Rambling

I swear to God that 2016 cannot end soon enough.

Now the FBI and CIA are saying the Russians messed with our election to get Trump into office.

I question what the hell Putin is thinking putting an unstable nutjob in a position of getting nuclear codes. They can't be that good of friends.

I distract myself with "Babylon's Ashes", book six of The Expanse series by James. S.A. Corey. I've got a little over a hundred pages left. Not quite four-fifths done. This book is kicking my ass.

After, I think I'll get back to "Good Intentions" by Elliot Kay. Nothing says fun like a story of an everyday guy who winds up with a succubus and an angel as his two girlfriends and lovers.

After that, I've got "Wrath" by John Gwynne, ending his four-part series of pseudo-Celtic insanity. Then either I go to "Natural Consequences" (sequel to "Good Intentions") or flip to "The Plague of Swords" by Miles Cameron (fourth book of the Red Knight series).

I like having so many options after a dry stretch of no reading material.

Rogue One came out today. I'm slated to see it next week sometime. I'm hoping it's good. The intros I've seen don't really give me a strong "Star Wars" feel, so I'm reserving judgment. That said, I was very pleasantly surprised by The Force Awakens, so Rogue One could be good. Hard to say. Unfortunately, it's also a prequel and I generally hate prequels.

Oh well. Nobody's putting a blaster to my head and making me go see it.

I actually just re-watched The Force Awakens. Damn, that flick is entertaining. Gotta say I love it more I watch it, and that's a rare thing. It's not a perfect movie, certainly, but it's entertaining.

Done with my Xmas shopping. Even managed some semi-decent stocking-stuffers. At least that's done.

And now another cold snap settles on the Bay Area. Supposed to dance along freezing temps later. Gotta say I'm liking the winter weather we're getting. Some nice rain storms followed by some proper cold weather. I'd think the world was getting back to sane except for the fact that the world is anything but.

Not quite a month left

Just a few weeks left in the shitstorm that has been 2016. I'm looking forward to this fucking disaster of a year being over but not particularly-enthused as to what 2017 has in store.

One bright note: the next Expanse book comes out today. That, and several other books, should be en route soon for my reading pleasure during my commute. Apparently BART is going to do major maintenance in mid-2016, which will be a tad disruptive to my early work schedule. Whee.

I think I'm going to take some vacation this month and hide away from the madness of the world. In the last week I've had someone try to break into my apartment building and had my credit card compromised. Fun times. Yeah, I'm kinda done with this year.

Review: "Doctor Strange"

Over the Thanksgiving break, I took some time to finally catch a matinee of Doctor Strange.

As origin stories for one of the weirder Marvel superheroes go, it didn't suck. Thoughts:

Pros:

• Casting Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Stephen Strange
• Cool effects
• Nice settings
• Avengers tower shot
• Captain America: Civil War shout-out
• Casting Chiwetel Ejiofor as Mordo
• Benedict Wong as... um... Wong. And making Wong a badass librarian.
• Entertaining fight scenes
• Good placement of humor
• Solid end-credits scenes

Cons:

• Casting Tilda Swinton as the Ancient One. Kinda white-washy.
• Yawn-inducing villains
• A bit too... Inception
• A little heavy on the psychedelic coloring at points
• Cumberbatch's American accent - it wasn't bad, but I found it a little jarring.

Overall, I enjoyed it. Solidly-entertaining.

Decompression

I spent the last week in the UK on business.

Yes, I escaped Trump-land to go to Brexit-land.

There, everyone asked me what I thought about Trump's winning the election.

I avoided profanity, for the most part. I explained that Trump lost the popular vote but won the Electoral, and that I'm bitterly disappointed. Every Brit I talked to was sympathetic. Makes me wonder how Brexit really came about.

Other than the hell of traveling to get there, I had a great time. I love British beers and pub food. My co-workers are delightful and hospitable, making my week great fun and my departure bittersweet.

I have to admit I had a few thoughts that linger in my mind as I recover from jetlag and, hopefully, any potential plague caught from flying:

• I have yet to stay at a place in the UK (or Ireland) with decent water pressure in the shower.
• UK light switches are weird, but cooler than US lights witches. They have individual power switches for each outlet!
• UK plugs are ungainly and weird. US plugs are far more compact.
• The British make delightful savory pies.
• US craft beers are invading the UK. Lots of hoppy IPAs on tap there.
• UK money and credit cards are far superior to US currency and credit cards.
• Apparently there's a vague concept of pedestrian right-of-way in the UK, but if it exists, it's well-hidden.
• Every bed I've slept on in the UK is harder than a rock. Every hotel room I've stayed in has been sweltering-hot.

Still processing

I'm seeing lots of calls for unity now in media. Lots of "okay, the election is done, let's get back together as a country and get through this" kind of stuff.

You know what? Fuck that.

Alaska, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas (both of you), Nebraska, Kansas, Oaklahoma, fucking Texas, Iowa, Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, fucking Ohio, the whole goddamn South (Texas got special mention), Kentucky, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. Fuck all of you. You are populated by idiots. You put a frothing lunatic into the White House. Into the fucking WHITE HOUSE! This guy has never, ever worked in government. He's been bankrupt God-knows how many times. He is incoherent and has no actual plan beyond making funny noises with his mouth and groping women.

And you elected him.

I don't want to give a hug to any dipshit who voted for Trump. Ever.

This guy now has access to all those lovely, barely-understood, surveillance programs. He's buddy-buddy with Vladimir goddamn Putin.

He is not your friend. He is not going to do any of us any good.

Sinclair Lewis wrote a book called "It Can't Happen Here". Ironic title, given how the story went. And prescient. God damn us all.

Coping with yesterday

Soooo... we've got a mentally-unstable man-child with access to nuclear codes in 2017. With him is a very red House of Representatives and a pretty damn red Senate.

Bad time to be in the United States as a woman or have any color to your skin.

On the plus side: California has legalized recreational marijuana. That ought to take the edge off. I certainly plan to work on my alcohol-abuse skills in the coming months and years.

If we're really lucky, SMOD could come along any day and make it quick.

And there's always Cthulhu. Surely the stars are right already. At this point, Lovecraftian horror is looking pretty goddamn good.

...

Congratulations, 'Merica!

Specifically I'm talking to the inbred, knuckle-dragging fuckwits in the red states.

Apparently there's a lot of you.

You made the film Idiocracy a reality. Thanks for making me glad I don't have kids.