And so we continue on our wonderful journey through the islands of Earthsea.
I do not care what comes after; I have seen the dragons on the wind of morning.
Once again, we have a dramatic change of character/scope. This time at least, we do have Ged, now Archmage, but our main character is instead the young prince Arren. Why? No idea! Where did our Tenar go? Well, she’s referenced, but only barely.
A work trip and a chance to see a bit of nature (and a bit of city) in downtown Denver.
And away we go!
Suddenly, Twelve! Capaldi is such a different feeling doctor from either Ten or Eleven. It’s really jarring to get into, but as his seasons go on, I really do think he’s right up there with all of them for bests.
And at least to tide us over, we still have Clara–now finally past her arc as the Impossible Girl.
Overall, this is quite the solid season. There are a few gems and I do love the building mystery and eventual reveals around Missy. It’s not as huge a season arc as we’ve had, but it’s still a solid one.
Peter Parker: Hi. My name is Peter Parker. You don’t remember me, but we used to know each other. Something bad was gonna happen, and the only way to stop it was to make everyone forget about me. Because I’m not just Peter Parker. I’m Spider-Man. And sometimes Spider-Man has to do the hard thing, even if it breaks Peter Parker’s heart.
So here we are. Dealing with the fallout of Spider-Man: No Way Home. The world knows who Spider-Man is, but no one remember Peter Parker. What could possibly go wrong?
It’s easy to start a war, but it’s almost impossible to stop one.
Here we go again! A whole new season, another decade or so into the future; this time after a new release, not back to back with previous seasons.
This series kicks off well after the capture (and kidnapping) of the Goldilocks asteroid. Happy Valley is thriving. A whole new Baldwin (Kelly’s son Alex) is taking the stage–although Ed is still kicking along, ever older. Everything seems to be going so well…
A new meta album about playing with moving or changing settings during a long exposure.
The propensity of Earthlings to get into trouble, and to learn thereby, was the reason my owners agreed to this mad venture – although no one expected such a chain of unusual calamities as befell this ship. Your talents were underrated.
On we go, decades (centuries?) after the events of Sundiver. We continue in this universe of uplift–where every species in the galaxy was ‘Uplifted’ by another, brought to a seat on the galactic stage. Except, perhaps, humanity. The other way around though, we do have humanity uplifting two species of our own: chimps and dolphins.
We finally made it! After the tornado/storm damage earlier this year. It’s a bit later in the year, but amazing weather. A great place to spend a few fall days.
Aladdin. One of the beloved Disney classics of the 90s and easily in my top 3 of that era. It’s just such a fun movie. A rags to riches story, a magical genie, wishes, lies, a big showdown, and great musical numbers all along.
Characterwise, Aladdin is a lot of fun. He’s got his ‘heart of gold’ but that doesn’t mean he’s not without his flaws–or the movie would just be boring. Jafar is a delightfully menacing villain. He’s not evil for the sake of being evil, he’s evil for the sake of power, which makes it all the better. And Iago makes a hilarious foil to him.
One part a book about ‘uplift’. The idea of taking a pre-sapient species and ‘uplifting’ them to join you on the galactic stage. And the idea that every alien species out there is part of a giant branching tree of uplifted species–except perhaps for those few we aren’t. Like… humanity?
One part a book about a spaceship that can survive a dive into the sun. Who knows what wild and crazy things will we find there?
Another season! There are a number of weak ones in this season, but oh man the highs are high. Especially the finale and transition to Season 8. Oh, I’m looking forward to that!
minor spoilers It’s quite a season for the last we see of the Ponds and Eleven's last run. Not to mention the introduction (several times!) of Clara . Oh, and a multi-doctor story! with Ten, Eleven, and the War Doctor! .
Quite a season.
Onward!
To say this series keeps escalating is putting it mildly.
What start a tale of demigods has already grown to include the gods, Titans, and giants, but it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.
This time around, we have two plots. In one, five of the seven still battling their way across the Mediterranean and fighting for their lives the whole way. Hazel in particular steps up a lot of this book–which, it’s the Hades one, so it makes sense.
Freedom is a heavy load, a great and strange burden for the spirit to undertake. It is not easy. It is not a gift given, but a choice made, and the choice may be a hard one. The road goes upward towards the light; but the laden traveler may never reach the end of it.
The Tombs of Atuan starts with the tale of a young girl. She was born as the old Arha died, taken from her family once she survived to the age of five, and raised as the newest in a long line of reborn priestess of dark, mostly forgotten gods.
Hazards: Well, we have the hail and the gatekeeper monster, whatever that might be. But I’d suggest that our biggest hazard is the fact that this bucket has to be driven by a cat this time.
And we’re back into the universe of Dungeon Crawler Carl!
On one side, we have floor ten and it’s full on Wacky Races style. We have crawlers (and now NPCs) given random cars (or giant living mounts)–Carl and Donut for example get a food truck (spoilers). And then they have to race. Just get to the finish line.
A family trip to the beach–and a lot of birds. Also a few other fun pictures. But mostly birds.
“And,” Annabeth continued, “it reminds me how long we’ve known each other. We were twelve, Percy. Can you believe that?”
“No, he admitted. “So…you knew you liked me from that moment?”
She smirked. “I hated you at first. You annoyed me. Then I tolerated you for a few years. Then—”
“Okay, fine.”
…
The one about Athena/Annabeth.
We have the crew of the Argo II on their way to where it all began in Rome/Greece. And if that wasn’t enough, Annabeth has been given the titular Mark of Athena. And when anyone in universe hears about this, there are gasps and sideeyes, so you know that’s not going to be anything good.
What is this? New Dresden Files?! Count me in!
Twelve Months takes place in the year (heh) after Peace Talks and Battle Ground. And in a lot of ways, it’s a book about healing and moving on. Which, after the absolute mess that Battle Ground made of Chicago in general and Dresden in particular?
“A wizard is never late,” I muttered. “He arrives as soon as he’s dealt with his PTSD.”
Scarlett Overkill: Work for me, and all this will be yours: respect, power…
Stuart the Minion: Banana!
Scarlett Overkill: …Banana!
The kids have been obsessed with Despicable Me recently, so of course we’d have to get back to the Minions.
On the surface, this is a movie that makes a lot of sense (take the cute little guys that were a breakout hit in Despicable Me and give them their own movie) and at the same time… no sense at all (for the same reason).
It started more than a decade ago now (2012!). I was catching up to 30 new releases in a year in theaters and reviewing them. Then at some point (2014), life happened1 and I didn’t make it to the theater as much anymore.
After that, starting in 2015, I realized I could do the same thing with books! And I started writing a review of every book I read. And I read a lot. Since then, I’ve reviewed over 1300 books–and I still have over 1000 on my to read list. So that isn’t likely to stop any time soon.
It’s mostly fantasy and to a lesser extent scifi, although I do get a few horror novels in there, along with a couple non-fiction or poetry anthologies a year. I’m always looking for more to add though. Hit me up!
Then, starting in 2021, I started again with the movie reviews, this time mostly ignoring what was in theaters, instead watching whatever seemed interesting, much like my book reviews. And this time, I added TV reviews as well.
And… here we are. Really, it’s as much a memory aid for me as anything. I love being able to look back at all the covers I read in a year, pick one at random, and use my own writing to remind me of a particular book/movie/show. And if anyone else is inspired to read something out of it? Well, all the better!
Current book bingo: 2025 Book Bingo
My oldest was born in 2014. A coincidence I’m sure. ↩︎
I’ve always had a soft spot for photography. I borrowed my mother’s camera in high school and eventually bought my own. These days, I mostly use my phone (it’s amazing how good those have gotten), but I still pull out my years old DSLR from time to time.
Mostly, I have pictures organized by photosets, but I’ve started adding a few ‘meta sets’ like Mini Worlds, Bugs etc (macros), and Fungus Among Us.
The earliest memory I have of ‘programming’ is in the early/mid 90s when my father brought home a computer from work. We could play games on it … so of course I took the spreadsheet program he used (LOTUS 123, did I date myself with that?) and tried to modify it to print out a helpful message for him. It … halfway worked? At least I could undo it so he could get back to work…
After that, I picked up programming for real in QBASIC (I still have a few of those programs lying around), got my own (junky) Linux desktop from my cousin, tried to learn VBasic (without a Windows machine), and eventually made it to high school… In college, I studied computer science and mathematics, mostly programming in Java/.NET, although with a bit of everything in the mix. A few of my oldest programming posts on this blog are from that time.
After that, on to grad school! Originally, I was going to study computational linguistics, but that fell through. Then programming languages (the school’s specialty). And finally I ended up studying censorship and computer security… before taking a hard turn into the private sector to follow my PhD advisor.
Since then, I’ve worked in the computer security space at a couple of different companies. Some don’t exist any more, some you’ve probably heard of. I still program for fun too, and not just in security.
But really, I still have a habit of doing a little bit of everything. Whatever seems interesting at the time!
… other things I currently haven’t put into a category!
I love to take things apart and put them back together. It’s one of the reasons I work in computer security for a living. But more recently, the dropping prices of 3D printing and entirely not dropping prices of wood working have led to a few new hobbies. :D
Another hobby I’ve been getting into more recently is Home Automation! Previously these posts would have been in Other, but it’s nice to have them all in one place.
I am a writer–I just don’t always remember it.
I wrote my first novel in 2011. I’ve started 14 more since then, finishing about half of those. One of these days I’ll actually try to find someone to publish them (or just do it myself). Onward!
(If anyone would like to be a beta reader, feel free to drop me a line).
Once upon a time, I was on track to get a PhD in censorship/computer security. I was ABD (all but dissertation) when my advisor decided to leave and go into the private sector. When that happens… you either find a new advisor or you go with them. I decided to go with them, move to Silicon Valley, and join a startup. It was perhaps the best thing that could have happened to me. While I sometimes regret not having the extra letters after my name, I love the practicality of working in the ‘real world’. Not to mention the job prospects are better. :)
So for the most part, these posts are archival, but there are still a few gems in there.
