underheadphones

The Rat and the Serpent by Bryn Llewellyn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Stephen Palmer (Bryn Llewellyn is an old pseudonym he doesn't use anymore) is always a treat to read. His writing proceeds at such a good clip. The stories have a rhythm that seems to flow just perfectly; the stories all seem to accelerate as his books proceed to conclusion, and this book is no exception. But along the way, the comfortable start and cruise through his imagination is a fun ride to be on.

Last Saturday I rode the 2012 edition of the Harpoon Brewery to Brewery (B2B) ride. This was my fifth time doing it. It's one of those rides that I both love, and hate: love because after the fact I feel a good sense of accomplishment having done, and hate - especially in the last couple of hours of the ride and the day or two after - because it is painful.

Key memories in life are formed when you must go thru extreme difficulties, whether by accident or choice. If you're lucky, some memories will cross an invisible line and become history, sometimes yours, sometimes part of a history that is bigger than you. I'm pretty sure that I and some good friends just became part of (some) history, having ridden the 2012 Ronde van Vlaanderen Cyclosportive.

The people you encounter as you patronize a business almost completely shape your happiness with the encounter. And I'm of the school that says it starts at the top.

Today I ate breakfast at Giraffe - a restaurant in Terminal 5 of London's Heathrow airport. I liked this place, and will now change my LHR habit to stop here every time.

Why? The people.

Urbis Morpheos by Stephen Palmer

Well, this has to be the most unusual book I've read in the last couple of years. For context, I've read 113 books since April 2009 (when I started buying on Kindle, so this is the total Amazon gives me). I probably haven't read more than 5 non-SciFi books (and 1 non-Kindle book) in that time; so I've read a reasonable amount of SciFi, mostly from the authors you'd see as mainstream - Neal Stephenson, Richard Morgan, Charles Stross, Peter Hamilton, Ian Banks, Robert Charles Wilson, etc.

Stephen Palmer is at a Whole Nutha' Level. One way to describe it: "Consider natural & technological evolution running its course for a couple of million years. Discuss."

Well, I found myself with an opportunity to spin tunes at the Denver 2012 Drupalcon conference party. Yes, Acquia (my company) sponsored it. So maybe it's no coincidence that I got the gig.... Nonetheless, I did need to get past the organizing committee (which means my style couldn't suck; but I didn't need to be a big-name guy, either. Lucky thing....)

Fuzzy Nation by John Scalzi

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Summary: Fast read (for me); dashed thru it in 3 hours.

Selection Event by Wayne Wightman

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

I took the opportunity of a lazy, day-after-Thanksgiving Friday morning to pull together a few tunes into a new podcast episode. As usual, it's available on iTunes (the one dated 11/25/11). If you like it, please be sure to rate it in the iTunes store.

Time to start planning for 2012. In 2010, I went with my buddies Scott & Joe to the Ronde van Vlaanderen professional cycling race in Belgium. The day before the pros race, the route is open to amateur cyclists of all levels.

We rode with 8,000 (or more) other crazy cyclists over a route full of cobbled roads, leg-ripping short hills called "muurs", and had a blast. It was a rainy day in April, which made it even more epic.