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Granted, today is a holiday regardless…
It's Monday. And it's quite nice to sleep in regardless of the time zone shift. Let's see. Arrived Friday, met the future in-laws, Brian & Clare. Very nice people, Russet's father Brian is more than a little hard of hearing, kind of like my dad. I've hit it off quite well with him, he loves dexterity in speech and a quick mind. We've been talking about Shakespeare, Bach, Pablo Casals, Scottish history, Bob Newhart, Jack Benny, all sorts of stuff. We've not yet come close to politics, so that's been a pleasant avoidance, though we had a late-night kitchen discussion after Brian went to bed with Russet, her mom Clare, and brother-in-law Pete (who works for NASA and relies heavily on duct tape) about Social Security, it was quite a polite discussion, Pete doesn't think there will be anything there for him and us of our age group, and hardly surprisingly Clare doesn't care.
Right now I'm sitting in the shade on the back porch, it's cool, in the low 70's and there's a pleasant breeze. You mainly hear birds chirping and a little traffic, but not much. Yesterday Russ and I were going for a bit of a walk and there was a cardinal on the grass, it was the brightest red cardinal that I've ever seen, I don't know how they vary over distance but the ones that I've seen in Arizona are a much duller red, closer to a matte maroon.
I just learned a peril of placing your laptop on the porch whilst I let the dog back in – I'm not used to having ants crawling on my PC.
Back to Friday. Good flight, though longer than I'd expected, coming in at almost four hours. Atypically for Southwest, we weren't crammed in like sardines, in fact, the center seat was vacant so we had lots of room. Slept a lot of the way as I'd only gotten about 90 minutes of sleep Thursday night, read a lot finishing off the final Dave Duncan book of His Majesty's Blades, or at least of the series that I was reading. He's written 9-12 books, I think, I've now read four. Quite good, sort of Three Musketeers in 14th Century England with "Elemental" magic in use.
I'm not a big fan of magic in fantasy fiction, I'm sure there are some that I could find that I would like if I were to bother getting recommendations and reading lots of drek, it just isn't my genre. My big problem with magic is the flash/bang effect, basically the "instant on" magic. Duncan's Elemental magic is different. He has enchanted items that have very specific uses and limitations, I think all his magic works around Elementaries where these wizards/scholars go through complex invocations/revocations of the eight elements (earth/air, fire/water, love/death, chaos/fate IIRC) to get different results. The Elementaries contain octograms where the eight elements are set out in opposition to each other.
The main use for Elementaries in The King's Blades is to produce a Blade. A Blade is a young man, generally nearing late teen, who has been undergoing years of training as a swordsman. It can be any of several different types of swords, I've seen rapiers, foils, broadswords, and cutlasses. They train in the different types through the years though they quickly show what their preferred weapon is. When they have gained the senior class through promotion (i.e. those above him have been Bound to the King), they eventually become Senior. When the King needs a new Blade, either for himself or for someone he deigns to give one to, he rides out to Ironhall (the head of the Guild of Blades). The ceremony involves fasting and incantations. The student is given his own personal sword that matches his own style perfectly and has a cat's eye topaz in the pommel, and at the height of the ceremony the pledge swears his life to his Ward, and the Ward thrusts the Blade's sword through the Blade's heart. If the Blade swore true, when he pulls the sword out the wound will close instantly and they will be bound 'till death, usually the death of the Blade defending his Ward.
ANYWAY, good books. I believe the first trilogy is Gilded Chain, Lord of the Fire Land, and Sky of Swords. Definitely recommended. More of a political intrigue series with the Elementary magic playing significant roles. Theoretically you can read these in any order, but I think it would be best read in this sequence.
Saturday was largely a do-nothing day, in the afternoon Russet's favorite sister Lise arrived from New England. Later her other sister Clare (and husband and youngest daughter) got in.
Russ and I did some wandering through the land adjoining her back yard. It's quite a thing to see, you go out the back gate and two of Oberlin's reservoirs are right there! Very lush and green, originally they used to launch the 4th of July fireworks from there but have since moved them to the water park towards the south end of town. There's some nice trails back there through sort of an arboretum that lead to a natural amphitheater. Lots of big and little streams, LOTS of gnats.
Sunday was a day of conspiracy. Russet's third sister, Monica (wife of the aforementioned Pete), now lives with the parents. Last week was Monica's birthday and Pete had planned this big party for her, including a few co-workers and some old friends. To make the surprise complete, on Monica's birthday they gave her a lot of really mediocre, disappointing presents. And she was dutifully disappointed, but conveniently she couldn't complain about it because they had celebrated her birthday and she had gotten presents.
In the afternoon she was to get together with a friend and was shanghaied off to the grocers under the pretense of needing lettuce. While she was gone we all went to the friend's house, set up the parent's in a comfortable place, set up a tremendously embarrassing sign wishing Monica a happy 53rd birthday (it was her 43rd) and waited. Eventually she showed up, utterly surprised and happy, and all had a good time. I shot 60-odd (some very odd) photos including getting a fantastic shot of her shih-tsu dog Mugsy that morning.
That evening was part of Oberlin College's Commencement ceremonies. They hang Chinese lanterns throughout the town square and have one of the school's bands (so as to not be confused with your run-of-the mill, mediocre school bands, this is a very fine music ensemble from one of the finest music colleges in the country) playing on a rather interesting stage in the middle. The stage is sort of like a pagoda with two giant wheels, turning it into a wagon, complete with a hitch tongue. It's pretty cool. I took a couple dozen photos that came out fairly well, I cranked the ASA on my camera up to 1600 and was doing handheld exposures of the lanterns at between a tenth and a thirtieth of a second with the lens wide open. Got some good shots, I'll be posting them later. Unfortunately they'll probably be a bit grainy since I had to open up the lens so much. I'm hoping to come back in a future year with a tripod and do a little more serious shooting. Still, for hand-held, impromptu shots, they're pretty good.
We did lots of walking Sunday afternoon and evening, lots of fun. Gorgeous night, probably in the low 60's.
We attempted a couple of geocaches before the Illumination, as they call the lanterns stuff, without success, one thing that held us back was a lack of flashlights to peer into a place where I'm fairly certain one of the caches was hidden. There's lots and lots of caches around Oberlin, I'm hoping we'll go again, this time with some success. It will add a third state to our login, so that would be cool.
No idea what we're doing Monday. We're looking at giving Celeste, Russet's standard poodle, a bath. It's been a very long time since I've helped bathe a dog, but it will be part of our married life so I might as well plunge into it.
Found out that we’ll be doing Cedar Point over our honeymoon, I wasn't sure if we were going to try and get it in during the next couple of days. We don't have a lot to do before Saturday, but we do have a couple of things happening.
Things will definitely start hopping tomorrow. Brian resumes radiation therapy tomorrow through Friday. Russ and I have to go to the county seat and get our marriage license. We need to find a photographer to do studio shots for Russ and I. People start arriving Thursday (my parental units, best man, photographer and wife). Friday sees more arrivals, the rehearsal, dinner with both sets of parents after said rehearsal. We were going to give Celeste a bath prior to the wedding, I don't know if that will happen or whether there's a point as she'll be going into a kennel while we're on our honeymoon and she's going to get groomed there, I presume they'll bathe her as part of the grooming.
It's Monday. And it's quite nice to sleep in regardless of the time zone shift. Let's see. Arrived Friday, met the future in-laws, Brian & Clare. Very nice people, Russet's father Brian is more than a little hard of hearing, kind of like my dad. I've hit it off quite well with him, he loves dexterity in speech and a quick mind. We've been talking about Shakespeare, Bach, Pablo Casals, Scottish history, Bob Newhart, Jack Benny, all sorts of stuff. We've not yet come close to politics, so that's been a pleasant avoidance, though we had a late-night kitchen discussion after Brian went to bed with Russet, her mom Clare, and brother-in-law Pete (who works for NASA and relies heavily on duct tape) about Social Security, it was quite a polite discussion, Pete doesn't think there will be anything there for him and us of our age group, and hardly surprisingly Clare doesn't care.
Right now I'm sitting in the shade on the back porch, it's cool, in the low 70's and there's a pleasant breeze. You mainly hear birds chirping and a little traffic, but not much. Yesterday Russ and I were going for a bit of a walk and there was a cardinal on the grass, it was the brightest red cardinal that I've ever seen, I don't know how they vary over distance but the ones that I've seen in Arizona are a much duller red, closer to a matte maroon.
I just learned a peril of placing your laptop on the porch whilst I let the dog back in – I'm not used to having ants crawling on my PC.
Back to Friday. Good flight, though longer than I'd expected, coming in at almost four hours. Atypically for Southwest, we weren't crammed in like sardines, in fact, the center seat was vacant so we had lots of room. Slept a lot of the way as I'd only gotten about 90 minutes of sleep Thursday night, read a lot finishing off the final Dave Duncan book of His Majesty's Blades, or at least of the series that I was reading. He's written 9-12 books, I think, I've now read four. Quite good, sort of Three Musketeers in 14th Century England with "Elemental" magic in use.
I'm not a big fan of magic in fantasy fiction, I'm sure there are some that I could find that I would like if I were to bother getting recommendations and reading lots of drek, it just isn't my genre. My big problem with magic is the flash/bang effect, basically the "instant on" magic. Duncan's Elemental magic is different. He has enchanted items that have very specific uses and limitations, I think all his magic works around Elementaries where these wizards/scholars go through complex invocations/revocations of the eight elements (earth/air, fire/water, love/death, chaos/fate IIRC) to get different results. The Elementaries contain octograms where the eight elements are set out in opposition to each other.
The main use for Elementaries in The King's Blades is to produce a Blade. A Blade is a young man, generally nearing late teen, who has been undergoing years of training as a swordsman. It can be any of several different types of swords, I've seen rapiers, foils, broadswords, and cutlasses. They train in the different types through the years though they quickly show what their preferred weapon is. When they have gained the senior class through promotion (i.e. those above him have been Bound to the King), they eventually become Senior. When the King needs a new Blade, either for himself or for someone he deigns to give one to, he rides out to Ironhall (the head of the Guild of Blades). The ceremony involves fasting and incantations. The student is given his own personal sword that matches his own style perfectly and has a cat's eye topaz in the pommel, and at the height of the ceremony the pledge swears his life to his Ward, and the Ward thrusts the Blade's sword through the Blade's heart. If the Blade swore true, when he pulls the sword out the wound will close instantly and they will be bound 'till death, usually the death of the Blade defending his Ward.
ANYWAY, good books. I believe the first trilogy is Gilded Chain, Lord of the Fire Land, and Sky of Swords. Definitely recommended. More of a political intrigue series with the Elementary magic playing significant roles. Theoretically you can read these in any order, but I think it would be best read in this sequence.
Saturday was largely a do-nothing day, in the afternoon Russet's favorite sister Lise arrived from New England. Later her other sister Clare (and husband and youngest daughter) got in.
Russ and I did some wandering through the land adjoining her back yard. It's quite a thing to see, you go out the back gate and two of Oberlin's reservoirs are right there! Very lush and green, originally they used to launch the 4th of July fireworks from there but have since moved them to the water park towards the south end of town. There's some nice trails back there through sort of an arboretum that lead to a natural amphitheater. Lots of big and little streams, LOTS of gnats.
Sunday was a day of conspiracy. Russet's third sister, Monica (wife of the aforementioned Pete), now lives with the parents. Last week was Monica's birthday and Pete had planned this big party for her, including a few co-workers and some old friends. To make the surprise complete, on Monica's birthday they gave her a lot of really mediocre, disappointing presents. And she was dutifully disappointed, but conveniently she couldn't complain about it because they had celebrated her birthday and she had gotten presents.
In the afternoon she was to get together with a friend and was shanghaied off to the grocers under the pretense of needing lettuce. While she was gone we all went to the friend's house, set up the parent's in a comfortable place, set up a tremendously embarrassing sign wishing Monica a happy 53rd birthday (it was her 43rd) and waited. Eventually she showed up, utterly surprised and happy, and all had a good time. I shot 60-odd (some very odd) photos including getting a fantastic shot of her shih-tsu dog Mugsy that morning.
That evening was part of Oberlin College's Commencement ceremonies. They hang Chinese lanterns throughout the town square and have one of the school's bands (so as to not be confused with your run-of-the mill, mediocre school bands, this is a very fine music ensemble from one of the finest music colleges in the country) playing on a rather interesting stage in the middle. The stage is sort of like a pagoda with two giant wheels, turning it into a wagon, complete with a hitch tongue. It's pretty cool. I took a couple dozen photos that came out fairly well, I cranked the ASA on my camera up to 1600 and was doing handheld exposures of the lanterns at between a tenth and a thirtieth of a second with the lens wide open. Got some good shots, I'll be posting them later. Unfortunately they'll probably be a bit grainy since I had to open up the lens so much. I'm hoping to come back in a future year with a tripod and do a little more serious shooting. Still, for hand-held, impromptu shots, they're pretty good.
We did lots of walking Sunday afternoon and evening, lots of fun. Gorgeous night, probably in the low 60's.
We attempted a couple of geocaches before the Illumination, as they call the lanterns stuff, without success, one thing that held us back was a lack of flashlights to peer into a place where I'm fairly certain one of the caches was hidden. There's lots and lots of caches around Oberlin, I'm hoping we'll go again, this time with some success. It will add a third state to our login, so that would be cool.
No idea what we're doing Monday. We're looking at giving Celeste, Russet's standard poodle, a bath. It's been a very long time since I've helped bathe a dog, but it will be part of our married life so I might as well plunge into it.
Found out that we’ll be doing Cedar Point over our honeymoon, I wasn't sure if we were going to try and get it in during the next couple of days. We don't have a lot to do before Saturday, but we do have a couple of things happening.
Things will definitely start hopping tomorrow. Brian resumes radiation therapy tomorrow through Friday. Russ and I have to go to the county seat and get our marriage license. We need to find a photographer to do studio shots for Russ and I. People start arriving Thursday (my parental units, best man, photographer and wife). Friday sees more arrivals, the rehearsal, dinner with both sets of parents after said rehearsal. We were going to give Celeste a bath prior to the wedding, I don't know if that will happen or whether there's a point as she'll be going into a kennel while we're on our honeymoon and she's going to get groomed there, I presume they'll bathe her as part of the grooming.
