Day 234: Pre-holiday-break week work shirt number four: peekaboo Santa (the creepy ol’ stalker!).
Photos
Photos, usually taken by me. May be mirrored or imported from other services.
📚 Storm Front by Jim Butcher
71/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
According to my reading history, I read this 13 years ago. I have no memory of this, even while reading it this time; and after reading it, I’m not terribly surprised that I don’t remember it. Not that it’s bad, it’s just…not really my thing, I guess? I’ve enjoyed urban fantasy, and noir, and noir urban fantasy, so I don’t think it’s the parts, but they’re not summing up as well as they have in other books I’ve read. It was entertaining enough that I’ll likely read at least another one or two in the series to see how it progresses; this is a first book, after all, and the series has gone on long enough and has enough fans that there’s a chance I’ll find later installments more engaging.
Year 50 Day 233
Day 233: Pre-holiday-break week work shirt number three: Holiday gifts, Santa hats, gingerbread people, candy canes, mittens, hot chocolate mugs, and snowflakes.
Year 50 Day 232
Day 232: Pre-holiday-break week work shirt number two: poinsettia, holly, and candy canes.
Year 50 Day 231
Day 231: Pre-holiday-break week work shirt number one: trees, hats, and presents.
Year 50 Day 230
Day 230: Thankfully, feeling much better today. Still a little more tired than usual, and I was glad it was a work from home day, but not feeling the body ache or complete lack of energy I did yesterday. Vaccinated is far better than not, but I’m glad it’ll be a few months before I have to do this again, and that the shingles series is a one-time thing, not annual!
📚 Debtors’ Planet by W.R. Thompson
70/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
This one surprised me in good ways. I wasn’t optimistic at first, with its focus on Ferengi, who can be annoying (especially in the pre-Quark days), and with it bringing back an (intentionally) annoying character from the show. But it handled both of these elements surprisingly well; the primary Ferengi antagonist is a little more thoughtful than most of the era, and the returning character is actually given some depth and is able to use his traits and quirks in ways that advance the story. Add in some amusing Worf/Riker bits and Wesley actually being treated like a worthwhile character as he forms a friendship with an alien ensign, and this (notwithstanding some confusion over how the Federation handles money and an “offscreen” sexual assault that wasn’t really necessary) is definitely an above average entry in the series.
Year 50 Day 229
Day 229: Shingles vaccine effects update: Oh, damn. Ow.
So, normally I’m what my wife has termed an “insensitive mutant”. When it’s time to get my annual flu or (now) Covid shot, I show up, get poked, and go along with life. I rarely even have much arm soreness to deal with.
This time, though? Uff. I got the vaccines yesterday at about 3 p.m. (both Covid and shingles), and though I definitely felt the shingles shot going in and got the arm soreness, other than that, I felt fine through the rest of the day until bedtime.
This morning we woke up about 6 a.m., and I still felt fine. I commented to my wife that I didn’t trust that, though, given what I’d heard from other people…and I’m glad I went that route instead of crowing about my insensitive mutant status.
We went through our morning and headed off for our grocery shopping rounds, and by 9 a.m. I was definitely feeling some generalized all-over body ache. Nothing too severe, just a general sense of discomfort — I compared it to the Monday after convention weekend and feeling the effects of barely stopping moving for four days. Uncomfortable, but bearable.
But by the time we got home, put the groceries away, noon rolled around and we had lunch, the aches had just kept going, and suddenly all energy just disappeared. Since my wife was also feeling the effects of her vaccinations (flu and Covid), we decided it was nap time, crawled into bed, and promptly passed out for a couple hours.
Post-nap, we’re both still achy and exhausted, so initial dinner plans, which actually involved cooking, have been put on hold in favor of ordering good Indian delivery.
And I can no longer claim to be an insensitive mutant. (At least, not all the time.) Harrumph.
📚 The Rising by James Doohan and S.M. Stirling
69/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to read military SF about a Scotch/Irish former fighter pilot who turned spaceship engineer after being wounded and losing a hand, written by a former soldier and pilot turned actor who played a Scotch spaceship engineer after being wounded and losing a finger, then this is definitely the book for you! Aside from the rather amusing list of similarities between Doohan and his protagonist, and the curiosity of reading SF co-authored by Doohan, it’s fairly standard military SF, combining interstellar war with a “who’s the saboteur” mystery.
Year 50 Day 228
Day 228: It’s vaccination day! One updated COVID shot and my first shingles shot (I got the flu shot at my annual checkup in October). I generally don’t have much reaction to the COVID vaccine, but I’ve heard that nobody escapes some reaction to the shingles shot. We’ll see how I feel tomorrow….