Monday, July 29, 2019

Thoughts From Dead Souls by Angela Marsons

Dead Souls by Angela Marsons is really hitting me close to home.  Being born in the deep South, Alabama, I came to age when desegregation was hitting the South.  I remember going outside as a kid and finding flyers for KKK meetings littering the streets of our quiet neighborhood.  I remember miniature KKK comic books also left in the gutters for kids to find, making KKK members almost superheroes.

I remember the first black kids in my all-white school and couldn't get over how shy they were.  It took years for me to figure out they weren't shy, they were scared to death.  I remember being in the High School band where there was no racism, or so I thought.

I remember living in OKC, OK at 21 and making best friends with a Kickapoo Indian, attending pow-wows and learning their customs at these events.  I practically lived with them and watched how they were treated, and how some of their family reacted.

I remember moving to California and when visiting back in Alabama being asked how I could live around "all them Mexicans".  This was from a family member.

I was lucky not to have had racist parents, even though most of my peers were and I became racist at a young age through osmosis, I don't think I ever hated a group of people but I did do things that were hurtful.  I later found out that if you put yourself in the melting pot you could overcome and become to embrace the people that impacted my life, and many of these people I grew to love, my teachers, schoolmates, bandmates, and friends and learned how to correctly judge people.

Dead Souls is about racism, hate, and nationalism in the UK.  It's a work of fiction but I'm sure there's a lot of truth in it.  Marsons really brings to life the worst in people with her thrillers.  Marsons also brings out the best in people with her thought-provoking fiction.  

Dead Souls halfway through is a great book.

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Blood Lines by Angela Marsons, Book 5 in the DC Kim Stone Series

This is another great series that I've got a love for.  Have you ever read a book and hated the fact that you couldn't read it faster.  For me, this is one of those kinds of books.  DI Kim Stone is thrown into another investigation and also being attacked by a Psychiatrist she put in jail in an earlier book.  Both of these 'chases' make a great thriller.  On one end you know what Dr. Alexandra Thorne is up to, well not everything but enough to know she's playing her mind games on anyone she comes in contact with, and on the other end is a set of murders that has Kim going frantically trying to find and stop the murders and murderer.
With Angela Marsons' storyline twists and the emotions she brings out in her characters this has become an extraordinarily great series.  I had another book in line to read next but now I want more DI Kim Stone.  This is one of the good things about finding a series after it's been released for a few years.  If you want more, you just read the next book.

I rate this 9 out of 10.

Blood Lines by Angela Marsons
Book 5 in the DC Kim Stone Series

Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch, Book 7 in the Peter Grant / Rivers of London Series

I think I'm going to have to start taking notes when I read this series.  Peter Grant is one busy guy, between all his magical friends of the rivers, the faes, underground people, his work, and his family, I don't see how he finds time to search for the Faceless Man.  But that's what this book is about, the scheming of the Faceless Man and Peter Grant's attempt to bring him to justice.

I'm not into spoilers, so that's why my reviews are short, plus this book has been out a while and lots of reviews have already been written on Lies Sleeping.  Also, this isn't the type of book that makes you reflect on your life or make you stronger.  It's just an entertaining read.  Other than that all I can say is that for Urban Fantasy, this is one of the best going right now.  With this book, I've caught up with the series and all 7 books in this series were great reads.  Now I have to wait for November for the next book to be released.  It looks like the next book in Urban Fantasy I'm waiting on is Fallen in the Alex Veras series by Benedict Jacka.

I'm open for suggestions on anybody else's favorite Urban Fantasy series they enjoy.

I rate this 8 of 10.

Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch
Book 7 in the Peter Grant / Rivers of London Series

Friday, July 26, 2019

Orioles infielder Stevie Wilkerson pulls off HISTORIC save


Wilkerson becomes first position player to ever record a save



I think 55 was his fastest pitch.  Maybe the Angels need 12-year-olds to throw batting practice. One site said he never threw a ball faster than a semi-truck on a freeway.

The biggest thing is Stevie Wilkerson became the first position player to get a save in Major League Baseball. He faced 3 batters in the bottom of the 16th inning and got a deep fly ball for an out, a ground out, and a shallow fly out.  It was Wilkerson's third appearance this month, where he gave up one run.  Not bad for a centerfielder.



Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Manjaro I3 Update

I think I'm going to like this desktop manager.  The resources used by my computer is minimal and even though I'm still fumbling through it, I'm not in a hurry to rush into all the customizations I want to do.  The next thing I want to tackle is the workspace bar at the bottom, but I'm not sure if I want to install Polybar or something else, but right now I will probably stick with configuring what I have and removing the things I don't want and maybe change the font and font size.  Also, I want a BAMA Football wallpaper but I want to customize that to go with the dark themes I like to use so It's not as bright on my old eyes.

Here's what I have right now.  It's not a thing of beauty but it works for me.




WWW Wendesdays, 07/24/2019


I like to push this along to everybody, the WWW Wednesdays is a great idea.  I'm not much of a reviewer but I like to leave a little something so I can review what I've read and see what other people are reading.

The Three W's are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you'll read next?


Just fill this in by either a comment from the link in the picture or put it your own blog and add a link to your blog in their comment section.

Here goes. . .  (I.m still binging on the Peter Hill Series by Ben Aaronovitch but I'm finally on the last one, that is until False Value comes out in November.)

What are you currently reading?  Lies Sleeping by Ben Aaronovitch, the 7th book in the Peter Grant / Rivers of London Series.

What did you recently finish reading?  The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch, book 6 in the Peter Grant / Rivers of London Series.

What do you think you'll read next?  Blood Lines by Angela Marsons, the 5th book in the DI Kim Stone series.  After that, I'm going to start the Nick Louth - DCI Craig Gillard series.

Make sure to follow the link by clicking on the picture above and leave your reply.

The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch, Book 6 in the Peter Grant / Rivers of London Series

In the sixth installment of Peter Grant / Rivers of London series, we find Peter a busy guy.  First, he's looking into an overdose that is connected to one of the River's of London's family, Lady Tyburn, next he's looking for a stolen book penned by Sir Isaac Newton himself, and then his hunt for The Faceless Man.  I really enjoy his new partner, Sahra Guhleed.  She brings a non-magical presence to the series, even tho this is not the first book she's been in, she does play a bigger part.  One thing we've found out about Peter is that wherever he goes, destruction is sure to follow, even if it's Harrod's.

Aaronovitch is giving Peter more and more, with less Thomas NIghtingale's supervision, which makes for more action, mistakes, and destruction.  Okay, maybe not mistakes but lots of damage.  All the key players are back and the search for all the baddies is growing.

I'm rating this 3-1/2 stars, but it's still a great read.

The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch,
Book 6 in the Peter Grant / Rivers of London Series.

Friday, July 19, 2019

Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch, Book 5 of the Peter Grant (Rivers of London) Series

This has been the best of the series for me as of late.  Peter Grant is on his own, with the exception of Beverly Brooke, his new girlfriend.  Peter has been sent on assignment from Falcon to help search the disappearance of you pre-teen girls and since this has the Falcon call sign attached to it, that means the Folly is involved and magic is in play.

Peter is now in a small village surrounded by cleared woodlands and is tasked with being attached to one of the families of the missing girls and has the help of Dominic, one of the local policemen assigned to watch over him.  Nobody wants magic around, and with the media coverage that meant Peter had to be at his best at concealing the magic.

The book is great, it really starts to define Peter, as a man, as his job as a policeman, and as his position as an apprentice at the Folly.   Aaronovitch doesn't disappoint us with his storytelling, the research he does of the area and the history of the area the book takes place in.  Aaronovitch pulls out a lot of probably his personal tastes and adding knitting them into his books.  I love Kobna Holdbrook-Smith's storytelling of the audio-book.  He really is the voice of Peter in this first-person magical mystery tour.  I've said before, if Urban Fantasy is one of your likes then this must be added to your TBR list.  But I know a lot of you have already read these.  So now onto The Hanging Tree.

I give this 9 of 10
stars, but of the first 5, this is the best so far!

Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch,
Book 5 of the Peter Grant (Rivers of London) Series

Tuesday, July 16, 2019

WWW Wednesday July 17, 2019

I found somebody doing this on BookLikes a couple of weeks ago and I thought the community fun with it, to see what other people are reading and show off what you are reading and making new friends would make it worthy,  So here goes:



The Three W's are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you'll read next?


Just fill this in by either a comment from the link in the picture or put it your own blog and add a link to your blog in their comment section.

Here goes. . .  (I.m still binging on the Peter Hill Series by Ben Aaronovitch so all the books are easy to figure out.)

What are you currently reading?  Foxglove Summer by Ben Aaronovitch
What did you recently finish reading?  Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch
What do you think you'll read next?  The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch


I love finding a good series and sticking with it.  I've done a lot of series this way,  some have stopped and some are still going.  Either way, enjoy what you're reading.

"Stranger Things 3" Behind-The-Scenes Facts That'll Blow Your Mind

It looks like BuzzFeed wet to a Comic-Con panel and put the answers on a nice little facts page.  I like the last little fact, that 40 million people watched Stranger Things 3 in 4 days. I was one of those.  How many people would sit and watch a basically an 8-hour movie in one day?  Well, it's nice to be able to pause and take breaks while watching, 'cause it was worth every minute of it.


Monday, July 15, 2019

Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch, Book 4 of the Peter Grant (Rivers of London) Series

Broken Homes takes our special task force members into the 1960's concrete architecture of London, putting Peter and Leslie 20 plus stories up doing undercover work to find "The Faceless Man".  The architect of this particular building turns out to be a suspected magician that fled Germany before WWII and designed this building with a special feature that nobody knew about. 

Aaronovitch does a lot of good research for his books so he can tackle his subjects and themes of his books with strong knowledge.  All I can say without spoilers is that this book leaves you like a batter facing that aging pitcher that puts a 100+ fastball over the plate and the batter just watches it with his mouth wide open.  Not that slow curveball but a fastball that just makes you wonder where that came from.  Really a great ending and a what will surely be a great subject for the 5th book, Foxglove Summer,


I rate this 4 out of 5 stars.

Broken Homes by Ben Aaronovitch,
Book 4 of the Peter Grant (Rivers of London) Series

Stranger Things Season 3 Easter Egg

Want to call Murray Bauman?  Remember Joyce Byers giving Murray's phone number to the FBI?  (618) 625-8313?  Give it a call and you get this;

Hi! You have reached the residence of Murray Bauman. Mom, if this is you, please hang up and call me between the hours of 5 and 6 PM as previously discussed. Okay?! If this is Joyce, Joyce, thank you for calling, I have been trying to reach ya. I have an update. It’s about, well, its probably best if we speak in person. It’s not good or bad, but it’s something. If this is anyone but my mother or Joyce, well…  you think you’re real clever, getting my number, don’t ya? Well, here’s some breaking news for you. You’re not clever. You’re not special. You are just simply one of the many, many nimwits to have called here, and the closest you will ever get to me is this prerecorded message. So, at the beep, do me a favor and hang up, and never call here again. You are a parasite. Thank you and good day!
One of the small things that make lie more fun. 


I can't wait for season 4! 

I also see books out now for Stranger things.  I don't know if these are new or not but I gotta at least try one.

Sunday, July 14, 2019

Well, It's I3 Now

I got another SSD drive yesterday and used Clonezilla to load a backup of Manjaro XFCE that I made a couple of weeks ago.  It's perfect and did what it was supposed to do.  Now I'm running a perfect XFCE setup, or what I was enjoying anyway.  But I got bored and wanted to do some distro-hopping.  So this I got smart and downloaded the Oracle Virtual Machine.  I fired it up and . . .  I didn't like it.  Not I3, the juries still out on whether I can handle a window manager instead of a desktop environment but I did not like the virtual box.  Now, what to do?

I decided to just load I3 but this time I'm dual booting it with my XFCE.  After loading I3 I went to the community to see how to do simple things like screen resolution.  My screen resolution was now set at 800 X 600 and my old laptop runs at 1366 x 768.    Talk about complication, wow everybody was doing this and that, with your config file or xrandr.  I finally went to the bmenu and found I could change it there and then save it.  As I stumble through I3 things get easier and easier.  But I will never master it, but all I have to do is get it the way I can work with it and be comfortable.

Linux is the cake and everything else is the cake decorations.  It all comes down to what programs you run and how comfortable you are when getting to them.  System resources are important, you don't want to be slowed down by what else is running in the background.  That's why I like XFCE, So now I have to see how I3 fits into my life.  Right now it's fun, learning new things on my Linux journey.  Learning things I can change in the dot config files is really going to be fun.


As long as it's simple and easy, or gets easier.

Friday, July 12, 2019

Whispering Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch, Book 3 in the Peter May Series

AFTER you read the book, you REALLY get the title.  Whispers Under Ground starts up with young Abigail making Peter Grant take her out to look at a ghost.  Peter brings along his friend and fellow Constable Leslie May with him to be led to the train tunnels from his home neighborhood to see the ghost and watches it get run over by what they can only describe as the Hogwart's Express thus the start of our underground adventure.  Next, we get a dead American student found on the tracks of the Tube, which the murder weapon has the vestigium, or the trace imprint that magic leaves, and that brings Constable Peter May and his master of magic DCI Thomas Nightingale into the case.  We also get Constable Lesley May back into the book after her unfortunate attack in the first book.

The Peter Grant series a really magical, witty series about the many different magical societies in London and features a young Constable that is assigned to a magical detail as an apprentice.  Peter doesn't always get it right and having Lesley there, now also an apprentice to remind him when he's wrong brings another dynamic to this series that makes it that much better.  Also, the elusive villain from Moon Over Soho, book 2 in the series, is still making his mark.

I rated this 4 of 5 stars, a really good series to get into if urban fantasy is your taste.

Whispering Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch,
Book 3 in the Peter May Series.

Thursday, July 11, 2019

Peter Grant Series Book Binge

Better late than never.  I guess I'm sold on reading the Peter Grant series by Ben Aaronovitch.  I've just started book 3, Whispers Under Ground.  The series started in 2011 and is now at book 7, or 7.5 if you go for the novellas.

Heck, this series has its own wiki, https://follypedia.fandom.com/wiki/The_Follypedia_Wiki

Pretty awesome.


WWW Wednesdays

https://samannelizabeth.wordpress.com/2019/07/10/www-wednesday-10-july-2019/

I forgot this until today Thursday. So here I go.  That is, as of yesterday.

The Three W's are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you'll read next?


What are you currently reading?  Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch
What did you recently finish reading?  Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch 
What do you think you'll read next?  Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch

What can I say, I'm binge-reading the Peter Grant series.

Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch Book 2 In the Peter Grant Series

This series is hitting me like the Dresden series by Jim Butcher and the Iron Druid series by Keven Hearne.  On these two series, I couldn't make it through the first book.  I picked each up about 6 months later and just couldn't get enough of them.  Now that's the way I feel about the Peter Grant series (or Rivers of London).  After reading the first book I didn't know exactly if I wanted to go through with reading more in the series but since I had the ebook and the audiobook on my reader I thought I would read "Moon Over Soho".

Aaronovitch's Peter Grant is a smart, sometimes too smart constable in London that just happens to be an apprentice magician to DCI Nightingale.  Because of this, he has to live in the "Folly" with Nightingale which leaves Grant with a lot of research time between his police duties and his magic lessons.  After investigating the death of a Jazz musician he starts seeing that Jazz musicians are dying off at an alarming rate when compared to other types of musicians.  Grant discovers the reason being "Jazz Vampires".

This is why I am loving this series (thanks Mike Finn) because of Aaronovitch's unexhausted originality and the storytelling by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, who else can come up with Jazz Vampires and who else could sell like Kobna.  One phrase does not make a book, but the originality of this book really makes it a good read.

I rate this an 8 of 10.

Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch
Book 2 in the Peter Grant series

Monday, July 8, 2019

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch, Book 1 in the Rivers of London Series

Rivers of London is billed as "What would happen if Harry Potter grew up and joined the fuzz".  I disagree.  When Harry Potter grew up he knew there was magic.  PC Peter Grant did not know or believe in magic until he was left by himself while protecting a murder scene while his partner goes for coffee.  While alone he is greeted by what he believes is a ghost.  After the ghost leaves a man walks by and identifies himself as a DCI Thomas Nightingale.

At the same time, he and a fellow PC Lesley May are reaching the end of their probation and pondering and hoping for an exciting assignment.  Lesly gets the job she dreams of, joining a major crime department while Peter finds out he going to be pushing paper for his career. 

Enter DCI Thomas Nightingale, and PC Grant finds himself in a secret investigation department, which consists of DCI Nightingale and now himself.  Their department basically investigates things that go bump in the night.  As Peter is introduced to magic and begins his lessons he learns there is a lot more to Nightingale than meets the eye.

Rivers of London introduces us to a new magical story and Ben Aaronovitch's imagination is magical in its own self.  Aaronovitch takes Peter through modern England and its history to tell this story.  Some parts get a little long but all in all, this is a very solid book and a very good lead-in for a brand new series.  While I am late getting into this series, I will probably catch up with it by the end of the year.

I rate this a 7, and I bet this series gets better as time goes on.

Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
Book 1 in the Rivers of London Series

Sunday, July 7, 2019

Why I'm glad I Use Linux . . .

Microsoft Issues Warning For 50M Windows 10 Users
by Gordon Kelly Senior Contributor at Forbes.com

Between this and other problems like not backing up its registry, along with a host of other problems, see Chris Titus thank Microsoft for all the fish here.

Now that gaming is happening with Steam on Linux for most of you gamers, I don't play games so I don't use it, and a lot of programs are cloud-based, like Microsoft office, probably the only reason not to use Windows is the Adobe suites and yes, some games won't work on Linux.

Watch the Chris Titus video, he suggests using Linux or going to Apple.  Linux is not as hard as you think.  There are a handful of Linux distros out there for people switching from Windows to Linux.  Linux Mint, Zorin Linux, Pop!OS, even what I use, Manjaro XFCE can be used by newbies.  In the time that it takes you to update your Windows system you can watch youtube video's that show you how to customize your Linux of choice. 

Am I Window's free?  No, my wife wants us to buy the disk when it comes to tax programs, so I have to maintain Windows.  Also, the drive that has Windows on it has a protected partition so the build partition won't get erased.  I don't have the drive in my laptop that has Windows, but I have it and will put it back in when I don't want to use my computer because it will take all day to update my computer.

But whatever you do, switch, stay or buy an Apple, just do it on an OS that fits your needs, not an OS that doesn't match your needs.


Saturday, July 6, 2019

I Finally Got It (I Hope) My latest XFCE Build

Tonight I reloaded XFCE on my larger drive, not that it matters because I doubt if I will get over 50GB loaded on my 250GB SSD.  Over the week I played around with Conky so much I had a lot of Conky, Conky Manager and Lua files on my drive and I didn't want my clone of my Manjaro XFCE with all these extra files that will never be used.  I've done this so many times that I got everything I wanted and ran Clonezilla within a couple of hours.  Now I have a proper backup and now all I have to do is add my Dropbox to my drive.  That's just how easy Manjaro XFCE is.

For years I've always had pictures as wallpapers on my desktop, but now I've just got a graphic, so it wouldn't make my Conky look too busy.  It looks like Manjaro is my main distro of choice, mainly because it's got a rolling release and the other reason is that it's not an Ubuntu-based OS.  Ubuntu is good but every time I did a new release upgrade, I would end up reloading it anyway.  I'm hoping that this won't be the case with a rolling distro.  With Manjaro I even get to pick the kernel I want.  You can do that with Ubuntu but Manjaro's GUI makes changing your kernel very easy, either going forward or rolling it back.  You can even get the experimental kernel if you choose.

One thing I've done on all my XFCE desktops is to configure them the way Linux Quest has in his tutorial on youtube.  He's using Antegros, which is now defunct since April this year but everything still works for about any XFCE, especially any XFCE based on Arch.

Manjaro is great.  Just like Arch, well maybe not quite like Arch, you can get as cutting edge as you want or you can go with a stable version.  Probably next week I will foray into Manjaro's I3 window manager.  I can go the I3 route or load it on top of XFCE, I just have to read up on it. I look at the Reddit r/unixporn too much.

Now if I could just get Conky Weather to work I would be a real happy camper.  Now to finish my Dropbox install and finish my book, Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch.

Friday, July 5, 2019

Stranger Things 3

The Strange Things series has not disappointed me, that's for sure.  I just binge watched the complete Stranger Things 3 and it was great.  I can't say which season I liked the most but this 3rd season really is worth the 8 hours sitting in front of a TV.  No spoilers here but there are internet stories saying that there will most definitely be a 4th season.  I can't see it going past 4, especially the way season 3 ended, but they did leave it open for another.  Let's hope so.


Netflix really comes up with some great and original programming.  This 3rd season of Stranger Things should be full of awards.  Best show, best actor (Millie Bobby Brown), and best supporting actor (either Winona Ryder or David Harbour).

Thursday, July 4, 2019

WWW Wednesdays

 WWW Wednesdays

I just found this on BookLikes and I love books so I think I'll start doing this.  Here are the instructions;



The Three W's are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you'll read next?

I guess you'll then click on the picture which I have linked and comment on the post.

So here I go.

  • What are you currently reading? -  River's of London by Ben Aaronovitch 
  • What did you recently finish reading? -  Backlash by Brad Thor 
  • What do you think you'll read next?  -  Either Moon over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch (depends on River's of London) or Blood Lines by Angela Marsons

Backlash by Brad Thor, Scot Harvath Series, Book 19

When I got into reading one of the first espionage series that I got into was the Scot Harvath series by Brad Thor.  Backlash is the 19th book in the series and if the bro-mance spy thriller type books are your bag, as Austin Power's would say, then "this should be in your bag, baby".

Without getting into the story, this is your typical Scot Harvath story, told by Armand Schultz.  Backlash picks up where Spymaster ends, and finds Scot in hot water in a very cold place.  The story is good, and every Scot Harvath fan should be happy when finished.

Picking up the picture, and his glass, he headed outside. The sun was almost low enough to touch the water. He wanted to watch it disappear. Then he wanted to start thinking about what he was going to do next.

Cue the contemplating music. The end.

I rate this 8 of 10

Backlash by Brad Thor
Scot Harvath Series, Book 19

Manjaro XFCE, Reloaded

When I say Manjaro reloaded, Manjaro hasn't changed their XFCE, with the exception of a few updates.  I mean I've erased my old XFCE and reloaded it with a fresh copy.  I want to get my computer just right so I can clone it for future use.  I might still do some distro-hopping but I think I'll stick with XFCE, and stick with the Arch-based Manjaro.

I really wanted to have Budgie as my main OS, not that I like it better than XFCE but I tinker too much with XFCE.  Budgie is simpler and doesn't have all the options that XFCE has but Budgie seems to use more resources and with my old Acer laptop, I can't afford that.  KDE is still my favorite, but KDE has too many settings that I can play with and I would always be changing them, and that would take too much time away from reading.  I can't have that.

Here's what I have so far;



My biggest change is that I've got a shell running at startup with Conky loading 2 different scripts, and I've changed the colors to the 'chill blue' in the scripts.  I went with a stock Manjaro wallpaper that has a hint of blue in the middle, and I'll probably try to find a theme that has that blue color instead of the Manjaro green.  I might even do the Manjaro Menu button in the blue color.  Either way, I'm going to try to get another Conky script for the weather to add to my shell script.  If I do that then I might have to change the clock to something smaller to keep from having my desktop looking too cluttered.

When I get it the way I want it, then I will clone it with Clonezilla.  Then I'll add Dropbox and download my Dropbox files. Now this time I'm going to finish my book.  Okay, after I change my External IP address back to show what that address really is.  Wish you were here.

Mother Nature Starts the Fireworks Early

  1. A strong earthquake occurred at 10:33:48 AM (PDT) on Thursday, July 4, 2019.
    The magnitude 6.4 event occurred 12 km (7 miles) SW of Searles Valley, CA.
    The hypocentral depth is 9 km ( 5 miles).
  2. A light earthquake occurred at 10:35:01 AM (PDT) on Thursday, July 4, 2019.
    The magnitude 4.7 event occurred 10 km (6 miles) E (79 degrees) of Ridgecrest, CA.
    The hypocentral depth is 4 km ( 3 miles).  
  3. A strong earthquake occurred at 10:33:48 AM (PDT) on Thursday, July 4, 2019.
    The magnitude 6.4 event occurred 12 km (7 miles) SW of Searles Valley, CA.
    The hypocentral depth is 9 km ( 5 miles). 
     
I was just sitting here enjoying my latest read, Brad Thor's Backlash and the house rocked for about 10 seconds. Not a violent rock but like a few little rolls on a lake if a boat had gone by a couple of hundred yards away.

Searles Valey is not quite halfway between Bakersfield and Las Vegas, cheating to the Bakersfield side. This is about a 4-hour drive from La Quinta, or maybe 8 hours.  You can never tell on a southern California holiday.

Ridgecrest is almost a 4-hour drive from La Quinta and about a 30-minute drive from Ridgecrest to the Searles Valley.

Now back to my Scot Harvath book.  It's probably one of the best in the 19 books so far.  I'll know for sure in a couple of hours when I've finished reading it.

Monday, July 1, 2019

In the Market for Murder by T. E. Kinsey, Book 2 in the Lady Hardcastle Murder Mysteries Series

In the second installment of the Lady Hardcastle Murder Mysteries, we find our Lady Emily Hardcastle and her Lady Maid and best friend Florence (Flo) Lawrence going to a livestock auction, going to a Rugby match, going to a farmer's market for lunch, going to a seance, and the bringing to justice the people that committed insurance fraud, scams, improper disposal of a body, a misuse of witchcraft, the theft of a Rugby trophy, attempted murder, and of course a murder or two.  All this and they buy a car and dare say, two women driving a car?  People are aghast.  These two lead us through such a busy life.

I enjoy these type of books, even though they aren't that great and there's a little too much saccharin in this series where I can read more than a couple at a time.  I enjoy the author's use of what we think of the proper English used in the early 20th century.  I also enjoy Elizabeth Knowelden's storytelling in the audiobook.  If it weren't for Knowelden's narration I would never have bothered with the books.  She really has her pish posh's down. 

I give this a 6 of 10 rating

In the Market for Murder by T. E. Kinsey
Book 2 in the Lady Hardcastle Murder Mysteries series.

31:39 of the Funniest Ted Talk I've Ever Seen . . .

Close-up card magic with a twist | Lennart Green