jverkamp.com

Alaska

Sun, 19 Jul 2026 23:00:00 +0000

Twenty years later, another trip to Alaska. We met my parents (who were on a two month trip of their own) for one week. And oh, what a place for taking pictures Alaska is.

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The Fellowship of the Ring

Sun, 19 Jul 2026 20:00:00 +0000

Another long flight back? The perfect time to rewatch the Lord of the Rings.

Or perhaps just one of them–with the Extended Edition. Man those are long movies (especially in that version).

And man, I forgot just how awe inspiring those movies are.

It all began with the forging of the Great Rings.

It’s the tale of a little man (literally in this case) on a mission oh so very much larger than him–and even larger still; than perhaps he realizes.

Alaska Day 7 - Anchorage

Sat, 18 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Our last full day. A bit quieter. We went to a museum and a store with a chocolate fountain.

Such a great trip. I’m ready to head home.

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Alaska Day 6 - Portage Trails

Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Back through Portage to hike again on our way to Anchorage. We made it to Blue Ice Trail and Byron Glacier Trail. Very cool. Literally.

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Alaska Day 5 - Homer Tides

Thu, 16 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Our one full day in Homer. We went out to the tidal flats. It wasn’t quite like I expected, but still neat. Also out to the Spit in the evening.

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Alaska Day 4 - Sealife and Festival

Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

We went to the Sealife Center in Seward before the (long) drive to Homer. Along the way, we stopped in Soldotna, which happened to be having a festival. That was a fun surprise.

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Alaska Day 3 - Seward Boat Tour

Tue, 14 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Out into the ocean. We saw a decent amount of sea life, including three humpbacks (1 calf!), puffins, and seals.

The part out on the more open ocean was so rough. Just about everyone got sick to various extents.

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Alaska Day 2 - Seward

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A hike at Exit Glacier and pictures at the marina.

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The Lost Hero

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Another day, another hero.

This time around, we open with Jason. Another obvious (to the reader) demigod, hidden in plain sight. Battle reflexes, special powers, purple T-shift… ability to speak Latin…

Jason scratched his head. “You named him Festus? You know that in Latin, ‘festus’ means ‘happy’? You want us to ride off to save the world on Happy the Dragon?

Wait. What?

Oh we’re in for a ride this time.

Alaska Day 1 - Seward

Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Our first day in Alaska, at a house just outside of Seward. Man. The forests and mountains and rivers and life just everywhere. It’s very pretty.

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Ocean's Eleven

Sat, 11 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

It’s been a while since I watched these movies. But hey, when you’re on a plane for five hours and they have a screen full of movies? Worth!

In a nutshell–it’s a quintessential heist movie. Gather the crew, plan the heist, deal with what goes wrong, and walk away in the end victorious. And then show the audience how in the world you actually pulled it off.

Building the crew? Great.

A Walk at Holliday Park

Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Made it back to Holliday Park for probably the last time until classes begin again this fall.

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Fireworks 2026

Sun, 05 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The 3rd to the 5th. Good fun!

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The Karate Kid

Thu, 02 Jul 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Miyagi: Wax on, wax off. Wax on, wax off.

Oh this movie. It’s a classic, but somehow I’ve never actually seen it. Right now is the second best time though, so here we go!

In a nutshell, it’s a pretty straight forward coming-of-age / underdog sports movie from the 80s. Really. Daniel moves to a new town, gets beat up, meets the girl, gets beat up some more, meets the mysterious mentor figure, learns (but doesn’t realize it), learns (but does), loses the girl, gets her back, and, in the end, wins the day.

Austin Powers in Goldmember

Tue, 30 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

It took a while (relatively speaking) to get to this one. And, while this one has a lot of great individual scenes, I think it’s the weakest of the series.

This time around, we’re in the 70s, with the introduction of Beyoncé’s Foxxy Cleopatra. I enjoyed her role, especially her introduction, talking (so obviously) through a third party. She seems like she’s having fun and is a good counterpoint to Austin.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Onward in Harry Potter. And still without making it back to the first.

Plotwise, this is one of my favorites. It’s an action packed story with a lot of mystery going on and a twist to the plot that (long ago) I did not see coming–and which actually pulls the last part of the story together very well. Even if, in the broader world Harry Potter lives in doesn’t make any sense.

The Martian

Fri, 26 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

He’s stuck out there. He thinks he’s totally alone and that we all gave up on him. What kind of effect does that have on a man’s psychology?” He turned back to Venkat. “I wonder what he’s thinking right now.”

LOG ENTRY: SOL 61 How come Aquaman can control whales? They’re mammals! Makes no sense.

With the recent release of the Project Hail Mary movie, I decided to reread the Project Hail Mary book. So of course I also had to re-read The Martian (I’ll watch it at some point too!). But the last time I read it, I wasn’t writing reviews yet… so here we are!

The Last Olympian

Tue, 23 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This is it! The Last Battle¹. Kronos and his army of titans, monsters, gods, and demigods is about to reach New York City and Mount Olympus. And, because of a rampaging Titan coming across the country, the city is almost entirely undefended.

So it’s up to Percy and the demigods of Camp Half-Blood to save the day!

Oh, did I mention that Percy is about ot turn 16 in this book? And that there’s a certain prophecy all about that?

Despicable Me

Fri, 19 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I watched (and reviewed) Despicable Me 2 years ago, in theaters. We watched those movies over and over again for so long when my children were younger. But now, it’s back in favor, so it’s a good time to review it!

Gru, criminal mastermind, has a glorious plan.

Gru: …we are going to steal… pause for effect… THE MOON!

To do that, he needs cookie robots and three little girls to deliver them. And oh, the girls are a delight. Margo, serious and holding everything together. Edith, agent of chaos. And Agnes. Just, cute.

Birds

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

With my new lens, birds are so much easier to take pictures of. And they’re so dynamic. And sometimes weird looking.

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The Demigod Files

Fri, 12 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I probably should have skipped this one.

I do like the three short stories well enough.

We get The Bronze Dragon–a game of capture the flag and a new guardian for the camp. Plus we get more of Silena (child of Aphrodite) and Beckendorf (Hephaestus) who are a fun couple.

Then the Sword of Hades–I do enjoy stories with Nico in them. He’s a nicely complicated character. Plus more Thalia! It’s also fun to see Hades and Persephone bickering.

The Princess Bride

Thu, 11 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A rewatch for me, but that’s just a fun movie. More than a bit 80s feeling, but it works. I love the characters, especially Andrew the Giant’s Fezzik and Wallace Shawn’s Vizzini. They’re just fun throughout the movie.

And man is this movie quotable.

Even if you haven’t seen, it I’m sure you’ll have heard some of these.

Inigo Montoya: Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.

The Battle of the Labyrinth

Sat, 06 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Labyrinth. Daedalus. Return of the Minotaur. Oh, this book has a lot going for it.

I love the setting. It’s interesting seeing more of the ways demigods can go–and have gone in the past. Not all demigods are heroes–which we’ve already seen–but they’re not always villains either. And the same with monsters; we’ve already met Tyson. And for that matter, gods and titans.

There are still good guys and bad guys. But everything is starting to get just a bit more complicated, which I appreciate in the series.

The Titan's Curse

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Annabeth is missing and a goddess is in chains! It’s time for a quest!

Only this time, it’s not Percy’s quest.

Oh, and apparently not everyone is fated to survive.

Percy is growing up–ever nearer to that fated 16th birthday. So of course, he’s got more than just demigod problems.

“Love conquers all," Aphrodite promised. “Look at Helen and Paris. Did they let anything come between them?”

“Didn’t they start the Trojan War and get thousands of people killed?”

The Sea of Monsters

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Families are messy. Immortal families are eternally messy. Sometimes the best we can do is to remind each other that we’re related for better or for worse…and try to keep the maiming and killing to a minimum.

After the events of The Lightning Thief, Percy Jackson is starting to settle into his world of gods and monsters. So of course, things have to get complicated.

This time around, we get a new friend (Tyson, a 6'3" seventh grader who’s a bit slower and absolutely obsessed with Percy), a new quest (the borders of Camp Half-Blood are failing!), and a whole new adventure: The Sea of Monsters.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Mon, 25 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Harry Potter films have some problems¹, but they came out just at the right time to be a large part of my growing up. I’ve seen them all and, while I think the books are better in a lot of ways, the movies have a lot of charm. Especially the first few.

They’re just done in such a magical way, really capturing the fantastic feel of the world. It makes you wish you could just hop right in and explore the world, Hogwarts castle especially.

El Principito

Thu, 21 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

El Principito. En español. ¿Por qué? ¡Por qué no!

En serio, porque estoy aprendiendo español. Un libro fácil es bueno para aprender.

Pero El Principito es un libro raro.

Es un libro sobre serpientes. Y planetas. Y flores.

Y volcanes.

Y baobabs.

Como dije. Un libro raro.

Pero lo disfruté. [[TODO:El Ojo del Mundo||La próxima vez]], debería leer un libro en inglés y luego en español.

Voy!

Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

Wed, 13 May 2026 23:00:00 +0000

Where Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery was a delightful, raunchy, vulgar parody of spy flicks and the 90s, The Spy Who Shagged Me turns everything up a notch–for better and for worse.

It all starts out where the previous movie ended. Austin and Vanessa married and on their honeymoon. Except, surprise! Fembot. Which makes absolutely no sense. But I do appreciate that we get Heather Graham’s Felicity Shagwell out of it!

Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery

Wed, 13 May 2026 20:00:00 +0000

Austin Powers: Allow myself to introduce… myself.

Austin Powers. A riff on 60’s culture and especially the genre of spy movies (James Bond especially) absolutely loaded with a particularly rauncy, vulgar sort of humor.

Vanessa Kensington: Mr. Powers, my job is to acclimatize you to the nineties. You know, a lot’s changed since 1967.
Austin Powers: No doubt, love, but as long as people are still having promiscuous sex with many anonymous partners without protection while at the same time experimenting with mind-expanding drugs in a consequence-free environment, I’ll be sound as a pound!

The Lightning Thief

Wed, 13 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

What if the Greek gods (and the rest of that mythology) were not only real… but still around?

“Is it? What’s the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you think they’ve changed their habits in the last few millennia?”

Oh. And what if they all¹ had a bunch of half-human children. Demigods as it were. Because that’s just what the Greek gods did/do.

Doctor Who: Season 6

Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Man. I forgot how good this season is. Eleven with Rory and Amy. The Silence. It opens with the Doctor dying–and just gets so much crazier from there. It’s one of the best season-long plots (in my opinion) with a lot of solid episodes along the way.

A Christmas Carol - Skipping through time, with a cloudy sky full of flying fish. Delightful.

The Doctor: [Pointing to frozen Abigail Pettigrew] Who’s she?
Kazran Sardick: Nobody important.
The Doctor: Nobody important? Blimey, that’s amazing. You know that in nine hundred years of time and space and I’ve never met anybody who wasn’t important before.

The Book That Held Her Heart

Fri, 01 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Information is like water—without it you won’t live long, too much and you’ll drown. And there’s a difference between truth and information. Even correct information is not the same as truth—truth does not mislead—correct information bereft of context can be more dangerous than a lie.

Another book that I feel like I reviewed but somehow seem to have lost it.

Overall, I really liked how this series started. It’s such a cool idea, an eternal Library spanning through time–and even between worlds. And the story of two very different people, more different than they even imagined.

The Liberation

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

“They’re turning on us!” cried one of the sailors, voicing a panic that threatened to sweep through all the humans on board.
“Jesus fucking wept, you cowards,” said Berenice. “Try not to splash the rest of us when you piss your pants, you dickless shitbags.”

The finale.

I feel like I reviewed this book already, but seem to have lost it (or never wrote it in the first place).

Still. It’s always good to finish a series.

Predator

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Well, I’m just about to Alien vs. Predator, so… I guess I should catch the Predator movies, along with Alien!

Much like Alien, this is a movie that came out a bit before my time, so I’ve never actually seen it. And just like Alien (Aliens even more so), I was kind of amazed at how many lines I’ve quoted any number of times came from this movie…

Dutch: If it bleeds, we can kill it.

The Book That Broke the World

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Book That Wouldn’t Burn was a crazy, solid introduction to the world: we have a giant timeless library built into a mountain range, cities built up and around it throughout time and by more than just humanity, and you have a sort of timey whimey mess of a conflict running through everything.

The Book That Broke the World sort of turns that up to 11.

I already told you: we choose sides with our gut. The words are to make us feel better afterwards.

Alien³

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Ripley: You’ve been in my life so long, I can’t remember anything else.

At the end of Aliens, Ripley, Newt, and Hicks managed to survive a second Alien attack–this time with a lot more violence and space marines–only for Newt and Hicks to die off screen, replaced by body doubles in Alien³.

Not even kidding.

Other than, I actually did enjoy this movie. It messes a bit with cannon, making the Alien a bit less a force of nature, which I’m not sure if I cared for. Unfortunately, that does mean that it feels like you could have replaced the Alien with a number of different movie monsters and it would have worked just as well.

Ghost Talkers

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Take a world where ghosts are very much real and, along with mediums and spiritualists, can have an impact on the world around them. Run that forward to World War I, where British soldiers have been compelled to, after they die, report back in one last time:

“The Germans were flanking us at Delville Wood when I died.”

Quite a first sentence that.

So when our main character gets report from a ghost close to heart heart–and not only that, reporting that he was murdered–well, of course we kick off a story that’s one part war story, one part murder mystery, and one part supernatural adventure.

Rescuing Gentoos with a Rust Solver (Part 3)

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Part 3! Wherein we learn about rockets, recursion, and ricocheting items (oh my). And make it to … the end?

Here are all of the commits from part 1 up through part 3.

And here are all of the parts in this series so far:

Posts in Solving Gentoo Rescue:

The Winter of the Witch

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Bear and the Nightingale. The Girl in the Tower. The Winter of the Witch. Quite a trilogy.

From a dark Russian fairytale world, full of the spirits of the woods, old gods, and the incoming church up through a more political fantasy, deep into the cities of Russia where spirits hold least sway. And now, it all comes to a climax, with ever more battles between summer and winter, between the old and the new, and between all of Russia and her foes.

Rescuing Gentoos with a Rust Solver (Part 2)

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

And here we have Part 2! It’s not been that long for you, but since the first part took six months for me to actually get around to writing it… well, this is much better!

Things get a bit more complicated this time, with buttons that can open/close doors and even holes in the floor and BOMBS. But what’s really crazy is how we actually get around to solving how to get to new sublevels this time… and how to take penguins back out of them. Things are getting complicated!

Here are all of the commits from part 1 up through part 2.

And here are all of the parts in this series so far:

Posts in Solving Gentoo Rescue:

Project Hail Mary (Movie)

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

I really loved Project Hail Mary (the book) and I’d heard good things so far about Project Hail Mary (the movie), so I figured… let’s give it a chance and actually go see it while it’s still in theaters!

Rocky: Amaze. Amaze. Amaze.

I’m so glad I did.

As a movie, you do lose out on some of the real depth of ‘SCIENCE!’ that this story really had as a novel. Some things are left out, others glossed over. But for the most part, there’s still a great feeling of positivity in the face of adversity–of being able to just think your way out of any problem and I just love that.

Rocky: Words of encouragement.
Ryland Grace: That’s not how we say it!
Rocky: Words of great encouragement!

Now. If you haven’t read the book, seen the movie, or even seen the trailers for it, I would say stop reading this and go watch it now. I’m going to spoil a bit–although no more than they already did in the trailers¹².

Rescuing Gentoos with a Rust Solver (Part 1)

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Months ago now¹, I started playing Gentoo Rescue (after seeing the Aliensrock video). At the core, it’s a Sokoban style puzzle game where you have to guide cute little sliding penguins to their color coded nests… but oh man does it start getting more complicated quickly.

On top of that, it has a really interesting nesting level concept–the level select screens are levels themselves. You can go several ’levels’ deep into levels or eventually further back out. And that’s just with how far I’ve gotten so far…

Doctor Who: Season 5

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Eleven! And the Ponds!

Man, I don’t even known which doctor is my favorite. Each has their strengths. But if I had to pick one (I haven’t seen 13-15 yet), it would probably have to be Eleven. He’s just such a mix of chaos, fun, and an absolute confidence in himself.

Say what you will, but he starts the season running an alien spaceship off of Earth with nothing but his reputation and ends it with literally the entire universe at stake.

Mad Men: Season 1

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Mad Men is probably not a show I ever would have chosen by myself. It’s highly rated and got a cost full of people I recognize… but on the other hand, there’s a complete lack of aliens/magic/what have you. Still, I’ve liked other non-speculative fiction TV shows before… so what about this one?

Well, first, what does Mad Men have?

You have smoking (so much smoking):

Don: Except they aren’t.
Mr. Garner: That’s your slogan? “You’re going to die anyway. Die with us”?
Pete: Actually, it’s a fairly well-established psychological principle that society has a death wish, and if we could just tap into that, the market potential is–
Mr. Garner: What the hell are you talking about? Are you insane? I’m not selling rifles here, I’m in the tobacco business! We’re selling America! The Indians gave it to us, for shit’s sake!

Syncing Kobo Annotations... again!

Mon, 16 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A few months back, I gave a Kobo a try. I’m still really enjoying it. At the time, I was using a script on the Kobo + Dropbox to sync annotations. But it was a little heavy (to send the entire database) and tended to fail silently. Plus, I had to use a second script to take the exported database and actually turn it into Markdown I could easily read and share.

So I took a chance to make that a bit better!

The code for this is available on Github here: https://github.com/jpverkamp/kobo-highlights/

The Book That Wouldn’t Burn

Sun, 15 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

“One thing’s for sure, I’m not in kansas anymore.” It was a phrase in half the languages he knew and one that had led to a saying almost as ancient: “We don’t even know what kansas is anymore.”

Imagine a room. A single colossal room, jam packed with shelves. And on those shelves, books, thousands and millions of books.

Now imagine that that’s only one such room, miles to a side. And there are doors to other rooms, also full of books. Uncountably many such rooms behind uncountably many doors. And there are even more. Doors to nowhere. Doors to an ‘in between’.

The Rising

Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

As had become his custom in recent mornings, Hugo Longchamp, captain of the guard of Marseilles-in-the-West, climbed the tallest tower in New France to await the end of the world. Doom had proved slow to arrive. The captain was getting impatient.

A rising war. And not just between the Dutch and the French…

Jax is on his own, fleeing free and northward. Berenice is on her own, causing chaos (both on purpose and inadvertently) behind enemy lines.

Recursion

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

There are so few things in our existence we can count on to give us the sense of permanence, of the ground beneath our feet. People fail us. Our bodies fail us. We fail ourselves. He’s experienced all of that. But what do you cling to, moment to moment, if memories can simply change. What, then, is real? And if the answer is nothing, where does that leave us?

False Memory Syndrome–a mysterious medical condition where you are absolutely sure you have memories of another life lived.

The Queen's Gambit

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A novel about chess, set in the 1960s? How good could that even be?

Turns out: fairly good.

Although (and this isn’t that common for me) I did enjoy the TV show more.

It’s an entire world of just 64 squares. I feel safe in it. I can control it; I can dominate it. And it’s predictable. So, if I get hurt, I only have myself to blame.

In a nutshell, we follow orphan Beth Harmon as she discovers chess–but also drugs–gets adopted, really gets into chess, wins a bunch of games, loses a few, faces addition and loss, and ends up playing the best in the world.

The Warded Man

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

“We are what we choose to be, girl,’ she said. ‘Let others determine your worth, and you’ve already lost, because no one wants people worth more than themselves.”

The setting and world building in this book remind me strongly of The Runelords / The Wheel of Time / Brandon Sanderson’s works, which is already a solid win so far as I’m concerned.

Basically, we have a world where ‘demons’ form out of thin air (more or less) at night, free to terrorize anyone left outside without a circle of wards around them. It’s literally ‘what if the monsters in the night were real’. From there, we have a world that finally fought back against the demons, managed to drive them off, and had a golden age… only to forget. And fall once again–making this world feel post apocalyptic, humanity on the brink of losing for good. But even then, people will fight to survive.