Random opportunities for snap pics and here is the reward. Enjoy!!! Only wish I had my camera with me during this morning’s walk there would be a bald eagle and a blue heron to add to these.
Archives
All posts for the month May, 2017
American Gold Finch invasion LOL.
That combined with Squirrel Smorgasbord-ing in the new feeder my wive had just gotten me for my birthday!!! (If I hunker down will they see me?)
Secret Squirrel
Enjoy
I enjoy my backyard very much these days. Please enjoy these pictures. Finches, Chickadee, A Robin and maybe a Phoebe.
Mona Lisa Overdrive
Written by William Gibson.
Narrated by Jonathan Davis.
Publisher’s Summary:
The award-winning William Gibson goes beyond science fiction to the broader mainstream fiction audience. His unique world features multinational corporations and high-tech outlaws vying for power, traveling the computer-generated universe.
Plot summary from wikipedia:
Taking place eight years after the events of Count Zero and fifteen years after Neuromancer, the story is formed from several interconnecting plot threads, and also features characters from Gibson’s previous works (such as Molly Millions, the razor-fingered mercenary from Neuromancer).
One of the plot threads concerns Mona, a teen prostitute who has a more-than-passing resemblance to famed Simstim superstar Angie Mitchell. Mona is hired by shady individuals for a “gig” which later turns out to be part of a plot to abduct Angie.
The second story focuses on a young Japanese girl named Kumiko, daughter of a Yakuza boss sent to London to keep her safe while her father engages in a gang war with other top Yakuza leaders. In London she is cared for by one of her father’s retainers, who is also a powerful member of the London Mob. She meets Molly Millions (having altered her appearance and now calling herself “Sally Shears”, in order to conceal her identity from hostile parties who are implied to be pursuing her), who takes the girl under her wing.
The third story thread follows a reclusive artist named Slick Henry, who lives in a place named Factory in the Dog Solitude; a large, poisoned expanse of deserted factories and dumps, perhaps in New Jersey. Slick Henry is a convicted (and punished) car thief. As a result of the repetitive brainwashing nature of his punishment, he spends his days creating large robotic sculptures and periodically suffers episodes of time loss, returning to consciousness afterward with no memory of what he did during the blackout. He is hired by an acquaintance to look after the comatose “Count” (Bobby Newmark from the second novel, Count Zero, who has hooked himself into a super-capacity cyber-harddrive called an Aleph). A theoretical “Aleph” would have the RAM capacity to literally contain all of reality, enough that a memory construct of a person would contain the complete personality of the individual and allow it to learn, grow and act independently.
The final plot line follows Angela Mitchell, famous simstim star and the girl from the second Sprawl novel Count Zero. Angie, thanks to brain manipulations by her father when she was a child, has always had the ability to access cyberspace directly (without a cyberspace deck), but drugs provided by her production company Sense/Net have severely impeded this ability.
My Take:
Steppin’ Razor is back the final installment of the trilogy. Molly Millions, Sally Shears, Misty Steel…along with a Yakuza Boss, A London mob Boss, an exceptional tech deck cowboy Bobby Newmark are being hunted and extorted by a ghost in the machine Three Jane. As with all of Gibson’s works I am usually three chapters in before I have a clue what’s going on. Excellent writing and the range of the narrator pulls off a stellar performance. Five by five awesome cyberpunk nerdiness points.
The Series (The Complete Sprawl Trilogy):
http://www.audible.com/series?ref_=a_lib_l__vsml_1_1&asin=B006K1POZE
For We Are Many: Bobiverse, Book 2
Written by Dennis E. Taylor.
Narrated by Ray Porter.
Publisher’s Summary:
The highly anticipated sequel to Audible’s Best of 2016 – Science Fiction winner, We Are Legion (We Are Bob); a book listeners are calling “so much fun”, “what science fiction was meant to be”, and what would happen if “Andy Weir and Ernest Cline had a lovechild”.
Bob Johansson didn’t believe in an afterlife, so waking up after being killed in a car accident was a shock. To add to the surprise, he is now a sentient computer and the controlling intelligence for a Von Neumann probe.
Bob and his copies have been spreading out from Earth for 40 years now, looking for habitable planets. But that’s the only part of the plan that’s still in one piece. A system-wide war has killed off 99.9 percent of the human race; nuclear winter is slowly making the Earth uninhabitable; a radical group wants to finish the job on the remnants of humanity; the Brazilian space probes are still out there, still trying to blow up the competition; and the Bobs have discovered a spacefaring species that sees all other life as food.
Bob left Earth anticipating a life of exploration and blissful solitude. Instead he’s become a sky god to a primitive native species, the only hope for getting humanity to a new home, and possibly the only thing that can prevent every living thing in the local sphere from ending up as dinner.
Listener favorite Ray Porter returns to narrate Bob – and his many incarnations – in all of their geeky glory.
My Take:
Humans are now spread to 2 systems and several Bob’s are running a shuttle service from Sol to Romulus and Remus. Other Bobs continue to explore and are coming to the realization that Fermi’s paradox has an artificial answer…The Others. This work is rich and humorous at times yet it manages to convey thoughtful entertainment in all of its storylines. I really want more of the Bobiverse.
Five out of five entertainment laughing units for writing and narration. Enjoy!
http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/For-We-Are-Many-Audiobook/B01N17THEO
Captain Canuck: The Money Run
Created by Richard Comely and Ron Leishman.
Captain Canuck has been working long hours on grueling cases with Keybec and he’s got a low tolerance for his boss right now. The boss that has been keeping critical information regarding someone stealing from CISO. That someone has to be a highly trained agent of a foreign power considering how much they’ve already stolen.
Canuck and Keybec spring a trap they didn’t even know they were setting for the guy and just manage to nab him before he hijacked a plane with a woman hostage. Hmmm, 1980s but sounds like today.
I love this comic franchise. It is the Great White North “Get out ya Hoser!” to Marvel Universe.
My favorite source for Canuck is:
But in order to get retro volumes you might have to resort to Amazon searches for the best deals:
https://www.amazon.com/Captain-Canuck-Complete-Richard-Comely/dp/1613770812
The Deer in the Backyard or the snow?
Western Tanager?
Goose, goose, Grebe (Clark’s)?
Beevis and Buttmunch
Western Tanager Angry Bird
Enjoy!
Golden Son: Book II of the Red Rising Trilogy (perhaps more)
Written by Pierce Brown.
Narrated by Tim Gerard Reynolds.
Publisher’s Summary:
With shades of The Hunger Games, Ender’s Game, and Game of Thrones, debut author Pierce Brown’s genre-defying epic Red Rising hit the ground running and wasted no time becoming a sensation. Golden Son continues the stunning saga of Darrow, a rebel forged by tragedy, battling to lead his oppressed people to freedom from the overlords of a brutal elitist future built on lies. Now fully embedded among the Gold ruling class, Darrow continues his work to bring down Society from within.
A life-or-death tale of vengeance with an unforgettable hero at its heart, Golden Son guarantees Pierce Brown’s continuing status as one of fiction’s most exciting new voices.
My Take:
Darrow Al Andromedaus, the Red Hell Diver, who was carved into a Gold in Red Rising is trying his damnedest to win the trust of his benefactor Nero Augustus, the Arch Governor of Mars. The goal is to free the Reds and other low colors by breaking the Golds. The ups and downs of Darrow’s fates are enough to give me whiplash in this installment but the action kept me into it. A solar system Civil war is just the thing to…reach the goal? The story and performance were excellent. Five out of five entertainment units awarded and a laurel crown.
http://www.audible.com/pd/Sci-Fi-Fantasy/Golden-Son-Audiobook/B00R6S1RCY
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