Reading in 2016

Yeah, I'm a little behind on tracking my reading.

Here's what I read last year:

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom - Cory Doctorow - ****

Time Siege - Wesley Chu - ****

Death by Cliche - Bob Defendi - ****

Wonder Woman: The True Amazon - Jill Thompson - ****

The Nightmare Stacks - Charles Stross - *****

Young Zaphod Plays It Safe - Douglas Adams - ****

My Father, the Pornographer: A Memoir - Chris Offutt - ***

Mostly Harmless - Douglas Adams - *****

The Bill the Cat Story: A BLoom COunty Epic - Berke Breathed - ****

So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish - Douglas Adams - *****

Life, The Universe, and Everything - Douglas Adams - *****

The Restaurant at the End of the Universe - Douglas Adams - *****

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams - *****

Seveneves - Neal Stephenson - **

Dark Night - A True Batman Story - ****

Of Shadow and Sea - Will Wight - ****

Homeland - Cory Doctorow - ****

Of Sea and Shadow - Will Wight - ****

Nerd Do Well - Simon Pegg - ****

Before Watchman, Volume 1 - Darwyn Cooke - ****

Before Watchman, Volume 2 - Darwyn Cooke - ****

Before Watchman, Volume 3 - Darwyn Cooke - ****

Before Watchman, Volume 4 - J. Michael Straczynski - ****

Before Watchman, Volume 5 - Darwyn Cooke - ****

Before Watchman, Volume 6 - J. Michael Straczynski - ****

Before Watchman, Volume 7 - Darwyn Cooke - ****

Star trek/Green Lantern: The Spectrum War - ****

Supergod - Warren Ellis - ****

Kingsman: The Secret Service - Mark Millar - ****

Star Trek: Klingons: Blood Will Tell - ****

The Sandman: Overture - Neil Gaiman - *****

Mark Johnson: Agent of Hydra - David Mandel - ****

Jupiter's Circle, Volume 2 - Mark Millar - ****

Jupiter's Circle, Volume 1 - Mark Millar - ****

Little Brother - Cory Doctorow - ****

Jupiter's Legacy - mark Millar - ****

The Rapture of the Nerds - Cory Doctorow - ****

Contraband Cocktails: What America Drank When It Wasn't Supposed To - Paul Dickson - *****

Stranger in a Strange Land - Robert Heinlein - *****

Wonder Woman: Earth One, Volume 1 - Grant Morrison - *****

Batman: Earth One, Volume 2 - Geoff Johns - *****

Batman: Earth One, Volume 1 - Geoff Johns - *****

Darth Vader and Friends - Jeffrey Brown - ****

All You Need is Kill - Hiroshi Sakurazaka - ****

The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross - John MArco Allegro - ***

Leonard - William Shatner - ****

A Crack in Space - Philip K. Dick - ***

The Rocks Don't Lie: A Geologist Investigates Noah's Flood - David R. Montgomery - ****

Truths, Half Truths and Little White Lies - Nick Frost - ***

I Suck at Girls - Justin Halpern - ****

Time Travel: Recent Trips - ed. Paula Guran - ***

Lovecraft Country - Matt Ruff - ****

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms - George R.R. Martin - ****

Calamity - Brandon Sanderson - ****

The Bands of Mourning - Brandon Sanderson - ****

Jam - Yahtzee Croshaw - ****

Mogworld - Yahtzee Croshaw - ****

Gilliamesque: A Pre-posthumous Memoir - Terry Gilliam - ****

Paddle Your Own Canoe - Nick Offerman - ****

The Secret History of Wonder Woman - Jill Lepore - ****

Mrs Bradshaw's Handbook: To Travelling Upon the Ankh-Morpork & Sto Plains Hygienic Railway - Terry Pratchett - ***

Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War - Joe Bageant - ***

Futuristic Violence and Fancy Suits - David Wong - ****

Give Me a Reading

So, last weekend, Jennifer and I did some home framing of my collection of tarot decks.  We'd talked about it in the past, but had just kept putting it off.  We tried a few options and finally came up with something that we were both happy with.

The work got me to thinking about how long I'd been playing around with tarot cards.

It all started over thirty years ago...

[Cue wiggly vision effect]

I was living in Kentucky during my sophomore year of high school, and our church was hosting a How-To event.  In the event there were tables setup in the fellowship hall, and different people were there showing things that they liked to do.  One of my fellow youth group friends was showing how to do tarot card readings.

Now, when I told this story to Jennifer, she was surprised that he was allowed to do this in a church.  There's two tings about that.  First, the church I grew up in was a lot more laid back than hers.  Second, I always knew I could trust this guy, because he was strongly religious and in my opinion wouldn't do anything that might "jeopardize his soul."  That's also how I knew Ozzy Osbourne didn't truly have a satanic message.

So I was fascinated by the cards, and when I ended up moving away to Maryland in the summer, he and his brother bought me my own deck.  I'm sure my parents would have bought me one, but they weren't sold in bookstores like Waldenbooks or B. Dalton Booksellers at that time.

And so, when it came time to travel for band trips, I became known as the guy who'd do your tarot readings.

I did that through the second half of high school and in college.

And then I began collecting cool decks as I got older.  Which brings us to last weekend.  My decks had been wrapped in tissue and stored in wooden boxes.  They look much better now.

And the cool thing is that I can take the back off of the frames, and change the front card whenever I want to.

SLO Hiking

So, yesterday afternoon I went for a hike up Cerro San Luis Obispo.

It only took me 7 months...  Well, the hike took me an hour up, and forty minutes down, but it took me 7 months to get off my butt and do the hike.

If you're looking at the above link, I took the red trail to the peak.

It's a good climb, with some cool geology on the way, and some great vistas of San Luis Obispo.

So you can stitch these three together and get a full panorama of the view from the top.  The vertical metal rod is used for a Christmas tree.  A little downhill is a generator they use to light it.

This is a GPS monument in the rock at the peak.

I also took a video when I was at the top.  It is best viewed at half speed.  What it doesn't catch is the sound the swooping swallows made as they buzzed me.  I'm guessing they were going for bugs that were near me.  It was an amazing experience.