Armo Mazzenisto

The following is a story I submitted for a writing challenge at the writing message board I frequent. It's right here.

So the first draft was 1500+ words. This is what it looked like after I hacked it down to a thousand.

Let me know what you think.

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Kellen stood, rubbing his eyes. It was time to close up the shop and not just for the day. Nobody used freelance investigators anymore.

He closed his eyes, enjoying the pull of a cat-like stretch. He opened his eyes and gasped, all relaxation gone.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

"Oh, um... No problem." His startlement had become... something deeper, before vanishing. From a little girl?

Scanning her showed nothing.

"Kellen Smithson."

"It's my sister," she started. "She was taken by a mage-guild. It is time for her to return."

"I need a little more context than that," Kellen replied.

"We recently found out where she is. We need your help with the Shields."

It was not unusual for a family member to go missing. Kellen had personal experience with guilds holding people against their will. Could he challenge an entire guild? Did he want to, for this child's sister?

"I do not know enough about the situation: why or where she is held or what her release would mean."

The girl considered. It was unnerving to Kellen to see this little girl with the cherubic face completely frozen in thought. He wondered if he should say something when she looked up at him.

"I'll tell you what you need to know."

The details were slim and the guild's motivation unclear but Kellen, champion of the helpless, as he saw himself, agreed to rescue the girl from Armo Mazzenisto, one of the more powerful guilds in the city.

Outside the gates of the stronghold, Kellen felt the buzz of a Probe, no doubt placed around the perimeter.

'There are ways around a Probe.'

He tapped into the Probe and rerouted the Sensors to one metre past the fence - enough room to climb without alerting the guild.

The outbuilding to the south of the main keep held the girl's sister. Kellen walked, hunched, until he reached the door. He Listened and heard nothing.

'The Mazzenisto have too much faith in Probes.'

An Opening and Kellen stood before a young woman, suspended in air. He Felt the Shields that had been constructed about her. He was glad that there was nobody around to contend with, but even with all the time he wanted, the challenge of the Shields would still be daunting.

Nine layers of spell construction kept the sister from freedom. These were Shields on her physical body - keeping her in complete stasis, a Shield on her consciousness, a Shield on each of her senses and two Shields that he did not understand.

Kellen chose to begin on one of the unknown Shields. It was the simplest in design and the easiest to work through. Five minutes work saw that shield evaporate.

He moved on to her physical shield. He could take his time, somewhere else. An attempt to re-Route failed. There was nothing to reroute it to. Kellen decided to move on. Next he-

His mind flashed. He saw a figure that resembled the sister but with slight alterations with eyes casting a dim red glare and coal-black wings spread wide.

Kellen shook the image from his head. The sensory Shields would come next. They were the next easiest to remove. They went quickly, save for sight. Kellen re-Routed the fields dampening the light onto themselves, sloughing the last sensory shield away-

Another flash. He saw the same figure as before, changed even more. Talons replaced her feet, her legs were covered in scales, and her face was gaunt. Beauty and terror co-mingled.

Kellen gasped in surprise as he recovered. What was he seeing?

'Six Shields down and three to go.'

He Felt the consciousness Shield and decided to try that one last. The girl would presumably be upset if she woke up, still Bound.

Having found no ability to dispel the physical Shield, he decided to work on the second unknown barrier. As he did so, images flickered through his mind of fire. Buildings blazed and the figure of his previous visions had completed her transformation. Cities were destroyed at her command and mankind was set to slavery in a reign of fire. This Shield - a barrier against physical communication, he now realized - fell away.

The visions left him. Next was the consciousness Shield.

"You don't want to do that, just yet."

Kellen jerked back and tried to climb the air at the sound of the voice, so small and so innocent behind him.

He spun and faced the same little girl that had confronted him in the first place.

"You don't want to wake her up. We can do that."

"What- who is she?" Kellen asked. "You got in here, you can wake her up - why did you need me?"

"None of the shields presented a problem to us but the last. It requires a... price. One we cannot pay."

And then he knew. He knew where the visions came from, he knew what the family was, and he knew what lay in store for humanity.

"But what of humanity?" He knew it was absurd looking to this thing for assurance.

"There will be no war. Humanity will have its place."

"But the fires, the destruction-"

"All revolutions come to that in the end. It will be quick."

"Will I-" he could not finish the question.

"You will function, in a sense."

"My magic?" Immortality was all well and good but that price was unbearable.

"You know the answer to that," the girl replied.

And he did know the answer.

"I could replace the shields and walk away. You would not have your uprising."

"That is true. You could do that." The girl did not move, only continued looking at him.

A moment's pause and Kellen returned to the form of the young woman. He knew what to do. Redirecting the suspension field to encompass him, Kellen bound the spell and traded places with the demon that had been held by the Armo Mazzenisto, the self-styled Guardians of Humanity.

My Dream

That is, my dream at night, not my dream like "I'd love to see this come true" (though that might be true as well):

In the outdoor pool, pool-bully swimming around, holding people's heads under water.  Until:

Hulk Hogan. 

"I'm gonna dunk you, Hulkster!"

Hulk says nothing.

Pool-bully attempts to dunk Hulk.  Hulk doesn't move.

Pool-bully pushes down on Hulk's head, leaving him open for:

The body slam.  Only it's not a normal body slam.  Hulk rears up and throws pool-bully out of the pool. 

Then I woke up.

Windows Live Writer - or - MS finally gets it right

So, I generally don't have anything too bad to say about Microsoft.  I use their products when I have to, I go Open Source when it's available, but I have to admit, I'm pretty darned impressed with Windows Live Writer.

Despite the fact that this is the first time I've used it, I see no reason to continue using Firefox Scribefire or trying like crazy to get OpenOffice.org's blogger add-on working.

This is basically a test to see what the functionality of the thing is and, well, so far, so good.

Pictures work.

 

Links (even self-referential ones like this one) work.

Even	HTML
Tables	Work

This is basically the <gasp!> moment for me.  You can import maps really easily.  So I could, like, show you guys where I bike to work every day.

Good form, Microsoft!

200

We've been through some good times and we've also seen our share of hard times. I won't kid you – some of those hard times are the happiest in my life. Lately, though, there's a lot that's been on my mind. I'll admit that I haven't been perfect. I don't know that my lack of perfection has been enough to justify the way you've been treating me.

It started last July. That's what I would call the end of the “Honeymoon Phase.” I went out of town and you told everyone you were thinking of breaking up with me. Oh sure, you took it all back and accused Susan of blabbing secrets you told to her but it definitely set the tone. That pushed Chris away. He even moved to Calgary to get away.

Then, in February, you canceled our favourite “Activity.” We'd been doing it for a year and a half and you just squashed it. (We were even getting pretty good at it) Sure, we've bounced around from one thing to another since then, and it seems like we've found new common ground but it seems like nothing will ever be better than that one special thing. And it really had the potential to be something.

Then you passive-aggresively drove away two of my friends. Gustavo and Wenpan noticed the cold shoulder you gave them and they left.

The latest thing, and the one that pushed me to write this, was that I went out of town again, and you told people that it was Marius or me. When I got back, I found you'd kicked Marius out.

I've done some research and I want to share a list with you:

Signs your relationship is failing:

1. You look less forward to seeing each other. -- Have you noticed that I've started coming around a little later? Have you cared?

2. You find it harder to focus on the needs of your partner. -- Have you noticed how soul-wrenchingly hard it has been for me to concentrate on things? How my mind has been wandering when you need my attention?

3. Your devotion to your partner is less and your thoughts begin to stray to another. -- Yes, it's been good, but others have told me I'm a catch and I thought I would send out a letter gauging interest. Nothing has happened but there was definite interest on their part.

4. You hang on to a reason to stay with your partner even if you're unhappy. -- It's the money. I've tried substituting the money for happiness. All that's made me is broke.

5. The wrongs that your partner has done you dominate your thoughts and you keep coming back to them. -- This is the most pressing and telling of the signs listed, in my mind. I've tried being happy, laughing it off, even, shamefully, mocking you behind your back. None of that has worked.

Everything seems to point to a failed relationship and there are those who say I should just take the money and cut bait. But I don't want that, even if there are others out there who say they'd treat me better.

Father Roger once told me that love is a choice. Sure, it always starts out grand but once things become real, you have to choose to keep loving your partner in order to keep things going.

I'm not ready to give up on you, Intuit and I think that if we start choosing to treat each other better, things can be not only like they were before but better and we can stay together and laugh at all the people who thought we wouldn't last.

I'm not going anywhere, and I will see you tomorrow.

Ready to start over,

Liam

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz/The Marvelous World of Oz

A Book Report Double-Feature

After Nick and I finished the Prydain Chronicles, a wonderful young-adult series that I read when I was a child and was eagerly anticipating telling to Nick, I wasn’t sure where to turn. Eventually, though, I figured that The Wizard of Oz was a good movie, so the book should be pretty good too.

I was a little underwhelmed. The story is essentially the same. Dorothy and her problems are similar, the Wizard didn’t change either.

The Good

I liked the expanded characters of the flying monkeys. Rather than the terrifying and nightmare-inducing version from the movie, they’re a group of mischief-makers who found themselves in the limited thrall of the wicked witch (and then in service to Dorothy).

There were some more characters and more problems for the characters to overcome. The mice were a good addition, for example.

The Bad

When I watched the movie (even most recently a year or two ago), I figured that the Tin Man, the Scarecrow and the Lion had what they wanted in good measure before seeing the wizard but it was done subtly enough that there was always a little question. The book, however, hits you over the head with it again and again. All ideas came from the Scarecrow. All sympathy flowed from the Tin Man.

The Conclusion

I obviously liked the book enough to continue with the second in the series.

The Marvelous World of Oz

New characters join the Tin Woodman (now known as Nick Chopper) and the Scarecrow as the Scarecrow’s place as ruler of Oz is overthrown.

I appreciated an extended look into the world of Oz, as well as the new characters, particularly Jack Pumpkinhead and H.M. Wogglebug, T. E.

The ending was a surprise to me and to Nick as well, and the consequences will be felt in the third book.

The story did drag a bit, although that may have been more a consequence of a week’s layoff during camping than anything else. I imagine that Nick and I will return to Oz for the third installment (out of an eye-popping 41) with Ozma of Oz. However, for now, we’ve moved on to Pawn of Prophecy, the first book of The Belgariad by David Eddings. I know that Eddings is seen as simplistic and formulaic, but I enjoy his earlier books and I think they’re a good progression from Narnia and Prydain into more standard fantasy.

Next Up

How does one structure the 200^th post of one’s blog?

No Rant, but an Explanation

So I know that there are a number of you out there who gain enjoyment from my anger but I'm trying to pare back from that. I'm disgusted, and tired of the things that are going on with The Company but I'm not going to sit here and badmouth my bosses or whine about the way things have gone, especially when the real-life impact to me, personally, has been minimal. Yes, I've fretted, yes, I've looked for other jobs but in the end, I still have my job and I still intend on keeping it.

So, while I was on vacation, camping in the mountains, Intuit announced the infamous 575 jobs that they had cut. I came back and found out that Marius, my cubicle-mate, and my "Buddy" (new hires get a buddy to help acclimate them to the way things are done) had lost his job. He's okay with it. After all, he's been with The Company for ten years and his severance package is quite ridiculous (in a good way). So he'll take some vacation, decide what he wants to do and he's happy with the way things have worked out.

The reasoning for the jobs going away is still a little sketchy to me.

The Company Line is that they are positioning themselves for growth into the future. But it appears that most of the people cut (all of the people that I have heard of, anyway) are in product development. How a software company can grow while limiting the amount of things that can be made is not something I can understand but the people in position to make the decisions are there for a reason. I am not there, also for a reason.

Another thing that they are concerned with is Speed To Market. So basically, you take a code base and turn it into a product that people are willing to pay for. What is the way to do that? To me, it would be to
1) hire observers to see what the problem is (product management, User Experience, product development, operations, qa, etc.)
2) hire a consulting firm to reorganize processes for the functional group that is holding up the release to market
3) implement those procedures

In this case, I believe the issues lie with Operations. They have a large process that involves a lot of redundancy and CYA.

In the case of The Company, however, they have decided to remove PD resources and hire Ops people. I guess the way you make ops more successful is to remove more things from the pipe so that they can handle the load.

Again, I'm sure there are reasons for this but I will be darned if I can understand them and it's not like bosses make it a habit of explaining their reasoning.

575

575 is the number of employees who lost their jobs throughout Intuit inc. while I was on vacation.

60 is the number that were lost in my business unit.

1 is the number of people in my cube area.

Gustavo and Wenpan quit, which made the necessary cuts in our area lighter.

I doubt I'd have my job if they hadn't quit.

Thank you, gentlemen.

(rant to come)

Guitar

So, lately, I've been practicing on the guitar that Kim so lovingly gave me for Christmas. It's an Aria acoustic guitar, six strings, frets all over the place, some turny knobs at the top that tune the guitar, and some other technical stuff like a nut, a neck and some other things.

Lately, I've decided that I want to learn how to actually play this thing. I mean, it looks pretty good propped up against the bookshelf in the office, but that really doesn't do anything for the sound.

So, I had to overcome a hurdle. One of the frets sounded just like the fret beside it on the high "E" string. I looked the problem up on the internet (thank you, Al Gore!) and apparently, it's called dead fret. I googled those very words (thank you Larry Page) and one possible reason is that the fret became separated from the neck and could be put back in place with some taps from a plastic headed hammer. The flashlight is plastic, so I smacked it against the fret a little and it worked.

Next came finding resources to learn how to play guitar. I googled "Guitar Lessons for the Absolute Beginner" and came to http://zentao.com/guitar which has ... you guessed it. Guitar lessons for the absolute beginner.

So now I'm getting more familiar with the notes on the fretboard, scales (major and minor, for now), chords (which are way harder than scales, at least at this point) and picking and strumming techniques.

So far, I can play "Mary had a little lamb", "Twinkle Twinkle" and I'm scratching my way through "Somewhere Over the Rainbow".

It's a bit of an obsession with me right now and it's nice to actually be able to tell that I'm making progress.

Just Press End

If you are interested in seeing what I'm reading, what I've read recently or what I'm looking forward to reading, at the bottom of the blog is a nifty widget that links to Visual Bookshelf, which is a Facebook app. I'm usually pretty good at keeping it up-to-date.

So check it out. Or don't. The choice is yours!

Beaver Camp

So, I thought I was going to write about the rest of my Chicagoland trip here but since it’s basically all technical in nature, I figured I would leave it for Intuitive Techniques if I ever get back to updating that site.

Anyway, we went to Beaver Camp last weekend, the culmination of the Beavering year. (And also my last official act as a Beaver leader. Next year I get to hold the reins of the Cub Pack as Akela.)

We stayed at Camp Maskepatoon, just off of Pigeon Lake. Actually on the shores of Pigeon Lake.

Hm… highlights…

- Hawkeye dropping the sister of one of our Beavers into the lake and then running like a coward. (We’ve got video evidence)

- Lily and Kim’s boat ride

- The birth of the BubbleStar Galactica (pictures to follow at some point) and The Holder – Nick’s boat

- A campfire where nothing went very right but nothing went terribly wrong

- Capture the flag with the most cheating per game (CPG) that I have ever seen.

- Soccer where Granny shone and I kicked a ball at a 12 year old harder than I should have.

- Archery that left a bruise on my forearm. At least it didn’t stay all raised and bumpy.

- Pouring from a big pot, out of a ladel. (Give a couple seconds after your first dip. It lets the grounds settle a little)

- Puerto Rico – an exciting game where the Liam plantation outlasted the Rob and John plantations to secure the victory.

- Chopping wood

Lowlights…

- Scraping congealed fat off of the hood fan with first a chef’s knife and then a metal egg-flipper

- Cleaning toilets and mopping the bathroom, wearing soggy socks

All in all, it was another great camp. Here’s looking forward to Cubs next year!

Calgary in Flames

This is a small piece that is a modification from a dream I had. Actually, the only thing that I really remember from the dream that I actually used in the story was the buildings in flames. And I think it was a job interview.
-------------------------------
The city burns. Great gouts of fire consume skyscrapers whole. I sit, watching the world explode, chatting idly with a woman who is not my wife.

Romantic? No. But was it? Things are ever ephemeral here. All but the fire. It has spread now. Or has it been spread? The cause seems fuzzy but the fact of it only looms larger. And yet, while I panic, I watch it unconcerned, sharing a drink with a woman who is not my wife.

Eric jerked awake. He remembered only the blind panic of a few moments ago. Then the panic subsided and details faded into dim recollections. Already he could only remember a false-looking fire engulfing the Calgary Tower and the camera of his mind panning out to see that the fire was seen through a large window. Continuing to pan, the next thing his mind’s eye saw was a coffee table, two people sipping a drink amicably while the fire spread to a nearby building. Not spread. That was not right. The other building spontaneously combusted. The whole thing.

The power of the dream began to fade and Eric started to drift back into sleep. He rolled into the heat of his wife’s sleeping frame. She sighed and put her arm around him unconsciously and they drifted back to sleep. Eric would remember nothing of the dream the following day or for the rest of July. It all came slamming back into him, however, on the tenth of August, the day he met the woman from his dream.
---------------

So, whatchya think?

Chicago, Chicago, that Toddlin’ Town [Part One]

I am fortunate enough to work for a company that not only encourages its employees to get training, but hounds them into it. Also, they feel it is important for their developers to be certified in what they do. To the point of hounding them about it.

So I decided to combine the two, taking Java Boot Camp training in Chicagoland.

Saturday, I dropped my wife and children off at the airport, early early. I had big plans for the day, such as making the house uninhabitable for a week (like, so nothing would spoil, rot or stink when we all got home). Most of these I accomplished, but I also got to play tennis with Atti for the first time in six years, visit my family and have Rob over for some intense Mario Kart action!

Then I completed my cleaning duties and finished packing. I had time for a shower and some last-minute preparations before it was off to the airport.

I arrived at the airport two hours before my flight because of some problems checking in online. I am a paranoid traveler and I wanted to be there to be able to circumvent any potential problems with the ticket well in advance.

No problem. I checked in and waited, half-sleeping, half-reading and half looking out the window to see if I could see Cliff loading my plane. (“That’s right, monkey, get to work!” I would have shouted if I’d seen him, even though I know he wouldn’t have been able to hear me. I believe he still would have known I was yelling at him.) Finally, I hear my flight number called out for a different ramp. What the…? I grabbed my bags and sprinted down the hall, staggering to a halt, muttering apologies that I thought it was a different ramp and they said that it was no big deal that it happens all the time. Well, they dealt with it better than I did.

The flight consisted of me turning pages in The Bonehunters, a quick nap and watching The Golden Compass, which lasted just until we landed in Toronto. I did not know where to go, but I got oriented fairly quickly and made my way to the international flights area. Three minutes too late.

I was held back from the flight because there was not enough time to get from one place to the other and so, I was put on a second flight. I was in line to get my boarding pass when that flight was canceled. So, they were saying that the next flight would be at 7:00 the next morning. Inconceivable! However, waited in line until my turn to book whatever flight awaited me.

The guy at the front looked about two steps away from a vein popping in his head and I commiserated with him about the stress of being the only guy in line. He laughed. I feel we bonded. And it was all a mistake. I was apparently booked on a different plane that would leave in an hour and a half. All good things! So I thanked my new best friend and went off to turn some more pages while I waited for my plane to board.

The bad: About a half-hour after I sat down to wait for the plane, I looked up and noticed that the takeoff time was different than it had been. Departure was delayed by another two hours. Ah well, there was time to get a burger, and continue on my quest to polish off Steven Erikson’s sixth literary behemoth. (Really, that sucker is 1200 pages!)

The good: Apparently I did bond with that check-in clerk type guy. I was bumped up to first class where the seats are extra wide (my bum thanks that check-in clerk – but not in the way you’re all thinking), the drinks come in glass tumblers and the televisions apparently have no sound. I was going to watch Chuck but there was, as I said, no sound, so I turned, once more to The Bonehunters.

I have no idea what time the flight touched down – it was something like seven o’clock or something in Chicago time, which would have been 6 our time. I wandered over to where taxis are and waited in a line about 25 people long. It would have been distressing if there hadn’t been in the neighbourhood of thirty or forty cabs waiting. The driver drove me, though he grumbled about leaving the airport area and lost revenue for awhile. Then when we finally reached the hotel (after a couple of wrong turns and a phone call to the hotel itself) he informed me that the credit card machine was broken. Marvelous.

So, we found a Mac’s that had ATM and I paid him, grumbling to myself about his incompetence while, I’m sure, he was still grumbling about being so far away from O’Hare. Whatever. You drove, I paid. Can we just get over it now? And so, I checked into my hotel around 8:30.

So, the first day of my travel, I left my house at 5:00 am on no sleep and arrived at the hotel at 8:30 local time. And I turned down a direct flight to Chicago because I would have had to get up too early. I cost myself probably six hours or more in travel time.

That’s all for now. Later, I’ll tell about the actual training itself.

The Stand by Stephen King

This is one of the longest books I've ever read.

It's a marathon of reading but each part stands on its own merits. In the beginning, we're treated to the introduction of the cast of characters. Stu, Frannie, Larry, Tom and Nick, and the bad guys, Lloyd, Trash Can Man, even the Walkin' Dude. Then the superflu works its way through, and the scattered remnants of American society come together in two camps, the good guys and the bad guys. The showdown is really good, though the outcome is never really in doubt.

What knocked me on my butt was the denouement, where it is revealed that mankind is going right back to its roots, and even the good guys are headed down the same path that landed humanity in the pickle it's in now.

Stephen King's characters are always engaging, in every story I've read. This story is no exception. The way that Larry's relationship with Nadine is written is amazing. The agony of Harold's betrayal of the Boulder folks is harsh and comes across as real. There is too much good in this book to write about it all but as with all Stephen King, even the happy-ever-after is not happy ever after. How could it be, when mankind is still what it is?

Update

You will notice Dr. Kyle Anderson, Genetics whiz and all around snazzy dancer has a link on the sidebar. This is his new home on the web.

You will notice.





That is all.

Red Seas Under Red Skies

I read the first book of this series, The Lies of Locke Lamora, partially during the insanity that was National Novel Writing Month, and the rest during December. It was pretty good. It wasn't a pretty story, by any stretch, but it was entertaining and a lot of things tied together very well.

Red Seas Under Red Skies was better, in my opinion, though both were very good. They both had the rare distinction of being very entertaining, easy to read, and surprisingly deep. The bonds of friendship between Locke and Jean are touching and, while the depth of the two main characters makes the secondary characters seem shallow by comparison, most of the supporting cast is actually pretty well fleshed-out.

Like with a lot of good fiction/fantasy, it's nice to see characters mess up just because they're human, and humans make mistakes. It's also nice to see people act out of self-interest, not always having a sense of awareness that borders on supernatural.

I'm glad that I started this series, which began with an impulse buy at the Chinook Mall in Calgary. The dialogue is very witty, even unrealistically so, but it doesn't distract from the rest of the story. The descriptions are the only thing I would change. There are pages of description where maybe a paragraph or two would do. I don't need to know exactly what I'm looking at everywhere the main character goes. I usually gloss over the descriptions and let my mind fill in the gaps, especially when nothing is left to the imagination in the exposition.

There is supposedly at least one more book left in the series and I am eagerly looking forward to reading what Scott Lynch has to write.

The Bonehunters

I always struggle to finish Steven Erikson's books. Not because they're bad. They're really good. But they're also really long.

I think that these books tend to suffer a little too much from the jumping-around viewpoint that… ah hell, I don't know who popularized it but Martin does it and it pisses me off, Brooks does it and it pisses me off. What I want is twenty pages or so per character. I want some momentum with a character and follow through with it.

I understand (believe me, I understand) that sequencing is not very easy to write. Knowing that a character has to be at a certain point, and a plot point has to already be written in order to keep things clear, I understand that's all important.

I've read, however, that it's important when you're reading, to look at a point when you put the book down. Why did you put it down there? Why didn't you want to keep reading? A lot of the time, I will admit, it's because I have other things that have to get done. I have children, I have a wife, and I have a job. These things mean that I can't just spend all day reading. But there are also a lot of times when I will just put the book down. When I examine my reasons for this, more often than not, I come to the fact that a character's POV has just ended and it's gone back to a character I haven't read about in a long time. I'm not in step with him/her and it takes me a bit of effort to get enthusiastic about this part of the story.

Maybe that's a risk and there are tradeoffs to be made when properly sequencing a story and cutting and pasting bits of story but if this is the case, maybe the requirement is to take a step back and understand that some of those plot points, if not story lines, are too much.

Take this book for example. It's twelve hundred pages. Maybe there's just too much in there. Maybe the scope is too broad.

Don't get me wrong, I'm loving this book. The characters are very well-written, the humour is my style, the plot is fairly engaging but it flies around from character to character, omitting entire story arcs per book, trying to keep up with everyone. It tends to make the book a little disjointed and, while I like reading it, and I look forward to finishing the book and the series (in a good way, not in a "Thank-God-It's-Over" kind of way), it just takes a long time for me to read these humungous monsters.

Old Man's War by John Scalzi

I took a chance on a science fiction book called Old Man's War by John Scalzi.

Normally, I don't read Science Fiction. This book kind of tore me in two directions. On one hand, it made me wonder why I don't read science fiction more, and on the other, it cemented my decision.

Scalzi's main character, unsurprisingly named John, fights to secure human colonization. I had some problems with the plot points, as he is the only character in the story to be able to succeed. All the way from Basic Training, where he wins over the drill sergeant (first guy ever to do this), to his first ever combat mission where he discovers the secret to defeating the enemy (shoot twice instead of once) to various other things that he's able to do that nobody else can do.

Still, the technology that's imagined in this book is amazing. Things like computers implanted in your brain made this book worth reading.

I don't believe I'll continue the series, more because I don't care for the writer's style than because of anything to do with Science Fiction. I'm definitely interested in reading more ideas that Science Fiction writers have about advancements in technology and exploration of the boundaries of the universe.

So, while this one was a bit of a dud, I'll definitely try again. In fact, I am right now, with Robert Charles Wilson's Spin.

32

Today, I am 32.
I am 2^5.
I am 100000. (Binary)
I am 40 (Octal)
I am 20 (Hexadecimal)

32 is a good number. A powerful number. Just you wait. This year is going to be huge.

New Links

I have added new links to my sidebar.

There you can access:

el Cliff's blog (he of the comment-hilarity throughout this blog's history), Peer Pressure Works! (a.k.a. Broken Class)
Tune in as el Cliff rants and raves about everything from a chronic beggar to Pittsburgh Penguin commercials to the Alberta "Advantage".

Shaun the Angry Scotsman's blog.
Shaun has recently moved into his downtown condo. He has a lot to say.

Chad the Graphic Designer's blog.
Chad has recently made the decision to turn over a less angry leaf when it comes to blogging. Oh, and he's a confessed WoW guy.

So check 'em out.

Reason for Excitement

Q: How can you tell it's spring?
A: It's playoff time and the Leafs are out.

yes, it's an old joke. And not especially true, in the non-hockey sense.

Snow has kicked the door open and stomped all over our welcome mat again.

Do I care? Not really.

Aside from concerns about the soccer season (I'm playing and coaching this year), and not being able to bike to work, I have good reason for my spirits to be uplifted this week.

Tomorrow night, the Calgary Flames get another kick at the cat (erm... shark). They avoided elimination with a dogged effort against the Sharks last night. I was happy to see them come out like that, especially since they got their asses driven through the ice in game 5. Hopefully, they'll have the same jump tomorrow as they did yesterday.

This weekend, the NFL holds its annual entry draft - also known as the most exciting event of the NFL offseason. This is where the transformation of the league takes place. It's an incredibly addictive time for someone who can do absolutely nothing about the outcome (aside from whining and complaining, which seems to happen a lot).

Finally, this week I turn 32. I'm not a superstitious guy, normally, but 32 is an awesome number. I feel good things coming this year (not that any year in the past 5 has beeen anything but spectacular).

32 things to be excited about at 32:
1. My favourite football team posted its first non-losing season in its existence, despite once again, leading the league in players on the IR.
2. Going to Chicago next month for training.
3. Going camping in the mountains in June.
4. Lillian's third birthday.
5. Nicholas's eighth birthday.
6. My fourth wedding anniversary.
7. Spring! (When it finally comes)
8. I will finish the rough draft of my first novel.
9. I will finish edits to my first novel.
10. I will send my first novel out to publishers.
11. Work is looking up.
12. Kim's half-marathon (knock on wood)
13. Annual bonus in August.
14. I'm going to buy the rest of Sandy Foster's discography.
15. Heroes.
16. Battlestar Galactica.
17. A Dance With Dragons. (I hope he gets back on track)
18. No more Sword of Truth to disappoint me.
19. Finishing The Stand.
20. The prospect of starting another novel.
21. It's almost riding season (even though I've ridden probably a half-dozen days already)
22. Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) is released on my birthday.
23. Backyard landscaping.
24. Houston Texans 2008 regular season.
25. Nick starting Cubs.
26. Guitar Hero!
27. Real guitar!
28. Christmas.
29. Actually getting to play outdoor soccer (in a league)
30. All the books I will read this year.
31. All of the stories I will write this year.
32. My family.

So see, it's not so bad being old. There's lots to look forward to!