Photos

Photos, usually taken by me. May be mirrored or imported from other services.

📚 The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett

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37/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Though I’ve absorbed a certain amount of general Pratchett-related knowledge through decades of geek osmosis, until now I’ve not read any of his work (aside from his Good Omens collaboration with Neil Gaiman). Having been gifted a nearly complete selection of Discworld ebooks, after looking at several reading guides with various and sundry suggestions of where to start and how to continue, I finally just decided to start at the beginning and (over time) work my way through in publication order. Of course, this means that the first book I’ve read is one that many lists seem to agree might not be the best introduction to the series, which I suppose I can see – it does have a definite first-book “I have this idea for a humorous fantasy world series, let’s see if it works” feel to it. That said, it’s frequently amusing (particularly for someone old enough to have been reading fantasy in the 80s; much of this book might not land as solidly for someone raised on modern fantasy), and I actually found the idea of the Wyrmburg and its inverted dragonhold, where the riders walk along the ceiling by hanging upside down from rings by using hooked boots particularly imaginative. Admittedly, if I hadn’t already come across enough snippets, quotes, and other mentions of Pratchett and Discworld it might not be enough to solidly hook me, but as it is, I’m looking forward to reading on and seeing how Pratchett evolves the concept through the later books.

Me holding The Colour of Magic on my iPad

Year 50 Day 101

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Me sitting on a grey couch, processed to look like comic book artwork.

Day 101: Another one of those days where we spent the day puttering around at home, doing nothing particularly interesting or photogenic, so I resort to finding a filter to give yet another shot of me on the couch some small level of interest.

Year 50 Day 99

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Me sitting on a couch, looking down and concentrating on sewing a button onto a shirt.

Day 99: Sewing isn’t a particular skill of mine, or something I do very often, but I did manage (with some instruction from my wife) to sew a wayward button back onto a shirt. A small triumph, perhaps, but a triumph!

Year 50 Day 98

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Me standing in a strip mall parking lot in front of Rose Bakery, holding a small container of cake.

Day 98: Over the weekend when running errands we saw a local bakery that we hadn’t noticed before, so today on my way home from work I stopped by to pick up a couple pieces of cake for dessert. Verdict: tasty! We’ll likely go back sometime when they have a larger selection, as it was a bit sparse at 5 in the afternoon.

📚 War Drums by John Vornholt

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36/2023 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️

An average adventure, mostly focusing on Ro and Worf as they try to manage confrontations between an unusually xenophobic Federation colony being beset by a band of young Klingons who have gone feral after crashing on a planet. Ro is presented pretty well, but Worf’s characterization often felt off – a bit too smiley, and whatever the situation, it’s difficult for me to see him dancing. Arguably there are reasons for this, but it just kept feeling wrong.

Me holding War Drums

Year 50 Day 97

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Me sitting in a chair in front of a bookcase, with boxes for Star Trek glassware and a pizza cutter in the shape of the original Enterprise in my lap, holding the pizza cutter.

Day 97: At yesterday’s Norwescon picnic, I got a couple fun gifts from one of my friends. A full set of Star Trek glassware, with four glasses representing different planets and a shot glass representing a Borg cube, and a very cool but terribly impractical pizza cutter in the shape of the original NCC-1701 USS Enterprise. My friends know me well!

📚 Imbalance by V.E. Mitchell

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35/2023 – ⭐️⭐️

This one starts with an interesting premise, as the Enterprise is sent to negotiate with aliens only briefly encountered before, the Jarada (the unseen, highly demanding aliens that were the B story in “The Big Goodbye”). But while there are hints of an interesting society, the rest of the book doesn’t hold together well. Actions are taken by the aliens that are never really explained, and Enterprise characters are either reduced to repetitious mannerisms (Dr. Crusher brushes locks of her flaming red hair out of her face nearly every time she’s mentioned) or simply badly portrayed (I know Keiko and O’Brien have difficulties, but in this book they’re both rendered nearly incompetent by their insecurities). Toss on a rather abrupt end to the whole thing, and this is one I wasn’t disappointed to reach the end of.

Me holding Imbalance