Year: 2018

Hello again. It’s been almost a week …

I’ve been away visiting people and I’m now back into chilling out mode. I’m needing to recuperate after what feels like a very long year, although that year also whooshed by again. I may well be doing a review of the year type post on Monday (31st) ….

Christmas saw me making the trip up to see the mum, sister, sister’s bloke and the dogs. A good trip. With bonus horse :

That’s Temp, who was in very friendly mood and graciously accepting all head rubs that were being offered.

Although I suspect he was much more interested in his Christmas dinner.

It was good to see the dogs (and the family !) again. This is the first Xmas since we lost my dad, so certainly very different. (I’ll miss him for a long time). He wasn’t very well this time last year (mum was suffering from a heavy cold too), so we spent last Xmas up at their place but this year, I did transport and we all met up at my sister’s place.

And the dogs. That’s Icey, who will always be an anxious one although even when the initial excitement of NEW PEOPLE settled down into a more chill acceptance into the local pack, I think she was still a bit perturbed by what was is the other side of this picture. (Selfie cam). You have to treat Icey very gently and always remember that you’re the guest in her home. If she needs space, she really needs that space. And she’s also a big ball of white floof.

And that’s the Murphster, who is always very keen to show how much he loves people. A very affectionate pooch who I suspect would be quite happy curling up in anyone’s lap. He’s a bit big for that though but I don’t think he understands. (PS The hand is in that position to push against his upper chest, to stop him jumping up … it’s not a choke)

Oh and they’re both massive fans of bacon.

And they very definitely took up their station under the dining table with an attitude of “This is our domain, any meatscraps that enter are ours now.” :-D.

We were all suffering from colds (I’m still getting rid of one even now) but it was a good few days away with all of the family.

Some of them gave the impression that they’d fade away though without meatscraps.

Yep. We know what you’re after !

I’ve been back for a few days and I’m looking to chill out and recuperate as much as I can before work starts again but so far :
Lots of Motorsport Manager, my team are now welded into the top league but we’re still about 5th to 6th fastest with lots of catching up to do.
Little bit of Skyrim, with purple windows (a clash or a missing graphic asset) and enjoying a rather weird Cthulhu inspired mod. I’ll be doing more random bimbling around in Skyrim over the next week.
Curiosity at the Steam sale, haven’t actually bought anything yet.
Amazement at Amazon and iTunes. I get reward vouchers from my credit card and usually cash them in now to spend on iTunes or Amazon vouchers yet … the e-vouchers are out of stock.

Yes. E-vouchers. Out of stock. That translates to “We aren’t going to honour new ones of these at sales time”. The sales offers at both Amazon and iTunes look particularly awful though, so I can wait a little bit.

I am not completely without loot though. As well as the fella in the first pic … (and here’s a better look at him on a tree just about able to hold his weight)

… There were sweet things :

The lemon sherbets have already disappeared (lush), I have the bonbons and the kola kubes, not started on the fudge yet and as that brownie wasn’t packaged up, that disappears quickly too.

I thought I’d missed out on the gertlush marshmallows that are on sale around Lincoln (Naked Marshmallow Co, highly recommended) as they only had the burner kits on sale at the farm shop. But ….

Mums are the best and come through with unexpected marshmallow loot. Mums are also resistant to doggie hypnosis, despite this fella’s best efforts :

(He got some of the leftovers later with the other bit going to Icey)

A good time away, great to see the family again. Lots of slurping by Murph and I think I’m accepted by the Icey one now.

But was the slurping a sign of affection or was it taste testing ? I still have all my fingers.

Yep. Two days worth today !

I’ll be needing to get on the road sometime fairly soon and I wanted to post a picture of the entire collection for this year.

Today – Han and the Wookie Snowman. A good finish for the year I think.

Highlights for this year for me have been the AT-AT, the Naboo fighter, the Rose minifigure, another mini TIE Fighter and the speeders.

The books today had to be Lego. I definitely enjoyed putting together all three of the models corresponding to the books above. I haven’t posted the pictures for the fighter yet but :

Here’s a link to BB-8 …
And the Millennium Falcon build.

The Falcon was before I really got into the swing of knowing when and how to take pictures as the build develops. I’ve got a lot of respect for how the Brick Builder fella does his videos, those must take a mountain of work to produce and present.

But yep. I’ll be on the road fairly soon, pretty much as soon as I throw a bunch of things into a bag and stagger out of the door with them.

More posts later undoubtedly !

But for now – have a great holiday everyone.

What’s behind today’s door ?

I think it’s some kind of tree today. (It’s the green thing with 4 pointy things on the sides).

It’s a Douglas Hill day today. I did that thing again where I look up the author to remind myself of their bibliography and discover they died a few years ago ! Same again here. The books above were all written in the 80s, which is mostly when I got to read them.

(I’ve snipped off the top so left to right it’s : Warriors of the Wasteland, Exiles of Colsec and the Last Legionary Quartet).

It’s a shame there won’t be any more books from this author, he came out with some very readable, albeit pulpy books and I enjoyed reading them at the time. They rattle through extremely quickly and manage to pack in about as much action and narrative as you’d find in a book of twice their length. There’s no messing about, straight into the story while still totally explaining what’s going on. It’s quite odd how they’ve never seen their way into television. They’re almost totally made for being turned into a miniseries.

First up today is Warriors of the Wasteland, middle book of the Huntsman trilogy. This series is about Finn Feral, huntsman who leaves his home village after his family is abducted by the mysterious alien slavers. This one is set in the far future, on an Earth where aliens have invaded and effectively destroyed civilisation with humans being set back into a hunter gatherer existence. There are 3 dominant races, the brutish beastmen who enforce the will of the alien slavers and the humans are the subjugated third race.

This one sees Finn make his way across the land he has found himself in, getting ever closer to where the alien slavers have taken his family. But …. there are other perils in the Wasteland.

In the middle, we have Exiles of Colsec, which is another far future novel. Except this time the oppressors are humans and they didn’t get beaten to the stars by aliens.

This one sees a misfit group of outcasts getting dropped on an untouched planet. The main tactic of Colsec (Colonisation Section) is to round up prisoners and drop them on to new planets. If they survive, Colsec moves in to take over what they’ve started to set up. If they die, then Colsec drops more people. A set up that is in typically brutal Douglas Hill style. However, this time the spaceship has crashed, leaving the survivors with even less supplies than usual and there’s a prison guard who was expecting to be able to gone home, he’s stranded with them too.

But … it gets worse ! There are many alien critters on this planet and they’re just waking up to a new food source.

This one sees the colonists attempt to survive, the next book (Caves of Klydor) sees them attempting to repel an incursion by Colsec with the third having them look to turn the tables on Colsec.

Another trilogy I must re-read at some point.

Last up is the Last Legionary Quartet, which I wrote about in a couple of the 52 books series earlier this year. (Link to Last Legionary, link to the other 3). A quick summary :

Humanity has colonised the galaxy and spread across all of its boundless expanse. Conflict abounds and the most elite fighting force in the galaxy has just been annihilated by unknown forces. The protagonist, Keill Randor, finds himself ending up as the Last Legionary of Moros. He immediately sets out to figure out what happened and his investigations through the 4 books lead him to the source of growing chaos in the galaxy.

Another good set of books !

The next couple of days will be a little odd with Advent. I should post up tomorrow’s one fairly early but Monday’s may be a little odd due to travel. We shall see what I can post !

What’s in the box !

I’m pretty sure that’s a speeder bike out in front there.

It’s getting pretty crowded up there isn’t it ! I’ll be looking to acquire more soon. My credit card comes with loyalty vouchers and this is the time of year that I look to turn in those accumulated vouchers. We’ll see. I’m still not recovered yet from the bugs and it feels like letting the foot off the throttle after breaking up from work has led to a general ugh where my energy levels have collapsed.

Books today ?

Robert E. Howard was the original creator of Conan, which is a character that’s been super popular in tales like the Dungeons and Dragons. Perhaps a much better setting than settings like Middle Earth or those D&D worlds.

The original Conan was a tough nut but far smarter than the Conan we see in the Arnie movies. However, I do love the Arnie movies as well. I think I own the Conan Exiles game too via a Humble Bundle offer but I’ve never played it.

Good stories to build on and that movie was fantastic, from the story, the characters and that sublime Ennio Morricone music.

Next up is another Mars book. I just thought, I should have run a feature where all of the books for the day were different Mars books ! Today it’s Mars by Ben Bova, which is another book I enjoyed hugely when it first came out. I may well have been a big Ben Bova fan.

After Red Mars, which saw a new permanent settlement on Mars and The Martian, which was a rescue book, this one is more akin to the setting of the Martian. Jamie the Indian is part of a multinational expedition to be the first to live on Mars. For a while at least, they have a few months to explore and evaluate whether further expeditions are worth undertaking.

There are events, accidents and a slow burning disaster that creeps up on the expedition members. A good read at the time, although that slow burning disaster is a little too slow if I remember right.

One curiosity about the 3 Mars books is the technology in use for survival.

Red Mars has the colonists in very light heated pressure suits. Kinda like a high tech onesie.
The Martian uses conventional space suits and EVA work suits.
Mars uses something more like Powered Armour.

Very curious how the different authors approached the problem of surviving on the surface.

Last one today is non fiction for a change. It’s Black Hawk Down from Mark Bowden.

This one follows the film quite closely (or the other way around). There is almost certainly a fair bit of artistic licence introduced here where the dialogue won’t match what was actually said and events happening differently etc but …. it’s an exceptional tale of what of how things can go wrong in the military environment and it’s a visceral tale of what confronts the people on the ground when it does go wrong.

It’s from a while ago but I’d heavily recommend both film and book.

I think that’s all I got energy for today ! Time to chill out to the videos, a Fuzzy stream and maybe it’s time to pull Expanse book 7 out again.

Later !

Oops. Late one again today.

Someone opened Stellaris and you know where that tends to go.

I’m pretty sure it’s a transport shuttle today, from Rogue One again. I must watch Rogue One again soon, it’s a great film.

So many films, books and games … so little time ! I think I’d reached the ends of my reserves over the last week or so and was really glad of a chance to sleep in and switch off thoughts of responsibility today. My background stuff has been the cricket channel showing reruns from the summer and it’s very nicely chill.

To the books !

Something I grew up with was a series called Robin of Sherwood. It had a wonderful soundtrack by Clannad which perfectly fit the setting. Here’s a link to the title theme but I think Together We is a special highlight. The album is called Legend and it’s an excellent one.

The book closely resembled the series and the series had a lot of fun in it. I can’t remember too much of it (this was over 30 years ago !) but I thought the main star, Michael Praed and the rest of the cast were stunning.

Next up is something new, it’s Excession by Iain M. Banks. I think this is the best of the Culture novels. It starts steady but quite soon in, a calamity occurs where an extra-dimensional / extra-galactic invader appears that is of equal or even better technology compared to the dominant Culture.

It’s described in the book as an Outside Context Problem where something comes along that is so off the board, so unexpected, that there is no defense against it.

Must read this one again soon and I’d thoroughly recommend it to people interested in Iain M. Banks’ Culture universe. Although I’d advice reading Consider Phlebas first as an introduction. The drama runs all the way through this book and the sense of The Culture Will Win In The End is thoroughly shaken up.

I wonder if the Nomnivorian Raveners will face an Outside Context Problem. Here’s the situation at the moment :

They now feed on about a quarter of the galaxy (top right) and nothing has even slowed them down yet.

(They will face an Outside Context Problem. Google will tell me the console commands to summon one, two or even them all at the same time ….)

Last book for today is an older Robert Heinlein book called Sixth Column. This one was from 1941 and was first published as a novel in 1949. You’ll be well aware of what was happening in the world at that time and this book borrows heavily from that.

It’s set in the future (probably a bit ahead of today still). The PanAsians have steadily been taking over the world and enforcing a brutal regime on their subjects. America has just surrendered except for … a lone outpost of 6 scientists who have just invented something amazing.

Can they survive ? What will their future be ?

Can they thrive … can they take the battle to the enemy. And what will the cost be as the brutal PanAsian regime exacts a terrible revenge as reprisals against rebellion.

Oh and the Steam Xmas sale may have started. What shall appear ?

5 more to go after today !

Sneakiness today.

The new Lego thingy is the AT-AT walker in front, I believe it’s one of the command/coastal AT-ATs from Rogue One. You know, the ones with the orange thing in the middle that folded up under blaster fire.

First up today is How To Destroy The Universe (and 34 other really interesting uses of Physics) by Paul Parsons. A curious book, which goes into all sorts of physics theory/practical things like building the ultimate rollercoaster, how to stop a hurricane, invisibility cloak, teleport, recreating the big bang and other theories.

A curious book, acquired as a present a few years ago. (That Lexus letter that’s in there as a book mark may well date it !) I read through to about half way, put it aside for other books meaning to go back to it. I really should at some point ……

In the middle is The Martian, which is a book that I think is rather superior to an excellent film. As with most fiction, the book has the scope to go into the thoughts, the theory, the background. Films are very limited by their duration and the need to keep the story rattling along. If it can’t be explained visually or in quick explanation between characters, it has to go from the film. Books have far more licence to allow themselves to properly explain the story.

I would thoroughly recommend reading the Martian, it has humour and intelligence throughout but the key factor is that it also has accessibility. It explains its science in a way that hopefully everyone can understand.

(Aside – yes, it’s a bluray ! My copy of The Martian is another Kindle book and I only have 1 iPad to show Kindle covers with !)

Last up is an older book, which probably inspired the film Interstellar. It’s The Death of Grass by John Christopher.

This one is a contemporary book, which could have been set any time in the last 50 or so years. It’s timeless and not bound by time, which is rare for a book like this. Indeed, the time it is set in does not matter, all that matters is its examination of people and their behaviour in crisis situations.

You see, an otherwise unknown germ is having its wicked way with the various grass species and grass worldwide, is steadily being wiped out.

That’s a bit of a problem because the animals at the bottom of the foodchain all live on grass. And we do too cos wheat is a grassoid.

It’s not the end though, as our motley collection have family that live in an isolated part of the Lake District, so they make preparations to travel there to hole out. Except that the collapse of civilisation comes far quicker than anyone predicted.

Cue a peril strewn trek across the country with potential sudden death around every corner and behind every door.

Another compelling book. Old but definitely still worthy of a read these days. Must watch Interstellar again sometime too.

But not yet because my level of energy at the moment is making me think that when I fall into bed later, I’ll be asleep until Friday.

Nite !

Quick late one today !

Today’s what’s-in-the-box is a First Order TIE Fighter. At least I think that’s what it means with the red on one side and black on the other.

I’ve pondered getting one of the bigger TIE Fighters (to add to several more smaller ones I have) but …. TIEs are a bit boring ? They’re just a ball in the middle and a couple of big slabs to the side.

I did enjoy playing the TIE Fighter game and its expansion when it came out. I actually 100% finished that game. Good times. Actually literally unplayable too without a joystick. Keyboard controls were not an option. Strange !

I’ve been out tonight, getting the cards for Christmas and it let me catch the film Mortal Engines before its likely disappearance from one of the main local cinemas. I usually prefer to go to the Avonmeads cinema because it’s quieter … but you don’t really want to be fighting your way across Bristol at rush hour.

It’s a shame, this one is likely to be chased out of the cinema due to new arrivals (like Mary Poppins which is highly likely to be popular) and due to reports of very low box office turn out. It’s a bit sad that a few highly promising films have all come out at the same time. There’s a gap for a while and then several ones to watch come out at the same time. I’m not bothered by Aquaman (superhero movies of that type are wearing out their welcome) but would like to see the latest Spiderman.

Anyway – Mortal Engines !

It’s set in the future after a fast apocalyptic war wrecks the Earth and changes our way of life. We now live in mobile cities.

A curious film, it invents its own universe and lore and brings you into that world quite nicely. Perhaps it drags at points (it’s a Peter Jackson, these films tend to be overlong) but it keeps you interested in what’s going on and the story moves along quite well.

I won’t say too much more because of Spoilers but … worth catching before it disappears.

I think I need to research and acquire the books for later reading, I bet they expand upon that lore so much more than we see in the film.

Day 17 !

Not sure quite what to make of this one …

It’s a something with a light shade for a head. I have no idea what this one is supposed to be !

Moving swiftly on – to the books.

R.A.Salvatore has been writing Forgotten Realms books for decades now. And they’re awesome. His central characters are Drizzt Do’Urden, Bruenor, Regis and their crew. But he’s also played with other characters in the same world too.

This time sees the character Cadderly introduced, a monk who becomes the central character of the Cleric Quintet of which the first book is Canticle.

It’s been quite some time since I read this one. I kinda remember the young, naive cleric/monk fella Cadderly and the fighter Danica who is far more interested in Cadderly than our monk fella can detect. The central theme of these books is the Chaos Curse and the struggle between Cadderly and the monks of the Edificant Library and the forces of the evil wizard Aballister and his sidekick Imp Druzil.

An interesting series of books with characters that nicely evolve through the series. I must go back to it at some point.

Next up is Crucible by Troy Denning. It’s the second addition to the original Avatar trilogy and takes place many years after the events of the original. The Pantheon of the Realms has been reshaped and the assassin thief, Cyric, of the original trilogy has replaced the God of Murder. Except he’s a bit of a loony …. and he wants to supplant the other gods.

In this one, his campaign to destroy the worshippers of the other gods has been brought to a halt and Cyric is on trial by the other gods for his insanity.

Another decent book, although I sense these are books that only people interested in the Forgotten Realms Dungeons and Dragons game world will be the ones getting much out of these.

As an aside, in my campaign to listen through all of the music in the library again, I’ve now reached half way ! Only 4 months for 8300 songs. At the moment, I have Nina Persson’s Animal Hearts album and it’s a really good one. She has a fantastic voice and while this album doesn’t have quite the interplay and inspiration of your usual Cardigans album, there are still some great songs here and the album shows off her voice really well.

Gonna listen to their song Communication in a bit. Great song. I should do a music post again sometime soon.

Last book for today ! This is an old one, published in 1988 and it’s one of the earliest Forgotten Realms books.

The central character is our heroine Alias. She is a fighter who has woken in an unfamiliar inn with nothing to her name but a rather curious set of magical armour (yarp. It claims to be armour despite the …. gap) and the other gear of a sellsword. She also has a series of blue sigils tattooed into her arm. But no name.

Oh and there’s also a strangely mute lizardman who is acting as her guardian, whether she wants him there or not. Alias calls him Dragonbait, introducing one of the more recurring characters who pops up in the Realms.

As is normal for this type of book, they’re built around a limited party mechanic. Some of them even started out life as scenarios for the Dungeons and Dragons games. So in this one, Alias is a fighter, Dragonbait is a paladin and they pick up Ruskettle the Bard and Akabar the mage. The second book, The Wyvern’s Spur, is a little unusual in that the party doesn’t stay together. The second book is all about Ruskettle and then the gang comes back together for the finale in Song of the Saurials.

It’s the Finder’s Stone trilogy, co written by Kate Novak and Jeff Grubb. A decent series.

I’m feeling a bit better today, although I did give up on attempting to do another bit of fan art. My drawing skills are still rather lacking, although the first attempt at an All Sketched By Me seems to have met with a good reception.

Yep. It’s crude but you can hopefully make out a driver who is in mid face palm and a crazy, drunk Jaffa with a hat enjoying himself far too much in the passenger seat. (It’s for a Las Vegas episode, so LHD). Oh and that spoiler at the back is not supposed to look like a dancing stick person.

Honest.

Bit confused about what monster this is today.

Bit tough to see today. I thought this was the Sarlacc from Return of the Jedi … (but apparently it’s a Rathtar from Force Awakens).

And 4d sneaking in his shadow at the back there too.

Still feeling the effects of the bugs today so I’ve gone backwards somewhat to something I’m sure I posted a while ago …

Can you tell what it’ll be ? This was a bonus thing that came when I ordered my technic jet.

The backing and covers take shape but aren’t quite attached yet.

Indistinct pages. A blank canvas ? (Yes – camera shake ! Oops)

There is little greater mystery in this world than the undiscovered contents of a book.

A polka dotted scene starts to take shape. What could it be ?

And a little more for the other side. Plus …. a name !

Finally, the finished scene. With our author narrating a tale to an entranced youngster with a park scene beside them.

More books tomorrow !

I think Rose has found someone to aim that stun gun of her’s at …

We have a rogue trooper today, away from his barracks and with a Rose between him and the gun rack.

I think his future may be a bit dark.

A bit like the middle book ! It’s Rogue Star by Andy Hoare. It’s set in the grim dark future of the 40th millennium, yep it’s another Warhammer 40k book. This one was a bit different because it wasn’t looking into the Imperial Guard or the Space Marines or the Mechanicus as in Titanicus, this book was about the Rogue Traders who ply the dangerous spacelanes looking to bring good to those who will pay hefty amounts to receive them while avoiding the dangers out there.

This is another that I haven’t read in a while but I remember it giving great descriptions of the worlds visited by Lucian Gerrit and his crew and the hidden dangers present. There’s also a devastating space battle.

On to another rogue trooper and we have the first Mass Effect book, Revelation. This one is all about Captain Anderson and the rogue agent Saren. Saren doesn’t like humans much and that’s really brought home in this book. However, it’s 200 and a bit pages that just expand out a few lines of dialogue in the game. If you’ve played it, then there isn’t much extra here. You learn a bit more about characters that are fleshed out some more but there isn’t much actually new.

If you’re a fan of Mass Effect (and most game players are !), it’s well worth it. But if you haven’t played the games (please do, they are excellent) then this is one to avoid.

Best is last this time.

David Weber made his name with a character called Honor Harrington. She starts in this book as the Commander in charge of the light cruiser Fearless. The book opens with a set of training scenarios where Honor is fated to be on the losing side. She doesn’t like this, so she turns the tables with some clever strategy.

Which a superior doesn’t like and she finds herself semi-exiled off to the Basilisk Station (hence the name of the book !). She sets about sorting things out in the system, only for the People’s Republic of Haven offer to take over and effectively annex the system.

The series of books is very definitely set up as a shifting situation with an ongoing war between the Manticore Star Kingdom (the English) and the Havenites (French revolutionaries) with the Andermani (Germans) and the bloated Solarian Empire (the Americans) looking on from the sidelines.

These are an excellent series of books, although I admit I did stop reading at Storm From The Shadows. That’s the second in a spin off series and I’d read 12 of the main series.

The good – the technology that is in use for the ships is kept very consistent and (as much as scifi usually is) realistic. There are gravity drives in use which happen to get around the problem of human fragility to acceleration. The gravity drives provide the equivalent of shields but the main weaponry is a combination of long range missiles and shorter range Lasers and GRASERs (Gamma Ray lasers). The missiles are nuclear tipped and will attempt to knife their way through opposing ships by using X-Ray bomb pumped lasers. There is a lot of combat in the earlier books and it’s presented extremely well.

But there’s also an intelligence in the interactions of the characters. It’s a series that stayed highly interesting up until the later books where too much daft politics started creeping in as well as silliness with the espionage related technologies.

I’d highly recommend this series as something to enjoy for however long you feel able to stick with it.

How’s me ? I think I’m past the hump of my bugs, although they’ll probably slow me down a fair bit. If I’d attempted to do anything physically then I’d have been flat on my back almost immediately.

Instead …. Stellaris. (And I probably just got the neighbours very concerned with an extended paroxysm of coughing, you know – the type where you see stars and there’s a ringing in your ears.)

This is from not too for before I shut down for the evening. The Nomnivorian Raveners have already eaten (literally) 3 opposing races fairly easily. There’s just been a substantial change in the game for the 2.2 update which is … very much up and down for me.

The up is that there’s much more scope now in how you arrange your planets.
The down is that there’s much more scope now for your planets to destroy your economy and bring your progress to a juddering halt.
(Your income can suddenly flipflop from +100 income to -100 income and it took some understanding as to why).

There is a reaction that you can do as a player, by manipulating that economy by turning off certain buildings so your workers go to the buildings that work the foundation stuff. But I’m not convinced the AI knows how to do that. One of the huge strengths of Stellaris was that it gave me a fun challenge, in the early days at least. I’m not convinced it can do that at the moment and it definitely feels like the expansion and gameplay patch has been rushed out.

Will keep an eye on it, continue this current game and then play other things when the campaign is done and the Nomnivorians have eaten the galaxy.