There is an old saying concerning the logic of Daylight Savings Time adopted in 1918. It’s like trying to cut off one end of a blanket because it’s too long, and then sew it back on the other end because it’s too short. Makes a lot of sense, eh? Working third shift is sort of like that for me. It’s almost a never ending The Twilight Zone episode. Thursday night is my Friday work day, so I work all night, come home, and knowing I don’t have to work Friday night, I stay up. I mean, who can sleep with all of that adrenaline flowing, knowing I’m off for two days! And then Sunday, the train crashes into a wall. I’ve caught up my sleep, I’ve got a day with the familia, and then when the day is over, guess what? I have to go to work. Strange state of existence, let me tell you. Latching onto great books, games, and losing myself in my guitar, these are the components of the ever-steady clock on the mantle across the room on the psychiatrist’s couch. These things give me comfort.
Sacrament by Clive Barker: Clive Barker has always taken me to strange places. This book, no exception. Bleak, depressing, yet sad and beautiful. I've not read anything quite like this. Barker writes about a man whose alternate lifestyle and life choices has taken him into harm's way. Despite my conservative upbringings, this man's lifestyle is not one which I condone, but through Barker's writing I've never been so moved before to feel sympathy and compassion to this man coming to terms with what and who he is, impelled by a horrible wrong in the world he's compelled to set right. Remember being a kid and looking out the window at 6pm, middle of winter, nasty outside, dark already, and you know you have school tomorrow? This whole book was that feeling.
Railroad Corporation on PC: I’m a sucker for railroad strategy
games, ever since Sid Meier released his venerable Railroad Tycoon back
in 1990. (The boxed game still sits proudly on my shelf.) Mr. Meier released
three more games in the series over the years and each one cost me many days
and nights of joyous play. He’s since hanged his hate, but others followed his
wake, attempting to emulate what he did so incredibly well. Railroad
Corporation is a contender. It’s brutally difficult. I’ve had to watch
numerous YouTube Let’s Plays just to conquer each scenario and it’s still
frustrating enough that I took a six month break from the game. I recently
returned, however, to discover I’m on the last scenario. I’m up against a
single robber baron and I have to buy him completely out and take over the
whole map to beat the game. A dozen hours into the game, geographically, I’m
doing pretty well. But he’s still 20 million in stock shares ahead of me. I
keep expanding and raising the value of my shares, but he then does the same. I
was about to give up, but then I realized early on, I had purchased twenty
million of my own stock. I sold them and surpassed him in value. I was able to
then buy him out and win the game out. Talk about suddenly feeling smart!
Aquarium by David Vann: Not sure how this book ended up on my To Be Read list on Goodreads, but it was a decent read. It tells the story of a twelve year old girl who walks to the city aquarium every day after school where her mother picks her up after work. One day at the aquarium, she befriends an old man who finds solace in seeing the fish. They become friends. He confesses something to her that changes her life forever, forever altering the relationship she has with her own mother. Like I said in my Goodreads review, “A woeful but wonderful tale of grief, loss, regret, self discovery, second chances, redemption, and new beginnings. Oh, and a misstep, god (sic) is spelled God.” When did this become a thing, lowercasing a proper name?
New Order: The Best of New Order on CD: Look up the word evolution in the dictionary and you may not be surprised to find the band New Order’s picture accompanying the text. Born out of the ashes of lamentation, New Order came about after Ian Curtis’s suicidal death when the band was Joy Division. Curtis’s death occurred right when the band was about to hit greatness. The band members made an agreement that if any of them died, they would stop using the name Joy Division, so the band continued on with the new moniker, New Order. They left their post punk roots and branched out into one of the most recognizable alternative dance bands of all time. Their 1983 hit "Blue Monday” became the best-selling 12-inch single of all time and a popular club track. In the hazy days of my foolish youth, I burned many calories and intermingled with many members of the fairer sex to the tuneage of this song. This album is a compilation of all of their good stuff, and the title tells it all. Not a bad song on the mix. It’s a must own if you’re a fan of the band by any degree at all.
Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits: Thanks to the magnificent Michael Stevens, my esteemed guitar teacher, this is the latest song I’ve been working on. It’s a far cry from the fretboard acrobatics of Steve Stevens, and my first foray into thumb picking. The song is slow and winsome (and I’m told played at the funerals of military men.) It’s a poignant anti-war elegy that illustrates the futility of combat and the tragedy of human suffering. I did not know it was written by Mark Knopfler during the 1982 Falklands War. The lyrics are told from the perspective of a mortally wounded soldier lying on the battlefield, reflecting on the shared humanity of all combatants. My stepfather hates listening to me play guitar, he thinks it’s just noise. But this is a song even he can get into.
Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines: on GoG: I’m about 2/3 of the way through it and 32 hours in. According to HowLongToBeat, it’s a 28 ½ hour game for the main story and the extras, and a 40 hour game if you’re a completionist. (Sometimes I am, and sometimes I’m not. For this game, nope, not even.) I’m ready for it to be over with. Who knows? Maybe I’m just weary of the dated 2004 graphics. It’s certainly not a bad game. I can see why it earned its cred, for sure. The writing is good and the storyline is compelling; I’ll give it that. And it is strange how you find a clue or an article that advances the plot, but then the story seems to go on and you begin to wonder, hey, am I going to use this thing after all? Should I sell it or ditch it from my inventory? But then, suddenly it comes into play. Such moments always make the game more fun to play.
Borderlands on PC: I had been hankering for a good multiplayer shooter to play with some buddies, so I booted this one up a few months ago. I didn’t realize I’d already beaten twice before, and I didn’t realize making it to the ending of the game could be done so quickly. Still, a fun romp through a cell shaded Mad Max post-apocalyptic world. The antics of the baddies you have to fight are hilarious as is the banter they throw at you as they seek to end your life. I’ve beat Borderlands 2 as well, which was quite good. I have Borderlands 3 and I’m told it doesn’t quite hold up as well, but I’m looking forward to it regardless.
Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally: Given to me as a gift by my wife back in the 90s it’s embarrassing that I’m just now getting around to reading this. But maybe that’s a good thing. I had watched the movie when it was released and it was utterly heart breaking. So, maybe a long separation is a good thing because reading this, I’m rediscovering it all anew. I’m a hundred pages in, but Oskar Schindler is truly a compelling character. He’s flamboyantly confident, yet when accosted about his constant womanizing and shmoozing with German Nazi Party bigwigs he answers with complete innocence, as if there is true virtue in what he does. And ultimately, there was. He saved many Jews who would have met with horrible ends. Keneally may have done more “novelizing” in this book, than say, Stephen Ambrose or Erik Larson would have, but it’s a good read and very enlightening.
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