A Review of Space captain Smith by Toby Frost

Captain Isambard smith has finally after far to long working behind a desk been given a mission and can do his part to protect the British space empire against aliens and foreigners. Bringing with him his long time friend Suruk the slayer a Molok (think the  predator who speaks like old theater) who is excited for the chance to add to his head collection. The pilot Carveth who unbeknownst to Smith is an escaped sex bot. Whose "owner" wants  her dead. And last but not least is Gerard the hamster. 

He is disappointed to learn that the ship Jon Pym is not a warship and is more rust than he'd have wanted. Also the mission, picking up Rhianna Mitchell from the New Francisco space station and delivering her to the empire, is not as exciting as he'd hoped. But between fighting void sharks, Ghast storm troopers (nazi ants), and Republic of Eden fanatics evidence start to pile up that Mitchell perhaps is more important for the war effort than they thought. Which would be fine until they realize that they were not chosen for this mission for their skill. Rather they are the lure in a trap. But with the ship sent to swoop in and save them destroyed they are truly alone stranded on a backwater planet.

My thoughts

This book is a lot of  funny and very weird. 

I wouldn't call it fast paced so much as problems appear and gets solved within just one or two chapters. Someone gets kidnapped in the next chapter they are rescued, staring down a Ghast Warship some Moloks Suruk befriended shows up and kills them. Thinking about it usually the answer to their problems is violence. This may sound like a bad thing but it's to charming for me to be annoyed at it. It's very turn your brain of and enjoy the ride sort of thing.

Similar to the plot the setting is... everything, as long as it's a reference. So every planet or people is almost a new setting; the British is in the 19th century, New Francisco is 70s hippie era. But plenty is inspired by fiction, Rick Dreckitt a stimulant hitman who's horrified that he can no longer tell the difference between humans and robots and worrying that he might accidentally kill a fellow robot. It's clearly a reversed Bladerunner situation, but there are also quick glimpses or war of the worlds, the matrix and a clockwork orange (the youths gets beat up by a predator). Despite all this it feels cohesive if only because everything is equally as out of place. 

Victorian England wasn't known for being progressive not really about anything but here that mostly manifests as Smith saying he dislikes foreigners and aliens. Though he shows no actual dislike for any he meet and neither does his superior have any problem with Suruk tagging along. When it comes to women it's mostly shown by Smiths inexperience with sex. Instead the Republic of Eden (right wing USA) gets to be evil for their patriarchal ways. It's an interesting choice. 

Now don't get me wrong I don't want my main characters to be upholding the patriarchy but it does feel like it's trying to have it's cake and eat it too.  

The book is a lot, but it's fun and the characters are...I hesitate to call them likable but entertaining. 

If you have read it what did you think? Leave a comment. If you haven't read it you can check it out here Space captain

The dollar bill game

This post is inspired by and in reply to this Bitches get riches post. If you haven't read anything by them then I can highly recommend them. 

The idea is that rather than asking what would you do if you had infinite money you increase it by a factor of ten. People have a hard time visualizing infinite and by breaking it up it gets more manageable and can show your priorities.

I remember the question being what would you do if you had a million kronor I remember us saying gall kinds of things castle and jets. Only later realizing that one million is not actually infinite money and it will maybe buy you a house. 

1

Meh, nothing put it in a pocket and forget about it.

10

Still nothing really put it in my wallet and forget about it then buy something the next time I'm at one of those weird stores that only accept cash. They are few and far between but still exist and causes trouble every time. Alternatively I put it in my pepper cash purse for the day solar storms crash the internet. I'm a very inconsistent pepper.

It is interesting how I'm clearly assuming its physical money we are talking about. 

100

Well, there's a bookshelf I've been meaning to buy next month as part of my aim to make a nicer workstation for myself.

1000

No idea invest it probably, buying a dishwasher. A tiny one that fits on my counter. This is a bit of an odd number of money too big for most things I regularly buy but not enough for any of the big things life changing stuff. 

10 000

My plan for the next two years is to take time of work to study and get a masters degree, this would go to pay of general expenses during the years without a salary. At least I wouldn't need to take as much from my savings.

100 000

This would pay for probably half an apartment in the area I want to live. When I moved last year it was with the plan to only stay here for a year or two mostly to find out if I like the city or the area. I have decided that I do, the area at least. The apartment has some issues mostly that it's on the fourth floor with no elevator and it has bad insulation. But I like the area and has decided to keep living here though maybe a street or two closer to the city center. In this case it would be more permanent and I plan to buy the apartment. 

1 000 000 

Mostly that same but probably a nicer apartment or maybe one of those cute little houses that sometimes exist in cities (I think my cats would appreciate having a small walled in garden). Anything that's left I would invest allowing me to start working part time or full on retire to focus on my writing.

10 000 000

This is where it gets difficult and as an aspiring FIRE this is something that I've thought a lot about. At this point I could quit work and spend my days reading and writing. I could do that in the earlier stage too if I went for a less expensive house. While I do want more free time I don't know if I want to quit work. I worry that I would spend too much time at home alone never meeting anyone and generally getting isolated. But part time sounds good, maybe study something just for the fun of it (not as a strategy for career advancement). But as I said I could do that at 1 million dollars as well. That's the nice thing with fire knowing exactly how much you actually need. 

Thoughts

Most of these are things I already plan to buy or do. The bookshelf purchase it slated for august. The apartment for two years from now. I like to plan things out to the extreme and a sudden windfall would only speed up those plans, not fundamentally change them. A factor might be that apart from the last one they are all sums of money that I already have or that I will conceivably get in some years if I want it so I have spent some time planning this.

search consol redirect issues

 For a while I have been trying to get this blog indexed on google. For those unfamiliar with it indexing is necessary for it to be searchable. This has been an exercise in frustration so far nothing is working and I don't know why.

A tip I got was to check which post got indexed and which didn't. Unfortunately all mine got labeled as having redirect issues so that doesn't help. 

First step was obviously to check the redirect. According to the checker https://wheregoes.com/ there is no problem. This makes sense since neither bing nor yahoo has any issue.  

So the problem is something with all my posts but only for google. 

I am at the point where I'm open to trying anything. So this post is a test if having all small caps in the headline will make any difference. It shouldn't but Blogger makes it's links from the head line so who knows.

Also with neither pictures or outgoing links it is a very barebones post.

Update: So this didn't work, on to test number two trying to input some code I found.

If anyone has had similar issues and managed to solve them I would very much appreciate a comment about what you did. 

Or if you have other issues and just want to went a bit that's fine too.

Update 2: also didn't work. Today I'm trying two different things. Number one double the link to this post. Number two removing the sitemap from google search console. This might seem counter-intuitive the whole point of a site map is to help with indexing. But bare with me. I have older discontinued blog. while I tried to get this one indexed I fixed somethings on that too. Checking in on it I saw that basically all the posts has gotten indexed. But here's the thing the blogs are pretty much identical when it comes to content the most obvious difference is that I never bothered to do a sitemap for it. Also the sitemap I uploaded didn't really work with google. It doesn't keep track of the new posts. I should say I'm only removing it from google search consol not from the blog itself, I also have it on bing and there it works fine.

Update 3: Still no change so I'm going to try and removing the site map all together. I may have been too hasty singing the praises of Bing since it has apparently only indexed 12 of my 30 pages and doesn't seem to be checking the sitemap.

Update 4: Success finally...sort of...maybe. What happened was that the latest post, the one I uploaded after update 3 was not tagged with redirect errors but rather with the "Crawled not currently indexed". I choose to see this as a hopeful sign though it's still not indexed and I now have to figure out how to fix this issue so far the definition from google seems to be "there's nothing wrong and we'll maybe get around to it or not"

Update 5: I may have spoken too soon. The posts I uploaded have all gotten redirect errors and even the one I thought was working had too. New plan is this. I have an older blog that I'm no longer using. Annoyingly it gets indexed. So what I'm going to do is simply to copy it. All the settings all the layout and themes and hopefully this will do something.

Review of The Housemaid by Freida Mcfadden

 I'm a librarian and despite what many people might think this does not involve much reading. 

This summer however me and some coworkers are presenting three new books each for an audience of predominantly older women. Since I have to go through the work of finding, getting, reading and forming an opinion on these books I might as well post it here as well. With the added bonus that I can be brutally honest here. 

The plot

After ten years in prison Millie is finally free. Unfortunately she's unemployed and living in her car. And with her criminal record getting a job is hard. But she at long last does manage to get work as a housekeeper for the wealthy Winchester family. Even better it provides both a salary and room, so says yes despite it being slightly unnerving. 

It doesn't get less worrying when on the first day the Gardner Enzo warns her about danger but he doesn't speak English so she isn't sure what exactly he means. 

Inside the pristine house from the interview has, in just a week, turned into a pigsty and when she gets to her cramped attic room she realize that the door only locks from the outside. 

And that sets the tone for her employment. Nina Winchester is inconsistent, acting like they are the best of friends on moment and the threaten to fire her the next. Berating her for not completing jobs she hasn't been asked to do. Calls in a panic and asks to pick up kid from school even if other parent takes kid to karate lessons acts as if never asked. And being jealous if Millie so much as talks with her husband Andrew.

For Millie it's a nightmare as she slowly realize that Nina is not just "a bit temperamental" like her husband says but that something is seriously wrong. But she can't leave because leaving means being homeless and worse her probation is dependent on her having a job and home. So even when she comes down to Nina throwing dishes on the floor, lying about her daughters allergies or when Millie suspects she is violent. She still has to stay.

My thoughts

I want to preface this by saying that it's not a bad book (at least not in the first 100 pages which is all I read). Millie is sympathetic and her being stuck in a bad situation where she is powerless with an inconsistent, gas-lighting boss. The slowly dread and uncertainty is well written. 

Mostly I just don't like it, I don't particularly like this kind of thrillers. I don't like People being stuck in bad situations and not doing anything they can to get out of it. Don't get me wrong I understand Millie's choices there literally isn't any better option for her. That's most of the reason I'm not throwing the book away in annoyance. But with every chapter I know something bad is going to happen I just don't know what or how bad and that feeling of uncertainty and helplessness isn't something I'm looking for (I have plenty of that already).

That being said there are some less subjective critiques as well. I don't like the way it villainizes mental illness if I was to attempt to diagnose her I'd say less evil more narcissist and depressed. Even so Millie looking trough her medicine kind of crosses a line. 

Also one of the "weird" things Nina does is being jealous of her husband. She don't want them to talk or even be in the same room. This is considered weird because Andrew is so obviously in love with her.

 But at the same time Millie constantly thinks about how hot he is and clearly wouldn't mind becoming the new Mrs Winchester. Similar thought is expressed by side characters so it's not like Nina doesn't have any reason for it.

As for Millie a part from knowing that she spent several years in prison we don't really know anything about her. Not what she was in prison for or where she is from and though its possible that this is revealed later in the book in the parts I read there's nothing. This feels like a missed opportunity. The slow reveal of her past, what she did and why could have been an interesting second plot point.

I said that Millie is stuck and forced to work there but that doesn't mean that she can't do anything. While the threat of homelessness is real the problem of her parole could be lessened. In a meeting with her parole officer she lies and say that it's fine. This serves no purpose the rules of the parole states that she has to have a place to live and a job. Side thought: is this accurate to real life because thinking about it it seams unreasonable. Anyway she has to have a job, no one said she has to like it and explaining the situation might give her some leniency if she has to leave.   

All in all for someone who likes thrillers this would probably be a good fit but its not for me.

If you have read it what did you think? Leave a comment. If you haven't read it you can check it out here Housemaid.

Knitting a bolero

I have a dress I really like and want to wear. My problem is that it has short sleeves so I can't wear it unless I have a sweater no top which defeats the purpose or it's quite warm outside and the ac isn't on. That means basically never. But rather than admitting defeat and leaving it in the back of my closet for ever I decided that a bolero would be the answer to my plight. My original plan for this was to find a store that had one and try it on together with the dress and see if I liked it as much as I thought I would. I was however thwarted in this endeavor as I after some googling realized that the only store that had one in the style I wanted was Shein and that is not an option I'm willing to consider. So I decided that the only solution was to make one myself.

Now I have a bit of a confession to make. While I'm a quite good knitter I can't actually read knitting patterns. I usually take one look at them decide I don't know what any of it means and then go on to creating my own pattern. So far that's been fine, I would have made my own alterations anyway and I like problem solving. But that does mean that I can't write a proper pattern for what I did and I'm instead forced to simply write a description of it.

The pattern itself turned out to be quiet easy but I'm not sure a beginner would understand explanation of it. Also the stitch and row count is based on my measurements and this yarn specifically, so alter as needed.

Some pinteresting and thinking later and I had a plan.

If I were to simply make a tube going from one arm to the next with slits for the torso and neck. It should function as a bolero and achieve the look I want. But since a straight line is boring I decided to spice it up with some dramatic bishops sleeves (it's my favorite sleeve type but I had to do some googling to find out what they were actually called). 

Tools and materials

5 skeins of Merino wool yarn 50g and 175 meter. It's soft but not very warm which is fine since its meant to be used during the summer.

3,5 knitting needles, for the cuffs I used a double sided set.

But mostly I used my interchangeable circular set it gives lots of options but it does have a habit of unscrewing while you knit.  

Row counter, mine is cheap plastic and kind of bad, they only go to a hundred but finding any three digit ones is hard. I also only have one because my cat chewed on the other. 

Row markers, useful when you need to make sure both sides are identical. But you can use paperclips and pen and paper. 

Try one 

15 rows with 40 stitches for the cuffs using ribbing to make then stretchy. That then gets doubled twice widening to 160 stitches and becomes a smooth knit. This turned out to be far too wide and it stretched the cuff in a way I didn't like. It also took a long time to make each row. So picking up my other yarn ball I started over keeping the old part for comparison.

Try two

I still used 40 ribbed stitches for the cuffs but now for 20 rows. This is then doubled to 80 stitches. 

Row 30. This try was better than the first but not quite as wide as I wanted. So at I added another 20 stitches or adding one for every four stitches.

This was enough so then I just kept going. and I've now spent most evenings this month knitting on my couch while watching Critical role season 2.

Row 90 and the first ball of yarn is gone. Since at this point I was only halfway on my upper arm I estimate I will need 4 balls in total for this. Since I'd only bought two I'll have to buy more. I had assumed I would have to but it's easy to get more and I have overestimated the amount of yarn needed for a project before.  

Row 150 and since the sleeve now reaches my armpit it's done. Which means it's time for the first slit. So rather than continuing round I simply turned and start goes back and forth. It's a bit tricky going from a circle to a flat but it's manageable if you use several knitting needles. I should have included a picture but honestly black knitting in a badly lit room makes for terrible photos.

Row 165 and it's now halfway up my shoulder and I divide it again making a gap in the middle for my neck. I continuing in the front with my existing yarn and add another ball of yarn to knit the back. While knitting the front I did reduce the width a bit, the idea is to show a sliver of skin between the neckline and the bottom of the bolero. I'm not sure if the reduction made much difference but I didn't want to redo anything so it stayed.

Row 195 (205 for the back) and I've reached the middle. I did a few rows of purled stitches in the middle partly for decoration and partly to keep it from rolling up. Then having reached the middle I did everything again but backwards. I have been using a row counter for this project so the easiest thing was to simply start counting down instead of up and looking up in my notes what I'd done where. 

Sigh, 30 rows left and I'm out of yarn again. So close.

16 rows left and I'm working on the second cuff. Only to realize this is meant to be ribbed and I've not done that. So I'm unraveling the last four rows and redoing them. I kind of feel like it's too late and I should stop for the evening but at the same time I'm so close and want to get it done today. Which is how I've done things before often to terrible results.

And it's done. All that's left is weaving in the ends and removing the row markers.

But that's for tomorrow.

Results

It's cute. The pattern definitely worked and I'm considering making more. Maybe I'll do a colored one or with different sleeves. Merino wool is very soft and this is smooth so wearing it directly against skin isn't a problem. The sleeves being that wide does pose a bit of a problem making it hard to wear a jacket on top but that's a problem with several of my sweaters as well. I think the only solution is to sew a wide sleeved jacket but that's a project for another time.

Taking the picture for this I really wanted to do the Hamlet pose but unfortunately I don't have a skull anymore since Mischka knocked it of the shelve and broke it. 

More and more I have come to realize that doing something myself is the easiest way to get what I want. It also wasn't that expensive and the cost ended up roughly the same as if I'd bought it, which is a moot point since there wasn't any in this style anyway.

As an extra benefit it doubles as a scarf and the sleeves are wide enough that I could use them as pockets at least for small and light things.

Review of The three lives of Alix st Pierre by Natasha Lester

I'm a librarian and despite what many people might think this does not involve much reading. 

This summer however me and some coworkers are presenting three new books each for an audience of predominantly older women. Since I have to go through the work of finding, getting, reading and forming an opinion on these books I might as well post it here as well. With the added bonus that I can be brutally honest here. 

The plot

It's 1947 in Paris and Alix is back to start her new job for the then relatively unknown Christian Dior. She got her start writing for fashion magazines in Paris but had to shift focus during the war when move to USA where she grew up. Back in Paris and again working with fashion she ruminates about the differences, Paris bears the scars of war and rationing and she herself has changed by the part she played in the war working for the secret service.

Her first job for Dior is to make sure journalists actually show up for the fashion show. This is Made harder by it being held a week after everyone else and after all the international reporters has left. But by reviving old contacts and using knowledge and tricks she learned as a spy she manages to make some headway. This does mean repeatably running into one Antony March. He's a reporter for the New York journal and son of the newspapers owner. He is also antagonistic and seemingly knows more than says, asking question about not only her but also Bobby, her fiance who died during the war. His death weighs heavy on her conciseness because it her plans, her lying informant that lured them into a trap.

Reminded of the deaths she decides to find the informant and get revenge for Bobby and the other eight that died that day. Until a note is left on her desk in telling her to leave Paris. There is only one explanation the informant who's name she doesn't know knows her. And she must figure out who he is and who to trust in a city where everyone has secrets.

My thoughts

I don't really care about fashion but there are little hints about the thing that happened. Something that she did during the war. Something she still feels guilty about. The hints that there might be spies does carry me through the early part. Until it becomes clear that it will probably be the majority of the plot. 

So plot-wise it's fine, at least for the first hundred pages that I read, but the dialog is clunky. Actually all the text... none of it flows like I want. This makes it hard to get to know her and it's the same with location descriptions. Though all of this might just be because I read a bad translation. 

Alix also repeatably makes some pretty wild leaps of logic that always seems to pan out, but really shouldn't. case in point: someone has stolen and released some fashion drawings Anthony remarks that people one has helped are more likely to betray you (are they though?) and Alix just immediately knows who it is. That's not how you do detective work. 

If you have read it, What did you think? If not the it can be bought here Three lives.