Monday Ramblings

It's monday. Have a Su-34.

Reading Material

After reading Spin, I went back and re-read Darwinia, which I haven't read in years. Great book, better than I had remembered, and I remembered it as being pretty good. Working my way through Dies The Fire by S.M. Stirling, an alt-history writer who has his hits and his misses. I liked Peshawar Lancers but Fire isn't turning my crank. For one thing, it reads very much like something posted to an alt-history mailing list after a minimum of background research, which would likely be torn to pieces by people more knowledgeable. Some of it I find unrealistic and some of it I find preposterous. I'm making the attempt to finish it but I doubt I'd pick up any others.

Also reading a book leant to me by the Old Man about Sir Francis Walsingham, who ran Queen Elizabeth's secret police (essentially), hunting down Catholics conspiring (or thought to be conspiring) against the crown. Fascinating. I had started another book about what happens in nations which experience crushing defeats in war, but it seems to be written less from a historical (or military historical) perspective and more from an English Lit with Philosophy Minor perspective. Less history and more What It All Means as viewed through the eye of someone who takes Jung far too seriously. I'll get back to it once I'm done the Walsingham book, I think there'll be some good stuff in there regardless.

Recently finished up with Cosmonaut Keep by Ken Macleod. I wasn't too sure about it at first but it built well, tying things together in a way I hadn't quite expected, and Macleod is a talented writer. I'll be picking up books two and three in this series.

Zucchini Bread

The Foran Object made some very nice chocolate zucchini bread. Baking skill appears to be spreading in our corner of the building. No doubt I will remain largely immune, if history is any guide.

It occurs to me that I might have misspelled Zucchini, but I don't care enough to look it up. It's a silly name for a very phallic vegetable. Good bread, though.

Politics

I think I'll try to keep the politics to well marked and isolatable sections so that people can skip over it if they're so inclined. I don't think that most people reading this blog really care, although more people than I expected (ie, anyone) read my Lebanon ramblings. Still, I expect this will mostly be a blog about what I had for dinner last night (burgers and hot dogs, left over from camping, cooked on the barbeque by yours truly), and it's probaby better that way.

The Geek, In His Natural Habitat

My lovely wife suggested that I take a look at a game store relatively near our house, since the one very near my house closed down, much to my shock and anguish. Nice place, heavy on the comics (which I don't read), a fair amount of RPGs (not really interested), a small amount of tabletop stuff (lots of clicky stuff, but that's fine as I mostly buy my tabletop stuff online from the Sentry Box) and Magic cards. Magic cards are really what I was looking for, as it's the only thing I was routinely buying personally rather than over Teh Intarwebs. So I picked up some Guildpact and Dissention, and a pair of packs of Wizkids' Pirates game which I'm hoping to try out with the wife (as I've heard tell that it's well suited for that, being non-time-intensive and fun, and also, pirates).

I need to spruce up my Izzet deck and see if I can build an Orzhov deck, once I put the new cards into the spreadsheet. Yes, I have a spreadsheet of my cards. You're just upset because you didn't think of it first.