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WEEK 42 2011

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Saturday 22 October 2011
Saturday - not much to say. doing some video review, went over to a friends' house for pizza and a DVD.

We watched Rango, which I'd rate as a "B", and a documentary about the first men to drive a car across country (San Francisco to New York in 70 odd days), Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip, which I'd rate as an "A".

Friday 21 October 2011
Friday - not a lot to say. Not feeling well the last couple of days.



Book #125 was Island of Exiles, by I.J. Parker. This is the successor to Black Arrow (Sugawara #3), wherein Sugawara impersonates a convict to solve the murder of an exiled imperial prince.

Book #126, P1, actually read some weeks ago, was Simply Sailing, by Connie MacBride. It's about sailing/cruising in a small boat. Interesting, and with useful information, though I don't think I'd want to sail quite as "bare bones" as the MacBride's.

The P1, P2, P3 are books I have read sitting outside, by Phoebe's plot. I aim to make them "good" books, uplifting and/or educational.



So, books so far, this year:

#1 Lords of the Sea
#2 Kris Longknife #1: Mutineer
#3 Kris Longknife #2: Deserter
#4 Kris Longknife #3: Defiant
#5 Kris Longknife #4: Resolute
#6 Kris Longknife #5: Audacious
#7 Kris Longknife #6: Intrepid
#8 Kris Longknife #7: Undaunted
#9 Little Women
#10 Good Wives
#11 Empress of Eternity
#12 Quarter Share
#13 Up Jim River
#14 Betrayer of Worlds
#15 The Bounty*
#16 Half Share
#17 A Yacht Voyage to Norway, Denmark, and Sweden
#18 The Wreck of the River of Stars
#19 Citadel: Troy Rising II
#20 Live Free or Die
#21 Surface Detail
#22 How the Irish Saved Civilization
#23 The Name of the Wind
#24 The Wise Man's Fear
#25 A Galaxy Unknown
#26 Valor at Vauzlee
#27 The Clockwork Universe
#28 The Clones of Mawcett
#29 The Sun, the Genome, and the Internet
#30 Trader Vyx
#31 Origins of Life
#32 Milor!
#33 Castle Vroman
#34 Outies
#35 Origins
#36 Resurrection and Awakening
#37 Triton
#38 Frontline
#39 Fracture
#40 Fragments
#41 Into My Father's Wake
#42 Heaven, Hell, and Salt Water
#43 Blood Maidens
#44 Dust
#45 Saturn Alia
#46 A Lion on Tharthee
#47 The Warriors Apprentice
#48 The Vor Game
#49 Brothers In Arms
#50 Mirror Dance
#51 Cetaganda
#52 Memory
#53 Finder
#54 Storm Passage: Alone Around Cape Horn
#55 Barryar
#56 Komarr
#57 A Civil Campaign
#58 Unsinkable: A Young Woman's Courageous Battle on the High Seas
#59 Altered Carbon
#60 Broken Angels
#61 True Spirit: The True Story of a
16-Year-Old Who Sailed Solo, Nonstop and Unassisted Around the World
#62 Chill,
#63 The Lost Fleet #1: Dauntless
#64 The Lost Fleet #2: Fearless
#65 The Lost Fleet #3:Courageous
#66 The Lost Fleet #4:Valiant
#67 The Lost Fleet #5:Relentless
#68 The Lost Fleet #6:Victorious
#66 69 The Lost Fleet: Beyond the Frontier: Dreadnaught
#67 70 The Undercover Economist
#68 71 The Silkie
#69 72 The World of Null-A
#70 73 The Players of Null-A
#72 74 Angelmass
#71 75 Sleuthing the Alamo: Davy Crockett's Last Stand
#73 76 The Witling
#74 77 Leviathan Wakes (The Expanse)
#78 Sailing the Dream
#79 The Hot Gate
#80 A Princess of Mars
#81 Drood
#82 Gods of Mars
#83 Warlord of Mars
#84 Thuvia, Maid of Mars
#85 The Ocean Waits
#86 Fifth Circle, The Passage Log
#87 Fuzzy Nation
#88 Full Share
#89 The Ice Diaries: The Untold Story of the Cold War's Most Daring Mission
#90 Temporary Duty
#91 Confessions of a D-List Supervillian
#92 In the Shadow of Ares
#93 Brain Cuttings
#94 Hounded
#95 Hexed
#96 Agent of Byzantium
#97 Hammered
#98 The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms
#99 A Light in the Dark
#100 Mission of Honor
#101 Diplomatic Immunity
#102 Cryoburn
#103 The Information
#104 The Brendan Voyage
#105 The Astounding, the Amazing and the Unknown
#106 The Lost Gate
#107 Reamde
#108 Soulless
#109
Changeless
#110
Blameless
#111 Heartless
#112, P2, Kon-Tiki
#113 A Planet of Viruses
#114 The Book of Dragons
#115 7th Sigma
#116 The Magician's
#117 The Magician King
#118 The Quantum Thief
#119 The Sagan Diary
#120 The Knights of the Cornerstone
#121 Neptune Crossing
#122 Rashomon Gate
#123, P3, Portland to Portland
#124 Black Arrow
#125 Island of Exiles
#126, P1, Simply Sailing,

Thursday 20 October 2011

Thursday - R.I.P. Peanut.

Sad news from my sister in the evening, she had to have her old cat Peanut put to sleep. Very painful for her, but she did the right thing. He was old and all his systems were failing, he couldn't rise or walk and so on. Like Phoebe he had only a few hours in pain and confusion left. Her daughter, only in her early teens, was very upset.

I'm feeling a bit blue myself. I just lost Phoebe a month ago.



Book #124 was Black Arrow, by I.J. Parker. This is the third book in the Akitada Sugawara series, and enjoyable. I haven't read the first book, The Dragon Scroll, as the library here doesn't have it and Amazon wants $13 for the Kindle edition.

Wednesday 19 October 2011

Wednesday  - I burned a DVD of the boat pics, and gave them to S, so she has something to give to the agents, who are very insistent on getting current pictures of props.

Tuesday 18 October 2011

Tuesday - we went over and collected the pirate ship from the guys who have been working on it. They did a pretty good job, and clearly spent some time and thought on some of the renovations and upgrades. We completely rigged it, mast, sails, the sparkly "ocean skirt" around the lower part, and took a bunch of pictures for the prop agent. Then we took it all down and trailered it back to it's usual home.

S has been after the Hollywood agent types to get it listed as rent able, so there are hopes for $$ to be made.



The boss called late afternoon, and said due to some other pressing engagements that there won't be any field work this week. Well, so it goes I guess.



Book #123,P3 was Portland to Portland, by Robert and Theresa Russell. This is about a transcontinental bike trip from the Pacific Ocean near Portland, OR to the Atlantic near Portland,ME. Pro's: still honest and entertaining. Con's: Not particularly well put together, with some odd tense changes and clearly generated in large part from blog posts.

The full title is Portland to Portland: A Self-Contained Cycling Tour Across North America. I don't think any deception is intended, but they stayed in hotels, motels and private homes for almost the entire trip, camping out only once. I certainly don't fault them for it, they appear to be middle aged adults like myself and the rigors of trying to find campsites in the middle of nowhere lacked attraction.

There were problems with the Kindle edition; firstly the font being generally far too large, and secondly that the maps to "follow along" were actually links to online maps via the Kindle's rather poor browser. I think that embedded static pictures of the route rather than the links would have been preferable.

Monday 17 October 2011

Monday - Trying to review video's. Pretty boring, but I can certainly use the work. But my eyes hurt after only a few hours work :-(

The new Droid A855 arrived in the afternoon, and after charging it for a bit I was able to activate it. My phone contacts are intact, but of course the pictures, and the notepad, browser bookmarks, and all applications are gone. Well, my fault, I suppose I can't complain too loudly.

I wonder what happens with my Kindle App, perhaps I have to deregister the old one? Some apps were useless - I never used Wikitude for example and probably won't re-install, but some were cool, Google Sky for example.



It was odd, being almost completely out of touch. Refreshing in a way, but weird.

Sunday 16 October 2011

Sunday - Another unfortunate effect of dropping my cell phone into the drink is the loss of the pictures on it. The last pic I downloaded was towards the beginning of August. Dang.



Book #122 was Rashomon Gate, by I.J. Parker. This is a murder mystery set in Japan, in the Heian period, roughly 1000AD. Well done.  The detective is a minor/mid-level bureaucrat in the ministry of Justice, and like Miss Marple or Jessica Fletcher just can't help running across murder after murder.

I can recall trying to read something similar, set a few hundred years later during the Shogunate, but not finishing it. Perhaps by Laura Rowland?

I seem to be on some sort of Japanese kick lately, with anime on TV and now murder mysteries.



Picture of the Week
September Sunset 2011
Photo Notes: At the AV Fair I saw this model of the USS John Penn, APA-23. I originally thought she was
my father's ship APA-33, the USS Bayfield, as they look very similar. The Penn was built nearly ten years
before the Bayfield, and the Bayfield had a different hull and superstructure.


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