A traditional generational conflict usually looks like this, the older generation says “we had it hard too” the younger generation says “you don’t understand our world”. That’s normal, it happens every generation.

That’s not what’s going on with boomers and millennials.

The friction between boomers and millennials is different than the average inter-generational conflict.

Because boomers betrayed millennials.

The year everyone thinks America went wrong based on political bias.

Moorish Spain was the period from the 8th to 15th centuries when Muslims ruled the Iberian peninsula.

Anyway, here's a book review of The Lions of Al-Rassan by Guy Gavriel Kay, which I've had time to finish on this fine Thanksgiving day. It's historical fiction written back in 1995 about the final years of Moorish Spain.

Guy Gavriel Kay is known for writing stories that are mostly historical fiction, but with a small touch of fantasy. In this story, Al-Rassan refers to the southern part of Spain/Portugal controlled by Muslim city-states, while three Christian kings rule their mini-kingdoms in northern Spain/Portugal. In this book, Muslims are called Asharites and identify with the stars, Christians are called Jaddites and identify with the sun, and Jews are called Kindath and identify with the twin moons over this world (which is a touch of the aforementioned fantasy element).

Ultimately, it's a story about love and friendship across cultural boundaries, but duty that sometimes has to separate them.

The three main characters are Ammar (an Asharite poet-swordsman), Rodrigo (a Jaddite noble knight-leader), and Jehane (a Kindath physician), and it spans a few years as the Jaddites and Asharites grow increasingly hostile toward each other. The story is probably best summed up when Ammar laments that the concerning way things are headed, it's likely not going to be his poetry that he's remembered for.

It's not as simple as two sides of a war, though. The Asharite city-states of Al-Rassan are rather secular, as are the Jaddite mini-kingdoms in the north. But the Jaddite clergy seeks to push those secular Jaddite kings to have a holy war and retake the peninsula, and the Asharite warlords back across the strait seek to push those secular Asharite kings to reclaim their peak of power of the peninsula as well. So there are basically four powerful factions in conflict, along with the Kindath as the fifth minor element.

The word "Lions" in the The Lions of Al-Rassan refers to men without equal. Ammar and Rodrigo both represent basically the pinnacle of their sides, and it's a story about what happens as those two "Lions" meet in the waning days of Al-Rassan.

I mostly enjoyed the plot, as well as the main three characters. Guy Gavriel Kay is kind of an "author's author", meaning that several authors consider him one of the top authors out there, but his books only have moderate popularity compared to the top bestsellers. Kay also helped Tolkien's son edit The Silmarillion back in the 1970s after Tolkien's death.

Although Kay is praised for his prose, it's not my favorite. I prefer more concise, straightforward prose, whereas this is somewhat poetic in nature. To me there's a slight distracting element when prose is written like that. The author Brandon Sanderson has used the analogy of clear glass vs stained glass when it comes to prose style. Sanderson's prose is "clear glass" meaning you read for the story, not the prose. Kay's prose is "stained glass" meaning that you read partially for the prose itself, with the trade-off that it's harder to see the story/characters as perfectly clearly through it. And then of course there are many subtypes. Kay's prose just doesn't vibe with me well.

I think it's a great book, with strong themes and intricate politics and a broad cast of fascinating characters. Some will quite enjoy the prose, but it made me slightly detached from the characters as I read it.

Writing open source software is not a crime.

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Yeah, like I want to waste my time trying to fuck with the phone os. I want for the shot to work reliably out of the box. If you have plenty of free time or into this, then it’s for you. I need a phone that works, I have other priorities and interests

Which device? Exactly

Which device? Exactly

Android sucks even more, it’s just horrible in my experience. And add Google Play for to that, the game is over. Plus Android comes with butt load of spyware and telco shit preloaded with no way to remove it. Japanese Android is just a fucking clusterfuck of clutter and annoying spyware

People be like stop posting x screenshots to nostr, but the bigger problem is Redditors coming to nostr and acting like redditors 😂

Idk who needs to hear this but you should run whatever node implementation you want.

The whole point of Bitcoin is the freedom to do what YOU want.

Running [Knots/Core] doesn’t make you a [bad/good] person — don’t be peer pressured.

Those that mind don’t matter and those that matter don’t mind.

The real enemy is *not* your fellow Bitcoiner, and anyone who wants to convince you otherwise may not have your best interests at heart.

Go touch grass.

That’s a big enough crowd to overrun any govt… just saying.

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I hope UK can get their freedom of speech back. While you’re at it, maybe do something about that insane surveillance system you have in place.