- It’s on days like this that I think of the mighty Hercules, who said, “You want me to clean out what?”
- We’ve reached that transition point where summer becomes fall. It’s where the first leaves start to change color, the days are shorter, and you have to use both the defroster and the air conditioner in the truck on the same day.
- Today, I scheduled a consult for laser eye surgery. Yes, I’ve finally reached that age where a new pair of glasses each year adds up to enough money that I’m willing to let somebody carve on my cornea with a ruby-chromium laser.
- “Do you expect me to talk?”
- “No, Mister Bond, I expect you to see.”
- I once watched an after-action review of a Red Flag exercise where a Harrier pilot got up and asked if there was anyone in the room who had not had a chance to shoot him down. Nobody raised their hand.
- That’s kind of what I felt after trying to play an on-line first person shooter this week.
- If asked, I will say I erased the game from my tablet because I have better things to do with my time. It has nothing to do with the fact that it seemed like a waste of electrons to get shot in the face by 12 year olds again and again and again.
Musings
Posted by daddybear71 on September 13, 2018
https://daddybearsden.com/2018/09/13/musings-304/
Book Review – Chasing the Dragon
Book 2 of Jason Anspach and Nick Cole’s series “Tyrus Rechs: Contracts and Terminations” is out, entitled “Chasing the Dragon“.
The Dragon was trained from his youth to operate as a lethal killing machine. He has tangled with crime lords, dangerous insurgents, even Nether Ops… and none of these forces has been able to bring the elusive warrior to heel.
Enter the notorious bounty hunter Tyrus Rechs.
Rechs takes on the job as a favor to an old Savage Wars buddy. Only Rechs isn’t out to kill the Dragon—his mission is to save the kid’s life.
Unless the Dragon kills Rechs first.
Chasing the Dragon picks up where Requiem for Medusa left off, with Tyrus Rechs doing what Tyrus Rechs does best: Break things and kill people. The story rarely stops to take a breath, and it’s a fun romp that brings us all of the fun and action we’ve come to expect from the Galaxy’s Edge universe.
Tyrus Rechs is a fascinating character. He shares a lot with Heinlein’s Lazarus Long, although I can’t see Lazarus doing quite so much damage in an afternoon. When the authors are done telling his tale as a bounty hunter, I hope they delve further into the stories of his long life.
If you’re looking for a page-turner that begs to be read again as soon as you get to the last page, you’ll enjoy Chasing the Dragon.
Posted by daddybear71 on September 13, 2018
https://daddybearsden.com/2018/09/13/book-review-chasing-the-dragon/
Musings
- Someday, when I finally write an autobiography, I will name the chapter that deals with the past couple of months “There must be a pony in here somewhere!”
- Not sure what the title of that book would be, but the subtitle will be “I cut out all the interesting parts because I don’t want to go to jail.”
- For those of you keeping track at home, it takes two pounds of ground chuck, three eggs, a half cup each of milk and oatmeal, and about two teaspoons of Montreal steak seasoning to make a rather tasty meatloaf in our new cast iron loaf pan.
- Mmmmm, crunch edges.
- Side dishes were mashed cauliflower and steamed green peas.
- No, the cauliflower is not a substitute for mashed potatoes. Only hash brown casserole is an acceptable substitute for mashed potatoes. They are, however rather tasty, if you like cauliflower.
- Speaking of cooking, a chili-ish stew mistakenly made with Italian sausage instead of chorizo was quite good. I’ll have to remember that one.
- I’ve gotten Boo to start listening to “Citizen of the Galaxy” while we take drives, and he’s getting into it. Soon, it’ll be Starship Troopers and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
- I will, however, let him discover Friday, I Will Fear No Evil, Stranger in a Strange Land, and Time Enough for Love after he’s 18. There’s a fine line between “Cool Dad” and “Creepy Father”, and I do not intend to cross it.
Posted by daddybear71 on September 6, 2018
https://daddybearsden.com/2018/09/06/musings-303/
Musings
- I want to put something inspiring up on the wall of my cubicle. At the moment, I can’t decide if the NCO Creed or the Code of Conduct is more appropriate for work.
- Boo is getting settled back into school. I think his biggest challenge is finally encountering a female teacher who isn’t enchanted by him on sight.
- Girlie Bear is getting settled into school. She texted me the other day demanding to know how I was able to work full time, go to school full time, and spend time with and raise my children.
- She’s working part time and going to school full time and apparently it’s a bit of a grind.
- All I could do was chuckle and mutter “Bless her heart”.
Posted by daddybear71 on August 30, 2018
https://daddybearsden.com/2018/08/30/musings-302/
Today’s Earworm
With apologies to the Beach Boys and the non-geeks out there.
The hardware was made by HP
The OS, by Torvolds and me
Old SourceForge, we did comb
Patching all night
It wouldn’t boot right
Well, I need some coffee
I wanna go $HOME
So, boot up the VMS box
See how the kernel rocks
Call for the NOC to test
Let me go home, SYS$HOME
Where’d I leave my coffee?
I wanna go $HOME
The DBA, he got drunk
Deleted data using trunc
Data Protection had to restore it all from tape
By the eyes of Torvalds,
Why is this subnet firewalled?
Oh, no.
Have you seen my coffee?
I wanna go $HOME
So, boot up the Solaris box
See how the kernel rocks
Call for the NOC to test
Let me go home,SYS$HOME
Who poured out my coffee?
I wanna go $HOME
The Windows box, it caught a worm
Wouldn’t answer to PowerTerm
Then the AIX, it came crashing down
Let me go $HOME
Why can’t I get to SYS$HOME?
Oh, this is the worst shift, I’ve ever been on.
So, boot up the HP box
See how the kernel rocks
Call for the NOC to test
Let me go home, SYS$HOME
Well, we’re out of coffee
I wanna go $HOME
Posted by daddybear71 on August 19, 2018
https://daddybearsden.com/2018/08/19/todays-earworm-726/
Musings
- House rule – Only 2/3 of us are allowed to be sick at any given time.
- I need to have a word with my youngest son. He had a bit of a stomach bug yesterday, and about 7 PM last night, started complaining of a headache and backache.
- While his mother made a panicked search for the symptoms of meningitis before calling the pediatric emergency room, I
interrogatedexamined the young man. - Turns out, he was dehydrated and the Tylenol had worn off, explaining the headache. Fixed that with a glass of water and a Tylenol.
- The backache was because he had fallen asleep on a book and the lego’s he has in his bed with him. Fixed that with stern words about what does and does not belong in the bed
- While his mother made a panicked search for the symptoms of meningitis before calling the pediatric emergency room, I
- I was complimented on my ability to just put my head down and push through when presented with issues at work. Only one of three times in almost half a century that being stubborn has been a good thing for me.
- More folks need to learn the difference between “right” and “privilege”.
- Being able to speak your mind is a right you have at birth.
- Me listening to you is a privilege I extend to a very select number.
- Me actually engaging with you is a miracle.
Posted by daddybear71 on August 19, 2018
https://daddybearsden.com/2018/08/19/musings-301/
100 Years On – 100 Days Offensive
After stopping the Germans at the Second Battle of the Marne and pushing them back, the Allies unleashed the final offensive on the Western Front, the 100 Days. Starting on August 8, 1918, British, French, and American divisions threw themselves at German lines, tearing wide breaches in long-held trench lines and capturing thousands of prisoners and hundreds of guns.
The first battle, Amiens, opened with 30,000 German casualties on its first day, compared to about 6,500 for the Allied forces. German forces were pushed back and began to withdraw to the Hindenburg Line, giving up the gains they had made in the spring.
Other titanic battles met with similar success, causing the veritable collapse of German forces in France and Belgium.
Over the coming weeks, German lines slowly drew back, until the final climax of the Armistice on November 11. By then, over a million men on the Allied side were killed, wounded, or missing, while the Germans lost almost 1.2 million, in the final onslaught on the Western Front.
Posted by daddybear71 on August 17, 2018
https://daddybearsden.com/2018/08/17/100-years-on-100-days-offensive/
Musings
- I’ve been asked to watch my mouth around Boo, so when I need to swear, I do it in other languages.
- Tonight at dinner, Boo sounded off with “Bozhe moi!” and I got in trouble.
- It means “My God!”, but I still got in trouble.
- There may come a day when I am allowed to win, but this is not that day.
- I’ve been listening to an audiobook of Heinlein’s “The Rolling Stones” lately.
- Apparently, a door-to-door driveway surfacing dude didn’t like it when our “big damn dog” barked at him as he came on the porch yesterday. Irish Woman replied that she had both a big damn dog and a big damn gun. The conversation ended quickly thereafter.
- That, friends and neighbors, is the woman I fell in love with.
- Boo finally convinced me to play Stratego with him this weekend. It’s been over 30 years since I last touched that game, and we had a lot of fun.
- It reminded me of long, cold winter days spent playing board games, arguments over who caught whom cheating, and then trying to not get choked out by my brothers while I tried to choke them out.
- Good times, good times.
Posted by daddybear71 on August 14, 2018
https://daddybearsden.com/2018/08/14/musings-300/
Musings
- The last time I had to work this hard to extract information in a professional setting, I still listed “Speaks Russian” as a critical work skill.
- I learned two things at work today:
- First, I learned how to configure a new user in the application I’m trying to learn.
- Second, I learned to always go to the men’s room prior to a budget meeting.
- We went to a pre-opening evening at a new drive-in theater last night. It was fun to sit under the stars, listen to the peepers in the trees compete with the movie, and try to stay awake after 10 PM.
- Last weekend, I used the machete and the big honking string trimmer (The string measures as a caliber) to clear some of the overgrowth at the back of the property. Irish Woman cautioned me to look out for snakes. I was secretly hoping I’d find one so that I could have an excuse to not do the work.
Posted by daddybear71 on August 10, 2018
https://daddybearsden.com/2018/08/10/musings-299/
Review – Dragontamer’s Daughters
I recently dipped my toes in Young Adult fiction and gave Kenton Kilgore’s Dragontamer’s Daughters a read. I’m glad I did.
Two girls find a dragon like no other—and their lives will never be the same!
In an alternate Old West, Isabella and Alijandra live exiled with their parents in the high desert. Years before, the girls’ father caught, tamed, and trained dragons for the Emperor’s armies, but now he is an outlaw, blamed for the deaths of thousands.
Finding a small dragon gravely injured after a fight, the girls take her home and begin tending her back to health. Alijandra calls the dragon “Pearl,” after her round white eyes. As time goes on and Pearl begins to heal, the family learns more about her and the strange and terrifying abilities she possesses.
But time is running out for them, their family, and for Pearl herself. Soon, they will be forced to contend with the native people on whose lands they live. With the ambitious governor whose soldiers hunt the girls’ father. With a man who has no name but wields immense, eerie powers. With Pearl’s yearning to fulfill the journey that accidentally brought her to the girls. And with their own dreams and wishes for a life they once lived—and might live again.
If you were a fan of the “Little House” books as a child, you will enjoy this tale of family, hard work, and love. Kilgore portrays a family living at the edge of impoverishment, but still loving and caring for one another during trying times.
Every character that gets more than a page worth of attention in this book grows as the story unfolds, which is a rare trick in fiction. The two main characters, sisters Isabella and Alijandra, grow from one stage of life to the next as they work through the challenges life throws at them, including a magical dragon that needs their help.
Kilgore obviously knows the high desert setting very well, but he paints everything in vivid, detailed strokes that will fill the reader’s mind and enrich the story.
This isn’t an action story, but it is filled with tension until the final chapters, when everything erupts into a fast-paced race to the book’s conclusion. In between all that, there are many thought-provoking, touching scenes that will stay with you.
Posted by daddybear71 on August 10, 2018
https://daddybearsden.com/2018/08/10/review-dragontamers-daughters/
DaddyBear
DaddyBear’s Den 