It really hasn’t been that long since Season 4 ended, but it feels like it has been an eternity. I guess I had not fully appreciated how much I looked forward to watching Game of Thrones every Sunday, but there were times when it was practically the highlight of my week. I miss having that weekly thing to look forward to watching with Kelly.
So in the meantime I have been finding all sorts of ASOIAF/GoT things to keep myself entertained.
The 16th century Swedish shipwreck Mars the Magnificent will now be explored thanks to a grant by the National Geographic Society. Like similar wrecks (the Vasa comes to mind immediately) the wreck of the Mars is expected to yield all sorts of artifacts and give historians and archaeologists a detailed view of what is a fairly famous ship in the history of Sweden.
Continue reading “Well-preserved wreck in Baltic Sea to be explored”
Well, I have now seen the finale of Season 4 twice and it was pretty awesome. No wonder it was longer, because there was a lot of stuff to cram in to tie up the storylines and lead us into Season 5.
Like I mentioned in my earlier post, I have managed to rebuild our server into a better machine than it was. But for some reason the hard drive from the old server was giving me fits, trying to move data. Perhaps it was damaged somehow. I am not sure.
But I do know this: a backup of the backups saved our data.
Years ago, I decided to build my own server. Part of it was wanting to have the experience of building and running my own server, because I had shockingly little server experience of any kind. Part of it was knowing how such a machine could help me manage the home network I was also building. So in 2010 our home server came into existence.
And then two weeks ago, it went out of existence.
We’ve showed you the books, the jewelry, and the metal-ware. Now it’s time for everything else. It’s amazing how much great stuff we got that was SO inexpensive. It’s also amazing that we’re going to be able to fit it all in 3 posts.
Any of you people reading this blog, please go read this magnificent commentary in the Daily Beast by Arthur Chu (a fellow geek and historian famous for his Jeopardy appearances). It says so much that I could not possibly put into words myself, especially touching on the horrible event on that college campus in California and some of the strikingly awful responses to it generated by people who are overwhelmingly white, male, and angry, not to mention misogynistic on a scale that is literally hard for me to even comprehend.
If you are a nerd, and especially if you are a male nerd, you really must read it.
Continue reading “Please, please read this Arthur Chu piece on “misogyny, entitlement and nerds””
One of the things I have always enjoyed the most about our trips to Brimfield is the hunt for old books. In terms of what treasures we find, some years are better than others, and I would say that this year was pretty good in that regard. So Kelly took pictures and I will do my best to describe some of our finds.
Well, I did it. I made my own version of the famous (or possibly infamous) Manderly pie from A Dance With Dragons. The recipe from Inn at the Crossroads sounded absolutely delicious, and I couldn’t wait to try making it.
I succeeded, but at what a price.
Continue reading ““The best [pork] pie you have ever tasted””
A recording of J. R. R. Tolkien made at a “Hobbit Dinner” in the Netherlands in 1958 is going to be remastered and released later this year.
Wow. Just… wow.
I love the idea of Tolkien himself attending a feast inspired by his own writings. Makes me think of how Sariann and Chelsea did something similar with GRRM when he came to Boston for his book tour. I also love that Tolkien was apparently delighted by the whole thing and really enjoyed himself (as did GRRM). As a huge fan of Tolkien and GRRM and of creating food inspired by fantasy books, I can hardly wait to hear the whole recording.
It also makes me a little sad that I never had the opportunity to meet Tolkien, this warm, brilliant, remarkable man, before he passed away. I was only a toddler when he died. But I am hopeful for the opportunity that perhaps one day I will have the chance to meet George R.R. Martin. Maybe on his book tour for The Winds of Winter.
-Geoff
The Books are Taking Over... 