Game of Thrones 5-8, Hardhome.

We finally have Tyrion,  as advisor to Daenerys, getting the respect and position he always desired. This is good for the both of them. Tyrion finally gets a queen to advise worthy of his talents, and she gets a voice of reason to replace the one she lost with death of Ser Barriston. This also gives the viewers a different dynamic, for Danny has thus far surrounded herself with mostly lovers and warriors, The grizzled Ser Barriston, the lovelorn Ser Jorah, and her current foppish lover/champion, Daario. Tyrion's great strength is his mind.

And, poor Jorah, back to the fighting pits. What's he up to now?

Cersei still stews in prison and her options continue to get worse.  She can't count on a rescue from her weak-spirited son, Tommen, who is now under the sway of his uncle, Kevan Lannister. Tommen and Jofferey are two sides of a single character that were unfortunately separated. A character with Joffery's will and governed by Tommen's empathy could be an ideal king. We could name him King Toffery!

And, how awesome is it to have the High Sparrow played by Jonathan Pryce?

Things get interesting for the Stark sisters. Sansa learns the truth about the fate of her younger brothers and Arya embarks on her assassin career.

The most important development, however, occurs north of The Wall. Jon and Tormund Gianstbane go to the aptly named town of Hardhome to make an alliance between the Wildlings and the Crows (Yes, the Freefolk have towns) when an army of thousands of the dead attack. We even got to see Jon fighting alongside a Thenn. And a Giant!

If you didn't know the difference between a mere wight and a whitewalker before, you know now. Whitewalkers are the badass ones, and King whitewalker was the creepiest thing in the show yet. But, then, Jon discovers that "Longclaw" is a much needed +100 attack against whitewalkers. An obsidian point isn't the only thing that will take one out (eat Valyrian steel, motherfuckers!).

So, NOW, we have the true perspective. We see how petty realm politics really is. All the maneuvering by everyone else for the Iron Throne is completely besides the point. None of them even see what is coming for them. Jon Snow knows a lot more than nothing. By trying to bring the Night's Watch and the Freefolk together, he is literally fighting to save the world. It is the Long Winter and Stannis is not Azor Ahai, Jon Snow is,

Game of Thrones 5-6 "The Gift"

It was sad but expected to say goodbye to Maester Aemon ( and now his watch is ended), But, it also means that Sam's own career training as a maester is aproaching. With Aemon dead and no infsnt son of Mance Rayder, Jon needs a reason to send Sam and Gilly south via Braavos, I wonder how it is going to play out.

Disappointingly,  Sansa relied on Theon to light her signal candle in the old tower for her, so, of course, Reek went and narced to Ramsey. We are all waiting for Theon to finally snap, and kill Ramsey, of course, but to kill Ramsey, he must kill Reek first. If "What is dead shall never die", according to the Ironborn worldview, then Theon still exists inside that unkempt mind, and needs to rise again and slay Reek.  

"Kill the boy so the man may live". 

-Aemon Targarian 

The best part of the epidode was to see Ser Jorah slash and stab his way through the fighting pit like a boss to deliver Lord Tyrion to Her Grace and allow Peter Dinklage to deliver another perfest line, "I am the gift".

Tyrion's journey through Essos in the books is exeedingly long, and hasn't ended yet. Now, we get to finally see he and Daenarys meet. She's going to need his aptitudes. I hope she doesn't waste the opportunity. 

Game of Thrones Notes: 5-6

I'm dealing with a family medical crisis, which I will get into when it's over. I did get to see MOST of this episode. I missed the first 15 minutes. I only have one thing to say:

Damn it, Theon! You wuss! His back was to you, you could have finished him! By the drowned god, snap out of it!

Game of Thrones notes: Season 5 episode 5

I thought I'd start in on some Game of Thrones impressions. Are you addicted to George R.R. Martin's "song of Ice and Fire" epic-in-progress? What do you think of the television changes?

So, we finally get the deviations from the books we have been warned about. So far we have the young Rhagar storyline seemingly skipped over,  Ser Jorah Mormont getting Jon Connington's greyscale, and Sansa Stark getting Jeyne Poole's wedding. It seems like the writers are trying to hold on to some of the original story arcs while keeping the list of new characters down. That doesn't bother me much. You have to do what you have to do for TV, and I have my books. I just hope that we get to see Victorion "The Kracken" Greyjoy.

In episode five, Lord Commander Jon Snow's plan to bring the Freefolk south of the wall is revealed. His Grace, Stannis Baratheon, the first of his name and king of proper grammar, sallies forth to either victory or doom beneath the walls of Winterfell, this time with wife, daughter, and Melesandre in tow. I don't like this. My theory of how Jon could get out of the mess that he finds himself in at the end of "A Dance With Dragons" requires Melesandre's presence at Castle Black. I'll get to that when it comes to it, as well as what I think about what happens with Stannis.

Speaking of Winterfell; Sansa Stark, Lady of the Vale and Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish's pupil, seethes during the Bolton dysfunctional family dinner (the family that flays together...). If you want to know how Ramsay got so screwed up in the head, look at his family situation (oh, man). You know Sansa is planning something, and Lady Brienne may yet prove less hapless than she has been thus far. I wouldn't want to be a Bolton.

I guess that Brienne won't be meeting Zombie Katlyn on the show.

Arya is putzing around in Braavos learning how to be a faceless man, and I don't know if there will be anyone left on her hit list when she gets back to Westros, they seem to be killing themselves off quite nicely.

On Slaver's Bay, Ser Barriston Selmy dies in an alley fight rushing to the rescue of Greyworm and his Unsulied. Really? Even GRRM has been keeping Bariston the Bold alive in the books. He's GRRM's only perfect knight. GRRM has no romantic notions of knighthood. Most of his knights are oafs, corrupt, suffer from really bad luck with women, love their sisters a little too much, or are simply brave fighters but jerks. Ser Barriston was the best of them.

Speaking of knights; Lady Brienne keeps saying that she's not a knight. She has a horse, armor, a sword with a name, a squire, and a quest. She's a knight.

Finally I'm starting to worry about Daenerys. She really showed her her Targaryen pyromaniacal tendencies turning that Meereenese elder into char-broiled dragon barbecue.

The Mustang

A few month's ago I bought a 2012 Ford Mustang. you can see it in a previous post. It's not my first, I had a 1969 many years ago. The 2015 model year also marks the 50th year of continuous Mustang production. Not many American cars have been around longer than that. The Corvette (1953) has, and also the Jeep (1941), The three have all been around so long for good reasons, there is something quintessentially American about all them. This post is about the Mustang. There is a lot of history below, but not the kind you are expecting. it's not a run down of different years and models. I'm not going to re-tread all of that. There are better places than this little blog entry to read the definitive 50 year modern  history of the Mustang automobile. I'm going to play around the edges and maybe come up with something special instead.

Between 1955 and 1957 Ford had the Thunderbird, a hip two seat sports car made to compete with the Corvette and the various imported Marshall Plan sports cars coming over from from Europe after the war. The T-Bird looked sweet and (only available with a V-8), it was a real gas to drive. It was the aspirational car of the time.
 In the same way that Richard Dreyfus chased T-Bird driving Susanne Sommers all night without ever hooking up in "American Graffiti", the T-Bird represented something existential we we are reaching for. Americans want the romance and freedom that a beautiful, fast, two-seat automobile represents. But something holds us back, a four-seater seems so much more practical and makes us less guilty about owning it. Our Puritan superego creeps up on us. What are Bob and Jane Stationwagon next door going to think when we bring home that impractical roadster?
So, in 1958, the Thunderbird gained a back seat, more luxury, more pounds, and Ford lost it's only sports car. The result? Thunderbird sales doubled, of course.
There were some really beautiful Thunderbirds in the sixties, but Ford eventually lost the overall theme for the car. Ford never quite knew what to do with the T-Bird. By the mid-seventies, it had become just another poorly made, under-powered American behemoth. Ford finally had the right idea in the 80s with the svelte Turbo Coupe, but, Thunderbird was just too many things over the decades. There was no Thunderbird "idea" other than the somewhat vague concept of a "personal luxury coupe". The last Thunderbird model was a 1956 inspired two seater, another failed attempt to jump in on the retro design craze that began in the early 2000s. It was a decent enough car that lacked that certain "thing" the original had. It finally disappeared for good after 2005.

Jumping ahead (or back) to the early 1960s. The VP and General Manager of the Ford Division of Ford-Lincoln-Mercury was this guy named Lee Iaccoca. You know him, Lee Iaccoca, the hero of 1980s American business, the guy who brought you the Chrysler K-Car and the Dodge Minivan; the guy who saved Chrysler Corp. by buying up AMC just to get his hands on the Jeep division and tossed out the rest; THAT lee Iaccoca.
One thing you can say about this Iaccoca fellow; as car guy, he had a feel for the zeitgeist, and so he did way back in '61. The baby boomers were going to start driving soon, so he got the Ford boys to work on a youth oriented car. It had to have style. It had to be affordable. it had to have certain smallish dimensions that he insisted on, It had to be sporty, it had to have four seats, It had to be based on an existing model so it could use parts already in inventory.
What came out of all this in April of 1964 was the Mustang, a car with absolutely gorgeous sheet metal, but based on the economy Ford Falcon chassis. It had a looong sexy hood and a short rear deck. It had seating for four (not two). It came in coupe, fastback, and convertible styles. Most importantly, this baby had options, option, options. It had several engines ranging from an unimpressive 6-cylinder to a high-performance 289 cubic inch 4-barrel V-8, a choice of transmissions, final gear ratios, rims, trim packages, and interior and exterior colors.
It could be a commuter car or a race car. Whatever you wanted the Mustang to do for you, you could special order it for your own desires and your own budget. It didn't matter if you were the secretary next door or Frank Fucking Sinatra, baby, you could have YOUR Mustang. The Mustang was the great democratic car. Murica! It was so popular that it became a technical feat for Ford just to keep up with the orders.
The car also had a name, a good name.

50 million years ago, the Eocene:
As great forests in North America began giving way to grasslands, the decedents of tiny, forest dwelling proto-horses adapted to life on the expanding plains. They developed flat teeth for grinding grasses, long legs with single-toed feet for speed to out-run predators. The first true members of the genus Equus arrived during the Pleistocene, about 4 million years ago. These earliest equines were the the ancestors of horses, donkeys, and zebras. They ranged over North and South America, and expanded northwest over the Bering Land Bridge to Eurasia. Ironically, these early equines died off in the Americas during last ice-age of 10,000 years ago while they thrived in the old world, where a species known as Tarpan (Equus ferus ferus) was domesticated by people.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, the distant ancestors of these early horses (Equus ferus caballus) returned to the Americas with the conquistadors. As domestic animals tend to do, some escaped and became feral. They discovered the ecological niche long ago abandoned by their ancestors and became the North American wild horse, the Mustang. Mustangs were captured, tamed and bred by native Americans, who then created the beautiful, famous horse cultures of the Great Plains.

Back to the 20th century:
The United States Army Air Force had a problem. Bombers and men were being shot down, lost, killed in the frigid skies over Nazi Germany in horrific numbers. What was needed to protect the bombers was a fighter escort plane that could fly all the way from England to Berlin, mix it up with the best machines and pilots of the Luftwaffe, and then fly back. That plane came in the form of a beautiful and advanced airframe made by North American Aviation that was powered by England's mighty Rolls-Royce Merlin engine and carried an extra fuel tank under the fuselage. it was called the P-51 Mustang. Mustangs and their pilots sweep the Luftwaffe out of the European skies in preparation for D-Day.

The P-51 aircraft was so well loved that Ford's prototype sports car of the early sixties was named after it. It soon became apparent, though, that the word "Mustang" conjured up mental images of cowboys and Indians, of plains and deserts, of red sunsets and galloping steeds running free. America, baby! Thus, the production car developed it's equine theme, which it never lost.

 Over the decades there was the loud, fast, high octane muscle car era, competing cars from Chrysler and AMC, the rope-a-dope of fuel shortages and emissions standards that clobbered Detroit and created the Mustang II, a plan to create a front-wheel drive Mustang which became the Ford probe, and finally, stunning leaps in technology making all modern cars into the amazing machines they are today. Through all of this, the Mustang somehow managed to keep it's basic character: something to take to the drag strip, or to help you get lost with a friend on some back road on a Sunday drive, or to just zen out on your afternoon commute so you can arrive home feeling like a human again. Whether it's classic or modern, has a V8, a V6, or an Ecoboost 4, an independent rear suspension or a Fred Flintstone axle, it's still a real Mustang, so just drive it, have fun, and screw the critics who say it's not.

The New Vehicle

2012 Ford Mustang V6 Premium

color: Lava Red Metallic

I got a good price after borrowing my 80 year old mother to play "bad cop" for me at the dealership. She was perfect. I'm financing, and have already made the first payment. A good mount must have a name. This one does not, yet. I must think of a name that is suitably equine.

The new V6 engine,  rated at a believable 310 horsepower, really feels like a V8. The car I drove for 20 years "only" had 210. The black 60's muscle-car like interior makes you say "oh, yeah, I forgot what these were like on the inside". The hood is long and the dash is high. It was actually quite intimidating on the first test drive, like finding myself behind the wheel of a 1969 again. Allegedly, it gets about 30 MPG highway. I haven't seen that yet. City mileage is somewhat short of 20. The back seats are mostly theoretical, but they both fold down, so I can really stuff the back with skis, luggage, or items from the garden shop. The extra cargo space is a nod to practicality.

The interior is old school muscle car black with chrome and metallic trim. There are a lot of flat surfaces compared to most modern cars, which is fine, it feels traditional, The A pillars are huge, they take getting used to, but give a sence of solidness. The electrically powered steering means no worrying about power steering fluid, and the steering feel can be changed between three options "sport", "normal", and "easy". The car does not have the center touch screen, which all new cars seem to have, and I don't feel that I need. The "premium" package puts the pony car into personal luxury car territory. it's more touring car than sports car. The leather seats are heated, fully electric, and the drivers seat has adjustable lumbar support. The sound system still has a CD player and a USB port is hidden in the center console.

Now for the things that need getting used to. No spare tire, The standard fix-a-flat kit will be useless if I bend a rim going over a new jersey pothole. The truck-like hood has a serious bulge and it's tough to find the front corners when parking. The chin spoiler is a real ground scraper. I certainly can't jump curbs and plow through snow like the big old bird that I used to drive. The live axle seems a little twitchy at first if you are used to independent rear suspensions like I am. On the whole, I'm pleased, though.

Test Drive #3

Bu the way, my car search is over, these stories have been copy/pasted from my Facebook. This is my third test drive. Due to this experience, I considered leaving off the name of the dealership, but I will leave it, although the salesman's name will be left out. It's my recommendation as a consumer that you keep away from this place. If you see it, don't ask questions, just run away.

2013 Nissan Altima 2.5s coupe
Color: Black
Hilltop Nissan, East Hanover


Photo Credit: Wikipedia

2013 was the last year for the Altima coupe, which was a real shame. This is a gorgeous car. There have been Nissans in my family for 20 years, and my mother had a 1988 240sx, a truly fun little sports car to flog around, so I'm partial to the Nissan's small coupes. The Altima was a nice little driving car. The body's simple curves are attractive. The cockpit is simple, comfortable. modern and logical, although it was a standard affair with black cloth seats, standard radio, and no center screen display. The view from inside the greenhouse is is unobstructed. The continuously-variable trans is, well, interesting. The car I drove had a 4 cylinder motor, which is OK. This model also came with a V6, which would make the car even a whole lot better, if you find one of those, buy it.

It was a nice car. It was the salesman that made me run out of the dealership screaming. I'm convinced he would have held prisoner in a hole in the basement like the guy in Silence of the Lambs until I signed a fucking contract.

As soon as I expressed my like for the car, the hard-sell began, form the salesman. With all the aggressive salesmanship, they still weren't moving the price point down to compete with the other autos I was looking at. I may have still bought this car if I wasn't consumed with thoughts of escape.

Test Drive #2

2012 Ford Mustang V6 Deluxe with Pony Package
Color Lava Red.
Fette Ford, Clifton NJ


Photo Credit: IzumoCars
This isn't the gorgeous all-new 2015 Mustang which would be my dream car. The 2015 isn't quite available yet and it's priced slightly out of the price range I plan on working with. Ford is taking orders for the 2015 now, but I can't wait a few more months for delivery.
At first impression, everything about the 2012 screams "welcome back to 1969". It's either a good thing, or a bad thing, or a little of both depending on your point of view. The truck-like hood (how long is it? I think it's a par-3.), the dash layout taken from the mustangs of the 1960's, and the any-color-as-long-as-it's black interior says "classic muscle car" I'm tempted to replace the aluminum trim on the dash with fake walnut trim just to complete the retro look. The (300 advertised HP) 3.7L DOHC Ford V6 engine is a beast.  Fred Flintstone would appreciate the solid rear axle. If you are have grown accustomed to an IRS, like I have, remember to give this a little old-school respect.  After a while I realized that the Deluxe package makes this pony even more of a personal luxury coupe than my old T-Bird. First of all, it has heated leather seats, and a leather covered steering wheel and shift knob. As far a modern luxuries go, it has everything but the in-dash TV computer screen. You can change the color of the interior lighting, and listen to your IPod via a hidden USB in the console. There are a few available performance adjustments you can make such as turning the Traction Control on or off and change the steering feel between three levels from comfort to sport. At the selling price this used car is a real bargain. The rare "Lava Red" paint is almost black. This car was really a rare find for the price. I had a black car for 20 years.

My salesman, Andrew, and the sales managers at this dealership were are professional, helpful, and low-pressure. Even if I don't get this particular vehicle, it's nice to find a dealership like this. This may sound like a commercial, but, I had a rare good car shopping experience here, and I'm going to give those involved props.

Test Drive #1

Well, my Thunderbird is finally kaput. The next few posts are my test drive reviews, copy/pasted from my facebook. The first half is the review of each post will be a short note about the car driven. The second half is about my experience with the dealership or salesman. There are new and used autos here, and each one sell for $20 grand more or less.

So, without further ado, the first car:

2015 Dodge Dart SXT
Color: GreyRalley Package

Unnamed Dealership


Photo Credit: Chrysler Auto Group

This is an extremely good looking little automobile The leather trimmed interior is smart and comfortable. The geenhouse gives a great view out of all the windows, which increases safety and will enhance sightseeing on road trips. It's a nice feeling car and fast looking. I said fast LOOKING, though. The 2.4L four-banger would benefit from a small turbo to make the car as quick as it looks. In fact, I was sure that my Mom's old Sentra can take this thing.

My salesman (who's name I forget as of this writing) didn't much impress me. It seemed that it was all the same to him if he sold a car or not. Maybe if I was looking at jeeps, he'd be more exited. He just gave me the key, said to stay in town because he didn't bother to put on a license tag, and walked back inside.

I didn't buy this, and would not recommend the dealership.

Dear reader, I've deleted a few posts. They were mostly about personal stuff that I've moved on from. I didn't think it was necessary to have all of that lingering here and dragging the rest of the blog down into the morass that I am no longer dwelling in.

An old friend brought brightness into my life this month. I've known her for thirty years, and hadn't seen her in five when she walked into my store. It was a gift to see her well and so happy to be alive. Our conversation picked up as easily and comfortably as it did on the day we met in seventh grade, which I remember like it was yesterday. I was debilitatingly shy at that age and allowed our relationship to fall off, one of my great regrets. A lot of water has passed under that bridge since those early days, but, my tender feelings for this person haven't changed much, and I'm glad.

Steampunks

Turkish Coffee

At Steampunk World's Fair this year, I spent some quality time, just hanging out by the Turkish coffee vendor. If you've never tried this ancient way of enjoying a cup. give it a try.

I need to say something about this.

Earlier this year two almost-teenage girls were charged with luring another girl into a wooded area and trying to kill her to please a character in an internet meme known as Slender Man who they thought was real. Here is a link to one of many articles about it.

http://bringmethenews.com/2014/06/04/who-is-slender-man/

People have been publicly contemplating why this could have happened. I'm not in the least bit surprised. We adults need to look at ourselves. Look at the ideas, tales, and conspiracy theories we've allowed to propagate in our supposedly grown-up world. We've filled the airwaves, cable TV and the internet with truthers, birthers, climate change deniers, young-earthers, chemtraiers, and anti-vaxers. It seems the entire republic has lost it's ability to differentiate farie tale and psudo-science from reality. And, now we wonder why two 12 year-olds thought a character in a ghost story was real? Is it really that big a leap?

Deleted this photo by mistake. Here it is again.

Steampunk Project: Camera Obscura.

Working Olympus Trip 35 with new light seals. Leather aftermarket covers from Aki-Asahi.com. Custom Leather camera strap from Gordy's Leather Straps. Top and bottom plates are originally silver. I scratched the silver paint hoping to expose real brass, but found aluminum underneath instead. Not wanting to go messing up a rare black Trip,which do seem to have brass top and bottom plates, I just used A combination of brass hobby paints to get this color.

Steampunk Project: Blaster

A plastic "Jango Fett" Star Wars toy painted.

Armouring project: Smallsword

Blade, grip, pommel: Zen Warrior Armory/Triplette Competition Arms. 

Knuckle Bow: American Fencer's Supply

The front guard, a brass disk, is a piece off a rapier hilt I had laying around.

The blade is 30 inches long, and the point of balance is about one inch from the front of the guard.

A bit about ham radio.

This is a Yaesu FT-250 FM handheld transceiver. Yaesu is the ham radio division of the Vertex Standard company and makes some of the highest quality radio equipment. The maximum transmitting power of this small device is 5 watts, enough power to cover several miles depending on terrain. This small radio sends and receives on what is known as the 2-meter band, which is between 144 and 148 mhz. I have a slightly larger radio mounted in my car which has 60 watts of power. To transmit on the 144-148 band, one is required to hold an amateur radio (also known as a ham) license, which I have had for about five years.

The radio spectrum is considered to be a  public resource. To prevent on-air chaos, countries establish agencies to govern the spectrum's use. In the United States, this agency is the Federal Communications Commission. Licensees are expected to adhere to both FCC regulations and more informal "rules of the road" to make radio use a pleasant experience for everyone. Amateurs are prohibited from accepting fees for our services, our payment is our enjoyment of the hobby.

Hams are call themselves members of the Amateur Radio Service. During times of disaster or crisis, when commercial telephone and internet services are rendered inoperable  hams jump into action, providing important communications capability, both traditional radio and digital. We assist hospitals, emergency management offices and NGOs such as the Red Cross. Many of my fellow hobbyists provided life saving communications in Louisiana and Mississippi in the days immediately after hurricane Katrina, by setting up radio stations that were the only means to get information in and out of effected areas . Being hams doesn't mean we are expected to do all this, and not all of us do. Those of us who do take part in disaster communication do it simply because we are into this sort of thing.

Happy New Year

It's been a while since I blogged. Between my own problems with Hurricane Sandy, disaster relief work extending from Halloween to Christmas, and on top of that, the usual way the holidays take up one's time, I've been a little busy. I may blog about school shootings and gun control some time after I get my thoughts into writing. I hope the next year will be less eventful. I wish everyone a thousand blessings for 2013.

Hurricane Sandy

Not my photo, of course, but this was the size of the storm that first wrecked the Caribbean, and then bulls eyed New Jersey. The Cat-1 winds may have been unimpressive by hurricane standards, but with an area a thousand miles across, and the lowest atmospheric pressure ever recorded north of Cape Hatteras, Sandy caused biblical storm surges for hundreds of miles up and down the coast.

Supper at home without power

A draw-bridge in New Jersey bent by storm surge

Nearing end of the operation, worn out Red Cross vehicles awaiting inspection and repair of their communication systems before getting shipped back to their home states.