Wee bit brisk

Yesterday morning was odd. I left my apartment and it was sufficiently warm that a light jacket was all I needed.

Then suddenly, some storm has started its southerly journey and sent a bit of the cold air our way.

This morning was a very different story.

Feels more like December now.

'Bout damn time. I get nervous when December is warm.

Don't get me wrong. I don't mind being able to go about in a t-shirt all day in December, but there's something intrinsically wrong with that.

One Ring to... no wait. Two Rings to... no....

How does this work, anyway? If you wear one of the One Ring earrings, do you half-disappear? If you put on both do you doubly disappear?

If one person wears one One Ring earring and another wears the other, does that mean there's some kind of power struggle in Mordor?

These are the sorts of thoughts that go through my head when I see nerd props. I need a vacation.

Review: Cold Nights

I got Jim Butcher's Cold Nights on Wednesday. It sat unread as I finished Red Country and handed that off to friends to read.

Thursday night I started the 515 page beast. I was feeling a little iffy so I crashed out early, promising myself that I was going to pace reading this book.

Yesterday, after work, I took it to the local bar and read for a few hours.

Tipsy, I went home and continued to read. Late.

Today, I read, took a few breaks, read some more, then about five minutes ago, I finished it.



Damn.

The latest in the Dresden Files series has Harry Dresden returning to the story after the crazy events in Ghost Story (which, I have to say, was not my favorite of the series).

Without spoiling things too much, the story has Harry paying for a bargain he made a couple of books back. A bargain with the Fae.

The story is, like many of the Dresden Files stories, a series of crazy events culminating in some pretty epic insanity.

Butcher does this well. I'm inclined to think he's one of the better authors for building up a story and giving a satisfying conflict with a satisfying resolution.

Cold Nights isn't like most of the previous books. There's a greater intensity to the narrative in this one. The stakes stay pretty crazy from the get-go and keep going higher into nutsville.

I vaguely recall somewhere that Butcher intends to make the Dresden Files a 20-novel series. I will be curious to see him carry that out.

And I intend to read every damn one.

MAD... you know, I'm not even going to try it this time

Watched my recording of Wednesday's "Arrow". They've added the DC character of the Huntress to the mix.

The acting remains a steady level of fairly awful. The dialog is actually physically-painful to listen to. The action doesn't suck, but there could be more of it.

And yet I can't stop watching. Am I craving superhero shows that badly?

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Finished "Red Country" last night. Ye gods what a fucked-up book. Love Abercrombie's grim and crazy world, but I'm ready for something lighter.

Hello "Cold Days". A little Dresden Files action is what I need.

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I really do need a book to dominate my time for a while. Having a few ugly moments with whatever repetitive stress is manifesting in my elbow. Using a mouse is an unpleasant experience, even with the neat ergonomic ones I now use at both work and home.

Need something to get away from the computer for a time.

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Pear Harbor Remembrance Day today. A time when we U.S. folks recall how Hawai'i got introduced to WWII.

I had family in Honolulu during those days and, as a child, often heard stories of the bombing and how some of my family had to race another family member to the base. Made for exciting stories, but I never really understood it. Not properly.

Then, back in 2001, my grandmother insisted I take her to see Pearl Harbor.

She was present for the bombings and often mentioned that day in stories that I rarely gave much credit.

Pearl Harbor is a terrible movie, even with the delicious Kate Beckinsale in it. That said, the scene of the actual attack is pretty intense. And it freaked my grandma out. Actually brought tears to her eyes.

After that, I think I understood what it must have been like. Just a little, tiny, bit.

Makes me grateful I've never had to go through that kind of insanity in my life.

Interestingly enough, a few months later, 9/11 happened.

Thankfully, I was here in California, blissfully unaffected by the crazier stuff that was going on. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking of that damn movie and my grandmother's reaction a couple of times while the news was showing the Two Towers going down.

Crazy goddman world.

Lust List and Stuff

I have, at best, only a few isolated scenarios in which a slingshot is of any practical use in my life.

That does not stop me from wanting this with an unholy desire.

If I can make it work in my budget in 2013, I actually want to look into archery. That's not going to be an inexpensive hobby, alas.

Oh, I could rent a bow and all that. My friend V has shared her experiences with her archery options in the area. The thought has appeal but if I go into this hobby, I'll probably want to get a bow.

I never realized it before, but archery and using slingshots seem to have a fair amount in common.

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I used to wear a 686 Tool belt as my belt of choice.

I always liked the idea of having screwdrivers at-hand (so to speak) and a bottle-opener to boot (though opening a bottle with the belt buckle can look really awkward... okay, moving on...).

I tried an Instructable method for converting my tool belt into a makeshift money belt at one point by adding velcro on this inside.

It worked okay for a time, but there were... flaws. To do this right, I'd really need to do some sewing, a skill I lack. And to it the way I wanted, I'd have to be able to stitch into the leather of the belt, which I simply don't have the right tools to do properly.

Long story short, I opted to get a different belt.

I got the travel belt on Preparedness Deals. It looks nicely-unobtrusive and has that hidden pocket option that I so love.

Nice belt. Lighter and easier to adjust. This may well be my new favorite for a while.

MADNESS? This is... no wait, I did this already.

So endeth the rain to the Bay Area for a while. I expect the break is welcome to folks repairing damage and clearing drains, but I hope it's a wet winter with lots of snow in the Sierras.

We need it.

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Erik tipped me off to Trader Joe's cinnamon rolls last time I had an in-person chat with him.

I got some last week. Made some last weekend. Results:

• Delicious beyond words
• The damn things are about 390 calories a pop.
• Delicious beyond words
• The sugar messed me up.

Conclusion: if I ever want to develop full-blow diabetes, these things are the way to go.

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So yesterday was Repeal Day, when Prohibition was tossed out as a bad idea. Arguably one of the saner moments in our nation's history.

Not-too-coincidentally, Washington (state) has legalized marijuana.

I'm not a massive fan of MJ myself. I don't like the act of smoking and eating anything with weed in it has too long of an effect.
I prefer my booze as I know how long that's going to alter my state.

That said, I'm all for legalizing it. Marijuana is pretty low-key as drugs go. I've known tons of mean drunks but have yet to meet a mean stoner ("mean" defined as someone willing to be violent rather than someone not willing to share a bag of chips or some pizza).

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I'd like the weather to get a bit cooler, personally. I don't mind the mild temperatures, for the most part, but I do enjoy a nice, crisp, cold morning from time-to-time, especially when the season calls for it.

Thank the FSM our "cold" in the Bay Area is just "somewhat chilly" by the standards of the rest of the world. We don't (normally) get snow or any of that crazy stuff.

Madness? THIS. IS. WEDNESDAY!

It's raining. Love it. I guess this is the last of the wet stuff for a while. Hope we get more. A lot more. And I hope it's spaced out with dry periods so we don't have flooding.

And I want a pony that craps gold.

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A friend of mine asked me to look over a paper for her class. It's math. It's not just math. It's math that may as well be a completely foreign language to me. I can't remember the last time I had to look at math problems that involved graphs, roots, and letters-in-place-of-numbers.

I'm having PTSD flashbacks from high school math class. Well, I would if I could remember high school.

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Twenty more days 'till Xmas. I've been lucky. Thus far I've not heard a single bit of Xmas music. The only Xmas bling I've been subjected to are the office Xmas trees. Good times there.

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Reading Red Country by Ian Abercrombie. If you're not familiar with Abercrombie's work, he writes happy, fluffy, light-hearted fictional accounts of fantasy settings.

By which I mean the settings are fantasy but anything other than happy, fluffy, and light-hearted.

I'm liking the book, but I'm thinking Abercrombie really intended for this to be a western instead of a more swords-and-knives fantasy. There's been a few showdown scenes that were a bit jarring for having characters with hands on knives instead of six-shooters.

Otherwise it's not a happy story in the least. Still enjoying it.

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Waiting on my order of Jim Butcher's next Dresden Files book. Should come today if all goes well.

Compared to Abercrombie, Butcher writes of a magical world where flying unicorns crap rainbows and sing of friendship and love.

And Butcher does not write of these things.

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I have participated in several Kickstarters now. I'm running about 50-50 on getting any kind of substantive return on my investments, but that's due to delays in production rather than tossing money into a black hole.

I have high hopes that I shall have my Cthulhu Tiki Mug by end of January (if the Elder Gods are kind... you may laugh at that....) and maybe see a few other things float into production and reality.

I can't wait to have a Zombie in my Cthulhu Tiki Mug... should this product actually come my way.

I have to say, Kickstarter was a brilliant idea.