I actually like Jonathan Livingston Seagull just because at some point there's a contrast drawn between going fast/faster and being at the destination and while it's probably not the point they were trying to make it got me thinking about how well continuous functions represent the physical reality of a quantized universe and how you could use that fuzziness in SF to get around the whole speed of light business. I don't really remember anything else about the book. So I'll have to marry that one, I suppose. We'll live separate lives, it'll be fine.

I can't remember why I read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance but I am pretty sure that somebody handed it to me after seeing I was reading Zen and the Art of Archery (for a class on buddhism, and that was actually good). I know I didn't get far into it before noping out. I think some guy tried to get me to pick it up again but not at all effectively. So I guess I did C it.

The Fountainhead I have managed to avoid almost entirely. My dad had a roommate in college who really liked it and forced all his friends to read it, so he (my dad) did and still thinks that one scene where a guy eats a burger in some diner in Colorado and is immensely impressed with the quality of the burger in some profound way is HILARIOUS. So that's what I know about that. F it, in the non-literal sense. Fuck the whole Rand oeuvre.

Separately, glad to hear Lola is doing better than expected! And glad the crowd got together

Yes, this. Independent of what I think of these books, it's weird how some books totally get people obsessed with them.

A friend gave me The Fountainhead in middle school. He’s now an entertainment lawyer.

I remember enjoying Seagull okay but I’m not anxious to revisit it.

Flirty packing ended up in a very awkward conversation. Because I am me, and I am awkward. But it’s all good.

I read both Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and The Fountainhead as a young adolescent.

I'm sure it's emblematic of something that my big takeaway from Fountainhead was the architecture stuff. I liked visualizing the buildings

CFM:

F: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance M: The Fountainhead (we'd live separate lives, but we were high school sweethearts for too long for me to choose F or C) C: Jonathan Livingston Seagull

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CFM:

I never read any of them. From your comments, I feel very positive about that choice.

Matilda took off for "Senior Brunch" this morning and was at school from 11 to 2:30, and I thought I might see her tonight.

But she called me and said her friend Mia had called and begged her to attend a concert tonight. Mia already had tickets but nobody else could go. Mia's dad would drive them to the concert in San Francisco and then bring them back home.

So I said okay.

On my way home from Haight Street I texted Matilda and asked when she was getting picked up.

Turns out Mia's brothers were also going to the concert, so Mia's dad said they should all take BART. Also it was at the Oakland Coliseum.

Okay, that's not what I agreed to but they should still be safe with Mia's two adult brothers.

Half hour ago I get a call from Matilda. Mia got scammed in buying the tickets and they were counterfeit and no good. Could I pay for the tickets for all four of them.

Matilda's debit card had a limit on it and wouldn't allow a $365 expense (even though she had more than that in the bank). So they tried to get me to pay it through PayPal by sending me a code...and it didn't work.

So basically a situation which started as a little bit of a stretch out of my comfort zone (last minute late night concert) got increasingly more chaotic with every update until the whole thing collapsed.

I am expecting them to BART home in defeat at this point, but they might surprise me by doing something stupid. Or rather some new stupid thing.

ETA: They snuck past security and got into the show.

Oh dear. I hope the rest of their evening is relatively uneventful and that the PayPal code wasn't another scam.

CFM: I haven't read the other two, but I have read all of Rand's fiction. Reading her early works helped me understand how she got to where she did, but I certainly wouldn't want to live there (or even revisit). I guess that puts her in the F (been there, done that) category.

The book I've loaned to friends most often is Station Eleven. For randos on the beach... maybe Saving Fish from Drowning?