Good Points: free wifi, accessible from here. I can forgive a lot for free wifi.
Bad Points: TV in waiting room tuned to Fox News. That's what iTunes and WoW were made for.
Foxaganda Trails:
"Obama's Gonna Close Gitmo and release the terrists,
we're all gonna die!!!"
Where the
fsck does FNC get all those idiots?
Calling Ann Coulter a "cvnt" is an insult to vaginas.
Bill O'Reilly wears a tie to keep his foreskin from rolling up his neck. Fsck BillO and the phone sex falafel sandwich he rode in on.
Calling Sean Hannity a "retard" insults the mentally ill.
Meat Loaf on Hannity; time to delete
Bat Out Of Hell from the HD
This siege of semi-forced TV reminded me of why I don't own a set. I turned up the music, risking hearing loss to keep the IQ points from leaking out my ears.
THREE fuel pumps out of the box . . . but now they know WHY: the shop's been ordering the WRONG ONES!!
During my vehicle-less stretch this week, I downloaded more ebooks for my reading pleasure. Or so I hoped. I'm a very big fan of Eric Flint's
1632 series. If you were to design in a lab a sf series to appeal strictly to me, the premise of "Have a cosmic accident drop a small West Virginia town into Thurungia at the height of the Thirty Years' War. Watch hilarity ensue." is a at the top of the list. The original
1632 is a classic on the same plane as H. Beam Piper's
Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen (premise: "Pennsylvania State Trooper stumbles upon a transport device of the Time Patrol, winds up in a parallel universe where North America was originally settled by Aryan migration across the Pacific Ocean ("Aryan Transpacific"), with early 1600s tech and a church that deems gunpowder(!) a religious sacrament . . ."). Another good comparison volume of course is S.M. Stirling's
Dies the Fire (Premise: "
Alien Space Bats An Unknown Force shut down all electronic and high explosive / high combustion technologies, reducing the world to pre-1100 tech; SCAdians and Pagans war over the ruins . . . Oh, and Nantucket is missing."
Anyway, 1632 spawned numerous sequalae:
1633 (co-written with David Weber),
1634: The Baltic War (also co-written with DW), numerous "Grantville Gazette" volumes of vignettes and short stoies, and at least three other "163x" volumes. The first two volumes in this list are both awesome. Weber and Flint collaborated earlier on an awesome book set in Weber's Honorverse,
Crown of Slaves, so I knew the first two sequals would rock. They did.
This brings us to
1634: The Bravarian Crisis. The book is not exactly a contunuation of
1634:TBW, it focuses on our favorite medieval / early modern royal dynasty: those lovable
Hapsburgs! The co-author knows her 17th-century Germany. I learned more about the Hapsburgs in reading this book than I ever knew before I picked it up. Yes, the plot was okay . . . but it was BORING as all hell. Okay,
1634: TBC was really about "soft power." Building things like modern schools, while avoiding enemies like the Inquisition, the Society of Jesus and the French. Not to mention what happens when the Holy Roman Emperor (talk about 'three lies for the price of one') loses the will to live. Too much touchy-feely, not enough "Let's show them the meaning of
Rate of Fire!"
Perhaps that's coming in future books . . . but this one struggled to hold my interest. At least it was better than Orson Scott Card's magnum opiate,
Empire. I may give
1635: The Cannon Law a chance. Or not. Two months till
Storm from the Shadows . . . hopefully eight - ten till
Torch of Freedom (aka
Crown of Slaves II) and
Mission of Honor next year.
Once I get the car back, methinks I will see
Gran Torino. You simply cannot go wrong with Clint Eastwood, marauding gangbangers and a M1 Garand. Also
Defiance.
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Listening to:
R.E.M. - Imitation of Life (Live)via
FoxyTunes
Grim Toll and 
Totem of Dueling. I took 25 Emblems of Heroism and bought a 
Pendant of the Outcast Hero. 38k honor points got me a 
Hateful Gladiator"s Cloak of Triumph. All of my items are at least good quest blues, Heroic dungeon drops, Badge, Honor or raid / Tier 7 gear. Reset is tomorrow, so I'll be good to run 10/25 Naxx/VoA/OS again. I'm good for most heroic raids now, heroic dungeons -- except for end boss drops -- are no help any longer.
