2017: A personal recap

The Good Stuff

• Family and friends were healthy and reasonably prosperous.
• Got my DSL line fixed early in the year.
• Much soup. Relatively-healthy eating there.
• My gaming group lost a player.
• Zombie Tools!
• Started martial arts again.
• Found a brewery with smoked beer on tap.
• BART
• Much sleep
• Promotion at work.
• Overseas trips for work.
• In the UK for their June election. Hung Parliament!
• Many cool things (Kickstarters, other junk) in my pile of junk.
• Finished some stories. Started another story.
• Game progress
• EDIT: Winning the Little Drummer Boy game.

The Bad Stuff

• Trump is President of the United States.
• Alt-Right Nazi bullshit.
• Equifax hack fallout.
• Sinus issues. So. Many. Sinus. Issues. And horrible, horrible allergies.
• My gaming group lost a player.
• Phone jack died and having merry hell getting someone to fix it.
• Learned of a sad and weird fate of a high school associate.
• Lost some excellent co-workers as they moved on to other positions.
• BART
• Self-inflicted wound of stupid
• Work just got more and more insane.
• Overseas trips for work.

Conclusion

I guess I made out okay in 2017, at least for the most part. 2018's looking pretty uncertain, certainly in the first quarter. Guess we'll see what happens.

To the handful of people (mainly from Russia? Whyyyyyy?) who actually read this, I wish you all a Happy New Year. Hope 2018 treats us all well.

EDIT: 774 views? WTF?

Feeling a little more childhood bleed away

Ah 2017. You've been a remarkably shitty year for more reasons than I want to write in this post. Corruption, pollution, insanity, threat of war... all the big things.

Funny that I find myself obsessing over tiny things as the year is winding down.

Yeah, I'm not talking about Trump's hands. I'm talking about childhood obsessions I'm finding myself stepping away from.

The first was "Doctor Who".

I've been following "Doctor Who" for most of my life. I was one of the few kids I knew in the U.S. watching the show when I was quite young. No one had even heard of the show, and when watched, the crappy BBC effects really didn't compare with the relatively more sophisticated stuff on American TV.

Still, I found myself utterly fascinated with the adventures of Tom Baker's Doctor gallivanting about on PBS reruns.

I was hooked. I watched it through multiple regenerations fairly faithfully.

It wasn't always a good show by any imagination. No one can sit through John Nathan Turner's era of running the show (poor Colin Baker) and not find one's faith shaken.

I was really excited when the show was revived in the turn of the century mark. Christopher Eccleston's Doctor was rocking and the show had a fun mix of camp and improved effects.

There was still the familiar, uneven writing, but it was overall enjoyable.

Then Steven Moffatt came along.

Moffatt wrote "Blink", the episode that remains my favorite of the series in terms of solid delivery. For all Moffatt's skills in writing stories, his ability as a showrunner was an epic disaster. His story arcs were incoherent garbage. And his efforts to deconstruct the Doctor as a character served only to make the show unwatchable.

When Peter Capaldi came on board as the Doctor, I was jazzed. He was great in "The Thick of It" and his portrayal of the Doctor has been awesome, but the writing... god, the writing...

I gave up after the horrific finale where they finally did away with Clara (an overdone and incoherent companion). The show was just too awful for me to stomach.

I never saw the season with the new Companion. I tried, but... god, it was still terrible.

Now there's a new showrunner and a new Doctor. I want to feel enthusiastic and watch it again, but I can't do it. I feel nothing for the show I loved in my childhood. It feels dead to me.

And that takes me to another bit of my childhood: Star Wars.

Like most kids my age, I grew up to Star Wars. In the schoolyard we pretended to be Jedi smugglers, the perfect combination of Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. Let's face it: we all wanted to be Han Solo. He had the cool spaceship, the blaster (he shot first!), and the cool Wookie partner. Luke had a laser sword and super powers, which was cool too. Leia was sassy, smart, and tough. As a boy, I was just starting to learn that those were traits I found attractive in women rather than traits that were annoying on the schoolyard.

Heh.

The prequels did a number on my love of the series. They were beautiful movies so devoid of coherent plot, able acting, and emotion that watching them was like spending a night eating cotton candy. Made me sick and hurt my teeth in the end.

When The Force Awakens came out, I have to admit I had low expectations. I thought it was going to suck ass. Wow, was I wrong! Sure, the movie was a rehash of A New Hope, but it was done well. John Boyega's Finn was (to me) the break-out character as a turncoat Stormtrooper - a character afraid but ultimately able to overcome that fear. Daisy Ridley's Rey was okay. It was nice to see a solid heroine in the lead, though I had some hopes that her journey would have a bit more substance to it. The villains were weak tea, but I had hopes they'd improve beyond their terrible names ("Snoke"? "Kylo Ren"? Seriously?)

And then we got The Last Jedi this month.

TLJ was, frankly, painful to watch.

It was visually good. The comic bits were funny and well-paced. Adam Driver's Ben Solo and Daisy Ridley's Rey had excellent chemistry. Driver actually won me over from ambivalence to liking his character. Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher were, as always, outstanding.

The rest was incoherent garbage. A space chase that made no sense. A side plot that wasted Finn entirely. A side character added clumsily to no real effect I can see. A revision of Luke Skywalker that was, quite frankly, character assassination by Rian Johnson (a self-proclaimed Star Wars fan). And Rey's character journey still felt... lacking, which was made worse by confusing and obtuse plot developments.

I have to say, I can't give two shits about Star Wars right now. I don't give a fuck about how Episode 9 will go. I don't care about other trilogies. I don't give a shit about a Han Solo spinoff movie. That bit of childhood nostalgia feels dead now.

Probably for the best.

Review: GP 1945 Bolt Action Plus Pen

There was no way I was going to avoid this Kickstarter. A pen that's also a glass breaker and a whistle? And titanium frame? And deploys bolt-action? Good lord, it's like it was designed with me in mind! I love pens. Add in extra funky gadgets and I'm sold.

I backed the Kickstarter and my pen came in around Xmas. Now I have another damn thing to fiddle with and drive people around me crazy. I keep playing with the bolt-action to open and close the pen!

The pen is solid and grips well. If I have a complaint, it's that I'm a tad underwhelmed by the ink cartridge it fits. I prefer Fisher pen cartridges for being more reliable. This one takes some kind of German ink cartridge. They work well enough, but it took some doing to get the pen started.

Oh well. It's not like I don't have other pens should this one run dry.

It's still an awesome pen and totally worth backing!

Looks like you can pre-order one of these on Indiegogo now, if you're inclined.

Review: Stainless Steel Peanut LED Flashlight Kit by Maratac

I'm a sucker for flashlights. I don't deny it.

About a month back, I got a Peanut LED Flashlight from CountyComm. I'd been looking at it for a while. The size appealed to my current desire to lighten my over-burdened keychain a bit.

I'm not generally a fan of twist lights. They have a tendency to twist in the pocket, go on, then run out of power. Still, I thought I'd give the Peanut a try.

The Peanut is a nice, solid constructed little light. It's a tiny thing powered by a 10180 Lithium Cell 70mAh. The whole thing assembled is about as long as the end of my thumb to my first knuckle joint. And it's quite bright.

The Peanut comes with battery, light, and a USB charging cable. I haven't had any issues with the light accidentally turning on, so that's one worry gone. I have a new, very light, favorite on my keychain.

Thoughts on "The Last Jedi"

Yeah, I saw it.

In a nutshell, I was disappointed. To elaborate, I thought the plot had holes you could drive a Star Destroyer through, the writing was weak, there were sub-plots that went exactly nowhere, there were characters introduced for no good reason that I could fathom, and the treatment of Luke Skywalker as a character borders on criminal.

There were good points: Mark Hamill, Daisy Ridley, and Adam Driver had solid performances. There were scenes with Ridley and Driver that had good, strong chemistry between the actors and their characters. There was a pretty awesome fight scene at one point.

Overall, I don't understand the hype. This was, at best, a mediocre film. Not as bad as, say, The Phantom Menace but certainly not any kind of classic. It doesn't hold a torch to the original trilogy at all. I'm given to understand Rian Johnson's getting his own Star Wars trilogy after Episode 9 airs. Gotta say, based on The Last Jedi, I could totally skip any other treatments of Star Wars he comes up with.

Weak sauce, Disney. Weak sauce.

Review: "Persepolis Rising" by James S.A. Corey

In the last week or so, I got the latest Brandon Sanderson novel "Oathbreaker". At an intimidating 1233 pages, I gleefully dove in, grateful for a fat distraction over the holidaze. And I found the book wasn't really grabbing me.

Then my copy of "Persepolis Rising", book 7 of "The Expanse" series by James S.A. Corey came in.

I promised myself I would only read "Persepolis Rising" on my commute and would otherwise see if "Oathbreaker" would rekindle my interest.

It wasn't long before "Persepolis Rising" had more and more of my attention. A few days later (read that as "last night"), I finished "Persepolis Rising".

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

"Persepolis Rising" takes place a time jump after book 6. A fairly long time jump. The crew of the Rocinante, now expanded to the crew it had at the end of "Babylon's Ashes", have been at it for a while and settled into a comfortable life as a crew that is also a family. James Holden and Naomi Nagata are pondering retirement and the crew is pondering their next step. A universe of some 1300 worlds is open to them and colonies are thriving as humanity spreads across the stars.

Then shit goes sideways as the colony of Laconia, home to Winston Duarte's Martian mutineer fleet, makes a reappearance.

And then all shit goes sideways.

In theme and feel, "Persepolis Rising" is akin to The Empire Strikes Back of the series. It's pretty intense and brutal. Not everyone walks away. It's also a fascinating exploration of a "benign" imperialist conquest. It's not "good guys versus bad guys" so much as it's a good five hundred or so pages of conflicting ideologies in a throwdown amidst scary alien technologies and a poorly-understood threat.

There were twists in the novel I did not see coming and I found myself engaged completely and utterly.

I cannot recommend this novel or this series highly enough. If you haven't tried out "The Expanse" yet, you now have seven novels of awesome to wade through. I recommend giving it a try.

And now I'm going to return my attention to "Oathbreaker". I'm some 300-ish pages in, so I'm kinda committed...

Review: The Vakra, by Zombie Tools

A couple of months back, I succumbed to temptation and placed an order for The Vakra, the Zombie Tools version of a Nepalese kukri knife.

It arrived the other day.

I must say one thing: if zombies come a' callin', they're gonna not enjoy the reception they'll get from the Vakra.

Described by Zombie Tools as "a fist full of fuck yeah", the Vakra is a bit longer and more slender than kukri's I've played with before (or even the one I got at some convention in the distant past). Like the other Zombie Tools I've acquired in the past, the Vakra comes sharp, burly, and kinda scary looking. I keep giving it an experimental swing around my apartment and I have to learn to stop doing that. I'll either take out a wall or bookcase or I'll drop it on my foot and loose an appendage. Aside from the brutal, heavy blade, the Vakra's pommel has a jagged bit of joy for when you want to punch something close (a window, a wall, a zombie's teeth, whatever).

The Vakra comes with a Kydex sheath with all sorts of straps and loops to put on a belt and fasten to your leg, or you could pony up for a nice, black leather sheath with belt loop and cord to secure it to your leg.

Why the hell did I spend money on this thing? Oh I don't know. I have no illusions as to how long I'd last in a zombie apocalypse, but it's kind of cool to have. And if I ever have to do yard work (or get dropped in the jungle), this puppy's sure going to be handy. I don't think even I could break this.

Review: The TAD Gear Talisman Jacket

So Triple Aught Design had their big warehouse store sale thing this past weekend. Hung over and praying a bit for death, I made the trek out to the Dogpatch and went there wondering what sorts of deals I'd find. I was mainly looking for a good deal on their Talisman Jacket, as the weather's been a bit chilly of late and I like the look of it.

As fortune would have it, I found one in exactly my size for a ridiculously-good discount. Given it's a goddamn expensive garment, I didn't hesitate. I made a beeline straight for the cash register. And saw the line.

In all, it took me roughly a minute to find what I wanted and an hour and ten minutes to get through the winding line to pay TAD Gear for the garment.

Halfway through the line, I discovered why the jacket was discounted so steeply: the zipper holding the hood in the collar was stuck. Not just stuck, but completely un-budging.

I bit the bullet and bought the jacket anyway. I briefly tried to loosen the zipper with my Leatherman in line but that wasn't working. I got home and tried two pairs of pliers. Wouldn't budge. I tried all the little online tricks for a fixed zipper (pencil, Windex, etc.). The goddamn thing wasn't budging.

It's not raining, so I said "fuck it" and wore it anyway. Today, while fussing with the zipper during a meeting at work, I popped the zipper off then re-fed it through the teeth.

I now have a rocking warm jacket with lots of pockets that works perfectly.

Takes the edge off the rest of Monday's challenges, which I most certainly am not complaining about.

The Talisman is warm, comfortable garment with a cool, kind of retro, look to it. It comes with four large, button-flap pockets on the front and an interior pocket for small stuff (a wallet or a phone and maybe some packs of gum). It's made of the same kind of material as the lighter Sentinel Field Jacket but is an overall warmer coat.

Compared with the Sentinel, I find the pocket capacity a bit lacking. The Sentinel just has a lot of capacity. Still, when I don't want to layer too much, I'm finding the Talisman pretty nice. It's certainly going to be a nice winter coat for the Bay Area's mild weather.

A bit of this, a bit of that

I keep neglecting my blog and depriving it of random, incoherent nonsense! Naughty me!

Must correct behavior...

Thanksgiving


So how was your Thanksgiving, fellow Americans? Mine was gluttonous, as usual. Sucks to be back to work. Sucks harder to have Xmas music playing in full force in the stores. The hell of the Holidaze is upon us. Oh well, apparently North Korea's missiles can now reach DC, so I suppose nuclear conflagration and self-destruction may trump (hah!) that problem.


Things Breaking


What the hell is it with misfortune happening in clusters, anyway? First my phone jack in my apartment dies a mysterious death, then my computer chair breaks (maybe that extra slice of pumpkin pie was a bad idea?), then a goddamn storm drain breaks (flooding my balcony), then lightbulbs on the back of my building (including my balcony) burn out (not ominous at all), then my key-holder breaks (causing said house keys to stab me in the thigh - AWESOME!). I swear, if this is related to offending those pagan gods while breaking a mirror under a ladder I'm gonna be miffed.

BART Weirdness


This morning, I swear to the FSM, my BART car smelled like cotton candy.

Do you have any idea how weird that is? On a good day, BART just smells like unwashed train car and possibly marijuana. Most times one notices an odor, it's extreme body odor, feces, urine, or some combination of all those mixed in with indescribable horror.

Cotton candy just isn't a BART smell. I'm really curious what that was about.

A Job Medium Rare


Hah! I made a funny! Get it? Medium rare instead of we... oh never mind. Anyway, I've been deluged with projects over the last few months and actually managed to complete the big one two days ahead of deadline! I'm giddy enough that I am actually mentioning a semi-positive work thing!




Yeah, okay. It sound stupid when I see it written out.

Futility


Few things are more fun than finding out you've spent an hour of your life doing testing on a product by using an unsupported browser. So all those nasty issues you found? That nice, long list of detailed notes? Totally useless.

Yup. Great fun.

Review: "Thor: Ragnarok"

Let's be honest here: this is more of my reaction than a proper review. Kind of like everything I post, really.

So I just got out of a showing of Thor: Ragnarok and HOLY SHIT WAS THAT MOVIE A BUCKET OF FUN!!!!

If one were to be honest, Ragnarok is more of a spiritual cousin to one of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. It's got goofball humor, a fair amount of '80's nostalgia, flashy space opera craziness, campy villains, and a lot of snark.

A lot of snark.

Chris Hemsworth continues to knock it out of the park with the perfect combination of arrogant badass and snarky humor as Thor Odinsson. Tom Hiddleston returns as Loki, the villain who is sometimes just an anti-hero. Mark Ruffalo returns as Bruce Banner/The Hulk. And this time we get classic, comic book Hulk. Idris Elba returns as Heimdall, the Asgardian who is as badass or more than Thor. And there's other returnees from the previous Thor films. They also introduce Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie, a fairly obscure heroine from the Defenders comics in the Marvel universe. An interesting take on the character in this film.

On the villain side, we get Kate Blanchet who rocks every scene she's in as Hela, Goddess of Death. With her is Karl Urban playing the villain known as Skurge the Executioner.

I won't bother going into the plot. It's pretty crazy and I really don't want to spoil it. Suffice it to say, the story doesn't have many slow points. There's always something going on. When there isn't, the film cuts away for some villain to chew the scenery or some hero bonding and snark.

I honestly think this was the best of the Thor movies, hands down. A low bar, sure. Still, I would put Thor: Ragnarok up against possibly one of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies for well-paced fun.

As a bonus, I got to see trailers for Justice League and Black Panther. Until Wonder Woman, I really had no desire to see any of the DC movies. The previous ones were largely crap. The last Batman film I liked was The Dark Knight. Now that I've seen the Justice League trailer, I have to say I'm sold on seeing it. As to Black Panther, that just looks like a massive ton of fun. It's good to have films to look forward to.

Review: "Eutopia" by David Nickle

To be honest, this book caught me off-guard. I'd seen a review of the sequel, "Volk", on BoingBoing and the premise intrigued me. I got "Volk" and "Eutopia" off of Amazon after skimming the reviews. I got "Eutopia" first, which is just as well and...

Damn.

Set in rural Idaho (and bits of Colorado) in 1911, "Eutopia" is essentially a tale of a would-be utopian community set up by an industrialist in Idaho, as seen through the eyes of two protagonists: the first is Andrew Waggoner, an African-American surgeon educated in Paris. As one might imagine, he encounters no small amount of discrimination and trouble being a "Negro" (this term is used constantly in the book) doctor in rural America a little bit into the 20th century. The other is Jason Thistledown, an orphan of a terrible plague that kills everyone in his flyspeck town in Colorado, save him.

The two wind up meeting one another in the town of Elidia,the aforementioned would-be utopian community just as shit goes sideways. You see, there's not just your backwoodsman, Klansmen (the early part of the book has Waggoner nearly lynched by KKK dickweeds), outlaws, and the like. Oh no. This book is a horror story. It's got non-human monsters to go with the human ones.

In this case, there's parasitical creatures known as Jukes who can alter one's perceptions and induce people to worship them as gods.

And it gets worse, but why spoil the story?

"Eutopia" is a horror tale told through an interesting filter of early 20th Century America. It's got eugenics (and all the racist baggage that comes with that), straight-up racism (above-and-beyond the eugenics), and just a lot of fairly horrible examples of humanity in it. Nickle's story almost doesn't need the Jukes in it to be a horror tale, truth be told.

But he's got 'em in the story, and they're creepy as fuck.

"Eutopia" was, at first, a slow read and not really the sort of thing I'd pick up, but I'll be honest: I couldn't put it down. It was gripping and fascinating. Andrew Waggoner and Jason Thistledown were engaging protagonists and the rest of the cast were fascinating in their own way.

If you're looking for a bit of Americana horror, go no further.

I'll be interested to see if "Volk" can keep up the intensity.

Review: Maratac Titanium Inspection AAA Flashlight

Yeah, I have too many flashlights. It's a problem.

I don't know exactly what possessed me to get the Maratac Titanium Inspection light. Maybe it was the price. Maybe it was the titanium construction. Mostly I think I was just in my crazy place.

However that works out, the Inspection is a welcome addition to my personal every day carry. As lights go, it's study and bright. The titanium frame is almost comically light. As it's titanium, it's probably going to break one of my bones before it breaks itself. It's long enough to serve as an impromptu kubaton, if there's a need, and is an excellent light. With the back button, you can click to select from low (5 lumens for 90 hours), medium (45 lumens for 6 hours), or high (385 lumens for less than 2 hours). As it takes two AAA batteries, it's pretty easy to just run to a local store and get new batteries when it runs out.

You can get a Inspection light at County Comm for less than $60 (not counting shipping).

Disclaimer: I don't work for County Comm, nor do I get anything from them. I really just like this light a lot.

Review: The Dervish Alchemy Flipper Knife

It was about a year or so ago when I first saw that Dervish Knives offered a flipper knife on the TAD Gear site. I missed the chance to buy their Alchemy knife but was mostly fine with that. On TAD Gear, that was a goddamn expensive knife.

Still, the Dervish Alchemy haunted me for a while. It had a look to it that really appealed to me.

Fast-forward many months. I'm bored at work and browsing. I found the Dervish Alchemy mentioned again somewhere. I had a bonus at work come through and decided I really wanted to get a Dervish Alchemy, if just to satisfy the damn mental itch that TAD Gear had started.

I shopped and searched in vain for some weeks before finding one on eBay. For a not-unreasonable price later, I found myself the proud owner of a Dervish Knives Alchemy Midtech.

So the Dervish Alchemy is a substantial flipper. It opens by pressing the stud near the end of the blade and flipping its slightly-curved and delightfully-sharp blade. It's got a nice weight to it, both open and closed, and keeps a lovely edge. It's now part of my EDC and has edged out my DPx for the time being.

Aesthetically, the Alchemy is so beautiful that I really have to struggle not to just flip it open at random intervals in public (or at work!) to gaze upon its beauty.

I have terrible problems.

I regret nothing.

Airline movies

Just completed a bit of business travel overseas. Along with my obligatory airport/airplane-induced cold, I've managed to see a few movies I missed in theaters:

The first was Kong: Skull Island

Set in the early 70's at the conclusion of the Vietnam War, Kong has the distinction of being an outlier as monster movies go I enjoyed this flick far, far more than I expected. I'm not entirely sure of the purpose of most of the characters in the film, but amidst Vietnam helicopter montages, Sam Jackson's always-awesome screen presence, and a huge-ass gorilla fighting weird monsters, I honestly didn't give much of a shit. I enjoyed this movie so much that I watched it both on my flight overseas and back again. It was the prefect balance of random character scenes, monster fights, and really awesome cinematography.

The second flick I saw that I've never seen was Baby Driver.

I really didn't know what to expect from this movie. I knew nothing of it. After watching it, I find myself slightly blown-away by Edgar Wright's action film. The main character's tendinitis was an awesome way to get some fun songs into a car chase film. And from there, the movie was just pure popcorn fun.

I wish airplanes had popcorn instead of the shit they usually serve.

Perspective

Wow.

170,000 acres of land has been effectively burned to ash in Northern California. The air quality in the Bay Area matches that of Beijing.

That is to say: it's pretty awful.

When I go outside, it smells of wood smoke. The smell is everywhere. It's in the underground stations of BART. It's in the office buildings. There is just no escaping it.

And those of us who just have to deal with that are the lucky ones.

All those people displaced. Their homes and belongings destroyed. Their lives upturned, and in some cases, lost.

Fucking hell. I'm not whining about my microwave again.

Good-Bye Microwave

This morning I bid a tearful farewell to my microwave.

A large, slightly-overpowered Panasonic that was almost-certainly not suited for my apartment's aged wiring, it served me well for several years as I prepared my breakfast, heated water or leftovers, and similar tasks. It was a beast that took up far too much counter space and the plug was hot to the touch if it ran for more than a couple of minutes. Some of the insulation melted at one point.

I'm quite surprised it didn't explode or cause a fire.

It was a behemoth, but it was a reliable thing. The recent flickering and hiccups were certain an indicator that something was wrong.

And now my microwave is dead.

Good-bye, Panasonic microwave. You will be missed.

Now to see if this smaller Black and Decker will do as well.

Review: Kingsman: The Golden Circle

I took a chunk of time to go see Kingsman: The Golden Circle and... wow. That was an AWESOME sequel!

Pros:

• Julianne Moore as Poppy.
• Harry returns (not really a spoiler if you've seen ANY trailers at all).
• The Statesmen.
• James Bond-level crazy.
• So many explosions.
• Robots.
• Spy gadgets for the WIN!
• There's a bowler hat moment that made me actually laugh out loud.

Cons:

• At least two characters I liked a lot were killed off unnecessarily, in my not so humble opinion.
• I'm not sure I followed the bit about the U.S. President, truth be told. If that was a Trump allegory, it wasn't done very well.

I will add this movie to my library once it's out and I will tear my apartment APART to find where the hell I left my copy of Kingsman: The Secret Service.

Time Off

I always feel it around this time of year: an almost-overwhelming need to take time off work, veg out, and do all that self-indulgent crap I do at other times but feel guilty over. You know: eat unhealthy, watch crap, lounge around, sleep in, etc.

So here I am on a Monday morning, web surfing, doing laundry, and killing time 'till lunch.

It feels glorious.

Okay, doing laundry is boring as hell, but that's really just the odd interruption to get me out of my chair in between videos, webcomics, and bits of writing I'm amusing myself over as I digest an epic breakfast.

I could get used to this. If only I could win the Lottery.

Well that's interesting.

My blog does not have a lot of readers. That's not really a surprise to me. My inane ramblings are largely uninteresting bullshit that are the product of a diseased mind. People who read this generally read the bits where I talk about products I like.

What fascinates me is my audience. It's an almost even split between readers in the United States and readers in Russia.

So, folks from Russia, what the hell is interesting about my blog? I mean, y'all are quite welcome, but I'm really intrigued as to what I'm saying that would draw an audience from over there. The next highest is Ukraine and I really can't parse that at all. Then Ireland. Huh.

I'm tripping over this.

Review: Korin Design ClickPack Pro

One of my gaming buddies brought it to a game.

The ClickPack Pro looked, at first glance, to be a simple grey and black backpack.

Then my friend showed us the features.

The first thing he did was snap open his knife and slash at the back of the pack. The pack was unmarred. He invited me to do the same with my knife. Same deal. No mark at all. The back of the pack is made with some kevlar weave cloth that's highly slash-resistant. I have no idea if it fares as well against a stabbing attack and I'm pretty confident it's in no way bulletproof.

The pack also has integrated luggage locks and a security cable so you can lock it anywhere or use it as fairly secure checked luggage in an airport.

The pack is loaded with pockets, both on the interior and scattered about on the straps and sides.

It's also billed as waterproof, though I haven't had an opportunity to test that yet.

It's got connectors for personal devices to hook into a power supply, should you opt to put one on the inside of the pack. It's also got small toiletry and cable organizers that are removable

It also fits my laptop, so that's nice.

If I have a complaint at all about the ClickPack Pro is that it's a tad small. When I use a backpack, I like to be able to use a backpack. I want spare room for a water bottle, a jacket, a hat, a book, a few cables, and other such stuff. When I pack the ClickPack Pro for work, it's all I can do to close the thing and there's no spare room for a jacket.

It's a neat idea, and handy for travel, but the ClickPack Pro isn't going to replace my Fidelis Alcon anytime soon as my commuter bag.

Review: The County Comm Titanium Persuader

So in my previous post, I moan and whine a lot. I also comment on how scary the world is getting.

That's probably what motivated me to purchase the Titanium Persuader when I saw it pop up on CountyComm a month or so back.

I liked it so much, that I got another as a gift for someone close to me.

The Persuader is essentially a faux-pen of solid titanium with a tapered point. It looks like it could be a long stylus (or pen, if you don't look too closely). It's pretty much a kubotan, but more slender than you'd usually see. Set in a pocket, it looks just like a pen and doesn't get any odd looks.

It's handy to have available if things are looking sketchy. Even if you don't have any training in using a kubotan, just holding it in your fist and jabbing either end of the Persuader into someone is going to hurt like hell without inflicting some permanent harm.

This assumes you don't ram it into someone's eye socket and go to town, of course. Kind of a disgusting mental image, but I've been watching violent movies lately.

I'm quite happy with this purchase. It's discrete and a nasty little thing to have handy. I expect CountyComm will do a brisk business with these little monsters.

2017's kicks to the balls

Recap:

• Trump is still in the White House.
• Equifax fucked us.
• Nazis are a thing again. Seriously.
• North Korea's got nukes and Trump is in the White House.
• CCleaner malware. Yeah, I use CCleaner. Whee!
• Equifax fucked us royally. Like for the rest of our lives. And who wants to bet there's no consequences for that? Anyone?
• Fucking Trump is still in the White House!

So I've been finding myself tremendously depressed in September. Like "I-don't-want-to-get-out-of-bed" or "I-would-rather-eat-glass-than-interact-with-people" depressed. It's affecting my work. It's affecting my hobbies, though on the plus side, I'm devoting a fair amount of time to this Krav Maga class.

I keep thinking that the next time I step out the door, someone's going to launch a nuke or start a riot or whatever. People feel helpless and really, really scared. And it's rubbing off, goddamnit.

And just to add insult to injury, my Fall allergies have started kicking in.

A shade more than three months left in the year. Ye gods.

Review: TAD Gear Recon RS Pant

I did a bit of shopping not too long ago and got a pair of the Recon RS Pants put out by TAD Gear.

I love them very, very much!

The Recon RS are sort of low-key cargo pants made out of a ripstop nylon-cotton blend. Breathes delightfully but has a tough, rugged feel to it.

And the Recon RS has pockets. Deep and varying pockets!

I do love me my pockets...

There's your normal hip pockets in front, with two "coin" pockets that run pretty damn deep. Inside the main hand-warmer front pockets are two tiny pockets (presumably really for coins) in the interior. Along the front of the thighs are a pair of roomy, zipper-secured pockets large enough for a cell phone. And there's pockets on the rear as well.

Oh, and there's a secret pocket for very tiny things. Shhh! It's a secret!

God, I love this stuff!

All-in-all, I found the Recon RS well-constructed and very comfortable. Gonna have to put aside a few bucks and get another pair or two...

September stuff

I probably should have picked a day other than 9/11, but it is what it is.

It's September already! And it's weird!

The San Francisco Bay Area has gone through record heat waves (for us) and had a really weird bought of thunderstorms (as recently as an hour ago by the time of writing this).

Weird.

Almost time to start thinking about Halloween and all that fun stuff. Anything to distract from the clusterfuck that is life as we know it.

Let's recap, shall we?

• Massive hurricane blasts the unholy hell out of Texas and puts a chunk of Houston under water. Fifty-two inches of water fell at one point!
• 8.1 earthquake hits Mexico. Eight-point-one. Fuckin. Ing. Hell. That's big.
• Hurricane Ivanka-sorry-Irma hits Florida. Sure, it dropped down to Category 4 but that's after nearly wiping clean some islands in the Caribbean.

And still people deny the climate change evidence. Good lord.

It's enough to drive a fellow to drink. More.

What the hell happened to August?

I swear it was just July a moment ago but I looked up and it's freakin' August! It's almost September, for the FSM's sake!

What the hell?

Madness has taken hold, clearly.

In the last month I've returned to martial arts again. This time I'm trying Krav Maga. It's pretty kick-ass and I'm enjoying it, but it's really driving home how out-of-shape I am.

In terms of reading, I just finished "The Barrow" by Mark Smylie, the creator of the glorious "Artesia" fantasy comic. Set in the same world, "The Barrow" follows the adventures of Artesia's brother, Stjepan, a cartographer and probable spy as he and a series of other dungeon crawlers go through a lot of sexual escapades and some seriously fucked up shit.

I've also started reading the Witcher books by Andrezej Sapkowski. Entertaining fare, though the main books are a little chatty and could use a bit more action.

Aaaand... July is almost gone

Wow, I've really been shitty at keeping up this blog.

Guess I haven't had much to say. Well, nothing unique. I find most others are saying what I'm thinking a bit more eloquently.

With the world figuring out how to get into that hell-bound hand basket, I've been trying to get my own shit sorted. As usual, I've fallen out of my fitness habits so I'm trying to get some kind of routine that I think I'll follow and stick with that. I'm debating joining a gym, but I know I won't use it. I might try martial arts again. That's a great way to fuck myself up. Ye gods.

I'm a good season and a half behind on "Doctor Who" and not feeling super-motivated to catch up. I hear there's a female Doctor coming down the pipe. That ought to be interesting, I suppose.

"Game of Thrones" is back on. Sad I don't have HBO. I'm doubly-sad that Martin is almost-certainly never going to finish the book series. I'm irritated that I got hooked on something that will never have closure.

In truth, I gave up on Martin a long time ago. I've pretty much given up that Rothfuss will ever end his Kingslayer Chronicles at this rate. I'm not sure I care about that either, really.

FSM only knows what happened to Scott Lynch and his Gentlemen Bastards series.

A friend of mine pointed me to the English translation of Andrezej Sapkowski's Witcher series. I'm mostly through the first book "The Last Wish" and loving it. Looking forward to getting the rest of the series.

Random bits of whimsy

Commuting, as a rule, sucks.

It's not fun. It's not really supposed to be fun.

Commuting on BART is an especially dicey ride. You never know when you're going to be sharing a train with some wacked-out meth-head, violent nutjob, or just someone who hasn't had soap touch him in a year.

On top of that, BART is an aging system prone to breakdowns. Delays, while not super-common, are also not unusual. If it isn't an equipment failure of some sort, it's usually a medical emergency or some kind of police action.

On a bad day, you can get all three.

Commuting by train has its advantages. Sure, you rub shoulders with some people you usually don't really want touching your shoulder (or any other part), but if you have a book or a game on your phone, there's ways to pass the time.

And it's better than driving, most of the time.

Still, riding BART isn't something I especially enjoy anymore. It's more of a necessity than anything else.

What's helped take the sting away is the neat little things that I've come to notice over a few years of commute. You see, at one station (or possibly more), if you look down at the escalator steps, you can sometimes see that whomever painted the yellow warning markers on the side decided to add a little random smiley face on one of the steps.

I've seen these on two sets of escalators so far. On a really good day, sometimes I see them on concurrent uses of the escalators (assuming they're actually working).

This morning, I got to see both smiley faces I'm used to seeing. It's weird what a strange lift that was to my morning. It's a little thing, but it's nice to see those little bits of whimsy in an increasingly-depressing world.

Review: TAD Gear Rogue WX Jacket

Came into some spare change. Decided to do a little shopping. So I went out and picked up a Rogue WX Jacket by TAD Gear. I've had my eye on this since the first advert graced my email. I know TAD Gear did another version of their other Rogue Jacket (now called "Rogue RS") and I was intrigued.

The Rogue WX is a waxed jacket, which was the first big difference between the WX and the RS. The Rogue RS is a canvas jacket that's really lightweight. It's perfect for spring and autumn in most places (maybe with a layer) and summers in San Francisco. The WX is a heavier jacket, probably better suited for a chilly Spring day or a cool Autumn day. It's a bit heavy and warm for summers in San Francisco (and far too warm for summers in any other place that has actual weather). It's comfortable and fits well. Still has the various pockets that the RS has. The inner pockets are a tad smaller (pun not intended), but still big enough for a phone, small wallet, or whatever. The zippers are better on the WX. I assume they're the same on the revised RS. All-in-all, it's a nice purchase. The quality seems good and it's going to be nice to bust this puppy out when the weather gets chilly.

Review: "Perilous Waif" by E. William Brown

I have to admit to some mixed feelings about "Perilous Waif" by E. William Brown. It's a brilliant science fiction novel set in a universe with well-defined technologies and politics. The characters are engaging and fantastic. The narrative is solid and the dialog humorous and tight.

If I have a concern (not even a complaint) about the setting, it's trying to wrap my mind around the whole idea that it's told from the perspective of a thirteen or fourteen year-old-girl.

Yeah, it's not a problem to have a thirteen or fourteen year-old-protagonist. And I have no problem with that protagonist being an utter and complete badass (as the the protagonist, Alice Long, truly is). Where I get squishy is where the sexual stuff comes in. Oh, Brown's good. He doesn't have underage sex in his novel. But there's stuff in there that I have to admit I felt uncomfortable reading. Probably my own morals and that's my thing, but still.

Overall, "Perilous Waif" was brilliant stuff. A story of an extraordinary orphan girl who finds herself fleeing a bad situation and falling in with a crew of "freelance spacers". Before too long, she's mingling with mercenaries and space Yakuza for lost treasure. And then things get wild.

"Perilous Waif" is set up for a sequel, and I'm absolutely getting the next book in the series. I'm kinda hoping for a time jump, though. Just sayin'.

Late to the Game - Review: Wonder Woman

Yeah. So I'm going to start off with thoughts on DC heroes. DC Comics (who produce the icons such as Batman, Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern) are really solid at producing iconic, memorable, superheroes. Far better than their Marvel competitors, in my humble opinion.

That said:

• DC movies don't hold a candle to the Marvel ones.
• I largely dislike DC heroes.

Mainly, I really dislike Superman and Wonder Woman. I'm down with Batman. Mostly. Aquaman was a childhood favorite, but I mostly think he's a bad joke now. I love Green Lantern in his or her various incarnations, but DC has done a wonderful job muddying that mythology.

In film, the Marvel movies are just more fun than the DC ones. The first two Nolan-directed Batman films were pretty solid. The third was weak, but that's pretty much that. I've seen bits of the Superman films on flights. Enough to personally find them to be crap and not be inspired to finish them. The Green Lantern movie was... yeah... moving on. Batman vs Superman was a crime against cinema. I couldn't get through it far enough to see Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman be introduced.

So imagine my surprise when all the reviews (and several friends) praised the Wonder Woman film.

So today I finally saw it.

Damn that movie was awesome!

Wonder Woman pressed all the right buttons as a film. Solid origin story. Vulnerable-yet-badass hero (heroine?). Solid supporting cast. Good villain. Original setting (World War I). Solid feel. Great mix of humor and action.

Seriously. When they can produce films like this, it really makes me wonder what the fuck Warner Brothers was smoking for the Superman and Superman vs Batman films.

Except for a childhood crush on Lynda Carter's '70's Wonder Woman (from the titular TV series), I've never really cared for Wonder Woman. She's always seemed a bit silly. She flies an invisible jet? She has some kind of magical lasso? She's got a vague background-slash-origin that varies a lot. She's always seemed a bit of a ridiculous character to me.

No longer. This film knocked all the other DC heroes to the wayside and put a tiara of badassness on the brow of a dark-haired immortal heroine who makes Bruce Wayne look like a ridiculous tool and Clark Kent/Kal-El look just plain childish and silly. A crazy man who dresses like a bat and an alien who likes to wear under-roos can't compete with a goddess.

Wonder Woman did a brilliant job defining the character of Diana in her role as a child among seemingly-immortal Amazons. It established a solid mythology and did a great job setting up the antagonist of Ares. Casting Gal Gadot was fantastic. She was the perfect blend of badass while seemingly naive and a bit emotionally-vulnerable. Chris Pine's Steve Trevor was far better than I expected. The rest of the cast of characters were just icing on the cake. And setting the film in WWI was inspired genius!

Gorgeous and clever movie. It only slightly takes a back seat to Guardians of the Galaxy: Volume 2 in my book. But just slightly.

I'm almost tempted to give the Justice League movie a chance. Almost.

The Joys of Travel

Just got back from a trip to the UK. Was there for the election that resulted in a "hung Parliament", leaving them with a bit of an uncertain road ahead.

Interesting times.

I returned home with a box of fudge and some kind of cold or bug that may or may not be strep throat. I'm waiting to hear on the last bit. Goddamn but I hate flying now. When I was a kid, it was an exotic, interesting thing. Now I find myself in a tiny seat in coach for hours on end just praying to get the hell out of the plane. I avoid the airline food like the plague (which almost certainly saved me from stomach problems) which left me beyond hungry. The only saving grace was that international flights have a fairly good selection of movies.

I got to finally see The Wolverine (meh), Moana (excellent!), Logan (not bad), The Great Wall (terrible, but I enjoyed it nonetheless), Jupiter Ascending (wow... beautiful but horrible), and at least one or two other movies that have left no impression on my memory at all.

It's good to be home, sick or not. There's just something comforting about sleeping in one's own bed.

And it's nice to have cars driving on the right side of the road.

Gotta love those spring colds

Two weeks I've been pretty much down-and-out with sinus issues and, for much of that, a wracking cough.

Just as I was thinking "tomorrow, I think I'll call the doctor", it's started to clear.

Still got the cough, but it's looser. Still have the sinus issues, but they're bearable and less-crippling.

Nature's really got it in for me this month.

Plant Bukakke redux

Now all the congestion has transformed into the inevitable springtime chest cold for me.

Whee.

I'm strangely-relieved, truth be told. I'm so used to this as a pattern that it offers a certain predictability as to what I can expect. My head congestion has migrated to my chest, so I can breathe for the most part and no longer wish fiery doom upon all vegetable life. That's good, as we humans need plants and all that. Also I'm afraid of fire.

So now I'm adding cough medicine to my daily pharmaceutical cocktails. Whee.

Fucking plant bukakke

I currently hate all plant life. Why? Plant bukakke. Fucking springtime comes (heh) with all the little particles of plants sowing their procreative spew. And I'm allergic to it.

Fucking plants.

And California got record rainfall this year. So this Spring is a bucket of allergy-ridden shit.

If I had a flamethrower...

Review: Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2

GODDAMN THAT MOVIE WAS AWESOME!

At this point, anything further I read will be variations on that, so if that's all you wanted to see, you're good.

Set a few months after the first Guardians of the Galaxy film, GoG V2 starts off with action and humor then never really lets up.

While Peter Quill/"Starlord", Gamora, and Rocket remain pretty much the same, Drax is a bit more laid back (though still insane) and Groot is a baby.

The Guardians start off with a crazed job that goes fairly right, then wind up going through a series of misadventures that take them into a showdown with a godlike Celestial. Oh, and there's a fair amount of stuff covering themes of family and all that. Familiar faces (Yondu and Nebula) reappear while some new faces also pop in, such as Mantis, Starhawk, and a few others.

That's as much as I think I can get away with and not overly-spoil the film.

I will say that all the casting was spot-on. The family-theme sub-plots were corny and excessive at times, but woven seamlessly into the film's corny, over-the-top, space opera action. I quite liked the mix of old and new characters as well as the myriad call-outs to Marvel comics trivia. I need to see this flick again.

May the Fourth be With You Where No One Has Gone Before!

So I'm having lunch and the guy behind the bar decides he's going to troll everyone.

He puts on screen "Encounter at Farpoint", the pilot episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation".

Yeah, they went there.

Re-watching that episode really drove home for me how I find ST:TNG fairly unwatchable unlike "Star Trek: The Original Series".

Sure, both shows are over-acted, but I find the self-righteous, stiff-postured, priggy smugness of TNG to be just unbearable when compared with the milder, more overly-sentimental TOS.

And then there's the characters. Sure, TOS had caricatures: the square-jawed, torn-shirt, womanizing James Tiberius Kirk. The crotchety, folksy Leonard "Bones" McCoy. The brilliant, reserved, slightly alien Spock. The hard-drinking Montgomery Scott. Etc. Etc. Those caricatures were interesting! They had actual passion to them! TNG characters were bland, self-righteous, and uninteresting. Sure, Jean-Luc Picard got a little romance later, after he established his love of Earl Grey, but the rest were yawn-inducing or, in the case of Data, utterly predictable plot points to explore human psyche. Worf's Klingon stories, introduced later to give more conflict, passion, and depth, never felt like they fit.

Damn! Now I want to re-watch the old show.

Review: Zombie Tools "The Mauler"

It arrived!



Yes, my latest Zombie Tool and the companion to my Tainto (a blade retired by the Zombie Tools folks), the Mauler is also a companion karambit to my Fox flipper (which I've managed to puncture my arm with. Whee!).

The Mauler is up to what I expect of Zombie Tools standards. It's a solid, mean-looking blade. Sharp and not a toy. It's got sharp edges on the outside and on the inner curve as well as a nasty rounded spike on the ring.


I opted for the leather sheath addition and I am damn happy I did.

Now the hard part will be not accidentally lopping off a body part as I try not to play with the lovely thing too much.

Review: Maratac SR-9015L and Mid Original Pilot Automatic Watches

Sometime last year, I needed a new wristwatch. It wasn't an urgent thing, but I was looking around. Then I got an advert from County Comm with a special for one of their automatic watches: the Maratc SR-9015L.

I'm not going to pretend I understand the name. I saw the price and thought, "hey, looks good". I'd met someone with a Maratac automatic watch and was given a lot of complimentary spiel, so I bought the watch without a thought.

For the last five months or so, the SR-9015L has been riding on my wrist. It's a bit of a beast, as watches go. It's big, with a large face and a crystal back so you can see the watch interior hard at work ticking away. As an automatic watch, it's something you kind of have to wear to keep it working. It apparently runs about 40 hours between the "indirect drive" getting its action on.

If I have a complaint over the SR-9015L, it's the bezel on the rim. A rotating bezel comes on the watch and I have to say it's not an addition I find any real use for.

Weirdly-enough, the bezel is actually kind of a distraction for me. So when the Mid Original Pilot Automatic Watch came on sale, I decided to get one.

The Pilot watch is pretty much the same as the SR-9015L, at least superficially. It's an automatic watch with glowing elements so you can read the watch in the dark. It runs about 40 hours between any movement of the "indirect drive" to get it to tick along. While the SR-9015L has a big, red second-hand that ticks the seconds away, the Pilot watch has a small sixty-second circle within the indicator for minutes to count the seconds down. Kind of a beast if you're farsighted.

The Pilot watch also doesn't have a bezel.

Overall, I'm quite happy with both watches. I'll admit I wish I'd gone for the large Pilot watch. It's a bit jarring to go from the large face of the SR-9015L to the smaller "Mid Original" pilot watch. Still, the Pilot watch is a bit more discrete, and I have no trouble reading it.

Both watches keep good time and ride well on my wrist. Definitely worth the price.

Review: "Altered Carbon" by Richard K Morgan

I jumped to sci-fi with "Altered Carbon", by Richard K. Morgan.

A recommendation from a friend, "Altered Carbon" is about life a few centuries down the line. Humanity has colonized the stars. Space travel is (as far as I can surmise) still limited to decades or centuries of travel. Through hand-wavy science, one can transmit broadcasts through "hyperpsace needlebeams", though. This combines well with the technology of digitizing the human consciousness to "stacks" so that you can download a consciousness to new bodies, or "sleeves" as they're known.

Takashi Kovacks of Harlan's Word is a former Envoy (think uber-spy, black-ops, super-badass and you come close). After a job goes awry on Harlan's World, resulting in his death and that of his lover, he finds himself waking up on Earth where he has to investigate the death of a super-wealthy individual to confirm it wasn't suicide.

And then things just get worse.

"Altered Carbon" was, to be concise: fucking brilliant!

A mix of sci-fi and noir, it's a brutal and bleak look at how humanity would evolve with immortality available. I understand there's two more novels in the series. I'll have to check them out. I have to say I had a really hard time putting Morgan's book down, so my expectations are a bit high. I may have to read something else for a while and recalibrate a bit.

"Karamibt Fever": a review of the Fox 479SW Folding Karambit Flipper

It's all the fault of Zombie Tools. I was perusing their site as I shopped for my Tainto sheath, and saw The Mauler. It fascinated me and next thing I knew, I was reading up on karambit blades.

One thing led to another and then I was on a site looking at the Fox 479SW Folding Karambit Flipper. I actually found it at Knife Center for a pretty penny or two. I had some tax refund money and... well, it's pretty obvious what followed.

The Fox 479SW is first and foremost sharp! It has a single edge, with the cutting bit in the inside of the curved blade. The steel looks to be high quality to my less-than-educated eyes. It's a flipper, so there's an extension you can press when the blade is folded to force it to flip open. It's not a spring-loaded blade, mind you! If you flip it open, you use inertia to flip it.

The blade also has a proprietary catch you can use to force the blade open when pulling it out of your pocket. Kind of a neat, if potentially-nasty, design. The grip has a rough feel to it that doesn't slip but is otherwise-comfortable. The karambit has a ring on the opposite end of the blade. When gripping, either your index finger (for the normal, blade-down grip) or your pinky-finger (for the blade-up grip) gets inserted into that ring, making it difficult for you to drop the blade or be disarmed.

Also makes for an impact tool when punching someone.

I've gone through a few YouTube videos to look at how karambits are used. There's a lot of experts out there with lots of advice. It's clear that carrying this is carrying a weapon and that's got potential consequences. It's potentially risky to one's own health to mess around with it without learning more, so I'm viewing some exercises so I don't cut myself flipping it around.

I'm not sure this is the sort of thing I'd normally carry. I like my main pocketknife fine and am not really the sort of person who ever wants to be in a knife-fight. My fight-or-flight reflexes very much run towards the latter of the two options.

Still, weapons fascinate me and this is the latest of what will doubtless be many more to get my attention. It's a great knife and certainly worth the price in my book.

Another crack appears

My gaming group has been going strong for... well... a long time. A very long time. Some of the players I've got in my group I've known for more than half my life.

And I'm "gettin' on in years" as Grandpa used to say. (He never actually used to say that, but I find it funny to attribute the saying to him all the same.)

In the last few years, we've started bleeding players. One-by-one, we've had players drop out of the game. Each had his own reasons and I respect them. We managed to get one player into our group for a time, but that didn't work out.

And so now our group is about half of what it once was. Maybe a shade less.

And it's making things hard.

One of my players just asked availability for the next month's game. The discussion began and we started to realize that our little group can't get together again until mid to late summer.

Ouch.

That's a bit of a blow, given we normally aim to play monthly.

I guess real life is finally catching up with us.

Fucking sucks.

Berry Cake Experiment

My mom makes an awesome berry cake.

She uses frozen blackberries and somehow makes it light, fluffy, sublime, and tasty. Not too sweet. Just perfect.

So I got the recipe from her last time I saw her. On a whim, I tried making it earlier (see my KHAAAAAANNN!!!! posts).

So... yeah. Some mishaps in putting it together. First of all, I didn't let the butter thaw enough, so when I used the mixer, chunks of sugar and butter went all over the goddamn kitchen. Then I decided to use frozen blueberries instead of blackberries. And the pan I used is a smidge bigger than what the recipe calls for.

Oh, and I forgot to add baking powder.

So the outcome:

• It's kinda flat. Forgetting the baking powder will do that. At least I didn't add baking soda. That's always a fun mistake to make.
• The berries didn't sink properly. I think the consistency is a bit off.
• I baked it for less time. Turned out to be a good call...
• Tastes good! I decided not to add all the sugar the recipe calls for and that was a good call.

All-in-all, not a bad first try. I'm glad I remembered to grease the pan. Cleanup was easy, though I dread the bits of sugar I missed and the ant issues that will ensue.

Epic KHAAAAAAAANNNN!!!!

That moment when you realize your previous "KHAAAAAAAANNNNN!!!" moments happened due to the same ill-advised activity.

And it's only Wednesday.

KHAAAAAANNN!!!!! (2)

That moment when you realize you have an ant problem and you've got sugar all over your kitchen thanks to a mixer mishap.

KHAAAAAAAAAANNNNN!!!!!!!!

That moment when you look in the oven and realize you forgot to put in baking powder...

Been a while

I've really let time slide by. Let's see, what can I add?

I got a sheath for my Tainto. It makes me happy and makes my now-discontinued Zombie Tools knife look all that more badass.

I got about halfway through Michael Wisehart's "The White Tower" before realizing I just couldn't get into it. It's not a bad book, all said. Wisehart's an okay writer. But the characters are all the sorts I've seen before. The plot is predictable. I just couldn't find myself all that interested and shelved it.

Spring has sprung. Allergies are gonna suck soon. They've already started to worm their way around my daily allergy meds a tiny bit.

Yeah, I got nuthin'. Life's kind of dull, which isn't entirely bad. When I turn on the news, I see just how exciting things can get and I'm kind of happy with dull for now.

Dog-pile week

Last week sucked. Goddamn Daylight Saving Time kicked in and just stomped all over my brain. I've been disoriented every damn morning I've woken up.

And now I've gone on the wagon.

For reasons, I'm taking a break from alcoholic beverages of all kinds for at least one week. I want to see if this helps with some health issues.

And, of course, I decided to do this on Saint Patrick's Day. Timing is everything.

It's sobering (pun intended) to realize what a part social drinking is in my life. Usually I hit a brewery on a weekend, if I can. I haven't today and it's felt weird. I feel as though I'm not doing something I really ought to be doing. There's doubtless a joke in there somewhere. Sadly.

Review: The Greatcoats series by Sebastien De Castell

On an Amazon recommendation, I picked up the current three books of the Greatcoats series by Sebastien De Castell (who may well have the coolest author name ever):

• Traitor's Blade
• Knight's Shadow
• Saint's Blood

I'm going to comment on them as a unit as I read them back-to-back over the last few weeks and it's kind of hard to separate them in my head. The series is about three of the Greatcoats, royal wandering magistrates charged with upholding the King's law. The story is narrated by Falcio (pronounced "Fal-kee-oh") Val Mond, the First Cantor of the Greatcoats, and his two best friends: Kest and Brasti.

Falcio is a master swordsman who specializes in the rapier. He throws a mean knife and is a skilled negotiator. He's also known for his rather tiresome speeches. Kest is the best swordsman in the land. A solemn fellow, he is always analyzing situations tactically and can tell a foe how many moves it will take before Kest wins. Brasti is the best archer in the land. He (almost) never misses. A former poacher, he has a less-sophisticated view of the world than his friends and has a bit of an ego.

It's been five years since the King's death after being deposed by the despotic Dukes of Tristia, the land the story is set in. The Greatcoats are disgraced and forced to find odd jobs while trying to each follow the last commands of their King before his death.

During one of those jobs, things go from wrong to horribly, horribly wrong. And the stories set Facio and his friends on the road to finding the King's heir, defeating a variety of increasingly dangerous foes, and suffering some fairly horrific abuse along the way.

Overall, I really liked the books. They were filled with dashing adventure with some intriguing villains and some fascinating takes on magic and religion. That said, I did find the books tended to blur together. Falcio's character growth feels like it resets between books. The character doesn't seem to really learn from the truly horrible lessons he's given.

Falcio is the narrator of the series, and a badass, but he's arguably not the hero of the series. In many ways, those roles fall to the women in the books. The female characters are intriguing in their own way. In one way, they serve as Falcio's goal to protect. Sometimes they need the protection. Often they don't. They tend to be smarter and more observant than Facio (and often his friends). It's fun to watch those characters grow through Falcio's eyes, as they do seem to develop and change between books.

If you're a fan of a Three Muskateers flavor of fantasy fiction, I think you might want to give De Castell's series a chance.

Down Time

Just for shits and giggles (and because I have enough time accrued) I took Friday and Monday off.

Nice long weekend.

I'd like to claim I did something constructive and useful with that time off. In fairness, I did get a lot of jogging and walking in, especially today.

But it wasn't a net win in terms of health. Friday was a brewery lunch that was followed by an extremely ill-advised brewery crawl in the evening. Saturday was my monthly game. Could have been better, but I think I was off my game (so to speak). Sunday was ridiculously-good Mai Tais with the family. Then Monday was exploring to find a new brewery. A new brewery that offers not one, not two, but three smoked beers on draught. Fucking hell.

Life doesn't suck. Tomorrow morning, however...

Good for what ails ya

The other day I was looking at my accrued time off. Looked good. Actually, looked kind of on the high end.

I think I deliberated for about thirty seconds before I put in the request for time off. Fast forward to this morning and I'm looking at a long weekend.

It felt damn good to wake up at a sane hour. It felt even better to traipse out, devour an unhealthy breakfast (mmm... bacon...) then meander home with nothing really to do. I took a run an hour later. Went further than I'd planned or expected. I regret nothing. Any healthy benefits I got from that was undone by lunch anyway.

Yes, lunch was mostly beer. Mmm... beer...

And now? And now I think I'm due to poison myself further while catching up with an old friend.

Sometimes it's the simple, little, things that make life worth living.

Damn but I needed this weekend.

Thanks Amazon!

So Amazon S3 crapped out earlier today. Hosed all sorts of things. Looks like the issues are persisting.

I can't help but laugh a little. So many people talk up the benefits of "the cloud". Oh sure, there are many benefits, but as the Amazon outage shows, it's kind of a house of cards as well...

Game over, man!

Rest in peace, Bill Paxton.

Shaking my head

My table-top gaming group lost a player today.

When we're not having our monthly sit-down session at someone's place, I try to fill the gaps with an email session. It helps me get tiresome exposition out of the way while practicing my creative writing skills. Some of our email sessions are quite entertaining reading. One day I hope to edit them into a proper story.

I'm not sure how I'll handle the current one.

When I look back at what happened, I can't say I'm sure what went wrong. It was an argument, but I'm still fuzzy on how it got out of control so quickly. It was role-playing. One player has a gruff sort who is the leader. Another is playing an opposite gender character from a very different culture. The dispute started over something fairly small. The leader character was insisting on a promised (indeed, a vow) of silence over a plot twist. Everyone agreed. The outlier player character seemed to have agreed, but the player for the leader character pressed for a specific promise. The player for the outlier character got offended. There were some tense exchanges, seeming to be in-character, then everything sort of settled down.

In all honesty, it wasn't all that unusual of an exchange. In role-playing games, often players get a little "lost" in their characters. Terse and tense exchanges happen. Sometimes there's some seriously hard feelings. I've been on both ends of those kinds of exchanges and this particular situation didn't even seem to merit honorable mention when compared to those.

Clearly I mis-judged.

The player for the outlier character was still quite offended. Part of it was the player's interpretation of the character's view. Part of it was seeming to be a very personal offense taken from what the other player said. I've re-read everything multiple times and I honestly can't see the cause for complaint. But I'm not the one who is offended.

There was another exchange over the long weekend. It concluded today.

And I lost a player.

I'm not sure I could have done anything to fix this. I'm honestly not sure I wanted to. Now I have a very, very small gaming group and I'm wondering if it's got a sustainable future.

Perfect start to a fucking Tuesday.

Thanks...?

Said to me today: "So I have you to thank for Disco Vampire Family."

I can, in all honesty, say:

• I never expected to be told that. Ever.
• I never really expected to see the words "Disco", "Vampire", and "Family" in any kind of sequential order. Ever. In retrospect, that was a bit silly of me.

Overdue Commentary

To celebrate the growler of tasty beer in my 'fridge, I feel an urge to post to my neglected blog!

REJOICE!

Why am I drinking on a Monday night? Well besides the obvious answer of "why not?" there's always the celebration that we're about a month-and-a-half into the Trumpocalypse and the nukes haven't sailed just yet. I'm cautiously-optimistic that we might make it through March before all hell breaks loose.

It's a game among people I know: to start the day asking "What godawfully fucked-up and stupid thing has Trump and his Legion of Evil done today?"

I try not to speculate. It just irritates me. I'm also afraid word might get back to Der Gropenfuhrer and he'll get inspired.

In other news, I'm working on a new slew of fantasy and sci-fi novels grabbed from Amazon. I'm currently working my way through "The Crimson Queen" by Alec Hutson. It had a slow start, but I have to say I'm quite enjoying it now. I'm about halfway through and things are getting horribly fucked up in a delightful way. I'm not entirely-clear I know what's going on and that's just fine with me.

Thanks to a friend's generosity, I'm able to see season two of "The Expanse" (currently airing on SyFy). It's surpassing my expectations and making me quite giddy. The introduction of Bobbie Draper is all I'd hoped for. Oh glory day! Please Tweety McTangerine! Don't nuke us before season two ends!

At the recommendation of a friend, I've started to make modifications to my wardrobe. I'm now getting tailored shirts made. Shirts with buttons! That should really be ironed!

It's a far cry from my shitty t-shirts and frayed hoodies. I'm still sticking with my jeans for the time being, but I may pony up for some chinos at some point and maybe even (gasp!) another suit.

Crazy times.

Speaking of crazy times, it's been raining like Biblical endtimes in parts of California this year. I feel for folks near Oroville Dam. That shit is just nuts. I can't believe how fast we went from drought to floods.

Wait. Trumpy-poo is prez. Yes. Yes I can believe that. I can believe that and more.

Pithy

I think this says it all. (via BoingBoing)

Inaugration Day

I don't think I can follow-through on my plan to cut out (or severely cut back on) drinking.

Adventures in Internetting

I've had DSL for... a long time. Sure, I could go cable and get a faster connection, but then I'd have to go with Comcast or AT&T and I'm not big on putting too many of my needs at the mercy of monopolies. So I've sucked it up and gone through smaller providers. It's been a mixed-bag, all-said. As a rule, the customer service I get from smaller providers is top-notch, but it does make it hard to iron down... issues.

For some time now, I've had connectivity issues. I've gone back-and-forth with my provider for a while, but I think - possibly - I got the issue resolved today.

I hope.

First sick day of 2017

And I thought I was getting better.

Thirteen hours of Nyquil-induced slumber later and I am. Kinda.

First Head Cold of 2017

I made it six days.

Yesterday, going into work, I had a horrific attack of sinus issues. I figured it was allergies. I seem to suffer from allergy-related sinus issues most days of the year. I figured mold or something got in the office ventilation.

I got home and I was feeling worse. The sinus issues were so bad, I could barely breathe.

Loaded up on decongestants and realized my throat was bothering me. Added Nyquil to the mix and took a nine-hour nap.

Woke up this morning to the sound of rain and a sore throat.

I've got a cold. Good times. I think the nine hours of Nyquil-sleep helped. My congestion isn't too bad, but I'm definitely sick.

Good times.

Five days in

It wouldn't be the new year season if I weren't going through some ill-advised attempts to get in-shape. The jogging, step-climbing stuff isn't a problem, all things considered. I've been faithful enough with jogging that it's not too troubling.

No, it's the upper-body stuff that's kicking my ass. I've neglected push-ups and chin-ups for longer than I ought. I've been pretty faithful for the last five days, but I'm starting to feel it a lot.

I guess that's a good sign in that I'm doing something right, but... ouch.

I think I'm going to take 2017 slow. Get one thing done, then move on to another. Gonna be that kind of year.

On the plus side, my pool game is improving a lot. While I'm still the worst person in my office by a mile, I'm starting to win games properly instead of due to the other player scratching.

Whee.

Now we're due for a cold snap before a major rain storm hits the Bay Area. Should be a fun weekend.

Review: TAD Gear Rogue RS and Sentinel Field Jackets

It's winter. It's cold. It's currently also quite wet. It's that time when one has to have a suitable coat when one goes outdoors.

During the blitz of endless adverts sent to my email, I noticed Triple Aught Design (aka TAD Gear) came out with some new jackets.

I have purchased some of their jackets in the past and never regretted a purchase, despite the expense.

As Autumn hit, I found myself in need of a nice, light jacket. And I came across the Rogue RS Jacket.

It was exactly what I was looking for. It's a breathable, sturdy jacket made of nylon and cotton. When open, it's comfortable on a warm day. When zipped up, it keeps a blustery wind from giving too much trouble. While not waterproof, it's a workable garment in a light rain.

The Rogue RS has two zippered hand-warmer pockets that have smaller pockets within for items (flashlight, gum, whatever). There's also two smaller pockets inside the jacket that could fit a small wallet or maybe a phone.

Totally worth the cost in my book. I liked my Rogue RS so much that when TAD had a one-day Xmas coupon in early December, I got a second one (in a different color) with the Spring in mind.

I thought that was that.

Then those crafty buggers at Triple Aught Design set another lure for me.

It was a few days later when I saw the Sentinel Field Jacket first go on-sale. I was intrigued. Then I looked at the price tag and choked a bit. With Xmas expenses melting my credit card, I decided I couldn't afford it.

The next day, I decided I could probably manage it and tried to buy one. They were sold out. In one day.

Bummed, I occasionally checked out the site (by which I mean I looked multiple times every damn day) to see if they restocked in my size.

Right around Xmas (I think maybe Xmas Eve?) they restocked. I made the purchase before I was even conscious of what the hell I was doing.

A few days after Xmas, I managed to line up with UPS and get my jacket.

I.
Regret.
Nothing!

The Sentinel Field Jacket is a truly delightful garment. Highly water-resistant, the Sentinel is made of a light, breathable fabric called "Ventile" that layers well for cold weather (like now) but would likely fare well come Spring and Autumn.

And then there's the pockets.

I do love me a jacket with pockets and the Sentinel doesn't disappoint. There's two large, snap-closed, pouch pockets in front with a pair of zipper-closed hand-warmer pockets on the side. There's also a zipper-closed pocket over the left side of the chest with another zipper-closed pocket on the inside. All have good-sized capacity for things like wallets, small cameras, phones, a medium-sized book, sunglasses, or whatever.

I won't lie to you: the Sentinel is currently my favorite jacket.

Damn well better be for the price.

TAD is an expensive place to shop, but I have to say I've liked everything I've gotten from them.

Temporal Confusion

There's a downside to taking a long break from work, then returning to a short work week: it's damn hard to track what day it is.

For the most part, it doesn't really matter to me what day of the week it is this week. My daily obligations are pretty much the same. As long as I don't try going into work on Saturday morning, I ought to be fine.

Some of my co-workers are not so lucky. Case in point: one co-worker was telling us today about his Wednesday deadline to get something before a Friday morning meeting.

There was a moment of silence.

"You mean, Wednesday as in today?" one co-worker asked the other.

"For the meeting that's this Friday?" I chimed in.

There was a widening of eyes. A slight paling of the complexion. And the obligatory "Oh shit!".

Yeah, I'm not the only one having trouble tracking this week.

Well, it's 2017

My start-of-the-year checklist:

• Sleep in? Not really. Didn't sleep well.
• Eat a fattening breakfast? Check.
• Go for a jog? Check.
• See the family? Pending.

An anticlimactic end to 2016 on my part. With the bug still lingering, I opted to chill out and read in bed until midnight. I texted my happy new year greetings to a few folks then passed out. No Nyquil. No whiskey. Got to be a personal first in ages.

Ah 2017. What do you have in store for us? Melting icecaps? Earthquakes? Plague? Flood? Locusts? Sweet Meteor of Death? Unicorns? Sentient Homicidal Furbys? I guess time will tell.

Oh, and to any of the few crazed who read this blog: Happy New Year. I hope 2017 treats you well, or at least better than 2016 did.