Day 127: Banksy‘s imagery often feels very hopepunk to me.
Photos
Photos, usually taken by me. May be mirrored or imported from other services.
📚 Barrayar by Lois McMaster Bujold
46/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1992 Hugo Best Novel
Really good continuation of the story from Shards of Honor, even beginning the day after the earlier book ended. Bujold manages to create fascinating, sometimes relatable, and often very flawed characters, and to craft a world that’s an interesting mix of almost medieval feudalism and future technology. For a series I didn’t know anything about and initially approached with a little skepticism, I’m definitely understanding why it got the awards and the good words it has from many of my friends.
Year 50 Day 126
Day 126: The best thing about seeing Macbeth at Shakespeare’s Globe in London is seeing Macbeth at Shakespeare’s Globe in London. The second best thing is the souvenir shirts in the gift shop.
Year 50 Day 125
Day 125: I actually got dressed and left the house today! Just a brief run to Target, but hey, it was something to do on the final day before going back to work. And our final Lego vacation memento: Another version of London.
📚 Shards of Honor by Lois McMaster Bujold
45/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
More interesting than I’d expected it to be, given that neither military nor romance are among my generally preferred SF genres. Bujold’s characters are interesting, making even the “captive falls for noble captor” scenario more workable than it might have been, though there were definitely still moments that didn’t really work for me. And there was an unexpected coda, unconnected from the main plotline and characters, that was a neat way to end the book.
Year 50 Day 124
Day 124: Being able to have nearly a full unscheduled week after the travel part of our vacation finished is so nice. I highly recommend this approach to easing back into normal life. Oh, and today’s post-vacation Lego: a classic red double-decker London bus!
📚 Nightshade by Laurell K. Hamilton
44/2023 – ⭐️⭐️
Some potentially interesting situations hobbled by poor writing and in need of at least one more editing pass. Characters seemed to make out of character decisions because that was what was needed to move the plot along. Not one of the more impressive TNG novels.
Vacation Videos
As we were traveling, every so often I’d take some short time-lapse videos (using the apparently now discontinued Hyperlapse app) of wherever we were at the moment. I’ve collected those together into the following two videos: one of the SEA-NYC transcontinental Amtrak trip, and one of the NYC-LON transatlantic voyage (along with some London sights).
SEA to NYC
NYC to LON
Year 50 Day 122
Day 122: More lazing around. We haven’t even unpacked or done laundry yet! Today’s post-travel Lego build: A classic yellow New York City taxicab.