Xooooooooom!

The Vacation

Vacation was awesome. Hotel and camping in the Soo and Thunder Bay, then camping on a big group site all long weekend with my lovely wife's extended family in Portage, Man. Beer, food, campfires, food, swimming (water slide!), more food, more beer, and then more food. Good times were had by all. Except maybe for the people who got a cold bucket of water as their alarm clock first thing in the morning, but they deserved everything they got. (My lovely wife's family doesn't fuck around.)

Easy drive back, hotelling it and going out for dinner in nice restaurants.

While passing Lake Superior my lovely wife indulged in a few swims, even when the weather did not look clement. She's hard core.

Incidentally, I can direct you to both an awesome restaurant and a very good pizza place that delivers late, if you ever find yourself in Sault Ste Marie and in need of a meal.

Book Reviews

Game of Thrones Book 5

Enjoyed it more than book 4. GRRM has gotten back into the stride he was hitting in books 2 and 3. The book is initially about the people on the Wall and across the Narrow Sea, who weren't in book 4 as much; but after about two thirds of it, we come back to the full cast list, including visits with some folks that I personally wasn't expecting and quite enjoyed.

I can't understand people who complain that this one is just a pot-boiler that doesn't go anywhere. This book is all about the factions lining up for the end-game, both for the Iron Throne and for the greater conflict in the mythological sense.

Recommended.

Embassytown

China Mieville is on my must-read list, in which I buy anything he publishes without a second thought; this one is his first foray into traditionalist science fiction, as far as I am aware. Set in a human colony amongst a city peopled by aliens, and they are quite alien; a discussion of language, congnition, conceptualization and identity, with zombies.

Mieville is one of the best for providing lots of interesting information in a subtle and effective manner while trusting the reader to be smart enough to figure things out. This one does not disappoint.

Blindsight

I downloaded a bunch of books onto my tablet, including this one, a Creative Commons release by Peter Watts. For most of the first half I thought it was interesting, and making some choices I wouldn't have made; but nothing special. The latter half seemed to lose its grip a bit, as the author starts to lecture a bit about cheap psychology and cognitive science. The ending redeems the entire thing, however; it's worth reading the whole book for the last two pages. Surprising, brutal, and effective. I will be checking out the rest of this guy's catalogue.

Star Trek novels

I also tried to read some Star Trek novels. There is an important rule when dealing with this type of genre fiction: yes, most of it is complete crap, and don't be afraid to jettison it once you realize it's not in the minority case.

The Tablet

A while back I decided I wanted a tablet computer. Naturally, I figured, I'd get an iPad 2. My brother and the old man both have them, and the Greek has one, so I've played with them before, and they work okay. But given that there are so many choices available, I thought I'd do some research. After doing my homework I had come to the inescapable conclusion that I really should get an Android tablet, and the best of the lot is the Motorola Xoom.

Now that I've spent a week dragging it across the country, I feel comfortable asserting that I made the right decision.

Browsing is better than the iPad, particularly given that you have flash support, so you're not at the mercy of whatever half-baked App replacement someone came up with to make up for the non-availability of their website. All the apps I need are available, including some decent games and readers of various kinds. Slightly heavier and thicker than an iPad but it comes with a bigger screen and better hardware. The worst thing I can say about it is that the flipping of the screen to match orientation when you turn the tablet on its side is a little slow.

Othello

Also known as Reversi. I put a good game of this on my tablet and played it off and on over vacation. This game is way, way harder than I had remembered.

Also

I started getting a bit of a cold on my way back, but so far it's mostly been beaten into submission by ColdFX and my own manly manfulness. That's the party line, anyway.

My lovely wife has painted her nails a fascinating shade of blue. I really like it.

The next 2 waves of Dystopian Wars models appear to finally have arrived at the online stores I tend to frequent. Orders submitted!

I want a Winnipeg Jets cap.

That's about it. You are now all caught up.