I’m tempted to put a lock and chain on something else. Here, one popular bike sharing service is Ofo. Bunch of selfish scum users like to take the seat off, put their own lock on, or both. One Ofo bike in my apartment complex’s bike cage has a personal lock on it. I want to put another lock on it to frustrate the selfish bastard whose lock is already on the thing.
A story in the NYTimes recently said that there hasn’t been a single month without a wildfire in CA for the last 5 years.
All my favorite authors are in some kind of a head space and dragging their feet.
Patrick Rothfuss - his Kingkiller Chronicles is going to be a tv series with Sam Rami directing and Lin Manuel Miranda supervising the music. Still no release date for Volume 3.
Jim Butcher - we’ve been waiting on Peace Talks for four years. Butcher has written graphic novels, board games, RPGs and the sequel to Peace Talks - but not Peace Talks.
Scott Lynch - the Lies of Locke Lamora is arguably my favorite one on this list. The next one was supposedly finished last November. Release date - nope.
Susanna Clarke - Jonathon Strange & Mr. Norrell is such a gem. Clarke’s been working on a sequel for fourteen years! /throws up hands
Entertain me, damn it!
Add J.V. Jones to your list. Volume 4 of the Sword of Shadows series was published in 2011. When will volume 5 come out? Sometime before the heat death of the universe, I hope.
According to her website, she hasn’t been writing at all for the last couple of years. If you join her Patreon site, she’ll tell you why. I did see a mention of physical therapy for one of her hands but haven’t joined so I don’t know why.
For about the 20th time over the last 2+ years, my Facebook feed features the following: “Today is the 42 anniversary of the Vietnam War. No mention of it anywhere. My hats off to all veterans”.
Holy shit, where do you begin?
1- Do they mean the END of the war, the BEGINNING of the war, or something else? How do you determine a singular date of a decade+ war?
2- Saigon fell April 30, 1975. It is now over 43 years ago. It can’t possibly be the 42nd anniversary of any part of the war.
3- What the fuck is a “42 anniversary”? It’s 42nd. I know, ordinal numbers are hard.
4- Want to know why there was no mention anywhere? Because a) it wasn’t yesterday, b) it has been 43+ years, and c) the 42nd anniversary was not a milestone anniversary.
5- “My hats off to all veterans”? How many hats did you have on? It should read “My hat’s off to all veterans”, or “My hat is off to all veterans”.
If you want to spend the rest of your life worshipping veterans, have at it. But the rest of us are doomed to see Facebook posts whining about the supposed ignoring of the “42 anniversary” for the rest of our lives. I’m sure the same post will be circulating with the same whine about the same number long after all of us have left these mortal bonds.
Am I unclear on the concept? When something is advertised as a Balloon Festival and there are photos of hot air balloons on the website, is it wrong that I would expect to see hot air balloons when I attend?
Apparently, you only see said balloons when they take off at 6 AM or for the evening “balloon glow” where they’re lit up after sunset. But the website said the event started at 2. We got there at 3. There was 1 balloon that was selling tethered rides (go up 60’, then come down again) and while we were there, they started inflating a second balloon since the lines were so long. We saw one other balloon deflated and stretched across the ground.
For that, we paid $16 each.
I don’t think I’m wrong for being angry. And that’s not even touching on the 3 hours it took to get there…
My goal this summer was to stay busy and ward off depression; normal folks tend to get seasonal affective disorder in winter, I go downhill when it gets hot and humid (which it has been, unrelentingly, in NJ for at least two months). So, despite my vow to stay busy and active, I’m depressed and listless – blerrgghh.
My ideal temps are 10-55F. Normal people love vacations to Hawaii, I dream of a snow/ice/glacier vacay.
I’m counting the days til it cools off – or at least SHOULD cool down. Given climate change, NJ may become a tropical clime.
Any chance of moving to Seattle. I hear it’s always wet up there 
Is this series worth investing some time in? I recently finished two of three books in Brandon Sanderon’s The Stormlight Archive series. The second book was a s l o g. The story was good, but I was relieved to finish it and start something … shorter.
If you’ve read TSA, is there any comparison, in terms of pacing and development?
Do eeeet!
Everywhere is on fire, as noted. Except for where I am, that’s not on fire. I think. We’re getting smoke from multiple fires though, so it’s hard to tell. I’m grateful not to be on fire, but I would like to breath. 
So I was biking home today when it started to rain. The best plan was clearly to bike as quickly as possible so I wouldn’t get totally soaked. Unfortunately, I overlooked one key problem with that: wet asphalt has a significantly lower coefficient of friction, meaning less traction when trying to make a turn at high speed. :smack:
The only good news is that wet asphalt has a significantly lower coefficient of friction, resulting in a lot more sliding and a lot less scraping than I honestly would have expected. I got a nice scrape on my elbow, a really minor one on my hip, and that’s it. I really got off quite lucky.
I bought 2 shirts at Walmart, clearance price 5 bucks each. Their ‘George’ brand. They looked OK. I did not try them on.
I should have. They are not poor quality, but the make me look like an aging Pugsley Adams.
The Kingkiller Chronicles is absolutely worth your time, even though it’s long and the series is unfinished (actually, book 3 is supposedly finished, and Miranda says he’s read it, but Rothfuss isn’t happy with it yet). No joke - I would say Rothfuss is the best writer in America today, even though he’s only published 2 books and a couple of shorts.
Also, Rothfuss is a regular on the Penny Arcade Acquisitions Inc D&D games. He plays a rogue called Viari and is always a fun time.
As for Sanderson, I’ve not read the TSA. I read the first 3 Mistborn novels, which I dislike (I think their overall ending is bullshit) and part of Alloy of Law, which I abandoned when I ran out of fucks. I have no interest in anything else he’s written.
Have you read Steven Erickson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen series? That’s probably my favorite fantasy series overall, and it is finished so there’s that going for it. I would say Erickson is the second best Canadian writer working today, behind only Guy Gavriel Kay (who almost made my first list, but I let him off because his last book was in 2016. I’m just hungry for more.)
Hey, it’s a look. Get some overalls. You’ll be just like the kids:)
Aging Pugsley Adams… rawrrr!
(disclosure: that sound emanated from an aging Uncle Fester)
TSA is long and unfinished as well. The first three books, believe it or not, are the prologue to the main story. Can you believe that? After finishing the second book, I needed a break. My girlfriend got me the third book, Oathbreaker, for my birthday, but I’m in no rush to read it.
I have not heard of this series. I can take a look shortly. After “The Way of Kings” and “Words of Radiance,” I am taking a break.
I recently finished Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Sheep?” I thought it was OK. However, I’m motivated now to watch Blade Runner and its sequel.
Now, I’m reading Emily St. John Mandel’s “Station Eleven.”
The first half of the first book, Gardens of the Moon, is also kind of a slog. Erikson just throws you into the deep end and then jumps in after you. You have to just roll with it until you’ve met all the players and start seeing the big picture. And really, the “big picture” takes several books to come into focus. But the payoff in each book is magnificent and the overall ending is a triumph.
Speaking of ridiculous prequel books, I should say, the Malazon books were inspired by a D&D campaign that Erikson and his fellow student, Ian Cameron Esslemont, started while they were on a paleontology dig one summer in western Canada. They agreed that Esslemont would write the books for the first half of the game and Erikson would write the books for the second half. Erikson, who is a better writer, finished his ten book series before Esslemont finished the first part. Then Erikson went back and helped Esslemont finish his works, some of which are prequels and some of which are in the same time frame as Erikson’s stuff, only happening on different continents. After that, Erikson started a new trilogy about the backstory to the opening events in Gardens of the Moon. There’s also a connecting book, called The Night of Knives, which covers the transitional period of the start of the Empire.
It’s perhaps relevant to explain that the Historians in their books are the ass-kicking heroes. 
Anyway, just keep going, once you start. It will all make sense in the end.
I recently finished Book 1 and loved it. It went quickly even though it was 1000+ pages. I just started Book 2 thinking it would also be a quick read. Guess not!
I also recently read the first book in the Malazan Book of the Fallen series. I thought there were way too many characters so by the time things came together in the end I had no idea who half the characters were so I didn’t really understand what was happening. I was planning on giving up on the series but after reading Merneith’s post, maybe I will give book 2 a chance.
The Kingkiller Chronicles are amazing.
My mini-rant is that I am trying to get volunteer clearance to help out with the high school band, since my kid is joining it this year. They sure don’t make it easy: fingerprinting, TB clearance, forms can’t be emailed, etc. I got a TB clearance two years ago and recently pulled it out from my files and set it aside so I would have it handy to turn in after I got fingerprinted. Now I need it and I have torn the house looking for it and I can’t find it.
Sacramento County issued a warning yesterday through Friday. Don’t do outdoors activities if you can avoid them. Keep the doors and windows closed. The smoke is causing the temperature to be ten degrees cooler than it would otherwise be, according to the weather forecaster. My eyes are itching and my nose is stuffed up.
The Mendocino Complex fire, about 100 miles from here, is now the largest fire in California history.
More of California is burning. Biggest fire in the state’s history. Go Team?
On the home front, my a/c broke yesterday. Highs at or above 100 expected outside this week. High near 90 in the house yesterday. I am a delicate flower. Wahhhhh! Repairman coming today at 3. Hoping he can fix this.