Moving Update and a Book Recommendation

Oh man, it has been a busy week. We are totally moved into our new house now, with boxes everywhere. After all the hauling, cleaning, packing, paperwork, and standing in line at comcast for an hour just have them screw up our internet stuff twice, I basically collapsed for an entire day yesterday. It did help that it was peacefully snowing outside and that we now live half a mile from downtown, so I got to order two meals without leaving the house! This is a big deal for us, considering the last place we lived only had pizza and Chinese food delivery, and it was the first place we have lived that had the latter.

The problem with moving only a couple of miles is that you underestimate all the stuff you have to do. We had both houses for a week and a half, so we could take our time moving things over. We rented a small U-haul for one day and brought most of our boxes over in that. We hired movers for the furniture, which was great, but we still ended up having to make several trips between the houses with just our cars. It was brutal, and we were seriously wiped out by the end. The last two days, I had a maid service come in to clean the upstairs and then the carpet cleaners came. During this time, I finished up the downstairs packing and cleaning. I was so sleep-deprived by this point that I brought a sleeping bag and pillow to catch a nap between meetings. 

Moving on from all my complaints (pun not intended), I just have to say that the only thing that kept me sane during this whole ordeal was getting to listen to the audiobook of Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline, read by Wil Wheaton. I recommend it to anyone who has ever done anything geeky, or anyone who just likes a good quest story. Wil Wheaton's narration is just wonderful, it totally pushes a 4-star book into 5-star territory.

It is set in a future in which mankind is suffering from several crises, and to escape from its problems, people regularly plug into a virtual world called the Oasis. It's kind of like World of Warcraft meets Second Life, but infinitely more awesome than both put together. The eccentric designer of the Oasis dies and leaves his entire fortune and his company to anyone who can figure out his riddle and complete a massive quest within the virtual world.

The thing that really tips the book into the awesome category is that this designer is obsessed with the 80s, during which he was a teenager. There are tons of references to this era and to science fiction and fantasy of every generation. Don't worry, even if you weren't a teenager in the 80s (I wasn't), you will enjoy the references. For example, the protagonist eventually acquires a (virtual) firefly-class starship named the Vonnegut to travel between (virtual) planets. For everyday driving/flying, he brings his Delorean with flux capacitor and, interestingly enough, Ghostbuster emblems on the doors. If any of that sounds appealing to you, you should read this book.