Previously, in Trip's Life...
31 May 2014 - Saturday
I spent pretty much a full work day upgrading the thing for the
customer. It would have been faster if they had told me what I needed to
know in a timely fashion, but sadly we can't charge by the hour to
encourage them.
Jason Yungbluth's Weapon Brown is a crazed parody(?) of pretty
much every character from every newspaper comic strip ever, reimagined as
scarred survivors in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. It is crazed, and
probably deeply traumatic to anyone who has fond childhood memories of the
funny pages.
- Princess Tutu 10: I guess this is why ducks are rarely
recruited as secret agents.
- Slayers Evolution-R 1-2: How did dullahans become a
thing in Japan?
- Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood 53: I think Mustang
is still the only human who has managed to [SPOILER]. Can he get two?
- Shakugan no Shana season 3 16: PCs never make morale
checks!
Make a comment!
30 May 2014 - Friday
Finally, it is Friday!
Hurray for weekend! Hurray for Avalon! Hurray for cats!
For the past few days I have been reading Zachary Rawlins's "Central"
series (The Academy, The Anathema, The Far
Shores, and at least two more to come) and quite liking them. The
genre is non-four-color supers where people think they understand
superpowers, something along the lines of Darker Than Black.
In fact, it's a lot like anime: reluctant hero with mysteriously excessive
power, too many college-age kids with superpowers jammed together,
beautiful women who can crush you like an insect, family vs loyalty, and
the terrifying loligoth loli. A lot of the visuals would work well in anime
too, although there are some things that would be difficult to translate
out of text.
One of the major themes is the necessity of doing awful things to
people in the name of even the best cause, which I don't really agree with
but is fairly anime.
Since I liked those, I also checked out Rawlins's The Night
Market and Paranoid Magical Thinking, which are set
in a sort of modernized variant of the Dreamlands, where Ulthar and
Sarnath are just neighborhoods of the Nameless City. I did not like
these quite as much, but it's hard to go too wrong with schoolgirls
fighting moon beasts in the streets of the Nameless City.
Make a comment!
29 May 2014 - Thursday
Thursday Thursday Thursday! MONNNNNSTER customers!
Up way too late interviewing people in India. They still have no
sk1llz.
Make a comment!
28 May 2014 - Wednesday
La la Wednesday la, so there!
Up too late interviewing people in India. They have no sk1llz.
Make a comment!
27 May 2014 - Tuesday
La la Tuesday la.
Witch for Hire (N E Conneely) is set in one of the
alternate universes where major differences — in this case, the
existence of many magic-using or magical sophonts in addition to
nonmagical humans — somehow result in a US that is completely
recognizable even though local police departments contract with witches
for magical services and trolls live on reservations.
In Skin Game (Jim Butcher), Butters's true awesomeness is
revealed. There's also some kind of heist plot involving Dresden and his
archenemies and his [SPOILER] and a variety of
cunning plans, but we expect that sort of thing from the main character.
Silly by Avalon (Wed Jun 4 17:39:20 2014)
=)
Re: Silly by Trip (Thu Jun 5 12:23:24 2014)
Pish tosh! I am never silly! I am like an orange cat with orange stripes!
Make a comment!
26 May 2014 - Monday
La la Monday la.
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
25 May 2014 - Sunday
While being too lazy to get out of bed, I watched a few episodes of
The Irregular at Magic High School. It has the positive
message that standardized tests do not measure awesomeness, but it may be
headed toward the substantially less-positive message that discrimination
wouldn't be a problem if people would just stop feeling oppressed. The
message could instead be that people don't always belong to the oppressor
class out of deliberate malice, but I'm not sure yet.
The uniforms are pretty.
Today would be Fading Suns, except that Ken is at
KublaCon, so no gaming. As an
excuse to get out of the apartment for a while, I went up to the con
too, but no games that seemed interesting were starting when I looked,
so I just pillaged the dealer's room and slunk back home again.
Too many thermions!
Make a comment!
24 May 2014 - Saturday
Ghirardelli's Horrible Tongue Thing seems to have been bothering him,
so first thing this morning, I took him to the vet. He otherwise seems
fine, so they prescribed the same medicine that made it stop bothering
him for like two years after the last time.
- Princess Tutu 8-9: Bird vs Bird in open dance-combat!
- Shakugan no Shana season 3 14-15: Things look bad for
the good guys (again)!
- Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood 50-52: It is definitely
the death spiral part of the season, but on the other hand, people are
returning as well.
Ghirardelli ate his medicine right up! He is such a good kitty!
Make a comment!
23 May 2014 - Friday
Hurray, Friday! Everybody likes Friday! Friday goes "splat"!
Some guys at the bus stop seemed like they were getting into a
fight, so I called the cops. This resulted in my missing my bus while
I gave my statement, but maybe I did the right thing. Or maybe I just
helped the Man keep mentally ill people of color down.
Pixie Noir (Cedar Sanderson) has a good title but is not
otherwise impressive. The characters go from a crisis to another completely
separate crisis back to the first crisis. Probably in a future book they
will all be pulled together, but as this book stands, it lacks thematic
unity.
The Revolutions (Felix Gilman) is Victorian fantasy, but
not steampunk. The magic is really magic, and even when Victorian
Progress is applied, it's still creepy magic. It has also magical
interplanetary travel that is way more interesting than most.
Make a comment!
22 May 2014 - Thursday
Today I um went to work? And did a thing? And then there were cats
and hugs and stuff.
Make a comment!
21 May 2014 - Wednesday
I must have done something today, but apparently none of it was as
interesting as date night with Avalon.
Interesting by Avalon (Tue May 27 18:32:12 2014)
=)
xoxoxo
Re: Interesting by Trip (Wed May 28 08:07:09 2014)
It's a pretty high bar!
Make a comment!
20 May 2014 - Tuesday
Big Customer X is flipping out because their guy can't read error
messages and thinks a syntax error is an emergency.
Defenders (Will McIntosh) is pretty depressing, although
perhaps not unrealistically so. Humans probably wouldn't get along with
giant telepathic starfish monsters, and gant death monsters, even if
human-derived, probably wouldn't be much better. Doooooom.
However, I do not even know what to call the kind of fail that concludes
that because serotonin is associated with positive moods in the human
brain, a creature with a brain constructed to work without serotonin must
be devoid of happiness or humor. It's like the territory not being the map,
or something.
syntax errors by marith (Sat May 24 16:10:11 2014)
Hey, I've seen some pretty dire syntax errors in my time, to be fair. I much prefer the five times my coworkers report similar minor error messages to the one time they ignore "system on fire. syntax error line 2349 near unexpected token 'extinguisher'." :)
Re: syntax errors by Trip (Wed May 28 10:05:53 2014)
Actually these are semantic errors, I guess, but either way, when you type in statement X, the database says, "You can't do that, you have to do Y", you complain to Support, Support explains that instead of two lines slanting across each other you need a short line going up and splitting to both sides, you type statement X, and you get the same error message, you're not looking at a defect in the product.
Re: Re: syntax errors by marithlizard (Thu May 29 11:00:12 2014)
You have a point. (well, no, you have two lines. Hey, maybe the customer is in Flatland?)
Re: Re: syntax errors by Trip (Fri May 30 15:50:43 2014)
Maybe Flatheadland.
Make a comment!
19 May 2014 - Monday
Customers are not all as bad as four-year-olds, at least.
Veil of the Deserters (Jeff Salyards) is just as grim as
Scourge of the Betrayer but somewhat higher-magic, in that we
finally get to see real sorceresses. Also the heart of the Scary Empire,
but not actually much of the Veil.
Scholarship for time and distance! Go!
Make a comment!
18 May 2014 - Sunday
Today, I did manage to swim a bit, but there was no gaming. Then,
there was driving home, which involved no potty stops. Mysterious are
the ways of children.
Hello, cats who are not dead!
Make a comment!
17 May 2014 - Saturday
Yay Roseville! (After the very long phase of being in a car with a whiny
four-year-old who had to go potty every thirty minutes.) I failed to swim,
but did get to hear more about Dave's Vietnam expedition and Sherilyn's
glamorous life of school volunteering. Also, there was some not-very-heroic
Dungeon
World, and an immense amount of Chinese takeout.
Make a comment!
16 May 2014 - Friday
Another work week successfully defeated escaped!
Slashback (Rob Thurman) has too much "oh I'm a monster"
angst, but all the ass-kicking expected from a Cal Leandros novel. I
have to wonder if the Big Reveal at the end was planned (and if so, how
far back?) or a retcon, although it probably doesn't matter.
Volume 1 of Zero's Familiar: Chevalier (Noboru Yamaguchi,
Yukari Higa) follows on immediately from where the last volume of
Zero's Familiar leaves off, with the war and the cheesecake
and everything. We get to see Louise's family, which pretty much entirely
explains her tsundereness.
Lockstep is definitely Karl Schroeder, but a YA version,
with no sex, less real violence, less (but not no) villainy, and
more fluffy animals.
I don't want to spoil the core future idea, because future ideas are what
we read Schroeder for, but I am glad he realized that it wouldn't be
stable without harsh enforcement from above. (I'm not sure it would even
be that stable, given what else was going on, but that I can let pass.)
Oh, and we also read Schroeder for the future scenery. Wheee!
Make a comment!
15 May 2014 - Thursday
The Indestructibles (Matthew Phillion) is the story of an
aging superhero who recruits teenagers with superpowers to form a new
superteam now that Evil is Afoot again. It is not terrifically
imaginative, but prose superheroes are the New Thing.
Make a comment!
14 May 2014 - Wednesday
I spent all evening running errands and none of it doing anything
fun. At least I have sugar-free ice cream to be put together with diet
soda and extracted brains for parasite shakes now.
I am not sure what to write about Hild (Nicola Griffith).
It is certainly very good, and Hild is awesome. And doomed, but then
everyone in the book is doomed by having to live in the 7th century,
even with someone as smart as Hild around. And Hild is believably smart,
and scary, enough that it's not surprising people think she has magical
insight.
Hereditary monarchy with a warrior caste raised to believe that dying
for a monarch is the best thing ever: arguably natural for humans, but
still not okay.
Android Angels (Kosuke Kabaya) doesn't actually do much to
explore what is allegedly the central conceit, of robots getting partially
mindwiped after every four-year lease. It does at least admit that the
point of making robots look like cute humans is so that you can sleep with
them.
Scourge of the Betrayer (Jeff Salyards) is very low-magic
and gritty fantasy. If you thought Glen Cook's "Black Company" books were
too cheerful or too fantastic, this is for you.
Make a comment!
13 May 2014 - Tuesday
You would think the Internets would have better pictures of anime
girls in skin-tight outfits. Well, maybe not, since in this case
"better" means "covering more".
Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi) is an autobiography of someone
who grew up in Iran during the time the US was destroying secular democracy
in the region, so it makes me go, "Augh, who thought putting humans in
charge of anything was a good idea?!" a lot. Satrapi telling off
authority figures also made me go augh; I don't think I could possibly have
done that.
Make a comment!
12 May 2014 - Monday
Hurray for Avalonsnuggles! But maybe it's good that they are only
virtual today, because it is Too Warm.
Make a comment!
11 May 2014 - Sunday
There was almost gaming today, but Ken was too sick. Instead, I went
blblblblbl. With no Avalon.
Make a comment!
10 May 2014 - Saturday
Blblblblblbl. (In this case, going blblblblbl was like watching a pile
of Haiyore! Nyarko-chan, which is not as good as it could be,
but has CoC
jokes.)
In celebration of having reproduced (repeatedly, not just a fluke!), Ayse
feasted upon ribs. And more ribs. And then, additional ribs. I may have
unintentionally misled her about what was a good number of ribs to
order, but she has a chest freezer.
- Princess Tutu 6-7: Lack of certainty can be fatal to a
magical
girl duck.
- Slayers Revolution 12-13: Now that the simple plot has
been solved, the demon lords can come out to play, right?
- Shakugan no Shana season 3 13: That's a lot of snake.
- Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood 49: Fifteen episodes
left to cover the appointed day. That's not quite real-time, I guess.
Twisted Miracles (A J Larrieu) tries to have psionics that
conserve energy, but ends up conflating élan vital with joules.
Also there was some sex and bad religion and unexplained angel things.
Make a comment!
9 May 2014 - Friday
Yay! I am no longer on call! And Avalon has emerged, like Amaterasu,
from her cave with shininess and joy for all parasitekind!
Wicked As They Come (Delilah S Dawson) is supernatural
romance, with the emphasis on romance. Quasi-vampire alpha male, fated
romance, beautiful clothes, hot sex, alternate less-worthy guy, etc. It
does have an alternate dimension with vampire bunnies, though.
The playtest packet for The
Queen's Cavaliers is rough, but it looks pretty swell. Matriarchy,
swashbuckling, generating successes with die rolls and spending them for
various effects, characters created by combining two classes, fashion-based
magic, what's to not like?
Make a comment!
8 May 2014 - Thursday
Look, meetings.
Avalon is still sad, so I am still sad.
The end of Strawberry Panic was not unexpected, although
at least the main character did have to make a choice. It wasn't much of
a choice, though. Girlsmooches for all!
Deadweather & Sunrise, New Lands, and
Blue Sea Burning (Geoff Rodkey) are sort of humorous in a
vaguely Lemony Snicket way, but also fairly serious. People get killed on
screen, and it is clear that letting the teenaged girl get dragged off by
bored pirates would be Bad even if no one says what would happen to her.
The theme seems to be "the world is more complicated than that", which is
probably a good lesson for thirteen-year-olds. With pirates!
Make a comment!
7 May 2014 - Wednesday
Oh no! Avalon's trip to Macau was cancelled and she is super-bummed.
She must hide in her cave and glare at people, like a dragon from
Chile. :(
I guess Irenicon (Aidan Harte) is hydropunk, since it has
highly advanced river-based technomagic, and street gangs. Also, secret
martial arts styles!
Make a comment!
6 May 2014 - Tuesday
If I were better at going to bed on time, I would be less tired,
wouldn't I?
The Thousand Names (Django Wexler) is military fantasy
based, I think, on Napoleon in North Africa/Egypt. So far there have not
been any sphinxes to have their noses shot off, but the thing that seems to
correspond to the Rosetta Stone is quite alarming. There will, naturally,
be at least two more books.
Sparrow Hill Road (Seanan McGuire) seems to nominally be in
the same setting as the "InCrypted" novels, but the events don't connect at
all. SHR is the story of a ghostly hitchhiker and the
necromancer who done her wrong, across the roads and decades of America. Being
a ghost in that setting is surprisingly complicated, and also sucks in
many ways.
I should totally have guessed the surprising secret in The Mark of
the Dragonfly (Jaleigh Johnson), but I didn't. You probably would if
you read it, though.
Make a comment!
5 May 2014 - Monday
The weekend is gone already? Bah.
When I am preparing gooshy breakfast, sometimes Aspen will walk past
my ankles just close enough for the very end of her tail to brush them.
I guess she heard food-providers like anklesnuggles, but can't bring
herself to get that close. Such a silly cat.
Alabaster: Grimmer Tales (Caítlin R Kiernan, Steve
Lieber, Rachelle Rosenberg) is more Dancy Flammarion Southern crazy
supernatural doom in GN format. Oh, so much doom.
Make a comment!
4 May 2014 - Sunday
There was too much waffling about Roseville, so Immortal Empire got
unscheduled and never rescheduled. Apparently Jeremy and Rachel are
barbecuing Girl Scouts today instead.
I stayed home with my cats and my Hot Internet Girlfriend™('s
virtual presence) and went blblblblblbl.
The Golden City (J Kathleen Cheney) is set in an AH
Edwardian Portugal, which is not something you see very often. It also
features several different kinds of sea-people, desperate scrambles to
preserve respectability, and political necromancy.
Make a comment!
3 May 2014 - Saturday
Today we did not go to Roseville because the Monkeycats are still
full of germs (as is the way of households with small children). This is
probably okay by me, since I had enough loudness and humans last weekend
to last me for a while.
Instead, I got called by work again. This should have taken half an
hour to resolve, but because the customer VPN kept falling over, it
actually took about two hours. Sheesh.
- Slayers Revolution 10-11: Look, it's a plot! Xellos
must be involved! Also, not completely irrational bitterness.
- Shakugan no Shana season 3 11-12: Both halves of the split
party continue to engage in Big Fight.
- Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood 46-48: Augh Pride! Aaaaaaaaah!
Twelve paws!
Make a comment!
2 May 2014 - Friday
I guess a four-day work week isn't too bad. However, being on call
because my cow orker has to deal with his mother-in-law's estate is
pretty much bad.
Especially when I get called just as I'm thinking I'm up way too late
and should go to bed. It only took a couple of hours to resolve, because
I am just that good, but they were hours I had allocated for
sleeping.
The "rei" in xxxHolic Rei (CLAMP) means "return", and the
first volume, at least, is definitely a return to the early/mid part of
xxxHolic, when people with varying degrees of damage come to
Yuuko and she gives them what they deserve while her manservant and
hanger-on bicker. But, that story has already been told and linked into the
later part of xxxHolic, so it's not very satisfying to read it
again. If it's by the original creators, is it still fanfic?
Sword Art Online Aincrad vol 1 (Reki Kawahara) is a
translated light novel about the poor schmoes who discover that the
first MMORPG with direct neural interface is actually a massive
deathtrap set up by a mad scientist who wants them to dance for his
amusement, and the lives they build therein.
Cleopatra in Space (Mike Maihack) has pretty much nothing
Egyptian in it beyond the title and some of the names.
Make a comment!
1 May 2014 - Thursday
Today I went blblblblblbl!
Volume 8 of Atomic Robo (Brian Clevinger, Scott Wegener) is
titled "The Savage Sword of Doctor Dinosaur", and it does indeed contain
much Doctor Dinosaur, along with lost cities, crazed scientists, and
Conspiracy. Wheeee!
The Vanishing Girl (Laura Thalassa) is nominally YA SF, but
only to the extent that Marvel comics are. At least the vast,
super-secret government conspiracy is able to outsmart one
not-too-bright teenager.
The Forbidden Library (Django Wexler) is also YA, but
younger (so no sex) and explicitly fantasy. It has interestingly-limited
book-based magic with an obvious way to corrupt practitioners (and for the
heroine to avoid falling into), mysterious uncles, and alarming cat(?)
monsters. I hope there is more.
Volume 6 of Sankarea (Mitsuru Hattori) makes me, as a
cat owner, very sad. But a love story involving a zombie pretty much has
to pass through tragedy, no matter where it finally ends up.
Make a comment!
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