Now Reading

I'm not actually reading all of these right now, I've mostly finished them and have just been remiss in blogging.

The Gripping Hand by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, summarized at the linked Wiki article. This is the sequel to the classic "first contact with an alien race" novel The Mote in God's Eye. This one was enjoyable, and had an interesting space battle; however, it's more about diplomacy and conniving, with less sense of wonder than Mote.

We Few, by John Ringo and David Weber. The cover lists Weber first but I'd bet Ringo did most of it, aside from some of the space battle scenes which bear Weber's usual "millions of missiles" imprint. This is the fourth book in the series that starts with March Upcountry, and you really have to have read the first three to know what's going on--which I have, but not lately. One key point which I'd forgotten is that Prince Roger is not just unreasonably strong and fast because of Authorial Favor; he's actually bioengineered and there's a good reason for it. If you've read the first three, you'll want to read this one.

Moon Called by Patricia Briggs is the story of a skinwalker (and auto mechanic) who's trying to deal with the werewolf and vampire subcultures in Washington State. There were a couple of times when I felt the author gave a character a special power in the midst of things--"it turns out that, in addition to being a shape shifter, you're immune to some forms of magic"--but overall it was enjoyable.

Second to None by Alexander Kent. This is number 24 in the Bolitho series, and is more of a "Now not reading" book. Some of the earlier ones were good--not as good as the Hornblower series, but enjoyable. In this one, however, there's no action for the first couple of chapters; instead, you have pretty much all the major characters from the first 23 books, reminiscing about what happened in previous books. "Alice saw Bob, and remembered how Bob's mistress Charlotte had looked when they had rescued her. But then Charlotte had gotten pregnant by Bob's uncle Daniel, and jumped off a cliff when the baby died. Alice remembered how lovely and sad Elizabeth, Daniel's sister, had looked when they brought in the ...." and so on and on and on. I felt like saying "Okay, okay, everyone knows everyone. Now someone shoot something!"

Bowling

Josh and I went bowling tonight, with Diana cheerleading. I scored an unusually high 182 in the first game, a more typical 107 in the second. It was an enjoyable and socially acceptable way to smash things and make loud noises--unlike, say, marching through with claymores, axes and bagpipes, which I might otherwise prefer. And bowling requires just enough concentration to keep your mind off other things. The only problem was that Pinboys is not smoke-free, and the haze was thick enough that I had to change clothes when we got home.

Going to Jail

Not me, but a dear friend of ours. We knew there was a chance of this, but there was a motion to suppress evidence from an illegal search, and the judge had ruled in favor of the defense on a similar case recently. Not this time, though.
Finding out was like a block of ice in the pit of my stomach--and that was just me. I hate to even think about how she felt when her lawyer called: "Next time you come out here, you need to be prepared to stay for 30 to 60 days." Yeah, well, staying isn't the problem. I happened to have been reading a legal novel in which the main character went to jail and was traumatized by the experience. The problem is the body cavity search (which would be "sexual assault" in other contexts), it's not being able to bring books, it's not having any choice about who's sleeping in the cell with you, it's people watching you shower and use the toilet, it's wondering every day whether you will get stabbed or beaten up, it's not having any choice about what you do, or when, or what you wear, or anything else. I know the author of that legal novel researched the Virginia Beach jail; hopefully the one our friend will actually be going to, in a small resort town, is better.
And she's not going to somewhere nearby, where at least we could visit every day; it's in Utah, with none of her friends or family nearby.

AAR: Pourvoyeuse vs East Indiamen

Ater action report for a Close Action game, scenario from Monsoon Seas. In the original action in 1782, the French frigate apparently plinked for two hours and decided the Indiamen were too tough for her. I always thought that the French captain was...perhaps not cowardly, exactly, but certainly not as bold as he could have been. I found out why.
Josh played the four HEIC ships, which start in a straggly line close hauled on the starboard tack. I played Pourvoyeuse, beating upwind on the port tack and headed to intercept the lead Indiaman. The aggressive merchantmen closed on me, moving to envelope my frigate. His first shot caused "leadership casualties" and of course I failed the morale check, dropping from C to D quality. I realized that if I were in the midst of them, they could all shoot at me and I could only shoot at one of them, and probably not the same one all the time. Therefore I ran downwind, trying to get outside of the mob; but one of them accidentally rammed me and fouled, and by the time I got unfouled, the others had boxed me in. I nearly escaped, but Berampore charged over and cut me off. Her gunnery wasn't much of a threat but I had to heave to to avoid a collision, and again the other Indiamen had shots at me with fresh broadsides.We ended the game at turn 14 with Pourvoyeuse at E quality, her Basic Gunnery starting at an 18 factor at range 1, but reduced by -3 for a crew section, -2 fatigue, -2 crew quality, and -4 guns dismounted, for a whopping net 7 gunnery factor. The frigate had lost 1 rigging, 2 hull, and 1 sailor, for a total of 13 points to the English. The HEIC flag had lost 2 masts and a hull, and the Berampore had lost a hull and was on fire, giving a total 5VP to the French. I'm told this scenario is a lot more realistic, and easier for the frigate, with the Indiamen divided among two players. Nonetheless, we had a good time.

Goals for the Year

For 2009:
I'm going to write 5000 words per month, 60,000 words this year.
I'm going to learn about stocks sufficiently to pass the Series 7 exam and begin trading. (I realize you don't have to know anything about stocks to trade).
I'm going to get my weight down to 190lb.

Invisible improvements

This house is a bit colder than our previous place, for several reasons. One reason turned out to be that when the builder put in the stove power outlet, he cut a piece about 9 x 12" out of the wallboard, and didn't bother to cover that space back up. Cold air has been coming out of that opening, which means you can stand on the kitchen tiles and watch frost form on your toenails.
I've just spent an hour pulling the stove away from the wall, getting out the saw, getting out the ply wood, measuring, cutting, nailing the piece in place, then putting everything back. This has made absolutely no visible change at all, but I know it's an improvement.
In many areas, I just need to keep making invisible improvements.

Battle, and Queen Victoria's Little Wars

Battle: a Visual Journey Through 5000 Years of Combat and Queen Victoria's Little Wars.
Battle is fairly graphics heavy, with three or four portraits and illustrations per page. Opening the book at random to page 160-161, it uses those two pages to cover Ramillies, Malplaquet, Dettingen, Fontenoy and Culloden--each one with date, location marked on a map of Europe, plus estimates of forces and casualties for each side, plus a couple hundred words on the course of the battle and its consequences--as well as a brief description of the Duke of Marlborough. That's fairly typical, although occasionally you get a page or two with something like an overview of the Hundred Years War, or Nelson's navy.
Little Wars picks several campaigns and tells their story, with attention to the interesting people who participated. It doesn't tell how many men and guns were on each side, nor give maps of the battlefields; instead of tells about people like the British lady who rode along with a cavalry charge in the Crimea to see what it was like, and a battle in the Indian Mutiny in which the two British commanders both outranked each other.