I've read a number of Richard Price books. Namely Clockers and Lush Life. Bloodbrothers is Price's second book and I found it very different from those other books. This book seemed more personal and less like the highly detailed, well-researched novels that his other books are.

The book is primarily about a recent high school graduate with the nickname of Stony. He has a brother, a father, and a, possibly crazy, mother. His dad is distant but very much wants his eldest son to follow in his footsteps as an electrician. Stony is drifting and is non-committal to the good union job.

The characters are well developed, but (I may be spoiled by endless movies with similar characters) they seem derivative. Of course this book was written in 1976, but I'm not reading it then, I am reading it now. Anyway, if you've seen any movies about working class Italians in New York you will recognize these characters. A decent book but I'd rather read Clockers again.

A double bill, by author Jerry Pournelle, Fires of Freedom has two of his stories that deal with individuals and their fights against oppressive governments.

The first story deals with a young American who is shipped off to Mars as part of a deal to keep him out of prison on Earth. On Mars he joins a movement for an independent Mars. This story read so much like any number of Robert Heinlein novels that I thought he had come back from the grave. It's a decent read but I think the best was saved for last.

The second story takes place in the same universe as The Moat In God's Eye. It details a small colonial planet's attempt to gain some respect within the empire. I loved this story and it makes me want to read much more of the books that are in this universe.

I recommend this book primarily on the strength of the second (and longer) story. Both stories together make for an excellent read.

My blogging rate has been down quite a bit of late. This is partially due to demands from work and demands from my personal life colliding and providing less time for reading other blogs and commenting on them here. Plus, in the beginning, it was quite easy to blog about interesting perl modules that I had found. After all I had never blogged before so there was no track record, no history. Oh, I still review all the recently uploaded modules to CPAN. I see this as part of my job. I simply haven't noticed anything so interesting that I thought it worthy of mentioning on this blog. I also still read several dozen Perl and programming related blogs (almost) every day. Due to time constraints I often skim instead of fully groking the content. I often make mental notes to go back and reread articles and comments that look interesting. A funny thing about mental notes is they tend to get lost.

I went ahead and purchased the Nexus One that I talked about earlier. I've had it for a little over a week and I'm using it a fair amount (beyond the normal phone type things). This doesn't really mean a whole lot. After all when I first started blogging I was composing entries every day, often multiple entries, and it seemed to be easy. After a month it became more difficult. So let's see how much I am using this phone 30 days from now.

So a co-worker is selling a brand new Nexus One. This particular Nexus One is the one that works with AT&T's GSM. I'm still evaluating it, but am likely to purchase it. It seems like a good deal since I am already with AT&T and the price I am paying is significantly less than the retail price for the phone. So I 'miss out' on a number of bad things such as a contract with AT&T and the ridiculous ETF that Google has placed on the phone (although it may be less these days).

My current phone is one I purchased over 5 years ago. When I purchased it I think it was already obsolete. It's been a perfectly good phone and it still works. Why would I want to replace it? I'm still mulling this question over. Ubiquitous internet access is somewhat appealing but I can see a downside. Either way I'll keep my old phone and if I end up not using or not liking this new phone I can probably sell it at little or no loss (after adding in the cost of data service with AT&T).

Nemesis was published in 1989, just three years before Isaac Asimov died. Of his later novels that I have read this is one of the better ones. This isn't to say that I liked it that much. It contains some ideas (Gaia, intelligent planets) that don't particularly appeal to me, but were prevalent in many of Asimov's works of this period. A decent, and short, summary is available from the link so I won't bother with one here.

Worth reading but not one of Asimov's better works.

I haven't done any book blogging, but I thought I might give it a whirl. A few weeks ago I finished a very good science fiction book The Mote In God's Eye. I'm reasonably certain I had heard good things about this book before I decided to buy it, but it would have been some time ago and the my recollection of such things is poor. I'm a big fan of the works of both Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven (both individually and as collaborators). Among other of their works I had previously read their fantastic Lucifer's Hammer back about 6 or 7 years ago.

I'm not big on summaries so here is a very simple one: a millenium from now humankind has colonized much of the galaxy but has found no evidence of non-human intelligent life. Then one day an alien probe appears near one of the colonies. The rest of the book is about the voyage to the aliens home planet and about the cultural and physical differences between the aliens and the humans. Here's a hint: the humans and aliens are very different and many problems are caused due their misunderstanding and mistrust of one another. The book attempts to adhere, with some exceptions, to a realistic physical universe. This is not a fantasy, but a work of hard science fiction.

This is an excellent book. I recommend it highly.

Went to the Dodger's game last night. When the Dodger's fell behind by two in the eigth inning I decided to leave at the top of the ninth. As you can see from the box score that was a big mistake. Never, ever do that.

A very good vacation overall. The weather was great and the beach wasn't too crowded (California schools apparently aren't currently in Spring Break, but it looks like Arizona and Texas schools are). I was very happy with the beach house. I would recommend Sandy Beach Rentals to anyone.

On Thursday we were supposed to go to La Jolla. But we didn't. The weather looked like it was going to turn bad and we stayed on the beach. As it turned out the weather never got that bad and we likely could have spent some time in La Jolla. Oh well, there's always next year.

Like the forgetful doofus I am I forgot my camera. Sorry, no pictures uncaring world!

What have I been doing? A fair amount. Several days were spent simply hanging around the beach in (and around) our rented beach house. These are my favorite days since I am an expert at lounging. Watching the surfers fight the waves, watching the women run along the strand, watching the sail boats in the distance. These are all the things the expert lounger will notice. Even if he has had a little too much to drink.

One day was taken up by visiting the San Diego Zoo Wild Animal Park. The last time I was there was when I was six years old. I don't remember anything from that time. The place is really very impressive. The grounds appear to be very well taken care of, lots of exotic animals are easily viewable, and they have an awesome zipline! If you decide to do the Flightline realize that it will take up around 3 hours of your time due to training and various other things. It is well worth it if you ask me.

Ate delicious Mexican food at the always pleasant Miguel's Cocina restaurant on Coronado Island. Try the amazing jalapeno white sauce. A very good margarita selection is also available.

Tomorrow will be a La Jolla day. We plan on seeing some seals assuming we can figure out where they are.

I'm going to be living on the beach in San Diego this week. Not literally on the beach, but in a house next to the beach. Anyway I may or may not blog. I also may or may not take pictures.

Attended the L.A. Boat Show with some friends today. It was surprisingly small. I recall attending a boat show years ago, in Dallas (at Market Hall), and it was enormous. This boat show didn't even seem like half the size of that boat show.

I wasn't interested in a boat, but I do have a friend who has a boat and was looking to purchase some accessories for it. Also they had lots of booths on houseboats and houseboating on lakes here in California. I've been on a houseboat on Lake Shasta several times and it is very fun. I may go with them up to Lake Shasta if my work schedule allows it.

Also at the convention center was HempCon. I don't have much to say about that.

The first day of the new gig is over. Not too bad. All first days can be a little overwhelming. There is always so much to learn! And each company does things a little different.

I mentioned my favorite hike awhile back. However the hike I linked to isn't actually mentioned (in its entirety) at the link I gave. The reason? Because, as far as I can tell, it is not mentioned at any of the hiking sites that I know about. I call it the Temescal / Will Rogers Hike. It is around 13 miles with a total elevation of about 1100 feet (most of that in the first 2 miles).

The basic path is to start from Temescal Gateway Park heading north. This is the hardest climb you will have during the hike. You get some very nice views of Santa Monica.

Eventually you will come to a fork. You can either go down to the waterfall or you can go up toward Skull Rock. Go to Skull Rock. After you pass Skull Rock you'll walk above a housing development and later on some power lines.

Eventually you will come to a dirt road and you will see this post.

Continue north along the dirt road.

You will eventually see the following sign. It will be facing the opposite way that you are walking and, at times, may be easy to miss.

Eventually you will come to a sign that says Backbone Trail at a 'T' in the road. Head east. There are some very good views of Century City and, later on, the valley.

This is the longest portion of the hike. After around 6-7 miles you will reach Will Rogers State Historic Park. Head toward the polo ground and then head west toward the bathrooms (and drinking fountains!). To the west of the bathrooms the trail continues.

At a point around 1-1.5 miles before completion of the hike you will come to a fork. You can either go up onto a hill or stay down below. Go up onto the hill. The other way is an unmaintained path. I don't know where it goes, but I did mistakenly hike on it for a few hours the first time I took this hike. Big mistake.

So the reason (or excuse) to go to Universal CityWalk was because I decided to leave Oversee for a new job. Oversee has been my employer for the past 21 months and it has been a great place to work. I enjoyed my time there, would recommend it to others, and wish all my former co-workers the best of luck.

The new gig is a startup company and, right now, that's where I think I belong. We shall see.

Thank you to everyone who came out last night. I appreciated it and I hope you had as good a time as I did.