Javier Centellas > Recent Status Updates

After all the talk of how hard Faulkner is to understand, I’m frankly surprised how easy it it to understand. I hope Cora gets TB.

Read book nine. Nothing exactly profound, but just rehashing and rephrasing the same core philosophical ideas promulgated in the rest of the book. It's interesting to see how Aurelius' religious ideas get more skeptical in this book. I need to find out when each book was written, but I'm pretty sure all of that information is lost to time. I have battles to fight right now, and Aurelius helps give me strength.

Read book seven. Mostly just ruminations on what it means to be "good" and "bad" and the temporary nature of life. Philosophical examination of Plato and Socrates.

Read another chapter ("Who is Fighting Whom?"). I know I'm reading this in retrospect, but good god, the in fighting between the British and French was so stupid. How did they possibly manage to win the war with so much childish squabbling? I do like how this section gave some context for the Vichy regime, I would like for more though in future chapters. I only have about 3 pages so far.

Final update from the snow shutdown, read a bit about de Gaulle's adventures in Africa. I kinda forgot about Mers el-Kébir, glad this book went into it. Surprised how naïve the British were when it came to diplomacy with Pétain's Vichy regime. I would have liked a chapter about how the Vichy government was set up and operated, even if it breaks from de Gaulle's story.

Final update from the snow lockdown,

Started this after finishing the Guilliman book. Chris Wraight is quite a good author, especially by 40k standards. Like the Heresy novels, there are multiple plot lines, but I like & respect that it doesnt jump between characters 20 million times per chapter. Makes each chapter feel more complete. This book is LONG compared to the heresy series, 100 pages in and the main conflict hasn't arisen yet.

Back on wifi, updates coming back. Read a lot of this over the week. Getting into the meat of things, I really like a lot of Aurelius' perspective. However, a lot of the spiritual/religious themes are lost to me. A lot of his explanations for certain things are laughable by today's standards, but the key message is still the same. I'm also surprised how coherent what are essentially his personal notes app is.

Read Book Two. Now it feels much more like a philosophical text, although like Book One it is mostly disconnected ideas. Assumedly, different entries by Aurelius over a long time period. His stoic philosophy is really starting to come out in this section, reminds me of eastern zen spirituality and practices in a lot of his big ideas. I also really like the little designs per book heading, such a small detail.

Book 1 of the work. Although his works were never meant to be published, it is remarkable how well organised & coherent Aurelius' words are. Nothing profound in this section yet, just mainly giving thanks to figures of his upbringing. Focus on rationality and logical problem solving and decision making, without emotion.

Been a while since I picked up a 40k novel. Gotta get through this one so I can start the scouring series.

Almost done.

Finished the final chapter ("Is he the new Napoleon?") of the second section ("Soldier"). Surprising to me how short the ~30 years of WW1, the Polish-Russian war, the interwar years, and WW2 are covered. (Although I suppose the rest of the war is still to play out). Surprising how cinematic his relationship with Pétain was. Comparing de Gaulle to Robespierre is interesting. Shocking how cowardly the rest of France is

Soy un idiota para elegir leer este libro en español cuando solamente hablo ingles. Yo hablo un poco de español, pero este libro es muy verboso y complicado. Es muy dificil, tomé dos horas para leer ~20 paginas, leyendo en español y mi version ingles al mismo tiempo. Me gusta este libro, el primer capítulo fue un poco aburrido, pero ahora el argumento y temas están empezando a aperecer.

Decided to just not finish The Return. Apparently Conrad himself thought this story was horrible, and regarded it has his worst work. Read the first half of the fifth and final short story, The Lagoon. It's pretty short, and I probably could have finished it in one sitting, but I just didn't feel like it. The Lagoon is instantly more entertaining, being another of Conrad's colonial adventures, in Malaysia again.

Slowly chipping away at this boring ahh short story.

French politics are so stupid

Corporate slop

Mrs. Wiltcher is NOT A FAN of de Gaulle.

I think it's cute my mom got this book for my birthday, but man this book is bad. Its such low-level information to the point where the book is functionally useless and almost sad to read. For example, the section on how to clean your house is almost literally "you should pick up the trash, sweep, and mop, and clean regularly", when I was hoping for actual information on how to clean certain materials, fabrics, etc

Read a bit more of The Return. Very beautiful & poetic sections but ITS SO DAMN BORING. WHY DID CONRAD MAKE THIS STORY 50 PAGES??????

My mom definitely got scammed.

I think my mom got scammed when she bought me this