Yes, you may all genuflect upon my awesomeness as I work my way through, not one but two of the largest fantasy series out there!
Malazan, Book of the Fallen clocking in at 10 books and counting, with at least 7,000 pages.
and
Wheel of Time clocking in at 13 books and counting, with at least 10,000 pages.
You may all look on in awe at my undertaking. (or you can shake your head and put in a call to the people with the nice white coats to bring a padded van)
I'm only on the third of the Malazan books, and I've read 12 of the planned 15 books in the WoT series. The latest of its books came out a few months ago, and because of the four year gap since the last book in the series (the author, Robert Jordan, died and the series is being continued by Brandon Sanderson), I am working my way through the preceding books again because I've forgotten everything but the most general facts.
My first exposure to the Wheel of Time series was in a little Waldenbooks shop where I spent my hour lunch breaks working through the first book. The Malazan series was a random pick-up at our local library a month or two back.
The two series couldn't be more different in many regards (aside from their massive size, of course).
The Malazan series very specifically eschews any form of expository speeches given by characters to educate the reader. This gives the reader a total immersion introduction to the world - it's like getting picked up in your nightclothes and dumped in a jungle in Borneo where no one speaks English and you need to catch your own food. The world is cohesive, fascinating, deep, and more confusing than I can express. However, if you go into it expecting that, you'll probably be able to handle it pretty well. It took me a couple hundred pages before I finally realized no one was going to be explaining to me the where, why, when in a tortuously long exposition infodump.
The Wheel of Time is ....... well, it's not like that. There is exposition. There is more exposition. Then there's another bit. And then yet more. Not everything is given out in their long teaching speeches to each other, but it can't be denied that there is a LOT of exposition. On the other hand, the characters are giving THEIR view and THEIR knowledge of past events/legents, and that information isn't always correct. A key theme in the books is the mutability of legends, tales, and history across peoples and times. Nonetheless, the infodumps are pretty obvious. (Oh, and NO ONE ever seems to die, so as the series continues, you get a staggeringly large cast of characters)
Of course, they aren't as bad as the Sword of Truth series. Now THOSE are long bits of exposition. I think one of them lasted for seven or eight pages, if I remember correctly.
Anyway, just an update for anyone who is working on those series. For anyone else who needs a summary update for the Wheel of Time series, check out this set of summaries: The Wheel of Time Re-Read.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Don't Use Midas in Leesburg
I'm sure they aren't as incometent as they appear to be since that would mean they would be killing themselves in accidents every five minutes. Theoretically they must have some level of competence or else they wouldn't be in business.
I certainly can't see it though!
They're the shop that worked on my car, rotating the tires, immediately after which a wheel fell off while C was driving.
When C had dropped off the car she told them we thought it was the fuel pump which was causing the problem. After testing, they replied the fuel pump was fine, but a sensor needed to be replaced. Ok.
I (rather stupidly) took my car back to them when it again failed to start. This time they looked at it and said the fuel pump was bad. Gaaahhh!
So I got a price quote and nearly choked. They wanted to charge me over $550 for ONLY the part! I checked with the auto parts stores here in town and they were selling the EXACT SAME BRAND for only $230! That's what, a 130% markup!?!?!?
I called Midas back. Sure, they would be willing install a part which I bought. They would only charge me an extra $70 to do so!!!!
I had enough. I called another shop (LAS) and asked them. They wanted to charge $290 for the part, but weren't going to charge any extra if I wanted to buy my own part. Great! They even had a towing service to get the car transported over. I called Midas to let them know I was sending a tow truck. No problem, Midas said. That was on Monday.
I got a call Monday afternoon. Midas wouldn't let them take the car! I owed them for the testing of the fuel pump! They didn't charge me for it last time! Why this time?!? Whatever. I just wanted my car away from them at this point. I paid and the guy said he would put in the call to have the tow truck come back to get my car.
Tuesday I called LAS to check up. They hadn't heard anything further from Midas! I was well and truly steamed at this point, not at LAS, but at Midas. With apologies, I asked LAS to go pick up the car.
An hour later LAS called back. Midas said that I had the keys, so they couldn't open up the car to load it onto their tow truck!! I called Midas back and was almost yelling at the guy (felt bad for him since he wasn't the specific guy screwing things up). Apparently the guy I paid over the phone on Monday and who had neglected to call the tow truck after he said he would, somehow got things screwed up. They thought I had picked up the keys when I paid!!!
No I didn't pick up the keys! I paid over the phone!
The guy on the phone went looking for the keys. Five minutes of hold time, during which there is a repeating ad playing over the phone lauding Midas' quality of service. He comes back. Apparently the keys and paperwork were laying NEXT TO the tow truck box and not in it! That was enough to screw everything up and send the tow truck packing because "the owner has the keys"!
So I gave LAS another call and with many apologies asked them if they could send over their tow truck again.
...
Words fail me to adequately express my opinion of Midas.
I certainly can't see it though!
They're the shop that worked on my car, rotating the tires, immediately after which a wheel fell off while C was driving.
When C had dropped off the car she told them we thought it was the fuel pump which was causing the problem. After testing, they replied the fuel pump was fine, but a sensor needed to be replaced. Ok.
I (rather stupidly) took my car back to them when it again failed to start. This time they looked at it and said the fuel pump was bad. Gaaahhh!
So I got a price quote and nearly choked. They wanted to charge me over $550 for ONLY the part! I checked with the auto parts stores here in town and they were selling the EXACT SAME BRAND for only $230! That's what, a 130% markup!?!?!?
I called Midas back. Sure, they would be willing install a part which I bought. They would only charge me an extra $70 to do so!!!!
I had enough. I called another shop (LAS) and asked them. They wanted to charge $290 for the part, but weren't going to charge any extra if I wanted to buy my own part. Great! They even had a towing service to get the car transported over. I called Midas to let them know I was sending a tow truck. No problem, Midas said. That was on Monday.
I got a call Monday afternoon. Midas wouldn't let them take the car! I owed them for the testing of the fuel pump! They didn't charge me for it last time! Why this time?!? Whatever. I just wanted my car away from them at this point. I paid and the guy said he would put in the call to have the tow truck come back to get my car.
Tuesday I called LAS to check up. They hadn't heard anything further from Midas! I was well and truly steamed at this point, not at LAS, but at Midas. With apologies, I asked LAS to go pick up the car.
An hour later LAS called back. Midas said that I had the keys, so they couldn't open up the car to load it onto their tow truck!! I called Midas back and was almost yelling at the guy (felt bad for him since he wasn't the specific guy screwing things up). Apparently the guy I paid over the phone on Monday and who had neglected to call the tow truck after he said he would, somehow got things screwed up. They thought I had picked up the keys when I paid!!!
No I didn't pick up the keys! I paid over the phone!
The guy on the phone went looking for the keys. Five minutes of hold time, during which there is a repeating ad playing over the phone lauding Midas' quality of service. He comes back. Apparently the keys and paperwork were laying NEXT TO the tow truck box and not in it! That was enough to screw everything up and send the tow truck packing because "the owner has the keys"!
So I gave LAS another call and with many apologies asked them if they could send over their tow truck again.
...
Words fail me to adequately express my opinion of Midas.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Status report on the Twilight showing Friday night: success!
We had eight girls over at the house and reports indicate that everyone enjoyed themselves. Jeremiah and I ducked out and went to the bookstore and bowling. He did quite well, not quite ready to take the bumpers off, but still really well. He even beat me one of our games. I can also offer a bit of fun advice to the adults bowling with kids. Try using one of the light 8 or 6 pound balls. You can REALLY hurl them down the alley - it's very satisfying even if the ball does bounce off the pins even when going 30 miles per hour.
We returned to a house in chaos - the movie was over and eight girls were running rampant. Jer and I had escaped by the skin of our teeth! Whew! Emo Ed had done his work on the female tween population of our house, but they were soon back to their homes where their parents would have to deal with them.
However, the residual radiation left behind drove Jeremiah and I (along with baby T) out to do some hiking along the AT. C remained behind to get some projects done without us being there to get in the way. The day was low-seventies, clear skies, wonderful sunshine, crisp air, and an absolute pleasure for our hiking. I had T in a pack and Jer was running along the trail. A bit of Subway for sustenance and the day was perfect!
The evening saw us off to a clogging performance at a family reunion. It was a big one and the family was Irish. The Irish family was celebrating the reunion close to St. Patrick's Day, and so it was celebrated in proper Irish fashion - tipsy while singing Irish folk songs!
We had a great time, and Jeremiah had a great time too playing with all the kids there.
Sunday brought a children's service, followed by a game of Necromunda with Jeremiah. His gang managed to wipe out most of the zombies which were attacking, and I foresee a mighty victory for his gang in one more turn. (He had to leave before the last turn, so we took pictures so we can restore the game next time.) I had intended the game to be a lot more challenging for him, but he succeeded in making a freakishly difficult shot to kill their leader (rolled 6,6,5 to make a shot at his extreme long range at a target behind heavy cover) and so the zombies started moving somewhat haphazardly instead of in a coordinated fashion. He was chopping them up piecemeal.
After that was a lazy day of reading, doing a couple light errands, and snuggling with the Beautiful One after the Cute One went to sleep.
Now - it's back to work, waiting for some new software to install. The day is grey and wet. Was the weekend really as good as it seems in my memory, or are current circumstances modifying my memories?
We had eight girls over at the house and reports indicate that everyone enjoyed themselves. Jeremiah and I ducked out and went to the bookstore and bowling. He did quite well, not quite ready to take the bumpers off, but still really well. He even beat me one of our games. I can also offer a bit of fun advice to the adults bowling with kids. Try using one of the light 8 or 6 pound balls. You can REALLY hurl them down the alley - it's very satisfying even if the ball does bounce off the pins even when going 30 miles per hour.
We returned to a house in chaos - the movie was over and eight girls were running rampant. Jer and I had escaped by the skin of our teeth! Whew! Emo Ed had done his work on the female tween population of our house, but they were soon back to their homes where their parents would have to deal with them.
However, the residual radiation left behind drove Jeremiah and I (along with baby T) out to do some hiking along the AT. C remained behind to get some projects done without us being there to get in the way. The day was low-seventies, clear skies, wonderful sunshine, crisp air, and an absolute pleasure for our hiking. I had T in a pack and Jer was running along the trail. A bit of Subway for sustenance and the day was perfect!
The evening saw us off to a clogging performance at a family reunion. It was a big one and the family was Irish. The Irish family was celebrating the reunion close to St. Patrick's Day, and so it was celebrated in proper Irish fashion - tipsy while singing Irish folk songs!
We had a great time, and Jeremiah had a great time too playing with all the kids there.
Sunday brought a children's service, followed by a game of Necromunda with Jeremiah. His gang managed to wipe out most of the zombies which were attacking, and I foresee a mighty victory for his gang in one more turn. (He had to leave before the last turn, so we took pictures so we can restore the game next time.) I had intended the game to be a lot more challenging for him, but he succeeded in making a freakishly difficult shot to kill their leader (rolled 6,6,5 to make a shot at his extreme long range at a target behind heavy cover) and so the zombies started moving somewhat haphazardly instead of in a coordinated fashion. He was chopping them up piecemeal.
After that was a lazy day of reading, doing a couple light errands, and snuggling with the Beautiful One after the Cute One went to sleep.
Now - it's back to work, waiting for some new software to install. The day is grey and wet. Was the weekend really as good as it seems in my memory, or are current circumstances modifying my memories?
Friday, March 19, 2010
Freakonomics on Environmental Movement
The Freakonomics blog on the NY Times is by a collection of writers, intended to follow the vein of the popular book of the same name. For the most part it does pretty well in pulling in interesting stories.
Here's one that might get a few environmental tails in a twist - what's the future of environmentally effective changes? Dense urban living.
Why?
There isn't as much land being turned into suburban sprawl. The commutes are shorter so less fuel/energy is used in commuting. Fewer building materials per person in apartments and townehomes than in single-family homes. Denser commercial building means less land used for businesses.
While building "green" homes and businesses is possibly somewhat useful, and creating "green" vehicles might cut down on energy consumption for transportation, these are changes that only affect the outer margins of energy and land use. To seriously affect things, the entire culture would need to change from sprawling suburban style to a denser urban style.
So, where should the environmental movement focus in accomplishing significant change? In building lots of attractive urban areas.
The full story: Green Building: LEEDing Us Where?
Here's one that might get a few environmental tails in a twist - what's the future of environmentally effective changes? Dense urban living.
Why?
There isn't as much land being turned into suburban sprawl. The commutes are shorter so less fuel/energy is used in commuting. Fewer building materials per person in apartments and townehomes than in single-family homes. Denser commercial building means less land used for businesses.
While building "green" homes and businesses is possibly somewhat useful, and creating "green" vehicles might cut down on energy consumption for transportation, these are changes that only affect the outer margins of energy and land use. To seriously affect things, the entire culture would need to change from sprawling suburban style to a denser urban style.
So, where should the environmental movement focus in accomplishing significant change? In building lots of attractive urban areas.
The full story: Green Building: LEEDing Us Where?
Friday, March 12, 2010
Adventures in Life
Possibly readers may have caught the close-call C had with the car tire. A day or two later I took the car in to investigate starting troubles it was having, and that went off without a hitch - whew!
On the house front, it looks like C's brother will be taking the room that my brother used to live in! Woot! He theoretically lives at an apartment near where he works, but since he spends most of his time out our direction with SS, he decided he prefered to live out here, so he's moving in this weekend!
Still on the house front, but not as good of news, the wasps are still coming in from somewhere. I had cut a chunk out of our closet wall because of a drip coming in, and there were wasps appearing in our room. We assumed they were coming in through that hole, but I put plastic and tape up over the entire hole - no ways through - and more wasps still showed up. I took a quick look and saw one other place they might be coming in - where the cable cords come in - and I'm planning on filling that hole this evening. Hopefully that will take care of of them.
On the job front, I'm enjoying my new project. Perl is the world; the world is Perl. I just now (as in five minutes ago) discovered a bit of an issue with the info in the database, but other than that, the project has been cranking along pretty well.
Still on the job front, but not as good of news, the commute is longer. It's only marginally further as the crow flies, but I have to work through some areas with more traffic. It's a nice, small-ish project that looks like it will proceed to success and join in with a larger project.
I'm not sure what "front" this would qualify under, but I just recently watched the first Twilight movie. The movie is about two hours long and I think I watched it in about an hour, not counting the pauses to take care of T. DEFINITELY a young, teenage, girl's flick! I wound up fast-forwarding through rather large chunks of it where the angsty conversations began to overwhelm me. The psychopathic, murdering bad guy was strictly a 2D character who didn't come in until over half way through the movie and had strictly minimal screen time. He was also the most interesting character, by far.
Why did I subject myself to it? We're having a group of the teen girls from youth group over to our house next weekend to watch the movie. Jeremiah and I are headed out bowling, but I wanted to have an idea of what the movie is like. C has to be there, though, and suffer through it! Hahahahahahahaha!
I suddenly have some feelings of camaraderie with those who imagine horrible ways for Edward to die, or for Bella to die, or for just everybody in the story to die. By the time Eddy walks up to her and starts a conversation:
I was having fond fantasies of plunging a stake through Emo Ed's heart myself!
Oh well. Like I said I won't have to sit through the whole movie with a bunch of young, barely-teen girls, all drooling over the brooding vampire! Ha!
On the house front, it looks like C's brother will be taking the room that my brother used to live in! Woot! He theoretically lives at an apartment near where he works, but since he spends most of his time out our direction with SS, he decided he prefered to live out here, so he's moving in this weekend!
Still on the house front, but not as good of news, the wasps are still coming in from somewhere. I had cut a chunk out of our closet wall because of a drip coming in, and there were wasps appearing in our room. We assumed they were coming in through that hole, but I put plastic and tape up over the entire hole - no ways through - and more wasps still showed up. I took a quick look and saw one other place they might be coming in - where the cable cords come in - and I'm planning on filling that hole this evening. Hopefully that will take care of of them.
On the job front, I'm enjoying my new project. Perl is the world; the world is Perl. I just now (as in five minutes ago) discovered a bit of an issue with the info in the database, but other than that, the project has been cranking along pretty well.
Still on the job front, but not as good of news, the commute is longer. It's only marginally further as the crow flies, but I have to work through some areas with more traffic. It's a nice, small-ish project that looks like it will proceed to success and join in with a larger project.
I'm not sure what "front" this would qualify under, but I just recently watched the first Twilight movie. The movie is about two hours long and I think I watched it in about an hour, not counting the pauses to take care of T. DEFINITELY a young, teenage, girl's flick! I wound up fast-forwarding through rather large chunks of it where the angsty conversations began to overwhelm me. The psychopathic, murdering bad guy was strictly a 2D character who didn't come in until over half way through the movie and had strictly minimal screen time. He was also the most interesting character, by far.
Why did I subject myself to it? We're having a group of the teen girls from youth group over to our house next weekend to watch the movie. Jeremiah and I are headed out bowling, but I wanted to have an idea of what the movie is like. C has to be there, though, and suffer through it! Hahahahahahahaha!
I suddenly have some feelings of camaraderie with those who imagine horrible ways for Edward to die, or for Bella to die, or for just everybody in the story to die. By the time Eddy walks up to her and starts a conversation:
Edward: I only said it would be better if we weren't friends, not that I didn't want to be.
Isabella: What does that mean?
Edward: It means if you're smart... you'll stay away from me.
I was having fond fantasies of plunging a stake through Emo Ed's heart myself!
Oh well. Like I said I won't have to sit through the whole movie with a bunch of young, barely-teen girls, all drooling over the brooding vampire! Ha!
Wednesday, March 03, 2010
Confession
I have to confess. My blog post from yesterday was slightly inaccurate.
As in, I didn't actually whack myself with my nunchucks. I took some BBQ sauce and smeared a little on my eyebrow and put a bandaid over it.
Whew! I'm glad I got that off my conscience. The nunchucks are seriously cool though!
As in, I didn't actually whack myself with my nunchucks. I took some BBQ sauce and smeared a little on my eyebrow and put a bandaid over it.
Whew! I'm glad I got that off my conscience. The nunchucks are seriously cool though!
Tuesday, March 02, 2010
Sorta New Job and Nunchucks
I'm still in the same company, but I shifted to a different project. Same type of position, no upgrades in my rating or anything like that. However, I am learning a whole new set of skills, this time in open source intelligence. I'll still be doing a little bit of geospatial work, but not much.
On Thursday my friends at work took me out to lunch! And not only that, but they had gotten me several going away gifts!
You guys are the best!
First they gave me a bad with a nice card and stuff in it.
Ibuprofin.
First Aid kit.
Cold Pack.
Bandages pack.
(do you see a trend there?)
I admit to being a bit puzzled as I was pulling them out of the bag, but I tried not to let it show. I'm known for my martial arts there and I was guessing they were a joke on maybe getting hurt in a fight or something. (Ha! Like someone would be able to even touch me! Ha! I sneer in the attacker's general direction!)
However, they then pulled out the last gift and it all became clear!
A pair of nunchucks! Real ones with hardwood and a chain!
I was still in the restaurant so I couldn't wave them around in there, so I promised them I would give them a demo when we were outside.
I was wearing my leather jacket when I started spinning them around. Great for protecting my body, but my sleeves were definitely catching the spinning 'chucks. Hmmm, maybe this wasn't such a good idea.
BH took a picture with her phone when we got back to the office, and there it is.
On Thursday my friends at work took me out to lunch! And not only that, but they had gotten me several going away gifts!
You guys are the best!
First they gave me a bad with a nice card and stuff in it.
Ibuprofin.
First Aid kit.
Cold Pack.
Bandages pack.
(do you see a trend there?)
I admit to being a bit puzzled as I was pulling them out of the bag, but I tried not to let it show. I'm known for my martial arts there and I was guessing they were a joke on maybe getting hurt in a fight or something. (Ha! Like someone would be able to even touch me! Ha! I sneer in the attacker's general direction!)
However, they then pulled out the last gift and it all became clear!
A pair of nunchucks! Real ones with hardwood and a chain!
I was still in the restaurant so I couldn't wave them around in there, so I promised them I would give them a demo when we were outside.
I was wearing my leather jacket when I started spinning them around. Great for protecting my body, but my sleeves were definitely catching the spinning 'chucks. Hmmm, maybe this wasn't such a good idea.
BH took a picture with her phone when we got back to the office, and there it is.
Clogging Our Feet Off!
This last weekend was our clogging group's first ever hosted workshop! Hours and hours and hours of clogging with instructors from all over the country as well as local. It was a blast!
The reason we put it on was that the local clogging workshop that is normally around this time got canceled. That was a workshop that our group always attended very heavily and we hated missing out on the opportunity so much that our fearless clogging leaders decided to host our own!
Scotty Bilz, Joel Harrison, and Jane Treadwell (I realize most of you won't know them, but in clogging circles they are very well known as top-tier instructors) came from out of state and we got half a dozen more instructors from locally in-state. This area has a lot of cloggers in it and since there aren't any other clogging workshops locally any time soon, we got a bumper turn out; I think the final numbers for the clogging workshop were almost 200 attendees!
[edit] I forgot Kathy Moore! I'll try to excuse my oversight by saying I didn't take any of her classes. Thanks honey![/edit]
C&I hosted one of the instructors. We weren't sure when she was coming in, but we wanted to have dinner prepared just in case she arrived before dinner time. We had some steaks and thought this would be a good opportunity to use them. In one of our emails we asked what she likes for dinner/breakfast.
She wrote back that she's a gluten-free vegan!!
Hmmm, maybe the steaks won't work out so well! As it turned out she wasn't going to be arriving before dinner anyway, so it wasn't an issue. Whew!
We took T to the clogging and there were always LOTS of people offering to hold her. She didn't sleep as much as she normally does, but she did get a couple naps in.
In one instance I held her during a clogging class and she was quite content for the first 15 minutes. For the next 15 minutes she was dozing off, but occasionally still poking her head up from my arms. For the last 20 minutes she was out like a light and didn't do so much as twitch!
This is, of course, while there is loud music going on, while I am doing full-tilt clogging, with the instructor talking loudly over the music, and with 30 other people in a confined space all tapping and stomping loudly with metal taps on a hardwood floor. Quiet it was not!
And yes, it made for some very cute pictures! C was clogging in the same class, so she couldn't take pictures, but other people did take lots of pictures and gathered around the door looking in. I'll get some pictures up eventually.
I think we've pretty well recovered by this point, but Sunday was a tired day for us. Clogging had started at 9:00 and it didn't end until 9:00 in the evening. There were breaks for lunch and dinner, but it was still a LOT of exercise and stomping feet.
And yes mom, I will try to get some pictures up as soon as possible!
The reason we put it on was that the local clogging workshop that is normally around this time got canceled. That was a workshop that our group always attended very heavily and we hated missing out on the opportunity so much that our fearless clogging leaders decided to host our own!
Scotty Bilz, Joel Harrison, and Jane Treadwell (I realize most of you won't know them, but in clogging circles they are very well known as top-tier instructors) came from out of state and we got half a dozen more instructors from locally in-state. This area has a lot of cloggers in it and since there aren't any other clogging workshops locally any time soon, we got a bumper turn out; I think the final numbers for the clogging workshop were almost 200 attendees!
[edit] I forgot Kathy Moore! I'll try to excuse my oversight by saying I didn't take any of her classes. Thanks honey![/edit]
C&I hosted one of the instructors. We weren't sure when she was coming in, but we wanted to have dinner prepared just in case she arrived before dinner time. We had some steaks and thought this would be a good opportunity to use them. In one of our emails we asked what she likes for dinner/breakfast.
She wrote back that she's a gluten-free vegan!!
Hmmm, maybe the steaks won't work out so well! As it turned out she wasn't going to be arriving before dinner anyway, so it wasn't an issue. Whew!
We took T to the clogging and there were always LOTS of people offering to hold her. She didn't sleep as much as she normally does, but she did get a couple naps in.
In one instance I held her during a clogging class and she was quite content for the first 15 minutes. For the next 15 minutes she was dozing off, but occasionally still poking her head up from my arms. For the last 20 minutes she was out like a light and didn't do so much as twitch!
This is, of course, while there is loud music going on, while I am doing full-tilt clogging, with the instructor talking loudly over the music, and with 30 other people in a confined space all tapping and stomping loudly with metal taps on a hardwood floor. Quiet it was not!
And yes, it made for some very cute pictures! C was clogging in the same class, so she couldn't take pictures, but other people did take lots of pictures and gathered around the door looking in. I'll get some pictures up eventually.
I think we've pretty well recovered by this point, but Sunday was a tired day for us. Clogging had started at 9:00 and it didn't end until 9:00 in the evening. There were breaks for lunch and dinner, but it was still a LOT of exercise and stomping feet.
And yes mom, I will try to get some pictures up as soon as possible!
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