3 Day Weekend of Movies

This is Memorial Day, a day of remembering those that gave up their lives serving our country.  I honor them in my thoughts and prayers for them and their families.  My father and uncle fought in WWII, my father in the Pacific and my uncle in Europe.  I think a part of them died during that war with neither offering to talk about their wars, their fighting.   My uncle opened up once and now I understand why.

Now, this weekend I watched a lot of movies, some I've already forgotten.  The last three were Hondo, Lucy, and The Quiet Man.  Every movie made with Maureen O'Hara and John Wayne were magic.  People still travel to Innisfree to see where the movie was made.  If I was lucky enough or rich enough I would do the trip myself I would do it in a heartbeat.

While Ford and Wayne made a lot of low budget western movies for Republic Films, this was the only one to earn them an Emmy and one of the few films the shot in Technicolor.  In order for this movie to be made, Republic Films had the three film Rio Grande.

Lucy is just another Luc Besson movie, not much else can be said and Hondo is another John Wayne western, while it's not close to being one of my favorites it's still worth the watch.  While Hondo, based on a Louis L'Amour book was directed by John Farrow, one of the last scenes was directed by John Ford because Farrow had to leave the film because the film went over schedule.

I'm in the process of reading The Dune Messiah by Frank Herbert but it's not keeping me as entertained as I would like.  I have to say it is getting better, but between having another go at Arch Linus and trying to load XFCE on it and watching Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and some of my own movies there is just not enough time to read and enjoy the movies.  Arch was another failure and waste of 8 hours so back to Manjaro.

Dune by Frank Herbert, Book 1 in the Dune Saga

This is not the first time I've read Dune, but I haven't read any of the other books in the series. One interesting thing is that the author, Frank Herbert was a speechwriter in the '50s, so you see the behind the scene workings in the running of governments of the Dune universe.  Herbert won a Hugo award and the first Nebula award with Dune.

Dune is about a boy named Paul that is a son of Duke Leto Atreides, starting when the Duke is sent from his world of comfort to the barren desert world Arrakis, known for its melange, or spice, a drug that is coveted by the entire known kingdom of planets overseen by the Emperor Shaddam.  The spice is what makes the governments run and is what the Spacing Guild's navigators to safely route faster-than-light travel between planets.  It is said that "he that controls the spice controls the universe" and that is the aim of Duke Atreides.

With Herbert's political knowledge he writes a book about deceit, upheaval, sinister plots, and deal makings, sort of a futuristic "Game of Thrones".  Dune follows young Paul as a fifteen-year-old son of a Duke to an exiled Duke believed to be dead, to a Freman tribe member and then his rise to the fight for the throne.

I really liked this book.  Sometimes it gets a little long-winded but all in all, it is a good story that has held its greatness over time, with one movie, one mini-series, and a movie in planning stages if not yet already started filming.  If you love science fiction then this is a must read, but I imagine since it is almost 55 years old most science fiction readers have read it since it's been said this is the best selling science fiction novel in history.

I rate this a 9 of 10.

Dune by Frank Herbert

Book 1 in Dune Saga & the Dune Franchise

Finally, I've Installed Arch Linux. Nope Manjaro

Well, if you ask an Arch Linux user they would say not even close but I did install Manjaro XFCE.  There is a big difference and now I think I could do it.  Actually, I installed Arch Gnome last week and it worked, but couldn't, or didn't take the time to try to search out the programs I used on Ubuntu that was not readily available on Arch.  

There are probably big differences in Manjaro and Arch, but Manjaro was built as a lazy man's Arch, with a GUI to install instead of the command line of Arch.

So over a week, I messed with Arch, Manjaro, MX Linus, back and forth to Ubuntu, then to Xubuntu and then this weekend I installed Manjaro twice.  I screwed something up and couldn't find out how to get the screen back to its normal size (I doubled he desktop size but no scrollbars).  One thing I loved is the Conky Manager works.

I used Ubuntu because it was easier to use, at least I thought. Getting some programs really had a huge learning curve but once I figured out the Add/Remove Software and watched a couple of videos I think it'll be easier.

Unless I break something I'll never have to re-install my distro again.  Ubuntu does two releases a year, and when I update it eventually bogs down.  Manjaro is rolling releases where once something updates, it is released.  Plus Ubuntu seems to have spyware, as per Richard Stallman's video and I agree with his opinion.

One thing I liked about Ubuntu was that the online support and fan pages like OMG! Ubuntu is plentiful. Manjaro has a HUGE following lots of online help sites, and then there's Arch with even a larger fan base site and the Arch Wiki page, which is almost too technical for a user like me.  If there's ever been a question about Manjaro or Arch, then it's been answered.  You just have to find the dumbest downed explanation to understand.  Manjaro and Arch are created for two different types of people.  People that are smart enough with programming to do it themselves, and people like me that want to learn.

So with a week of learning, anxiety, frustration, and humbling I feel great.  But that's this week.

Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience by Rebecca Roanhorse

This week I read the Sixth World series by Rebecca Roanhorse.  I've seen reviews here at BookLikes from her two books and nothing but high praise on these reviews.  I think they are two of the best books I've read this year.

If anybody is interested, the short story that earned her the 2017 Hugo Award for The Best Short Story is here, an article in Apex Magazine, which I am not familiar with.

Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience

You can also hear Lavar Burton read the story here.

Storm of Locust by Rebecca Roanhorse, Book 2 in the Sixth World Series

I just finished Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse and had to start and finish Storm of Locust.  That's the nice thing about finding a great book a year after it's been released and the second in the series has already hit the shelves.  I didn't take time to write a review that's how bad I wanted to read this book.  Between Rebecca Roanhorse's storytelling and Tanis Parenteau's performance as the narrator on the audiobook, it becomes a book you can't put down.

Rebecca Roanhorse's use of her Navajo life, re-imagined after an Armageddon scale major catastrophe of what is called Big Water wipes out the world.  All that is left in our protagonist's life is the land of her people, which is east and south, to the west of Big Denver to Burque (Albuquerque) which is south and west, and to the north is the Exalted Mormon Kingdom in the Salt Lake City area which would be north.  To the east is the tops of the Appalachians and then further east is the Swiss Alps.  Nothing else exists in this universe (as of this book).  Rebecca uses the Diyin Dineʼé (Navajo Gods) and clan powers that comes back when the sixth world is created (or brought back) after the catastrophe in her stories, bringing a fresh subject into the fantasy and science fiction genres that makes this series so good.

So go out and grab a copy of Trail of Lightning if you haven't read it and then start Swarm of Locust. You won't be disappointed.  These are BookLikes.com links, give them a try for your book searches.

I rate this a 10 out of 10.  Rebecca Roanhorse keeps the great storytelling going!

Storm of Locust by Rebecca Roanhorse
Book 2 in the Sixth World Series

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse, Book 1 in the Sixth World Series

I've seen this book and the second book of the Sixth World series by Rebecca Roanhorse reviewed at BookLikes Goodreads and I put it not only on my TBR list but to the front of the class and read probably one of the best books I've read this year.  Rebecca is an excellent writer and a better storyteller.  That's probably why she is a Hugo & Campbell award winner.  Her audiobooks are brilliantly performed by Tanis Parenteau, and she does this series justice!  Rebecca does a great job of writing science fiction, fantasy, and her Navajo heritage.

Our antihero is Maggie, a monster killer, trained by Neizghání who's Mother was a god and is known as a slayer of monsters.  Neizghání shows up in Maggie's life after she finds that she has a clan power, something that is rare in this post-armageddon life. The book starts up a couple of years after Neizghání abandons Maggie.  Now people come to Maggie and rely on her to kill monsters.  Maggie's first adventure in the book is to track down a missing little girl that turns out to have been taken by a monster.

That's all you'll get from me. a poorly written review but hopefully you will believe me when I tell you this book and series is worth your time.  It will be one of the series that will fill in for Hearne's Iron Druid series now that it is finished and also Jim Butcher's Dresden Files since he's probably decided to enjoy life for a while.  Rebeca Roanhorse's Sixth World series is that good.

I rate this 10 of 10. Best fantasy I've read this year!

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse
Book 1 in the Sixth World Series

God Touched by John Conroe, The Demon Accords Series, Book 1

After reading the two books in the series of 'Tales of Pell' narrated by Luke Daniels, I was really not enjoying the book.  After about 40% in it start coming in to be a good read.  I'm doing the audiobook at the same time just like the aforementioned series, but James Patrick Cronin's rendition of God Touched took me a while to get into it.  I don't want to say Luke is better or compare the two because these are two-way different types of books.  I bet Cronin could do his multiple characters in crazy voices just like Daniels, so I got over it.

God Touched was released back in 2010 and has been successful in Conroe's Demon Accord series.  The main protagonist is Christian Gordon, who has been a demon hunter for the last few years of his young life.  Now he has just passed his probational period with the NYPD and learns there are other supernatural things in life, like vampires, werewolves, werebears, wereweazils, and were-anything-carnivorous to go along with Demons.

Not much reason to really give a detailed review or throw spoilers in.  Like I said earlier it was released in 2009 and reviewed probably over 1000 times.

If you like Urban Fantasy, Vampires, Demons, were-whatevers, and other things supernatural with a light dash of romantics then you should enjoy this.

For me, this is a 7 of 10, really worth reading.

God Touched by John Conroe

The Demon Accords series, book 1

The mind behind Linux | Linus Torvalds

I just watched the interview below with Linus Torvalds and thought I would do a little rambling (or babbling).  He's the mind behind Linux, which is the OS on more servers that operate the internet, and also powers most business and government servers in the world, and you have to remember the Linux Kernel is behind all the Android phones (81% of smartphones), TV's, Raspberry PI's, refrigerators (that connect to the internet), Playstations,  and almost anything else that connects to the world.  Apple's IOS was originally based on Unix, which is not a free open source like Linux but an OS you purchase.  I bring this up because Linus wanted to buy a Unix system but could not afford it so with his love for coding, he created his own.

Then you have Windows and MS-DOS.  

I think that Bill Gates (along with Paul Allen) has done the most for computing, by being the face that made having a computer in your home a necessity.  Then you have Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, the founders of Apple.  If computers were cars then Apple would be the Jeep Cherokee, the hip car to buy,  Microsoft would be the Toyota Camry, probably the best selling car today, and then all the Linux flavors would be the Ford F150.  The best selling vehicle today.  You have to remember that Apple makes its own computer.  Microsoft is new to the manufacturing side with the Microsoft Surface but everybody makes a computer to sell that is powered by Microsoft.  If Microsoft was a car then it would be the motor and drive train.  Linux would probably be the starter.  The Linux Foundation, where Linus Torvalds works do not do user interfaces.  All the cars above that are sold in the US are made in the US, but only one is a car.  I tried

Two things Torvalds says really interests me:

1. He's not a people person.  Neither am I.
2. He doesn't look to the future.  He says we need people that look to the stars and try to create the future, but he is a look at the ground and fix the pothole in front of me.

What I've learned about Torvalds over the years is that he's an un-intentional jerk, driven from being more stubborn than smart (and he's really smart), and while he is a complicated man, he lives a simple life.

For a detailed written description (and another source for the interview) of the video click Here.  

I also watched a couple of video interviews with Kevin Mitnick, a hacker once on the FBI's most wanted list.  He's living proof that your computer is like your house.  You can lock the doors and windows but if somebody wants in, they are gonna get in.

This was written on an 8-year-old computer using Ubuntu powered by the Linux Kernal 5.0.0-13-generic.  Thank you, Linus, for all the years I've used your idea.

No Country For Old Gnomes by Delilah S Dawson and Kevin Hearne, Book 2 in the Tales of Pell Series.

There's a big difference in this book and the first book.  No Country for Old Gnomes is more of a fantasy than humor, where the first book was more humorous.  Dawson and Hearne must have one heck of an editor, intertwining the writings of two very good writers into a magnificent story.  Put the great writing along with Luke Daniels voice acting and you get a very great product.  Please don't get me wrong, this book is really a fun book to read, the imagination of these two writers and where they get their ideas are second to none.  

The main characters are 2 gnomes (one acting as his twin brother), a halfling, an ovitaur (think a satyr, but more sheep-y), a dwarf, and a gryphon.  Just like the first book they must start a quest, with this quest being to save the gnomes from extinction.

Be warned tho, the dwarf swears a lot, like "Oh, my angry asparagus!", "Oh, piglet pants!" and other really bad swearing.

Dawson and Hearne gave us a really fun book to read.  Hearne says the first is not required to be read first but it is one of the funniest fantasy books you'll ever read, so read them both, in order.

I rate this an 8 of 10, a great fantasy that needs reading.  Also one of the best book covers this year.

No Country For Old Gnomes by Delilah S Dawson and Kevin Hearne

Book 2 in the Tales of Pell series.

Another Day of Deliveries

Another fun day making deliveries.  After going to a community built on a race track, with nothing happening on the track, I got to go into another exclusive gated community.  No names to protect my job, but with the beautiful landscaping at this one, I would love to spend the day walking and taking pictures.  I'm sure I'd end up in jail and fired but this is a beautiful community.  The top picture is an address sign for a residence, the second is just a common ground waterfall.  Both with beautiful bronze Desert Bighorn Sheep, an endangered species and pride of our desert.

Here's a couple of more from the same place from 2 years ago.