Thoughts on Alita: Battle Angel

I caught Alita: Battle Angel the other night. If you've seen the trailers, you pretty much understand this movie. If the trailer didn't illuminate you, the movie isn't really going to help. It was a fun action flick with great effects and fantastic fights. It would have been greatly improved by removing all speaking scenes outside of battle-banter. Any and all attempts at exposition or plot development should especially be purged.

Get past all that, and it's a solid flick. Loved it.

A Random February Brain Dump

Well this has been a peculiar winter. After a few years of unseasonably-warm Januarys and Februarys, I have to admit I'm taken aback by actual cold weather in February! Hell, there's snow on the mountains around the San Francisco Bay Area! An uncommon occurrence.

2019 has brought me a new fiction series I'm hooked on: the Shattered Sands series by Bradley P Beaulieu. A story of Ceda, a young, badass, warrior woman hell-bent on avenging her mother's death, the story's got some fascinating (and sometimes disturbing) twists and turns in the rich, vaguely Arabian/Persian world Beaulieu has created. I've burned through the first two books ("Twelve Kings in Sharakhai" and "Blood on the Sands") and now await the remaining two books in the series, out this year. There's novellas that are doing a delightful job of keeping me busy as I await their publication.

Going to be a good year for reading material, all told. The next Expanse book is out next month, along with John Gwynne's next novel. I've finally given in and started reading "Red Sister" by Mark Lawrence (recommended by several friends). I'm hooked and plan to get the rest of that series as well.

So I guess next week we find out if we're having another government shutdown while the orange man-baby debates having another tantrum over funding his medieval ego-toy. Sigh.

Review: Chrome Macheto Travel Pack

After a recent trip, I feel I need to sing the praises of the Macheto Travel Pack by Chrome Industries.

I've long been a fan of Chrome bags. They're well-constructed, waterproof, durable, and all-around badass. I obtained the Macheto Travel Pack pretty much as soon as it went on sale after I got an advert from Chrome saying it was in the works. I had a trip in the works and thought it would be perfect.

Wow, was I right! It was the perfect-size for a week-long trip, with myriad pockets for pretty much ever conceivable need. The Macheto shrugs off rain like Superman in a bullet-storm and can convert to a backpack with ease.

It even caught the eye of one of the TSA agents who saw it go through security.

If you're about to take a short trip somewhere, I cannot recommend the Macheto highly enough. It's carry-on size for pretty much every airline I know of.

This little bugger's going with me on all my trips.

Aaaah... Deadly Sins

I'm fond of saying that my favorite Deadly Sins are Gluttony and Sloth.

Oh, I'm a fan of all seven, were I to be totally honest. Envy is probably my least favorite of the lot. Pride is a "meh". Lust... well, okay, that one vies with Wrath for my number three. I've always felt Greed is really a variation of Lust, Envy, and Gluttony. And that leads me Gluttony and Sloth. Damn but I love lounging around, eating and drinking my fill then doing fuck-all with my day.

I've had two weeks off now. Two glorious weeks of doing very, very little.

Oh, I've gotten some productive things done, to be sure. Small things, such as workouts, laundry, bits of life maintenance, and the like. In the grand scheme, I've done exactly jack shit for about two weeks.

I'm sad that time is coming to an end.

Hello 2019

I slept through the New Year this time. Can't say I regret it.

Haven't done shit today. It's been awesome.

Hello 2019, what have you got in store for us?

Wrapping Up 2018

I feel oddly-obligated to make a New Year's Eve post. Not sure why.

I've just finished (re-)watching Shaun of the Dead with some Zachary's deep-dish pizza and a bit of Campfire whiskey. That's pretty much the sum total of my New Year's Eve plans in a nutshell. I may pop another movie on. I may try a bit of writing. I expect I'll have a bit more Campfire. I'm not sure if I'm going to bother staying up 'till midnight.

2018 has been a really weird year. Can't say I'm sorry to see it go. I'm curious what 2019 will bring. I'm sure it will be interesting times.

Almost there...

As 2018 winds down, I sit nursing sore muscles. I overdid it yesterday. A life lesson: make sure your destination has what you're looking for before you walk a couple of miles to fetch something.

Got my SSD configured. Turns out I had to do things. Google pointed me to the things. I managed to do the things. I feel very empowered and technical, despite my inability to describe what I had to do to get everything working properly.

I'm set for New Year's Eve, for the most part. I couldn't get the beer I wanted (part of my fruitless trek yesterday) but I've got plenty of other stuff to make up for the lack. I've also got a deep-dish pizza waiting to be baked as my dinner tomorrow. Mmm...

I figure I'll marathon some movies, maybe all the Avengers flix in my library or the entire LotR series. If I'm still up around midnight, I'll toast the new year and go to bed.

Yeah, it's not exciting, but I'm not really looking for excitement.

2018 was a fairly ridiculous year for me. It certainly had no small bits of excitement. I changed jobs. I saw one of those "landmark" birthdays come and go. I thought I was going to lose my mind more than once. I changed Internet providers (aaah... to be websurfing at civilized speeds...). I did a lot of personal journey stuff that would mean nothing to anyone other than myself. All said, despite the worldwide shitshow that was 2018, the year itself treated me fairly well. Gonna be interesting to see where 2019 takes me.