What I Can Do For You

 I can create almost anything that you imagine could be created.

Even things you considered impossible.

For example,

if I had sufficient resources,

I would already have created a vehicle capable of interstellar travel

which runs on gravitational energy and computer chips

the size of a molecule.

Unfortunately,

at this time,

I do not even have enough resources to support myself

and must offer my talent for 40+ hours per week in exchange for monetary compensation for mildly technical work.*

*Such as creating and maintaining Window’s and Web applications using Visual Studio.net and T-SQL to designing and developing commercial products or scientific devices using Autodesk Inventor/AutoCAD for mechanical components, PSpice for electronic components, Verilog/VHDL for logic design, and CMOS physical layout for silicon design, and many other tools including many that I developed.

.

Describe the Lathe.

Identify the parts of the Engine Lathe and its role.

Describe the importance of a lathe setup and the principle operations of

Straight and Taper:

turning, facing, boring, threading, grooving, knurling, and form cutting.

Describe the common measuring rules,

How they are adjusted and the

Proper way they are used.

Describe how to read a part drawing and its tolerances.

Instill, every day,

Shop Safety to every student.

But charming it is.

The likeable lovechild of a romance novel and a buddy cop film, orphaned at a young age and raised in the world of Shadows over Baker Street (another “charming” book, incidentally, but one I will not review at this moment), this book dives unashamedly into that most beautiful of partnerships: the They Fight Crime:

Meet Mr. Sykes! He’s demonspawn! Literally!
Meet Captain Harper! He wears gloves! And works for the Inquisition!
They commit Fight Crime!

There are other characters, of course, and some of them are even quite memorable, but the whole shebang (hebang?) boils down to these two singular individuals who can’t quite help getting rather inextricably tangled.
The prose is quick, clever, and nicely descriptive without getting too bogged down by the world it creates. Yes, it’s a bit of a trashy read, but for such a potentially purple and lurid narrative, it keeps itself pretty down to earth. You’ll want to take this little book home and enjoy its ophorium habit, before deciding you need to help it clean up and get its (and your) life back on track.

————————————————————————————————————————————————

In addition, I have recently been introduced to Kate Ross and the World of Julian Kestrel.

And what a world it is! Whether knocking about Milan or promenading through London, you’ll always look smart in the capable company of Mr. Kestrel, the most famous dandy since Brummell. Of the two I have read (The Devil in Music and and Whom the Gods Love), I feel I must give the edge to the later effort- Devil in Music. It has more surprising twists and turns and feels slightly more original. Both fall squarely into the ‘guilty pleasure’ category for me, but they are well worth visiting to to clear the head and stimulate the senses while being not quite good for you. Much like snuff.

These things. Particularly together.

and, surprisingly and delightfully, this year’s Shakespeare on the Common.

It’s ‘All’s Well that Ends Well’ this year, and it is much, much, MUCH better than some efforts of previous years. It’s also a flippin’ weird play. I’ll direct you here for plot, if you’re curious. Let’s just say there’s a douchecanoe and a bed trick. Among other things.

Anyway. It was really quite good. I highly recommend it. I wish I had better things to say about Helena, but she was just kind of…ehhh. I mean, Bertram is probably the Ultimate Shakespearean Douche, but I have to say, facing the rest of my life living with that high, flutey, actressy voice would give me pause too. My usual thoughts run along the lines of : “I mean, yes, Bertram, your life kind of sucks, but do you HAVE to be such a douchecanoe about it?”, but Helena’s voice really put me off and made it harder to like her, which is actually rather important.

Lavatch was quite good (Ohhh LORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRD, sir!), but seemed to have wandered in from Brooklyn. Diana was pretty badass. Parolles was ok, but the real delight of the show were the army chaps, particularly the Dumaines. Their scenes had by far the best and most sustained energy, and actual real high stakes were apparent, despite the rollicking tone.  The Countess and the King (Will Lebow!) were both very solid, turning in excellent, if slightly workmanlike performances.

The set was lovely and squeezed everything it could out of its turning stage.  Costumes were…interesting. At times very attractive, at times baffling, they seemed at first to set an era and then wander blithely all over several centuries.  Lighting was quite wonderful, especially when it got dark enough to appreciate it properly.

In conclusion, go see it! It ends soon, and it’s well worth watching, particularly for the price (FREE).

For lo, at the stroke of ten, I was embroiled in the intricacies of that most pervasive network called Taleo, and forsooth I did move a candidate from one status to another and extended unto him a message of wondrous good tidings. And then indeed did I inquire of a third party network that they behold the works of his past against the record that he had pronounced himself. And then yet again did I make an overture to this individual in quest of his domestic location so as to find the closest place wherein his hairs might be drawn to ensure that he had held fast against any naughty contraband of narcotic effect.

And this is what I do now.

But for those of you who actually read this- fear not, for I continue upon my quest for Revenge (tragedy).

The book I’m reading now agrees with me about how Kyd must have been smoking something (speaking of naughty contraband of narcotic effect).  I mean basically, it (The Spanish Tragedy) starts with Don Andrea being all, “So, I’m dead. I got killed in battle and it was unpleasant. And then the underworld was scary. And now I’m here with Revenge. Say hi!” Don Andrea got killed in battle, therefore, no revenge is necessary. And then Don Andrea’s girlfriend takes up with Don Andrea’s friend Horatio, and then he gets killed, and becomes all about him and wtf I thought revenge tragedies were about injustices that happened before the show begins and Hieronimo is really really batshit. Oh and Lorenzo is Machiavelli’s perfect man. That’s what Bowers is saying anyway.

There is so much yet to read.

And by the way…sorry, JKR. Seen it.

(An excellent time was had by all and there was much general merriment, I feel obliged to report).

Additionally there was Beer Fest. Below are some of the better brews I sampled (excluding old favorites):

Amherst‘s doppelbock

Anchor Steam‘s Porter

Odell‘s Myrcenary

Bobcat‘s Saison

Surly‘s Bitter

Clown Shoes‘ Tramp Stamp

Anderson‘s Amber.

Also very drinkable were OMB‘s Copper Ale, Berkshire’s hefeweizen, and Blue Hills‘ Antimatter.

All in all a very successful Saturday. I’m reading some strange things now, and I’ll possibly get back on track about the whole book thing, but we shall see. I think this, for example, is highly relevant to the aforementioned film. Perhaps I’ll do something about that. In the meantime, I’ve got a Seussical Greek thing to finish up and Machiavelli and Coleridge crave my attention. Which reminds me- I’ve started watching the Borgias. It’s actually quite a bit of fun and may show up here as well.

There’s been a lot of company this weekend from Roommate B’s hometown, as well as work, and I’ve been finishing up my designing project for CHS, which I’ve just sent in, so not a lot of time to blog. A good weekend though, with much good cheer to counterbalance a certain amount of lame-ish work.

I’m currently trying to decide what slightly to extremely trashy book I’m going to visit next. Fortunately, I have discovered a large stash in my cleaning efforts, and there are about 3 that look promising. There are also some srs reading projects going on, but I won’t bore you all with remaindered Piarists. I still haven’t finished Cranmer, but he’s long overdue, so we’re going to take some time apart for the time being. I know he’ll still be there when I want him back.

Coworker 295 is reading one of my more srs recommendations currently, and, unless she is lying to me, seems to be enjoying it.  I may not be able to repay the favour by reading Young Miles, but I’ll be paying deference to her (and Coworker 142) in this blog very soon.

And now, perhaps, a bit of rest. Tomorrow it’s to the library, out for chickpeas, and then to work.

Which I haven’t read. But it has a pretty nice cover. Not my favourite cover ever, but definitely very solid. Classy, subtle, mysterious, good colour contrast. Well, somehow that has become this:

Why.

Sometimes a cover shift in paperback can be a nice change. Sometimes it can render a book unrecognizable. Any change at all can make the paperback version of the book hard to find or remember. Sometimes hardcover covers just don’t look good on paperbacks. This is not the case here. I don’t know who changed the cover or why, but I don’t like it. I was complaining about this cover to Coworkers 210 and 146 and they agree with me (especially 146). And so, I blog about it, not very interestingly alas, but my dinner break ends in 4 minutes and so I must needs be brief. Managing the new paperbacks here, as I do, this comes up fairly often. So there will probably be more cover critiques in the future.

And writing a paper that made me temporarily insane, I felt the time was right for some slightly lighter reading. Upon arriving at work, I had Coworker 142 tell me about a book she’d read over the weekend. It sounded like exactly the kind of fantasy slumming my mind needed, so I took it home that very night. This was the book:

This “Melodrama of Manners” as Ms. Kushner calls her work, is indeed a very entertaining read. I don’t know if I can categorise it as ‘good’- it feels to me rather like very competently acted Shakespeare- everything is right, but nothing is transcendent. It also affords some of the comedy of tragedy you get out of some of the more ridiculous history plays (the Henry VIs spring to mind). Being as I love those plays (the Henry VIs especially, but I’ve also got a soft spot for Henry VIII- but enough on that), I had a excellent time in the company of Richard, the somewhat automaton-like swordsman, Alec the self-destructive ex-scholar with the mysterious past (they fight crime! Actually, they do. Kind of.), and the company of posh and vicious twits up on the Hill. This book is actually much more up Roommate N’s alley than mine, so I’ve recommended it to her, and trust she’ll have a more genre-appropriate response. Nevertheless, I’ve had an excellent time discussing it with Coworker 142 during lulls in the sometimes-frenetic pace of life here at the store, and I’d recommend it to anyone who needs a break from reading Serious Academic Things and is inclined towards the fantastic and the ridiculous.

That’s all for now. I suppose, since this was Post 1, I should have made some sort of comment about that. Oh well.

Here are some suggestions for your first post.

1. You can find new ideas for what to blog about by reading the Daily Post.
2. Add PressThis to your browser. It creates a new blog post for you about any interesting  page you read on the web.
3. Make some changes to this page, and then hit preview on the right. You can alway preview any post or edit you before you share it to the world.