Red Seas Under Red Skies

I finished "Red Seas Under Red Skies" on Sunday.

An excellent book. It slowed a little bit in the middle but it picked up again very quickly.

The story took several unexpected turns. There were a couple of "WTF?" moments followed by exclamations of "oh you did NOT do that!".

Yeah. My neighbors love me. They really do.

Since "Red Seas" was in hardback, I suspect that means Lynch's next book is not even close to publication.

Damnit!

What's with the blog?

Um... I dunno. It was an accident, for the most part. I needed to create it to accomplish a snarky task and decided to do some brain dumps to stave off boredom.

So for now, it's an exercise. When I get bored with this, I'll probably delete it.

Until then, I intend to blab about whatever comes to mind. And on that topic:

Dr. Who in Pompeii. Kind of an interesting episode, to my surprise. I quite enjoyed it. It certainly topped the season opener with the "alien fat babies", although that's not saying much.

BSG seemed to be filler stuff this time around. Nothing substantive happened. A lot of unnecessary buildup and drama. I'm getting a little tired of some of the storylines, actually. The writers are clearly getting lazy or burned-out.

- Starbuck is obviously crazy so let's stand around and let her bring a crazy Cylon aboard (this act cost me a coffee that is now owed to one of my co-workers... damn them)

- Everyone seems to be conveniently forgetting that "Athena"-Sharon is also a Cylon. Shouldn't... I dunno... people listen to her opinion or comment on her Cylon-ness? Just a thought.

- Baltar amuses me but I still think someone needs to riddle him with bullets.

- The "Final Four" Cylons are individually such a bunch of crackheads that it's a wonder the Cylons actually took down the 12 Colonies.

I have to admit I'm finding myself disenchanted with BSG after having watched this episode. You'd think that with the show ending they'd try to spend more time ramping up main storyline stuff and concluding things instead of taking side-trips down crazy-people lane.

I guess I expect too much from my TV shows.

Port Costa

So I went to scenic Crockett and Port Costa for some drinks with the unnamed and some friends.

A good time was had by all.

The Nantucket in Crockett is a neat little place by the water with cheerful staff and Full Sail on draft. Mmm... Two pitchers of Full Sail were a good start to the evening as we watched the sun set, the cargo ships go by, and studied the various boats in dock to wonder what kind of creepy stuff could be going on in them.

I wouldn't have wanted to do that speculation after sunset. Brrr.

We migrated on to Port Costa to hit the Warehouse Bar.

Words fail me at how awesome that bar is. So I took pictures.

The beer selection at the Warehouse Bar is unbelievable. Their beer menu is unreal! The bartender was an amusing fellow who was also kind enough to give us a tour of the walk-in cooler where the billions of beer were stored.

It was like beer heaven!

I kind of wish I hadn't had so much Full Sail at the Nantucket. It would have afforded me more room for the other beers.

Then again... Full Sail on tap. Mmmm...

It was quiet there, so we pretty much dominated the bar scene. The others programmed the juke box with music that was alternately awesome and terrifying. Apparently there's a biker convention arriving today that will number in the hundreds.

Glad we went last night.

The ride out was a long, windy, dark road with axe-murderer, creepy children, and hungry animals lurking in every imaginary shadow.

Good times.

Adventures in bicycling

So I've been good and ridden my bike to work every day of the week.

It's not really a bad ride. I set out in the wee-hours of the morning before the sun has roused from its cozy bed and had that first cup of sweet, sweet coffee.

At that time, the normally-busy city streets of the Berzerkely area are navicable so it's pretty much a straight shot in.

It's dark, but I have a pretty bright lamp on my bike and the city streets are lit so I don't have problems.

I also have a rule: once I start I don't stop for anything short of a moving vehicle. Period.

There's a reason for this: freaks.

If you're not familiar with the Berkeley area, it has its fair share of nutcases walking about. They really like walking about at all hours and in all kinds of weather. I see a fair number of them on my bike ride in.

Many try to stop me (and other folks moving about in the wee hours) for conversation or whatever.

I don't stop unless I hit an intersection where I have no real choice. There's just nothing to be gained from it.

This morning I was just about to cross out of Berkeley's city boundaries into Emeryville's borders when I hit a red light and had to stop because of opposing traffic. Stopped next to me at the light was some random guy on a bike.

It's 5-something in the morning. I have exactly one cup of coffee in me. I'm not making eye contact.

So what does this guy do? Starts chatting at me. At first I thought he was coherent, but he rapidly stopped being coherent.

The light changed colors and I was pretty much gone like a shot. He followed me for three blocks, but I've gotten familiar with the E'ville streets and either I lost him or he found something else to do.

Good times.

While it's nice for physical fitness, this ride does have its fair share of tweaky moments. I've been stopped by police three times while on my bike, had random pedestrians try to flag me down (or grab me off my bike... whee!) and I've been solicited at least twice.

I need to buy that "Flypaper for Freaks" t-shirt.

Friday

Woke up grouchy for no good reason I can think of.

Tonight's adventures will involve a trek to scenic Port Costa. Where is Port Costa, you ask? Well, it's described here and here.

Why am I going to Port Costa?

Apparently there's a very interesting bar there known as the "Warehouse Cafe" which is set in a... wait for it... warehouse.

Port Costa has a rough population of 232 people and it has a Wikipedia article. WTF??

Tonight's gonna be weird.

Interestingly enough the Wikipedia article links off to all sorts of random stuff I didn't know about the area. I had no idea eastern Contra Costa County had so many ghost towns.

Might make for an interesting day trek at some point.

I keep meaning to hit the Black Diamond Mines. Rumor has it that it's haunted. There's also supposed to be some kind of old Native American artwork cave on EBMUD lands near Mt. Diablo.

Adventures for the future, I suppose.

Borders coupons

So it's dangerous to be so close to a Borders books and get those damn coupons. Combine that with my poor impulse-control and I wind up buying stuff.

Case-in-point: the local Borders has some eps of the classic "Dr. Who" on DVD. With these coupons, they're almost affordable.

I used to have tons of the Jon Pertwee, Tom Backer, Peter Davison (shudder), Colin Baker, and even Sylvester McCoy eps on VHS thanks to PBS broadcasts. I never really got to watch any of the old Patrick Troughton eps, save at sci-fi cons.

So I managed to pick up an old Cybermen classic of the Troughton era: "The Invasion"

I'm a bit jazzed. I don't mind sayin' it.

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I just got invited to an outing of some sort in June. I don't think it's a bridal shower. Is it a bachelorette party? If so, why am I invited? Eh, in any event, I'm going to a friend's wedding on June 7 and have been invited to an outing earlier that week that involves Sake bombs (or so the evite says).

And it's on a Tuesday night.

Gah!

I loves my sake, but on a school night? Ye gods.

Oh wow. I re-read the invite. It's in friggin' Palo Alto. No... that's not happening.
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It's May already. What the hell happened?

Cylons

... will not be discussed in this post. I don't give a rat's arse who the last Cylon is.

This makes my eyes burn, but in a good way.

Tonight's the next installment of "Lost". With this latest season, they've got me hooked again, the bastards. io9 has an interesting post where the producers "graded" some of the theories. If they're not yanking fan-chains, I could find a glimmer of hope that they know what they're doing with this show.

Damn hope.

I'm mildly-surprised that I don't have a hangover this morning. I had three drinks last night that weren't weak. Sure I had plenty of water and was peachy-keen when I left "Forbidden Island", but still...

Ah well. Good times.