able to do hindu pushups.

• Lose about 6 pounds.

Reading

Fiction.

I don't have many particular goals here. Just read what comes to mind. But I do hope to try...

• Look to Windward by Iain M. Banks. I read the first three Culture novels in a short span, then waited five years to read another. Somewhere in there I started and quit Hydrogen Sonata. I should pick up the pace and stick even with the ones that start slowly, they're good stuff.

• The Book of the New Sun series. You only hear good things about this series. But they do seem somewhat ... sophisticated? I enjoyed a collection of Wolfe's short fiction, but was depressed to find a page explaining all of the deeper meanings present in each story, and the significance of this or that character or object, almost all of which had totally gone over my head. The Sorcerer's House was a fun book, though. I made it through 2.25 of the books. Dense. I don't have the patience right now.

• The Cadwal Chronicles by Jack Vance.

Non-fiction.

Computery stuff

• LaTeX: A Beginner's Guide. Read at least as much of it is relevant to me as somebody who isn't going to be writing anything technical or mathematical. There's also a Udemy course on LaTeX that might be worth a try.

• Learn a bit of python. I've started and given up in the past, mainly because learning anything that requires practice is time-consuming. I have two books. I'm not sure these are the best, but they seem adequate and I have them. Looking for other, better books is a kind of procrastination.

  • Python Crash Course: A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Programming

  • Think Python: How to Think Like a Computer Scientist

Political stuff

• Read about Marx's economics. I'm almost paralyzed by the plethora of books I've got on this subject. So, here are just a few to start with:

  • The Economic Theory of the Working Class by Geoffrey Kay

  • Unravelling Capitalism: A Guide to Marxist Political Economy by Joseph Choonara (short)

  • The Political Economy of Marx by Howard and King

  • Marx's Capital by Fine and Saad-Filho. Beyond this, Brewer, Foley, Heinrich apparently have good volumes covering Marx's Capital.

  • Also maybe An American Looks at Karl Marx by William Blake.

• Read some on the capitalist state:

  • The Power Elite and the State by Domhoff

  • Critical Theories of the State by Barrow

  • The Captive Public by Ginsberg

  • The Consequences of Consent by Ginsberg

• Read some on the origins of the state in general. Not sure what to go with, but I have a couple ideas:

  • A Marxist History of the World by Neil Faulkner has some background (very good but brief)

  • Patterns in Prehistory: Humankind's First Three Million Years, a textbook, has a chapter on the subject and pretty detailed coverage of various marxist theories of the same.

  • How Chiefs Came to Power by Timothy Earle

  • The Evolution of Political Society by Morton Fried

  • Possibly V. Gordon Childe and Marvin Harris are useful here? Also Engels, of course...

• Read randomly

  • Let Them Eat Junk: How Capitalism Creates Hunger and Obesity (terribly written, and by a liberal "marx wasn't a communist" type to boot).

Random

• Take lots of photographs.

• Get Morrowind out of my system via openMW.

• Maybe play Silent Hill 2 and Mass Effect 1 and 2?

• Learn enough about mercurial to use it locally, solely.

• Work through my list of bands from which I only have one CD. If the reason I only have one CD is because that band isn't my style, delete their album. If I turn out to like the band, download more. (That I have to do this is because I used to download 10 albums a day and add them to my collection after listening to half of a track.)