jverkamp.com

The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Well that’s a fun story (and a great cover and title 😄).

Basically, take a struggling thief/con artist (with a tendency towards fire magic), give her a job bodyguarding a soon to be married young Lady and… see what happens. There are some crazy fight scenes, a few light plot twists, a skeletal mouse that goes BONG¹, and … perhaps a chance to fall in love²?

Characterwise, man this is quite a cast. We have the Delly–our protagonist thief that can light things on fire–but the supporting cast are even better. Winn. A part troll illusionist/brawler–with quite the accent and past. Mrs. Totham, the ~~Necromancer~~ Body Scientist. The academic. The lady. The mother.

And of course Buttons.

I’ll leave that one for you to discover, but each time I the narrator read ‘Buttons said, “Bong.”’ I found myself grinning. It’s just weird and delightful.

Settingwise, it’s quasi-Victorian, which is a lot of fun. The language is a bit weird at times, with quite a few unexpected ‘fucks’ jumping out at you.. but apparently that’s about when the term really started to take off and branch out, so…

…her perception of egregious enfucktation in her current, present, and unfortunate familial circumstances…

It’s a fun setting though, going from the cities you most often see in a Victorian style out into the country and back. I want to see more of this world!

Plotwise, I didn’t expect the ‘protection’ mission itself to take up such relatively little of the book. It’s more an inciting incident than anything, but I’m glad for it. When we moved on from that–I was not at all ready to move on from this book. It’s all fairly straight forward (I expected a late book twist that never really materialized).

Overall, that was yet another delight of a book and if anything in this review struck your fancy–well worth the read!

Side note: This is apparently a sequel of sorts? Oops. From what I’ve seen, it’s more set in the same world with minor crossovers. But I’m going to have to go back and read it now!

Small Miracles

Tue, 11 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Chocolate shouldn’t be a sin at all. Everyone deserves a bit of chocolate.

Gadriel, a former (now fallen) Guardian Angel owes her angelic bookie¹. And all she has to do to come clear is to tempt one sinless mortal–Holly Harker. Should be easy, it’s what she does now…

So of course wacky hijinks ensue, things go wrong, people get hurt (not badly, it’s not that sort of book), and just perhaps–everyone comes out of it a bit better than they went in.

Believe me, plenty of people claim they love someone because they get the warm fuzzies around them - but love is something you do. Quite often, it’s something you choose.

It’s such a fun reading, reminding me fairly strongly of Good Omens². Both in theme, but also in style. It’s a little bit irreverent, a little bit touching, and a lot of fun.

Structurally, the near constant footnotes detailing what is/isn’t a sin (points, The Good Place style) and the running score for Holly and her niece are a lot of fun. I didn’t expect that to work as well in an audiobook as it did, but each time I heard that little chime, I got a little smile.

Overall, another good read (on a bit of a run of those!). Well worth a try.

Someone You Can Build a Nest In

Sat, 08 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This book is … a weird mix of horror and romance, cozy and queer and weird all at once.

Basically, your main point of view is this shape shifting monster who eats people–who the author does quite a job of making you feel for, especially as–between the whole eating people thing–she ends up finding a family of her own and perhaps even falling in love.

Not at all where I would have expected the story to go from just the title and cover (and oh, that is a delightful cover).

It does get a weird bit ‘modern’ feeling at time, especially when Shesheshen (the monster protagonist) oscilates between having no idea how humans human (I get it, I really do)…

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner,” Homily said, hand going to her throat through the scarf. “I get self-conscious.”

“If you weren’t conscious of yourself, who would you be conscious of?”

…to feeling strongly about consent quite a number of times.

Then she realized the human woman was waiting for consent. Shesheshen sank more under her witch’s hat, and extended a foot. Once it was offered, Homily patted one of her meaty hands on Shesheshen’s calf. Why was she doing that? And why did it feel pleasant?

It’s a concept worth enforcing, but I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that it just didn’t quite fit the whole ‘monster who doesn’t get humans’ thing and it jumped out at me.

On the other hand, I love how ‘alien’ Shesheshen is (when she’s not thinking about consent). She doesn’t really have a body of her own, building it around whatever she eats (or finds lying around). The descriptions of how she builds around organs and puts them to her own use gets awfully gory at times, but is also a lot of fun to read.

Overall, it’s yet another fun read and if you don’t mind a bit of gore and a weird horror/romance mix, it’s well worth it. None too shabby for a debut! (First novel; Wiswell has a few published shorts)

Side note: I … did not expect to find this was written by a man.

Nine Goblins

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Oh, T. Kingfisher is a lot of fun.

Smart goblins became mechanics. Dumb goblins became soldiers. Really dumb goblins became officers.

It’s this delightful little story about a world where Goblins are at war with the Humans and Elves. It’s told from the point of view of a ragtag group of Goblins who suddenly find themselves far behind enemy lines, having to ally themselves with … a veterinarian of all things.

It’s quite a funny book; the humor reminds me a lot of Discworld–take that as the compliment it is. I love reading about all the goblins. They are most certainly a wacky bunch of characters¹.

Wherever a goblin happens to live, he complains about it constantly. This is actually a sign of affection. A desert goblin will complain endlessly about the beastly heat and the dreadful dryness and the spiky cactus. He will show you how his sunburn is peeling and the place where the rattlesnake bit him and the place where he bit the rattlesnake. He will be thoroughly, cheerfully, miserable.

Oh, and of course the teddy bear²!

The bear not only had a set of stripes sewn on his arm, it was possibly the first teddy-bear in history to have received a medal for service to the elven nation.

And the contrast of an Elven veterinarian, getting into all the dirty, messy, ugly things vets have to do (when Elves normally only concern themselves with that which is fair beautiful and true) is great fun.

It’s a quick read (147 pages) and well worth the fun. Give it a try!

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Temple of Doom Temple of Doom has some major middle film issues going on. Both Raiders of the lost Ark and The Last Crusade are far better films. That’s not to say Temple of Doom is bad, just lesser. Actionwise, there’s a ton. Gun fights, bailing out a plane, tons of bugs, several fights in a mine, and a giant drop? There is barely time to breathe. Real world ethicswise… this is even worse than Raiders, which is saying something.

Orconomics

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Not all who wander are lost; some are on quests.

That was a very strange book. More than anything, it felt like ‘what if all of the more game parts of Dungeons and Dragons were real, what would that change about the world?’. Oh, and dig into the economics of it along the way.

We literally have an adventuring industry with heroes funded by corporate interests buying stakes in the eventual loot. Some sort of ’level’ system where you can turn in records of kills for advancement. Noncombat Paper Carries (NPCs).

It’s… a D&D satire.

I think the biggest weakness to me was more one of expectations. I actually expected it to go even more into the economics (that don’t really make any sense) of a adventuring based society. It’s there, but it could have been so much more!

That being said, I did enjoy the book, it was a fun read and the sense of humor was on point. I’ll have to check out the sequels at some point.

Robogenesis

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

And now the story begins for the last time.

So. That hint that it wasn’t all over? That was just the beginning.

We are all expressions of our own minds, projected onto the world.

The idea that the AI that lead to the end of the world wasn’t a unique event–just one that happened to go particularly sideways is a fascinating one. The story of people trying to rebuild in the ruins–only for another war to sweep over what’s left is terrifying. And the ‘what comes next’ of animal like machines, augmented humans, and self-aware / free robots is a fascinating basis for a story.

What is a mind, but a pattern? My mind or yours. Man or machine. Simply an arrangement of atoms. Each of us, a unique expression of the mind of the universe.

Honestly, I still think that Robopocalypse could stand as it’s own–and was the stronger book. But if it had to have a sequel, this was an interesting one. Now that we have it (and that I’ve read it!) I feel like we’re going to need at least one more. There are just so many ideas here, we need to go another step further!

But instead of the end, I’m pretty sure I found myself at the start of something.

Onward!

The Hanging Tree

Fri, 28 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Jeremy Beaumont-Jones had been lucky enough to be born rich. He wasn’t in the mad oligarch class but once you’re past a certain point, the sheer weight of your money sucks in wealth like a financial singularity. If you’re sensible enough not to blow it on race horses, cocaine or musical theatre, then it becomes a perpetual-motion money making machine.

The power of money–and those with power of their own, which tends to lead to money in it’s own ways.

And Peter getting caught right up to it, a favor called in.

It’s a whole mess of the posh/upper class world of London and all the problems that come with this–and how much they expect to be able to pay their way out of anything.

It took the Fire Brigade a day and a half to secure the remains of the house enough to recover Crew Cut’s body, which was described by Dr Jennifer Vaughan as ‘suffering from crush trauma’ and by Dr Walid as ‘mostly flat’.

Well. Almost anything.

I enjoy seeing more of Guleed, both in her role as a cop but also her getting more into the magical world–at least by proxy.

It’s fascinating to see more of Lesley. That’s such a mess throughout all of these books–and I really don’t know where we’re going from there.

And to finally face off more literally face to face with the Faceless Man? Awesome.

The plots and sudden resolutions continue in this book. At this point, I’m mostly used to it… but only mostly.

Side note:

Once the telephone had been invented, it was only a matter of time before the police got in on the new technology and, first in Glasgow and then in London, the police box was born. Here a police officer in need of assistance could find a telephone link to Scotland Yard, a dry space to do “paperwork” and, in certain extreme cases, a life of adventure through space and time.

That’s delightful.

Robopocalypse

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I can only give you words. Nothing fancy. But this will have to do.

It doesn’t matter if you’re reading it a year from now or a hundred years from now. By the end of the chronicle you will know that humanity carried the flame of knowledge into the terrible blackness of the unknown, to the very brink of annihilation. And we carried it back.

In the near future, thinking machines are even slightly more everywhere than they are now. Take it one step further along the road to true general AI… and suddenly you go outright Skynet on the world. Robot Apocalypse. Get it?

The true knowledge is not in the things, but in finding the connections between the things.

This … was perhaps not the best time to read this book, with the ever increasing advances in LLMs and chatbots leading to upheaval in all manner of fields of work, along with the current instability (to put it mildly) in the United States. I think I need more stability in books right now.

To survive, humans will work together. Accept each other. For a moment, we are all equal. Backs against the wall, human beings are at their finest.

That being said, it was a fascinatingly structured book. From the very first chapter, we know humanity (or what’s left of it) eventually wins the war. Each chapter, we have comments like ’this is the last record of X’ or ‘Y had a part to play yet’ And as we go, the various plots cross and come together, sketching out the end of the world and what comes after.

I will murder you by the billions to give you immortality. I will set fire to your civilization to light your way forward. But know this: My species is not defined by your dying, but by your living.

It’s a fascinating book and I think well worth the read… and I’m curious where exactly the sequel can possibly go next without more of the same.

Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Impossible things are really rough to do, you know.

And man, Alcatraz does all manner of impossible things this time around. There’s wacky tech (like Teddy bear grenades and giant flying bats (not made of glass)), wacky situations (Alcatraz getting a major (temporary) promotion (of sorts)), and powers (a Talent for Being Bad at Math). Pretty much exactly what you’d expect.

And all along, we’re getting more about the world building, one thing that I always enjoy in Sanderson’s books. There definitely seems to be a connection between it all–but exactly how it all works together and how that can make things go wrong… well, that’s the story, isn’t it?

Structurally, my kids were absolutely thrilled by the chapter numbering. The books are terribly meta, referring to chapters that don’t exist (because of skipping numbers) and with notes and comments going back and forth. It’s fun to read and honestly kind of impressive that we’ve gone this far…

And…

Boys, welcome to the wonderful world of talking to women about their feelings. As a handy primer, here are a few things you should know:

Women have feelings.

You will spend the next seventy years or so trying to guess what they’re feeling and why.

You will be wrong most of the time.

I like French Fries.

Alcatraz continues to fall for Bastille.

She was absolutely beautiful. She had long blonde hair, kind of the shade of a bowl of mac and cheese. She was smiling a wide, genuine smile—which was rather the shape of a macaroni and cheese noodle. She seemed to radiate light, much like a bowl of mac and cheese might if you stuffed a lightbulb into it. Her skin was soft and squishy, like— Okay. Maybe I’m too hungry to be writing right now.

In a very Alcatraz sort of way.

It’s a fun book and quite an ending. Of all the things to Break… Here we go, one more book from Alcatraz’s perspective / in the original series. We’ll have to see where it can possible go from here!

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

Mon, 24 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

It has been a long time since I’ve watched these movies, but man do they actually hold up. From the moment the score first hits, through all the adventure and action scenes, right up to that face melting(ly awesome!) conclusion? There’s a ton of nostalgia, granted, but I still think it holds up even so.

As an introduction, we have it all!

Tomb robbing!

[Indiana needs his bullwhip to swing across a chasm]
Indiana: Give me the whip.
Satipo: Throw me the idol.
[they both see a stone door closing]
Satipo: No time to argue! Throw me the idol, I’ll throw you the whip!
Indiana: [throws the idol] Give me the whip!
Satipo: [drops the whip] Adiós, señor.

A fear of snakes!

[Upon opening the Well of the Souls and peering down]
Sallah: Indy, why does the floor move?
Indiana: Give me your torch.
[Indy takes the torch and drops it in, revealing hundreds of snakes all over floor of the Well of Souls]
Indiana: Snakes. Why’d it have to be snakes?
Sallah: Asps… very dangerous. You go first.

A mostly grounded world (if larger than life), before edging into the fantastical!

Indiana: The Ark of the Covenant, the chest that the Hebrews used to carry around the Ten Commandments.
Major Eaton: What, you mean the Ten Commandments?
Indiana: Yes, the actual Ten Commandments, the original stone tablets that Moses brought down from Mt. Horeb and smashed, if you believe in that sort of thing…
[the officers stare at him blankly]
Indiana: Didn’t any of you guys ever go to Sunday school?

Characterwise, Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones really makes the movie, but Karen Allens’ Marion and John Rhys-Davies¹ are great supporting cast and man Ronald Lacey makes quite the villain.

Plotwise, it’s a pulpy adventure film. The plot is about as clearly good guys (even if Indy is totally looting) versus bad guys, loaded with some awesome action scenes along the way, and a solid ending where the good guys win. And sometimes, that’s exactly what you want.

Overall, a great fun movie. I’m going to rewatch them all now! (The original trilogy. I suppose I’ll have to watch the new ones too? We’ll see.)

Exhalation

Sat, 22 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Two years, two bingos, two Five SFF Shorts, both by Ted Chiang.

Man I love his shorts.

This one goes more scifi and deals more with time travel and parallel realities than the other (which had more scifi interacting with religion), but I love them both.

In particular, I The Merchant and the Alchemist’s Gate and Anxiety is the Dizziness of Freedom were my favorites. The eponymous Exhalation was an interesting look at entropy. And The Lifestyle of Software Objects, by far the longest, had the time to go even more through the development of the idea over years (in universe).

It’s interesting, I think that especially from this book, I find that I enjoy scifi more in shorts–you have time to explore many more ideas there–and longer form in fantasy–really digging into the worlds and characters more than the ideas.

Agatha All Along

Fri, 21 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Oh that was a delight. Take Agatha (and the general fallout of her created world) from WandaVision, turn up the witchiness, and go on a magical mystical, somewhat terrifying adventure.

It’s a fascinating story and, honestly, if you would have left out a few scenes it would have worked perfectly well completely outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as well. And at this point, that’s a strong point in its favor.

Man Kathryn Hawn does great in this. I loved the supporting witch cast, especially Aubrey Plaza. She does unsettling and off kilter so well. And Teen–he was an interesting counterpoint. I’m not sure about the worldbuilding around either Rio (Plaza) or Teen (Locke), those parts felt weird, but the actors were awesome.

And of course… the song (I don’t see this version as spoilers, but some might).

Man that song has been stuck in my head for weeks now.

I personally would have dropped the last half of the last episode, the penultimate really works better as a conclusion. This really doesn’t need a sequel (although apparently there will be a third show as a ‘TV trilogy’ sort of thing?), but so it goes.

A quick mitmproxy setup

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Another quick thing that I set up for the first time in a long time. It’s honestly as much a note for myself as anything, but perhaps you’ll find it useful too.

The problem: We were having intermittent issues with a content security policy. One of the warnings that cropped up was the inclusion of 'inline-speculation-rules' in the policy. This is currently only supported in Chrome and the issue was only appearing in Firefox. I could of course go through the effort of removing the header locally and testing–but what if I could lie to the browser and change the header on the fly?

Well, for that, you have a number of options. Burp Suite, ZAP, Charles Proxy. Many more, I’m sure. Any of these can modify traffic on the fly like that, but they’ll all designed for so much more than that, making them a bit unwieldy. What I really wanted was something that was a whole lot smaller and did only this one thing (or could be at least configured as such)

Enter mitmproxy. I’ve used it before, but never quite like this. As the name suggests, mitmproxy is designed to man-in-the-middle yourself as a proxy–feed all web requests through it and it can read requests, modify and forward (or block them), read responses, modify or replace them entirely, and all so much more.

Exactly what I needed!

Persephone Station

Sun, 16 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Space opera set on a backwater, mostly ignored planet with all sorts of secrets and corporate exploitation. Add in a cast of criminals and mercenaries and all sorts of characters that don’t get overmuch representation in the Sci-Fi of old (Lesbian, bi, and non-binary, oh my. And honestly, a cast of entirely women in the first place). And more than a touch of an exploration of Artificial General Intelligence–possible even more relevant with the current scope and expansion of LLMs–and you have quite a story.

I enjoyed it. It’s a mix of older tropes and newer characters. For the most part, the story went as I was expecting, but that’s not a bad thing. And it was a fun listen.

I think my biggest pain point is that if anything, Persephone Station tries to do too much. I particularly like books exploring truly alien aliens and machine minds–and comparing and contrasting how they think and how we think about them thinking. There are hints of that here, but it could have been so much more!

In any case, I enjoyed it and think it worth a listen. Onward!

A kitchen calendar display running on an Orange Pi Zero 2W

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been on a home automation kick for the last little while, so what better time than to dust off an old project and put up a home / family dashboard in the kitchen/dining room!

Previously, I had this running off a FireTV and MagicMirror. This worked well enough… but oh man is the FireTV browser terrible. Plus I had to do some crazy things to get it to stay on and never could get it to launch right back into the display on a power outage. So now we have version 2!

In the end, I ended up with:

An Orange Pi Zero 2W for the brains
Armbian for the operating system
Chromium as the browser (I did try Firefox first…)
Home Assistant for the data, remote control, and UI
- WallPanel to hide the side/top bar
- Browser Mod for remote control

Not too bad.

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

If I had a nickel for every book I’d read recently where I went into it not really knowing much more than the cover and title and suddenly horror novel, I’d have two nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.

Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meet Dracula in this Southern-flavored supernatural thriller set in the ’90s about a women’s book club that must protect its suburban community from a mysterious and handsome stranger who turns out to be a blood-sucking fiend.

Which probably should have clued me in.

It’s a fascinating story that starts out fairly tame. A southern woman settled into a life of housewife–a life of long days, unthanked by her family.

“Why do you pretend what we do is nothing?” she asked. “Every day, all the chaos and messiness of life happens and every day we clean it all up. Without us, they would just wallow in filth and disorder and nothing of any consequence would ever get done. Who taught you to sneer at that? I’ll tell you who. Someone who took their mother for granted.”

And to brighten her days…

Sometimes she craved a little danger. And that was why she had book club.

That is, until a strange man moves in next door. With a mysterious aversion to sunlight.

Uh huh.

At some point, the book really gets into that ‘runaway freight train’ feeling. There are some serious body horror scenes in this book and it gets increasingly dark. I mean, it started with biting an ear off, but it goes quite a bit further than that…

Yeah, definitely a horror novel.

Overall, I enjoyed it. The American South housewife theme isn’t something I read overly much and it it’s interesting counterpoint to the vampiric horror. They’re both great examples of ‘pretty and polite on the surface–and absolutely not underneath’.

Worth a read, I’d say.

Foxglove Summer

Sun, 09 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

We trooped off behind her into waist high bracken, down something that was not so much a path as a statistical variation in the density of the undergrowth.

Tne one where Peter goes to the country.

I wondered just when I’d become “the starling” and why everyone who was anyone in the supernatural community had such a problem with proper nouns.

And he’s so out of his element.

There are two children missing and it just so happens that one of Nightingale’s former colleagues is in the area. So of course Peter has to go check in on him… and gets entirely too involved in what does (of course) end up being something in the Folly’s department.

“What the hell is that?” he asked.

“It’s a magic spell,” I said, and Beverley snorted.

“Show off,” she said.

“I said I was going to do magic,” I said.

“But . . .” Dominic floundered around for a bit before pointing at me accusingly. “You said that there’s weird shit, but it normally turns out to have a rational explanation.”

“It does,” said Beverley. “The explanation is a wizard did it.”

“That’s my line,” I said.

I do like the ‘half in the open’ stance that this series takes to magic. Most people don’t know or care that magic is real, but that doesn’t mean that Peter can’t occasionally show off and actually use his tools for what they are…

There’s nothing quite like Latin for disguising the fact that you’re making it up as you go along.

Such as they are.

Characterwise, I really do like seeing Beverly again. She totally has a point that Peter basically ignored her for a book… well, not this time around. And there are going to be reprecussions of that, just you wait.

But not for the moment.

What we do get is a mystery wrapped up in even more slowly extending worldbuilding. Now we know a bit more about the Rivers and more than the very little we knew about the Fae. And of all the things…

“Mind you,” said Dominic, “when it comes to finding new ways to get themselves killed, sheep are bloody geniuses.”

Didn’t Charles Stross go a similar route in Equoid (spoilers)? There’s about a year between the two.

Overall, I enjoyed the story, it was a neat way to expand the setting. The ending was … weak. It felt like things just suddenly wrapped up right when they were getting interesting, which is a bit annoying. Onward!

Spider-Gwen, Vol. 6: The Life of Gwen Stacy

Sun, 09 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Gwens.

Looking for help.

And all for a secret (even to the Watchers…) cabal of Gwens.

Man comics sometimes. This is a hit more cosmic than I want right now.

And the next issue is… Spider-Geddon. I’ll come back to it.

The last with her father though was cute. Just a lot for a single issue.

Side note: the art dramatically shifted halfway through #33. Always jarring, that.

Spider-Gwen, Vol. 5: Gwenom

Sat, 08 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

And do we have Gwenom. Great name. Interesting new power set. Less interaction with the symbiote than you get sometimes.

… if that Venom Wolverine? That’s a terrifying idea.

Anyways, Gwenom. Great name, going to be a terrible idea for her. But she’s sort of stuck without many good ones…

Yeah. It’s dark.

And weird.

But what else is new?

We’re definitely heading to a conclusion here. Onward!

Setting up a Zigbee Tuya IR Blaster

Fri, 07 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I spent long than I would have liked setting up a touch of automation for our home media center setup. Specifically, we have a projector, an HDMI switch, and multiple input devices connected to it (Apple TV, Steam Deck, Switch at the moment).

There are a few things that are suboptimal with this setup, but so it goes. One thing that’s been bothering me for a while is that there’s no great way for the switch I have to easily switch devices. It has a remote… but where’s the fun in that? (Plus we lost it for a few months).

So I took this as a chance to finally set up an IR transmitter with Home Assistant, using Zigbee Home Automation!

It was a bit confusing to get it all working, so I’m sharing it half so I can reproduce what I did if I ever need to or so that anyone trying the same can get it working.

A lot of what I did was based first on this blog post.

A Man on the Inside

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Well that was a fun show. Created by the Michael Schur (who also did the Good Place, check it out!) and with many overlapping cast members from the Good Place, I had high hopes.

When I learned that it was about a man learning to live in an assisted living center, I … wasn’t sure. Was there a supernatural element?

And then when it dropped (in the first episode and all the promotional materials, so I don’t see it as a spoiler) that he’s going in to assisted living as a SPY! Well, I’m intriuged.

It’s a fun show, hilarious at times (especially with just how bad Charles is at all this) and sad at others (it’s about old folks. Death, loneliness, and memory loss are just part of it). But it’s quite the ride all the way through.

I do love the cast, Ted Danson as Charles is amazing. I enjoyed Mary Elizabeth Ellis as his daughter Emily, even if her family troubles were a weird B plot. Lilah Richcreek Estrada as Julie did ‘I’m going to solve this problem whatever it takes’ wonderfully, and it was fascinating to see Stephanie Beatriz as head of staff Didi. I really need to watch Brooklyn Nine-Nine at some point…

And then all of the old folks inhabiting those halls… Man those were some performances. I honestly didn’t recognize any of them from other roles but I expect there are some well known names in there.

Overall, it’s a wonderful show and goes by quick. Well worth the watch!

Exposure

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Of course I had to read the sequel!

It’s another story of Rita Todacheene, but this time getting into the absolute trauma of the first book.

It’s hard enough (I imagine) being a crime scene photography. Constantly exposed to all that fairly grisly death. But add to that ghosts only you can see screaming at you about solving their murders, but when few enough of your coworkers and bosses believe you–to the point of thinking you’ve lost your mind?

Oy.

So Rita is done. Heading back home.

Except this time… the ghosts are coming with her.

This time, rather than backstory the second plot being Rita’s past, we have another point of view–who we quicly learn is a serial killer caught up in his own paranoid worldview and bringing it violently to those around him. It’s a fascinating contrast to the first book and I really liked it. It reminded me a lot of various thrillers I read years and years ago, mostly by Dean Koontz.

Overall, it’s a solid sequel and I so wish the best and better for Rita. Oh I’m curious to see if there will be another! Where do you go from here?

WebCrypto SHA-256 HMAC

Wed, 05 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A quick random thing I learned that I found helpful (and you might too!):

async function hmac(text, secret) {
 let enc = new TextEncoder("utf-8");
 let algorithm = { name: "HMAC", hash: "SHA-256" };

 let key = await crypto.subtle.importKey("raw", enc.encode(secret), algorithm, false, ["sign", "verify"]);
 let signature = await crypto.subtle.sign(algorithm.name, key, enc.encode(text));
 let digest = btoa(String.fromCharCode(...new Uint8Array(signature)));

 return digest;
}

This is a function that uses the Web Crypto API to calculate a SHA-256 HMAC of a string given a secret value.

I mostly worked this out so that I could figure out how exactly TextEncoder worked, along with importKey (to turn a secret into proper key material) and also how to convert that back into a hex digest.

>> await hmac("lorem ipsum", "super secret")
"qArFX93Zi83ccIayhYnuFDpd4pk3eB4rZYDvNteobSU="

>> await hmac("lorem ipsum doler sit amet", "super secret")
"klTAioH5nNkguNhU2YcJshaZZtJW9DEb+MTqz4NWq8E="

>> await hmac("lorem ipsum", "even more super secret!")
"RoQLg2uz5KWLMJM72VExH5gZOls5bdZZyzHi678eDWs="

>> await hmac("lorem ipsum", "super secret")
"qArFX93Zi83ccIayhYnuFDpd4pk3eB4rZYDvNteobSU="

Disclaimer: This totally counts as rolling your own crypto. Don’t do this unless you know what you’re doing. 😄

Disclaimer disclaimer: I only rarely know what I’m doing. 😄 😄

Also, for what it’s worth, this is equivalent to the Python standard libraries’ hmac + base64 :

>>> base64.b64encode(hmac.digest(b'super secret', b'lorem ipsum', 'SHA256')).decode()
'qArFX93Zi83ccIayhYnuFDpd4pk3eB4rZYDvNteobSU='

Clifty Falls 2025

Tue, 04 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A much warmer season to visit Clifty Falls than last year. A great park and some great trails.

View on Flickr

Shutter

Sun, 02 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Grandma always said to me that you never do things for people to get something in return. That is the white man’s way of living. You do it because they need you. You do it because if you don’t, no one else will.

Well that’s quite a book!

In a word, it’s an urban fantasy about a Diné (Navajo) forensic photographer that can see ghosts. But it’s so much more than that.

First, I love the main character: Rita Todacheene. Someone that can see ghosts and a cop (or cop adjacent) is something I’ve seen before, but it being a forensic photographer gave a particular poignancy to the whole thing. And the Diné angle was fascinating–I’ve seen a bit of it in other urban fantasy books, but they have a particular way of looking at death which really plays interestingly against someone that can see ghosts!

As a bit of setting, the attention to detail on the cameras and the craft of photography was a really interesting touch. Rita, growing up poor but from a whole line of photographers. You really get the feeling she knows and loves everything about it which really gives a certain feel to the story.

Content warning though: We do get a number of descriptions of what exactly she’s photographing. And some of those are grisly. At least we don’t get the pictures? (I don’t actually know for sure, I listened to this on audiobook…)

Structurally, the book alternates between the present day–Rita trying to solve crimes and stay mostly sane with ghosts hounding here–and the past: Rita’s time growing up with her grandmother on a reservation, first coming to terms with life, death, and all it means to her specifically. It’s a really nice contrast, pulling the two stories together.

Plotwise, it’s not the most complicated of mysteries. You mostly have enough clues to figure out where this is going, but oh the ride to get there. It’s still well worth it.

I learned early that no amount of prayer or smoke or love was ever going to change the fact that these lights wanted to talk to me. Even at three years old, I knew it was something that deeply terrified my grandma and our medicine man. It was something that I was going to have to hide from them. As I got older, I taught myself how to look beyond the ghosts and mute their voices.

Furysong

Fri, 31 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

When a government ceases to protect its people, it becomes necessary to overthrow it.

Oy.

That’s how you end a trilogy.

Revolution on revolution, coup on coup. Love and hate, betrayal and double/triple/who even knows crossing. And death. Oh the deaths.

Finally, we get a conclusion (for now) of the revolution we were first introduced to in Fireborne. And the government in exile of Flamefall.

The characters are still a large driving factor here, especially (but not only!) Annie and Lee. We finally get an answer to the whole ‘will they / won’t they’ which I expect we all saw coming, but it’s all in how it happened… and what came next. There’s a lot of sweet here–and more than a helpful of bittersweet as well.

On top of that Griff is a fascinating point here. He got everything he wanted in Flamefall and a few things that he couldn’t bear. So for half the book, he’s the hero–and drowning himself in his sorrows. But add in Delo as an actual point of view this time around? A plot well worth it.

On the antagonists side, we have Ixion. Oh we love to hate them. Being the last book, they have to fall, but it’s going to be a long painful trip to get there. The (re)introduction of the Bassileans, their princess, and their gargantuan dragon. I think that’s a sort of difference in dragon breeds and hints at a larger world that I could do with more of. It’s interesting to realize that for all the chaos we’ve been through with these books, they’re only a tiny part of the larger world.

And then there’s Power. He is very much the most complicated character in these books, thoroughly in the morally gray category. Oh Power.

Overall, I loved these books. I’m going to have to see what else Rosaria Munda has done! Onward!

I just wanted it to be in writing, somewhere. I wanted it to be in writing that it was you. For me. It’s always been you.

Raggedy Ann Stories

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Well those are wonderful. It’s Toy Story nearly a century before Toy Story (I wonder just how old ’toys come alive’ stories are?), with a doll and her friends waking up and getting into all sorts of delightfully weird and cute trouble. Story by story. Raggedy Ann Learns a Lesson Raggedy Ann and the Kite Raggedy Ann Rescues Fido Raggedy Ann and the Strange Dolls Raggedy Ann and the Kittens Raggedy Ann and the Chickens Raggedy Ann’s New Sister Raggedy Ann Learns a Lesson And so it’s Toy Story!

Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia

Sat, 25 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Books are not fish sticks.

Now, we’re really in the Free Kingdoms. We spent a book learning that there’s a hidden world and another mostly underground (in the Library of Alexandria!), so it’s nice to get something really ‘hidden world’.

And man, the Free Kingdoms are strange. But that’s probably just the Librarian brainwashing coming through. Castles. Glass pigs. More castles. Kings. Councils. And even more Smedrys!

“Farting barf-faced poop!” a voice exclaimed from inside the pig’s butt.
(Sigh. Sorry. At least that’s another great paragraph to try working into a random conversation.)

Exactly.

One of the hilarious (from our point of view) issues that comes up this book is Alcatraz coming to his ‘Harry Potter’ moment. A world where he knows next to nothing, but everyone knows who he is. Apparently via the in-universe Alcatraz books, which is an extra level of weirdly meta.

Fame is like a cheeseburger. It might not be the best or most healthy thing to have, but it will still fill you up. You don’t really care how healthy something is when you’ve been without for so long. Like a cheeseburger, fame fills a need, and it tastes so good going down. It isn’t until years later that you realize what it has done to your heart.

There are just so many book/other geeky media references. I love them.

For example, take this story: “Once there was a furry-footed British guy who had to go throw his uncle’s ring into a hole in the ground.” Sounds dumb, doesn’t it?

Nothing is sacred!

“That’s bad,” Folsom said.
“She Who Cannot Be Named?” I asked. “Why can’t we say her name? Because it might draw the attention of evil powers? Because we’re afraid of her? Because her name has become a curse upon the world?”
“Don’t be silly,” Himalaya said. “We don’t say her name because nobody can pronounce it.”

Exactly.

Overall, it’s more Alcatraz. You have a fun plot, wacky characters, and just on the edge of too much meta commentary on writing/being a work of ‘fiction’. I’m still quite enjoying it.

And this is only halfway.

If a train left Nalhalla traveling at 3.14 miles an hour and a train left Bermuda at 45 MHz, what time does the soup have pancakes?

Where in the world (literally) can they go from here?

Broken Homes

Sat, 25 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

It’s a police mantra that all members of the public are guilty of something, but some members of the public are more guilty than others.

The more things change…

This time around, we have both Peter and Leslie as apprentices at the Folly, learning how to do magic things–

“I’d love to stick some high vestigia material into a mass spectrometer, but first I’d have to get myself a mass spectrometer and then I’d have to learn enough physics to interpret the bloody results.”

–and use those abilities to investigate those stranger cases in London.

The key is unlikely juxtapositions. Lots of people read books about the occult, but if you find them alongside books by or about Isaac Newton, especially the long boring ones, then hackles are raised, flags hoisted and, more importantly, notes made in my notebook.

…the more they remain the same…

And then they find a body sans face.

Attend a peace summit between Rivers/Fae. (I actually really do enjoy how fuzzy and ill defined Fae apparently are in this world. It’s interesting and feels somehow more ‘Fae’ than you often see.)

Move into an estate (British for project housing).

“Peter,” she said. “When you threaten people it’s usually more effective if they don’t have to spend five minutes working out what you just said first.”

It’s a strange book.

…until quite suddenly things aren’t the same anymore.

Oof.

That’s a brutal ending.

I’ll just leave it at that.

And immediately go start the next book.

Doctor Who: Season 2

Sat, 25 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Yeah, I’m still re-watching Doctor Who in fits and starts.

Well, after all that was great with Eccleston/Nine in season 1, how we get Tennant/Ten. Oh, I do enjoy his take on the doctor. It’s a perfect mix of a whimsical seeing what he can get away with–with the absolute feel of sadness and age that a being like the Doctor really should be feeling…

And all with Rose along for the ride. Rose gets a lot of hate at times, but I really think she was a pretty good first nu-Who companion.

In this season, we a fair few two parters, a bunch of great episodes. The Girl in the Fireplace is a great take on ’the Time Travelers wife’ sort of thing. Rise of the Cybermen/Age of Steel introduces us to some old foes. The Impossible Planet/Satan Pit really start getting into Doctor Who as sci-fi/horror (and I love it).

And then… there’s Love & Monsters. That’s… actually not that bad? It’s definitely one of the ‘Doctor-lite’ episodes, which are always something interesting to try. The ending is crass and kind of terrifying to really think about–rather than the laughs you might think they were going for.

Overall, a solid season!

And the special introduces Donna! Even if she won’t be back for a bit, she’s certainly a contender for my favorite companion.

Onward!

Freshly (Frosted) Solved

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

And so it begins. Freshly Frosted It’s a cute little puzzle game about making a donut factory. It’s a lot like Solving Cosmic Express in that it’s a ‘puzzle on rails’, you are basically routing around the grid from source to target. In the way, we have to go to certain tiles in a certain order (in this case, to apply toppings to our donuts). Let’s do it! The first section (starting with Basic layout) is the final state of the solution.

Arcane: Season 2

Tue, 21 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Well then. I absolutely loved [[Arcane: Season 1]]. I still loved Season 2… but I think they may have reached just a bit too far.

The art style is still amazing. We still have the same main steampunk/magitech/brightly colored visuals (Jink’s chaotic spraypunk style in particular), but there are also more scenes this time, with different styles matching the feel. Chaotic black slashes when a monster hunts, childhood crayon feeling drawings for memories, and SPACE for… well, spoilers. And oh, the glitching. Weird, but quite the style.

The characters… I think at it’s heart, this show is about Vi and Jinx and man do they go through a lot in this season. I already felt for Jinx–even if I wasn’t sure she could ever be redeemed in season 1–and they just turn it up. On top of that, you have Jayce/Viktor, which… man that one hurt this season. Plus Vi/Cait (go them!), and Mel/her mother (this one didn’t get nearly as much time as it needed), and Ekko (this could have been a whole season… or left out entirely).

Mostly, I think this was the biggest problem with this season. It’s only 9 episodes, mostly short of 45 minutes. That is not enough time to fit everything that they tried to put in this show. I could have easily watched an entire season focussing on any one of those plots above… and they tried to fit it all in. We get some resolutions… but so much is left undone.

Apparently there won’t be an Arcane Season 3; instead, we’ll get one or more spinoff shows in the same universe but with other stories/settings/characters. This is absolutely for the best.

Speaking of feel, the first season did a good job of feeling real/grounded. It was a story of class warfare and the introduction of magic into a steampunk world. It all ‘fit’. Here, we get quite a bit more of the more ‘cosmic’ side of what’s apparently also kicking around in this world. I liked it, don’t get me wrong, but it felt so much bigger and weirder than the first season that they didn’t quite fit together…

Overall? I still quite enjoyed Season 2. It is absolutely worth watching Season 1 and once you have… well, you have to go on, right? I’ll totally check out any spin-offs that we get.

Onward!

Taskmaster: Series 18

Mon, 20 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I … managed to miss [[todo:Taskmaster: Series 17]] somehow. Anyways!

Another delightful season. This was a fun cast. Baba was full of chaos, Rosie got away with so much crap (sometimes literally) and her team tasks with Jack were such chaos. Andy has serious mad professor vibes (mostly the hair I suppose). Emma… Emma was my favorite.

Rosie having cerebral palsy certainly started out with a different flavor to the season. But man she has a sense of humor about the whole thing. I think it took Greg and the other contestants a minute to feel out how far to go (“Is it too early in the series to mention I DON’T have cerebral palsy?” - Emma)… but once they did, that was a lot of fun.

As you can tell by the way I talk, I suffer from being Northern. – Rosie

Overall, what do you want? I love this show. Another great season. Time to go back to 17!

Flamefall

Sun, 12 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Revenge doesn’t need to begin with a knife. It can begin with a well-delivered speech.

The cracks were already showing in Fireborne. There may have been a Revolution, dealing away with the Dragonlords of old… but that doesn’t necessarily mean that whatever comes next is going to be any better. So much so that you start to see those with the feeling that ‘maybe things weren’t so bad under the Dragonlords after all’. And it just so happens that there’s more than one cousin in exile…

I really enjoy seeing Annie come into her own in this book, taking her place in charge of the dragon riders after Lee stepped down. And then dealing with all that comes from having to make all those hard decisions at the top. Dealing with Lee and the government and the other riders and her own past. It’s a lot.

And Lee, actually coming out into the open–while dealing with the trauma at the end of Fireborne. Complicated that. I kept expecting him to snap–and hoping that he won’t, that he will actually be better. I’m rooting for you!

And then we have newcomer Griff. Another peasant dragon rider from a very different set of circumstances. It’s hard to introduce a new main character in the second book, but I really do think it was done well. Man, the New Pythians are twisted, almost comically evil. But that doesn’t make them any less dangerous to those in teh story.

Oy there’s just so much in this book.

Tonight I’m full of confidence, like a dragon riding a gale. I am done letting these tendrils of shame tie me to the ground. No shadow is so great that it doesn’t shrink when viewed from the air.

I can’t wait to see how it ends from here.

Oppenheimer

Sun, 12 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Barbenheimer!¹

Oppenheimer: Albert? When I came to you with those calculations, we thought we might start a chain reaction that would destroy the entire world…
Einstein: I remember it well. What of it?
Oppenheimer: I believe we did.

That is a long, dense film.

It’s complicated and there are long stretches with little going on by talking and setting. But… man, is it thematic talking and setting?

It’s all about the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the so called ‘father of the atomic bomb’ and… well, how he earned that title. I knew bits and pieces of the story, but having watched this, bits and pieces were apparently all I knew. It’s kind of amazing how many of the names I recognize from physics classes were involved in either the project or Oppenheimer’s life.

It was at times difficult to follow, there are a ton of jumps (mostly stylistically) and it makes me wander just how much of that was actually problems in Oppenheimer’s mind and how much was style. That’s not really clear, even by the end of the movie. I certainly wouldn’t be surprised though if he was having issues like that.

Einstein: When they’ve punished you enough, they’ll serve you salmon and potato salad, make speeches, give you a medal, and pat you in the back telling all is forgiven. Just remember, it won’t be for you… it would be for them.

I think the cast was another impressive part of this film. I couldn’t speak to just how perfectly accurate it was, but I think Cillian Murphy was an excellent casting for Oppenheimer. He’s got just the right amount of strange charisma to really pull you into the film.

Matt Damon and Robert Downey Jr. were solid roles, enough to actually remind me why they’re considered solid actors–and not just playing themselves as some do. Alden Ehrenreich I thought looked familiar, but had to look up where I’d seen him recently (Solo and Beautiful Creatures (that’s been a while)). There are just a bunch of people I’ve seen in other things before…

Overall, quite the solid movie. I think I learned something and enjoyed the process of doing something, which is something always worth saying. It’s long, but I think it’s worth a watch!

(Personally, I don’t think there’s any reason to Barbenheimer it though, although it is amusing.)

Last note:

Oppenheimer: Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.

The first time he says it… was surprising and kind of weird. I expect they were going with ’everyone is waiting for him to say the line… psyche!’ I’ll just leave it at that.

Barbie

Sat, 11 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Barbenheimer!¹

Barbie is quite a movie.

An entire world populated entirely by every single variant of Barbie and Ken⁴. All named Barbie and Ken, all living their lives in the most ‘we’re sort of toys and sort of real’ way possible. Drinking your morning coffee? Tip the empty cup to your mouth. Need to get out of the second floor? Just jump down! And of course…

Ken: I thought I might stay over tonight.
Barbie: Why?
Ken: Because we’re girfriend and boyfriend.
Barbie: To do what?
[pause]
Ken: I’m actually not sure.

Oh this movie is weirdly(ly on point) at times.

Then we get the ’toy in the real world and DOESN’T UNDERSTAND THINGS’ scenes. I feel like a lot of those were dialed up just to the edge of over-parody, but really, it somehow just works? Barbie is so out of sorts and just doesn’t realize it… until she does.

Things go wrong… and suddenly the movie isn’t just the Barbie movie anymore. Now, it’s all about Ken. And the PATRIARCHY.

Ken: To be honest, when I found out the patriarchy wasn’t just about horses, I lost interest.

I knew that we were going to have some major conflict there, in a world (almost) entirely populated by Barbies and Kens… who else is there? But it’s kind of weird. I feel like Ken honestly has more of a story arc for a lot of the movie does than Barbie. Which… feels kind of against the entire point of the movie?

It works though.

And of course, we have the big Mattel in the room. Of course we have to have a dig about companies making toys for girls run by powerful men. But man, did they dial that one up to 11 on a rediculous scale. A bicycle built for… a boardroom. That is all. Will Ferrell is a delight as the CEO. After Lord Business in The Lego Movie… this is a weird role to be typecast as, but it really works.

Speaking of casting, I did love Margot Robbie as Barbie⁵.

Barbie: [in tears] I’m not pretty anymore!
Gloria: What? You’re so pretty!
Barbie: I’m not stereotypical Barbie pretty!
Narrator: Note to the filmmakers: Margot Robbie is the wrong person to cast if you want to make this point.

She just … epitomizes Barbieness in the movie? I don’t know who esle could possibly have carried that role quite as well. Kate McKinnon as Weird Barbie was great as well.

And Ryan Gosling as Ken⁶. This one I think could have been differently cast with less issue, but he still did a wonderful job.

One thing that stood out was how at times uncomfortably on point Barbie managed to be on various social commentary issues.

Sasha: You’re a fascist!
Barbie: How can I be a fascist?
[through tears]
Barbie: I don’t control the railways or the flow of commerce…
[cries]

Oh this movie.

Overall, it was a movie better than it had any right to be and far better than I expected, even with generally positive reviews going on. Worth watching. Not sure it’s necessary to Barbenheimer it though…

Toasting Marshmallows: Camping Poems

Fri, 10 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

One of those ‘read to the children over a few evenings, so I should count it’ sort of books.

Warm front. Cold back.
    I turn around.
Warm back. Cold front.
    I turn around.

I lean against Mom,
my head on her shoulder.
    Warm all over.

And it’s actually a really fun book. The feeling of camping… in poetry form!

Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I’m really going for that ’earliest published book’ for this coming Year in Reviews aren’t I?

It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another.

Overall, it’s one of those stories you expect to know what happens even before you read it. Frankenstein¹ creates LIFE in a form stitched together from dead bodies. But it’s super ugly, so he drives his creation off. Said creation isn’t a huge fan of this and goes on a murderous rampage. The end.

And yet, that’s not entirely right?

It’s an oddly formatted story to a much more modern reader. It’s epistolary (told in letters and journals), which reminds me a lot of Dracula and nested. We have letters from a sea captain, the account of Victor Frankenstein, and then finally the monster himself .

It’s a neat style, but I think a bit more could have been done with it. And it’s never really a great sign when one of the main viewpoints (Frankenstein himself) is just hard to read. He’s not likeable and depressed a lot of the time.

Even broken in spirit as he is, no one can feel more deeply than he does the beauties of nature. The starry sky, the sea, and every sight afforded by these wonderful regions, seems still to have the power of elevating his soul from earth. Such a man has a double existence: he may suffer misery, and be overwhelmed by disappointments; yet, when he has retired into himself, he will be like a celestial spirit that has a halo around him, within whose circle no grief or folly ventures.

Which again, I get it. But it doesn’t make for a thrilling read.

It’s billed as one of the earlier examples of science fiction, but it’s not really science fiction. It does deal with the idea of bringing life–but never really gets into it. It’s setting as much as anything, something to set the story in motion.

Alternatively, it’s also called early modern Horror, but … it’s not really horror in either the jump scare or thriller or cosmic senses of the word. There’s some sense of inevitability–the creation is coming!–but it never really amounts to much.

Overall, I think it’s worth having read mostly in a completionist sense. And really, I’m glad I listened to this one on audiobook–they have a way of just keeping you going when you might otherwise get stuck and put the book down.

Onward!

2024 Year in Reviews

Tue, 31 Dec 2024 23:59:59 +0000

11 years. 1300 book reviews. 170 movies. 100 seasons of TV shows.

That’s so ridiculous when you write it out. It’s kind of neat how something builds up if you just keep doing it over time.

Posts in Year in Reviews:

In any case, I enjoy collecting stats on various things and sharing them out. Both as a way to look back and remember for myself and in the hope that someone else finds it interesting and/or shares anything new/interesting I haven’t seen!

Overall this year:

Read 298 books
Watch 17 seasons of TV
Watched 11 movies
Played 227 different (85 new) board games a total of 1313 times
Played 37 games on steam (24 new) and made it to 100% Achievements on 10 1 of them

The Empire of Gold

Tue, 31 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Luck is a fairy tale we use to make people feel better about the world being unfair as shit.

Man this book has come a ways since The City of Brass. At first we had a fairly straight forward portal fantasy: normal human girl goes through a portal (ish) to another world, discovers magic, and has adventures (again; ish). Then things escalate. Political intrigue. Old enemies. Revolution. War.

And now… Daevabad has fallen. Nahri and Ali are on the run, trying desperately first to survive and then… maybe, to come back and save the day. And perhaps learn all those dirty little secrets those (formerly) in power tried hard to hide all these years.

I do not believe ambitious men who say the only route to peace and prosperity lies in giving them more power—particularly when they do it with lands and people who are not theirs.

I love the characters. Especially Dara, but the whole Nahri and Ali journey was great to read. And I even foundmyself rooting for Muntadhir, which after the previous books… I did not expect). Manizheh… I think Ghassan was a better villain overall, and it’s interesting that she made it as far as she did, but so it goes.

And I still love the worldbuilding–even if I’m still after 3 books not 100% sure what is a subset of what and who is a when. But I suppose that’s the point. Reality is messy. But it’s a fascinating world and I’m sad to be leaving it.

Overall it’s a solid conclusion to a great series. I’d be happy to read more in this world, but I’m always glad to see a series actually get it’s own small end, rather than just fading out as many do.

Find your happiness, little thief. Steal it and do not ever let it go.

Onward!

Iron Council

Mon, 30 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

[[Perdido Street Station|One in a city]], [[The Scar|one on a boat]]… and now one based around an entire civilization built around a ‘perpetual train’, putting down rails as it goes (and at times, tearing them up behind it).

Man China Miéville has some bonkers worldbuilding ideas.

I mean course you want a change, we want a change, but if a change ain’t godsdamn coming, then the next thing I wish is that I didn’t care.

Beyond that, we have a whole book about political oppression and xenophobia (the Iron Council is initially founded by the remade working on the train). It’s about the tension of a revolution that feels inevitable. We have a story about gender differences (in a world where sexual dimorphism is a huge deal for some species) and love and longing. And a story about future history. The messy way of how one ends up getting history books written about them.

“History…” Jacobs spoke with terse authority. Brought Ori to a hush. “Is all full. And dripping. With the corpses. Of them who trusted the incorruptible.”

It’s also interesting to see the fallout of the ‘Contruct Uprising’. A direct consequence of Perdido Street Station. And now instead, we have golems–which in this world can be made by animating any sorts of bits of innanimate matter and giving them life/instructions. It’s cool!

Unfortunately, I think this may be the weakest of the three. Despite how cool an idea a ‘perpetual train’ is, I think the story spends too much time on other people/places/things. It’s all building up, but when one of the things I love the most (and always start by describing) is left wanting? That’s a bit of a bummer. It’s still fascinating and there’s a bunch of it… but I wanted more!

Whispers Under Ground

Sun, 29 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Ghosts! Goblins! Murder! The FBI (in London)! The LONDON UNDERGROUND!

I do continue to really love the feel of these books. It feels like a British cop show with a combination of magical elements and the science of magic, which are all delightful things.

Characterwise, it’s mostly the same, although this time around, we get a lot more of Lesley stepping up to learn magic again, which is something I was hoping would happen. I’m looking forward to seeing how those two grow together.

“That was Seawoll,” she said. “Stephanopoulos is on her way down and you’re not to do anything stupid until she gets here.”

You burn down one central London tourist attraction, I thought, and they never let you forget it.

It’s also interesting seeing the bits of London as a city built on people from all manners, histories, and walks of life.

My mum translated this in her head to “witchfinder,” which was good because like most West Africans, she considered witchfinding a more respectable profession than policeman.

😄

Worldbuildingwise, I like seeing ever more of teh magical world of London. There really is a feel of ’this could be’ that urban fantasy doesn’t always get right. And I enjoy finding out that even the magical folks don’t know how a lot of what they do works, but our main character is not going to let that stand.

This is why magic is worse even than quantum physics. Because, while both spit in the eye of common sense, I’ve never yet had a Higgs bosun turn up and try to have a conversation with me.

It’s fun to see even more of the magical underground (literally). It’s neat to see how different authors play with old stories (and make up their own!)

“My dad was a fairy," said Zach. “And by that I don’t mean he dressed well and enjoyed musical theatre.”

One oddity: There are a ton of Lord of the Rings references throughout this book, some blatent and some more subtle. I was really fully expecting that to Chekhov's gun… but they were just references all along? That seems weird to me and I can’t quite my finger on why.

Overall, I loved it and am looking forward to the next one! Onward!

AoC 2024 Day 25: Christmas Lockpickinator

Wed, 25 Dec 2024 00:00:03 +0000

Source: Day 25: Code Chronicle

Full solution for today (spoilers!).

Part 1

You are given a series of locks and keys (see below). How many unique (lock, key) are there that do not overlap (they do not have to fit perfectly).

A lock starts from the top. The entire top row is # and the entire bottom row is ..
#####
.####
.####
.####
.#.#.
.#...
.....
A key is the opposite:
.....
.....
.....
#....
#.#..
#.#.#
#####

AoC 2024 Day 24: Ripple Carrinator

Tue, 24 Dec 2024 00:00:03 +0000

Source: Day 24: Crossed Wires

Full solution for today (spoilers!).

Part 1

Given a collection of gates of the form arg0 (AND|OR|XOR) arg2 -> out and input values of form x** and y**, what is the value of z** interpreted as a binary number?

AoC 2024 Day 23: LAN Partinator

Mon, 23 Dec 2024 00:00:03 +0000

Source: Day 23: LAN Party

Full solution for today (spoilers!).

Part 1

You are given the edges of an undirected graph. Count how many complete subgraphs of size three exist that contain one or more starting with the letter t.

Aside: Games with local (but not hotseat) multiplayer have gotten rather rarer over the years… how many people still know what a LAN party is/was?

AoC 2024 Day 22: Xorshiftinator

Sun, 22 Dec 2024 00:00:03 +0000

Source: Day 22: Monkey Market

Full solution for today (spoilers!).

Part 1

Implement a PRNG with the following update function:

Multiply by 64, xor with the previous value, modulo 16777216

Divide by 32, xor with the previous value (from step 1), modulo 16777216

Multiply by 2048, xor with the previous value (from step 2), module 16777216

For each of a series of seeds, sum the 2000th generated number.

AoC 2024 Day 21: Busy Workinator

Sat, 21 Dec 2024 00:00:03 +0000

Source: Day 21: Keypad Conundrum

Full solution for today (spoilers!).

Part 1

You are trying to type a code on a keypad:
+---+---+---+
| 7 | 8 | 9 |
+---+---+---+
| 4 | 5 | 6 |
+---+---+---+
| 1 | 2 | 3 |
+---+---+---+
 | 0 | A |
 +---+---+
But you cannot type directly. Instead, you can control a pointer on the keypad with arrow keys:
 +---+---+
 | ^ | A |
+---+---+---+
| < | v | > |
+---+---+---+
Whenever you type a ^ on the arrow keys, the pointer on the keypad will move up one, etc. When you type A, then the pointer on the keypad will type whatever it is pointing at.

But that’s not enough either. Add a second keypad. And then a third, that is the one you are actually controlling.

For each output sequence multiple the length of the minimum input sequence needed to generate it by the numeric value of the input sequence (ignoring any A); sum these.

Note: Moving off any keypad or into the blank spaces is an error.

AoC 2024 Day 20: Shadow Catinator

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 00:00:03 +0000

Source: Day 20: Race Condition

Full solution for today (spoilers!).

Part 1

Given a maze with exactly one path, find how many single walls you can walk through (remove) that shorten the best path by at least 100 units.

Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener's Bones

Fri, 20 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Once there was a bunny. This bunny had a birthday party. It was the bestest birthday party ever. Because that was the day the bunny got a bazooka.

The bunny loved his bazooka. He blew up all sorts of things on the farm. He blew up the stable of Henrietta the Horse. He blew up the pen of Pugsly the Pig. He blew up the coop of Chuck the Chicken.

“I have the bestest bazooka ever,” the bunny said. Then the farm friends proceeded to beat him senseless and steal his bazooka. It was the happiest day of his life.

The end.

Epilogue: Pugsly the Pig, now without a pen, was quite annoyed. When none of the others were looking, he stole the bazooka. He tied a bandana on his head and swore vengeance for what had been done to him.

“From this day on,” he whispered, raising the bazooka, “I shall be known as Hambo.

Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians introduced us to the world, now in Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener’s Bones we actually get to live in it! A bit. Sort of.

(Hushlanders, it might be noted, aren’t very imaginative with their idioms. Personally, I say, “Out of the frying pan and into the deadly pit filled with sharks who are wielding chainsaws with killer kittens stapled to them.” However, that one’s having a rough time catching on.)

Essentially, the entire book is an adventure where Alcatraz and co (Bastille, but also newcomers Australia¹ and Kaz) are on a mission to mention a recently missing Grandpa Smedry. One thing leads to another, they end up in the Library of Alexandria–which got totally Tardis’ed–and discover all sorts of spooky ghosts, ancient scrolls, hidden messages, … and more.

Not all librarians are evil cultists. Some librarians are instead vengeful undead who want to suck your soul.

jverkamp.com

The Ruthless Lady's Guide to Wizardry

Small Miracles

Someone You Can Build a Nest In

Nine Goblins

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

Orconomics

Robogenesis

The Hanging Tree

Robopocalypse

Alcatraz Versus the Shattered Lens

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

Exhalation

Agatha All Along

A quick mitmproxy setup

Persephone Station

A kitchen calendar display running on an Orange Pi Zero 2W

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires

Foxglove Summer

Spider-Gwen, Vol. 6: The Life of Gwen Stacy

Spider-Gwen, Vol. 5: Gwenom

Setting up a Zigbee Tuya IR Blaster

A Man on the Inside

Exposure

WebCrypto SHA-256 HMAC

Clifty Falls 2025

Shutter

Furysong

Raggedy Ann Stories

Alcatraz Versus the Knights of Crystallia

Broken Homes

Doctor Who: Season 2

Freshly (Frosted) Solved

Arcane: Season 2

Taskmaster: Series 18

Flamefall

Oppenheimer

Barbie

Toasting Marshmallows: Camping Poems

Frankenstein: The 1818 Text

2024 Year in Reviews

Posts in Year in Reviews:

Table of Contents

The Empire of Gold

Iron Council

Whispers Under Ground

AoC 2024 Day 25: Christmas Lockpickinator

Source: Day 25: Code Chronicle

Part 1

AoC 2024 Day 24: Ripple Carrinator

Source: Day 24: Crossed Wires

Part 1

AoC 2024 Day 23: LAN Partinator

Source: Day 23: LAN Party

Part 1

AoC 2024 Day 22: Xorshiftinator

Source: Day 22: Monkey Market

Part 1

AoC 2024 Day 21: Busy Workinator

Source: Day 21: Keypad Conundrum

Part 1

AoC 2024 Day 20: Shadow Catinator

Source: Day 20: Race Condition

Part 1

Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener's Bones