Lavinia (PlatinumWarlock) loves reading in 2023 (2)

Hi! I'm Lavinia. Welcome to my very first reading thread and my very first challenge! (I have another thread over in Needlearts - it's not going to see nearly as much action as this will, but I'd be happy for you to visit both, if you're interested!)

Short-form profile: I live in the Seattle area with my partner of nearly 10 years and our three dogs. I'm a "retired" stay-at-home mom (the kid is in college), a non-retired volunteer, a fledgling gardener, a reader (obviously!), a crafter (mostly stitching of various forms), and a few other "-ers".

I joined LT way back in 2008, promptly dropped off the site for 14 years, came back last fall, and started over from scratch since I'd forgotten what email I originally used to log in. My reading interests lean heavily towards fiction of most sorts, with the occasional non-fiction title thrown in.

Long-form profile here, if you want to know a little more.

I expect I'll chatter on a bit in this thread about what I'm doing besides reading, and I'd love to have you follow along if you wish. In the meantime, thanks for visiting!

Also participating in:

Take It or Leave It Challenges

- June: Completed 1-12, 15, 16, & 17
- July: Completed 1, 2, 4, 5, 11, 14

SFFKIT

- July - Series: The Gate Thief by Orson Scott Card - Mither Mages, #2 Completed
- August - Space - Stars/Comets/Meteors:
- September - SFF written in language other than English:
- October - Award Winners:
- November - Graphic novels, novellas, short story collections:
- December - Wrap Up - Read something you didn't get to earlier in the year:

MysteryKIT

- July - Police Procedurals & Private Detectives: Secrets in Death by J. D. Robb - In Death, #45 - Completed
- August - Past and Future:
- September - College/University Setting:
- October - Locked Room:
- November - Senior Sleuths/Kid Sleuths:
- December - Cozy Mystery:

Favorite 12 Books of 2022

The Water Keeper - Charles Martin
Ninth House - Leigh Bardugo
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek - Kim Michele Richardson
Island in the Sea of Time - S.M. Stirling
Apprentice in Death - J.D. Robb
Dies the Fire - S.M. Stirling
I’m Possible: A Story of Survival, a Tuba, and the Small Miracle of a Big Dream - Richard Antoine White
Born Round: The Secret History of a Full-Time Eater - Frank Bruni
Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir
This is the Story of a Happy Marriage - Ann Patchett
Bel Canto - Ann Patchett
The Wise Man’s Fear - Patrick Rothfuss

Books Read in 2023

January
Really Cross Stitch: For When You Just Want to Stab Something A Lot - Rayna Fahey
A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot #1) - Becky Chambers
Vox - Christina Dalcher
This Place of Wonder - Barbara O’Neal

February
Echoes in Death - J.D. Robb
The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America - Elizabeth Letts
Wanderers (Wanderers #1) - Chuck Wendig (Audiobook)
The Forge of God (Forge of God #1) - Greg Bear
The Second Sleep - Robert Harris

March
Broken Horses - Brandi Carlile
A Wizard of Earthsea (Earthsea Cycle #1) - Ursula K. Le Guin

April
Lost in Time - A.G. Riddle
Honor - Thirty Umrigar
Unsouled (Cradle #1) - Will Wight
Mary Jane - Jessica Anya Blau
Portals - Douglas E. Richards

May
Your Table Is Ready: Tales of a New York City Maitre D’ - Michael Cecchi-Azzolina
Infinity Born - Douglas E. Richards
Wild Scottish Knight (Enchanted Highlands #1) - Tricia O’Malley
Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of Life Interrupted - Suleika Jaouad
Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots - Deborah Feldman
Wake Me After The Apocalypse (Bunker Books #1) - Jordan Rivet
Wayward (Wanderers #2) - Chuck Wendig (audiobook)
The Cure - Douglas E. Richards
Kiss and Don’t Tell (Vancouver Agitators #1) - Meghan Quinn

June
Those Three Little Words (Vancouver Agitators #2) - Meghan Quinn
Right Man, Right Time (Vancouver Agitators #3) - Meghan Quinn
Quantum Radio - A.G. Riddle
Zero Day Code (End of Days #1) - John Birmingham (audiobook)
Fail State (End of Days #2) - John Birmingham (audiobook)
The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories - Jamil Jan Kochai
Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope, and Repair - Anne Lamott
Crazy Horse's Girlfriend - Erika T. Wurth
The Lost Gate - Orson Scott Card (audiobook)
Oxford Wild - Laura Bradbury
Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story - Jacob Tobia

July
Awakening Anne - Kalynn Applewhite (Early Reviewer copy)
Tomorrow, When the War Began - John Marsden
Secrets in Death - J. D. Robb
The Gate Thief - Orson Scott Card (audiobook)
The Cobra Event - Richard Preston
Vacation Wars - Meghan Quinn
Ready Player One - Ernest Cline (audiobook)
Consent - Annabel Lyon
The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap - Wendy Welch

Total so far: 45

Aaaaand.... you're up!

Happy New thread, Lavina! Wishing you many good reads ahead! I need to start a new thread too - maybe later this evening!

>5 PlatinumWarlock: Thank you, Deb!

Happy new thread Lavinia!

>8 quondame: Hi Susan - thanks! (And your current profile picture is HILARIOUS!! I'm afraid I'm guilty of that too... 😬)

Happy new thread Lavinia!

>10 WhiteRaven.17: Thanks, Kro! 😁

Happy new thread Lavinia!
I wish you a wonderful Sunday!

My goodness, a new thread already! You're on a roll.

Happy second thread, Lavinia!

Happy new thread!

Happy new one, Lavinia.

Happy new one, Lavinia!

Happy new thread Lavinia

Way to go, Lavinia!

Very quickly to a new thread and you are making your mark in the group very nicely if I may say so. xx

Happy new thread (I have a feeling that I will be saying that to you quite often in the future!).

A very nice new thread! For a very nice person!

Karen O

Happy New Thread! And thanks for visiting mine. Looking forward to getting to know you!

Happy new thread! You are the one who inspired me to go to everyone's threads, lol. I felt like after I visited your thread the other day, I needed to find the time to do this. I am at downtime at work, so perfect time to be productive in my own way. Usually I'd read. 😊

Hi Lavinia my dear, Happy New Thread dear friend.

Happy new thread - you're really moving along!!

>12 SirThomas:, >13 lauralkeet:, >14 FAMeulstee: Thank you, Thomas, Laura and Anita! Hope your July reading is enjoyable and that you're having relaxing weekends. 🙂

>15 foggidawn:, >16 katiekrug:, >17 drneutron: Hi, Foggi, Katie and Jim! Thanks for stopping by. 😁 Happy Sunday!

>18 ArlieS: and >19 PaulCranswick: Thank you, Arlie and Paul! I wanted to add that I was so appreciative of your conversation about reparations and related topics on Paul's thread. There's so much angry discourse in the world these days that I am pleasantly surprised and relieved when I see people who may disagree to a greater or lesser extent nevertheless converse in such a thoughtful and civil way. That's obviously part of what makes this community such a lovely one, and I am grateful.

>20 klobrien2: Awww... thank you so much, Karen! Back atcha! 😁

>21 Storeetllr: Thank you, Mary! I look forward to getting to know you too. Thanks for stopping by!

>22 The_Hibernator: Haha, Rachel - I'm glad to be that kind of inspiration! I'm finding this to be such a lovely place to spend time - I hope you feel the same. Happy Sunday!

>23 johnsimpson: Thank you, John! What a kind gentleman you are. Hope you're enjoying your weekend. 😁

>24 RebaRelishesReading: Haha - thanks, Reba! A few of my (undone) chores have paid the price for all the time I'm spending on LT, but this is way more fun. 😁 Happy Sunday to you!

I'm currently sitting on the ferry dock, waiting to go home after a couple of days on our island property, much of which was spent working in the yard. Ooof. My love of a tidy yard is roughly equivalent to my distaste for yard work (except mowing... I have a really great riding mower which makes that job fun). It's a gorgeous 74 degrees (about 23 for all you Celsius folks) with not a cloud in the sky, as you can see... which contributes somewhat to my feelings about yard work: the summer sun in the Pacific Northwest is very strong! The yard also kept me from doing much reading and stitching this weekend, although I made some audiobook progress - tough while mowing due to the noise, but easy while weeding, and makes it go faster.

For those of you who live where holidays are occurring around now... hope they're enjoyable for you! I look forward to reading through July with all of you. 😀

>32 PlatinumWarlock: That does look lovely.

>27 PlatinumWarlock: That is very kind, Lavinia. I do make it a point that everyone is entitled to express their views at my place and whilst I may not always agree I will always respect the right to hold that view. Discourse should always be courteous and it usually is!

>32 PlatinumWarlock: So jealous of that temperature! We have shade temps of 32 degrees every single day of the year give or take a couple of degrees either way.

>34 PaulCranswick: The "beauty" of equatorial living, Paul! 😀 Weren't you born in the UK? That must be a significant shift for you. I leave Tuesday morning for a week in Florida, where I grew up, and where it will be 94/34 as a high many of the days I'm there, so I feel your pain! This is why I now live in the Pacific Northwest... much nicer.

Happy new thread!

>31 PlatinumWarlock: It has been wonderful seeing you around-even if some chores remain unfinished......

Happy Weekend reads!

Happy new thread, Lavinia. I like listening to audiobooks while doing yard work, too :)

>35 PlatinumWarlock: OMG Florida in July!! You have my deepest sympathy and wishes for survival.

What >38 RebaRelishesReading: said. Can't imagine a worse place than Florida right now temperature-wise in the summer. New England by the sea is not fun in the summer, but it's still about a billion times better than Florida in that regard.

Happy new thread, Lavinia! You have lapped me! I started my first thread here back in January, and after only a couple of weeks you already have your second thread. Amazing! I'll need to start a new thread soon, but I'm way behind you.

>35 PlatinumWarlock: Florida in July! I can't imagine. We took a vacation there in September 10 or so years ago, and it was miserable then. I can't imagine July. It's not so much the temperatures of 94, but the humidity is absolutely unbearable. Even so, I wish you a good trip!

>36 figsfromthistle: Thank you, Figs! Reading always trumps chores, except when they're REALLY important. 😁

>37 curioussquared: Thanks, Natalie! And right? It DOES make the time go by!

>38 RebaRelishesReading:, >39 Fourpawz2:, >40 atozgrl:: Thanks for the condolences, ladies! 🤣🤣 Yeah, it's not my first choice of destination in July. But it's sort of a "working" trip - my mom died a couple of years ago, and while I'm partly going to see my dad and brother, I'm spending a lot of time with my laptop and scanner digitizing some family records and papers and such. My parents' home is lovely and well-air-conditioned, so at least I'll be comfy while scanning. 😉

Happy new thread, Lavinia, and hope you get some good reading in July.

Happy new thread Lavinia!

>32 PlatinumWarlock: Son number one is in Seattle at the moment. He lives in hoodies (and air-conditioning) in Singapore but he says he's finding in hot there despite the actual temperature being lower. Like KL, we get 32ºC daytime temperatures all year round.

>41 PlatinumWarlock: OK then, stay inside and good luck with your scanning :)

>32 PlatinumWarlock: Looks lovely , Lavinia! Happy 4 th of July. Well, I hope you enjoy Florida, but it does very warm. Even here in the Pacific Southwest, as I would say , ;-), we have two portable air conditioners that we use during the summer. It's been against code to build a house, condo or townhouse without central air conditioning in my city for several years now. Climate change.

>43 humouress: Ooof, Nina! Year-round would be tough for me. It was 94F/34+C when I landed in Florida today, with the usual icky humidity. I would NOT do well in Singapore! And frankly, it's pretty warm in Seattle right now, and we don't rely on A/C as much as they do on the equator, so I can imagine your son's reaction. Thanks for stopping by the thread! Happy reading. :)

>45 vancouverdeb: Interesting... I wonder if Seattle has added that to the code? Seems to make sense. Glad you have something to cool you off... it looks like it was as bad in your area today as it is in Tampa!

I finished a couple of books in the past few days - Awakening Anne, of which I received an Early Reviewers copy, and Tomorrow, When the War Began. I raced through Awakening Anne, which was... fine. Interesting premise for me (young heiress exploring her talents as a medium is consulted by a widower and learns there's a mystery surrounding his wife's death), but the writing itself was amateurish and in serious need of good editing. The character development needed work too, and the author couldn't seem to make up her mind as to whether or not the heroine was a strong, independent woman. I won't look for the sequel.

I found Tomorrow, When the War Began more appealing. I love a wide range of post-apocalyptic (and related) fiction, and this was a premise I hadn't encountered before: an unknown army invades Australia, and a group of teens have to figure out how to survive and whether (and how) to fight back. It was strangely plausible, once I got past the question of why anyone would invade Australia. (??) The kids were interesting and likable and very believable teenagers. They were smart and scared and ballsy and cautious and all of the contradictory things one would expect in such a situation. Surprisingly good.

Book Bullet for me with Tomorrow When the War Began.

In the 70's I went with my XDH on ten day backpacking swings through the Selway wilderness. He was a wilderness ranger; I was a wilderness volunteer. Communication with the 'real' world was very limited. We often conjectured how things could change when we were out there and beyond the reach of daily news.

Glad you've arrived safely in Tampa and hope you have a nice time -- before escaping back to the NW, which is indeed pretty darned warm right now (although not humid).

I read Tomorrow When the War Began about 10 years ago and remember really enjoying it! I never picked up any of the sequels, though.

>48 PlatinumWarlock: About a decade ago my daughter and I watched a movie (or maybe a miniseries) of Tomorrow When The War began and thought it intriguing and pretty good. I picked up the book, which she read and I did not ... yet. I keep telling myself to read it, ten years on now!

>49 streamsong:, >51 curioussquared:, >52 RBeffa: It's so nice when others have read (or want to read) the same books I have! Janet, I can only imagine what that must have been like... I've never been that removed from "civilization". And Ron, I didn't know there was a movie... that sounds interesting. I'll have to look it up!

>50 RebaRelishesReading: It's like a freaking steam room out there, Reba!

Happy Wednesday, Lavina. Happy New Thread. I hope you had a lovely holiday. We are back from our trip and getting back into the usual groove.

>4 PlatinumWarlock: Happy new thread!

>54 msf59: & >55 ocgreg34: Thanks, Mark and Greg! Hope you both had lovely holidays as well - happy reading for July!

>3 PlatinumWarlock: Nice list! I always like seeing them. Bel Canto is one of my all-time favorite books. Having read Stirling's Island in the Sea of Time trilogy, I am anxious to read more, so I will be on the lookout for Dies the Fire. Thanks for the recommendation, Lavinia!

>57 alcottacre: Glad to be of assistance, Stasia. 😁

>58 PlatinumWarlock: Because, you know, I never have enough to read, lol

>59 alcottacre: Ha! Yeah, me either.

>35 PlatinumWarlock: Yes, Lavinia, I was born and brought up in West Yorkshire, Wakefield to be precise.

At 21 straight from Uni I went to work for a year in Egypt before half a dozen years in the UK (+Gibraltar) before heading to Malaysia where I was seconded by Siemens AG originally to be commercial manager of one of the two first Independent Power Plants in the country (Combined Gas Cycle technology) and from there I have stayed ever since building up my consultancy business quite nicely until I overstretched myself by investing in a majority stake in a construction company. I went back to consulting in 2018 assisting South Korea's Samsung C&T in its Malaysian projects. I have been Senior Contract Manager of the PNB118 Merdeka Tower construction (currently the world's second tallest building) since August 2018 but their other Malaysian projects (three more in Kuala Lumpur and one in Melaka) are also within my purview.

So I have been in Malaysia and Singapore pretty much permanently since Mid 1994.

I'm here! Just went through both threads. Puzzles: we have three cats here in Vermont so puzzles, no. Can't happen-house is open plan, no doors to close to keep them out unless we do puzzles in the bathroom, an 'I don't think so idea'). The cats don't go to Wellfleet (Cape Cod) in August and so we puzzle like mad there.

Also I returned to knitting during Covid haven't stopped, used to do needlepoint. I think I joined the Needlearts and always mean to post about projects and put up pix but somehow . . .

>61 PaulCranswick: What an interesting and international life, Paul! Do you miss the cool weather of Yorkshire, or have you acclimated to the tropics?

>62 sibylline: There's not time for everything, Lucy! And I agree, puzzling in the bathroom would be deeply unsatisfying unless you have loads of extra space and just moved a table in there.

Glad to have you drop by! 😀

Sweltering my way through my week in Florida, with not much time for reading. However, I started scanning some family papers today, starting with two of my great grandparents on my father's side. My great-grandmother, who grew up in central Virginia in (I think) the 1880s or 1890s, apparently worked as a schoolteacher in Appalachia in her late teens... all grades in a one-room schoolhouse, boarded a month at a time with a local family... very "Laura Ingalls Wilder". I can only imagine what her life must have been like - that's keeping me entertained while I'm not reading!

Happy newish thread, Lavinia.

Hello Lavinia, I hope you're not suffering too badly in FL. We've had a wetter and cooler summer here in CO that usual. I'll take it as we are among the unlucky few who do not have air conditioning!

>65 PlatinumWarlock: What a treasure to have documents like that about your family! Stay in the A/C and have a good week.

>66 BLBera: Thank you, Beth, and nice to have you drop by!

>67 AMQS: The A/C here helps for sure, Anne! I don't know how people got through the summers without it before there was such a thing. I'm glad you're having an easier time in CO this summer!

>68 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks, Reba. 😁 There really are some treasures!

Happy weekend, everyone, now that it's just about over. 🙄

Florida continues to be beastly hot, but I haven't had to go out too much, so it's not awful. I did dash out at lunchtime for my guilty pleasure while I'm here (chips and queso at Chili's... the closest one to me in Seattle is a five-hour drive, so I indulge when I'm here), and grabbed a quick dinner with a high school friend. Apparently I'll only brave the heat for food.

I'm continuing scanning family papers and scrapbooks... a colossal job, but fun and interesting. The highlight from yesterday was a photo of my great-great-great grandparents' house (with them standing in front of it) in the late 1800s (I think) in Opelika, Alabama. Today's treat was a narrative written by my uncle clarifying exactly how we're related to Daniel Boone (his brother George was my sixth-great grandfather). I'm feeling relieved to have these documents digitized!

Minimal time for reading when I collapse into bed at night, but I'm hoping to finish Secrets in Death before my eyes close.

Enjoy your week!

Happy new thread!

>70 PlatinumWarlock: So all these treasures are stashed in Florida rather than Seattle? It sounds fascinating, delving into family history like that. You don't imagine your relatives could have done anything interesting until you start looking.

Hi Lavinia!

Mostly line in the sand since I last visited last thread, but Florida in the summer - ugh. Scanning documents and scrapbooks sounds like a lot of fun. Anything indoors in Florida in the summer sounds like a lot of fun.

Hi, Lavina. Big waves from Chicagoland, where are our temps have been comfortable and we hope they remain so. I must have missed the memo- why are you in sweltering FL?

>72 humouress:, >73 karenmarie:, >74 msf59: It is lots of fun, Karen, especially finding all the treasures!

Nina and Mark: I grew up in Tampa, FL, and my dad and my brother and his family still live there (Mom died two years ago). I escaped the heat and cockroaches for Seattle 28 years ago. Ha! But I still come several times a year to see Dad and my bro. As to the scanning... my mother tended to keep EVERYTHING anyway, and she was also an only child and had no cousins, so she ended up with ALL the family papers, histories, photographs, etc. The problem for this child of the digital age is that nothing is "backed up" digitally, which freaks me out. She would do something like (for instance) take a photo of a family hand-me-down, get four prints (because, backups) made of the photo, and then keep them all in the same place. 🙄🙄🙄 I have visions of a fire or a flood or whatever wiping it all out. Also, one of these days my dad is going to leave us too, and my brother and I are going to have to deal with the contents of their Very Large Home. I am trying to make sure photos and stories are preserved for our children & grandchildren, etc., and also get in front of what will be a big clean-out job someday when my dad dies. So I've taken over his dining table this week with my laptop and my sister-in-law's scanner and am working my way through the storage closet. It will, however, be a multi-trip job!!

And fortunately, Dad's home has a good air-conditioning system and a nicely-stocked wine closet. LOL

>74 msf59: I think of Chicago as being pretty toasty in the summer, Mark - I'm glad you're having a more comfortable go of it right now! We come to Chicago for Thanksgiving (my partner's niece lives in Oak Park with her family), and I always enjoy the area - great city and very nice people!

>75 PlatinumWarlock: I can relate to your monumental task, in a way. My father had a huge collection of slides (3000ish) capturing tons of family memories. My brother and I would love to digitize them. When we cleared out their house in late 2012 I took the boxes home with me and then ... did nothing. The boxes have moved house with me, unopened. I looked into digitization services and was daunted by the price, especially since I didn't know exactly what we had and what condition the collection was in. Last year I finally started inventorying the slides in a spreadsheet. I got about 2/3 of the way through them and stalled out. It's a good winter project so I will get back to it. Meanwhile, my brother's sons are into photography etc. and apparently one of them has a scanner that will handle slides. So we can use the inventory to prioritize that huge effort.

I wish we had more documents. My dad did a lot of genealogy work which I migrated to Ancestry.com and supplemented, to a degree. But those are just "official" records, not the good stuff that you're finding.

I'm an only child but have 26 cousins on my mom's side and 8 on the dad's -- most of whom live, or at least grew-up in, Indiana while I've never lived there -- so family history is scattered all over the place. I've done a fair bit of research on Ancestry and other sites but I would LOVE it if someone had done for me what you're doing for future generations. I hope you're finding enough interesting/new information to entertain you while you work and hope you feel warm inside for what you're giving future generations.

Well phooey. I had already written a long screed and was looking up something on anontehr tab when Mama's old computer lost the site for me.

Good for you for getting documents scanned. We have a Civil War suitcase full of correspondence that I didn't even think of scanning. I was transcribing them the first year of my retirement. What can I say? I'm old. I don't think.

We're enjoying a rare overcast day with cooler temps, so I hope maybe Florida has a little of the same.

Enjoy your family time, Lavinia!

Really? You want a garden but hate yardwork? I don't mind yardwork, I just rarely have time for it. I hate cleaning, though. Ugh. Do you like cleaning?

>77 lauralkeet: We used to have a collection of slides that perhaps approached that size, Laura - fortunately my dad did a major weed-out before shipping them to me in Seattle so I could deal with the rest. LOL I've dealt with some, and I picked up one of these to help with that - it's not a speedy solution, nor necessarily inexpensive, but definitely less expensive than sending them out. Since we're moving to our new house in a year, I've promised myself that the slides will NOT move with me, so I'll be getting back to it soon. Nice that your nephews have some equipment that might help you... that sounds even better than what I have. And yes, the documents are pretty cool... I just finished my great-grandmother's box of records and there were all sorts of news articles, etc., in addition to letters and photos. Really neat.

>78 RebaRelishesReading: Wow, Reba, that is A LOT of cousins!!! How lovely to have a large family. And yes, I'm getting lots of warm fuzzies going through everything... and while it would be nice if some of the next generation appreciate it someday, I having enough fun that I'm really doing it primarily for me.

>79 LizzieD: A Civil War suitcase, Peggy? And full of correspondence? That's so cool!! There must be so many treasures in there. Some of our papers could definitely use some transcribing to really understand the writing... the scanning is an interim stop to preserve them until I can get to the transcription. Someday...

>80 The_Hibernator: To clarify, Rachel... I hate yard work when it's hot. Give me a nice 65-degree overcast day and I'm fine. I'm a big wuss when it comes to sun or heat.

And no, I don't much like cleaning either, although I like the results. My partner and I are both sort of neat-freaks, so fortunately we stay on top of it.

>70 PlatinumWarlock: My mom and I hit the local Chili's when I visit her in Florida. A bonus for me, the strong Diet Coke lover: They have the strongest sodas in town!

Marking your thread, Lavinia. :)

>82 libraryperilous: LOL That used to be a selling point for me for me too... then about 8 years ago, my lovely partner shamed me (yes, shamed!) out of drinking Diet Coke, telling me how horrible it is for us. Yeah, yeah, yeah... but I quit cold-turkey. Haven't had a drop since. Still miss it most days. 😭

>83 PlatinumWarlock: We keep 12oz bottles on hand to have as a treat. We keep them in our wine fridge so they are "special", not like the everyday beverages in the big fridge. Because sometimes you just have to have one ...

>84 lauralkeet: Good approach, Laura! I had a very hard time showing that kind of restraint in the past...

>83 PlatinumWarlock: I've tried, and the most I've lasted is two months before falling off the wagon. I also think about it daily if I don't drink it. Why is it so memorable? Unfair!

>84 lauralkeet: This is a great idea! I imagine I would find 'special' occasions every day.

Dr. Brown's diet black cherry soda is my indulgent soda treat—or a coconut soda if I can find a cafe that serves fruit sodas and has coconut syrup.

>86 libraryperilous: Dr. Brown's diet black cherry soda

Ooooh, I've had that too! So good!!

Stopping by to say hi, Lavinia. Dr. Pepper's Cherry Soda! Ugh! Diet or not.

>88 vancouverdeb: Hi Deb! Thanks for dropping by. 😁 Is it the cherry or the soda you don't like? One of my faves was always Cherry Coke (with a cherry in it, of course)...but I know it's not for everyone!

>70 PlatinumWarlock: The actor Richard Boone (Paladin in Have Gun Will Travel) comes down from George Boone. You would probably be about a 7th cousin of his. I can never get much accomplished when I start scanning old pix/slides. I always veer off to explore stories and history. Here's how Richard Boone (related to my wife) gets to George

Richard Allen Boone 1917-1981
6th cousin 2x removed of wife
Kirk Etna Boone 1892-1957
Father of Richard Allen Boone
Bower Boone 1864-1935
Father of Kirk Etna Boone
Peter Tribble Boone 1836-1933
Father of Bower Boone
Nestor W Boone 1804-1876
Father of Peter Tribble Boone
Col William Linville Boone 1767-1847
Father of Nestor W Boone
George Boone 1739-1820
Father of Col William Linville Boone

I love, love, love Diet Dr. Pepper and used to drink 5 or 6 per DAY!!!! I finally decided that really wasn't a good idea so now I allow myself 1 or 2 a week. I've substituted ice water (mostly) and sometimes a glass of iced tea. Somehow I find I don't really miss the Dr. Pepper -- it's there in the fridge next to Hubby's Diet Coke (which he drinks one or two of per day) but I can just look at it and think -- nope, water is fine. My stomach seems very happy about the change.

>90 RBeffa: Ron, it looks like your wife and I diverged back at George. :) As I understand it from my uncle, George Boone was the father of Mary Boone, who was the mother of Maria Boone Tribble, who was the mother of Mary Boone Fox, who was the mother of Wallace Estill Embry, who was the father of my great-grandmother Ruth Embry. I'm sure I have all the dates buried in Ancestry somewhere. Regardless... fun to be able to trace it!

Lavinia, I don’t like Dr Pepper, or the cherry flavoured sodas of any kind . Now just plain old Coca Cola , I love , but I try to avoid it , not always successfully. 😉

Apparently I got so distracted talking about scanning, diet soda, and the heat that I forgot to post about my reading. Typical.

Finished J. D. Robb's Secret in Death - I never get tired of Lt. Eve Dallas. This is #45 in the series, and I'm just glad I still have more than a dozen to go... I hope Roberts keeps writing them at this pace! This was for July's MysteryKIT (police procedural and private detectives), and also one of the TIOLI challenges this month. Not even bothering to go for a sweep, though, because now I know better.

Also wrapped up listening to Orson Scott Card's The Gate Thief, #2 in the Mithermages series. I liked it a tiny bit less than the first one, but probably only because the story was no longer new to me. Looking forward to finishing the series, and I'm really enjoying Stefan Rudnicki's and Emily Rankin's narration. This was for July's SFFKit (series).

Off to Washington DC tomorrow to visit my aunts and their daughter (and HER daughters) for a couple of days... my favorite relatives, and I wish they didn't live on the other side of the country from me! Then home on Friday to the (relatively speaking) blessedly cool PNW. 💜

>94 PlatinumWarlock: I feel very lucky that my favorite sibling now lives fairly close to me and now has a charming French wife. My other two siblings have mostly lived across the country from me (I count my sister's current Texas residence as "across the country" from CA) and are always problematical to encounter, though at least not politically.

>95 quondame: That's a gift indeed, Susan. I only have one sibling, and he lives on the opposite coast from me, which is a bummer because I'd love to see him more. But I suppose it was my choices to bail on the South and head for Seattle. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Texas does seem rather "across the country" from CA. And you're fortunate that they aren't problematic politically - politics is really hard to avoid these days, although my brother and dad and I avoid it Really Well (out of necessity!).

>96 PlatinumWarlock: My only sibling lives on the next continent - which rather solves the political issue, even if we were to discuss the subject, which we don't.

Personally, I avoid all diet drinks because they taste awful to me. I usually stick to water, coffee/ tea, juice or (with this new diet and if I can find a decent brand here) fresh milk. Or alcohol. On the rare occasions I do drink fizzy stuff, I prefer the old-fashioned non-diet type.

>87 PlatinumWarlock: ...and I'm addicted to the Dr. Brown black cherry non-diet soda. I buy it by the case for myself and family. The funny thing is that I eat healthily otherwise. I try to only drink a can every few days or so...but I need to have it in my house at all times. :D

>94 PlatinumWarlock: Umm, have you seen the weather forecast for next week?

>89 PlatinumWarlock: Cherry cola was one of the few ways I liked cola, once I reached adulthood. (Before that, any fizzy sugar water was a treat, though I particularly liked root beer and spruce beer.) Now though, I don't appreciate sweet tastes very much, and the only fizzy water I'll drink is seltzer.

>94 PlatinumWarlock: >95 quondame: Pretty much all my remaining blood relatives are in Canada, with only one on the west side of the continent. (I'm in California.) And I've hated flying since approximately September 2001 - too much hassle in the name of security, too little space in the planes, and resentment that one can buy oneself out of some of the so-called security hassle, thus proving it's not really about security at all. I talk to my east coast sisters a lot, but rarely visit.

I don't drink a huge amount of soda, but sometimes a fountain diet coke or coke zero just really hits the spot. When I do buy it, I usually go for coke zero and I buy like, three 12-packs because my local grocery always seems to have it on sale specifically if you buy three, but it takes me months to get through it all. I do drink a fair amount of La Croix and kombucha, and very occasionally I'll have a Squirt, which always brings me back to childhood :) When it comes to non-fizzy stuff, though, I LOVE juice of all kinds though I try to enjoy it in moderation, and hydration powders like Liquid IV and Nectar have become part of my daily beverage intake -- any added sugars they have are offset by the fact that I rarely get headaches since I started adding one or two to my day.

>99 RebaRelishesReading: Yeah... looks a bit on the toasty side, although I think we'll be about 5 degrees cooler up in Seattle than you will be. (Amazing what a difference 170 or so miles makes!) Regardless... I'll sit inside with a cool drink and a book and just fan myself. 🤣

>97 humouress: Nina, someone said to me just yesterday that, after avoiding diet drinks for some years, she had one and it tasted SO SWEET. Like, too sweet. And Jeff (partner) really hates the taste of all artificial sweeteners - he says it's like it coats the back of his throat or something. Yech. I do wonder if that would be my experience too at this point. I do drink gallons of iced tea (plain, unsweetened) and really love that, so that takes care of the thirst-quenching. I also love just a plain club soda with ice and lime - also super-satisfying when I want the fizziness.

>98 SqueakyChu: That sounds like a perfect balance, Madeline. And now you have me thinking that I need a black cherry soda! 😀

>100 ArlieS: Arlie, I didn't ever drink root beer when I was growing up, but when I first moved to Seattle, there was a little kiosk across the street from the building where I worked that sold root beer floats on Fridays in the summer. What a treat. There was always a little parade of us running across the street about 2:00 for a pick-me-up. 😀 And yes, I hear you about airplane travel... it's just miserable on so many levels.

>101 curioussquared: Isn't it funny, Natalie, how fountain versions of soft drinks can taste so different (and, IMO, better) than canned versions? Usually "fizzier" too, which I find satisfying. Jeff used to buy (and we would drink) ridiculous quantities of La Croix until I talked him into a Soda Stream, which has been great - the "carbon footprint" (or whatever) of shipping water bothered me on principle, so this is sort of the best of both worlds, and you can get great flavors to add to the water. Interesting about the hydration powders - I haven't tried them, but a friend swears by them as a hangover cure. 😉

Flew from Tampa to Washington DC yesterday (where it's just as hot and sticky as Florida was...) to see my favorite family members - such a treat. We just hung out and visited and played with the kids... bliss. Almost no reading done because I keep dozing off on the plane and then collapsed into bed when I got to the hotel (and today will be more of the same), but I've got a five-plus hour flight home tomorrow, so I'll catch up. Oh, I did start listening to Ready Player One in the car as I was driving in from the airport (which took an hour, because Washington DC 🙄) and I think I'm going to love it. Wil Wheaton narrates, and I have to admit I love me some Wesley, now that he's grown up. What an annoying little squirt he was on Star Trek as a kid!

>104 PlatinumWarlock: Oh, Ready Player One on audio is a fantastic choice!

>104 PlatinumWarlock: >105 foggidawn: I just requested Ready Player One in audio from my library. I loved the book, so this sounds great!

Karen O

>104 PlatinumWarlock: I was driving in from the airport (which took an hour, because Washington DC

Yes. Always. Our daughters have traveled from NYC to by train to Union Station or Alexandria, and by bus to Arlington. It's an hour no matter what, sometimes suddenly worse due to traffic. I'm just glad I don't have to drive that route very often.

Enjoy your family day and safe travels home!

>104 PlatinumWarlock: / >107 lauralkeet: - When I worked in DC, my commute was 10 miles door to door by car. Never took under an hour during rush hour :-P

It's part of the reason I burned out so fast!

Happy visit and safe travels home :)

>104 PlatinumWarlock: I loved Ready Player One! What a great read that was!! I gave it five stars! :D

>103 PlatinumWarlock: A root beer float is my favorite form of soft drink. I might drink root beer or a cream soda if plain water isn't available, but I'm just not interested in sweet beverages without some sort of ice cream. RBF or Chocolate Malt, once a year or so. If I could get a Thai iced tea in the morning, that would do too.

>106 klobrien2: It's terrific so far, Karen. Also, knowing it's Wil Wheaton and knowing what a nerd he is in real life but also having played a teenage nerd on Star Trek, I can practically see him in the role of Wade. I can imagine it's a fine line for audiobook narrators to both "act" the book but also stay out of the way of infusing themselves into the performance, you know? But this time it seems to work.

>107 lauralkeet: and >108 katiekrug: I had to fly into Dulles and drive to north Silver Spring, almost to where I-95 turns north towards Baltimore. Supposedly it takes 40 minutes under the best of circumstances, but it seems to never be the best of circumstances. 🙄

>111 quondame: Yes, Susan, Thai iced tea is another winner!

>105 foggidawn: and >110 SqueakyChu: I agree, Foggi and Madeline! Loving it!

>109 RebaRelishesReading: Thank you, Reba! :)

Happy Friday, Lavina. Hope you made it home safely. Yes, the audio of Ready Player One is excellent. Enjoy!

And again I am behind.
All the best and have a wonderful weekend, Lavinia.
I enjoyed Ready Player One very much, the audio sounds very interesting.
Regarding your question in my thread, the publisher got back to me:
There is no English edition of A.R.T. - Coup zwischen den Sternen and there is none in prospect....

>103 PlatinumWarlock: I'm with you on the unsweet iced tea! That's my main drink all year round. Yes, I live in the south now, but I grew up in the midwest, and we had unsweetened tea all the time. My mom fixed what my dad wanted, and for tea, it was unsweet. After moving here, I learned the hard way that when I ordered tea at a restaurant, I had to specify unsweet. Otherwise I got something that can only be described as syrup.

Root beer floats, yum! And I definitely agree with you about fountain drinks being better. I don't drink sodas much any more. I have started drinking kombucha though, and I like Humm because it doesn't have a lot of added sugar.

We had an experience of trying to get to a downtown hotel in Washington DC from Dulles airport. Unfortunately, it was around rush hour, and a nightmare. We got caught in Dupont Circle and couldn't figure out how to turn into one of the cross streets. We eventually found the hotel; I'm not sure how. I hope I never have to drive in DC again.

Have a great time visiting your family, Lavinia!

To catch up on all the nice visits to my thread:

>116 msf59: Thank you, Mark! Yes, home safely, I'm glad to say.

>117 SirThomas: Thank you again, Thomas, for looking into A.R.T. - that was so kind of you. Too bad for me that I can't read it! I hope you have a lovely weekend as well.

>118 atozgrl: HA! I agree, Irene - sweet tea as made in the south often tastes like simple syrup with a smidge of tea thrown in. Once in a rare while I indulge, but for the most part, the unsweetened version is plenty satisfying. I need to experiment more with kombucha... my partner drinks a lot of it, and I don't happen to care for the brand he drinks, but I've tried many others that I've liked. Super-refreshing on hot days! Thanks for stopping by to chat. 😀

I'm back from my 10 days sweltering on the East Coast (are you guys tired of hearing me complain about the heat yet??) - little delay leaving Washington DC yesterday due to a pretty epic storm that rolled through, but we only landed in Seattle about half an hour late. LOVED seeing my aunts and cousins the past two days, although I am now ready for several non-social days. That said, I dragged myself out of bed this morning to attend my embroider's guild meeting, and am going to the joint birthday party of two friends tonight, so... maybe tomorrow for the non-social time.

Working my way through The Cobra Event - loving the story more than the writing - and the audiobook of Ready Player One, which is so freaking good that I'm having a hard time pressing "stop" to go do other things.

>119 PlatinumWarlock: Hope you get that non-social day to recover a bit from your travels and the heat. Welcome home!

Welcome home, Lavina! I agree, fountain drinks seem to taste better than canned or bottled pop, as I call " soda" or ' soft drinks." I find that lots of ice is also necessary for the enjoyment of pop.

>119 PlatinumWarlock: I read The Cobra Event a long time ago. I remember the same thing: the writing was stilted and forced, but the story was interesting.

I hate cleaning, but like the result. However, neither my husband nor I are neat freaks and I am extremely busy (I don't know whether he feels busy or not, he rests more than I do, but also suffers from mental exhaustion more than I), so the house us always a mess with rotating cleanish rooms.

I finished Richard Preston's The Cobra Event last night. In the book, a young pathologist from the CDC teams up with FBI agents and others to find a terrorist with a weaponized virus in New York City.

I wanted to like this book a lot - I remember reading Preston's The Hot Zone some years ago and thinking it was fabulous - but this one didn't measure up for me. The writing, while not terrible, was also not great, and the characters (including the antagonist) were only developed enough to tell the story and no more. What got in my way the most, though, was how much of this book was nonfiction reporting. Preston says in the book's introduction, "The nonfiction roots of this book run deep.... My sources include eyewitnesses who have seen a variety of biological-weapons installations in different countries, and people who have developed and tested strategic bioweapons." One summary of the book even notes, "the only reason The Cobra Event was not written as nonfiction is that none of Preston's sources would go on record." Creative writers are taught to "show, don't tell", but the nonfiction emphasis of this book meant that there were pages upon pages of "telling, not showing". While some would argue that it adds to the authenticity and realism (and terror) of the story, I found it to interrupt the flow of the story, as well as simply to be excessive for someone who wants to just read a well-written thriller.

On the positive side, though, the premise of the story - and the weapon itself - were compelling. The virus had horrific results, and I very much felt the tension as the protagonist(s) raced to prevent a much worse outbreak. I can only assume that Preston's research into bioweapons was thorough and - had I been more interested in that approach - what he found was fascinating and rather frightening.

This book fulfilled the requirements for July's TIOLI Challenge #2 - Read a book of prose (F or NF) by an author who has been a contributor to the New Yorker.

Finished Meghan Quinn's Vacation Wars last night... I tend to like her books, but I found this one kind of "meh". The main characters are super-likable, and there's a happy ending, but part of the main plot - the "vacation wars" between Tessa and her sister and friends - seemed overblown, as if Quinn was just looking for something to balance the love story. Nice as a palate-cleanser, but I'd encourage readers not to have expectations that are too lofty.

Fulfilled TIOLI Challenge #4 for July: Read a book with an alphabetically ordered title or author

Just wrapped up listening to Ready Player One - I loved it so much!! The story is great and gripping, and Wil Wheaton does an excellent job with the narration, but part of the appeal for me was simply that I got so, so many of the references. It reminded me of when "The Big Bang Theory" started on TV (16 years ago... *cough*) and after watching the pilot, I couldn't wait to call one of my similarly-nerdy best friends: "I got every joke!" I practically sobbed with delight. "It's like they made this show just for me!!" I felt the same way with Ready Player One... as someone who was a teenager in the 80s and played video games since college (and would have done the same IN college - and probably flunked out - if (edited, thanks to @quondame) I had actually had a personal computer then), so much of this was incredibly familiar. Nostalgia through and through, in the guise of a really enjoyable and well-told story. Five stars from me. 💜💜

>125 PlatinumWarlock: Wait, what? Personal computers were a thing in the 80s! Though I avoided one myself because I always had a better system at work and even before the Internet I had DARPA and there were games and... In 1980 I threw what I think was the first BYOC party with an Apple II, some early Intel machines and a phone connection to Plato at USC and another to MIT to play Zork.
My Apple II friend put together a diskette of games which my sister parlayed into influence up and down the east coast. When she go the first MAC in 1984, her toddler daughter grokked it immediately.

>126 quondame: LOL Well, yeah, that's true, Susan - you clearly were in that group who was aware of the direction in which things were heading... fortunately for my college GPA, I was not! I do remember a "computer club" at my middle school (1979-81) which met in what literally used to be a closet on a stairway landing, and it was just the nerdy boys, so I paid no attention (not realizing that I would become nerdy myself one day). I was then in college from 1985-1989... my boyfriend had a "computer" that was really was just a word processor, and my best friend had a Macintosh Plus - I didn't know anyone else who had one, and I had to go to the computer lab to do my accounting homework that required Lotus 1-2-3. Christmas of 1988 (my senior year), my parents gave my brother and me each a computer, but said we had to go shop for it ourselves because they certainly didn't have a clue. I waited until graduation in May, because I certainly didn't know where to buy one in my little college town, but when I got home I bought a Compaq something-or-other that I think ran Windows 2 or something, and had a 40MB hard drive that I was told I would NEVER fill up. HA! I never looked back. But you're absolutely right... there WERE computers in the 80s. 😀

>125 PlatinumWarlock: I've got the audiobook of Ready Player One home from the library! Oh, I'm really looking forward to getting into it based on your rave review! I know I loved reading the book.
This makes me want to move it to the top of the stack!

Karen O.

>128 klobrien2: Can't wait to hear what you think, Karen!

>127 PlatinumWarlock: There was an offer of a deal to faculty where my husband taught and in 1988 he brought home a PS2-25 (by IBM maybe?). Shortly afterwards we signed up for email accounts with aol and still have those accounts -- I use it for mail that is likely to generate spam--only problem was there really was no one to email lol. Neither of us is a computer expert by any means but they did rapidly become a big part of our daily routine starting not long after the 1980's.

>127 PlatinumWarlock: My dad bought an Apple II in the late 1970s, and I was convinced he'd spent so much money that my college education was in jeopardy. He used it mostly for spreadsheets (Visicalc), but it had one very rudimentary role-playing game that I enjoyed. Around the same time, my mom and I took a BASIC programming course at a local community college which was instrumental in me decided to study computer science in college (1980-1984). PCs were not part of the curriculum; I learned programming first on punch cards and then a terminal. But after college I began working for a large multinational company. Despite my credentials I was assigned to a team responsible for rolling out personal computing. I got to play with every new software product, every new line of computer or accessory, all in the interest of deciding whether they should become part of our standard kit. By the late 1980s PCs had taken hold in the company and we had our very own PC at home. Heady days for someone who cut their teeth with COBOL!

>131 lauralkeet: I'm impressed by, and a little jealous of, your computer knowledge and resulting comfort. I used a computer for report writing and messaging for most of my career but I certainly needed the help of folks in the tech departments if anything went the least bit wonky. Hubby is much less comfortable with tech than I am (like way less) which is very frustrating because he wants help I can't give.

>131 lauralkeet: & >132 RebaRelishesReading: I'm impressed too, Laura! I am actually very tech-savvy today, because I got interested early on (see above: "I never looked back"), but my knowledge started when PCs because relatively more common and never included any formal academic study. My older friends and relatives call me for tech support all the time, and I think I'm pretty useful, but I couldn't program my way out of a paper bag. If I had to do it over again, I'd listen to the career counselor who told me in 1987 that I should go into computer science. Ah, well...

>132 RebaRelishesReading:, >133 PlatinumWarlock: Oh my, stop it you two! My "computer knowledge and resulting comfort" was the result of obtaining a BS in Computer Science. While the degree had nothing to do with PCs, it gave me skills and knowledge that could be put to use as technology evolved, i.e., from mainframe programming to PCs. That said, I would be lost trying to do programming today because the languages I learned are obsolete.

>133 PlatinumWarlock: Lavinia, it's interesting what difference a few years can make. I graduated from high school in 1980 and my high school didn't offer anything computer-related. I was definitely heading for the sciences and chose Comp Sci over Chemistry due to my dad's influence (he was an industrial engineer which, by that point, had morphed into something like IT).

>133 PlatinumWarlock: I think by the later 80s the guys started pushing women out of CS because so many started playing with PCs in as teens while fewer young women got their hands on them. By college young men were so used to male-only tech cabals that it was much less comfortable for women to be around them even if they had had the programming experience.
I was supper lucky that my home town had a summer work program in the 60s so after freshman year I was handed a Fortran manual and a problem and told to get to work. That fall I aced Engineering 1 and with a couple of more computer classes and an applied math major did find work after a few fits and starts even in the slump of the early 70s. Mostly I really enjoyed programming, but there were fewer and fewer women joining over the next two decades and when I joined a startup in 1994 I was the first woman programmer, though they did have a woman doing configuration control.

Count me as another who was using and programming computers before PCs were a thing. 1973 (college) and a wee bit in 1972 (high school). By 1974 I knew enough to ask what kind of computer it was: PDP 11/75. (I think it wasn't the same I'd been able to use in 1973.)

I can't catch up, Lavinia, but I'd love to have your curry chicken salad recipe. I just ducked it quickly and the 5-star recipe had 23 ingredients, most of which I'd have to buy just for that dish.

Otoh, no soft drinks for me. I do drink a cup of hot tea after lunch with a lot of lemon and a little honey.
No computer for me until the mid to late 90s. I do have a cousin who built a career on writing software for large companies (and even one for the police force in one of the Arab Emirates) after graduating in NC State's first computer programming class in the very early 70s, I think.

Excellent photo from a friend. 😍

All of this computer talk reminds me of the 1990's when my husband and I started a small family business (concrete contracting). I decided he needed a website. Our older son started to build one for us, but then got tired of it so he quit in the middle of it (BTW, he's now an IT professional!). Because he wouldn't do it any more, I taught myself HTML to build the website. Later when things got more technical, I just stopped working on the website completely but left it online because it was still bringing in clients. We closed our business at the end of 2022, but it was really sad to take our antiquated website offline. :)

My dad got a terminal when he was getting his Masters in 1979, and we'd use it to play Zork. Then he got a CP/M machine, and we used that to play Adventure (Colossal Caverns). The sound of a(n 8" floppy) disk spinning up (to open a new section of the program) is still the sound of adventure to me.

Along with the CP/M machine (operating system before DOS, let alone Windows), Dad got an Atari 400 (gift with purchase). We played a lot of games on that...but it also had an Atari BASIC cartridge, and I did a lot of typing in programs from various computer magazine. It had no storage, so any time I wanted to run a program I had to type it in from scratch...

A few years later, after wearing out the 400, and another 400, Dad got us an Atari 800 (twin cartridges, actual keyboard (not chiclet - that's what we wore out) and a _cassette tape machine_ for storage). I took that one to college in 1986, and in at least one class had to hand-write my papers after typing and printing them because "no one else can turn in printed papers". 9-pin printer... but editing was so much easier on the computer (hooked up to a little TV). I also learned how to use punch cards in college, but only as a retro "see what they used to have to do" way, and programmed in Assembler and...either Pascal or Fortran, I honestly can't remember. On a Unix mainframe. And I could email to my sister who was also in a UC school - but they went batched, so if I finished my email at 12:01 pm my sister would get it the next afternoon. If I finished it at 11:59 she'd get it immediately.

But the tricks Dad taught me for keeping the 400 going kept me interested in the innards of computers; nowadays I'm running a home computer repair business (though it's 98% software these days, not hardware). Also got a computer science degree, and even used it for a few years (programming in Java); not so much these days.

>140 jjmcgaffey: I also got a terminal to play Zork in 1979! It was a dot matrix Teletype with a built in modem and a friend added a bit of wiring to add a RS232 connector so we could use it as a printer for various PCs.

>135 quondame:, >136 ArlieS:, >139 SqueakyChu:, >140 jjmcgaffey:, >141 quondame: Thanks to all of you for sharing your computer stories! Often I have wished I had really gotten in on the ground floor, if only so I could say "I remember when...". What a journey it's been, and it's impossible to imagine the world today without computers.

I've continued on from Ready Player One with Ready Player Two - it's not nearly as good, but at least part of the plot revolves around the expansion of virtual reality as we sort of think of it today into the ability to wear a neural device that lets one see, feel, taste, hear, etc. what one's avatar experiences while in the simulation. It is fascinating. If I ignore all the huge red flags that go along with that idea and just focus on all the positives that would be possible, it's easy to get lost in the idea. I don't know if I'll be alive long enough to see the next significant leap forward in technology (nor do I know what that will be)... I hope we won't destroy humanity with it. It sure is fun to read about it as fiction, though.

>138 PlatinumWarlock: That's a good one! Love it!

>142 PlatinumWarlock: Have you read Diane Duane's Omnitopia Dawn? It's the same idea - a VR world (or rather, multiple worlds), with a recent advance that makes it all-senses, not just sight and hearing. Well, not the same idea, probably...just one similar theme.

I read and enjoyed Ready Player One but have not yet picked up Ready Player Two, so I can't compare them directly. But I _love_ Omnitopia Dawn, and have recently been wanting to reread (no more to the series, yet, sniffle). Maybe I should try RP2 as well.

>144 jjmcgaffey: I liked Omnitopia Dawn and had given up on a sequel, but maybe, just maybe, too soon. Of course I'll have to survive the next year and a half, but there's a chance at that.

Is there a plan for a sequel? The original sequel was refused by the publisher, as I recall - I hadn't heard that there was hope for that one or another coming out. Yay!

>146 jjmcgaffey: Well, January 2025 is given on Goodreads, but may be mythical.

I didn't see anything on her site. But yay anyway, for hope!

>144 jjmcgaffey: & >145 quondame: No I haven't, Jennifer, but it sounds great. I'll add it to the list! And thanks for the second, Susan!

I gather RP2 was widely panned, but so far (15% in) I don't really care. I'm so intrigued by the premise that half my brain is listening to the book and the other half is busily thinking about all the implications. And isn't that one of the things reading is for? 😁

Oooh, I adored RP1 and also loved RP2, although I admit it wasn't as good as the first one. But it's set *literally* just down the road from me, which is SO cool.

>150 scaifea: That IS cool, Amber! I'd always be looking around for the GSS tower and his estate. 🤣

It's been a busy few days around here... Jeff and I are going down to the Bay Area on Thursday night to spend a couple of days with his 76yo cousin who was recently diagnosed with ALS. She is already wheelchair-bound, and we (her family) are moving her to an assisted living community in Chicago in three weeks so she can be nearer to family. She never married and has no siblings or children, so her cousins really are her closest family. It's been a challenge on many fronts... she is (understandably) angry and grieving over her diagnosis - especially hard for someone who has been as independent as she has been - and she's not an easygoing personality anyway. There's no question she's grateful to her family for stepping up to help care for her (she has financial resources, so there's no burden on any of us that way, at least), but she is frustrating in her style of approaching certain challenges. She's also (by nature) a mistrustful person AND a total Luddite re: technology, so managing all of this from a distance has been a Big Job. The "A Team" consists of seven of us, plus a couple of spouses when they can, and we all have our own task that align with our various skill sets. So this weekend Jeff is on "what furniture will fit in the new apartment" duty, and I'm on "what household goods do we need to buy" duty, and then in three weeks I'm going back down there along with Jeff's sister to fly with her to Chicago and get her settled. On the upside... I have always known what an incredible family I've "married" (unofficially) into, and this just reinforces that belief. What amazing human beings they are... I am so lucky.

BUT - not much reading time this week, and no crafting time. I'm listening to Ready Player Two when I'm in the car, and devouring a few pages of Broken (in the best possible way) (poignant and funny) and The Little Bookstore of Big Stone Gap (charming) before falling asleep, but at least I'll have a few hours on the plane this weekend. Jeff and I are slipping away today for "date afternoon" (in lieu of "date night") to see Oppenheimer at one of those cool theatres that brings food and drink to our seats, so that will be a nice treat.

I had an Apple IIe in the 80's or was that the early 90's? Lol

>152 PlatinumWarlock: - Oh, Lavinia, you are lucky to have *the team*. And I sure know first-hand how hard any and all of this is to deal with when distance is involved. Good on all of you. Many hands (and lots of cooperation) will help make a difficult situation much less so, believe me!

How wonderful for her to have you all and you all to have each other to divide the work among. I'm glad you're going to get a little break anyway. Hope it all goes well.

>155 jessibud2: I know you understand, Shelley. Sending lots of support to you as well!

>156 RebaRelishesReading: Thanks, Reba. 🙂

>152 PlatinumWarlock: I could so easily become that cousin, except for not having the large collection of effective cousins.

I wish you all strength and luck in dealing with it.

>158 ArlieS: I hear you, Arlie... getting older without family must be scary. Thanks for the strength and luck - every bit helps!

>134 lauralkeet: Computer science, when I was at school, was about programming in Basic. I vaguely remember taking a course where we had to produce a program. A couple of the 'nerdy guys' helped me with some of it - which I didn't understand - but it wasn't for me. Though I did do a course later with, possibly, COBOL which I really enjoyed but I had to leave halfway through. My dad is a civil engineer but he was disillusioned with his career around the time I was applying for university and he told me not to become an engineer (mind you, I hadn't even contemplated it, being more interested in life sciences).

My funny early computer story is about my aunt who had an encyclopaedia salesman trying to sell her a set in around the 1990s but then she realised that they could buy a PC for about the same price and have all that information - and more - plus it wouldn't be outdated. The bonus was that they also got e-mail, which was handy since they live in Australia and we were in England.

>138 PlatinumWarlock: *like*

>125 PlatinumWarlock: I still haven't finished reading Ready Player One. I started it before we went to see the film but only got halfway through and then, somehow, didn't pick it up again.

>152 PlatinumWarlock: That's brilliant that you have the 'A-Team' and they're all working together! Best of luck with the operation.

Hi Lavinia!

Reading the tales of photos and slides to scan makes me think I should try to get the hundreds of photos we have scanned.

Eve Dallas is always good, glad you’re coming along. I’m behind by 4 books, the 4th being released on September 5th and pre-ordered.

>96 PlatinumWarlock: That's a gift indeed, Susan. I only have one sibling, and he lives on the opposite coast from me, which is a bummer because I'd love to see him more. But I suppose it was my choices to bail on the South and head for Seattle.Substitute her, SoCal for the South, and the South for Seattle, and we’ve done the same thing. And my sister and I do not discuss religion or politics.

I completely gave up artificial sweeteners a couple of years ago and allow myself one sugared Dr. Pepper every 3-4 weeks or so. I do drink one Cherry Bubly a day with dinner most nights. I gave up serious consumption of colas (which includes Dr. Pepper) when I had kidney stones in 2012 and 2015. I now drink black unsweetened coffee, unsweet tea (what we have to call it here in the South), and water 95% of the time.

>123 PlatinumWarlock: Interesting that it should have been written as nonfiction but had to be written as fiction because of the sources. I occasionally like a plague-like book.

>125 PlatinumWarlock: So much here – I’ve never watched The Big Bang Theory and have a daughter who just spent 15 minutes describing her current game, one of the Diablos, and how it contrasts with Star Dew Valley and other 'sweet' games. She did remind me that I was absolutely crazy over Zoo Tycoon long ago in a galaxy far away.

>126 quondame: I had access to the computer systems at Claremont College in a statistics course in college in 1971 via teletype. In 1972 I started working for my college and used an IBM 1130, then a System 3/Mod 10, with 80-column cards. I worked on HP300s with mfg software, and I had an IBM PC at work in 1983, cost ~$11K with a 9-pin dot matrix printer, 10M memory, 2 floppy drives. I got my first PC for home in 1987 or so. And etc.

>133 PlatinumWarlock: I didn’t get a computer science degree, but I earned my living with computers almost my whole career.

>152 PlatinumWarlock: I’m sorry about your cousin’s diagnosis and the subsequent upheaval in her life that it will entail.

>161 karenmarie: Politics haven't ever been much of an issue among my siblings - though my younger brother remained technically Republican until DT. It seems that finally all the "really fine people" he associated with showed that good manners did not always mean good morals.

I spent some time with core memory calculators before shifting to mini-computers in the 70s, doing assembly level tweaking or development or IBM control language utility work - and even some of the same in the 80s with one COBOL data crunching utility for an instrumented riser (from an oil platform) I'd help get running. After that I picked up C programing and UNIX scripts while goofing off in a telecom department with a bunch of ex-drug runner Vietnam vets - who had been in the Presidential guard all being tall good looking white southerners. That and a couple of previous stints with IBM communication controllers got me tagged to work on proto-internet communication devices for a govt. agency and with one exception I worked with communication devices ever since.

>160 humouress: Nina, I loved the story about the encyclopedia salesman! That's awesome, and good for your aunt for realizing a PC was a better choice. 😁

I've not seen the movie of Ready Player One yet, but now that I've finished the book, I'm ready! Maybe next week when I get home.

Thanks for visiting my thread. 😁

>161 karenmarie: Thanks for catching up with all my posts, Karen. 😁 A few follow ups:

- I've never had a Cherry Bubly, but I love sparkling waters that have the cherry "essence" (?) in them, so I'll have to try that! I saw a cherry-something La Croix at the market today... didn't buy it, but it did pique my taste buds.

Haha - I just installed the Diablos again last week... haven't played them in YEARS, but I loved them back in the day. I'm a few releases behind, though!

Thanks for the kind words about our cousin... we had a productive first day with her, ending with a really nice dinner out (we walked and she "drove" her electric wheelchair half a mile to one of her favorite restaurants - a lovely treat for us all), but tomorrow is likely going to involve some tough conversations... she's avoiding some realities about moving in two weeks out of a house she's been in for forty years, and we have to help her deal with them. Ugh.

I'm sorry to hear of your cousin's diagnosis and the painful choices she now has to make.

>164 PlatinumWarlock: Hello, Lavinia! I'm sorry to hear that you have so much to handle with your cousin. I am glad that you had such a good first day with her, and that it sounds like she will be moving to a good situation. But your description about the tough realities of moving sounds so much like what we had to deal with with my own mom. She never would make decisions about stuff to get rid of, and my sister and I and our husbands had to do most of the work of sorting things. And this was made more difficult because we had both moved a long distance away. I'm sending all good wishes and thoughts your way. Good luck with all of this!

>3 PlatinumWarlock: I note you read books written by Ann Patchett. I am a fan of hers! Have you read Truth and Beauty: A Friendship?

>167 Whisper1: I haven't read that one yet, Linda, but it's on the list. I have loved pretty much everything by her that I have read. Have you read that one? Do you have a favorite from among her works?

>165 libraryperilous: & >166 atozgrl: Thank you, Diana & Irene! But wait... there's more. Keep reading...

Well, day 2 with our cousin was much harder, and by the end of the day she was sobbing about how she didn't want to leave California and she wanted to stay in her house. 15 hours, a family Zoom call, and a few more gray hairs for all of us later, the conclusion was that she won't move to Chicago, will stay in her house, will renovate her lower level to be completely accessible for her in her electric wheelchair, and will get A LOT more in-home care which, fortunately, she can afford. Jeff and I got back to Seattle late last night, thoroughly wrung out but feeling like she probably made the right choice. But ugh. As our niece said, "OMG, there isn’t even a Yiddish word to describe this ordeal." (And my limited experience with Yiddish has been that there's ALWAYS a word for a cluster@#$&, no matter what kind, so that's saying something.)

Needless to say, no time for reading this weekend!

I omitted to reply to your post >65 PlatinumWarlock:, Lavinia.
I do indeed miss my four seasons and often think longingly of West Yorkshire .

>169 PlatinumWarlock: That looks like one stressful weekend, Lavinia. Those sorts of life choices are particularly difficult.

>169 PlatinumWarlock: What a tough situation, Lavinia. I'm glad you were able to reach a decision that your cousin can accept, with the conditions required to make it work. I'm so sorry for all of you; it must be a very trying time.

I did have to laugh though, at your comment about Yiddish.

>169 PlatinumWarlock: Oh dear. But I'm glad she got to what seems like a good resolution - even if she did take the long way around.

>169 PlatinumWarlock: Ouch! I feel so sorry for your cousin, and for you.

>169 PlatinumWarlock: Glad things are settled (for the time being anyway) and glad the family sense of humor is intact :)

>170 PaulCranswick:, >171 lauralkeet:, >172 humouress:, >173 ArlieS:, >174 RebaRelishesReading:: Thanks, everyone! After a couple of good nights of sleep, we're all feeling a little better. It was indeed an adventure, though. 💜

>163 PlatinumWarlock: I loved the movie, but haven't read Ready Player One.

>169 PlatinumWarlock: Oh that sounds difficult - though I have all the sympathy in the world with your cousin's desire to avoid Chicago (other than as a visitor @jwelch&@msf59) and stay in California. I'd cry too if I was to be wheeled away or have a kanipshin.

I'm very sorry to read about your cousin, Lavinia. I'm glad you were able to be there for her, though.

Happy Wednesday, Lavinia. Sorry about the cousin situation. I hope you are finding some comfort in the books.

>177 quondame: I hear that, Susan. It's tough because her desire to stay in California was roughly equivalent to her desire to be near family as she declines... and there's no family in California. Difficult choice, to be sure.

>178 vancouverdeb: & >179 msf59: Thanks, Deb and Mark. And yes, there's always comfort in the books.

Got out to our island property tonight and had a chance to check on our veggies. I give you: Teenage Mutant Ninja Squash. (Seriously... you can't tell in the picture, but each of these is roughly the size of my forearm.)



Also, not a great photo, but: bumblebees, drunk on lavender.

New thread here! Thanks for stopping by. 😀

>182 PlatinumWarlock: Love it!