Some life stories

I went to the National Gallery of Art. I went by myself because Cait was at work, and, after her cold, she is still not up for activities. It wasn't really a family activity so I wont go on too much about it, but it was pretty cool. They have a lot more impressive art than I thought they would, and I missed some of the most impressive exhibits apparently.

I liked this sequence of paintings showing the stages of life by Thomas Cole:







Here's proof I was there:


Here's the best sculpture from the sculpture garden outside:

The house is actually indented away from the viewer, not poking out like it would seem from perception. It makes mine brain hurt.

Books I've read:

I can see why it's a classic and it was easy to read, but looking back on it now, I didn't like it much. The basic moral of the story is: everybody is a jerk, except for kids and exiles from society. The only adult that seems like a good guy ends up having a weird hair petting fetish. It's well written, but not uplifting at all. I know it's trite, but I want to be inspired, not depressed.

Good because he understands our main problem: Americans are technology hungry and depend and expect way too much from our health care system. We need a fundamental change in the way we think, but barring that, the government should do what it can to bring down costs. His idea for a national board for healthcare, based on the Federal Reserve is a good idea, but lacks teeth.

This book is best for being a collection of cool research studies. There are some cool experiments talked about in the book. Some of his ideas are good and common sense. I especially like how he talked about how some people playing certain roles within a society are necessary for pandemics to start. But he seems to be obsessed with context. The nature of nothing matters, only the context in which it is found. Unfortunately this argument breaks down, because a lot of the research done to prove that context is important is done in a laboratory, where the context is all wrong. On an even bigger level, he fails to explain how context comes to be. There are obviously some things in this world powerful enough to set the context, but he does not explain what those items are. Still, it was entertaining and easy to read.

My next post will be about security systems salesmen, so prepare your opinions.