Month: November 2008

Review: Daemon

I read this book, literally in about 4 hours. Those hours were spread around about three days, in 5 to 50 minute increments. It did not even last long enough to make it into my “what I’m reading now” listing over there! ->

My friend and occasional commentator here Dan O’Donnell loaned it to me a while back, and it has been sitting in my bookshelf waiting in the queue. I love to read, and rarely in my life is there not some book in my bag that I’m working my way through. I tend to prefer non-fiction, with an emphasis on history, philosophy, and things that provoke thought. Daemon does not fall into any of these categories. It does provoke a bit of thought, but mostly it is a Crichton-esque techno-thriller. It reads like a near-future sci-fi movie (which, I understand it will become at some point.) I finished Jospehy’s definitive history of the Nez Perce and the Inland Northwest, and am pondering a lot of what I absorbed from that… meanwhile picking up something escapist and swift was a nice change of pace.

While most of the technology it explores is plausible, a lot of the plot elements themselves are absurdly implausible. But like a good Bond movie, you suspend your disbelief and ride the roller coaster anyway. One of my guilty pleasures is spotting continuity errors in movies (I add at least one “goof” to IMDB for every movie I watch) and as this book unfolded like a movie I was able to pick up a bunch of them. The errors started compounding rapidly towards the end, and as the final chapters converged my suspension of disbelief reached a breaking point. Several plot threads were either deliberately or mistakenly left dangling, and at least two major plot points seemed jarringly, or hastily, thrown together. The story line followed this wonderful trajectory that suddenly lost momentum and fell like a brick earthward… with a slight bounce as it closed. It seems to me that either Mr. Suarez felt compelled to leave a lot out there for a sequel, or he rushed to complete this story due to some external pressure.

A great geek bodice-ripper for a long flight, but not much more.

Published again! XKEData.com Calendar

My photographic work has once again been chosen for the XKEData.com Calendar. The top shot was taken hanging out the passenger side of the 65E while descending the Beartooth Highway in the 2006 GTTSR. The bottom shot is Gary Herzberg’s S1 FHC, shot at St. Mary’s Lake in Glacier National Park on this year’s GTTSR.

Always nice to see one’s work in print.

Go buy yours today: XKE Data – Store – Calendars.

Car Photo of the Day: Weekend Stumper.

I had to photoshop a couple of logos in preparation for posting this one. It looks easy, but isn’t… and I imagine my readers will suffer a collective slap to their own foreheads when the answer is revealed, we’ll see.

I saw this car at a local show here in the Puget Sound area and I spent a good 45 minutes photographing it and chatting with the owner. Wonderful machine, and a legendary marque.

I don’t know if Roger Los still haunts this site but I’ll have to disqualify him from the guessing game as I stumbled into him at this very show… I suspect he remembers this car and knows what it is. Roger you’ll have to draw pleasure from the torments of others here. 😉

For the rest of you, can you name this car?

Hint: Interior shot (seat belts are a recent add-on!)

2008 JCNA Slalom Results: 5th best on the continent.

Photo by Nimal Jayaratna

The photo above was taken last summer in Surrey B.C., Canada, during my best timed run of the 2008 JCNA Slalom season. It turns out I came in 5th place in my class with a best run of 46.339. I’m in Class “SPL” now (so you’ll have to scroll waaaayy down,) whereas I used to be in Class “D”… I don’t know why really as I don’t pay a lot of attention to the rules, but at the moment it doesn’t matter because that time would have landed me in 5th place in either class… go figure.

The photo was taken by somebody I met online by the name of Nimal Jayaratna. Truly one of those “small world” situations. I was sitting at work one day when my phone rings and it is a gentleman who says to me “you don’t know me but…” and starts telling me how he found me online as we share a common passion, and that he is in Seattle on business. He wanted to know if there was anything Jaguar-related going on locally. I said sure, but it depends upon how you define “local” 😉 I gave him directions to my house and he drove up there at the crack of dawn, and together we drove the 65E up to the Vancouver area. Crossing the border was interesting as Nimal is from Sri Lanka, normally lives in Australia, is working in the UK, was traveling to the USA on business, and here he was with me crossing the border into Canada to attend a Jaguar club event! The Canadians, who normally just wave me through after asking about guns, detained us at the border for about 30 minutes while they shuffled paperwork. We arrived at the Slalom and I ran my timed runs alone in the car. Each one was better than the previous. I expected this. I always take the first one slow, to get the feel of the course again. Without Nicholas to navigate for me (“Hourglass! Figure-eight! Oval!”) I had to both drive AND think… tougher than it sounds, trust me! Every time I slalom I get just a little better, but honestly I don’t do it enough to really get GOOD. I have a blast though and that is the important part. The key to good performance it seems is being relaxed and smooth, and with enough practice I think I could be very smooth and very relaxed. I proved that after the Official timed runs were done and I took Nimal out for a ride around the course during the “fun runs” and managed a 46.035. That would not have changed my JCNA standings, but it does prove that I have plenty of room for, and am capable of, improvement! I think the car is capable of around 42. The driver aint there yet though!

After our fun with the Canadians I was fully expecting the fine fellows at the US Border to subject us to all sorts of … um… special attention… but we managed to go through just fine. Go figure.

Nick & I traditionally stop in Bellingham at an old-style car-hop drive-in burger joint when we return from Vancouver, and as old habits die hard I brought Nimal there too. In hindsight I probably should have brought him somewhere nicer where we could have gotten out of the car, sat and talked. Oh well, my bad. Next time Nimal, I promise!

We returned home via SR11, aka “Chuckanut Drive“… one of the nicest roads in the world. Nimal sent me all of his photos from the day and last I heard was planning on writing about his adventure weekend with the crazy American in Canada for the Jaguar Club of Western Australia, serving as the special correspondent from the UK. Got that?

It is a small world after all.