Happy Family Stuff

Happy Halloween.

Signs and Portents

Sometimes the Universe is just trying to tell you something and it's time to shut up and listen.

I woke today determined to attend martial arts class. My neck is in pain and I knew tonight's topic would end up straining my neck and shoulder, but I opted to ignore that. If I blew off stuff 'cause I'm in pain, I'd never get anything done aside from making delicious cocktails.

I hopped on BART and, just as I sat down, realized I forgot several items, including my ID.

On top of that, I woke this morning feeling a bit dubious. That feeling hasn't really properly subsided.

For a chance, dim thought penetrated the vast emptiness of my skull and I decided it was time to just call it. So, that's that. Sigh. So why do I feel guilty?

A few sputterings of nothing

• I continue to make my way through "The Republic of Thieves". I'm not even a quarter in and I'm remembering why I love Lynch's characters so much. I wish I'd taken the time to re-read "The Lies of Locke Lamora" and "Red Sails Under Red Skies", but I can vaguely remember the previous plots just fine.
• I never sleep quite so well as I do when Autumn starts to get cool. Then it's so very, very hard to get out of bed in the morning. It's slightly easier when heavy-footed upstairs neighbors are fucking around at 1:30 am, but that's a bit early for me. *sigh*
• If anyone tells you that your upstairs neighbors have hardwood floors but the insulation will prevent you from hearing them, know this: it's a lie. A terrible, terrible lie.
• I'm developing a taste for a Whiskey Rebellion (essentially a Manhattan with an extra half-shot of bittersweet Vermouth).
• I'm a fan of the music of Bear McCreary, the fellow who did the score to the re-imagined "Battlestar Galactica" series as well as the excellent first season of "Human Target". Out of an urge for new instrumental listening, I picked up the score to the blissfully-cancelled disaster known as "The Cape" (Google it if you don't know of this show... and for the love of the FSM, don't poison your mind by watching it). Good score. So much better than that awful program deserved.

Where's a baseball when you need one?

My laptop, back from its repairs and woes, now has a fresh reinstall of Windows Vista.

Yes, that's right. My laptop is possessed by the Devil.

It's what came with the damn thing. I downgraded Vista to XP, back in the day. For whatever reason, repeating the process prevents XP from running updates so the laptop is now running Vista. And I'm wondering if it was worth it saving $300 to go through this when I could have ponied up four bills for something newer.

Gah. So I'm running updates on it while my PC is running its pokey backup and the laptop takes a good 40 minutes to retrieve its updates from Microsuck. A good 124 updates, I should add. For three-and-a-half hours later, I'm watching the pokey thing update. My PC's backup finishes and the laptop is still chugging away at its downloads. And then the installation... gods damn. I can't believe how long that took.

I'm half-tempted to wipe the entire OS and just load Ubuntu, but I'm not yet convinced I want the laptop there just yet.

Give me time. I'm sure the demonic powers of Vista will drive me to that sooner rather than later.

Mondays Blow

• We had a bit of a windstorm last night into this morning. I think the average wind-speed I saw on the news this morning was about 43 mph. Needless to say, I didn't ride my bike today. Looks like our Indian Summer ended in a hurry. Hope this means rain.
• Started reading "The Republic of Thieves" by Scott Lynch. The third book in the Gentlemen Bastards series (the previous two are "The Lies of Locke Lamora" and "Red Sails Under Red Skies") continues where "Red Sails" left off. Locke is in a bad way and his one way out is... not a good one. This book finally starts to introduce the elusive, oft-mentioned but never-seen Sabetha, the off-camera love-interest of Locke. So far it's a fun read.
• Re-watched Pacific Rim over the weekend. I'm still a bit shocked it didn't do all that fantastic in theaters. Sure, the acting is fairly-awful and cliche. The characters are cardboard cut-outs. Still, how is that different than most movies that do well in the box office? And this had giant robots fighting giant monsters! Plus Ron Perlman! I weep for the future.
• Tweaked my neck on Friday night doing a bad roll in my martial arts class. Will this stop me from going again this week? Probably not. I believe that's a definition of stupid. Or insane. Or both. Could be both.

Review: "Blood Song" by Anthony Ryan

I finished "Blood Song" by Anthony Ryan yesterday. The first novel in his "Raven's Shadow" series, it's... just... wow.

Okay, I know what you're thinking: you're thinking with names like "Blood Song" and "Raven's Shadow" this is some kind of Dungeons and Dragons knockoff series.

Sure, there's a few tropes, but this book is nothing if not pure awesome.

Vaelin Al Sorna is handed over by his father to the Sixth Order of the Faith in his homeland. Trained to be an utter badass holy warrior, he starts to learn all kinds of crazy stuff. Turns out his dad was someone kind of important. His mom was a big deal too. And Vaelin himself has some serious stuff going on in his own life.

The novel is told over the passing of years, interspersed with interludes that make most of it a flashback.

I'll be honest, I found myself dizzy with the details of his world and the range of things going on. I found the protagonist, Vaelin, to be interesting and engaging. The magic is a fascinating thing and the world cultures were intriguing. The characters had me hooked across-the-board and there's certainly no shortage of action.

Apparently there's more books pending (the series is named "Raven's Shadow", after all).

I can't recommend this novel enough. If you doubt me (and I would doubt me...), check out the Amazon reviews.

Person of Interest

I will admit I was unenthusiastic about the latest season opener for "Person of Interest". It did nothing for me.

Then the show started to get its feet under it.

This season has mainly been focusing on exploring the addition of Samantha Shaw to the merry little band. With Shaw on board, the ladies up their badassery. Carter is doing more solo stuff in her crusade against the corrupt organization known as HR and Shaw is stone-cold death with a solemn face. And Root is now a regular with her ambiguous morality and endgame.

All of this hasn't given Finch much to do other than be Finch. Fusco has barely been present and Reese is pretty much in the background now. I'm not sure how I feel about that, but I can handle the ride.

Reese and Finch got some good time in "Nothing to Hide", which exposed the new threat the Machine Team faces. "Reasonable Doubt" had some solid twists and turns. "Lady Killer" focused on the ladies: Shaw, Carter, and the semi-regular Zoe Morgan. It lacked a good story (the moral seemed to be that stalking can be okay at times... which is - at best - dubious) but it was nice to see the ladies take charge and kick ass.

The latest was "Razgover" and it really hits it out of the park. With a focus on Shaw and her interpersonal skills, the new Person of Interest is a young girl with odd hobbies. The story proceeds pretty normally then suddenly goes into awesome territory when the goal of protecting the girl goes sideways. The girl is spunky without being excessively annoying and her chemistry with Shaw is rock-solid. Bonus points for tying in Carter's side-crusade. The last ten minutes were just magnificent.

Best show I'm watching. Hands down.