K.A. Ashcomb's Blog, page 26

A snippet from my current book

Hi! Let’s try something new. The video underneath is my attempt to read from the book I’m currently writing. It is from the chapter I’m trying to get right. Sorry about the quality of the video and me staggering with the words. I have just to put it out in the universe, otherwise I won’t for getting overly critical about everything. So please be kind!

Here it goes!

Here it is for the horror of it!

It is not easy to put oneself out there and risk looking silly. It is one of the fears w...

Book Review: Across the Sand by Hugh Howey

This is the first book by Hugh Howey I have read, meaning I have yet to read the first book in this series: Sand, The Sand Chronicles. And I will after reading this one. The story is about this strange world taken over by sand, told from multiple points of view. The point of the book seems to be to explore the world where people dive into the sand to find artifacts from the old world buried underneath it. The plot is somewhat loose, but nevertheless, it was interesting to witness how it all came...

The Little Robot Boy

For the little robot boy with all the functions mapped out but can’t seem to join

For the little robot boy sitting at the playground. I can hear his screeching with all his wants and needs without hope

For the little robot boy. Nobody knows how it goes

For the little robot boy with all the functions mapped ou...

For the little robot boy with all the functions mapped out but can’t seem to join

For the little robot boy sitting at the playground. I can hear his screeching with all his wants and needs without hope

For the little robot boy. Nobody knows how it goes

Book Review: The Wisdom of Wolves: Lessons from the Sawtooth Pack by Jim Dutcher and Jamie Dutcher

As long as I can remember, I have been scared of wolves. I have never seen one or been in a real threat of being near one, yet I still have recurring nightmares about wolves. And I think all the stories and animations I saw as a child portraying wolves as ferocious killers might be the reason for my nightmares. It’s hard to understand something you fear and even harder to protect them. So here we are, living in a world where the wolf population has declined, and they come more often in contact w...

Book Review: The Rock Warrior’s Way: Mental Training for Climbers by Arno Ilgner

I have been climbing outdoors for one and a half years, and understanding how and why you climb is important for performance. It is easy to get stuck chasing grade and forcing it just because of your ego, as Arno Ilgner states and as I have also experienced. It is not because I am vain or you are. It is because of how the system is created. Our performance is measured way of numbers and letters unobjectively, and it is so easy to get lost there, letting it obstruct your performance. We are all i...

Book Review: Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

Hail Mary and that’s about all I have to say. Okay, I should add more. The premise is that our sun is dying and one man can save humanity from extinction, though he doesn’t know it as he wakes up, all his memory wiped out, in a spaceship. The book follows as he figures out what is going on and struggles with what he is supposed to do. The book is a dialogue between the present and the past, but it always follows the protagonist and his perspective.

Anyone who has read The Martian by Andy Weir...

Book Review: The Mind of a Bee by Lars Chittka

After finishing this book, I keep thinking about bees constantly. They are amazing, you know, with their own personalities and cognitive capacities. Their brains evolve to the task they will carry out (chicken or egg thing here, who knows. Though, for example, foragers’ brains grow larger before they leave the nest.) Some are morning bees. Others like to explore, and some stick to what they know. Queen bees never leave the nest and battle with other queens for their colony. Queen bees are fed di...

Book Review: Dogs of War by Adrian Tchaikovsky

This was a fantastic book. One of those entertaining ones. The book follows a group of animal soldiers who have been engineered to fight for humans (Rex, a dog, Honey, a bear, Bees, as in bees, and Dragon, a lizard. All mutated giants.) They have human-like intelligence and can even voice their thoughts with human language. They are installed with the need to obey their master and the inability to hurt humans without a command (Asimov, you are an incredible genius.) But something is wrong. They ...

Book Review: Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion by Paul Bloom

Who would go against empathy? As the writer points out, it makes us feel all cuddly and happy. It is something that is an integral part of our relations with others. Without it, who is to say we wouldn’t be tearing each other apart? But is it so? Paul Bloom writes that empathy isn’t all cut out for what it is marketed for. Because of it, we make foolish decisions, sacrificing the multitude in the face of one. It skews our thinking, and we end up ignoring facts, drawing up plans, or getting rid o...