Imperatoris Chronicorum I

 

The Imperatoris Chronicorum will be replacing the My Week posts. Same exact stuff, just a name upgrade, especially since I'm already using roman numerals. Big thanks to MarZaat for spearheading the research and development side of this idea.

Sunday kicked things off, per usual, with going to church. Because of the horrible, terrible, no good Time Change, we skipped the early prayer time at 9am and just went to the main service at 10am. Everything felt a half-step off because of the time change. Also, the sunday church is growing, so it was almost elbow to elbow sitting in the pews. The pastor also had to make an announcement to park as far away as you could walk to save the very minimal parking at the church itself for those who really need it. We've been doing that for years. So it's a good problem to have I guess? I do know the church leadership is looking at options, as a lot of the newer people are younger families, so organic growth is inevitable ;-) I was feeling cranky though with all the people, so afterwards Mrs B and I went to Pino's Elixir, a new local Turkish cafe. My staple there is a hot chai latte. Mrs B likes to experiment with all the new to us kinds of food, so we tried the vegetable omelet. I have to admit, I wasn't expecting much, but boy, it was super flavorful and I thoroughly enjoyed it. So good food helped my mood. Mrs B went to work at 3pm and I binged on the tv show Supernatural while writing blog posts and doing chores around the house.

Monday was back to work. One of our crew chiefs recently quit (he was a younger kid and couldn't hack the hard winter we've had), so the office manager has had quite the time trying to schedule 5 people instead of 6. The odd man out just went with my coworker and I and we went to a job just over an hour away. I was extremely thankful the third guy was with us because the snow was still over my knees and the terrain was super hilly, so 3rd Guy just lugged equipment around so I could concentrate on doing the actual job. It was warmer out and by day's end I was down to a single coat. It was also extremely sunny and I got a flaming sunburn! Not bad, but enough that Mrs B could see the lines on my head where the do-rag I wear gave a me a tanline, hahahaha.

Tuesday and Wednesday were a matched pair. We were a 3-man crew again and once again, I was extremely thankful. It was warm and sunny again so the snow was melting away like nobody's business. It was only a foot deep now. It made me laugh when I realized it was "only" a foot deep. The job was almost 45min away, so once again, a lot of sitting in the truck driving to and from. I wasn't the one doing the driving though, so I didn't mind :-D

I wish our pickups were this nice!

Thursday turned into a local day. It was just Short Round and me and it was back to cloudy and seasonal temps. The second job of the day was a mixed bag. On the one hand, we had to set up our 3 gps units and babysit them while they collected data from the satellites for 2 hours, but on the other hand, during those two hours we had to pop open five sewer manholes and measure all the pipe depths and diameters. (I talk about this in more detail, with pictures in a previous My Week Post) That is one of the jobs about surveying that I hate the most. Thankfully, we don't have to do it very often. It is also why we keep a bottle of hand sanitizer in the vehicles :-D Even though it was an easy day, when I got home, I just collapsed on the couch and was done for the evening. It's actually why this post is coming out today and not on Friday, I forgot about writing it, hahahaha!

Disgusting!

Friday. For work I was on my own because I had to get out early. Went and did a small lot line staking in a nearby city. The lot was only 55'x55' and the house took up about 3/4 of it. The rest was "yard". They had a big dog (I could hear him barking the entire time I was there) and man, the whole backyard (still covered in snow) was also covered in dog crap. I had to watch my every stop; it was disgusting and revolting. I hate when people keep an animal in a situation it was never meant for. Then I went to the retina specialist and got an eye injection. Bleh. I just hate those, a lot. Came home, took a sleeping pill and went to bed. That's how I deal with the injections.

Then that brings us to day. I was asleep before 5pm Friday and didn't wake up until 6am today. 13 hours of healing sleep was just what Imperator Bookstooge ordered for his eye and it worked like a charm. Had an Irish Creme flavored Monster Java for breakfast, which is the right way to start a Sabbath day in my opinion ;-) Then it was off to the blogging races to catch back up on the last 48hours. Even though I follow less than 45 people, many of whom don't blog every day, it still amazes me how much content you all push out. My words loving soul loves it! And that's a wrap. See you all tomorrow when I review Drumindor, the next book in the Riyria Chronicles by Michael Sullivan.

The Permanent Husband (The Russians) 4Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Permanent Husband
Series: (The Russians)
Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Translator: Frederick Whishaw
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Classic
Pages: 173
Words: 47K
Publish: 1870

This was an extremely frustrating and at the same time, satisfying, read. I was frustrated beyond the pale that both of the main characters were such big ol’ man babies. I was frustrated that the little girl died. I was frustrated that the book ends at almost the same place it began, just slightly in the future.

I was satisfied because it was obvious that Dostoyevsky saw this national trait of Russian man babyness and didn’t approve of it. I was satisfied because somebody defenseless always has to die in a Russian novel and I’d prefer it to be someone innocent so I can feel all the pain unalloyed without any possibility of “Oh, I’m glad that brat died” feelings. I was satisfied because without Divine Intervention, human nature doesn’t change one whit, no matter what it has gone through.

I really went up and down while reading this. I was hating on Dostoyevsky for writing this one moment and then praising him the next for having such an insightful view into the Russian nature. A LOT of hollering went on and I must admit, I didn’t understand why. Velchaninov hollers a lot whenever he’s in the presence of Trusotsky and I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to show how upset he was or what. The thing is, Trusotsky tries to cut Velchaninov’s throat one night and Velchaninov treats it like nothing the next day. But then he’s screaming up a storm because Trusotsky shows up drunk. Like I’ve said before (and I’m sure I’ll continue to say), the cultural mores are as foreign to me as that of a Martian but that is the exact reason I keep on reading these. It forcibly makes me aware of how different humanity can be and keeps me honest so I don’t think everyone around the world is like me, just named differently. A bunch of those woke people would do well to remember that when they start preaching about how everybody loves everybody else. No, some cultures out there just hate Western culture in and of itself and it behooves us to remember that. It is also a good reminder when you’re dealing with someone even as close as another region in your country that they might not be trying to offend you, but just that they just do things differently.

A good example is Velchaninov and how he acts after Trusotsky tries to cut his throat. He just chalks it up to emotionalism and goes on as if nothing of great import had happened. Given how Trusotsky deals with Velchaninov at the end of the book, it is quite apparent he expected Velchaninov to take it that way. Now, me? I’d have taken my gun, or if I didn’t have a gun, a knife or even a heavy object, and killed Trusotsky during his attempt on me. Someone trying to kill me means they are my enemy and they must die to keep me safe. But in Mother Russia, it is just a sign of high spirits or great emotional outpouring. Sigh. But while I shudder at that difference, at the same time being exposed to such a thought and feeling process is wonderful, at least from the comfort of my couch. Some tries to kill me, yeah, they are going to die, because I’m not Russian. But I am now AWARE of that way of thinking. I don’t have to accept it, or think it is good, or right however. In fact, it just shows up the man baby’ness of the Russian nature, at least back then, even more. A whole culture stuck in their teenage years without growing up.

★★★★☆

From Wikipedia.org

Alexei Ivanovich Velchaninov is a land owner who stays in Saint Petersburg for a trial about a piece of land. He receives a visit from Pavel Pavlovich Trusotsky, an old acquaintance who recently became a widower. Velchaninov had an affair with Trusotsky's wife Natalia, and he realizes that he is the biological father of Liza, Trusotsky's eight-year-old daughter. Velchaninov, who doesn't want Liza to be raised by an alcoholic, brings Liza to a foster family. Liza dies there.

Trusotsky now wants to marry Nadia, the fifteen-year-old daughter of civil servant Zakhlyobinin. She's the sixth daughter of eight. Trusotsky takes Velchaninov with him to visit his fiancée, and buys her a bracelet. Trusotsky is ridiculed by Zakhlyobinin's daughters and locked up during a game of hide-and-seek. Nadia gives the bracelet to Velchaninov, asking him to return it to Trusotsky and tell him she doesn't want to marry him. Nadia is secretly engaged to Alexander Lobov, a nineteen-year-old boy.

Trusotsky spends the night in Velchaninov's room and tries to kill him with a razor knife. Velchaninov manages to defend himself, injuring his left hand.

Sometime later, when Velchaninov has won his trial, the two meet again at a railway station. Trusotsky is remarried, but a young army officer is travelling with him and his wife. Trusotsky's new wife invites Velchaninov to visit them, but Trusotsky asks him to ignore this invitation.

• The Russians

• Leo Tolstoy

• Fyodor Dostoyevsky

• Ivan Turgenev

• Nikolai Gogol

Apocalypse (Resident Evil #2) (2004 Movie)

 

Movie Details:

Series – Resident Evil #2
Director – Alexander Witt
Release – 2004
Rating – R
Time – 1hr 34min

My Thoughts:

Spectacle. Bloody, violent and furious spectacle.

Everything from the first movie is ramped up, except for the military style. There are Umbrella Corporation private soldiers and some of them end up hooking up with Alice and some other survivors, but they are not real soldiers. They make for good monster fodder though.

We start out exactly where the first movie ends, with some additional info to give us a larger picture of what is going on. The t-virus has escaped into Raccoon City and apparently RC is a walled city controlled by Umbrella. When Umbrella realizes they can’t control the virus, so they shut the city down, release a monster of their own to test it and it runs into Alice, who it turns out is another Umbrella experiment. So a city full of zombies, a few zombie dogs, a few lickers and then Nemesis. All the while an insane scientist is monitoring it all and thinking he’s in control. Oh, right from the first movie, Umbrella is shown to be thinking that they are in control even when it is apparent to anyone with half a brain that they aren’t. That’s half the fun, even as the situation spirals out of control, knowing that Umbrella is going to burn.

Speaking of ramping things up to an 11, well, a tactical nuke is involved at the end of the movie. It helps provide a count down to force the plot forward, but man, knowing that you have to survive and get out or you get nuked really amps up the tension. I liked it. I also enjoyed the fight between Alice and the Nemesis monster. Knowing it was the nice guy from the first movie just made it that much worse, which is the point of RE. Hold out hope only to yank it away again. That’s the formula and it works for the video games and it works for these movies.

Synopsis from Wikipedia:

Synopsis - click to open

Former security operative Alice and environmental activist Matt Addison escape an underground genetic research facility called the Hive after a zombie outbreak.[a] The pair attempted to expose illegal experiments being performed there by the pharmaceutical company Umbrella Corporation before they were taken into custody by Umbrella.

A team from Umbrella investigating the Hive is overrun by zombies, which spreads the outbreak to the nearby Raccoon City. In response, Umbrella quarantines the city and evacuates crucial personnel. Angela Ashford, daughter of researcher Dr. Charles Ashford, goes missing after her security car is involved in a collision during the evacuation. Meanwhile, disgraced S.T.A.R.S operative Jill Valentine returns to her precinct to urge her fellow officers to evacuate. Alice awakens in a deserted hospital and wanders the city for supplies while Umbrella evacuates civilians via the only bridge. At the bridge, Jill encounters her former partner, Sgt. Payton Wells, but a civilian turns into a zombie, biting Wells. Upon the outbreak reaching the bridge, Major Timothy Cain, leader of Umbrella forces, seals the exit, forcing residents back into the city.

After being abandoned by their employer, Umbrella soldiers Carlos Olivera and Nicholai Ginovaef team up with surviving police units to repel various zombie attacks. Their position is overrun; Carlos is bitten and infected. Meanwhile, Jill, Wells, and reporter Terri Morales are saved by Alice just before being overrun. Umbrella deploys the mutated supersoldier, Nemesis, who kills the remaining STARS before searching for Alice. Dr. Ashford hacks into the CCTV system to contact Alice and the survivors, offering to arrange their evacuation in exchange for rescuing his daughter. He makes the same offer to Carlos and Ginovaef, explaining Umbrella plans to destroy Raccoon City with a nuclear warhead to eliminate the zombie infection.

While heading to Angela, Alice and the group are ambushed by Nemesis. Jill kills Wells after he turns into a zombie. Alice fights Nemesis but is injured, leading her to draw him away from the others. Jill and Morales rescue stranded civilian L.J. and later meet Carlos to find Angela, though Morales and Ginovaef are killed. Angela reveals that the zombie outbreak stems from the T-virus, created by her father to treat her genetic condition, and she requires an anti-virus serum to avoid becoming a zombie. Alice uses some of the serum to cure Carlos. Dr. Ashford informs Alice of an extraction point with a waiting helicopter. The group reaches the rendezvous but are ambushed by Umbrella forces. Cain kills Dr. Ashford and compels Alice, revealed to be enhanced by the T-virus, to fight Nemesis. Alice subdues Nemesis but stops when she discovers that Nemesis is Matt, who was mutated by Umbrella's experiments.

Nemesis turns on Cain and attacks the Umbrella troops but is killed while protecting Alice. The remaining survivors seize the helicopter and eject Cain from it, and he is killed by zombies. As the survivors escape, a nuclear warhead detonates over the city, and the resulting blast wave causes the helicopter to crash. Alice sacrifices herself to save Angela and is impaled on a metal pole. T.V. footage attributes the blast to a meltdown of the city's nuclear power plant, obscuring Umbrella's involvement.

Alice wakes up in an Umbrella research facility and escapes with help from Carlos, Jill, L.J., and Angela. She also displays psionic abilities after telekinetically killing a security guard. As they leave, Dr. Alexander Isaacs, a top-ranking Umbrella employee, reveals that Alice's escape is part of Umbrella's plan.

The Heart of what was Lost (The Last King of Osten Ard #0.5) 2.5Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: The Heart of what was Lost
Series: The Last King of Osten Ard #0.5
Author: Tad Williams
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Pages: 201
Words: 79K
Publish: 2017

I didn’t know what to expect from this sequel series to Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. This particular tale is an immediate sequel and features one of the characters from MST chasing down the Norns (evil elves bent on humanity’s destruction) after their plans failed. We get three viewpoints, one from Duke Isgrimnur (the character from MST), one from one of the fleeing Norns and one from a mercenary.

I can’t say I particularly cared for the tone of the story, especially after how well written MST was.

Isgrimnur is angry and upset the entire story. There are reasons but that kind of attitude wasn’t in the forefront in MST and I don’t care for what it may foretell for the rest of this series.

The Norn is dealing with the loss of a war he was sure they could win. He is also dealing with betrayal of his people from within, as now the Norn Queen is in a magical sleep, the factions start fighting each other, even as they face extinction at the hands of the humans. That was a disheartening story line.

Finally, the two mercenaries. One is older and experienced in war while the younger is fresh off the turnip farm. The younger boy dies and the older man rages against the injustices of war the entire time. It was depressing and sad.

None of this is what I expected from Tad Williams coming off of MST. It IS what I expect from the author of the Shadowmarch series (which I found horribly depressing by the end) or The War of the Flowers (the worst kind of urban fantasy in my opinion).

The only reason this isn’t getting 2stars is because of the goodwill built up by MST and I’ll fully acknowledge that is a pretty piss poor reason. Williams better do a fething sight better with the rest of the books in the Last King of Osten Ard series.

★★✬☆☆

From Fandom.com

At the end of Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, Ineluki the Storm King, an undead spirit of horrifying, demonic power, came within moments of stopping Time itself and obliterating humankind. He was defeated by a coalition of mortal men and women joined by his own deathless descendants, the Sithi.

In the wake of the Storm King’s fall, Ineluki’s loyal minions, the Norns, dark cousins to the Sithi, choose to flee the lands of men and retreat north to Nakkiga, their ancient citadel within the hollow heart of the mountain called Stormspike. But as the defeated Norns make their way to this last haven, the mortal Rimmersman Duke Isgrimnur leads an army in pursuit, determined to end the Norns’ attacks and defeat their ageless Queen Utuk’ku for all time.

Two southern soldiers, Porto and Endri, joined the mortal army to help achieve this ambitious goal—though as they venture farther and farther into the frozen north, braving the fierce resistance and deadly magics of the retreating Norns, they cannot help but wonder what they are doing so very far from home. Meanwhile, the Norns must now confront the prospect of extinction at the hands of Isgrimnur and his mortal army.

Viyeki, a leader of the Norns’ military engineers, the Order of Builders, desperately seeks a way to help his people reach their mountain—and then stave off the destruction of their race. For the two armies will finally clash in a battle to be remembered as the Siege of Nakkiga; a battle so strange and deadly, so wracked with dark enchantment, that it threatens to destroy not just one side but quite possibly all.

Trapped inside the mountain as the mortals batter at Nakkiga’s gates, Viyeki the Builder will discover disturbing secrets about his own people, mysteries both present and past, represented by the priceless gem known as The Heart of What Was Lost."

• All of My Osten Ard Reviews

Leviathan - MTG 4E

 

The first rule of Magic Club is that you don't question if the picture makes sense, you just decide if it looks cool. This picture is quite definitely cool! Even if a wizard's tower is somehow surviving with the lights on, underwater!

In the early days of Magic, big powerful cards had serious drawbacks to keep you from abusing them. You want a big ol' 10/10 creature that can crush everything in its path? Fine, but you're going to pay for it, big time! Given that you have to sacrifice so many Islands, this is the kind of card you'd play right near the end of the game to finish things off and leave your opponent stunned. Good times :-D

Daylight Saving: The Vanishing Hour

 

I am not awake now. I do not wish to be awake at 4am, even though the clocks say it is 5am. I hate the Time Change in the spring :-(

Mrs Pollifax and the Second Thief (Mrs Pollifax #10) 4Stars

 

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress & Blogspot by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission

Title: Mrs Pollifax and the Second Thief
Series: Mrs Pollifax #10
Author: Dorothy Gilman
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 147
Words: 52K
Publish: 1993

Ahhhh, another wonderful Mrs Pollifax adventure. There’s just enough danger and thrills to keep it from being cozy. I don’t want cozy. Plus, the assassin Aristotle (who Mrs Pollifax foiled in Mrs Pollifax on Safari) makes a startling return but as is the case every single time with Mrs Pollifax, things are not as they seem, nor do things happen as anyone could possibly predict.

I think that is one of the things I thoroughly enjoy about this series, the pure unexpectedness of how the story unfolds. I never find it unbelievable either. It is “realistic” from this readers’ unlearned viewpoint and since I am so humble, we all know I really mean that.

I like that Gilman makes these standalone stories BUT with call backs to previous books so it makes it a richer experience for those who have been faithfully reading along yet deliberately not alienating those who are just jumping in. Writing for both takes deliberate effort and I think Gilman does a great job at it.

★★★★☆

From the Publisher

The assignment is a snap: Mrs. Pollifax just has to shoot some pictures at a quiet funeral outside Washington and take them to Sicily, where her old friend Farrell — a former CIA agent turned art dealer — anxiously awaits them.

But like all Mrs. P's assignments, so ostensibly suitable for the CIA's favorite garden club member, this one quickly turns lethal. Her welcoming committee in Palermo includes a most unlikely CIA agent and several unseen enemies. Unfriendly eyes also observe Mrs. P's rendezvous with Farrell in a secluded mountain village and weapons are soon displayed. With mysterious forces hot after them, she and Farrell scurry for safety to a fortified country villa, where the bizarre chatelaine, once a star on Madison Avenue, is almost as unnerving as the dangers she's protecting them from.

• All of my “Mrs Pollifax” Reviews