Starter Villain by John Scalzi

So this is what I had been hoping for when I read Assistant to the villain. Vulcano lairs, secret meetings, lasers and also cats. 

But I get ahead of myself. The story follows charlie. He had taken time off/been laid off from being a journalist to care for his sick father until his death. He is now living in his father's old house which his half siblings want to sell. Working as a substitute teacher while looking for any journalism or even writing job. It's not going well. 

At the start of the story he's attempting to buy a local pub to break the stalemate (except he can't get approved for a loan). When he is informed that his uncle Jake has died. His uncle was a billionaire but they haven't had any contact since Charlie was a child so he is surprised when he is asked to help with the funeral. He is even more surprised when he finds out he has inherited his uncle's estate and that his uncle was not only the owner of  the country's third largest parking garage company but also ran a villainous empire complete with a volcano lair.

Unfortunately he has also inherited his uncles enemies.

My thoughts

I generally like scalzi's books a lot, they are funny, exciting and clever. Starter villain is no different and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. But with the latest two (starter villain and Kaiju preservation society) have taken a turn to be more relatable. At least to me... and I suspect any other millennial in an unsatisfactory work and/or living situation. In this case it's not so much his money trouble but the soul crushing feeling of sending job application after job application into the void and getting nothing back. Of living in a town I didn't like because of circumstances not because I actively chose it.

At the same time it takes the tropes and asks how would that work in reality. So you have the problem of trillion of dollars sitting unused in a bank because moving it would raise all the red flags. The reasons why you can't drown someone in lava and genetically engineered dolphins going on strike.

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

Making my own moisturizer

Today I made some moisturizer. It's mostly based on the recipe for cold cream from the 1779 book Toilet de Flora. This is not the first time I try old recipes and it certainly won't be the last. The measurements has been reworked from the original Drachms to grams. 

This isn't really a experiment since i have done it before. but that time I Had accidentally miss read it and had 1 ounce of water instead of 1,5. It still worked but the result was a bit oily so I'm hoping it works better this time. But also I'm not too worried about getting things a little wrong.

Ingredients

56g Sunflower seed oil

2g   Coconut oil

2g   Jojoba oil

A few drops Tea Tree oil

4g   Beeswax pellets

42g Rosewater or Water

Sodium benzoate

Tools

Jars (enough for 100 ml)

Scales

Pipette

Stone mortar and wood pestle

Bowl preferably metal

Double boiler (metal bowl and pot)

What to do

Measure out the beeswax, coconut, jojoba and sunflower seed oils in the boil and melt it over a pot of water. Stir until the beeswax is all incorporated. The sunflower seed oil can be subbed out for other oils like almond or olive but I happened to have sunflower so that's what I used.

While the oils are melting measure out the Rosewater (or ordinary water) in a glass or bowl. 

Pour the oils in the mortar and stir slowly until the mixture grows thick and opaque. Then comes the slow bit, use the pipette to drop in the rosewater little by little. Stirring it in until the drops are no longer visible before dropping in more. Make sure to have something to watch or listen to during this because it takes about an hour and requires some patience. 

I took a pause to prepare the jars, boiling them, drying them off and writing labels for them. Of course once I'd written and taped them on did I remember that I have a label making machine that I could have used. But by then it was too late and I wasn't going to redo it all just to have them look neater. 

It wouldn't be me if I didn't try a little experiment. Last time I did this I used sodium benzoate to keep it from growing mold and that worked fine. But I have read that Tea tree oil have antifungal and antibacterial properties and wanted to try that instead (Link to the article).  So I labeled half the jars Tea tree and poured in a few (1-3) drops and labeled the rest for sodium benzoate and put 0.1ml of that in them. 

Then all that was left was just to divide the cream in the jars and stir so the tea tree oil or sodium benzoate don't just sit on the bottom. 

Results

All in all it took about an hour and half and I now have five jars or 100 ml of moisturizer. Hopefully the tea tree oil will work but in any case I plan to keep them in the fridge just to be one the safe side.

It smells rather pleasantly of honey and rose. It also feels rather smooth and less oily than last time. So I call that a success.

Update 1 it's working fine however Tea tree oil has a fairly strong scent and it completely drowns out the much milder honey and rose. I don't mind it but it is a particular smell and not one that's for everyone.

Update 2 After three months it hasn't started growing any mold so apparently the tea tree oil is working.

Unnatural Magic by C.M Waggoner

Onna is a young mathematical prodigy and in a world where math and magic is intrinsically linked going to magical university is a dream of hers.

But although she aced the entrance exams she still doesn't get accepted (mostly due to classism and sexism in this quasi Victorian world). She instead goes to Hexos an island nation renowned for its magic. But Trolls are being murdered in the streets of Hexos and in the countryside of Draeslundic and Onna quickly finds herself as part of the investigation.

It also follows Jeckran a down on his luck nobleman and military officer sent to stop the brewing conflict between humans and trolls. Instead he finds himself rescued by Tsira a half troll living on the outskirts of both human and troll society. Setting out to make their fortune together they do quite well for themselves until a personal tragedy drags them into the murder investigation. 

My thoughts

There's a lot of lost potential in this book. The idea of a high functioning troll society side by side with a human one is interesting. But you only get to see either the poor clans at the border or the enclaves within human cities. And constantly being told their magic is a lot more advanced than humans is not the same.

I also had trouble engaging with the characters. Onna she's a bit to perfect, sure she is a prodigy but even a highschool prodigy shouldn't easily beat someone at university level.  

The investigating murders plot mostly meanders around. With Onna occasionally accusing various people of murder based on mostly circumstance. 

This part could be a lot better if more time had been devoted to it but unfortunately most of the book is taken up by Tsira, Jeckran and their love story. I don't like them and I certainly don't like their relationship. They feel more like two people taking advantage of each other. Jeckran for money and protection, Tsira for status. It doesn't help that Tsira almost never refers to him by his name or that Tsira is violent and willing to attack or threaten anyone who even looks at them weird. With Trolls being significantly larger and stronger than humans that is a problem.

And they don't really contribute much to the murder plot. 

All in all it's not a book that I'll be reading again.

If you have read it what did you think? Leave a comment. If you haven't read it you despite this wants to try it then it can be bought here Unnatural.

First of may

Preparations

For the last two years I have spent the first of may having an elegant picnic in trollsjöpark listening to socialdemokraternas speech and looking as bourgeoisie as possible. Why? Because what else would I do.

I usually plan to wear a dainty summer dress for this until I realize usually the day off that may is in fact NOT a summer month and I have to find something else or brave hypothermia. I will do a lot for aesthetics but not freezing.

So I spent the weeks leading up to it worrying about the weather (it's been snowing lately and yes, I am writing this several weeks in advance) and planning what to eat and what book to bring.

The book the complete works of Edgar Allan Poe. The rules state that it has to be a book I'm actually currently reading and I am reading it just slowly... with long breaks. The the problem with books like this is that while it contains the great classics like the Raven etc there's also a lot of short stories no ones ever heard of like the Imp of the perverse mostly because they just aren't very good.  

I have recently moved and this would be the first may in the new town and I was faced with a dilemma. Because here there are not just one party having speeches but three. Possibly more they are terrible at updating their websites and most I found was for earlier years. 

In the end the answer was obvious. One simply cannot have a pick-nick at Gustav Adolf square. So it had to be Vansterparty in Slottspark. 

On the day

The first of may dawned clear and bright and I spent the morning packing(after some job hunting) my basket, doing my makeup and setting my hair with pin curls. As luck would have it I could actually wear my pretty dress.

The march was supposed to start at 11 and I left home at 10.45 and I hurried a bit to get to the park assuming that it would take them half and hour to an hour to get there. Last year I was late and had to do a bit of power-walking to pass them and get there before them. This time I needn't have bothered. When I get there it's mostly empty a stage is set up, chairs, tents and what I suspect is a deflated bouncy castle. But almost no people and I have my pick of spots. 

12.15 rolls around and by now I have everything set up. I've taken far too many pictures of my food, eaten both my sandwiches and read two stories. To be fair they were short stories but still. Yet no sign of them. But it was a beautiful day clear blue sky, 20 degrees and a strong wind. So I'm not complaining.

12.30 and I was starting to get bored. Enough time had passed that I had to move my blanket if I wanted to keep it in the sun. Around me the grass had slowly filled with families. Maybe lured there by the promise of a bouncy castle.

12.51 by now my tea is cold and I have moved my blanket again further away this time. I have also just remembered that blogger don't really let you paste text into it without it messing with the format so all these notes I have been doing I'm going to have to rewrite later. 

13.22 I've read another story and re read The Raven coming to the realization that it's better when read aloud, but it's also partially a tongue twister so that's not easy. By now stubbornness is at least 50% of the reason why I'm still here.

Also I have now switched to writing this directly in the blogger app. But at long last I can hear them approaching. I think it's a bit hard to hear above the music playing on the stage. As an aside I brought macrons to this pick-nick and after having tried all the five flavors I have concluded that they are overrated as a cookie. The Filing is fine but the cookie bits really don't have much flavor.

13.58 and they are finally here, I don't understand how it's taken them three hours to go from möllevångssquare to here but apparently it did. Though they are moving quite slowly so that might explain it. 

But I'm packing up and leaving, stopping to take a picture of the crowd. I had planned on staying for the speeches but at this point I had been here for several hours and was starting to worry about sunburn more importantly I'm out of tea and that simply will not do. 

I hope to keep this tradition alive for at least a few more years but next year I'm going later. 

It's time for my seasonal wardrobe change

 Four times a year I change over my wardrobe and now it's time to do that. Exchanging my winter clothes for spring. I do this for a number or reasons not least that there's no point in filling my closet with thick sweaters during summer. But it also helps to keep my wardrobe fresh. After a few months of looking at the same black and gray skirts everyday I'll grow tired of most of most of them and want something different. Maybe something with more color. I considered adding a note to myself about things I need to buy mainly new knitted gloves and wool skirts that aren't black, gray or black and white. But in the end I didn't because while I'm considering a more colorful wardrobe I'm also thinking about making it more gothy. We'll see what I'll decide.

Changing the wardrobe does take some time so I decided to do it during Easter when I had some time to do it thoroughly (I know that was a while ago but I have a publishing schedule). Doing it thoroughly meant taking the time to wash everything including my hats and scarves or at least rinse of my coats. I also removed any pilling. Making sure that everything is nice and clean for when I unpack it in the fall. There are some things that are going to need a bit more care my red coat needs an other button and a new lining. (Note to self when sewing coats don't buy the cheapest lining fabric) But that's a bit more work and will have to wait until summer.

And so it's done everything it packed away and my wardrobe is ready for spring. I would have showed before and after pictures but frankly even I can barely see the difference and the lighting by my closets is terrible. Of course a few days after this the weather turned and I had to walk through the snow in my spring coat. 

The Android's Dream by John Scalzi

 Before I begin, I should say that yes the title does indeed refer to the Philip K. Dick novel. Though in this case it refers to a breed of genetically modified bright blue sheep.

Plot

Android's dream is a science fiction novel and it begins with a diplomatic incident between representatives of Earth and that of the alien race Nidu. Nidu has been Earth's ally, but relations have been strained for some time now as many on Earth feel exploited. To restore Nidu's goodwill, Harry Creek is tasked with finding a sheep needed in the coronation of Nidu's new ruler. This is made more difficult by the fact that there is only one sheep of that kind left. It is also complicated by conspirators from Earth, Nidu and a religious order.

And then the book gets really weird.

My thoughts

The book partly reminds me of the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy or Terry Pratchett in that it constantly interrupts the plot to tell stories about the different characters, peoples, organizations and other things. It's the kind of absurd writing style that I quite enjoy when it's done correctly.

I have previously read Scalzi's book Redshirts (which I recommend to anyone who has seen the original Star Trek) and this is similar in many ways. Redshirts is definitely the weirder of them (especially at the end) but androids dream I'd say is more exciting and maybe even the funnier of them. Assuming you're into bizarre humor. 

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

The Scum Villain's Self-saving System by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

This is a meta story about a person being transported into the plot of a book he's read.

Shen Yuan has a love hate relationship with the immensely popular web-novel series "Immortal demon way". Having just finished the last book and upset about the unresolved plot threads, the cliche plot and bland side characters he dies. Only to find himself waking up inside the book. Not as the male power fantasy protagonist Lou Binghe but rather as his horrible teacher Shen Qingqiu. Who routinely encourages the other students to bully Bingue and will in later parts of the series try to kill him. 

He will also (as Yuan knows) later be gruesomely killed by the protagonist. Something Yuan (since he is in Qingqiu body wants to stop). Using his knowledge of the books, Qingqius magical powers and along with the unhelpful system (a google translate voice that only Yuan can hear that arbitrarily assigns him points and quests) he must set out to fix the plotholes and avoid his fate of death by protagonist. Except until that feature is unlocked he can't act too out of character.  

My thoughts

I like it a lot. Yuan arguing with the system is very funny and I like him although he is a bit slow to realize that his actions has consequences for the plot going forward. Also that Bingues respect for him as a teacher becomes hero worship once he is shown the least bit of kindness and self sacrifice. 

Although not getting murdered is one of the reasons for Yuan wanting to change the plot it is mostly just that Yuan is a mostly decent person and seeing a child bullied is just wrong. 

Unfortunately it doesn't have the best view on women. the female characters are mostly there to be saved by Binghe and then ignored. Which isn't surprising considering that the story is supposed to be a male power fantasy (In the Original book Bingue ends with a harem of 300 women) but it's also not questioned by Shen. Hopefully that will change in the later books. 

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

My review of book number 2 and number 3