Tuesday, June 15, 16:01 CDT
I got home Sunday evening. Spent the week in Breckenridge, Colorado - my dad
had one of those meetings that serve as an excuse for everyone to bring their
families and do expensive stuff on the company tab. Meant to update before I
left, but Hardlink's servers were down (or unreachable, at any rate).
Had fun in CO - we went whitewater rafting on the Arkansas River, which by itself was worth the trip. Zinging through water 5 or 6 degrees away from being snow, paddling for all you're worth (which isn't much, in my case), knowing full well that if you should happen to be violently ejected from the raft, most rocks swim better than you do... It's an incredible experience. Makes your average amusement park ride look kinda lame by comparison. Although I'd reccomend knowing how to swim a little better than a rock before you try it.
I'm looking at a cardboard standup of an Imperial stormtrooper that I couldn't resist buying. I don't really have room for it, but I think it adds a lot to the decor of my room; standing there with blaster levelled at my door, as if waiting for rebel scum to come pouring through...
A few books I've read lately:
- The Summer Tree and The Wandering Fire, the first 2 books of The Fionavar Tapestry, by Guy G. Kay - A lot more Standard Fantasy than his later stuff. Would be better without the Tolkienesque elvesndwarves. Still well worth a read though, and I'm looking forward to the final volume.
- The Princess Bride, by William Goldman - The best book -> movie translation I've ever read and watched. Definitely a classic.
- Island in the Sea of Time, by S.M. Stirling - The island of Nantucket gets dropped into 1250 BC for some reason or another. Every bit as good as this sort of book should be, and a great piece of "what if...". I'll have to get the sequel. (IIRC, this is going to be a 3 volume series.)
- Gibbon's Decline and Fall, by Sheri S. Tepper - Heavily political and preachy. Despite which I didn't find it nearly as obnoxious as I would have expected, and it's definitely thought provoking. Worth a shot, anyway.
I watched Babylon 5: A Call to Arms, and the first episode of Crusade Wednesday. A Call to Arms is definitely one of the better B5 movies. Nice effects work, and the music was decent. Very effective at times; gave the whole thing a different flavor.
The Crusade ep... Well... It sucked. It just seemed so unnecessary. A Call to Arms already provides a great intro for the show; why was the standard "And this is how they picked up crew member X" episode needed? There was cool stuff there, but it should've been used as flashbacks in later episodes, if anything.