Category Archives: Books & AudioBooks

In my ears

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Since this is yet another day at sea, I thought I would detour into audiobooks. If you don’t read, or don’t listen to books you are welcome to hit delete, move on to another blog or do whatever makes you happy. And, for a complete surprise, the two books which I have just finished are non-fiction. Probably 90% of my reading and listening (or more) for pleasure falls into the realm of fiction, usually one genre or another since there is still a significant load of professional reading in my queue and foreseeable future.

So why would I listen to non-fiction? The answer is usually, I don’t. But occasionally a book hits an interest, is recommended by someone or was cheap enough on Audible, Tantor, or DownPour that I was willing to give it a try. I don’t have to know anything about the topic; in fact it is probably better that I don’t since it decreases the likelihood that I will quit in disgust or contemplate sending a letter to the idiot author with a list of references that they obviously missed in their research. A sense of humor is probably needed for me as well as the author. Perhaps that explains why I have enjoyed Mary Roach’s various books. She combines meticulous research with a puckish way of getting across her point.

I will make the same claim for Jennifer Wright – Get Well Soon: History’s worst plagues and the heroes whom fought them. She has a sense of humor, she hits all the main points and is not chary with her opinions of the politics of various times. And it does help to have some reminders of the surrounding political/social situation, especially when it comes to more recent epidemics such as the 1917-1918 Influenza Pandemic or the much more recent HIV/AIDS epidemic.

In contrast – Tristan Donovan’s Replay – The History of Video Games, while full of names, dates and events seems a bit dry and doesn’t have that same fluid flow. Being narrated in British doesn’t really help as the book is quite US centric even when it attempts to include developments in Japan, England, and the Continent. Having grown up through the era’s described, the absence of USENET, FIDONET and OS/2 with the systems, personnel and games involved to me are glaring holes in an otherwise fairly coherent tale. Much more useful to someone interested in games would be the game theory courses that I found on Coursera, the History of the Internet (same) and several essays on internet, Manga, and RPGs that I found on line as apposed to this 14 hours + of names/dates and recitations of business that came and went over the years. Any attempt to be inclusive felt obvious as he emphasized the exceptions (why do we just use last names for white males without any indication of gender or race while clearly stating both characteristics for anyone of Asian, African or the female persuasion).

I am still clearly astonished that I listen to the whole thing. All I can say in my own defense is that I bought the book cheaply on one of Audible’s sales.

Much more fun to listen to various Graphic Audio titles. I appreciate the full-cast productions and the general sense of the absurd in both Warlock Holmes and Tony Mandolin. There are free podcasts with titles from each. Well worth subscribing.

Carl won’t leave

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No I don’t have a house guest who has been here longer than three days. What we have is a marine layer – fog in the evening completely obscuring the sky. Since Berkeley can occasionally be thought of as a University town, a literary location you might have figured out the reference:

“The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on”

and thus is referred to as Carl.

It makes attempting to photograph the night sky impossible on this side of the hills (and Hayward Fault).

George and I went to the game and watched along with over 40,000 other fans the As manage to lose yet another game. They have younger players. They are learning; but those errors are costing way too much. I was sorry to see Cotton take the loss since the relief pitchers were the ones whose continual provision of wonderful pitches caused the White Sox batters to run up the numbers and make recovery impossible.

I was going to stay and take fireworks photos from the parking lot, but just got too cold and too tired. My excuse was that there was just too much light (grin).

It isn’t so much that

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the As keep trying to lose. It is more a matter of fouling up a good thing. For example, an error by the shortstop in the first inning turned a routine out into a two base grab. Said runner later scored. And then there were the 2-3 innings including one with bases loaded that the As at bat managed to strike out, pop out or land themselves in a a double play instead of scoring a go ahead run.

Go figure – I can’t.

Meanwhile I am still playing with machine embroidery, working on a cross stitch and just finished Graphic Audio’s Mike Oberon – Hallow Point.

No Alarm

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It is quiet here, except for the purring cat. The occasional train rumbles by with the tracks within a couple of miles. I can hear the whistle in the distance as the freight trains roll across the various crossings.

And the cat purrs on. Only one of the two, Onyx is being both chatting and actually physically demonstrative. I am not sure what he thought when attempting to chew on a small bit of my hair and it all came out in his mouth. I wish I had a photo of his totally astonished look. He is wandering back and forth behind me looking for something I am sure to play with. An item that I would appreciate him appropriating. Yarn? Embroidery floss? Perhaps a nice rattling rolling object? No, not my pill bottle thank you very much!

George did the transportation services while I had the pleasure of a day of mostly rest. A bit of sewing, a bit of knitting, a decision not to cross-stitch on black without enough light. With a bit of over the phone help, I have completely conquered threading my new serger (well, ok Nov new) so will tackle the entire pile of p.j.s and head scarves tomorrow besides packing for Singapore.

It is later than I planned, but listening (I think I skimmed the book when it came out) to Bujold’s Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance which I am enjoying quite a bit although I think she overplays Ivan’s lack of ambition and excessive ignorance at times..

Waiting

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For side effects, symptoms. boredom or sleep. Thinking about it, I’ll go for the sleep. I didn’t get much last night probably secondary to both the cats and the lovely prednisone I was complaining about last chemo cycle.  While I was waiting I managed to make a couple of head-scarves, ignore the cross-stitch, soak in the hot tub, sort out a box of books, finish a pair of p.j. bottoms for College Guy, and clear a number of mystery containers from the fridge.

You know the kind I mean – those things which have an expiration date somewhere back in the last decade (or month), are manifesting as agar for colony growth or are seriously and truly limp. Then of course there are the slimy vegetables hiding down in the bottom of an otherwise empty bag. No one around here would finish something off! Oh no! That would mean disposing of the container. Anyway, I had a fine time tossing things out and berating everyone else for not thinking about cleaning out suspicious packages. While I was at it, those last couple of tablespoons of chocolate ice cream looked quite lonely.

I’m back out in Richmond. I’ve successfully figured out how to set up one of my many lights so that I can actually see the cross stitch while I download some audiobooks from Downpour. I can’t always resist a $4.95 sale. I just wish their app was better….

Nap Time

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It was a long day. A really long day if you want the truth. Taking the 0558 BART meant that I arrive at Powell Street in time to catch the 0650 shuttle. One minute earlier and I could have boarded the 0640 shuttle which was pulling a way as I thought about dashing down the street. The end result of going in early was that I was through the labs and had seen my doc in plenty of time to not have to worry about hurrying infusions. Its a lot of fluid – more than I drink in a normal day just going in the IVs which means both my kidneys get a work out and I help wear the track in the floor from the loungers to the loo.

George rescued me again and we headed home – north over the Golden Gate

note, traffic moving

and across the Richmond Bridge turned out to be a lot faster than the projected route through the city. It was the financial district that was insane the other night with an average of one (1) car making it through per light which might explain the almost 2 hour journey home.

I did some knitting and finished an audiobook – Kelley Armstrong’s second in her Yukon Territory mystery series – A Darkness Absolute.   The narrator is excellent and the short punchy chapters make it easy to stop and start listening while keeping up the pacing.

The knitting was – from left to right –

band for a new hat, a number of rows further on a sparkly hat, start to decrease in red silk

Blue, grey, red

Resolutions

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What did I say? Nothing major on the table this year. No “must read so many books or finish x many hats or ……” I’m not even committing myself to having the garage organized by the end of the year.

When I told Cat the following:

My only real resolution this year is to enjoy each day. And to accomplish a little bit, whether it is cross-stitch, knitting, reading or just running errands for someone else. Not boxes emptied, not countries visited or miles flown.

She replied with

That’s not a resolution – that is plain good ordinary common sense….something most people lack.

Now, I am not going to claim practicality, or common sense most days. But given an opportunity to re-home items? I’m all over it.

So there I was at Stone Mountain and Daughter going through the apron patterns (I have daughters who like aprons) and the sale patterns when I over head a conversation across the table from me. It had to do with whether or not a particular fabric looked “galaxy enough” to make a corset cover. I looked up and asked what to me was the obvious question. “Cosplay? Convention? Costuming, Just because?” Turns out the answer was Star Trek Conventions. Full on corsets, as in traditional or adapted to modern?  Mostly modern.

Humm – would she like a corset kit? I had purchased one several years ago then decided I wanted nothing to do with back lacing (traditional Renaissance) corsets. It needed a home.

End result is that the young woman plus her mom and mom’s friend stopped by the house after making their rounds in Berkeley. By this time, I had unearthed the four original Star Trek Uniform patterns I had on hand plus a number of books on fashion, costume and pattern design. All of them went off to Oakley in the hands of people that will appreciate them. I don’t have to feel guilty about attempting to sell them at a used book store or messing around with eBay.

Now, if the Northern California Handweaver’s Guild comes through for me with takers on some of the weaving equipment…..

Life is good.

Only seven more rows, but it feels like I am making progress…..

2 Jan 2017 – only about 2k left to go on the stitches.

And what didn’t get completed.

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Mind you, this is not a whine. Nor is it a request for sympathy. But we all have those projects on our list at the beginning of the year which we plan to have completed by the end of the year.

I still have boxes – dozens and dozens of boxes in the garage. Some of them I can deal with (and will) over the next couple of months. Some are just too heavy for me to move by myself. I have items that need new homes but I have no idea where those homes are and I just don’t want to deal with eBay. None of this, of course, has anything to do with the boxes and boxes of books. So organizing the garage, sorting it out and evaluating which (of the kilos of supplies) I have are really going to be used and which need to go anywhere but here.

And then there are the computer files which are partly, but not completely backed up. Or rather, I have items backed up across a number of external hard drives and still way too much information on my laptop. Pictures need to be edited and pruned. More than a couple of dozen past posts are still waiting those photos in order to be released.

Then there are the knitting UFOs that started the year in bags and ended the year in exactly the same place. Most are stranded projects and I do actually want to complete them at some point so frogging them is not a good answer.  I have actually done a decent job on the sewing projects in the last month, but still have to get the studio organized enough that it is functional.

There are the bookshelves in the house that I swore I was going to get organized. Right now, a lot of my puzzles are living on the top shelves. To be honest, the ones that I have completed really don’t need to be there in order to leave room for more books. We always need room for books.

Anyway, you get the idea.

Now, the real question that I have to face – is being home more this coming year secondary to needing health care going to result in me actually getting some of the long standing disorganization under control?

I’ll probably have an answer for you about this time next year.

Meanwhile – this is where I ended the cross stitch yesterday –

31 Dec 2016 – 1/2 complete

with another 11 rows completed. It was about that time that I realized that my numbers weren’t adding up. Turns out that the first sheet had more rows on it than the second which I started today.  Adding in another 9 rows done – means that I have only 2332 stitches to go

1 Jan 2017

I’m not sure that I care for a couple of the color selections, so those may change before I get much further. In any case, I will be glad when I am done with the current “change colors practically every stitch area.’

Oh, the other thing from last year – 431 books read – 10% were audio, the rest primarily eBooks

 

Living with dogs

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On a much cheerier topic (or not as the case may be) I might have just mentioned that Daughter #2 and her husband Alex relocated to our area this fall. Winters in Chicago are challenging at the best of times and not fun at all if you are trying to manage to keep your feet while walking a rambunctious dog on ice and snow.

So they are out here, temporarily in our house.

Actually, having talked with several of our friends in the area, this is not at all uncommon. Adult children moving in for various lengths of time sometimes with spouses, partners, off spring and pets. Friends over in Marin mentioned that with the recent move out of daughter & husband they found themselves missing the dogs.

Me? I could very easily live without these two.

Dog #1v

Dog #1v

Dog #2

Dog #2

 

Both obviously look sweet and innocent. Not a pup that would attempt to climb on a table, or a counter or dig through the trash. Oh, no, not them…..

Did I mention that one of their favorite activities is barking? Since we replaced the windows this past year traffic sounds are just about absent. But that doesn’t mean that we still don’t get squirrels in trees hanging there laughing or deer strolling across the grass discussing which of my trees they are going to decimate this time.

Books

The third book in Nora Roberts Guardian Trilogy was released yesterday. I am partway through in audio. Mike Lewis’s new non-fiction book – The Undoing Project was also released. I had already placed it on my list of books to get; reinforced by an interview on NPR. Unfortunately he isn’t reading his own work this time, but the reader seems to be ok.

it has really been that long

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It used to be that I never, ever went to bed without finishing up my post for the day. Of course, when you are deployed to Bosnia (1998) it isn’t like there is a whole lot of competing evening entertainment. Admittedly, I could go down to movie night and watch “Groundhog’s Day” or get on the server and play quake as alternatives to jotting down the day. But I found that analyzing the day was one way of making sense of both the important and trivial.

Fast forward 18 years (yes, 18 years….) The Internet has exploded in depth and breath. What we were doing before with ASCII characters and hand coded graphics can frankly now be done by an 8 year old, a trained monkey or someone over 60 (with a bit of effort). Cell phones are common place as is email so that most of you who are reading this usually have an account in addition to AOL. I don’t bounce the mailing list off a military server (worked till 2001).

My daily challenges are different. I certainly don’t mind that they no longer include people shooting at me/my troops. But there is a certain potential for sameness in days at sea that the Army on the ground never quite shared with the Navy at sea. I’m not in charge; I have to remember to not act like I am (grin).

A morning in Bermuda where there is sunshine, humidity and a chance to take a ferry over to Hamilton didn’t appeal to me as much as reading another Anne Perry Mystery. I am reading her Thomas& Charlotte Pitt series concurrently with the William Monk series as books become available through the on-line public libraries. So that is where my state of mind was yesterday when I went through the fort – thinking about societies, structure, roles and poverty. Unlike many of the other islands, Bermuda seems to have recovered well from the Colonial Era, but I found myself just not in the mood.

So no pretty pictures of tropical plants, lovely water, or sweaty people.  Carmen and I ate dinner in MyTime Dining. It was lobster night which explains why I sweetly looked at our waiter and asked him to find me vegetarian curry…..

Royal Naval Dockyard

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The Grandeur as seen from the fortifications

The Grandeur as seen from the fortifications

It was almost 1400 when we were cleared to disembark in Bermuda. It may surprise you to learn that I have never been here before. It has not be a stop on Royal’s routine TransAtlantic repositioning cruises but a good place to transfer patients needing hospitalizations.

Like many other locations in this area of the Atlantic & Caribbean, it was used by the Portuguese and Spanish. Neither country were into colonization in the area; more like looting and locations for slave trading after the 1500s. Bermuda, or rather the British has a worse reputation than many other locations. When you colonize, as the English (and occasionally the Scotts) were wont to do – you need labor. Until 1834, that meant slaves. When the impact of Dr Livingston became clear, the English moved to the next best thing – convicts. Why send those with shorter sentences all the way to Australia, tying up men, ship and resources when you can drop them at Bermuda to build your Naval facilities and provide labor for plantations, mining or what-have you. And if you finished your sentence? You could then be still sent to Australia!

with critical exhibits located in the Hight Caves (not accessible)

Which then leads us to the Boer Wars. It wasn’t sufficient to decide that one’s country had the obligation, much less the right to colonize huge swaths of Africa. No, one had to bring one’s own colonials, religion and control. Which means battles, pitting tribal chiefs against each other and use of some rather more modern weapons than in the possession of the locals. (Go read up on the Zulu Wars….). So how do you handle the displaced Africans and Boer families? Why you set up concentration camps where more than 14000 Africans and 27000 Boer Women and Children perished through crowding, lack of health care and malnutrition.

IMG_3619

IMG_3621

And, if you now need more labor in Bermuda – you set up POW camps where no one has a chance of escape and going back to the fight.

We docked at the Royal Naval Dockyards and could see the fortifications from our balcony. The Fort and associated Colonial Buildings have been turned into a museum which has some excellent and very blunt exhibits which I highly recommend.

As I walked the embankments and looked out at the ship – I started thinking how “we” have romanticized the Victorian Era. Clothing, manners, steampunk take offs, Sherlock Holmes, multiple other mysteries and authors. Few of these seriously look at the underpinnings of that society with hundreds of thousands of starving poor in London, famine and unrest in Ireland, or the amount of tragedy in other areas of the British Empire which served as the under pinnings. It is not a time or place in which I would have cared to live.

Who won anyway?

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Saturday is the traditional evening for the Hugo award ceremony. As part of the reg crew with set up at 0800 in the morning I am sort of feeling a bit ragged about 2000 when the ceremony is supposed to start. This was compounded by a brilliant person thinking that there would be attendees showing up late just to go to the Hugo’s. At $70? I don’t think so. More like someone was either immersed in fantasy land or just avoiding dealing with hall passes.

Those of you from the US – I am sure that you remember Hall Passes from school. They came from your teacher if you were running an errand or needed to be somewhere other than your class room during the hour. Or from the office if you were there for any reason; giving you permission to be somewhere other than normally appointed location by your regular schedule. Some schools even used them to allow quick restroom tricks.

The catch, of course, is that someone has to screen the person/request, decided if it is valid, and then issue the pass. Might take a few minutes, right?

So there we were, stuck and bored till 2100. I had made a couple of trips up to the Con Suite on the main exhibition floor for beverages and munchies as well as pitching in on table clearing. Am I going to hang around with everyone eating, drinking, partying and watching the big screen? Nah -I am going back downstairs to my quiet group of fellow sufferers before heading back to the hotel.

It wasn’t raining! What more could I ask?

Oh – the Hugos?

Best Novel: The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (Orbit)
Best Novella: Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (Tor.com)
Best Novelette: “Folding Beijing” by Hao Jingfang, translated Ken Liu (Uncanny Magazine, Jan-Feb 2015)
Best Short Story: “Cat Pictures Please” by Naomi Kritzer (Clarkesworld, January 2015)

The John W. Campbell Award for the best new professional science fiction or fantasy writer of 2014 or 2015, sponsored by Dell Magazines (not a Hugo Award): Andy Weir

All the votes didn’t match mine, but I wasn’t displeased.

Mermaids and Filk

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WesterCon – as you might have guessed is the West Coast Con which seems to cover a goodly part of the Western US (today Portland, next year Tempe, Denver in 2018). The Con actually dates back to 1948 with its origins in the LA area. It first moved out of California to Seattle in 1959. From reading the history – WesterCon has been held in Portland before (84,90,95, 01).

Besides the kids track (there is always a kid’s track). There are also Mermaids –

who are running classes on how to be a mermaid. I am not sure what magic they are using to revert to their two legged forms.

on land

on land

 

I met them early on, having volunteered to work program participant reg and the Green Room. Where else do you find sea colors and tons of waterproof makeup?

And then there is the phenomenon of Filking. For those of you who are not familiar, just follow the link to Wiki. Think music, song with fantasy, nerd, SciFi themes often parodies on popular music. By best estimate – the name came from a corruption of folk music and stuck. It forms a solid portion of most conventions programming. Alexander James Adam is the Filk Guest of Honor. The lead off performance was PDX Broadsides, a local Portland group (duh) who are both good and extremely funny. They restricted themselves to songs which can be sung when children might be around as it was 1500. Except they did do Nathan Fillion – please take …..  (if you don’t get the reference – Firefly, also starring role in Castle).

 
The Con – (which also includes GearCon which makes for great entertainment and hall costumes. Steampunk for those not familiar what a track at a Science Fiction would have to do with gears….)

I spent a good portion of the day volunteering while she went out to explore Portland with her find of the day being Powell’s Books

keeping alive the tradition

keeping alive the tradition

of floor to practically ceiling books

of floor to practically ceiling books

Phryne Fisher with thread

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Here I am, except for jogging down the hill early in the morning to strain myself doing a Bar Method Class – I am holing up in my studio. From here I can see the Golden Gate Bridge

Golden Gate

Golden Gate

and occasionally both the Bay Bridge

taken on bridge 21 May 16

taken on bridge 21 May 16

 

or the Richmond Bridge

Richmond bridge home

Richmond bridge back from Marin

 

But mostly I am listening to Kerry Greenwood Audiobooks – Cocaine Blues, Flying too High, Death Before Wicket, Raisons & Almonds

and stitching.

23 June 2016

23 June 2016

The Jacobite Train

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We docked in Oban and then proceeded to be driven by bus to Fort William. Along the way we missed photo stops due to mists and full lay-byes. Mist means the usual 90% chance of rain which is actually a digital reality (it is raining – or not). And yes, we came down firmly on the side of wet. I don’t mind wet, but I have been know to not enjoy travels with large groups of people.

After a morning spent on the bus with a guide nattering (blathering?) non-stop for hours I had been looking forward to the lunch stop which turned out to provide me a few minutes on the internet before the rest of the group figured out that it existed. The rest turned out, like the rest of my experience so far with essentially nothing edible in sight for vegetarians. The only veg option being cold soggy quiche).

We boarded the Jacobite Train which most of you know as the Harry Potter Train. I would provide you pictures [no download ability] but in truth it was extremely difficult to take anything that looked special. The train moves at a good clip, the steam streams back along the train. Did I mention the mist and fog? Yes, I rather think I did. Doesn’t lend itself to photography well in a situation with the track well lined by mature trees and windows that essentially don’t open. I found a nice window that did in the door of the car. For about 15 minutes I was a happy camper, then was invaded by people with phones, iPads and point and shoots. The reason that I mention those is that it was almost impossible to gauge what you were going to get without a view finder.

I still am happy we took the train, it was an enjoyable ride and we were spared dialog for most of the journey. Meanwhile, the ship had relocated to where we disembarked. A nice hike to the pier, out along the docks and on to the tender.

I skipped the lectures in favor of heading to the fitness center, having downloaded Mary Roach’s new book Grunt prior to departure. Like her other books – this one is both fun and well researched. Unfortunately, the narrator is no where as good as the one for Gulp.

East Bay Book Festival

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is hosted in Berkeley what appears to be the first weekend in June. Last year I was off somewhere. Probably on a ship. And missed the event. George had made sure that I knew the dates of the event this year.

He, of course, was interested in attending several lectures related to authors (of history/politics/the like). I was for staying as far away from any and all crowded room with someone speaking. I go to professional meetings. I enjoy them for both the scientific update and spending time with colleagues. I enjoy going to Science Fiction conventions – mostly for seeing people, wearing strange costumes and spending time in the Dealer’s Room. Not so much for either readings or panels. The discussions have been the same for the last several decades.

Where was I? Oh yes – wandering into Berkeley via Shattuck and walking past booth after booth of small presses. They are easy to spot. Mostly trade size paperbacks with unimaginative titles, similar covers obviously computer generated and back copy which leaves you saying “huh?” It isn’t that there are not a lot of great ideas and stories, it is rather than the lack of outside competent help leads to less than an inviting product. Given $10, I’ll purchase 5-10 eBooks and probably discover an author or two whose follow on books I will buy. Given $7.99-12.99 for an unknown author’s small press book – no. I will miss some good authors perhaps. But I will avoid the lack of professionalism.

Off Soap Box. I sail by most of the stands, except for those run by the local and regional book stores.  Here the stands are segregated by type. The Teens are in one section, the children’s related books in another. There is an area occupied by those with publications related to Spiritual Matters and a different one for the Radicals. The Maker’s have little that is interesting and all of it seems to involve deconstructing books to create mats, coasters, earrings…  I liked the Chicago Book Fair I attended much better. Yes, it is a big city, but there were “real publishers” along with all the small presses and a lot of interesting things to use with books/writing on offer.

By  1130  I am about completely over the place. I have gone through the free book structures and scored two books I don’t think I have. The herds of people limited my ability to see and my small bag kept me restrained in what I was able to carry. George heads, disappointed that I am not joining him to an 1145 lecture by an author about the Spanish Civil War. I head to Indian Spice and get a veg burrito (don’t ask) followed by a slow meander back along Shattuck then up the hill to home.

Its a lovely day out there

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and as much as I need to be outside, there is just too much to accomplish.  On the agenda today besides backing up files and photos I have decided to tackle the pile of hard drives which have accumulated over the years. Some date from Heidelberg before I moved to the UK (2008) and most of the rest since. The storage size on most makes me question whether or not some shouldn’t just be tossed. And that doesn’t include those now refusing to be read.

So, I am figuring that I still need a few; duplicates of the important files; audio books; TV Series, photos; files from forever ago. But I don’t want to admit how many hours it is going to take to consolidate 9 larger drives for which I can mostly find power cords and the hordes of smaller drives that seem to have done the rabbit while tucked safely away in a shipping container.

So I start in. And start going slowly insane. I have a lot of duplicates, several drives which have seen better days and some missing connecting cables.  But I will  persist, or gone insane – one of the two.

Meanwhile – I finished “The Coroner’s Lunch” in audio by Colin Cotterill. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and am off to read in the second in the series (borrowed in eBook from the public library. The Vietnam era is clear in my mind, but not always the connections with Laos and Cambodia so reading something set in a non-western, non-English world is fascinating. Keeping the year – 1975 in the forefront of my mind is a more than occasional challenge but helps me think back to when I was an intern.  Other than a few of us, Vietnam was an issue. Laos? Who had heard of Laos?  It wasn’t a location that entered the public consciousness till well after 1975 when the.evemts protrayed took place.

and then there are puzzles. But more about them another day.

Drawing to a close

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We are getting close enough to Seattle that it is affecting everyone’s behavior. This is Day 23/24 of the cruise with docking taking place on the 16th. Which also puts this at 87/90 days since I left home. Give or take a couple since I have no idea whether or not I tossed in the second May 2 from crossing the Dateline.

The Fitness Center was almost empty when I hit the treadmill at 0600 this morning and barely a third full when I left an hour later. Compared to standing room only and lines for machines those first few days of the cruise. I can only speculate but figure that my first thought: all those good intentions by people who never, ever exercise at home have fallen by the wayside as waist sizes have increased. The other options – different times of day, people packing, confused from time changes just don’t seem as likely to me. I was still pleased to be able to log my 10000 steps prior to 0700 and see that my flicking Surge is finally on the correct hour. Mentally correcting one’s watch by 1-3 hours gets old after a while.

not only was the place empty, but taking a photo while on a treadmill is not exactly easy

not only was the place empty, but taking a photo while on a treadmill is not exactly easy

The other bit of fun I had was to run the GPS tracker while I was on the treadmill. The Wifi wasn’t impossibly slow this morning, and the ship moves a bit faster than I. So should we believe that I covered the 7km that the treadmill says, the 16km that my Surge says or perhaps I can take credit for both and consider myself 23 km further down the line than when I started?

Nah, that would be like claiming goodness for having packed up a bag yesterday simply to get it out of the way. It wasn’t like anything was going to change about snorkel gear, RCCL Towels or gifts between now and departure and it was easiest to get it out of the way. I still have to pack clothes and decide which, if any, aren’t coming home with me. And paperbacks to the library, always a good idea.

The rest of the day was easy and pleasant. I joined the stitchers in the Viking Crown Lounge/Dizzies followed by heading to the conference room in search of the informal Veteran’s chat. I would have “murdered a curry” but alas today didn’t have the better selections so I settled instead for a second round of cheese-cake lollies before heading back to reading. I’m re-reading a few series (Briggs, Quick, Castle, Ward, Roberts) in anticipation of new books due out in the next couple of months. Plus, started the St Cyr series by C S Harris since most of the books are available between the Chicago and Berkeley Public Libraries. Not usually a fan of historical mysteries, these are actually both interesting and reasonably accurate enough not to irritate me.

Queen of the Hill

Holly Doyne Posted on by

I needed a day to myself. Why, you might ask and I will simply tell you that traveling with 15 of my “very best friends” plus driver and tour guide can be a bit wearing. Well, actually “14 of my very best friends” would be more accurate since I need to take George out of the sarcastic column and over to the side of love of my life/best buddy and heating blanket.

Since they weren’t leaving till about noon, no one had to be up for breakfast while it was still dark. In fact, I was about the only one there for the first 30 minutes of service. About that time, another group started wandering in as well as a few others from my group.

I spent a good portion of the morning downloading, backing up and editing photos – deleting a lot while I was at it.

looking down on Queenstown

looking down on Queenstown

Then I set out to discover some of the hiking trails starting with the Fernhill Trail (easy – the hotel is up on Fernhill) which leads slightly across the major hill on crushed gravel before taking a switch back dive down the hill to end right near a small stream, an old power plant and a carriageway round about. Ok – then I knew where I was.

 

From there my plan was to follow the One Mile Trail to about the half-way point, then catch the Skyline to the top of the Gondola trail. Famous last words and all of that.

I met a lovely young couple from near Stuttgart near the head of a water fall where I was trying to figure out what had happened to the sort-of signed trail. We managed to pick it up several meters up slope where it looked like we had missed a branch point. From there it was again back and forth up the hill (locals persist in calling this one a mountain) to a nice viewing point at the top.

And it was there where it became more than confusing. There appeared to be only two trails out – both of which were posted as bicycle and closed to pedestrians. After 15 minutes of casting about I decided that someone had fiddled with the signs and the only thing reasonable to do would be to head down hill since the town was obviously on this side of the mountain.

Carefully staying next to but not on some of the mountain bike trails I was treated to the sight of riders blasting past me having a wonderful time. About the third time I heard someone coming I had enough sense to have my camera in my hand.

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Winding my way back and forth, I managed to come down off the hill about at Thompson St with downtown Queenstown in easy walking distance.

all that up and now back down

all that up and now back down

From there it was off to the water front, out to the Queens Garden which turns out to be that peninsula covered with trees easily seen from the hill and back on the far side while avoiding more bikes, skate borders and deciding against going ice skating.

I walked back via the shoreline followed by the Fernhill path again to avoid herds of tourists on the sidewalk heading back to the hotel.

So its back to the pictures, a bit more knitting, and the Faith Hunter short stories that I picked up from Audible at $0.49 each…..

Milford Sound

Holly Doyne Posted on by

Part 1 – Tree lines and rocky caps

While driving to Milford Sound today we finally saw what would be thought of as mountains. Still not all that high if you are used to thinking about the Andes, Rockies, or Himalayas but more than acceptable and recognizable as mountains. When I stop to think about it – a hill, even a foothill (a la the Kilimanjaro Foothills) has green growing all the way to the top; a mountain doesn’t. Never mind the scientific or geological interpretation – the little voice inside the head says from growing up with

I am happily sitting in the back of the bus along with four others. Readers, knitters, we are trying to be polite while wondering if our tour guide has the ability to shut up for even five minutes. It would be even longer a drive if I didn’t have a lot of audiobooks loaded and my headphones. Currently I am listening to The Sixth Extinction – Elizabeth Kolbert – picked up on one of Amazon’s Daily Deals and turning out to be both interesting and appropriate for this trip.

Part 2 – Photos along the way

Should I also mention that we made a few photo stops in an attempt to make the almost five hour bus ride a bit more palatable?

Part 3 – Milford Sound itself

And then there was the ride around the Sound (think Fjord) looking at high waterfalls, feeling the change as the boat left the Sound and entered the ocean – only 14 km out, and returning in.

It was oh, so dark when we returned. I listened to books and napped as the overseat lights in the bus didn’t work….