Year: 2004

Here I am sitting at my desk, trying to figure out whether or the program I test is working correctly or not. I’m going over some printouts when a co-worker walks up trying to sell stuffed animals as a fund raiser for March of Dimes; only I’m out of cash and politely tell her so. As she’s walking away another of my co-workers starts talking to her about the stuffed animals and that’s when I take a real look at them. They’re little brown bunnies but instead of feet the bunnies have putrid green lambs I think the idea is supposed to be that the toy is wearing lamb slippers, but the result to my tired and twisted brain is that the bunnies are the survivors of some mad scientists genetic experiments.

You know the more I think about those bunnies; the more I think I should go get some cash and buy one. 😀

Once again, I stayed up too late doing nothing in particular (reading some websites, trying to figure out more WP stuff, playing UT2004, etc..) so I’m feeling extremely tired this morning. The other side affect of staying up so late is that I can remember some of my dreams from last night.

In the dream, I’m the captain of a commercial airliner (a Boeing 747, I think). We’re making a routine flight from somewhere to somewhere else when something goes extremely wrong. What exactly goes wrong, I can’t tell but I know that I’ve lost around half my passengers and an engine or two.

We make an emergency landing on an interstate or maybe on a turnpike and one of the wings (and one of the remaining engines) gets snapped off by a support column for an overpass and then we’re finally able to bring the plane to a stop.

The next thing I know my copilot and I are carrying some flat-bed like thing that I intrinsically know weighs around 1300 lbs. We carry through a couple of building hallways before meeting up with superior officers/crash investigators. They make some sort of joke, but I don’t laugh. Then we carry the flat up a slight incline, set it done, pause for a moment to remember those who died and then reach into a wall panel, pulling out some heavy duty computer cable, which then gets hooked into the flat.

That’s where I woke up, though I did have a fleeting sense that the flat thing was some how acting as a blackbox data/flight recorder device.

Note to self: No more late night tacos for dinner.

I just finished reading Mr. McKiernan’s Silver Wolf, Black Falcon and while I found it to be an enjoyable read; it was nearly as good as some of his other books (e.g. “The Eye of the Hunter“). The characters were not fleshed out as fully as had been done in previous books and in part that it likely because this book brings an end to the Mithgar saga. Alas, the book has a certain sense to it that Mr. McKiernan was tired of writing about the Mithgar world and wanted to move onto other projects. The ending in particular feels a bit rushed, but still if you’re a fan of Mr. McKiernan’s other works, then this is a good book for you to read. Overall, I give it: 3 out of 5 points.

Next up, I’ll be returning to the Egypt of early 1900’s by reading Elizabeth Peter’s He Shall Thunder In The Sky. However, since I won’t be stuck in some stupid hotel room for a week with nothing to do; I probably won’t get through this one quite as quickly as I did the last.

I finished reading Elizabeth Peter’s The Falcon at the Portal last night and while I did enjoy it; I’m finding that I like the newer books in this series less and less. The idea that Ms. Peters is the Editor of Emerson family’s personal papers and has assembled the books from the remains of Ameila’s journals and some manuscripts/letters written by Ramses & Nefret just isn’t working for me. It didn’t help that this story took a darker turn that most of the Ameila Peabody mysteries (e.g. not all of your favorite characters walked away unscathed at the end of this book). For having a darker end than I cared for and continuing this trend of assembling the story from the “incomplete and scattered papers” of the Emerson family; I’m only giving this book 3 out of 5 points.

Since I knew that I was getting a bit tired of a steady reading diet of mysteries; I didn’t bring the next Amelia Peadbody mystery with me. Instead, I’ll be reading Dennis L. McKiernan’s Silver Wolf, Black Falcon next. Since I’m stuck at the home office all week, I will most likely finish this one in the next couple of days.

Disney recently released an extremely cool toy that a friend of my, Bryon, has always wanted. It was a bit pricey, but AWelkin talked him into getting it. He did a review of it that got posted over at the Captain Toy website. After reading the review, I wish I had the money to get one. Ah well, you win some; you lose some.