… on wind and neighbors.
by Karrde on Jan.08, 2009, under Rant
Two things that aren’t usually bad per say, but when combined can lead to dreadful results.
More about be (Take 2)
by Karrde on Dec.26, 2008, under Self, Site
So here I am again. Almost exactly 6 months since my last blog post. Not entirely fair to my self, I did start another blog post but got interrupted some time in that time frame. That original post went something like this:
Most days work is work, but today was at least a little interesting.
On the surface I work for a small auto finance company called Coastal Credit LLC. They are owned by a holding company called White River Capital (RVR). RVR doesn’t actually do anything, they are just a small office with two employees that put out or finical statements and are the public company that I hold stock in.
Today they put out a press release announcing a merger with First Chicago Bankcorp. The definition is a reverse merger
The irony of that post just hanging out there is that I no longer work for Coastal. Nowadays I work for an even smaller company named sandSecurity. The greatest thing about it is I get to work from home. The owner of the company is also a long term friend.
The only other major thing in the past 6 months was the passing of my Maternal Grandmother. That involved an emergency trip to Utica, NY. This occurred right after the 4th of July, and took up most of that Emergency Fund I was talking about. But hey that’s why it was there, if it had not it would have been that much more on credit cards. Since then I’ve rebuilt that fund back up, and also managed to knock off a few credit cards.
I’ll be adding a new blog to the links today. An old friend started up his own blog, with a little more direction than just random life. I guess you could say that that has shamed me into coming back here, and it was probably the straw. I’ve been thinking about it more lately. I’ve been active on facebook for a while, and status messages there morphing to making sure my twitter was updated, coming back here was just the natural extension.
What about me
by Karrde on Jun.28, 2008, under Site
I’ve realised that it’s been a while since I’ve talked about me. I write about the books I read, the movies I see, and the games I play, but not about the person behind those actions.
One of the reasons behind it is that noting seems that interesting anymore. I work my 40 hours a week, I try and relax with some tv, reading, etc at home. I am back at Tae Kwon Do after about 5 months off due to money problems.
Money, the root of all evil. Or so they say. Depending on who you ask, it’s the leading cause of divorce. I know it’s sparked our fair share of “debate” at Casa de Viluppo. I’ve been doing a lot of “soul-searching” when it comes to finances and debit recently. I’ve decided to try and dig myself out of the small depression I seem to be in.
Late last year I started reading a blog about personal finance. There were definately things there that I needed to work on. With close to $9000 in credit card debit I needed to start filling in the hole. I took two of the suggestions to heart and tried to start implementing them, Emergency Funding and Debit Snowballing.
As of now I’ve managed to get close to $400 in the emergency fund, and this month I’ll pay off the first of 6 credit cards. Lisa and I have sat down with the budget a few times and we’re working on ways to curb all the “excess” spending. We’re also working on trying to reduce the regular expenses as much as possible. The credit card debit isn’t just going to disapear soon. Even with the way I’m paying it down it’ll take a few years unless I can accelerate the process.
For other things, I’m trying not to stress as much over the past. On the finances that could make me miserable, looking at how much there is to pay back. In life it could be even worse. I’m trying to take the look of “the past is done, move on and plan the future”. Other people have expressed that to me in other ways, but hopefully I’ll be able to stick to it.
Review: His Majesty’s Dragon
by Karrde on Apr.19, 2008, under Books, Review
His Majesty’s Dragon is the first adventure in Naomi Novik’s Temeraire series. It’s probably the last one in the series I’ll read for for a while. This was a quick read, coming in at only 342 pages, and was engaging enough in of itself, but there were a few things that make me shy away.
The first is perhaps a great failing of the genre it is in. This is an alternative history novel. Set in the Napoleonic Wars of the early 1800s the main characters are members of Aerial Corps who fly Dragons. Dragons however are not a new introduction to this world. There are references in the novel going back to the times of the Crusades. The problem is, despite 600 years of human interaction with intelligent dragons we’re exactly where we would be without them. Napoleon has seized the throne of France and has waged is war against Britain and most of the rest of Europe. A key off stage event is even the Battle of Trafalgar, though Admiral Nelson does manage to survive this one. Too much is status quo, as if except for the existence of dragons, the divergence doesn’t start until the first page of the book. Now yes if you subscribe to the Multiverse theory, which would make this world possible in the first place, the possibility does exist for a world exactly like ours with dragons that haven’t influenced anything. But to me some universes are more likely than others.
My second problem with the book seems small, but to me is indicative of lack of thought. In the climatic battle at the end of the novel a French dragon has been attacked by a British acid spitter. The acid is all over the head of the dragon, and he is in great pain. The acid is eating into him and it is only a matter of time before it eats through to his brain. The crew abandons “ship” to nearby dragons. The captain, in an act of mercy, shoots the dragon in the head to save it a slow death, but now plummets down to the ocean with his beast.
As yes, a good captain goes down with his ship, and by showing his dragon mercy he denied himself the option of jumping to another dragon. Bullshit. I don’t doubt that people are incapable of mercy or sacrifice, and the relationships that exist between the dragons and their captains in this book are capable of making that sacrifice realistic. The problem I have is while the mercy was warranted, the sacrifice was completely unnecessary. The man should have been wearing a parachute, but then nobody is.
The book is set in 1805, and the invention of the parachute is credited at 1793 even though sketches and rough prototypes go back hundreds of years. While the invention of the backpack style parachute does not occur until 1913, Novik already shows dragon related acceleration of technology in the form of the carabiner which was not invented until 1915. The men and women of the Aerial Corps are regarded as a valuable resource, one would think that more effort would be put into protecting them from mishap.
In all not a horrid novel, but enough problems to keep me from continuing to read the series. Rating: 2.5/5
Off to MarsCon
by Karrde on Jan.18, 2008, under Games, Self
Well, it’s that time of year again. The bags are mostly packed, the weekend is clear, and we’re headed to Williamsburg for the weekend. I’ve attended most of the MarsCons since about 1992, and Lisa started joining me in about 1997. This has transition from a gaming convention for us into more of a social gathering, seeing people we only see once or twice a year. It’s a relaxing weekend, but sometimes that’s exactly what you need.
