Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (R):
This is a low-stakes buddy movie with Nicolas Cage (as Nicolas Cage) and Pedro Pascal that allows Cage to riff on his entire portfolio of acting choices, good and bad. It's funny, moves along quickly, and never totally devolves into cringeworthy parody. You will like it more if you're more familiar with the trajectory of Cage's acting career.

Final Grade: B

The Human Demands by Amy MacDonald:
I really liked Amy MacDonald back in 2009 because of her folksy, poppy uniqueness. All of her subsequent albums have gotten more polished and rock-pop, sanding off everything that made the original one unique. Listening to this newest one just takes me back to the early 2010s when every song had a little too much guitar reverb in the backup pads thanks to the influence of Coldplay.

Final Grade: C

Beyond the Fringe by Miles Cameron:
This is a collection of short stories set in the world of Artifact Space. I really like that they explore political undercurrents that are just throwaway sentences in the main book. I had a much deeper understanding of the book after reading these although only about half of them stood strong on their own as isolated short stories.

Final Grade: B-

Cobra Kai, Season Four:
The slow but visible build up to the sixth and final season starts to take shape here. One of the key strengths of the show is how many different sides each character has been on throughout the story, but all with reasonable backstories. This is a great season that offers something other than just "more of the same", although it takes far too long to get a key villain to commit to the story. On Netflix.

Final Grade: B+

Ian Year 2 Month 9 Battle Report

Ian is 3 months away from turning 3. As Einstein theorized, the closer we get to age 3, the longer it seems that age 2 has lastest.

Ian is fierce. He knows exactly what he wants and isn't afraid to raise Hades when he doesn't get what he wants. Related, his emotional IQ is off the charts and he will conclude his tantrums with phrases like "Will you snuggle with me?", "I need to feel better!", "Take care of me!", or "I want to be happy!". He is great at using and throwing away Kleenex, but hates when we have to suction his nose. Even showing him the giant boogers is a non-starter because he'll turn away ("No! I don't want to see that!")

He likes when I make up songs and rhymes (his favourite for a long time was "Construction Site, There's a Poop in My Scoop!") but he will continue to ask for more rhymes ("What else?") long after the rhyming options have been exhausted. He says that he loves toy trains, especially the one he received from the grandparents for Christmas that drains AAA batteries as if they were free shots at O'Faolain's.

He loves doing what Maia does and following her around. He'll repeat anything she says like a tiny echo. When not following Maia, he'll want us to play with him -- he grabs our hand and pulls us somewhere while chanting, "Let's play!" However, there are very few things we're actually allowed to DO during playing, as he doesn't approve of most of our attempts to expand upon his carefully curated Duplo world. At the moment, two cats, Abby and Amber, live in a house with an attic near the train station and sometimes they drive the Amazon Prime truck.

His favourite food is corn ("I love Torn so much.") and he recently started reading stories on the iPad with Khan Academy Kids ("I want to read a rectangle book"). He also loves watching and rewatching a DVD about John Deere tractors checked out from the library -- the first thing we hear from his room in the morning is a recitation of the DVD (including ads: "Don't miss it!") We work slightly harder at limiting his screen time than Maia (who would happily stop with screens to do something else) but he also gets to watch slightly more TV at this age than Maia did. We just started watching the perfectly wholesome show, Trash Truck, on Netflix.

Ian sleeps very well now although naptime is sitting in bed singing John Deere songs 50% of the time. If Rebecca is home, she must be the story-reader although he has assured me that he's okay with me doing it "when mommy isn't home".

Memory Day: Snapshots

This picture was taken 14 years ago today, on February 7, 2010.

It was the day after a massive snowstorm that dropped 23" of wet snow on us, the shoveling of which destroying my back and gave me a cold that caused me to miss two simultaneous Super Bowl parties. Between our own shoveling and the industrial tractor that drove down our street, we had a bulwark 4 feet high along our curb, protecting us from infidels and common decency.

Rebecca still worked for a T-shirt company at the time, and was always wearing cast-off returns or clothes with printing errors on them. This storm was big enough that the company had to embrace telework for a couple days and Rebecca got to sit at home with Booty, appeasing customers wondering why their T-shirts had gotten delayed.

We would also have another blizzard 5 days later that would actually cause my parents' carport to collapse on top of their empty car!

Review Day: Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky

There are no major spoilers in this review.

Children of Time is the first book in the like-named trilogy by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

The last remnant of mankind has traveled across galaxies in search of a fabled planet that was terraformed and intended as a new Earth. They discover that the planet is not as uninhabited as they had presumed, and find it under the stewardship of a fiercely-protective artificial intelligence in orbit.

The book foreshadows the collision of two civilizations -- mankind at the tail end of a slow collapse and an on-planet presence with unnervingly similar societal traits on the rise. The story is told over millennia and generations, with cryo hibernation employed as a useful device to center the story around a consistent core of human characters. I found the evolution of each civilization across the extended timeline to be fascinating. I was enthralled from a dry, anthropological perspective, but less invested emotionally in any specific character due to the sheer scale of the timeline. If you need that singular kind-hearted character to root for in your books, the intentionally detached characters and prose may slow you down here, but the chapters are very short and readable.

Children of Time effectively tackles major themes, including self-identity, nature versus nurture, religion, human-computer interfacing, and the cyclical nature of mankind's failings. The book offers a lot of food for thought and memorable one-liners without becoming overly preachy. I found the ending to be a little abrupt on my first readthrough, but gradually appreciated how all of the clues earlier in the book could only lead to this apt conclusion.

Final Grade: A-

• Book 1: Children of Time review
• Book 2: Children of Ruin review
• Book 3: Children of Memory review

Chad Darnell's 12 of 12

12 pictures of your day on the 12th of every month

5:41 AM: Showered and ready for work.

6:02 AM: Bagel for breakfast on my new Flexispot desk.

6:57 AM: Getting ready for the bus stop.

7:41 AM: Writing about business development.

7:54 AM: Just saw a trash truck drive by.

8:07 AM: 30 minutes of Beat Saber cardio. My regimen includes beating Spin Eternally on Expert three consecutive times each day.

3:23 PM: Rebecca solves Maia's treasure hunt. (Maia is reading the Key to the Treasure series by Peggy Parrish right now).

3:47 PM: Reading Trucktown books.

5:17 PM: Joe's pizza for dinner.

5:42 PM: Ian is pretending to be a Pokemon who he thinks is called "Grossflower" but is actually "Glossifleur".

7:13 PM: Writing strategy guides.

8:05 PM: Building a new web storefront.

House Day

Celebrating 20 years as a Sterling resident!

People who have lived in this house since I bought it:

• Me (2004 - 2024)
• Anna A. (2004 - 2005)
• Eric B. (2004 - 2005)
• Ben A. (2005)
• Kathy S. (2005)
• Rebecca U. (2009 - 2024)
• Abby W. (2013 - 2014)
• Maia U. (2017 - 2024)
• Ian U. (2021 - 2024)

Animals who have stayed in this house since I bought it:

• Booty
• Kitty
• Amber
• Sydney
• Leia
• Oliver
• Titan
• Lake
• Abby

Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

They Cloned Tyrone (R):
This blaxploitation thriller is a fun ride although the overall theme doesn't convey as well. The three primary characters (John Boyega, Jamie Foxx, and Teyonah Parris) turn in great performances although Kiefer Sutherland's supporting role feels a bit miscast. Best watched without knowing too much in advance. On Netflix.

Final Grade: B

Cobra Kai, Season Five:
The penultimate season of Cobra Kai is very strong, constantly pushing forward towards an explosive conclusion. I'm glad that an early plotline involving a road trip through Mexico wrapped up quickly, and I'm also glad that the list of villians streamlined as the season went on. On Netflix.

Final Grade: B+

Dave, Season Three:
The last season of Dave sometimes feels like a spin-off of Atlanta. We petered out on this season halfway through after Rebecca got tired of watching Dave feel sorry for himself, but I ultimately finished it on the treadmill. It recovers nicely, uses a ton of guest stars to great effect, and provides a nice ending for all of the characters. On Hulu.

Final Grade: B

Intraspectral by Lenka:
My review of Attune can be used word-for-word with Lenka's newest CD.

Final Grade: C+

Maia's Art Day

This is the cutest owl that anyone has ever drawn, anywhere.

Artifacts from sea turtle week.

There are 7 kinds of sea turtles. Sea turtles can stay underwater for seven hours.

Lily the Silly Cat by Maia Uri

Once upon a time there was a silly cat named Lily.
"You are silly"
Your cat friend
"Lily tricked me"

Lily tricked the other cats. So the other cats tricked her.
I'm unusually invested in how this (still unfinished) story will turn out.

My favorite snack is Goldfish because they are salty.

Pet Peeve of the Moment

My first-world pet peeve at the moment is the modern trend towards car colors that barely count as colors.

These colors are like the La Croix of the color palette -- some paint engineer was thinking of the word, "blue", punched in the hex code #000088 in Photoshop, and then layered in all fifty shades of grey to produce that magical commercial hue, "Subtle Notes of Light Pale Turquoise Seen Through a Piece of Paper™". Then it gets slapped on a car and falsely advertised as something edgy and adventuresome, like a 44-year-old at a Dave Matthews concert who's also wearing a Jimmy Buffet ball cap.

The cars drive down the road like color-devouring black holes, simultaneously absorbing light and your sense of excitement. Gone are the vibrant, metallic shades of primary colors of yesteryear, replaced by boring, matte-finish blandness that looks like you tried to print a photo on an inkjet printer but the cyan cartridge was the only one not clogged.

It's like being a kid and asking your parents if you can get McDonald's on the way home and they say, "No, we have food at home," but then you get home and dinner is a hot dog boiled in a pot of water with no buns. (This is a true story).

Review Day: Children of Ruin by Adrian Tchaikovsky

There are no major spoilers in this review.

Children of Ruin is the second book in the Children of Time series by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Although it's a sequel in the sense that you need to have knowledge of what came before, it plays out more like an anthology story, laterally covering similar themes as the first book.

The story begins on one ship out of many tasked with terraforming a new planet for mankind's salvation. Unlike the first book, the crew arrives to discover the planet already teeming with life forms that seemed to evolve without Earthlike biology. When signals from Earth stop transmitting, the five-man crew allows their mission to evolve more towards exploration and science. Uncounted years later, descendants of the protagonists from the first book arrive in this galaxy in search of other terraformed worlds.

The tone of this book is mostly clinical and detached, as if the author is crafting a scientific report about a really cool terrarium. I felt like I was kept at arm's length (even more so than I did in the first book) so I never grew attached to the characters. However, this tone is expertly subverted at several points, where the plot dips its toes into light horror themes. I loved the creepiness of a potentially dangerous planetside menace (and its catchphrase). I had positive flashbacks to the pulpy thriller aspects of Michael Crichton's books.

Overall, I loved all of the concepts that were explored in this book, from organisms that behave like machine learning algorithms to massive space worms bred for planetary mining. I didn't think it was totally successful as a cohesive story though, and my interest started to wane around the 3/4 mark during several consecutive chapters of backstory. As plot threads started to converge, I felt a little lost and adrift, like I had focused on the wrong elements early in the story rather than the elements that would become foundational to the conclusion.

I like that Children of Ruin tried something different even if it didn't resonate with me personally. In spite of its flaws, I'm still willing to give the final book (Children of Memory) a try, just as soon as I get through P.L. Stuart's newest release in his Drowned Kingdom series.

Final Grade: B-

• Book 1: Children of Time review
• Book 2: Children of Ruin review
• Book 3: Children of Memory review

Wildlife Cam Day

The 12 best shots from over 2600 captures, November 2023 - February 2024

Most Common Captures:

• Squirrel going up tree
• Squirrel going down tree
• Deer family milling around
• Stark winter shadows moving across the ground
• Our butts

End-of-the-Month Highlights Day

New photos have been added to the Life, 2024 album.

• Events
  • Date Happy Hour at Local Provisions on H 2/1.
  
  
  • Brief visit to Claude Moore followed by family dinner at Miller's on S 2/3.
  
  
  • Maia and Ian went to Fatima's 8th birthday party on S 2/4.
  
  
  • Fire Works Pizza (delivered) for dinner on M 2/5.
  
  
  • Went to the doctor for my annual checkup on T 2/6.
  
  
  • Rebecca got a new car on W 2/7: A 2023 Kia Niro PHEV.
  
  
  • Solo dad dinner at Local Provisions on H 2/8.
  
  
  • Family sushi night on F 2/9.
  
  
  • Maia and Ian went to Elizabeth's 5th birthday party on S 2/10. Dinner with Car & Jordan (ginger wasabi salmon) in the evening.
  
  
  • Watched the Super Bowl's first half at home on S 2/11.
  
  
  • Date Night at City Tap on F 2/17.
  
  
  • Had my parents over for dinner (skirt steak) on S 2/18.
  
  
  • Chuy's for dinner on S 2/19.
  
  
  • Went to the HOA meeting on W 2/21.
  
  
  • Family dinner at Miller's on F 2/23.
  
  
  • Maia and Rebecca went to Ashleigh's birthday part on S 2/24.
  
  
  • Took the kids to my parents' on M 2/26.
  
  
  • Solo dad dinner at Local Provisions on H 2/29.


• Projects
  • Did 90 minutes of HOA common area cleanup on H 2/1.
  
  
  • Got up every morning at 5:30 AM for 20-30 minutes of Beat Saber workouts (10 hours total this month). Currently weighing 139 pounds and showing off pre-hypertension blood pressure levels.
  
  
  • Started overhauling the Maitz and Wurts Studio Shop storefront (in beta testing now).


• Consumerism
  • Bought a new standing desk.
  
  
  • No amazing new books, shows, movies, or music this month.
  
  
  • Not playing any games at the moment.

February's Final Grade: B+, productive and relaxed.