Fall Colors In Snohomish Almost Remind Me Of Illinois

There are a lot of things I do not miss about Illinois ... but ... I surely miss the wonderful fall seasons there. Usually here in Snohomish (about 30 miles northeast of Seattle), a windstorm comes in early in the fall and all the trees are bare. Not this year by any means, the weather has worked out to where the fall colors are fantastic for this area.

VIDEO: The horror of the Mac Halloween Virus

Another very funny Macintosh related video ...

Book Review: Wielding A Red Sword

I was totally amazed about how fast I burned through this fourth book in the Incarnations Of Immortality series. This book focused on the incarnation of War and I had mixed feelings about it. I’m not a big fan of the concept of war and do not feel comfortable with how much of our nations budget is dedicated to it. Yeah, I know, it is called defense spending but ... slippery slope nonetheless. Ironic that I’m a veteran as well? Anyhow, War played a very interesting and noble part in the last book “With A Tangled Skein” and I was looking forward to seeing how this story played out. It certainly didn’t go as I expected but was an enjoyable read nonetheless.


The story did take its time getting to the assumption of the office of war by our main character Mym. It wasn’t as bad as the second book “Bearing A Hourglass” and this setup did influence the story quite a bit. There was some excellent character development and do hope some of those characters might pop up again in the later volumes of this series. This didn’t go that much into the magic or the strategies of the office of war and I was a little disappointed as such. It seemed like the second book “Bearing A Hourglass” went overboard in explaining the concept of time as it related to its aspect but war only gets a glance in this volume. It is mostly a stumbling, storming the beaches situation by our very likable main character Mym.

There is not just one, two, three but actually four love stories going on in this book and our guy Mym is in all of them. The totals are broken down into two princesses, one daughter of the aspect of Fate and a sultry “won’t take no for an answer” demoness.

Other story plots and subplots I found interesting were the stuttering condition, the controlled berserker rage, the honor of an Indian prince, the red sword (obviously) and how Satan gets his head handed to him at the end. My theory of one book setting us up for the next book was a little shaken here. Although Mother Earth does appear in this book, her role in it isn’t any larger than her role in some of the other books. That fact that the next book is about Mother Earth is one of the main reasons I’m not taking a break in the series and reading something else. I have an itching to dust off a Heinlein or Koontz but I’m going to dive into the story of gia next.

So I would have to give this book a third position in the four books I’ve read thus far. I did enjoy it quite a bit and this is the largest single dose of fantasy books since the Thomas Covenant series I read back in high school and the Navy days.

Fall On Centennial Trail In Snohomish Washington

Had to make a trek down to the post office to send a letter via snail mail during lunch today. So I took the wonder dog down to Centennial Trail and parked over by the Machias trail head. We only went about 4 miles round trip but the fall colors were quite nice and I snapped a couple pictures with the iPhone.

Macs Vs Windows Bloody PC Battle

Although this YouTube video goes way over the top in the blood and gore area, I still think it is a remarkable piece of independent work. I do think the latest round of Macintosh advertisements are too mean spirited and I think the Microsoft response ads show much more class. Seriously, if Microsoft wants to sell more copies of Vista, one big step would be to reduce the number of versions and drop the price. I’d like to have a copy to use for virtualization testing but it is too expense to purchase a copy that is any good.

Anyway ... here is the YouTube video ... be warned it has some cheesy blood and guts scenes that are a little over the top but still funny ...

October On The Centennial Trail

This weekend, we had a few nice days and simply had to get out in them a little bit. You never really know how many good days you will get when the winter grays start coming to the Seattle area. Not enough time and too much work to do ... so cannot do a real trail. So time to strap on the iPod, catch up on some podcasts and let Bogie go for a 6 mile long extended pee.

At one point, the trail was supposed to be closed. No one was really paying that much attention to it and there wasn’t any real reason for it. They had done some road work (and it was open) but they had these signs up.

We took the lower horse trail and right by a horse farm. There was a small colt rolling in the dirt but I was too far away and too slow to get a picture. One of the other horses came up to me while I was getting the camera ready and decided to give me a profile.

Such a great day, glad we got a chance to get out in it.

MacHeads Video Trailer

n. I have been since the day I first saw the very first Macintosh shown to use in 1985 in my computing class as the Danville Community College in Illinois. I’m not fanatical about it by any means but I do have 4 of them in my office, 2 iPods and an iPhone. I even had the opportunity to work for Apple for 7 years, so maybe that does fall the somewhat fanatical area. I enjoy it and so I’m not apologizing by any means.

Stumbled across this YouTube click and thought I’d share it with you. Mostly, this is a test of embedding a YouTube video in a post, I have never done one before.

Book Review: With A Tangled Skein

Well, I’m continuing my trek through the Piers Anthony INCARNATIONS OF IMMORTALITY series and this is the third book in the series. I was a little disappointed in the second book but really enjoyed this one. The way these books begin to blend into each other is rewarding and I’m enjoying it quite a bit.


This is the story about Niobe, of one of the aspects of Fate. It covers more of her experiences as an immortal than the previous book did on the incarnation of time. However, we do get a nice glimpse of the the life of the mortal Niobe and it feeds the story nicely. Of course, the protagonist in this story is Satan, as with the previous two books. This story is loaded with character development and I can only imagine this will pay dividends in the next few books. I’m beginning to see a trend (perhaps imagined) where one book gives you more insight on the incarnation that will be covered in the next book. Death worked with Time in the first book, Time worked with Fate in the second, Fate worked with War in the third and I’m just getting into the fourth book covering War now.

There was a bit of Xanth like action in the middle of the book in regards to an adventure to the realm of the Mountain King. It is brief and not as long as the trio of Xanth like adventures in the second book. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the Xanth books I’ve read but really looking for something quite the opposite from the same voice.

I have never read a Piers Anthony science fiction book but that is going to change soon. If for no other reason than to read his commentary at the end of each book. Which is has been delightful in the three books I’ve digested thus far.

So two thumbs up for With A Tangled Skein and you can get it practically anywhere. I’m bidding on the entire collection in hard cover right now and expect to learn that I’ve been outbid as soon as the auction is over.

Pinnacle Lake Trail

I had done this trail with a friend in the spring of last year but pulled back before actually hitting Pinnacle lake. The snow pack was so hard, we couldn’t make out where the trail was and couldn’t see our own footsteps. So we had done the shorter trail to Bear Lake and then almost made it to Pinnacle Lake. I was shocked today to see how close we were to the lake back then, before we had turned back.

Here you can see where we had to park and then hike to the actual trail head. This was the same case last year and I was wondering if they had fixed the road. I wasn’t surprised to see that they had not because ...

As you can see, the road is gone. Literally washed away and I can see how they haven’t fixed it. Thing is, I’ve seen this happen couple other times here in the Pacific Northwest and those others were fixed. The long hike to the trail head is actually nice and a welcome warm up. After the hike, it sure would be nice to jump into the car at the trail head but alas ... that is not the case.



The only footbridge on the trail has seen better days as well but it was solid as a rock.


At the trailhead is a poster for a brutal homicide that happened on the trail in 2006. Although that is very creepy, shocking and depressing, I try to focus on what a nice hike this is. Close to the lake, there is a memorial plaque on one of the trees as a very picturesque place in the trail. So fond thoughts to the families of these hikers and thank you to those responsible for this memorial to them.


Here you can see the lake and it was much prettier than my pictures show. Really need to get a better camera someday.


Then it started to snow and the temperature dropped quickly!

Towards then end of the trail, very wet and muddy dog!

Chateau Ste Michelle Winery Meetup Walk

An event for the Eastside Weekend Walkers meetup group, We meet at Wilmont Gateway Park in Woodinville for a nice walk along the Sammamish River to the beautiful grounds of the Chateau Ste Michelle Winery (four miles round trip). Got a nice tasting of a few wines and I thought the Muscat Canelli was quite tasty for a desert wine.