Hello! Yes, it's been a while without a vlog.
It's been quiet and nobody much is around, true, but it's still really busy!
We've been working on big projects I'll tell you more about later, I promise!
In the meantime, while you're waiting, I'm going to review a book called "Infinite Jest."
It's a bit of an odd title, but it's from Shakespeare, the famous skull scene.
"Alas, poor Yorick," all that? 
Well, Yorick is described as "a fellow of infinite jest" -- an all-around funny guy, 
so his death is all the more a tragedy.
And I guess this sort of fits the book fairly well. 
It's both kind of sad and kind of enjoyable.
The entire book revolves around a film called "the Entertainment."
The movie's so entertaining, so fascinating, that it literally blows your mind. 
It'll turn you into a drooling vegetable, no longer capable of taking care of yourself. 
All you'll ever do for the rest of your life is watch this movie. 
So it's pretty dangerous, obviously!
It was created by a film director who also ran a tennis academy.
He also kills himself in a way that I won't describe because it was pretty messy,
so his wife takes over the tennis academy, and two of their sons attend. 
Essentially, the whole story is about that family in one way or another. 
The book itself is huge and complex, with many different stories and subplots, but they all relate back to this single person somehow. 
It all takes place a little bit in the future, when the United States has joined up with Canada and Mexico to form a single North America. 
Unfortunately, Canada and the U.S. don't trust each other at all. 
It's partly because the United States forced some new land on Canada. 
We carved out most of the Northeast and gave it to Canada, including most of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York state, 
and gave it all to Canada as part of a deal. In exchange, though, the United States gets to dump all of its waste in the new Canadian territory free of charge, indefinitely.
So the U.S. is pretty squeaky clean now!
But it all causes some pretty complicated politics in a world that's pretty different. 
It's not easy to explain, because the story's so big and complicated and involves everything from ... 
assassins in wheelchairs ... 
to tennis players and a football player who is himself a very interesting guy ...
to drug addicts ... 
and Canadians.
So there are a ton of smaller stories incorporated into the book. And to be honest ... 
I feel it's a bit too big. Almost bloated.
On a smaller level -- individual scenes, characters, events -- it's hilarious, smart, clever, it'll make you laugh and cry, all that. 
But taken all together in a single giant book, it just felt like it took forever to get to the point. 
It took me a month and a half to get through it, which really threw me off. 
It might be better to take it in segments, a couple hundred pages at a time, with breaks in between, until it's done. 
It's not that hard to remember plot details, so you shouldn't need to keep reading back to refresh your memory after a break.
And the story isn't too bad -- it's actually really funny. 
It's just ... *heavy.*
It's a lot. I still do recommend it, though, especially if you're looking for a summer project!
That about covers it. So long and thanks!
