It’s late Saturday afternoon as I sit down to write this post. I’m sitting in my favourite chill out chair which is a lush lazy boy recliner. I was going to make this a link post, but I haven’t actually spent much time on the Internet today, which is a good thing considering how much time I spent I spend there during the week. My total screen time this week, excluding time on my MacBook Pro, has been 28 hours and 32 min.

I’ve only just realised today that I don’t have Screentime turned on my MacBook Pro, but I do now, so next week’s figures will include my time spent on MacBook.

I haven’t been on the Internet that much today because I’ve focused on reading in between my Saturday chores. I’ve started rereading Robert Jordan‘s The Eye of the World which is the first of 14 books in The Wheel Time series. Having just finished Amazon Prime’s adapted version of The Wheel Time, I was inspired to get back into the novels.

The Wheel of Time

The Wheel of Time is a series of high fantasy novels written by American novelist Robert Jordan, with the latest three volumes co-written by Brandon Sanderson. The Wheel of Time was originally intended to be a six-book series, but it was expanded to 14 volumes, including a prequel novel and two companion works. Jordan died in 2007 while writing on what was to be the series’ last volume. He took copious notes so that another author might finish the book according to his specifications. Brandon Sanderson, another fantasy novelist, was called in to finish the final volume.

The series incorporates aspects from both European and Asian mythology, most notably the cyclical nature of time found in Buddhism and Hinduism, the metaphysical concepts of balance and duality found in Taoism, the Abrahamic concepts of God or Satan, and Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace (1869).

The length, intricate imagined world and magic system, and big cast of characters make The Wheel of Time stand out. Each of the ninth through fourteenth books debuted at the top of the New York Times Best Seller list. The series was nominated for a Hugo Award. The series has sold over 90 million copies worldwide as of 2021, making it one of the best-selling epic fantasy series since The Lord of the Rings.

The following might be disturbing for some folks

Switzerland has legalized the “suicide machine,” which is a pod that offers a painless death within minutes. I haven’t gone into the details of who is allowed to use this device and under what circumstances. I assume it’s for people who have a terminal illness or who are in so much physical pain that death would be a welcome relief from the pain. Three thoughts flashed across my mind when I saw this report: One, they’ve made death look cool:

Two, I bet this isn’t free. What kind of world are we creating when you have to pay to die! And three, will this encourage people to commit suicide?

There was a sci-fi movie I watched once, I can’t recall the name now, but the plot was that a scientist had discovered definitively that there was life after death. The discovery plunged the world into chaos because people started committing suicide in droves.

I love technology, but at what point do we go too far?

This is Day 5 of our 30 Day Blogging Challenge. I’m really glad @MrFresh and @SMWGeek decided to embark on this journey. I know we’re only 5 days in, but I’m really enjoying the challenge and being back on here giving my blog some love. Long may it continue.

Admin note: some of links (generally the ones referencing books) are Amazon affiliate links. If you buy things from Amazon, please do consider using my links. You don’t have to purchase what I’m linking to, but still get a small commission from whatever you purchase. There’s no extra charge to you, and it helps me defray the cost of hosting fees and such.