Wow, I see a lot of thoughtful comments have piled up lately! Meanwhile, my new TV came in and putting it up is turning from a task into a campaign. Have got to rearrange the room entirely. Meaning piles of books, TPBs, movies, and electronics must be moved. Meaning everything has to be sorted, evaluated, and traded in for store credits (well, I probably can’t part with too many books).
Still, it’ll be great when everything is done.
Anyway, the puny vertebrate pundits need a chance to catch up. Here’s someone arriving at our location, circa 2010.
The District is booming! “Washington may have the healthiest economy of any major metropolitan area in the country,”
Gee, who could have seen that coming?
…in the past few years, with its host ailing, the government suddenly exploded in growth…and appetite.
But give that other writer his due: “take me down to the parasite city” is impossible to top.
World's Only Rational Man 
Speaking of books, do you have any Science fiction/Fantasy book suggestions? I’m having trouble finding books that can keep me interested. Snow Crash and Neuromancer have just failed.
As a baseline, here are a few of my favorite series: Ender’s Game, Dresden Files, Mistborn (the latest in particular), Kingkiller Chronicles, Old Man’s War
I also never got into Neuromancer, though I managed to finish it. I couldn’t see what all the fuss was about. I didn’t read Snow Crash yet but I liked The Diamond Age.
I’m not a real afficionado, but given your list, you might like Iain Banks’ The Use of Weapons and Peter Hamilton The Reality Dysfunction (first in the Night’s Dawn trilogy–skip the last one if you start to get into it). Dan Simmons the Hyperion Cantos for total space opera immersion. Vernor Vinge is a bad*ss, at least the handful of titles I read. I love CJ Cherry’s merchanter universe novels but you might not get into it–it’s a lot of sociologically and psychologically layered stuff (superb) but possibly disappointing if you want more pace. My mind’s a blank on fantasy right now.
Worme will give better advice, of course.
C.J. Cherryh with an “h” I meant.
Thanks for the tips, I’ll definitely take a look at Iain Banks and Vernor Vinge, I remember hearing about them before, but I hear about so much that it is kind of meaningless without greater specificity.
I read Hyperion and the sequel…too much poetry reference for me, but I made it through the first sequel since it was so interesting.
I liked Snow Crash better as a story than Neuromancer (as far as I got at least), however I couldn’t stand the poke in the eye that is the main character’s name. Every time the author used Hiro Protagonist’s full name it threw me out of the story and pissed me off. I like it when authors are clever, but not when they keep rubbing my nose in it.
Yeah, the computer hacker from the Victorian enclave in The Diamond Age is named Hackworth, and in Cryptonomicon, I think the Marine hero’s name is Bobby Shaftoe! That is pretty obnoxious, though Stephenson is a great writer IMO.
Not all Iain Banks stuff is equal, but when it’s good it’s mind-blowing. (Warning: if he writes under the name Ian Banks rather than Iain, he’s writing in another genre. Some of the alternate genre stuff is very interesting, and some of it is weird and extremely twisted.)
-Roger Zelazny’s Amber Chronicles (fantasy?)
-Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld series ( . . . sci fi?)
-Also, I’ve had friends who swore by Farmer’s World of Tiers series but I never got around to reading it myself.
-Just about anything by Larry Niven is going to be hugely fun hard SF
I probably dated myself absurdly here.
Tim Powers is a demigod among men. His worst is good; his best is great.
http://blog.patrickrothfuss.com/2012/08/the-story-board-episode-1/
Pat Rothfuss’s new discussion panel on story writing…he has Jim Butcher on and they mention Tim Powers.
I’ll be reading him next after I finish the Iain M Banks novel.
wow, that’s an epic sit in.
But then it’s not an economy. An economy is based around the fluctuation of goods, production, distribution, demand and supply. Government employees produce nothing. They are, if you will, completely irrelevant in the economy.
I’m a government employee and I produce nothing. No really, I’m not kidding. I produce nothing that would be of any value in any economy.