Hiking great. 17 days in the tent, walking deserts in California and Nevada.
Cycling was the most problematic. But I still made it 11 days on the Trans Canada Great Trail, starting in Vernon and ending up in Fernie (with a busted bike).
What’s next?
Still considering my options.
The only thing fixed for sure is World Gymnastics Championships in Netherlands Oct. 2026.
It’s BIG. A deeply fractured, dystopian version of America between the years 2074 and 2095.
The Second American Civil War erupts when the federal Northern government outlaws the use of fossil fuels due to catastrophic climate changes. A bloc of southern states (the “Free Southern State”) secedes to protect their oil-reliant economy.
The weakened, war-torn America is no longer a superpower. Instead, it has become a playground for foreign intervention, with dominant new global empires from North Africa and Asia meddling in its internal affairs.
All that was interesting.
What the book lacks, in my opinion, is coherent technological consistency. For some reason, people no longer use or have forgotten technology from 2026.
The plot centers on Sarat Chestnut, a lesbian over six feet tall. Fascinating.
But the rest of the people in the story did not interest me much. Not enough of a clear story line. Too rambling.
A brave attempt — but ultimately more flawed than successful.
State of Wonder (2011) by Ann Patchett, set in the Amazon, is an interesting book.
Dr. Marina Singh is a 42-year-old research pharmacologist working for Vogel, a large pharmaceutical corporation based in Minnesota.
Her stable, quiet life is upended when she learns that her lab partner and close friend, Anders Eckman, has died of a mysterious fever deep in the Amazon rainforest. Anders had been sent there to investigate the progress of a highly secretive, multi-million-dollar research project funded by Vogel.
The Mission
At the center of this project is Dr. Annick Swenson, a brilliant, uncompromising 73-year-old gynecologist and Marina’s former medical school mentor. Dr. Swenson has cut off all communication with the outside world while living among the remote Lakashi tribe.
The tribe’s women possess a miraculous trait: they remain fertile and can bear children well into their seventies. Vogel wants to harness this trait to create a revolutionary, multi-billion-dollar fertility drug.
Driven by grief and pressured by her boss (with whom she is having a secret affair), Marina is sent to Brazil.
The Journey
When Marina arrives in the sweltering, chaotic port city of Manaus, she finds herself deliberately stonewalled by Dr. Swenson’s eccentric gatekeepers. To get answers, Marina must leave civilization behind and journey into the heart of the Amazon jungle.
Once she reaches the remote Lakashi village, Marina is forced to confront the harsh realities of the rainforest—poisonous insects, treacherous rivers, and overwhelming isolation. More importantly, she must face Dr. Swenson herself, a formidable woman who rules her research camp like a private fiefdom. As Marina embeds herself with the tribe, she uncovers shocking ethical dilemmas, medical secrets, and unexpected truths about her own past that force her to question the true cost of human progress.
Published in 2020, this anthology serves as the first dedicated short story collection in the popular Rivers of London (Peter Grant) urban fantasy series by Ben Aaronovitch.
In some ways, the short stories are better than the novels because they stick to one story line.
Ben Aaronovitch includes a new, personal introduction for each tale, providing unique behind-the-scenes anecdotes that fans thoroughly enjoy.
Of course, you need to know the Rivers of London universe before diving into short stories.
… a story about several people who, while traveling along the desolated Highway 50 in Nevada, get abducted by Collie Entragian, the deputy of the fictional mining town of Desperation.
Entragian uses various pretexts for the abductions, from an arrest for drug possession to “rescuing” a family from a nonexistent gunman.
It becomes clear to the captives that Entragian has been possessed by an evil being named Tak, who has control over the surrounding desert wildlife and must change hosts to keep itself alive.
They begin to fight for their freedom, sanity and lives before realizing that if they are ever to escape Desperation, they must trap Tak in the place from which he came.
The Lesser Devil is a science fantasy spin-off novel by Christopher Ruocchio, officially designated as Book 1.5 in his acclaimed Sun Eater space opera series.
First published on April 14, 2020, the book shifts focus away from the main series protagonist, Hadrian Marlowe, to tell a self-contained story from the perspective of his younger brother.
I actually liked this novella better than the original book.
Shorter. Simpler. Fast paced.
The Protagonist: Crispin Marlowe, House Marlowe’s least famous son, who has lived long in his brother’s shadow.
The Plot: Crispin answers a deathbed summons from his grandmother, the Duchess of Delos, only to fly directly into a political trap orchestrated by rivals and family factions.
The Conflict: Stranded with only his sister, Sabine, and a few injured guards, Crispin must defend a remote town and battle a mysterious pagan cult dwelling in the mountains.
The Themes: The narrative heavily explores legacy, leadership, class systems, and the friction between the state’s Chantry religion and a surviving enclave of Old Earth Catholicism.
… We have two eyes, mounted horizontally on our faces. Our view of the world is a wide horizontal slice. Movie cameras, movie screens, TV screens, and computer screens are horizontal for the same reason.
But then the iPhone happened. It became the #1 most used camera on earth, and everything changed.
The smartphone wasn’t designed to accommodate our eyes; it was designed to accommodate our hands …
Which way should you shoot your photos / videos?
One option is to shoot BOTH horizontal and vertical at the same time. (Alternatively you can crop a large image into either horizontal or vertical.)
Alternatively, some software allows “outpainting.”
A.I. fills in the missing data. OF COURSE this doesn’t look good all the time. 😀
In September, iOS 27 will arrive on 1.5 billion iPhones. The Photos app will include an Extend button. (A similar feature, called Uncrop, is already available on some Android phones.)
The story follows Sydney and Curtis Lowe, a New York couple whose lives unravel after Curtis confesses to an affair.
Desperate to repair their fractured marriage, they move to a remote, crumbling 1963 hilltop villa in Costa Brava, Spain.
Their isolated fresh start takes a tense turn when an attractive pair of Australian travelers arrives at their doorstep after a van breakdown. Craving companionship and free renovation help, Sydney and Curtis invite them to stay.
However, as shifting loyalties and deep secrets emerge, it becomes clear the strangers’ arrival may not be accidental, and survival at the villa is no longer guaranteed
Rick McCharles 