I finally finished Quicksilver today! Definitely not the easiest Neal Stephenson book to get through, as it combines a slow first three hundred pages, with lots of talk about AP European History which, as I am a Gosh Darn American and therefore can't find Canada on a map, made for a tough start. Once it started getting into the exploits of Shaftoe's ancestor Half-Cocked Jack it started getting a lot more engaging, and stayed that way, even if it only got out of second gear towards the end.

But, at this point I might as well stay in it. The second book, The Confusion, is already off to a good start with cannonfire, explosions, etc. And I have heard that the second and third books are far more exciting than the first, and that the third even has a really good ending! (Not always something you can assume with Stephenson.)

Lately my habit is to put whatever book I'm reading at the time into the comment field of my MSN Messenger at work. This is an appropriate time to change that field to "The Confusion" because nobody at that place knows what the fuck they are doing. So we had a ship-or-die date of May 15th for my latest mega-project. Of course various departments have showed surprisingly brazen incompetence about working towards that goal (to the point where the CEO was literally draping Superman capes on the shoulders of the fuckups). When I discussed that with my boss, he said, don't sweat it, there's a backup plan. Turns out the backup plan is to work OT straight through Memorial Day weekend and ship two weeks late, on May 29th. The executive team should have run the backup plan past me first. I'm not skipping Kubla Con for this company; fuck that. I have my priorities.