jverkamp.com

Timing Reddit and Enabling Grayness (iOS Shortcuts)

Wed, 04 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I got back and forth with messing with iOS Shortcuts for automation. I have a nice one that let’s me automatically open a daily created file in Dropbox that I’ve had for a while, but now I have two more potentially interesting ones:

Enabling Grayness - Automatically reduce the saturation on my screen to slow down phone addition (hopefully?) with a timed temporary disable feature
Timing Reddit - Every time I launch Reddit, set a 10 minute timer to stop using it so I don’t just lose an hour (or more) doom scrolling

So how did I do it?

Side note: I do with Shortcuts had the ability to share a JSON (or whatever) file containing the shortcut rather than only allowing sharing through iCloud. It does appear that you can (used to?) be able to export them as plists, but it doesn’t seem to work at the moment.

But that’s just the Apple way it seem :\ So it goes.

The Outlaw Demon Wails

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Okay, enough side stories (and prequels!). Back to the main story.

So, Rachel can do demon things. And in doing so, she’s managed to really piss off one demon: Algaliarept (Al). Now he’s out every night on a technicality and coming for Rachel.

“You can’t forget anything,” I said, watching the words vanish into nothing. “And even if you do, it always comes back to bitch-slap you in the morning.”

So how in the world is she going to solve this one? Well… perhaps not in the world after all.

“Rache?” Jenks said warily, hovering as I hid my hands so he couldn’t see them shake. “What did you do?”

😄

On top of that, more elf shenanigans with Trent and Ceri (although not the two of them together :whew:).

Relationship drama, both with Ivy and perhaps with Marshal (from A Fistful of Charms). It’s not quite Kistin, but it will be interesting to see. And uniting auras. What’s up with that? A mystery for another book I suppose.

Oh, and historical drama with Rachel’s mom (now that was a bombshell…). I figured something was up with that, but man that was still a hit. It will be interesting to see where that goes–and if her mom will become a larger player going forward.

Oh, and suddenly Ryn Cormel. Who I just met in The Turn. Interesting that. If I hadn’t read the prequel, would I have missed out on anything? Probably not.

Oh, and a Gargoyle. I expected more from that. But perhaps next book.

I really enjoyed this one. This series has turned out to be primarily about demons, but… perhaps that makes sense given, well, everything. I’m here for it though!

Side note: I’ve been listening to these on audiobok. Why… does this one have a different narrator? It’s a bit jarring. Piss-ker-ee. Lee line. Jenks’ new voice. I think it’d be perfectly fine (although lee line would probably still bother me), but I’d just gotten so used to the other!

It turns out there is a discussion about this on Goodreads.

Ms. Gavin and I are both working to get her to read AMERICAN DEMON. Should happen!

– Kim Harrison

Not a why, but at least it’s known? And apparently we’ll go back to Marguerite Gavin after this one!

Second side note: The fact that they said ‘Al went into human resources’ is certainly a choice. And they just skate right on by that one.

The Marvels

Sat, 31 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

You know, for the first half of the movie, that was actually a lot of fun.

Then why did you touch it?
Because it was glowing and mysterious.
Okay new rule - No touching shit
I’m getting a lot of negative energy from you and I don’t need that right now.

Chaos ensues and bad decisions mean that the Marvels (Ms. Marvel, Captain Marvel, and… the other one? (Monica Rambeau, most recently from WandaVision)) are now suddenly swapping places across time and space. It doesn’t really make any sense, but it’s fun to watch!

And then… the whole thing starts going off the rails.

Why don’t they have help? Why does Ms. Marvel even wear that bangle?

And… seriously? A planet where they sing instead of speak and can’t understand if you don’t sing? That’s a comics silly reason; it just feels weird on the big screen.

And what in the world is with those Flerken scenes… It’s already the shortest movie in the MCU. Did they just really not have enough content so they had to pad it with something?

Overall, it was almost there, but like much of the MCU for… a while now. It could have been so much better.

Onward.

Parsing PEM Certificates & ASN.1 in Javascript

Thu, 29 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I recently had a conversation about parsing HTTPS/TLS/etc certificates client side (so that various values could be compared). There are, of course, libraries for that, but where’s the fun in that? Let’s dig in ourselves!

I thought of course it would be a well specified format and it wouldn’t take more than a few minutes to parse… right?

Right?

Severance: Season 2

Sat, 24 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Whelp. They certainly turned that up a notch.

Right at the end of Season 1, the innies get a chance to go out. This could not possibly go well…

Except apparently all is well in the world?

Until… it’s not.

We have drama, both innie and outie and mixed. We have goats. We have sex scenes. We have wives cheating with their own husbands. We have a trip into the woods.

And we have a marching band.

I quite enjoyed this show.

And now I have to wait for season 3!!

Into the Woods: Tales from the Hollows and Beyond

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Now that that is out of the way 😄

Into the Woods is a collection of Hollows Shorts. Since I’ve liked the series enough to go ahead and want todo everything about it, I decided to pick up all the shorts.

Because I track my reading, I have to draw the line somewhere, so here it is: all of the short stories will be collected here (updating as I read them). Novellas (and novelettes?) will get their own posts.

Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

So that’s a story. Young Rachel (finishing school, desperately wanting to go to the IS), still living at home with her mother, when her brother comes to visit! Given that we’ve barely seen them on page (have we see her brother?), it’s some fun bit of backstory…

And then the entire story revolves around trying to contact Rachel’s dead father to win a bet (and to join the IS in his footsteps), well, of course things are going to get complicated.

It’s a fun story with just the right amount of gut punches and backstory. I do wonder what we’ll see ‘in between’. How does Rachel end up strong enough to go on runs? She certainly isn’t doing that well here. And will see see her time at that camp?

Overall, worth the read!

Side note: red eye flights being renamed to ‘vamp flights’ is a fun detail.

Also: ‘Spell checker’. 😄

Also also: Man Rachel really will fall for anyone, won’t she…

Undead in the Garden of Good and Evil

Tue, 20 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Life was more than waiting for it to end so she could started living.

Man Ivy is a mess.

So this is the/a story of how Ivy came to be, how screwy (heh) vampires can be, how she got to be working as a runner, and how she came to meet Rachel.

That’s a pretty fun way to set it up.

Oh, and much like The Bridges of Eden Park this (especially the Kisten parts) back to back with For a Few Demons More is certainly a touch of whiplash.

The Turn: The Hollows Begins with Death

Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The only thing worse than starting a plague on purpose was being stupid enough to start it by accident.

Okay, I’ve read (and quite enjoyed) enough of the Hollows that I want to go back and pick up the short stories and other supplementary stories.

Enter: The Turn.

The story of science, betrayal, tomatoes, and a whole bunch of deaths that changed the world.

It’s a fun story. While I really do appreciate that the Hollows is a world with without a ‘masquerade’, it’s fascinating to see the world before (and as) all of the various Interlanders came out into the open. Especially seeing who was involved–and wondering just what they’re all up to in the more modern time I’ve been reading.

“A person is okay,” he said, peering into the darkness and the open street. “But when you put a bunch of us together, something is switched on, something ugly.” He glanced at her apologetically. “All of us, humans and nonhumans alike, are genetically primed to attack what’s different from the collective.”

Overall, a fun story to set up. As far as I’ve read, I don’t think it’s necessary to read for the main series, but I’ms till glad to have read it.

Onward!

Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians

Sun, 11 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

And so it ends. Again.

After the events of The Dark Talent, Alcatraz isn’t doing so well¹, the Talents are still gone, several Smedrys are dead²³, and the world is about to end.

So of course we have one last adventure. Chock full of impossible situations, anti-gravity sharks, a Gak, so many straw puns⁴, and an army of kittens⁵, romance⁶, and a big battle on top of a giant glass spire in the middle of the ocean!

One thing that was kind of odd to me (having read almost all of Brandon Sanderson’s works at this point) is how the fine details of the magic system never quite came together–and now they probably never will. The talents are a lot of fun, magic glass is neat⁷⁸, and somehow they are related… but how does it all work? Is Alcatraz right? Where did it come from?! I know it’s not a Cosmere novel, so it gets a bit of a bye for that, but I wanted more. So it goes.

In any case, compared to The Dark Talent, it’s actually an ending, which I greatly appreciate. Other than that, I feel like it’s a weaker entry into the series. Still a lot of fun to read and I’m glad to have finally gotten to them.

Onward!⁹

For a Few Demons More

Sun, 11 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

There were no more choices, no more options, no more clever ways out of a tough situation. And the rush, I realized in a brutal wash of despair, is a false god I’ve chased my entire life. One that cost me everything in the blind search for sensation. My entire existence amounted to nothing.

That title is not a lie…

Not just Algaliarept (Al 😄) this time around. We also are introduced to Newt–just sort of pops in and shows off some serious magical chops… and then reveals that she’s not entirely sane any more. Mildly terrifying that. Plus Minias, her minder, who actually seems decent–for a demon. Rachel is getting in pretty hard with all of these different favors owed (both ways). Makes for quite the story.

On top of that Trent’s getting married. And Rachel’s not only invited… but in the wedding party? Well, actually it’s to provide security (hint: demons). But of course any time you put Trent and Rachel together there’s going to be trouble.

And if that wasn’t enough… we have even more vampire trouble. Rachel and Ivy are such a mess–and that one really can’t last too many more books. One step forward–and another two back. And Kisten. Oh Kisten. Still not a good person, but perhaps good for Rachel? Oh Harrison, *that* was a low blow.

I’ve got your back. Nothing alive will ever hurt you if I have breath in me. And nothing dead will hurt you if I don’t.

Man that’s a story. Probably the most intense so far. I fully expect (and hope) that this really shakes up the world of the Hollows and I’m curious where in the world we can go from here.

Onward!

Sorcery and Small Magics

Tue, 06 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A world in which magic is split between those who can write spells and those who can cast them.

A forbidden spell gone horribly wrong.

And a quest to try to undo it.

It’s actually a really fun story. I enjoyed the magic school aspects of it and it had a nice whimsical magical feeling to the magic that you don’t always see, even in fantasy novels. Once we get out of the school, we see more of the hidden, dangerous parts of the world, driving more to the fantastical–and deadly.

On another tack, this book is tagged romance and LBGT. If anything, it’s more of magical adventure story with the first hints of what could turn out to be romance–but not in this book. It’s an interesting thread woven through the story–especially in how it’s interacting with aforementioned forbidden spell.

Characterwise, the interplay between our main characters–Leo (writer, POV) and Grimm (caster) is fascinating. Leo’s family is rich, Grimm’s is not. Leo is born talented and refuses to apply himself; Grimm has worked hard to get where he is and it shows.

That dynamic drives the entire story and it, as much as anything, is why I’d love to see where the story goes in the (hopefully coming soon?) sequel. It’s a well enough wrapped up story, but oh, it’s one of those where I want to see what happens next!

Well worth a read.

Onward!

The Once and Future Witches

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

One witch you can laugh at. Three you can burn. But what do you do with a hundred?

The Eastwood sisters grew up hard, with a mother dead in childbirth and an abusive father. The older lost as they could and the younger left in a somewhat more… abrupt manner. And then, somehow, they all ended up at the same suffrage rally.

James Juniper. Maiden.

Agnes Amaranth. Mother.

Beatrice Belladonna. Crone.

It’s a fascinating tale, digging into women’s right (suffrage and otherwise), race, homophobia, and sexuality told in an alternate history end of the 1800s, all wrapped a world where witches are real. Where magic lies waiting. And where women’s tales have power.

All of us grew up on stories of wicked witches. The villages they cursed, the plagues they brewed. We need to show people what else we have to offer, give them better stories.

I’m by no means an expert on the time period, so I’ve no idea how much of the characters and events of the stories have a basis in our world, but it has the feel of a world that could very well have been real–something in the world just down the road.

Or perhaps for all of them: for the little girls thrown in cellars and the grown women sent to workhouses, the mothers who shouldn’t have died and the witches who shouldn’t have burned. For all the women punished merely for wanting what they shouldn’t.

I quite enjoyed this book!

Night at the Museum

Sat, 26 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Another on that list of movies I’m a little surprised I’d never seen before–yet I’ve seen enough random clips on YouTube shorts at this point that I feel like I have.

(Side note: This also came back to mind since Ben Stiller wrote a good amount of Severance of all things.)

In any case, it’s a ridiculous and fun movie. The whole premise–that a magical artifact somehow animates all the exhibits at the museum every night–yet somehow no one has ever noticed this? Doesn’t make the list bit of sense. But that doesn’t make it any less fun!

Easter Island Head: HEY!
[pauses]
Easter Island Head: Dum-dum.
Larry: Yes?
Easter Island Head: You give me gum-gum!
Larry: I give you gum-gum?
Easter Island Head: You new Dum-dum. You give me gum-gum.
Larry: Gee, okay, you know what? I have no gum-gum. Sorry. And my name isn’t Dum-dum. My name’s Larry.
Easter Island Head: No, your name Dum-dum.
[some people are running away]
Easter Island Head: Oh, you in trouble, Dum-dum. You better run-run. From Attila the Hun-hun.
[Attila yells and chases Larry]
Easter Island Head: See you later, Dum-dum!

There are a lot of fun action scenes in the movie. Just don’t think about it all too hard and enjoy the ride. I especially loved the chaos of the dioramas of thousands of tiny men come to life and fighting one another. 😄

Jedediah: No problemo, Gigantor.
Larry: Um, my name’s Larry, first of all okay, Jed? See, I call you Jed, I don’t call you tiny, right?
Jedediah: What’s that supposed to mean?
Larry: Hey teeny, how does that sound?
Jedediah: I… I don’t like it. It hurts my feelings.
Larry: Okay, well Gigantor makes me feel like some sort of freak.
Octavius: I don’t. I just call you Larry.
Larry: Don’t be a kiss-ass.

The casting in this movie is a big strength! Dick Van Dyke was a lot of fun as old former night watchman Cecil. Robin Williams (RIP :sad:) is always a delight and his Teddy Roosevelt was no exception. Rami Malek is certainly no Mr. Robot, but he’s got a perfect presence as Ahkmenrah. And Steve Coogan as Octavius and Owen Wilson’s Jedediah were hilarious (especially since the latter was originally a minor cameo).

And you know? Apparently ‘The real-life American Museum of Natural History had 20% more visitors during the holiday season following this movie’s opening.’ So good on them!

Now the sequels? No idea where they go from here, but you know what? Worth a try!

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Fri, 25 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Man Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was such a good movie.

And then they made another one.

Honestly, it’s not as bad as I remembered.

Harrison Jones isn’t getting younger… but he still really makes Indiana Jones. Full stop.

I bet they were expecting this film (and especially Shia LeBeouf’s Mutt) to go better and possibly pass the torch. It was an echo of the same dynamic as Indy and his father in The Last Crusade. Just not quite done as well.

It was kind of fun to see the Soviets be the bad guys this time around and it more or less fits this new, older Indy.

Dean Charles Stanforth: I barely recognize this country anymore. The government’s got us seeing Communists in our soup. When the hysteria reaches academia, I guess it’s time to call it a career.

On top of that, seeing Karen Allen’s Marion Ravenwood again after all these years? And with the obvious fallout of that? That was more fun than I expected.

And man. Cate Blanchett act the heck out of that role. But still, she just wasn’t as much a villain as previous films.

And of course–the action scenes. A bit more over the top than previous movies? Do you even remember the roller coaster mine cart of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom?

I enjoyed the opening in the warehouse. The nuclear bomb-fridge scene has been talked about to death. The motorcycle chase (through the library!) was a lot of fun.

Indiana Jones: You want to be a good archaeologist…
[Mutt drives them out of the building on his motorcycle]
Indiana Jones: … you’ve got to get out of the library!

The jungle fight between the jeeps was pretty cool–but the Tarzan bits? a bit much… The temple was technically neat, even if it didn’t make much sense. And the alien finale wasn’t really that much weirder than centuries old knights and Nazi face melting artifacts.

Overall, I think I’d place it above Temple of Doom, but below Raiders and the Last Crusade. A fun action flick and–not as bad as I initially thought.

Severance: Season 1

Fri, 25 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Well, that’s quite a show.

At first glance, the idea is appealing. You split your memories so that you can go to work, get paid, and essentially spend your entire life not at work.

But then you start to think about this other you.

They never leave.

They never sleep.

They never have a life outside of work.

And that–is terrifying enough even before you start getting into the whole cult’y aspects. And the hallways. And the goats.

I have no idea where they’re going–(I hope they know)–but I’m looking forward to it. Onward!

Solving Woodworm

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Woodworm is a cute little PICO-8 puzzle game about a cute little worm… that eats wood. You can play it for free right now right here!

The goal is to turn this:

Into this:

There are a few rules to keep in mind:

The block (and the worm) are affected by gravity
The block can be split by into multiple pieces by eating it completely apart
The worm can crawl up the side of blocks, so long as two (consecutive) segments of the worm are touching walls

And that’s really it.

So let’s solve it!

A Fistful of Charms

Sat, 19 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Okay, enough vampire/demon nonsense for a moment, let’s talk about weres.

As the joke goes, you don’t have to be faster than the wolf chasing you, just faster than everyone else running away.

Turns out that trying to get letter-of-the-law against multiple packs of werewolves has consequences. For everyone involved.

Nick… is a real piece of work. I will grant him the one small saving grace that he (along with most of the world) thought Rachel dead as part of Every Which Way But Dead¹… but that doesn’t make him any better a person. At least Rachel eventually realizes it? Sort of. Mostly. Ish.

Rachel and Ivy… come to a serious head in this book. Which went about as badly as I expected. I do wish the best for Ivy, but she certainly doesn’t make that easy at times and Rachel is not helping matters here.

It (among a number of other plotlines in these books) are yet a bit more of Rachel being so sure she’s right and never quite taking responsibility for when that goes sidewise.

Jenks? I am so glad to see him back again. The whole running off because of not being trusted last book, I get that. But Jenks is just so fun.

“Plan B?” Ivy said. “What is plan B?”
Jenks reddened. “Grab the fish and run like hell,” he muttered, and I almost giggled.

And now there’s a whole lot more Jenks. Which … kind of weird and I don’t really get it. I do wonder if that’s going to be a recurring theme or was a one off. Half-related, the entire premise that Pixies only live ~20 years and Jenks is just about there? I’m not sure how to deal with this.

Overall, a fun read and I appreciated a new set of problems. Onward!

Side note: Trent’s near complete absense was a bit strange. On one hand, it’s not his flavor of nonsense going on this time around, so it makes sense. But on the other hand, we have crime and rare artifacts, I fully expected that to bring him in.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Sat, 19 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Oh, that’s my favorite of teh trilogy by a solid margin.

It’s great! All the way from the introduction with a young Indy. The introduction of the whip. The hat. His love of snakes.

From there, we get a big world trotting mystery with some great action scenes…

Are you crazy? Don’t go between them.
Go between them, are you crazy?

…big archeological puzzles…

But in the Latin alphabet, “Jehovah” begins with an “I”.

…the dynamic between Indy and his father…

I suddenly remembered my Charlemagne. Let my armies be the rocks and the trees and the birds in the sky.

…Nazis…

I hate these guys.

…and a big supernatural finale.

He choose… poorly.

Oh it’s a wonderful movie.

Watch it!

Which of course means Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is up next… hmm.

Every Which Way But Dead

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

And oh, that climax. This is most certainly going to come back and bite Rachel. But honestly, what other choice did she even have?

– me, re: The Good, the Bad, and the Undead

Yup.

All that vampire/demon business of the previous book? Causing all sorts of chaos this time around.

Rachel, remaining entirely absolutely sure she is right about everything to the detriment of everyone around her? Also chaos-causing.

Nick-trauma and Rachel not realizing that ’thing never done before’ was causing some serious issues? Chaos.

Nick is out of town, so totally platonic date with Kristen¹. Who apparently has murdered people, because… duh? Vampire?², but he promised not to do it anymore. Chaos.

I do appreciate seeing Demon Al as an actual demon. Holding a prisoner for a thousand years. I’m just waiting for an attempted redemption arc there, but as it is it feels good when Rachel gets one over on him. And Ceri has some interesting potential.

Oh these books. Onwards!

The Good, the Bad, and the Undead

Tue, 08 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

And away we go!

Where Dead Witch Walking set up the world, it’s here where we really start setting up Rachel Morgan and go as investigators in their own right. And of course, they’ve stumbled right into a serial killer targeting leyline witches. Good times that.

There is quite the cast of characters this time around. Trent Kamalack is back and as morally ’totally morally gray, but maybe for good reasons’ kind of person–and we do get to learn the what/why he is, which is neat.

“Come work for me, and I’ll tell you.”
My eyes went to his. “You are a thief, a cheat, a murderer, and a not-nice man,” I said calmly. “I don’t like you.”
He shrugged, the motion making him look utterly harmless. “I’m not a thief,” he said. “And I don’t mind manipulating you into working for me when I need it.” He smiled, showing me perfect teeth. “I enjoy it, actually.”

Head local vamp Piscary is scary and understated. Rachel’s mother is wacky. Her father… had secrets. And Nick… well, I’m happy if Rachel is happy, but that is so not going to go well.

Worldbuildingwise, getting more into what exactly layline magic is, how demons work in this world (parallel reality that’s not really Hell go!), how these vampires are different, and more ‘humans are terrified of tomatoes’ than you can shake a stick at. It’s a fun world and I always like seeing how many different ways you can turn common tropes.

On another hand… man Rachel is kind of an idiot sometimes. She’s so absolutely sure shre’s right even when everyone around her is trying to get her see the truth. Oy that was frustrating. One would htink that trying to set out on her own would make her a little more risk averse–but I suppose that’s not in the cards.

And oh, that climax. This is most certainly going to come back and bite Rachel. But honestly, what other choice did she even have?

Overall, it’s a fun series and I’m happy to keep going. Onward!

Lies Sleeping

Sat, 05 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Faceless Man on the run–and trying to ring in¹ some new form of chaos to bring London to its knees.

Along the way, we’ll bump into new characters and, even better, fill in a few more holes in the histories of others. Each step we get closer to Molly’s tale is well appreciated.

And man. Lesley has some trauma to work through. I love the fact that she’s not completely evil and off the deep end, but trying desperately (in her own way) to do the right thing.

Dead Witch Walking

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Making a spell is easy. It’s trusting you did it right that’s hard.

Another new (to me) urban fantasy in a ’the supernatural world has been made public’ world? Yes please!

This time around, we have Rachel a witch and, as of the start of the story, bounty hunter. Frustrated with her job, she decides to quit.

I sighed. I hated the maze of bureaucracy with a passion, but I’ve found the best way to deal with it is to smile and act stupid. That way, no one gets confused.

And in this world, you just don’t do that. So now she’s gone from bounty hunter to having a price oh her head, backed only by her friend(ish) and former co-worker, living Vamp Ivy and Jenks¹, a four-inch tall pixie.

If that wasn’t enough, she’s also stumbling into a super natural drug trade, a whole rat fighting ring (from impressively up close and personal), and summoned demons.

Rachel is a lot of fun. Perfectly competent and willing to fight for it, even if things don’t always go right. I enjoy Ivy, even if she’s still mostly closed off through this book. Room to grow. And Jenks is hilarious. “You think my kids just popped out of the ground?” and all.

The worldbuilding is a lot of fun. I always like trying to figure out what’s diffrerent about this particular urban fntasty world and there is plenty of that here. Born vampires–living and only turning more traditional after death. Pixies and fairies, running their own smaller scale wars over garden space. Genetic engineering run amuck–leading to a perfectly reasonable fear of tomatoes.

It’s quite a a world.

And it’s fun to have the main character be a witch. I’m not entirely certain how much of a witch’s magic is natural versus learned just yet, but mostly human magic user is always a fun point of view.

So far I’m cautiously optimistic. I do love a good urban fantasy. It’s a fun world (with openly acknowledged supernatural characters!) with fun characters and a lot of room to grow. And grow it did–with 18 out as of now².

Onward!

Taskmaster Australia: Series 2

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I have no idea how I ended up watching season 2 of Taskmaster Australia before Season 1, but go with it! It’s not like there’s that much of an overarching plot between seasons that you have to keep up with.

And man, this is a fun bit. Another series, another Taskmaster! And another assistant!

Tom (Gleeson). And lesser Tom (Cashman) are a lot of fun together. I love that lesser Tom can never keep a straight face when teh contestants screw up. It’s delightful.

And oh the cast was a lot of fun. Anne and Lloyd as a couple on the show together made for some great moments. Wil and Tom being old friends is a dynamic we’ve seen before in the British version but it’s always fun. Josh was quite a wildcard at times. And Jenny was one of the reasons I came to this version of the show–I’ve seen her acts on YouTube before and she’s a wonderfully weird mix and has a lot of those ‘young enough to make the other contestants feel old’ moments.

Overall, another great season of Taskmaster. I’m going to have to catch more of the Australian version! LIke season 1 😄.

Love it.

Onward!

2025 Book Bingo

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 00:01:00 +0000

Let’s do it again (again (again (again)))!

Previous years:

Rules:

Must be speculative fiction (SF, fantasy, horror with speculative elements)
Limit the number of novellas (fewer than 40k words or defined by the author as such) or combine them
A book of short stories counts
Graphic novels/manga should be treated as novellas
Web novels count (if they’re long enough)
Audiobooks count

Official thread

2024 Book Bingo Retrospective

Mon, 31 Mar 2025 23:00:00 +0000

BINGO!

Here we go. Bingo: 2024 Book Bingo!

jverkamp.com

Timing Reddit and Enabling Grayness (iOS Shortcuts)

The Outlaw Demon Wails

The Marvels

Parsing PEM Certificates & ASN.1 in Javascript

Severance: Season 2

Into the Woods: Tales from the Hollows and Beyond

Two Ghosts for Sister Rachel

Undead in the Garden of Good and Evil

The Turn: The Hollows Begins with Death

Bastille vs. the Evil Librarians

For a Few Demons More

Sorcery and Small Magics

The Once and Future Witches

Night at the Museum

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Severance: Season 1

Solving Woodworm

A Fistful of Charms

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Every Which Way But Dead

The Good, the Bad, and the Undead

Lies Sleeping

Dead Witch Walking

Taskmaster Australia: Series 2

2025 Book Bingo

2024 Book Bingo Retrospective

Bingo Card

2024 Book Bingo

The Fire-Moon

Snow Crash

The Eyes Are the Best Part

Island in the Sea of Time

The Dark Talent

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

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