Got finished reading Wil Wheaton's Just a Geek last night. It's got a lot of pretty good humor. The reading level of the book, is pretty light though, you could easily read it in a half-day. It was neat to hear Wil's perspective on what it was like to be Wesley Crusher. He was a gamer as a kid, and plays around with linux and what not. I've seen his comments on slashdot and fark, but haven't been to his website until now.

This book really humanizes Wil as more than Wesley Crusher. The fact that he shows his inner struggle, between being proud of being on ST:TNG, and of his anguish over his sacrifices while he was on the show really put Wesley in a new light.

My friends and I at Centennial Hall at the University of Minnesota reserved the big screen in the basement every evening to collectively watch the Next Generation. What I feel after reading the book is that if we didn't like Wesley Crusher, it was probably due more to the writers than to the actor behind the character. As Wheaton points out, the writers probably can't really relate to the life of a teenager, let alone a brainiac from the future. The fact that he was the only standing character his age during the show left little plot plans available.

I still remember one of my favorite episodes is when his nanites took over the ship. The nanites came back as electron microscope puppets on MST3K and they were hilarious.

I think the only area he goes a little bit over the edge is talking about the ladies. I think he's trying to be a little too macho to show the reader he's a guy's guy. Part of this may be his insecurity, he is married, and has some stepkids, but he does not have any kids. So he has to overcompensate his machismo. He doesn't do anything bad at least, but he talks about other women, as women, quite a few times.

Otherwise, I thought it was pretty much what I expected, and although I respect his struggling as an actor and a writer, I lost some respect for his boyishly unfaithful mindset.

I picked up this book on the recommendation of Prof. David Keift at the University of Minnesota. Prof. Keift emphasized in class his preference for noble statesmen, people who were bred into a position to become statesmen. For these nobility, they could shape their country, a continent through foresight and strategy.

Metternich sought a return to a European continent before the French Revolution. He made Austria a key power in the 1800s. He worked as an emissary to France, speaking to Napoleon Bonaparte.

While this book was less than what I had expected on Metternich, it was interesting. For instance, there is only brief discussion of the direct work Metternich had done. Rather it is in summary format. Perhaps if the book were longer there would be more time devoted to each of the sections. As it stands, it is a lighter text, which glosses over too many details.

As an example of this, only a few conversations with Napoleon are explicitly mentioned. However each year, his travels to or from cities are mentioned, and great detail is given to his affairs with women.

As a biography, this book does not stand well on its own, but is an interesting introduction for those who want to know more about a key reconstructor of mid-nineteenth century Europe.

I requested this book for Christmas 2002, and received it from my parents. I am highly fascinated with nanotechnology and I am a programmer. This book looks at a synthetic lifeform combining three themes: nanotechnology, autonomous agents, and predator-prey relationships. Like all of Crichton's work, this is a world where humans have created a situation that will kill them.

I have read Timeline by Michael Crichton but no other books of his until now. Jurassic Park, and the Andromeda Strain were both good movies. Having put them all together gives you a feeling of distrust, not of technology itself, but of what greedy people can do with it.

The book was very exciting in the first 2/3. This style of Michael's is what I like about his Science fiction, an understandable description of advanced technology, with a feeling that people are in over their heads. In the last third of the book, he lost credibility, there are some things going on that defy explanation although they may lend themselves to movie adrenaline.

This was a book that was normally an option for an MBA course that I took this summer. In summer session, we were not required to read one. After the course was over I looked at this book and purchased it from the bookstore.

The main concept I really walked away with from this book is that no matter how big your organization may seem to you, to your clients you represent a single entity. You should present a single, coherent face to your customers.

Following the customer-centric rules, you want to become ETDBW, "Easy to Do Business With."