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WEEK 43 2016

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Fourteen
Years
Ago,
This
Week
2002

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Twelve Years Ago, this week, 2004

Eleven Years Ago, this week, 2005

Ten Years Ago, This Week, 2006

Nine Years Ago, This Week, 2007

Eight Years Ago, This Week, 2008

Seven Years Ago, This Week, 2009

Six Years Ago, This Week, 2010

Five Years Ago,
This Week,
2011

Four Years Ago,
This Week,
2012

Three Years Ago,
This Week,
2013

Two
Years
Ago
This
Week
2014

One
Year
Ago
This
Week,
2015

Saturday 22 October 2016

Saturday - Nice weather, if a bit warm for late October.

Messed around in the yard all morning, re-stacking firewood nearer to the house, cutting up a bunch of smaller bits with the chainsaw. It really wore me out, getting old I guess. Still have to move a bunch of the small stuff. It's only about a quarter cord - I'd prefer to have a half cord or more, but left ordering it too late, it's up to nearly $100 a half cord now.

Down in the SF Valley people are giving that much away for free....

Lunch at a Thai place.

My friend R bought himself a new (to him) Mercedes. He'd seen it the other day while he and it's owner were both out driving, saw it was for sale, and got the name of the guy - then lost it. While out visiting yard sales in the morning he met the same guy again, and closed the deal. It's an old 1983 diesel, but in better shape than his current old diesel. It also has air conditioning and cruise control...

Book #49 was Feast of the Elf's (The Green Knight's Squire #2), by John C. Wright. Our hero Gilberic Moth wants to be a knight, and starts out by taking lessons from a bear.

Learning about fighting from a bear:

Lesson Five: Grappling. "This is a simple move, and it always works. Rear up on your hind legs, get your forepaws around the prey, and hug him. This will crush his lungs and break his ribs. And rip off his face with your teeth while you are doing it, that always demoralizes him."

After a somewhat botched apprenticeship to the bear, Gil realizes he needs a more knightly master to teach him. And ends up a squire under the tutelage of an elf after crashing one of their parties (Feast's), and agreeing to trade blows with the evil Green Man who also crashes the party. Gilberic's reason for fighting is given in a reply to the Elf King, thus:

Alberic said, "But why? Why? How is the honor of your King Arthur involved?"

Gil said, "The Green Man slurred not only the knights and loyal men of Alberic or Erlkoenig, and the retainers of the Ethne, and the vassals of Brian. He said there was no one worthy of knighthood in the chamber. I say there is one."

Alberec stared, but there was a small smile in his beard. "For this you lay down your life?"

"The Green Man also picked up my dinner fork without asking. That was a discourtesy."

The elfs laughed, but, for once, it was a good-natured laugh, a sound of surprise.

The Green Man survives Gil's blow (by picking up his head and putting it back on), and promises to kill him in a years time.

The elf king then agrees to apprentice him as a squire to one of his own elf knights so that Gil will have skills enough not to embarrass the king in the upcoming fight, though no-one expects him to actually survive the Green Man's return blow. Very humorous and very Christian.

I'm reminded of an anime from a season or two back: "Haven't you heard? I'm Sakamoto". It's never expressed in the story, but clearly he's a Galahad or Percival figure, a near perfect knight who always saves the day at his high school. You never learn his first name though apparently he came from St. Innocents Academy somewhere. It'd be interesting to know if the Japanese author was Christian. The Japanese in general seem to have very strange ideas about Christianity.

Friday 21 October 2016

Friday - Nice.

Working away on the app. Not much to say there. Had to quit a bit early when a neighbor came home and started making a bunch of noise, but I have made significant progress on the darned pinning indicator.

Thursday 20 October 2016 Thursday - Warmish weather, with clouds. Humid.

Working away on the code, carefully "cleaning" up some code. I did the same thing two opposite ways, basically, and have to untangle the mess I made. Made no easier by the fact that now know I can't trust Xcode and Git. Bah.

Yup, looks like they found a new crater near where Schiaparelli was supposed to land. Crater Schiaparelli already exists on Mars I guess, so, Crater Schiaparelli II, Crater Schiaparelli The ReBoot ??

Wednesday 19 October 2016

Wednesday - Nice weather.

Working away on this and that. Not much to say, same old same old.

My brother texted me that the European Mars mission, ExoMars, apparently failed. Sounds like the orbiter is OK but that they lost contact with the lander, Schiaparelli, before landing. Not good.

Book #48 was Swan Knight's Son (The Green Knight's Squire Book #1), by John C. Wright. Modern fantasy, Arthurian, with Elves (as bad guys, as they used to be portrayed). Amusing.

I happened to be reading it when my brother texted me something about how hard it was to explore Mars.

I sent him the passage I was reading at the time:

"My cousin Mathonwy Moth, who is the greatest sorcerer of our generation, says no one lives on those frozen or boiling orbs except the ghosts of long dead and monstrous civilizations, utterly given over to evil, who graves and prisons must never be disturbed."

Tuesday 18 October 2016

Tuesday -

Monday 17 October 2016

Monday - Cool and breezy.

One annoyance that seems to be on the rise is web pages asking you to subscribe and/or comment, with a popup that overlays the view of their web page within a second or two of opening it. It's quite extraordinary, and on the rise, and my habit is just to close the tab. I think people that link to these sites need a warning symbol, "popup", "register", "fifteen seconds of advertisement" and so on.

Sunday 16 October 2016

Sunday - Cool and pleasant in the morning.

I just did a bit of grocery shopping in the morning, a few of the usual items.

Cool and breezy, gusting up to windy in the afternoon and evening. I guess Northern California is getting pounded with the first good storm of the season. No doubt it will be blamed on global warming climate change.

I didn't do much of anything in the afternoon and evening. A bit of reading.

Book #47 was Blood In The Water by Taylor Anderson. This is the umpteenth in the Destroyermen series, and the series shows no signs of ending anytime soon. Not much new happens - I just sort of plodded through this, taking a good six weeks to complete it.

Picture of the Week

Solar panels in the west valley.

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