My reading material of choice lately has been Fire from the Wine Dark Sea by S. P. Somtow (then, Somtow Sucharitkul). As you may have heard from me before, S. P. Somtow is one of my favorite authors, so a collection of his short stories was right up my alley. I initially picked it up for The 13th Utopia, a short story that takes place in the Inquestor universe, that I had only ever gotten the chance to read in the bowels of the library from an old issue of Analog. I thought I’d never get the chance to read it again, until I saw this collection on Somtow’s publications page, and I knew I should pick it up. Continue reading Fire from the Wine Dark Sea
All posts by The Plaid Mentat
Boogiepop Phantom
While Jessa and I have been watching Scrapped Princess lately, I have been watching Boogiepop Phantom by myself. This is an older anime that I watched right around the time that I saw Neon Genesis: Evangelion and Trigun, and really shaped my expectations around the kinds of things one gets from this form of entertainment. Watching it again now, over ten years later, my perception of it has changed somewhat, but I still really enjoyed it. Continue reading Boogiepop Phantom
Scrapped Princess
I have recently been watching Scrapped Princess with Jessa over dinner (that’s when I get in most of my TV watching these days – an hour a day, two to three times a week, over dinner). It’s one we’ve both seen before, and one I remember fondly from my days in the Anime Club back at Mesa State College. This time around, there were a couple of things I looked more closely for as I watched, but the most interesting was watching out for the various anachronisms from the setting and plot of the series. Continue reading Scrapped Princess
Warmachine Journeyman – Wrap up
This week, we wrapped up the Journeyman league by awarding the destroyer award (for winning), creator award (for best painted battlegroup) and journeyman award (for best sport). While there we no Warmachine Journeyman games this week, I have pictures of all the submitted battlegroups and my own panel of rank patches after the jump. Continue reading Warmachine Journeyman – Wrap up
I’m a Data Professional (and I’m Okay)
I recently attended SciDataCon (part of the International Data Week) in Denver, which is a conference focused on all aspects of the science data workflow – from planning to long-term archival and all the people, processes, and other stuff surrounding it. One talk in particular, that resonated with me was a panel discussion called “Defining the Data Professional” in which the panel discussed the difference between a data scientist and the myriad other roles involved in the data lifecycle that broadly define the professional field. Continue reading I’m a Data Professional (and I’m Okay)
Warmachine Journeyman – Week 12
This week was the final week of the Journeyman league, so it was the last chance to get in points via painting or winning to get a shot at the Destroyer Award. At 75 points, it’s a bit harder to get in multiple games, so I only planned on getting one game in, and, of course, I wanted to square off against Ian. This game had a lot riding on it – if he beat me, he would definitely clinch the Destroyer Award with three or four Destroyer points. On the other hand, if I won, I would have a good shot at getting a third Destroyer point and tying up the race to the finish.
Our lists and match detail after the jump: Continue reading Warmachine Journeyman – Week 12
Tsukihime, Lunar Legend
I recently decided I wanted to watch some of my old favorite anime shows, so I decided I would pick up Shingetsutan Tsukihime. It’s been long enough since I’ve seen this one that I remembered very little beyond a few plot points, which made watching it again quite a bit more rewarding. I also decided to get this on DVD and watch it dubbed, rather that the fansub I watched back in the day, which allowed me to pick up further details and nuances that I hadn’t before.
One thing in particular I noticed in watching it this time around was the very nuanced relationship Shiki has with the women in his life – Akiha, Ciel, Arcueid, and Hisiui. Continue reading Tsukihime, Lunar Legend
Warmachine Journeyman – Week 11
Week 11 is the last of the escalation weeks, so my list has reached its final form. I’m a point short of the full 75 points, and I was really wishing I had about 4 more points to round out my Ghordson ‘jacks, but the artillery did look like it would fit into my list the best.
My full list after the jump: Continue reading Warmachine Journeyman – Week 11
Vehicle Metrics
As I’m getting used to my vehicle, I was pretty excited about owning it for a full month, and getting my first metrics e-mail. As you all probably know, I’m something of a data geek – I love my spreadsheets and I like good data collected and organized well. That’s why I was super excited about the possibility of getting a monthly report from my vehicle with usage metrics.
While technically true, what I got was something less that I had hoped. Continue reading Vehicle Metrics
Warmachine Journeyman – Week 10
After playing a massive two-vs-two game last week, everyone at the shop decided to take a break this week. Rather than get any games in for the league (or, really, any games in at all), we all just pulled up a chair to the counter shared our favorite music videos and chatted about whatever came to mind. This was just the thing that I needed to cap my weekend (after the excitement of the week), so it was a very welcome change of pace.
However, just because I didn’t get any gaming in, I did manage to get Brun Cragback and Lug painted – pictures after the jump. Continue reading Warmachine Journeyman – Week 10