New Tablet

Sunday I started preparing for our semi-annual pilgrimage to Lincoln to visit friends. Preparing in this case means requesting movies for Calvin that I transfer to the iPad, loading new iPad games, considering if I should do another audiobook/picture mashup, etc. Once again, I was running into the iPad’s space limitations. Last November I researched and found a kludge to be able to access more movies than the iPad can natively handle. This works but is really, really kludgy. Also, it requires my intervention to get things transferred over to the iPad because the process is too complicated for Calvin to do at the moment.

A month or two back I got a Windows 8 phone (Nokia Lumia 521) which I’ve liked. As a bonus, it has a microSD slot so I could put the microSD card with Calvin’s visual audiobooks on it and he could play them without me first having to transfer them to the iPad. However, I was pretty uncomfortable handing him a live phone without fairly close supervision.

I started contemplating once again whether buying another tablet would make sense. I did very briefly have a $10 dollar tablet but, not surprisingly, it died fairly soon (though I’m pretty sure I got my $10 out of it). Out of curiosity, I went to Apple’s website to see what sort of refurbished iPads they were selling. It turns out they had several very good deals for iPad 2s.

I was strongly tempted to get another iPad. There’s many things I like about them. They’re durable, have a pretty good battery life, and a fantastic variety of apps for kids1. However, they still have quite a few flaws that sit there and bother me. The biggest things that annoy me are the lack of expandability and ability to make it do what I want it to2. Of the two, expadability was the biggest show-stopper for me. I just don’t want to spend the money required to get a reasonable amount of space on an iPad.

Android . . . well, I just can’t get excited about Android. I had an early-gen Android work phone, it was ok. Jaeger has a Nexus 7 which he seems to like fairly well. However, I just can’t shake the feeling that they’re a less sleek, disorganized iOS wannabe. I know this isn’t fair and in many cases Android is open enough to let me do whatever my crazy brain takes a fancy to3.

I mentioned above I recently acquired a Windows 8 phone I liked. I had seen the Surface ads so I decided to wander over to NewEgg and see what sort of Windows 8 options there were. One of the first options was an Asus Transformer Book T100, specifically the T100TA-C1-GR. It seemed fairly reasonably priced and the more I poked around, the more it appealed to me. Several professional reviews I ran across seemed general positive with a couple downsides. The Amazon user reviews were also fairly positive and included hints on how to work around some of the bugs mentioned. There were several things I liked about this: 1) The tablet size was decent 4 2) It docked very nicely with a decent physical keyboard with touchpad (even if the touchpad was reported to be dodgy) 3) It has a decent amount of hard drive space and is expandable. True, after the windows install the 64 GB magically reduces to around 32 GB. However, it is a microSD slot which is golden 4) Good battery 5) Full Windows. This means that I can theoretically use this for work emergencies instead of lugging my 8 lb laptop around5 6) While I expected the apps for kids to be abysmal, it would still work well as a movie player for Calvin.

So, after obsessing over reviews, I decided to go ahead and buy it. I was really hoping to get it before Friday so I’d have another screen option for Calvin. However, that fast of guaranteed shipping is expensive so I started looking around for local options. Best Buy didn’t have anything. However, on a whim, I looked it up on Office Depot and had astonished to see they had one in stock in Boulder. What was even weirder is they had a $50 “instant savings” that cut the price enough so once I included sales tax, it basically matched the non-sales tax but slow-boat shipping amount I would have paid online. My one concern was the model number was slightly different, a C2 instead of a C1. After scouring the specs the only obvious difference I saw was that it had a slightly newer processor than the C1. Hoping for the best, I placed my order while Jaeger said derogatory things about buying a tablet with a processor from That Other Company.

I picked up the tablet on my lunch break on Monday and plugged it in and impatiently waited. The Amazon reviewers were all very definite that you really needed to follow the instructions for charging 8 hrs otherwise Really Bad Things Happen. About 4 hrs in I broke down and turned it on, though kept it plugged in. It’s slow to boot up from a cold start. It is a full Window 8 install after all. Also, I have very mixed feelings about Windows requiring a Live account to sign in these days. It’s very Apple-like but they’re not Apple6.

Once everything got booted and setup I started customizing my tiles. The interface was vaguely familiar from my phone, though with more features due to its desktop qualities. Not everything was intuitive for me but I figured it out. I do find the mix between the desktop and the start tiles to be abrupt and not entirely pleasant but that’s more an aesthetic thing than a functionality problem. Overall, it seemed fairly responsive and I didn’t have any of the problems that the Amazon reviews had warned about, especially with the touchpad. Perhaps I got the version with some of the major bugs worked out? So, I spent a fairly pleasant afternoon/evening customizing the tablet to get everything just so.

The one major feature I am adoring that I didn’t know about ahead of time is the parental controls. Windows 8 has fantastic parental controls, at least compared to Apple which may not be saying much. You can set time limits on how long child accounts can use the computer each day, white or black list websites as well as allow websites based on various ratings, and restrict specific games and apps your kids have access to. I tested it out, it is fantastic. It’s obvious that the Windows developers have kids (which I sincerely doubt about Apple developers). Another nice feature is if the kid tries to access an app that the parent hasn’t allowed, they can click to ask for permission and it’ll pop up a login screen for the parent. Very easy, I don’t have to switch accounts to add access because I forgot obvious apps. The same technique also works for websites. Since Calvin is so young I blocked everything except a white list of a couple of sites. Once back in my parent account, Windows will also provide a report of what website my child went to, how long they used various apps, etc. I find that a tad creepy but I’ll get over it. In any case, I can’t say enough good things about these settings. It’s made me seriously consider having him use this tablet more except for iPad specific apps he can’t get on here.

The biggest downside I’ve found so far is that there’s pretty much no good out-of-the-box options if I lose the tablet for finding it or wiping data. I was a little surprised by this because my Nokia phone has a pretty good setup for both finding it and wiping the data if I can’t retrieve it. However, I suppose that’s the difference between a cellular and non-cellular device. I’m particularly nervous because I haven’t setup Calvin’s account with a password. It’s a child account but I still assume getting in at all increases the options for compromising data. I’ll have to research this more. I’m sure there’s 3rd-party products I can get that will at least partially solve this problem.

Anyway, so at this point, I’m pretty happy with the tablet. Just to torment me, Jaeger now mockingly asks me what the TSA considers my new toy. Tablet or laptop? It makes a difference. *sigh*

  1. After all, everyone designs first for iOS, then Android, then if they’re really big and have money to throw away they might consider Windows, maybe. ↩
  2. I get ideas in my head about how I want software to work and I will spend days bashing my head against the software trying to make my vision happen. I can’t tell you how much time I wasted one week trying to get document shortcuts to show up as icons for a one-click to open experience for Calvin. That is, instead of making Calvin go into iBooks, I wanted him to see and pick his books straight from where all the apps are. Apple just doesn’t flex that way. ↩
  3. Jaeger got document shortcuts working in under 5 minutes on his vintage Android phone. He did this just to taunt me. ↩
  4. I’m not a 7″ fan, I prefer bigger for reading magazines from the library ↩
  5. It feels heavier than that but I just weighted it. ↩
  6. While I’m complaining, their two-factor authentication isn’t nearly as smooth as Google’s. I turned it on but might need to turn it off because it’s not working particularly smoothly. ↩

Hugo Voting, 2014

Well, I’ve gotten through as many of the Hugo nominees as I’m going to. I’ve decided to vote as follows:

Best Novel

  1. Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie
  2. Neptune’s Brood by Charles Stross
  3. The Wheel of Time by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson1
  4. Parasite by Mira Grant
  5. No Award

Best Novella

  1. “The Chaplain’s Legacy” by Brad Torgersen 2
  2. Six-Gun Snow White by Catherynne M. Valente 3
  3. “Equoid” by Charles Stross
  4. “Wakulla Springs” by Andy Duncan and Ellen Klages4
  5. No Award

Best Novelette

  1. “The Waiting Stars” by Aliette de Bodard
  2. “The Lady Astronaut of Mars” by Mary Robinette Kowal
  3. “The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling by Ted Chiang
  4. “The Exchange Officers” by Brad Torgersen
  5. No Award

Best Short Story
Short stories aren’t my thing but I felt this was a particularly strong category.

  1. “If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love” by Rachel Swirsky
  2. “The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere” by John Chu
  3. “The Ink Readers of Doi Saket” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
  4. “Selkie Stories Are for Losers” by Sofia Samatar

Best Graphic Story
I’m not positive I should be voting in this category as I’m not a huge graphic novel fan. I did read all of them but with the exception of Saga I haven’t read any others in the series. As a result I’m voting for 2 but not including No Award anywhere.

  1. Saga, Volume 2 written by Brian K. Vaughan, illustrated by Fiona Staples
  2. “Time” by Randall Munroe

Best Dramatic Presentation (Long Form)
Tricky category I enjoyed watching all the movies but I wouldn’t say all, or even most, I’d consider Hugo worthy. Maybe I’m a snob . . .

  1. Gravity
  2. Iron Man 3
  3. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
  4. Pacific Rim
  5. Frozen5

Best Professional Artist

  1. Julie Dillon
  2. Fiona Staples
  3. John Harris
  4. John Picacio
  5. Daniel Dos Santos
  6. Galen Dara

The John W. Campbell Award
I was only able to finish a book by one of these author’s so I’m voting for only one but not using No Award.

  1. Max Gladstone
  1. I’m moderately conflicted over this one as I did not read the entire series. I read several books many, many years ago and started listening to the audio of the first Brandon Sanderson one. ↩
  2. Based on the other blogs I’ve read, I feel like I’m the only person who like this one :) ↩
  3. Not my favorite but the most literary. Ending didn’t quite work . . . ↩
  4. Good story but if we’re including magical realism there’s others I might have expected to see nominated before. ↩
  5. Ok, it’s probably the best Disney kid’s film I’ve seen in a while. The setup with the two love interests was wonderful to see in a princess movie. But still . . . ↩

Camping

Our family spent the Fourth of July long weekend camping at Moraine Park Campground. It’s a very civilized campground with flush toilets! This campground was also the site of Calvin’s first camping trip back in 2010.

This time I tried a new way to organize camping food. All the stuff that needed to be cold went into the cooler. But everything else got portioned into my cloth grocery bags. I had one bag for each cooked meal. So, in the first bag went everything I needed for the first meal that didn’t need to be chilled. The next bag contained everything for the next meal, minus the items I needed for the first meal (like the camping pot) and so on. Then, at the end of each meal I redistributed the things that would be needed later into the appropriate bags for their next meal. This system worked surprisingly well and prevented me from doing a lot of the rummaging I’ve done in previous trips. I would have preferred to use clear plastic bins for each meal but this was a lot cheaper.

Thursday
We left for the campground Thursday evening around 5ish. As soon as we got there I put up the bug shelter for the picnic table and then started to make supper. Since we were expecting to arrive around supper I made it super easy. I brought a bag of freeze dried pasta primavera for each of us and a pound of asparagus. In retrospect, I can’t believe I never thought to bring asparagus for camping before. It’s incredibly easy to prepare and cooks within minutes.

After supper we put our stuff in the tent (we have a fantastically huge family tent), got everything organized. I read to Calvin for a while and we all eventually fell asleep.

Friday
Thursday night I slept the best I can remember in a tent. The air was pretty warm most of the night and Calvin slept straight through without waking. In addition, nobody else’s child was screaming which was a definite plus. At around 5:30 I was woken up by a loud noise. At first I thought it was the wind violently whipping the tent around. Then I realized a huge herd of deer had decided to go pounding through the campground. We got the tent door open soon enough to see them stampede away. It was not uncommon to see a couple of deer in my backyard growing up but it was still pretty interesting to see a whole herd of deer wandering around a campground.

For breakfast we had scrambled tofu that I had prepared back home, pastries from the Bavarian Bakery, and strawberries. I heated up the tofu in my cast iron skillet so cleaning up was really easy. I just dumped the extra tofu into the compost sack1, wiped out the skillet and then heated it on the stove again to sterilize it.

Our goal on Friday was to hike up to Emerald Lake. Since Calvin loves transportation, and parking at Bear Lake is impossible, we took two shuttle buses to get there. Calvin obviously can hike when he wants but he spent much of the time complaining. However, it was still a successful hike for him.

On the way back we stopped by the Moraine Park visitor center and I got seduced into buying three books. Two are books about park ranger adventures and the third was a picture book about scat. Calvin also decided he wanted to use his allowance to buy a stuffed fox.

For supper we were contemplating hot dogs. However, they didn’t start selling wood till 5:30 so I read to Calvin out of one of the new ranger books. Around 5:30 Jaeger left to get the firewood and it promptly started raining. I changed supper bags and started getting things ready. The bug shelter provided some protection from the rain but not for a particularly large area.

While mom was visiting she took me shopping to Costco and suggested I try using the prepackaged Tasty Bite entrees. They’re shelf stable and it turns out you can heat the pouches up by just putting them in boiling water. This has the distinct advantage of keeping a pot from getting dirty. I paired them with boil-in-a-bag brown rice and called the supper a success. Given the rain it was particularly nice not to have to spend a great deal of time cleaning up.

Saturday
Saturday I attempted to make pancakes. I haven’t had prior good success with pancakes while camping but gave it another shot. I used a Krusteaz mix so I only needed to add water and then oil for the cast iron skillet. It took me a couple of times to get the cooking time and temp right but eventually I ended up with pretty decent pancakes. Probably a first for me.

Jaeger was having trouble coming up with hiking routes that were both interesting and something Calvin could reasonably be expected to do. Eventually he settled on going over to the west side of the park and taking the Big Meadows trail. This time we explained clearly to Calvin that we didn’t want to hear any moaning or no smores for supper. This hike went much better, especially during the short time when we were walking as the same speed with another family that had kids close in age to Calvin. The meadow was nice but I didn’t find it quite as inspiring as a lake as a destination. On the way back we saw a moose.

Since Calvin did so well, and it was way too hot, we decided a treat was in order and drove to Granby to get ice cream. Then we returned back over Trail Ridge Road to camp.

There wasn’t any rain in the evening so we were able to eat our veggie hot dogs and smores. To my surprise Calvin seemed to think the smores were ok but he only wanted one.

Sunday
Sunday we ate a fairly boring breakfast of oatmeal then packed up and came home. Remarkably we were on the road by 9:30 so got back home in time to unpack and put things away in a orderly manner.

All-in-all I think it turned out to be a pretty successful camping trip though Calvin can definitely use more practice hiking.

  1. I wanted to minimize dish cleanup so we brought compostable dishes and had a bag we put all the compostable stuff into. It worked fairly well except the bag stunk up the car toward the end. Next time it needs a sealable bin. ↩

Peacock

Calvin and I got home from church and I headed up stairs to change. As I came down the stairs Calvin shouts something. It sounded like “mumble mumble mumble and a robin redbreast too!” I absentmindedly responded with a “that’s nice” while thinking about lunch. A few minutes later Calvin says, “The peacock is moving!” At which point I started paying attention. Yes indeed, there was a real life peacock in our backyard.

peacock1

Naturally, the first thing I did was grab Jaeger’s camera and start taking pictures. I don’t know much about how to take pictures with Jaeger’s camera so I pointed, clicked, and hoped for the best. After I got some pictures, I considered what I should do. Willow was outside sitting in the shade and seemed to be completely ignoring it, and vice versa. So, there didn’t appear to be any immediate danger for either animal.

I looked up animal control and tried calling some numbers but didn’t get anything helpful. Eventually, I decided to call the Boulder Humane Society because they’re open on Saturdays and I figured they’d know who to call. The person who answered at the humane society seemed very bemused and patched me through to police dispatch who also sounded bemused and said they’d alert animal control.

Have I mentioned our house is a bit hard to find? I saw animal control drive past twice before I was able to wave him down. He came in to the house to peer through the window and verify that I was not seeing things, there was a peacock in our backyard. Apparently peacocks can fly in short hops so he wasn’t sure what his odds of catching the peacock were. He had gloves and a net and tried some subtle stalking of the peacock which the peacock was having none of. The peacock manage to elude him and either escaped or found a good hiding space.

The animal control officer walked peered into our neighbors yard with no success. He then went across the street and struck up a conversation with the neighbor that flies a Scottish flag who apparently used to raise peacocks. However, she also hadn’t seen it. The officer gave me his card and told me to call if I saw it again.

About ten minutes later, I saw it in our yard again. It might have been hiding in our yard all along. Our yard is full of excellent hiding places. I called dispatch again and was put on hold while they handled an emergency. Then he took my message. The animal control guy took my number and said he was going to go back to his office for a net gun and he’d call me again before leaving to make sure it was still there.

peacock2

Jaeger arrived home incredulous that he’d gone hiking around Long’s Peak and I’d seen more exotic animals than he had. I don’t think he believed me about the peacock till he saw it with his own eyes.

The animal control guy arrived and chased the peacock around for a couple of minutes until it took refuge up on our neighbors roof. At the moment, it’s still there and doesn’t appear to be coming down anytime soon.

2014 Hugo Goal Update – Short Stories

I’ve finished the Hugo nominations for short stories. Actually, I finished them about a week ago and just forgot to post.

“If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love”, by Rachel Swirsky – This was my favorite short story. For such a short story, it took me a while to get into it. In the beginning of the story, in my mind, I kept seeing flashes of artwork in the style of How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?. However, the end caught and held me.

“The Ink Readers of Doi Saket”, by Thomas Olde Heuvelt – This one was ok. I felt like I should like it more than I did. I’m not sure why it didn’t click for me.

“Selkie Stories Are for Losers”, by Sofia Samatar – This was my least favorite. It wasn’t a bad story, just not one I could relate to.

“The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere”, by John Chu – Originally, I thought this was going to be my favorite short story. For me, it’s a tough choice between this one and “If You Were a Dinosaur, My Love”. I particularly love how Matt is so very bad at dealing with his emotions. I always find it comforting when reading about someone more stunted than I am when it comes to talking about stuff that matters. I am trying to imagine living in Matt’s universe and I suspect I would just stop talking.

Other Hugo-related stuff
I watched Hunger Games in prep for watching the movie that was nominated for this year, Catching Fire. I thought the movie did a good job of following the book. Perhaps too good in that there’s a huge amount of stuff I don’t think you’d catch without reading the book first. Given that, I decided I should read the second book before watching the movie. I borrowed an ebook from the library and finished it the same day. I have the movie checked out and am going to try to convince Jaeger to watch it with me tomorrow night1

In some ways, reading Catching Fire was an excuse to avoid the other books I’m trying to read. Right now I’m in the middle of both The Lives of Tao and Nexus. Neither are my usual type of book and I’m finding it hard to concentrate. I was planning on leaving The Wheel of Time till last but if this keeps up, I might change my mind and start on it instead of finishing these two.

Regarding the Wheel of Time, I’m still waffling over my approach. I’m currently leaning toward reading summaries of most of them and actually reading the last three. Many, many years ago I did start the Wheel of Time series but gave up after several books when there didn’t appear to be an end in sight and I didn’t trust the series to ever be finished. So, I assume some of it may come back to me when I read the summaries.

  1. Usually Jaeger doesn’t watch TV/Movies but he has been working through the Hugo nominations so I think I have a decent chance. He has not read (and is not planning to read) the first book or watched the movie so I’m dubious he’s going to get much out of the 2nd movie. ↩

New Books

I’ve been watching the Amazon/Hachette with many mixed emotions1. There are many things I like about Amazon and there are many things I dislike about Amazon. I also like publishers but mainly because they make it easier for me to read books. I have been very, very unhappy with how most publishers have been dealing with ebooks, particularly in the library world. I agree with Cory Doctorow that they dug their own grave and now are complaining about having to lie down in it.

However, I am worried about the authors that have been affected by this. So, I decided to go on a mini book-buying spree. The Orbit US line is pretty much the only Hachette imprint I regularly read. I went looking for their forthcoming releases and was amused to note that they distribute the list via Goodreads2. I scanned the list for books that look interesting. For me, this means I’m looking for straight fantasy or SF (I’m not a fan of paranormals) and a female protagonist. Excluding the books I already own, this criteria didn’t leave a lot of choices from this year’s offering. However, I eventually decided to order Rachel Bach’s Paradox trilogy (which I’ve read and loved) and M.J. Carey’s The Girl With All the Gifts (which I’m taking a chance on because I liked The Steel Seraglio) from Barnes and Noble. After I bought the books, I looked at the price and realized I had accidentally stumbled into a buy 2 get 1 free deal.

I’m not sure when I’m going to get around to reading The Girl With All the Gifts. I’m still faithfully working through the Hugo Nominations.

  1. I was looking for an objective account to link to but they don’t seem to exist. I think this Washington Post article is about as close as I can come. ↩
  2. Here is winter 2014, spring/summer 2014, and fall 2014 ↩

2014 Hugo Goal Update

It’s been a very long time since I posted reading updates. I have been reading but haven’t had the time to post any updates. I’ve pretty much abandoned my children’s book goal for the moment but I do plan to get back to it eventually. Right now I’m focused on the Hugos and I’ve made pretty decent progress.

Jaeger will probably want to skip this post since he hasn’t read most of the works I’m going to talk about (he procrastinated by reading Quicksilver1 allegedly as research for Scotland).

Novels
Ancillary Justice, by Ann Leckie – This was my nomination and I didn’t re-read it. However, it’s still my favorite of the books I read.

Neptune’s Brood, by Charles Stross – This was amusing but more Jaeger’s thing than mine. It’s based in the same universe as Saturn’s Children which I read several years ago2.

Parasite, by Mira Grant – This was a well written book with a subject that doesn’t really interest me. I don’t want the time I spent reading it back but it just didn’t click for me. This is definitely not a fault of the book but more about the type of stuff I personally want to read.

Warbound, by Larry Correia – I consider this the most frivolous book of the bunch. Since it’s the 3rd in the series I was planning to read the first two before the third. However, something about the first one was rubbing me the wrong way so I skipped almost immediately to the third book. I think reading a couple of chapters of the first book gave me enough info to enjoy the third book. And I did enjoy the book. It’s very Baen: rah-rah humans, we can beat anything. I don’t think it’s Hugo material but I’ve had that opinion about other books that have won in the past.

The only hugo nominated “novel” I haven’t read yet is the (ENTIRE) Wheel of Time series. I do not have that much time. My plan at the moment is to read all the other categories and then circle back to The Wheel of Time. At that point, I’m not sure if I’ll just start at the beginning and read till my time is up or selectively pick what others consider the “good bits.”

Best Novella
The Butcher of Khardov, by Dan Wells – I did not like this one. The writing is fine but plot itself is too violent and tragic for my tastes. I saw multiple reviews noting that the protogonist wasn’t a likable character. I actually didn’t have any problem with the character. I had a problem with the world he was in where he isn’t provided the help that he so obviously needs. It turns out that this novella is based on a game which perhaps explains why it had to turn out the way it did.

The Chaplain’s Legacy, by Brad Torgersen – This was my favorite. It has a nice mix of everything that makes me enjoy science fiction.

Equoid3, by Charles Stross – This is another one that is more Jaeger’s style than mine. I haven’t read any novels in the Laundry universe but the basic idea is pretty easy to pick up. I enjoyed the story even though it’s not my preferred setting.

Six-Gun Snow White, by Catherynne M. Valente – I would consider this literary fantasy. It would easily fit into a college literature class’s required reading. Objectively, I have to say this is a really good story. However, I (fortunately) couldn’t relate to any of the women in the story which I think made it harder for me to enjoy.

Wakulla Springs 4, by Andy Duncan and Ellen Klages – This was a good multi-generational story. However, I spent most of the story wondering why it was nominated for a Hugo. Finally, towards the end, I found the fantastical element. I would put this story in the “magical realism” category.

Best Novelette
Opera Vita Aeterna, by Vox Day – This one was a hard one for me to read due to the author, not the story 5. The story itself was fine. Parts were interesting and parts weren’t.

The Exchange Officers, by Brad Torgersen – This story didn’t do much for me which surprised me a bit considering how much I liked The Chaplain’s Legacy. I liked many of the ideas but perhaps the format was just too short for me to get into it.

The Lady Astronaut of Mars, by Mary Robinette Kowal – After reading the first two in this category I read this one and thought, “whew, something I can vote for.” It’s an excellent story and does a good job of discussing choices people have to make between family and careers.

The Truth of Fact, the Truth of Feeling, by Ted Chiang – Another really good story. It talks about the social aspects of technology. Specifically, the written word and a future where everything we ever do could be recorded.

The Waiting Stars, by Aliette de Bodard – This was my favorite Novelette. I would love to read a novel-length story set in this universe. I see the author has a novella that appears in the same universe which I might get once I work through my reading backlog.

Categories I haven’t completely yet: The World of Time series (which seems big enough it should be its own category), Best Short Story, Best Graphic Story, Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form, and the nominated authors for John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer

I’m making progress . . .

  1. On the off chance you now have the burning desire to go out and read/buy this book you should be aware that there are a couple of different editions depending on whether you buy hardcover or paperback. What Jaeger read is the original hardcover Quicksilver which contains three books that were published individual as paperbacks. See Wikipedia for a better breakdown. I believe the main reason this was done was to mess up library collections. I had to write a special email to our cataloging department to explain the situation. ↩
  2. You’ll note this is an example of dubious cover art. Charles Stross discusses his options on cover art here. He also mentions that some people are so appalled by the US cover art that they import the UK edition at great expense. If you are inclined this way, let me point out that the Book Depository has the UK edition available and does free shipping to the US. ↩
  3. Currently, on June 10, 2014, this is free from Barnes and Noble and Amazon ↩
  4. Currently, on June 10, 2014, this is free from Barnes and Noble and Amazon ↩
  5. The author appears, at least on the internet, to be racist and misogynistic. Some quotes I see sound too weird to be true but then I go to the source and they haven’t been taken out of context. ↩

York – Day 3 / Scotland – Day 9

Today we woke up, went down for breakfast, and then headed out for our last day in York. We took the bus to our first site: the York Cold War Bunker. It was a lot more interesting than I expected though, unfortunately, Calvin found parts of it scary. When in use, this bunker was run by volunteers and it’s purpose was to provide info on the location and fallout of nuclear bombs. The purpose of this was to be able to save up to 1/3 of population if the UK was hit with a nuclear bomb.

Much of the story surrounding the bunker was rather grim/surreal. It had 120 volunteers and once they were alerted, the entrance was sealed after exactly 60 of the volunteers made it in. It would stay sealed for 30 days after which point the people inside were considered expendable. There was a guard to be stationed outside to keep anyone else from getting in. He too would be collateral damage. In addition, they had a secret list of the engineers in the area that could fix the equipment and they would be forcibly drafted if the situation arose. These engineers never learned they were on these lists until the program was decommissioned in the 90s. They were not happy to learn that they might have been forced to leave their families in the middle of a crisis.

Also, there was a part on the top of the roof that had to be changed every 6-8 hrs. This would require sending someone outside to quickly change it (they practiced changing blindfolded in case it was at night). They did not provide any protective radiation suits for this. Once changed, they’d go through the decontamination room and go through 3 washes (sinks with hoses) which they estimated would take care of about 90 percent of the radiation and was unlikely to kill you within 30 days or pass much radiation to those around you.

Anyway, it was all very fascinating. The tour guide asked us if we had any similar bunkers in the US. Neither Jaeger nor I had heard of any quite like this but we assume in the US something similar existed but was solely operated by the military instead of volunteers.

After the bunker we walked to a windmill. The windmill was built in the late 1700 and was hooked up to a flour mill. At its busiest, the mill could produce 3-4 tons of flour a day. It sounded rather astonishing especially since it’s a relatively small area. The mill fell into disuse in the early 1900s until a preservation society formed recently to get it back up and running. They had to replace substantial parts of the windmill but it once again can grind flour using the windmill. They have some for sale in the gift shop. I was tempted to get some but I didn’t think I could justify the extra bag weight.

After the windmill we headed back into town to get lunch. We ended up finding a pasties shop that had quite filling pasties (Jaeger continued to deny that chocolate could replace lunch). We had a little extra time before our train was suppose to depart. It was raining outside so we considered going back to York Minster only to see, based on the line, that everyone else had the same idea. Instead, we decided to head off to another used bookstore our guide book had mentioned. It’s amazing how many used bookstores there are in York. On our way, we ran into another one and stopped for a quick look. Unfortunately none of them had the book I was looking for but we ended up with an autobiography by Roald Dahl that looks pretty interesting.

We packed up our luggage from the hotel and arrived at our train platform 5 min before it was scheduled to leave. Our train ride was fairly uneventful except for the several minutes involving a screaming child that I’m happy to report was not Calvin :)

Once again in Edinburgh we dropped off our bags at the left luggage stand and went out to find supper. We had a good supper, picked up our bags, and took a taxi to our hotel which is by the airport. The hotel is not the same quality as the previous ones we have stayed at. Jaeger had reserved a double bed with a sofa bed for Calvin. When we got to our room we were confronted with two twin beds and a sofabed. It looked very 1950s. Jaeger was not amused. We were able to get our room switched but then had to wait for them to make up the sofabed for Calvin. Oh well, it’s only for one night and appears to have all the basics.

Tomorrow we start our journey back home. It’s been a good vacation but it’s also always nice to go home.

York – Day 2

Yesterday Jaeger and I joked that Calvin rated hotels based on their breakfasts, how close he is to mommy, and how good a fort he can build out of the bed. While our Inverness hotel was quite nice, it was a bit of a disappointment to Calvin. Our York hotel on the other hand has pretty much everything he could ask for (the only way it could be better would be one king bed that the whole family piles into).

The hotels breakfast is free for all guests so I was skeptical that it was going to be any good. However, it turned out to have the best vegetarian options of any of them. It was a bit more generic than the others but the options for us worked better. Calvin ended up with scrambled eggs, potatoes with ketchup, and a mini chocolate muffin. He was ecstatic and he got even more excited when he noticed there was a tv in the breakfast room. It was just running news but that seemed to be enough for him.

After breakfast we still had an hour before the train museum opened so we wandered by a used book store. I didn’t find any of the books I was looking for but did stumble across another author that looks like she might be a good fit for Calvin. We wandered around a bit more and finally headed for the train museum.

As advertised, the train museum was big and impressive. I think the part I found most interesting was the evolution of the royal train cars. Queen Adelaide commissioned the first royal train car when it was still a fairly new contraption. It’s clear that they hadn’t figured out a distinct train style yet. The train car looked almost exactly like a luxurious coach. There were only seats, no other comforts, and to get to one of the three compartments you had to open external train doors. The next train car was the final version of Queen Victoria’s and it was interesting to note how much the design had advanced within that time period. Queen Victoria’s train car had several connected rooms including a saloon with sofas.

It was also interesting to see some of the regular older train. Bathrooms didn’t appear for quite a while and I could’t help but think of the inconvenience of toting a young child via train.

The train museum also had a library that included some children’s books. I read several to Calvin before insisting it was time to get back to the rest of the museum. We wandered around for a bit. The museum had quite a few exhibits for young kids that Calvin enjoyed. They also had a play area that had things like Chuggington costumes, train tables, and a variety of Legos that I’d never heard of before: Lego Soft bricks. These bricks are about 6 times as bit as a regular Lego brick (the current set of Quatros we have is 4 times bigger so these are even bigger than Quatros).

After playing with the Legos for a while we ate lunch in the train’s cafeteria. After lunch Calvin and I went outside to briefly play in the train’s playground. It was an ok playground but nothing particularly special. I didn’t take any pictures. However, right next to the playground was a mini train that the kids could ride on for 1 pound. Calvin took a ride on that and really enjoyed it. We wandered around a little more until leaving around 3:30pm.

Our next stop was the Yorkshire museum. They had a fair number of things for Calvin to do but other than the specific little kid areas it didn’t really catch his attention. I enjoyed the medieval section the best.

The museum closed at 5. The place we wanted to eat at didn’t open till 6:30 so we had about an hour and a half to waste. Since it was now raining we decided to go back to the hotel to pick up our rain coats before wandering around within the walled city. Calvin started to get cranky and complain of being hungry so we started looking for a cafe that was still open to get a little snack.

Eventually, we stumbled across the York Cocoa House. They close at 6 but we squeaked in with 2 minutes to spare. Calvin got a regular hot chocolate, I got an orange hot chocolate, Jaeger got Yorkshire tea and then we all shared a lime and coconut dessert. It was divine. I’m trying to convince Jaeger we should go back there for lunch tomorrow but he is protesting because it’s a chocolate shop and doesn’t have “lunch” food. I don’t know why we need anything as plebeian as sandwiches for lunch when we can get chocolate like that.

After finishing our hot chocolate we wandered a little bit more and then headed in the direction of dinner. The vegetarian restaurant we ate at is only open two evenings a week (normally they’re a cafe). I got the spinach and leek ravioli, Jaeger got a mushroom burger, and Calvin got gnocchi. It was all good and I was especially pleased that Calvin seemed to really like the gnocchi.

After supper we walked back to our hotel in the light drizzle. Tomorrow we’ll do a couple more things in York before heading back via train to Edinburgh.

Scotland – Day 8 / York – Day 1

Today we woke up bright and early. However, even though we woke up a 1/2 hr later than yesterday it didn’t feel as early to me. Perhaps the absence of a fire alarm test helped. We went down to breakfast promptly at 7, when they opened, and ordered hot breakfasts. This turned out not to be the best choice as it was a full 20 minutes for our breakfast to arrive. We quickly ate and then checked out and started walking toward the train station. The train station is relatively close but our train left at 8 and the combination of a slow breakfast and Calvin’s top speed was starting to concern me. So Jaeger pulled both suitcases while I carried Calvin on my shoulders at a fast walk. We made the train stop with several minutes to spare.

The train ride itself was fairly relaxing. Up till Edinburgh we hit 70-90 mph. However, after Edinburgh there were parts where we hit 125 mph (Jaeger bought a special GPS app for his tablet so he could track it). Calvin spent most of the 6 hr ride listening to an audio book while coloring/drawing while I read. I really adore how engrossed Calvin can get in audio books. For lunch we got food from the train cafe. We arrived in York around 2pm.

We checked in to our hotel. This one is a “Hampton by Hilton”. Inverness was our big hotel splurge so this one is more cookie-cutter corporate (Jaeger checked and they have face flannels, perhaps because they’re an American (?) chain).

We left our hotel and started walking in the general direction of York Minster. We went slightly out of the way so we could walk up on the wall surrounding the city. Jaeger wanted to go to Evensong (weirdly, he’s quite pro-religious services when he considers them a cultural experience) which was scheduled to start at 5:15. We weren’t sure how long it was going to last so we decided to stop and have a fortifying snack at a coffee shop. Once again Calvin and I got the Hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows and split a cookie.

We got to York Minster a bit before 4 and wandered around the church for quite a while. I was not quite as systematic as I would have liked due to Calvin’s distractions. It was pretty interesting though. At 5 we gathered in front of the organ and were ushered into the Quire. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect. This seemed a pseudo-special Evensong as they were celebrating the 20th anniversary of the foundation of the Hope and Homes for Children charity (I don’t know if highlighting specific charities is a normal thing or if this was just special). The service consisted of:

  • The Bidding (Chancellor and Canon in Residence)
  • Procession and Responses (choir)
  • Office Hymn (congregation)
  • Psalm 108-109 (choir)
  • First Lesson (Exodus 2:1-10)
  • Magnificat (choir)
  • Second Lesson (Colossians 3:12-17)
  • Nunc Dimittis (choir)
  • The Apostles’ Creed (congregation)
  • The Lesser Litany, Responses and Collects (choir)
  • Anthem (choir)
  • Address (5 min sermon)
  • Prayers (Canon in Residence, longer than the address)
  • Hymn (congregation)
  • Blessing (Dean of York who happens to be female)
  • Organ Postlude (wasn’t in the official program so I’m not sure what was played)

The whole thing lasted around an hour and was a bit longer than I had planned on. Ideally, I would have brought more than just Calvin’s crayons to amuse him. I usually bring way more to a regular church service. However, Calvin still was reasonably behaved. I can say for sure he was not the most disruptive element as that honor belongs to the man whose cell phone went off twice after the Canon in Residence had specifically reminded people to turn their cell phones to mute. Also I’m fairly certain Calvin was the youngest kid to survive the whole service (there was a family with one child younger than Calvin but they left after only the first couple of songs).

After Evensong we went to a nearby vegan restaurant. The adult food was pretty decent. Their kids menu didn’t appeal to Calvin. For some reason vegan/vegetarian restaurants seem compelled to do terrible things to kid’s menus. When will I learn my lesson and just order him an adult entree? To compensate for Calvin eating relatively little supper, we also got dessert. Jaeger and I split a carrot cake. I think if I had to I could be vegan for most of my food choices. The exception would be dessert. Carrot cake is not right without cream cheese frosting. I mean, that’s the whole point of carrot cake. I got Calvin a chocolate mousse pie that’s basically a more unhealthy version of my chocolate tofu pudding. I figured it probably got a little extra protein into Calvin.

We got back to the hotel relatively early at around 8. However, tomorrow looks like it’s going to be jam-packed so this early evening probably won’t become a trend.