Always strive to learn something useful. --Sophocles

Nasty things can happen if your boarding pass is found by the wrong people, especially if you have frequent flyer club memberships and things like that. Now, I don't have that, but I'm still going to take precautions. The easiest? If you have a smart phone that has the capability, load the pass on your phone and don't print one in the first place.

But for all the gory details on how your pass can be compromised and of the ridiculously low level of security that the airlines put on your information, read on in Brian Krebs post.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/08/why-its-still-a-bad-idea-to-post-or-trash-your-airline-boarding-pass/

We didn't head north to see the eclipse, circumstances and money just didn't work out, thus my wife swapped with a co-worker to cover part of his shift: she is an operator on the Dunn Solar Telescope at Sunspot, the National Solar Observatory, he works on my wife's 3.5 meter. Thus, he is a Vampire and she is a Day Walker. My wife slept through the event, I drove over to Sunspot and participated.

Right off the bat, I didn't do enough prep work. My biggest mistake was not ordering a filter for my camera well in advance of the event! Oh, well. On top of that, I didn't get my photo gear together yesterday, and in getting it together this morning as I was getting ready to leave, I found that my tripod head was missing! My second head has been missing for some time, so my primary tripod was out of commission. Fortunately I also have a travel tripod, so my experiment was able to proceed.

The second mistake that I made was failing to grab a new memory card. When we were in Phoenix a couple of weeks ago, I took my Canon SL1 in to Tempe Camera Repair, a fantastic repair shop that I've used for over 30 years, to get the sensor cleaned. In doing so I removed the strap, tripod head, and memory card. I put all three parts in the camera bag and somehow a black hole formed and only the strap survived. Fortunately I found another 32 gig SD card, unfortunately I left it sitting on the dining table. So I only had my Lumix and my 6D for shooting with.

The experiment was thus, and probably a failure: in a forest area, such as where I live, an eclipse through tree leaves can have the same effect as a pinhole and you can see it that way. Sounded pretty neat to me, so I set up my 6D with the interval timer firing every 15 seconds from when the eclipse began until it ended. I'm later going to suck the images in to iMovie and see what I've got. I just finished unloading and categorizing the photos from the two memory cards, and thought I'd post three photos of the eclipse which are mildly nifty.

These were all taken in a rather unconventional manner: holding the lens of the safety glasses in front of my hand-held Lumix LX7. I was experimenting with exposure and only got one image of the moon eating the sun, so I was content.

One of the awesome features of my Lumix is that you can adjust the aspect ratio of the photographs! I set it to 1:1 for some photos, such as the first. For the second photo, I cropped it in Photoshop to 1:1, otherwise none of the images were adjusted in Photoshop.

The weather was not good. We had lots of thick clouds, and I thought: clouds are diffusers! I can directly shoot the sun through clouds! And thus, the first image, taken at 10:56 MST:


This second shot is the actual moon eating the sun: (11:49:18 MST)


And finally, the dramatic fiery ball shot: (11:49:40 MST)

This guy was a founder of Netflix and thinks that he can create and sell subscriber profiles and make money doing this. I've seen 25 movies this year and saw 53 movies last year, which would have represented $190 out of pocket under this model. If my local theater subscribes, which I don't know if they will, how can there be a downside using this until they fail? Imax and 3D showings are excluded, which is no big deal for us. This would be a huge money-saver for me. Maybe create a new throwaway email account for this along with a disposable credit card or Paypal account so anything they collect doesn't tie back to you and you're gold.

This is going to involve some very creative accounting since so much of the direct ticket sale goes straight to the movie maker/distributor, now they're adding another layer in to that mess.

I cannot see this as a long-term viable business model, but if my local chain is stupid enough to buy in to it (I just sent them an email asking about it), then I'm willing to exploit their stupidity while paying ridiculous concession prices to help them stay afloat.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-15/netflix-co-founder-s-crazy-plan-pay-10-a-month-go-to-the-movies-all-you-want

https://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/17/08/15/1557222/netflix-co-founders-crazy-plan-pay-10-a-month-go-to-the-movies-all-you-want

Or in this case, my dad in his shop.



He just installed new lighting and wanted a photo to send to the manufacturer who had requested it, so I dug out my 6D with a 17-40 zoom and did a panorama of three photos and stitched/cropped them in Photoshop.

Unfortunately he had turned off the light behind the drill press, so I had to re-shoot it for the third time and he wasn't sitting there. Still, my wife thought it would make for an excellent jigsaw puzzle, so we may get one custom made.

Not visible: table saw behind the table and under the drawers of the back wall, a router under the cabinets of the left workspace, a band saw, and an innumerable amount of hand tools. The air compressor is outside of the shop but piped in. The shop has evolved over a period of more than 50 years of customization.

After discussing and comparing runny cherry pies with my non-runny cherry pie production with stardreamer and murakozi and promising to post the recipe, here's the recipe.

I'm considering using chocolate balsamic vinegar the next time I make one to see what it does to the flavor profile. In discussion on my original post from two weeks ago (hard to believe it's been only two weeks!), I did some research and looked up a lot of cherry pie recipes online. The one thing that ALL of them had in common was that if they included corn starch, and not all of them did, they added it directly to the wet mix! The can of corn starch that I have, Clabber Girl brand, says specifically on the label to mix it with liquid before adding it to whatever it is that you want to thicken. I've added a note to my shopping list on my phone to look at other corn starch brands and see if they also say to mix it with a liquid before adding it to whatever is to be thickened.

So my thought is that if you just add it to whatever is to be thickened that it is overwhelmed by the volume of liquid and can't swell. If you pre-mix it with liquid, in this case an equal amount of lemon juice (and I'm so glad I bought a squeezer thingy!), then you're already starting with a very thick liquid to add to the cherry filling and it thickened beautifully.

I used a pre-made frozen pie crust, and it was wonderful. Currently I don't have cabinet surface area to roll out a pie dough or the guts to try to make one. One of these days....

Cherry Pie
Recipe courtesy of Ree Drummond
Total Time: 2 hr 30 min
Prep: 25 min

Inactive: 1 hr 5 min
Cook: 1 hr
Yield: 8 servings
Level: Easy

Ingredients
Filling:
6 cups frozen tart cherries

⅔ cup sugar

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (chocolate?)

¼ cup cornstarch

¼ cup lemon juice (from about 2 lemons)
Vanilla ice cream, for serving

Sweet Pie Crust:

1 ½ sticks (12 tablespoons) salted butter, cold and cut into pieces
¾ cup vegetable shortening, cold and cut into pieces

3 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling the dough

2 large eggs

5 tablespoons cold water

2 tablespoons sugar, plus more for sprinkling

1 tablespoon white vinegar

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions
For the filling: Combine the cherries and sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat and cook until the juices release and are hot and bubbling, about 5 minutes. Stir in the balsamic vinegar and cook for 1 minute. Stir together the cornstarch and lemon juice in a small bowl until combined and add to the cherry mixture. Continue to cook until glossy and thickened, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool completely. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

For the sweet pie crust:
In a large bowl using a pastry cutter, gradually work the butter and shortening into the flour until it resembles coarse meal, for 3 or 4 minutes. In a small bowl, beat one of the eggs with a fork and pour it into the flour mixture. Add the cold water, sugar, white vinegar and salt. Stir gently to combine.

Form the dough into 2 evenly sized balls and place each ball into a gallon resealable plastic bag. Using a rolling pin, slightly flatten each ball of dough (to about 1/2 inch thick) to make rolling easier later. Seal the bags and place them in the freezer until you need them. (If you will be using them immediately, it's still a good idea to put them in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes to chill.)

When you are ready to make the crust, remove the dough from the freezer and let thaw for 15 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

On a floured surface, roll out one piece of dough starting at the center and working your way out. (Sprinkle some flour over top of the dough if it's a bit too moist.) If the dough is sticking to the countertop, use a metal spatula and carefully scrape it up and flip it over, then continue rolling until it's about 1/2 inch larger in diameter than your pie pan.

With a spatula, lift the dough into the pie pan. Gently press the dough against the edges of the pan. Go around the pie pan pinching and tucking the dough to make a clean edge. Fill with the cooled cherry mixture.

Roll out the second dough the same size and place it over the pie. Trim off the edges and crimp the top and bottom crusts together to seal them. Cut a few vent holes in the top. Beat the remaining egg in a small bowl for the egg wash. Brush the top with the egg wash and sprinkle with sugar

Put the pie onto a rimmed baking sheet lined with foil and bake until the filling is bubbling and the crust is browned, about 50 minutes. If the crust is getting too brown before the pie is finished, cover with foil and continue baking.
Serve with vanilla ice cream.


Recipe courtesy of Ree Drummond
© 2016 Television Food Network, G.P. All Rights Reserved.


Read more at: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ree-drummond/cherry-pie.html

So I'm at the observatory last night, it's the third night of my wife's four night shift, and for once, the weather looks really good: we've had a storm cell parked on top of the mountain for a couple of weeks. I set up my camera on the floor in front of the telescope, check all the settings, all looks well. Empty memory card, I'd topped-off the battery before I left home, camera settings were where I wanted them. My wife told me that the observer was watching just a single target, so I wouldn't get much in the way of star streaks, but that was OK - it was more of an experiment to see what it would look like. I started the external timer firing once a second, she turned off the lights, opened the dome, and we went downstairs to the control room for a few hours.

I knew the camera battery was good for about 4.5 hours in colder conditions, and I started it shooting at about 20:00, just before sundown, so I kind of expected it to still be firing when I went back up about three hours later. No visible red LED on the camera. Maybe it was between exposures. Get down to the floor of the telescope: nope, it was dead. So take it off the tripod, sling it over my shoulder, grab my tripod and head back downstairs.

I figured the battery was dead and I had a card full of images to look at. I did stop to look out the telescope slit: absolutely gorgeous night, couldn't have asked for a nicer sky. So down in the control room, just for kicks and giggles, I try to turn the camera on. And it turns on. And shows a battery just under completely full.

Hit the button to playback images. It took 240 images before stopping. A whopping five minutes of exposures. Didn't even get past sundown, which would have been nice to have the sky transition. Complete waste of time.

I don't know what happened. Camera battery was fine. Remote timer battery was fine: I replaced it with a new battery after I got it (I bought a used unit). 32 gig memory card was empty and freshly formatted when I started the night. The camera was set to turn itself off after two minutes, but the timer was tripping it once a second, so the auto power-off should never have triggered.

*sigh*

We did have a good time, chatting with people in the control room. Another astronomer from the other telescope had just returned from eight days in Japan, visiting her aunt and cousins. Had wonderful stories, especially about toilets, TV, and scarily-expensive coffee. Talking to their computer guy about a switch that had confused itself about its IP address and he couldn't find it on the network. I suggested trying to find its MAC address, but that didn't work. We talked about the summer shutdown when they do heavy maintenance on the telescopes: the 2.5 meter mirror is about to get crated up and trucked to Tucson for its annual re-aluminaization, and it's possible the 3.5 will get redone this year even though it was done only two years ago.

And, of course, playing with the poodles, talking about Gay of Thrones (Funny or Die recap of the HBO series) and Orphan Black.

It only took a week and over $750.

I don't think my dishwasher has ever been so fully loaded.

As previously posted, I discovered the water heater was leaking last week Thursday and shut it down. Unfortunately I had to go to Las Cruces for a meeting and couldn't do anything else. Friday I got a recommendation from our gas utility for a local plumber. Left a message on his voicemail requesting his services and went down to Alamogordo and bought an appropriately-sized water heater, both in gallon capacity (30, kinda small) and physical dimensions. I would've liked a larger one, but I was kind of constrained in size by its cabinet. Called the plumber and left another message informing him that I had acquired the water heater.

Saturday: no call. Sunday we went to the observatory to shower in the dorms, the dogs were taken on a bicycle adventure and much fun was had. Sunday night I did some digging for another plumber. Found one with one very good Yelp review. Looking at their web site, they had a letter posted thanking them for their services. While I didn't find any other references regarding them online, I found LOTS of negative reviews for pretty much every other plumber in the area. So Monday morning I gave them a call. I should have called them Saturday: they're working seven days a week because of demand and couldn't get to us until today.

Well, the guy finished about two hours ago. The water heater heats 36 gallons an hour, so I gave it an hour and took a shower: sheer bliss. After getting out, got the dishwasher started. Still have lots of dishes that need my attention, but it's a beginning.

Now to get on Yelp and other review sites and leave a very glowing review for them, and a very negative review for the plumber who has still not yet returned my call.

Thanks (and thanks a lot!) to stardreamer ;-)

1. You currently own more than 20 books:
When I was in primary school.

2. You currently own more than 50 books:
Before I graduated high school.

3. You currently own more than 100 books:
What a ridiculous question. There have been years that I've bought more than 100 books, though not recently

4. You amassed so many books you switched to an e-reader:
I didn't switch to an e-reader because of having so many books, but because of being a computer guy and wanting to investigate new tech. Started with a Palm Pilot, went to an iPad, went through a couple of Nooks along the way. Never messed with a Kindle because of a dislike of Amazon's control over the Whispernet.

5. You read so much you have a ton of books AND an e-reader:
Definitely. And now buying a vast majority in ebook format vs dead tree editions. But that's mainly because we're likely to be leaving the country in a few years and I DO NOT want to be shipping a proverbial, if not literal, ton of books if I can get rid of them. I have so many books that I loved when I was young, and treasure having read them, but have absolutely no interest in reading again.

There's a saying/story/whatever, it could actually be a Zen koan, about a person with a huge and impressive library. Someone asks the person if they've read all of those books. The reply is "Of course!" Or the reply is "Of course not!" Though my collection falls in to both camps, I think I want to be in the latter.

6. You have a book-organization system no one else understands:
Not really.

7. You're currently reading more than one book:
I frequently have multiple books in process, though sometimes books get started and never finished. I think the record holder is Don Quixote, I really should download a Gutenberg copy and add it to my phone.

8. You read every single day:
Most certainly.

9. You're reading a book right now, as you’re taking this book nerd quiz:
Simultaneously? Not hardly.

10. Your essentials for leaving the house:
This is not a simple question. If I'm doing errands locally that do not involve a sit-down meal, it's just me and my cell phone and perhaps a camera or two. If it involves going to the observatory or down the mountain to Alamogordo or further but not a long-distance trip, then add in more camera equipment, my iPad (always loaded with books), and maybe a book and my traveling game collection. A long-distance trip requires further analysis before packing is determined.

11. You've pulled an all-nighter reading a book:
I suppose, but very rarely and when I was much younger.

12. You did not regret it for a second and would do it again:
I probably did not regret it but also probably would not do it again at my age.

13. You've figured out how to incorporate books into your workout:
Like Star Dreamer said, workout?

14. You've declined invitations to social activities in order to stay home and read:
No. It is very rare that I would decline an invitation to a social activity.

15. You view vacation time as "catch up on reading" time:
No. I will always take books with me while traveling, but vacation is to have fun and photograph. When we went to Germany/Czechoslovakia in '15 I had LOTS of ebooks on both my iPad and my Chrome laptop, plus many more loaded in my Dropbox account as I knew I'd have lots of airplane time. But aside from hotel room time, I didn't spend a lot of time reading -- too much to see!

16. You've sat in a bathtub full of tepid water with prune-y skin because you were engrossed in a book:
Nope. If I'm in a tub, I'm soaking because of either sore muscles or sick lungs. I prefer showers. How my wife is willing to risk reading fanfic on a laptop in the tub is beyond me.

17. You've missed your stop on the bus or the train because you were engrossed in a book:
No.

18. You've almost tripped over a pothole, sat on a bench with wet paint, walked into a telephone pole, or narrowly avoided other calamities because you were engrossed in a book:
No, and people who don't pay attention to what they're doing and commit such acts should be publicly ridiculed.

19. You've laughed out loud in public while reading a book:
Certainly.

20. You've cried in public while reading a book (it’s okay, we won’t tell):
I don't think so, but possibly.

21. You're the one everyone goes to for book recommendations:
I have given recommendations before. The mother of a friend was a grade school teacher, and a student asked for some science fiction recommendations. Friend came to me. I made up a list, funneled it back, and later received a thank you note from the student!

22. You take your role in recommending books very seriously and worry about what books your friends would enjoy:
If asked, yes, I would take it seriously.

23. Once you recommend a book to a friend, you keep bugging them about it:
I wouldn't bug them, but I would ask them.

24. If your friend doesn't like the book you recommended, you're heartbroken:
I wouldn't be heartbroken, but I would be curious and would like to know so as to make a better recommendation. To each their own.

25. And you judge them.
Not hardly.

26. In fact, whenever you and a friend disagree about a book you secretly wonder what is wrong with them:
Not hardly.

27. You've vowed to convert a non-reader into a reader:
One year for my brother's birthday, I bought him a $25 book store gift card. He was heavily in to air brush and showed some talent. I thought he could get some magazines or a book on technique and learn some things. He doesn't read. He can read, he chooses not to. It went unused for ages, my mom finally gave it back to me and I got myself something. There's a line attributed to Mark Twain: The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.

28. And you've succeeded:
N/A.

29. You've attended book readings, launches, and signings: Yes.
Yep. Hillary Clinton, Walter Cronkite, Leslie Nielson, Sir Terry Pratchett, to name a few.

30. You own several signed books:
Yep. Hillary Clinton, Walter Cronkite, Leslie Nielson, Sir Terry Pratchett, to name a few.

31. You would recognize your favorite authors on the street:
Some of them. Some I would hope not to as they are deceased.

32. In fact, you have:
Nope.

33. If you could have dinner with anybody in the world, you'd choose your favorite writer:
Probably not.

34. You own a first-edition book:
Many.

35. You know what that is and why it matters to bibliophiles:
Yes.

36. You tweet, post, blog, or talk about books every day:
No. I talk about them often with my wife, but I wouldn't say daily.

37. You have a "favorite" literary prize:
No. I respect several, but I wouldn't call any a favorite.

38. And you read the winners of that prize every year:
Not really.

39. You've recorded every book you've ever read and what you thought of it:
I've started getting more consistent at doing that.

40. You have a designated reading nook in your home:
No. I wish I did, but I do not.

41. You have a literary-themed T-shirt, bag, tattoo, or item of home décor:
I have a few t-shirts. My favorite item is two USB flash drives that look like library card catalog drawers from the Unshelved Kickstarter drive.

42. You gave your pet a literary name:
Heh. Yeah, I'd say Dante is a literary name.

43. You make literary references and puns nobody else understands:
Oh, most certainly. And my wife has become a bit of a punner.

44. You're a stickler for spelling and grammar, even when you're just texting:
I do my best. My grammar is not perfect, but I do my best with spelling. Having a browser underline spelling errors certainly helps.

45. You've given books as gifts for every occasion:
For many occasions, yes. Every? No.

46. Whenever someone asks what your favorite book is, your brain goes into overdrive and you can't choose just one.
No. Too many different categories that have great books. Plus, tastes change. I loved Douglas Adams 30 years ago, now I view him as a one-trick pony who could have been so much more.

47. You love the smell of books:
Well, sorta. But not enough to prevent me from dumping most of my physical collection to clear space.

48. You've binge-read an entire series or an author's whole oeuvre in just a few days:
Definitely. But only for smaller series, say less than a dozen books. If I can't easily carry the entire series without a box, forget it. I've binged the Vorkosigan series, and very recently Elizabeth Moon's Vatta series in preparation for her (now released) new book.

49. You've actually felt your heart rate go up while reading an incredible book:
Certainly.

50. When you turn the last page of a good book, you feel as if you've finally come up for air and returned from a great adventure:
There have been books that I've read that were that good.

6/29 Too Like The Lightning, Ada Palmer (hf)
6/18 Ninefox Gambit, Yoon Ha Lee (hf)
6/15 The Obelisk Gate, NK Jemisin (hf, abandoned)
6/14 All the Birds in the Sky, Charlie Jane Anders (hf)
6/12 A Closed and Common Orbit, Becky Chambers (hf)
6/9 Guardian, Joe Haldeman

5/24 Through Five Administrations (ProjG), William Crook
5/20 In The Merde For Love (P), Clarke
5/16 Swords and Deviltry, Fritz Lieber
5/9 Master & Commander, Patrick O'Brian

4/28 Catch Me If You Can, Frank Abagnale
4/26 Alien Plot, Piers Anthony
4/26 Infinite Dreams, Joe Haldeman
4/22 To The Vanishing Point, Alan Dean Foster
4/17 Victory Conditions, Moon
4/16 Command Decision, Moon
4/13 Engaging the Enemy, Moon
4/11 Marque and Reprisal, Moon
4/8 Trading in Danger, Elizabeth Moon
4/6 A Year in the Merde, Stephen Clarke (p)
4/5 There Is No Darkness, Joe and Jack Haldeman

I've started doing some coding: (P) means physical copy, all others are ebooks. (ProjG) is from Project Gutenberg, and (HF) is Hugo Finalist. I only coded the novels even though I also read all of the novellas, novelettes, short stories, and Campbell nominees.

Like Movies, going from oldest to newest reads.

There Is No Darkness. Love me some Haldeman, and getting both brothers together is all the better. A novel set in a far space-flung future of a school traveling around, educating its student inhabitants. Quite a story, quite a commentary on culture.

A Year in the Merde is yet another Stephen Clarke comic French travelogue romance stories. They're lots of fun, lightweight reading. It's the first in the series about Paul West, a Brit marketing specialist who goes to Paris to consult in establishing a French chain of English tea rooms. It's a fish out of water series that's fun and weird, has a bit of a Pink Panther feel to it.

Elizabeth Moon's Vatta series: Trading in Danger, Marque and Reprisal, Engaging the Enemy, Command Decision, and Victory Conditions. Elizabeth Moon does an excellent job of writing space war. First off, she's an ex-Marine. She knows military training, procedure, and protocol. The books revolve around the Vatta family and their space shipping empire. Their daughter, Ky, is soon to graduate the space navy academy when a scandal gives her the choice: resign her commission and leave silently, or face a full courts martial an be stripped of her commission and thrown in the brig. She resigns. As she is a rated captain, her father gives her an old beater transport with a fairly simple task: take it on its final trade run then take it to the breakers and sell it for scrap. Buy tickets for the entire crew to come home. Of course, nothing can possibly be that simple. VERY bad things happen, enough to fill five books. I re-read them as Ms. Moon has released the sixth book of the series and I wanted to refamiliarize myself with the story, even though she insists that isn't strictly required. I'm very glad that I did as I had forgotten so much, and it is really an excellent series for the genre. Lots of character growth, lots of interesting space battles. She handles Newtonian motion in zero-G without getting bogged down in details like David Weber does in the Harrington books: some people like that, I tend to gloss over it. Anyway, definitely and enthusiastically recommended. The new book is Cold Welcome, it's book 1 of the Vatta's Peace series. She's on LJ at http://e-moon60.livejournal.com/ and her web site is at http://www.elizabethmoon.com/. She has a second space series known as the Serrano Legacy and an interesting magic/fantasy series known as Paksworld. Since I'm now finished with Hugo reading, I really should get ahold of Cold Welcome, though the new Charles Stross Laundry book should be arriving today....

To The Vanishing Point by Alan Dean Foster is one of his that I'd never heard of. An LA family has rented an RV and is driving to Las Vegas for vacation when they pick up a woman by the side of the road in the middle of the dessert. And their life changes forever! [cue ominous music] I've been a big Foster fan for a very long time, though I won't claim to have read everything he's written, nor do I try to, but this one is weird. The woman has one job in the world: to keep reality from unraveling. And now the family, through the act of picking her up, is part of that effort and has to see it through to the end. If they fail, reality falls in to chaos, perhaps forever. To be honest, this was not my cup of tea. It had interesting elements, but I just didn't care much for it.

Infinite Dreams, another Joe Haldeman. In this case, it is a collection of short stories. Lots of good stuff, too many to talk about specifics.

Alien Plot by Piers Anthony is another collection of short stories. I started reading Anthony ages ago: Xanth was a young series, I read the Bio of a Space Tyrant series, the Incarnations of Immortality series, the Blue Adept series, and I doubt I'll read anything else by him. I stopped reading him probably when he finished Incarnations of Immortality, I'd long-since stopped reading Xanth by then. And after reading Alien Plot: yeah, I think I'm done with him. My tastes have changed and there are a number of authors whom I really enjoyed when I was young that I just don't care for anymore.

Catch Me If You Can is Frank Abagnale's autobiography. He is an amazing person who evaded the FBI for years and has a Tom Hanks/Leo DiCaprio movie made about him of the same title detailing his exploits. He was an amazing hustler, an expert at acting like an airline pilot to cage free rides around the world, cashing bogus checks to fund his lifestyle. He figured out how to exploit weaknesses in the banking system, including how to make his own checks with magnetic ink to maximize the time it took to detect the forgery. Everything finally crashed down on him in France, where he spent several months in a horrible prison. He was released to be transferred to a Swedish prison for a year where he found out that he was about to be bounced from country to country where he'd committed fraud, unless a Swedish judge revoked his passport, in which case he'd be immediately flown to the USA to stand trial, and they wouldn't extradite him from there. When the plane came in for a landing at La Guardia, he exploited his knowledge of aircraft to go to the bathroom, remove the toilet from the floor, and escape. The service hatch frequently popped open on landing, triggering an idiot light in the cockpit, and it happened often enough that it was ignored. It wasn't looked in to until the plane had taxied to the terminal, at which point Frank had run across the airport and was long gone. I'd read this before and it is an amazing read. He never committed any violent crimes, just fraud. Highly recommended, and it'll probably put a smile on your face. Frank is now consulting to show businesses how to protect themselves against fraud and social engineering as he pretty much created that industry.

Master and Commander is the first book in the sea-faring series by Patrick O'Brian, which I had never touched until now. I quite enjoyed it, and now have a greater than zero understanding of nautical terms. Very good stuff, but I won't be pursuing the series very diligently. My wife has some of the Hornblower books, I might check in to those, and we'll see what my free/cheap ebook newsletters pop up.

Swords and Deviltry is the first Fafhred and the Grey Mouser book by Fritz Lieber. Classic sword and sorcery stuff, I devoured all of them when I was a teen and in my 20s. While it was fun to re-read this book, I have now re-read it and have no desire to re-read any more of them.

In The Merde For Love is the continuing adventures of Paul West in France by Stephen Clarke. Paul is now working on establishing his own tea shop in Paris, and trying to find love. Fun stuff, an interesting perspective of France and Paris.

Through Five Administrations by William Crook is a very unusual book. Crook was a Washington, DC policeman who was part of the protection detail for President Abraham Lincoln, he was not on duty the night that Lincoln was assassinated. This book is a memoir of his work in the White House of his work with Lincoln and the four subsequent administrations and their families. Quite an interesting perspective on the politics of the day, also an interesting alternative take on how English usage has changed over the last 150 years. And it's free online and for ebook readers through Project Gutenberg.

Guardian, another Joe Haldeman, is more fantasy than science fiction except that it deals in alternative universe theories of time/dimension travel. It starts right around the time of the Civil War and revolves around a woman and her son and their life that ultimately leads them to the Alaska Gold Rush. There's no hard, gadget-based, sci fi in this, so I lean towards classing it as fantasy with sci fi concepts. Very interesting stuff with some exploration of Alaskan myths. Haldeman lived there as a kid with his family for several years.

Now we get in to Hugo stuff!

A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers is the second volume following A Long Way to a Small and Angry Planet, which I read in late December. I really like Becky Chambers' writing, I find her description of the general environment to be kind of evocative of Firefly and Douglas Adams. This book is loosely a continuation of the first, but only loosely. At the end of the previous book, a mature AI dies and is reset and can't really continue where she's at as it distresses everyone around her. So she's put in to a body that does a remarkable job of simulating a human and goes off to live with a junker/tech who can help her adapt. Every other chapter is back-story of the tech, which is an interesting story device. The whole book is huge amounts of character growth, which I really liked. It's all about the AI re-learning who she is/was and learning to be a better person and the junker reclaiming part of her past. Very fun stuff, and I'm quite looking forward to the next book. The first book was self-published and could have benefited from some editing rigor. This book shows much more polish. I really look forward to seeing what Ms. Chambers comes up with in the future, she's on my Will Buy list.

All The Birds In The Sky by Jane Anders is a mix of science fiction and fantasy. A young girl learns that, in certain circumstances, she can talk to birds and apparently she's a witch. A young boy, who's more or less a tech genius, learns that the girl can provide him an alibi with his parents to make it look like he's being active outdoors. Years past and lots of things happen, including the ecological collapse of the planet. It's a bit of a downer, but very well crafted and quite interesting: I really enjoyed reading this book and it well-deserved the Hugo nod.

The Obelisk Gate by NK Jemison is book 2 in a series and I was not impressed. And I hate to say it, but I abandoned this book. I didn't want to, but she did was I've learned is an increasingly common literary trope: second person writing. You do this, you do that, you look there, you say this. That really put me off. But that wasn't all, it was just the story itself that did it. The story was too dependent on the first book to understand the environment and what was going on. It just wasn't my cup of tea. Regarding second person, when I got to the short stories I was reading one that was published in Uncanny called If You Stay Here You Shall Surely Drown, and it is also written in second person. I didn't mind that. It was more the story than the perspective of the narration that put me off. Besides, a story will be in last place, and if I like other books more, it won't take much to be knocked to the bottom.

Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee was, excuse the profanity, absolutely fucking amazing. Space war plus Chinese dynastic stuff plus Chinese mysticism. Wow. It wasn't strictly speaking magic, but nigh unto. The empire and its armies/fleets strategies and tactics are based on calendrical cycles and geometry. Sort of the ultimate expression of horoscopes and feng shui. Geometry will determine battle formations, and breaking an enemy's formation can determine victory. Lee does not get bogged down in the numbers, which I appreciate. The core of the story is an officer sent on a special expedition to suppress some calendrical heretics which threaten the stability of the empire. To overcome them, they must resurrect the greatest traitor the empire has ever scene, who is also the greatest general. His consciousness has been preserved even though his body was destroyed. And since she suggested it, she gets to host him. And the heretical rebellion turns out to be much more than it seems. This is the first book of a series or trilogy, I'm not sure which. And it is really, REALLY good. This was a page turner for me, I look forward to reading more of them.

Too Like The Lightning by Ada Palmer was another WOW book. Palmer is also up for a Campbell award for Best New Author, and I think she stands a solid shot at it. Solid future earth science fiction, but also very different. It's also very hard to describe. It has a feel of Cory Doctorow, in that countries are no more, people can now identify themselves in multiple ways as member of multiple groups. This determines voting blocks and elections for leadership. It's kind of complicated. For example, one group controls all air car routing, another controls everything concerning space travel and anything outside of earth's atmosphere. Another with law enforcement between major clans. There is no longer such a thing as capital punishment. If someone commits murder, or even multiple murders, they're stripped of all affiliations and sentenced to manual labor as a Servitor for anyone who will have them. The people who have them working for them give them food for their labor: if they don't work, they don't eat. It's more complicated than that, but like I said, it's hard to describe and it takes a long time for it to be fully explained in the book. The plot of the book is a theft takes place. Each of the major clans publishes a list of their projection of what the vote results will be in the next leadership election. Very important stuff. The theft is from one of the most respected papers. There's no blackmail, no murder, just stealing a piece of paper. But it sends ripples throughout the world of the ruling elite. And as the book progresses, it turns more and more sordid. Very much looking forward to future books in the series.

Simply put, Too Like The Lightning and Ninefox Gambit are the two best books that I've read this year, and the year's just half over. Absolutely amazing. It makes me kick myself repeatedly that I haven't bought supporting memberships for Worldcon in the past, but I'll definitely get them in the future! Just too much good stuff, and too many authors to look forward to!

Jodie Whitaker will be the next Doctor Who, appearing in the Christmas Special, which should be quite interesting. Already fans are screaming, either in joy or anguish. Myself, I'm in the joy category, I think it's quite awesome. She's a great actor and I think it's high time. The lead vocalist for Blink-182 had a fabulous tweet: "Oh great a female Doctor Who. What next? Female real doctors? Female pilots? Female scientists? Female sisters and mothers? Female WOMEN?!"

Long may she reign! Or at least I'd like to see more than three years.

The BBC has a nice fan reaction piece that includes a short intro video, she looks great!


In sadder news, the passing on Saturday of Martin Landau, he was 89. Landau's first big movie was Hitchcock's North By Northwest, but I'll always remember him for Space: 1999 and Mission: Impossible. He was also the first choice for Mister Spock, but he turned it down and Gene had to go with his second choice, some guy named Nimoy. He kept himself pretty busy in his later years, pretty good for a guy pushing 90. He will also be remembered as the father of at least a two-generation acting dynasty as his daughter Juliet Landau, well-known for her work as Drusilla in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel is a VERY active actor herself.


On Sunday night, we lost the father of zombies, George Romero, to lung cancer. He was 77. I created a sort of zombie game called Zombie Cafe, wherein you operate a deli selling brains to zombies. There's a blog called the Zombie Rights Campaign which used to frequent horror conventions, handing out flyers and holding demonstrations, demanding an end to head shots and such: they labeled my game as Zombie Friendly as I did not advocate violence against zombies. He also gave a copy of my game to George, but I never heard anything from him. That would have been nice.


It's interesting to think of the two men, iconic actor and iconic film maker. They both left major marks in the industry and both will be remembered for a very long time.