Exherbo

Fugitive Telemetry by Martha WellsMy rating: 3 of 5 starsI seem to be the odd one out but this new Murderbot novella simply didn’t work for me. At times, it felt very slow while, at other times, the story raced along – a very uneven pacing ... [More] , unfortunately.Mensah and the others hardly played any role and our beloved Murderbot pretty much acts as some random security consultant, trying to make sense of a murder.Apart from the (here rather superficial) xenophobia aspects, all the moral aspects of the previous books in this series were largely neglected.To be totally frank, most of the time I was actually bored reading this. Here’s to hoping for more than a “filler episode” next time and more exciting new adventures in the future.View all my reviews I am and have been working on quite a few F/OSS projects: Exherbo (Nick: Philantrop), Bedrock Linux, Gentoo (Nick: Philantrop), Calibre plugin iOS reader applications, Calibre plugin Marvin XD, chroot-manager, stuff on github, lots of other projects. If you like my work, feel free to donate. Blog GoodReads LibraryThing Facebook Twitter Instagram [Less]

Marrying Mr. Wrong by Claire KingsleyMy rating: 3 of 5 starsOh, well, from the lofty heights of Obama’s presidential memoirs which I enjoyed, I went on to read this. I needed a short moment of pure escapism and easy-going reading: “Please excuse ... [More] me for a moment while I disengage my brain!”For that purpose, this novel worked well enough – albeit not perfectly but we’ll come to that.Anyway, this is the third instalment of a loosely connected series about the romantic endeavours of a group of twenty-somethings (I guess). It started out well with Everly’s romance with her boss (Calloway) and now we’re reading about Sophie, Everly’s successor as Calloway’s personal assistant, who meets Camden Cox, a notorious womanizer.Sophie and Cox end up in Vegas where they “accidentally” marry each other in a drunken stupor. The remainder of the book is – expectedly – about how they find out they don’t want a divorce.The ensuing chaos is amusing enough; ok, everything is clichéd and rather simplistic but that was to be expected. Worse, though: Every single character feels like an exaggerated parody of themselves and whereas Sophie is fairly likeable, Cox is – for the most part – annoying.This kind of machismo…»Ever so gently, I backed us out of the parking spot. A man did not simply drive a supercar. A man had to coax it. Caress it. Make love to it from the driver’s seat and be respectful of its power.«… and what it says about Cox’ ideas about women made me cringe. He constantly and unchangingly calls Sophie “sugar”. Uh… And she’s pretty much fluttering her eyelids at him, enjoying his manly attention…So, while this book was still a funny romance, it was just a little too sappy, too simplistic and too clichéd for me to completely enjoy it and, thus, it only garners three out of five stars from me.View all my reviews Blog GoodReads LibraryThing Facebook Twitter Instagram I am and have been working on quite a few F/OSS projects: Exherbo (Nick: Philantrop) Gentoo (Nick: Philantrop) Calibre plugin iOS reader applications Calibre plugin Marvin XD chroot-manager stuff on github Lots of other projectsIf you like my work, feel free to donate. [Less]

Marrying Mr. Wrong by Claire KingsleyMy rating: 3 of 5 starsOh, well, from the lofty heights of Obama’s presidential memoirs which I enjoyed, I went on to read this. I needed a short moment of pure escapism and easy-going reading: “Please excuse ... [More] me for a moment while I disengage my brain!”For that purpose, this novel worked well enough – albeit not perfectly but we’ll come to that.Anyway, this is the third instalment of a loosely connected series about the romantic endeavours of a group of twenty-somethings (I guess). It started out well with Everly’s romance with her boss (Calloway) and now we’re reading about Sophie, Everly’s successor as Calloway’s personal assistant, who meets Camden Cox, a notorious womanizer.Sophie and Cox end up in Vegas where they “accidentally” marry each other in a drunken stupor. The remainder of the book is – expectedly – about how they find out they don’t want a divorce.The ensuing chaos is amusing enough; ok, everything is clichéd and rather simplistic but that was to be expected. Worse, though: Every single character feels like an exaggerated parody of themselves and whereas Sophie is fairly likeable, Cox is – for the most part – annoying.This kind of machismo…»Ever so gently, I backed us out of the parking spot. A man did not simply drive a supercar. A man had to coax it. Caress it. Make love to it from the driver’s seat and be respectful of its power.«… and what it says about Cox’ ideas about women made me cringe. He constantly and unchangingly calls Sophie “sugar”. Uh… And she’s pretty much fluttering her eyelids at him, enjoying his manly attention…So, while this book was still a funny romance, it was just a little too sappy, too simplistic and too clichéd for me to completely enjoy it and, thus, it only garners three out of five stars from me.View all my reviews Blog GoodReads LibraryThing Facebook Twitter Instagram I am and have been working on quite a few F/OSS projects: Exherbo (Nick: Philantrop) Gentoo (Nick: Philantrop) Calibre plugin iOS reader applications Calibre plugin Marvin XD chroot-manager stuff on github Lots of other projectsIf you like my work, feel free to donate. [Less]

Marrying Mr. Wrong by Claire KingsleyMy rating: 3 of 5 starsOh, well, from the lofty heights of Obama’s presidential memoirs which I enjoyed, I went on to read this. I needed a short moment of pure escapism and easy-going reading: “Please excuse ... [More] me for a moment while I disengage my brain!”For that purpose, this novel worked well enough – albeit not perfectly but we’ll come to that.Anyway, this is the third instalment of a loosely connected series about the romantic endeavours of a group of twenty-somethings (I guess). It started out well with Everly’s romance with her boss (Calloway) and now we’re reading about Sophie, Everly’s successor as Calloway’s personal assistant, who meets Camden Cox, a notorious womanizer.Sophie and Cox end up in Vegas where they “accidentally” marry each other in a drunken stupor. The remainder of the book is – expectedly – about how they find out they don’t want a divorce.The ensuing chaos is amusing enough; ok, everything is clichéd and rather simplistic but that was to be expected. Worse, though: Every single character feels like an exaggerated parody of themselves and whereas Sophie is fairly likeable, Cox is – for the most part – annoying.This kind of machismo…»Ever so gently, I backed us out of the parking spot. A man did not simply drive a supercar. A man had to coax it. Caress it. Make love to it from the driver’s seat and be respectful of its power.«… and what it says about Cox’ ideas about women made me cringe. He constantly and unchangingly calls Sophie “sugar”. Uh… And she’s pretty much fluttering her eyelids at him, enjoying his manly attention…So, while this book was still a funny romance, it was just a little too sappy, too simplistic and too clichéd for me to completely enjoy it and, thus, it only garners three out of five stars from me.View all my reviews Blog GoodReads LibraryThing Facebook Twitter Instagram I am and have been working on quite a few F/OSS projects: Exherbo (Nick: Philantrop) Gentoo (Nick: Philantrop) Calibre plugin iOS reader applications Calibre plugin Marvin XD chroot-manager stuff on github Lots of other projectsIf you like my work, feel free to donate. [Less]

Marrying Mr. Wrong by Claire KingsleyMy rating: 3 of 5 starsOh, well, from the lofty heights of Obama’s presidential memoirs which I enjoyed, I went on to read this. I needed a short moment of pure escapism and easy-going reading: “Please excuse ... [More] me for a moment while I disengage my brain!”For that purpose, this novel worked well enough – albeit not perfectly but we’ll come to that.Anyway, this is the third instalment of a loosely connected series about the romantic endeavours of a group of twenty-somethings (I guess). It started out well with Everly’s romance with her boss (Calloway) and now we’re reading about Sophie, Everly’s successor as Calloway’s personal assistant, who meets Camden Cox, a notorious womanizer.Sophie and Cox end up in Vegas where they “accidentally” marry each other in a drunken stupor. The remainder of the book is – expectedly – about how they find out they don’t want a divorce.The ensuing chaos is amusing enough; ok, everything is clichéd and rather simplistic but that was to be expected. Worse, though: Every single character feels like an exaggerated parody of themselves and whereas Sophie is fairly likeable, Cox is – for the most part – annoying.This kind of machismo…»Ever so gently, I backed us out of the parking spot. A man did not simply drive a supercar. A man had to coax it. Caress it. Make love to it from the driver’s seat and be respectful of its power.«… and what it says about Cox’ ideas about women made me cringe. He constantly and unchangingly calls Sophie “sugar”. Uh… And she’s pretty much fluttering her eyelids at him, enjoying his manly attention…So, while this book was still a funny romance, it was just a little too sappy, too simplistic and too clichéd for me to completely enjoy it and, thus, it only garners three out of five stars from me.View all my reviews Blog GoodReads LibraryThing Facebook Twitter Instagram I am and have been working on quite a few F/OSS projects: Exherbo (Nick: Philantrop) Gentoo (Nick: Philantrop) Calibre plugin iOS reader applications Calibre plugin Marvin XD chroot-manager stuff on github Lots of other projectsIf you like my work, feel free to donate. [Less]

A Promised Land by Barack ObamaMy rating: 5 of 5 stars“Politics doesn’t have to be what people think it is. It can be something more.”When Barack Obama started his rise to power, I felt hopeful but sceptical as well: Would America, of all ... [More] nations, really elect a Black man as its president? And who was that guy anyway?As a German, I had been vaguely aware of Obama but I knew next to nothing about him. That would change over time but do little to alleviate my scepticism: Even if this guy was for real, even if he truly believed what he said about change and equality – would this man stay true to his ideals? Would the power he was seeking corrupt him?The first surprise came when he was actually elected as the next President of the United States of America. I became a little more hopeful. That was a powerful sign for the better – the first Afro-American president.Obama didn’t deliver on all his promises – Guantanamo Bay detention camp still exists today for example. And yet… Obama helped the world through a recession that could have been much worse. He made “Obamacare” reality. Obama helped further LGBT rights in America and all over the world.To me, personally, Barack Obama is an example for an honest, realistic but idealist politician. Thus, it was with some worry that I started reading the first part of his presidential memoirs, “A Promised Land”.Would I be disenchanted? Would Obama be honest? Had I been deluded about him? The answers to those questions are a resounding “No!”, “Yes!” and “No!” respectively.»Whatever vision I had for a more noble kind of politics, it would have to wait.«Obama tells us about his rise through the ranks and, to my relief, he might not always have acted as “cleanly” as I had hoped for but he mostly did. Obama is quite honest about it and he strives to be better.Throughout the entire 1.000 pages, Obama is not only honest about himself but fairly often self-deprecating and employing a dry humour:»I mean dumb choices in the wake of considerable deliberation: those times when you identify a real problem in your life, analyze it, and then with utter confidence come up with precisely the wrong answer.«From humble beginnings (»She [Michelle] reminded me that we had student loans, a mortgage, and credit card debt to think about.«), armed with the best intentions (»the best we can do is to try to align ourselves with what we feel is right and construct some meaning out of our confusion, and with grace and nerve play at each moment the hand that we’re dealt.«) Obama rises to the daily challenges during his political career and always keeps that “moral compass” close at hand to try and do what feels right.Obama obviously knew what was at stake because »I know that the day I raise my right hand and take the oath to be president of the United States, the world will start looking at America differently.«. And many of us did.It was Obama who paved the way for “a skinny Black girl” (Amanda Goreman, at Biden’s inauguration) to dream of becoming president. Even before Goreman recited that, Obama wrote: »I know that kids all around this country—Black kids, Hispanic kids, kids who don’t fit in—they’ll see themselves differently, too, their horizons lifted, their possibilities expanded. And that alone…that would be worth it.”«This book is testament to Obama’s efforts, his successes as well as his failures. On the down side, it’s long, often very “dry” and especially the deliberations about dealing with the financial crises were very extensive and, to me, too long.Most of the time, Obama is conciliatory towards his political opponents. At times, though, he is very outspoken about his feelings:»I wondered when exactly such a sizable portion of the American Right had become so frightened and insecure that they’d completely lost their minds.«Truth to be told, I’m not sure I’m going to read the next part of Obama’s memoirs, though: These one-thousand pages were – at times – the hardest “literary nut” I had to crack and I barely made it through the book.If you – like me – appreciate what Obama stands for and what he accomplished and “just” want to know if he was acting truthfully and honestly then, yes, I fully believe so after reading this. That gives me hope.The fact that America went on to elect the orange menace into office was a setback that might yet be balanced by President Biden and, potentially, the first female Afro-American president.Let’s hope together that Obama will keep playing a role in international politics because I truly believe we need more people like him, or, in Obama’s own words:»So long as young men and women like that exist in every corner of this earth, I told myself, there is reason enough to hope.«View all my reviews I am and have been working on quite a few F/OSS projects: Exherbo (Nick: Philantrop), Bedrock Linux, Gentoo (Nick: Philantrop), Calibre plugin iOS reader applications, Calibre plugin Marvin XD, chroot-manager, stuff on github, lots of other projects. If you like my work, feel free to donate. Blog GoodReads LibraryThing Facebook Twitter Instagram [Less]

A Promised Land by Barack ObamaMy rating: 5 of 5 stars“Politics doesn’t have to be what people think it is. It can be something more.”When Barack Obama started his rise to power, I felt hopeful but sceptical as well: Would America, of all ... [More] nations, really elect a Black man as its president? And who was that guy anyway?As a German, I had been vaguely aware of Obama but I knew next to nothing about him. That would change over time but do little to alleviate my scepticism: Even if this guy was for real, even if he truly believed what he said about change and equality – would this man stay true to his ideals? Would the power he was seeking corrupt him?The first surprise came when he was actually elected as the next President of the United States of America. I became a little more hopeful. That was a powerful sign for the better – the first Afro-American president.Obama didn’t deliver on all his promises – Guantanamo Bay detention camp still exists today for example. And yet… Obama helped the world through a recession that could have been much worse. He made “Obamacare” reality. Obama helped further LGBT rights in America and all over the world.To me, personally, Barack Obama is an example for an honest, realistic but idealist politician. Thus, it was with some worry that I started reading the first part of his presidential memoirs, “A Promised Land”.Would I be disenchanted? Would Obama be honest? Had I been deluded about him? The answers to those questions are a resounding “No!”, “Yes!” and “No!” respectively.»Whatever vision I had for a more noble kind of politics, it would have to wait.«Obama tells us about his rise through the ranks and, to my relief, he might not always have acted as “cleanly” as I had hoped for but he mostly did. Obama is quite honest about it and he strives to be better.Throughout the entire 1.000 pages, Obama is not only honest about himself but fairly often self-deprecating and employing a dry humour:»I mean dumb choices in the wake of considerable deliberation: those times when you identify a real problem in your life, analyze it, and then with utter confidence come up with precisely the wrong answer.«From humble beginnings (»She [Michelle] reminded me that we had student loans, a mortgage, and credit card debt to think about.«), armed with the best intentions (»the best we can do is to try to align ourselves with what we feel is right and construct some meaning out of our confusion, and with grace and nerve play at each moment the hand that we’re dealt.«) Obama rises to the daily challenges during his political career and always keeps that “moral compass” close at hand to try and do what feels right.Obama obviously knew what was at stake because »I know that the day I raise my right hand and take the oath to be president of the United States, the world will start looking at America differently.«. And many of us did.It was Obama who paved the way for “a skinny Black girl” (Amanda Goreman, at Biden’s inauguration) to dream of becoming president. Even before Goreman recited that, Obama wrote: »I know that kids all around this country—Black kids, Hispanic kids, kids who don’t fit in—they’ll see themselves differently, too, their horizons lifted, their possibilities expanded. And that alone…that would be worth it.”«This book is testament to Obama’s efforts, his successes as well as his failures. On the down side, it’s long, often very “dry” and especially the deliberations about dealing with the financial crises were very extensive and, to me, too long.Most of the time, Obama is conciliatory towards his political opponents. At times, though, he is very outspoken about his feelings:»I wondered when exactly such a sizable portion of the American Right had become so frightened and insecure that they’d completely lost their minds.«Truth to be told, I’m not sure I’m going to read the next part of Obama’s memoirs, though: These one-thousand pages were – at times – the hardest “literary nut” I had to crack and I barely made it through the book.If you – like me – appreciate what Obama stands for and what he accomplished and “just” want to know if he was acting truthfully and honestly then, yes, I fully believe so after reading this. That gives me hope.The fact that America went on to elect the orange menace into office was a setback that might yet be balanced by President Biden and, potentially, the first female Afro-American president.Let’s hope together that Obama will keep playing a role in international politics because I truly believe we need more people like him, or, in Obama’s own words:»So long as young men and women like that exist in every corner of this earth, I told myself, there is reason enough to hope.«View all my reviews I am and have been working on quite a few F/OSS projects: Exherbo (Nick: Philantrop), Bedrock Linux, Gentoo (Nick: Philantrop), Calibre plugin iOS reader applications, Calibre plugin Marvin XD, chroot-manager, stuff on github, lots of other projects. If you like my work, feel free to donate. Blog GoodReads LibraryThing Facebook Twitter Instagram [Less]

A Promised Land by Barack ObamaMy rating: 5 of 5 stars“Politics doesn’t have to be what people think it is. It can be something more.”When Barack Obama started his rise to power, I felt hopeful but sceptical as well: Would America, of all ... [More] nations, really elect a Black man as its president? And who was that guy anyway?As a German, I had been vaguely aware of Obama but I knew next to nothing about him. That would change over time but do little to alleviate my scepticism: Even if this guy was for real, even if he truly believed what he said about change and equality – would this man stay true to his ideals? Would the power he was seeking corrupt him?The first surprise came when he was actually elected as the next President of the United States of America. I became a little more hopeful. That was a powerful sign for the better – the first Afro-American president.Obama didn’t deliver on all his promises – Guantanamo Bay detention camp still exists today for example. And yet… Obama helped the world through a recession that could have been much worse. He made “Obamacare” reality. Obama helped further LGBT rights in America and all over the world.To me, personally, Barack Obama is an example for an honest, realistic but idealist politician. Thus, it was with some worry that I started reading the first part of his presidential memoirs, “A Promised Land”.Would I be disenchanted? Would Obama be honest? Had I been deluded about him? The answers to those questions are a resounding “No!”, “Yes!” and “No!” respectively.»Whatever vision I had for a more noble kind of politics, it would have to wait.«Obama tells us about his rise through the ranks and, to my relief, he might not always have acted as “cleanly” as I had hoped for but he mostly did. Obama is quite honest about it and he strives to be better.Throughout the entire 1.000 pages, Obama is not only honest about himself but fairly often self-deprecating and employing a dry humour:»I mean dumb choices in the wake of considerable deliberation: those times when you identify a real problem in your life, analyze it, and then with utter confidence come up with precisely the wrong answer.«From humble beginnings (»She [Michelle] reminded me that we had student loans, a mortgage, and credit card debt to think about.«), armed with the best intentions (»the best we can do is to try to align ourselves with what we feel is right and construct some meaning out of our confusion, and with grace and nerve play at each moment the hand that we’re dealt.«) Obama rises to the daily challenges during his political career and always keeps that “moral compass” close at hand to try and do what feels right.Obama obviously knew what was at stake because »I know that the day I raise my right hand and take the oath to be president of the United States, the world will start looking at America differently.«. And many of us did.It was Obama who paved the way for “a skinny Black girl” (Amanda Goreman, at Biden’s inauguration) to dream of becoming president. Even before Goreman recited that, Obama wrote: »I know that kids all around this country—Black kids, Hispanic kids, kids who don’t fit in—they’ll see themselves differently, too, their horizons lifted, their possibilities expanded. And that alone…that would be worth it.”«This book is testament to Obama’s efforts, his successes as well as his failures. On the down side, it’s long, often very “dry” and especially the deliberations about dealing with the financial crises were very extensive and, to me, too long.Most of the time, Obama is conciliatory towards his political opponents. At times, though, he is very outspoken about his feelings:»I wondered when exactly such a sizable portion of the American Right had become so frightened and insecure that they’d completely lost their minds.«Truth to be told, I’m not sure I’m going to read the next part of Obama’s memoirs, though: These one-thousand pages were – at times – the hardest “literary nut” I had to crack and I barely made it through the book.If you – like me – appreciate what Obama stands for and what he accomplished and “just” want to know if he was acting truthfully and honestly then, yes, I fully believe so after reading this. That gives me hope.The fact that America went on to elect the orange menace into office was a setback that might yet be balanced by President Biden and, potentially, the first female Afro-American president.Let’s hope together that Obama will keep playing a role in international politics because I truly believe we need more people like him, or, in Obama’s own words:»So long as young men and women like that exist in every corner of this earth, I told myself, there is reason enough to hope.«View all my reviews I am and have been working on quite a few F/OSS projects: Exherbo (Nick: Philantrop), Bedrock Linux, Gentoo (Nick: Philantrop), Calibre plugin iOS reader applications, Calibre plugin Marvin XD, chroot-manager, stuff on github, lots of other projects. If you like my work, feel free to donate. Blog GoodReads LibraryThing Facebook Twitter Instagram [Less]

The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country by Amanda GormanMy rating: 5 of 5 starsI’m German. I’ve never watched an inauguration of an American president. The one of today’s President Joe Biden was no exception even though I was hoping ... [More] for something better than what had come before… (“It seems to me that I have been dreaming a horrid dream for four years, and now the nightmare is gone.”)Amanda Gorman’s amazing poem hit the German news very quickly, though, and I got curious and looked it up, watched Gorman perform it at the inauguration. It hit me unexpectedly hard; so hard, in fact, I cried.Her presentation was so powerful, emotional, touching and uplifting; representative – to me – of all that is right and just about the United States.Gorman envisions a country “committed To all cultures, colors, characters, And conditions of man” and while, of course, she primarily addresses the USA, she also spoke to the world and of the world.If we, the peoples of the world, made into reality in our countries what Gorman wishes for her own one, if we truly and honestly, sought “harm to none, and harmony for all” – regardless of gender, skin colour, sexual orientation, etc. – then, yes, then “We will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.”Today, I was finally able to read the poem in its own ebook while simultaneously watching Gorman’s recitation which lent the experience further depth. Try for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz4Yu…View all my reviews I am and have been working on quite a few F/OSS projects: Exherbo (Nick: Philantrop), Bedrock Linux, Gentoo (Nick: Philantrop), Calibre plugin iOS reader applications, Calibre plugin Marvin XD, chroot-manager, stuff on github, lots of other projects. If you like my work, feel free to donate. Blog GoodReads LibraryThing Facebook Twitter Instagram [Less]

The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the Country by Amanda GormanMy rating: 5 of 5 starsI’m German. I’ve never watched an inauguration of an American president. The one of today’s President Joe Biden was no exception even though I was hoping ... [More] for something better than what had come before… (“It seems to me that I have been dreaming a horrid dream for four years, and now the nightmare is gone.”)Amanda Gorman’s amazing poem hit the German news very quickly, though, and I got curious and looked it up, watched Gorman perform it at the inauguration. It hit me unexpectedly hard; so hard, in fact, I cried.Her presentation was so powerful, emotional, touching and uplifting; representative – to me – of all that is right and just about the United States.Gorman envisions a country “committed To all cultures, colors, characters, And conditions of man” and while, of course, she primarily addresses the USA, she also spoke to the world and of the world.If we, the peoples of the world, made into reality in our countries what Gorman wishes for her own one, if we truly and honestly, sought “harm to none, and harmony for all” – regardless of gender, skin colour, sexual orientation, etc. – then, yes, then “We will raise this wounded world into a wondrous one.”Today, I was finally able to read the poem in its own ebook while simultaneously watching Gorman’s recitation which lent the experience further depth. Try for yourself: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz4Yu…View all my reviews I am and have been working on quite a few F/OSS projects: Exherbo (Nick: Philantrop), Bedrock Linux, Gentoo (Nick: Philantrop), Calibre plugin iOS reader applications, Calibre plugin Marvin XD, chroot-manager, stuff on github, lots of other projects. If you like my work, feel free to donate. Blog GoodReads LibraryThing Facebook Twitter Instagram [Less]