No clue if it was part of the documentary - sorry!

What motivated me to think about this is to figure out what, if any, responsibility I have to better the world. Was it Voltaire who said that we are guilty of the good that we did not do? It's a very demanding worldview that I'm not sure I agree with, but I get pulled both ways and the only conclusion I've reached is to not think about it and try to be a good (ish) person.

Well, I just turned in my thesis, so I'll have a lot more time in the upcoming weeks. Turning off notifications wasn't necessarily a good decision, either, since it took me about a week to realize that somebody commented on this!

Looks like I'm the idiot that missed the "original thread" link at the top. Oops. Thanks for the link, though, I would be interested in doing this.

Was there a previous post or anything that detailed this further?

The Strokes came out with a new album:

Tap Out - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JX1inu6yZWY Call It Fate, Call It Karma - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4LLIJkP301E

I got it from What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, which I really enjoyed as a (moderate) runner. I like to think that people who don't run would like it as well, but I can't really say.

I enjoyed some Umphrey's McGee today - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ml5FxpirGwg

I don't think the article was particularly well written, but as someone who improvises for a hobby, this type of research is pretty fascinating.

What kind of programming are you interested in?

Haha - I don't mean that it counts - I mean that a few of the books I was supposed to read were on this list, but never actually read.

I think I skimmed every book assigned to me in high school, which covers a few from the board's list. I didn't take any english classes in college, but I did manage to read some major books during those years somehow.

I'll have to give it another look, though I have to say I'm not one to slog through anything.

Definitely sounds interesting. I can definitely see it being something awesome of way over my head - Catch-22 felt that way, but it could have been my age when I read it, back when I was in high school. I don't think I've read anything that would be qualified as cyberpunk, but enjoy the elements mentioned and intelligent manners, so I'll have to look into it.

I've never tried Don Quixote, but I'm familiar with the story from The Man of La Mancha, so it's been on my radar before. A little random, but "quixotic" has to be one of my favorite words, for its uniqueness, its pronunciation, and its derivation.

I've read some of David Foster Wallace's essays, but haven't had the gumption to tackle Infinite Jest yet, and from what I understand The Count is a serious effort as well. I'm generally hesitant to start anything that long, if only because I can get bored or discouraged easily. It's not the best trait, but it's why I've tried to read essays or shorter works by authors to get an idea of their style before delving into their lengthier volumes.

I have been looking into books by Murakami to read - unfortunately they've been pretty consistently checked out of the library...

I haven't heard of them. I really enjoyed Margaret Atwood's apocalyptic Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood.

Was a TV series made from these books? The concept seems a little familiar, but then again, a lot of post-apocalyptic premises share characteristics.

I tried reading The Corrections and wasn't able to get through it, although I enjoyed Freedom. I can see why it would get mixed reviews. I haven't read his first two novels, but I read his three essay collections (and technically Spring Awakening was translated by him, but I'm not really going to give him credit for that one), but I'm a sucker for autobiographical essays.