Randomization

About a year ago, Humble Bundle put on a sale of over a hundred Battletech books for $45. As ridiculous as it is to have giant, walking machines as the best fighters in the galaxy, I still love the stories and universe. And that is one hell of a deal. I don't read as much as I should so over the last year only two or three had been read. Last week I read five. It's nice to just have them on your phone. It's also helping my mental health, not so much that I am reading more, but it's keeping me away from non-stop doom-scrolling and reading of the atrocities happening in the world. But the Battletech universe is also a very political one. It's all about the great houses fighting each other and the background politics involved in this. So, after the five books last week, I needed something a little different. That's when I found the Rama series for $13 on the apple store. These are books I've read before but I read them in the order of book 3, 2, 4 then 1. And i...

"Navigator!" I hear you call. "Did you get too busy sitting on your ass during vacation that you forgot to post yesterday?" Of course not, dear reader. I would never. Yesterday was no normal day. I would have posted but a crazy set of events happened of which I shall now pour onto this page. My family and I visited my sister in law over in Red Deer. Yesterday, I was sitting in the back yard, enjoying the weather, when who should appear out of the trees but a most unexpected visitor: the next door neighbor. "Hold this for me!" He said then rushed off after handing me a Samsung fold phone. Well I wasn't born yesterday so I immediately stripped down and hid it in the only hiding place I know of, nature's pocket. I then began to run due north (remember that direction, it appears later). So, there I am running east when the phone un-folds, edges ripping and tearing. Of course, I couldn't do anything with the cops after me so I kept running and juked...

My car is a little annoying. It doesn't automatically go to the last thing you were listening to, which for me is always Bluetooth, but just defaults to the radio. I have it set to 90.5 CFCR so I get to hear some stuff. Last night, when coming home from the dog park (pictures at the end) it came on and it was the weekly board game show. They were talking about some scandal so I listened in. The company that makes the Codenames games, CGE, announced a Harry Potter game which was met with some backlash due to J. K. Rowlings poor behavior. All said and done, the company didn't handle it overly well and has only indicated it will donate any proceeds to pro-2LGBTQIA+ groups. One of the comments made by a host was that this isn't a case of separating art from artist. Since J. K. Rowling gives money to Anti-2LGBTQIA+ groups, buying the art is doing harm. I get this and agree with it. Thumbs up all around on that take. Actually makes me glad I never got into Mr. Potter and the Gan...

Long time reader and part time televangelist, Pilot, and I have discussed band members previously. One thing was always, what is the original lineup. For instance, Lamb of God had many members, but when they finally settled on the name, they didn't change anyone until very recently. So, did they all count as original members? Or the case of Clutch who is all original members but had a keyboardist join for a couple albums and then leave. They didn't replace him. Or the case of Opeth where no members are original, but all albums were written primarily by Mikael Akerfeldt. The guy who came up with the name quit when he joined though. These are all Ship of Theseus type things though. Mainly, where do you draw a line. In the end it's each persons opinion and really doesn't matter. But, I'm currently listening to an album Between the Buried and Me put out in 2006 which is just a bunch of covers. Van Halen, Soundgarden, Queen, Pink Floyd, Pantera, etc. It got me thinking o...

And keeps going if it's controlled. Fuck that red light. I didn't plan anything for this post so it should fit the randomization theme quite well. Capone went to the vet for his yearly check up last week. Apparently they all loved his face and he's five pounds overweight. Doing better than me. Also explains how he figured that going on the scale means treats. We also got some stuff for his foot fungus that's crept up again. It's so bad that he doesn't put his foot down after going to the park since the skin is so raw. Been working on fixing it for awhile but now we have the big guns. He really is the expensive dog. Sadie went two weeks before and is perfect. No surprise. Took them both to the chief whitecap beach. Neither of them swim much, though I know Capone can, but they do love running in the water. And barking at others in Sadie's case. And yelling at Sadie to be quite in Daniella's case. Didn't do anything else for the long weekend other than ...

Recently, my wife and step-daughter bought me a small BBQ for father's day. It's been used a lot and is a great gift, but I still haven't fully come to terms with the whole father part of it. I didn't meet the the spawn until she was thirteen and she's eighteen now. So it's only been five years and she had her grandfather doing far more of the father work in the years before that. He passed away shortly after we met but there is still no doubt in anyone's mind that he was more of the father figure to her. "What's your point, dipshit?" I hear you ask, rather rudely. Due to the stupid state of economies these days, the spawn is still living at home myself and her mother. This morning, I woke her up as I was leaving for work, made her come downstairs and sort out the garbage from recycling in the blue bin then put it out. This is the third strike she's put her dirty food bags with half drank smoothies in the recycling so I figured this might m...

We've all heard by now that both Ozzy Osbourne and Hulk Hogan passed away this week. Both are giants who made their respective industries what they are today, but did it in completely opposite ways. Ozzy is known as the price of darkness and sang about Satan but is generally known as a great guy that everyone who met him liked. He let Sharon do his dirty work and that relationship worked perfect. Hulk Hogan on the other hand was the shining, American good guy of wrestling but is generally known as a complete asshole. Just more reminders than who a person is and who they appear to be isn't the same thing. In recent years we've been seeing more and more famous people dying. We didn't have the quantity of famous people we have now until the 60's with the Beatles and Elvis. That's when it really started to take off so I imagine famous people dying is the new norm. Death has always been a different concept for me than I think it is for most people. I'm not religi...