Set in the not so distance future of 2014 we follow an U.S. Army secret test with a virus, death row inmates and a six year old girl. Soon we are taken 93 years later in a post apocalyptic world where the remaining humans live day by day while fighting of the ‘virals’.

The Passage is the first of what will be a trilogy, 700 something pages long I have to say this book felt like my personal Mount Everest.

When a book is much hyped like this one I expect it to read fast, taking me at least a week at most. A good example is the Millennium Trilogy which I read in a week and a half. Justin Cronin really takes his time to develop characters, detailing environments, relationships and so on. It’s not just a thriller and horror story, but a it has a palpable emotional storyline embedded between all of it. If you like authors like Stephen King and can handle a trilogy the size of Lord of the Rings you might like this book.

I struggled with the first 300 to 400 pages which where mostly settings of plot-lines and characters. After The Road and The Book of Eli the whole deserted towns and cities, everyone long dead gets kinda routine. It’s only after I finally got in the mind set of the characters who know almost nothing about the beginning of it all that I got pulled in the story, rooting for them trying to save humanity.

The book gets a 3 out of 5 stars from me. I admit this is not really my kind of fare but I managed to read it till the end and I would like to read the next book. But I don’t feel like the book lived up to all the hype it got.

If you read the book there will be a part about The Gulf of Mexico which will be so ironic you won’t even laugh.

I have started sporting a bit as a method to relax, I played some tennis but mostly badminton. I’m even thinking on looking for a badminton or tennis partner to play with now and then. How does one go about that when the people around you don’t play neither of them.

Not one to do nothing the rest of the time I have been reading a lot of books lately. I’ll just sum them up:

The Solitude of Prime Numbers a debut novel of Italian author Paolo Giordano. The book was well written and the characters details was extensive but the story didn’t really do much to me.

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet About a genius young boy and his journey through America. I’m only a quart done with it and put it aside, lately I’m more for a book that real keeps me reading. This explains the next books I read.

The Millennium Trilogy I was really holding off to read them due to several comments on how violent the books are, but those comments must have been from people who read mild books only. While the book does have violence in it it was nothing more then other books of the same genre. I read these three books in a week and a half, they where so addicting I had trouble stopping at night to go to sleep.

After finishing them I put myself on self imposed break from reading. It lasted two weeks, I’m now half away with The Help which is currently on The New York Times fiction bestsellers list. A true literature work which reminds me of my highschool days when I only read pure literature for English class. The Help is set in 1960′s in Jackson, Mississippi which also brings back a lot that I learned during history classes.

When I’m finished with The Help I already have a next book waiting, A Homemade Life: Stories and Recipes from My Kitchen Table. I had it on my wishlist for some time already and finally got it as an early birthday gift, together with Sh*t My Dad Says. The latter one I’m currently reading in between The Help.

Now with the World Cup on I have been reading less and watching at least a game a day. I watched some of the matches away from home with more people and the rest on the background while working online. Watching Maradona back at the World Cup scene brings back memories, I remember when just a kid I would watch him play while my father and grandfather had the game on. And now years later there he is back but my father and grandfather are no longer here. That thought real kept going in my mind on Argentina’s first match.

But brighter thoughts, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the summer weather will return again this week. It has been cold, rainy and windy these past three days, one would think it’s fall instead of almost summer. I just want to go sit somewhere outside with a cold drink and book.

I settled on the Rhodia bloc #13, the paper comes off easily, the paper quality is perfect for fountain ink. My only fountain pen the Parker Latitude with a fine nib doesn’t write smoothly on Rhodia and Moleskine paper. I finally decided to go ahead and purchase a Lamy Safari, I wanted the charcoal one but the store doesn’t have it neither did they hear of it. But they do have a white one which I hadn’t seen on JetPens so I got one with a fine nib.

Since then I have been using the Lamy Safari with Noodler’s ink and the Rhodia everyday for daily notes like grocery, budget, and other mindless information.

As for my Moleskine they are all more then two years old as I don’t use them frequently but the Noodler’s ink bleeds too much through the paper while with Rhodia paper there isn’t almost any bleeding. I hope the new special Moleskines have better paper, I want to get the Recipes Moleskine, but if the bleed is too much I would have to get a pen specially for writing in it. I’m a habit person I like having pens for special purposes.

In any case I’m sold on the Lamy Safari, the price here at the store is the same as JetPens excluding the shipping costs, they have converters and I got a chance to hold the pens and decide on the color. The Pen writes flawlessly, now I only wonder if I can take it with me in my bag or if the risk of ink spill is too great?

Every time I read the episodes reviews of Grey’s Anatomy on TV Squad I want to bang my head against my screen. First the person who reviews most of the episode has never heard of the word objective, countless of times I wanted to tell him to stop watching the show if you find it so bad. 15 million people tuned in to watch the final, it came in at Number 1 so you are better off being objective then angering your readers.

Then you have the viewers of the show who obviously have never been in a large hospital nor are familiar with many medical issues. Some comments made:

lock down doesn’t actually mean anything. different areas of the hospital are not actually locked in any way and people can freely wander from place to place.

The hospital is huge, there might be a lot of staff but never enough to lock down all corridors door. Seriously dude there is a shortage of nurses and doctors everywhere and you expect every door in that huge building to get locked?

if you’re shot and on an elevator in an incredibly busy hospital where the elevators are constantly moving… nobody will suddenly have any interest in using that elevator and you won’t be found for a while.

I have been in a large teaching hospital just like Seattle Grey’s and believe you me, even in the middle of the day there are sections in the hospital where you don’t come across a soul, I got lost once on my way to get an xray taken.

And most of all it is beside the point, it’s Television people, like make believe, not real, entertainment. People questioning every little detail they sound like Sheldon Cooper in The Big Bang Theory explaining why Superman couldn’t fly at full speed and catch Louis Lane in mid flight saving her from falling to her dead.

I guess this comes with the territory of internet, where there be open comments there will be all kinds of opinions, rational ones and just ones that make you shake your head. That’s why I never comment on big websites, there really is no point. It just bugs me big time that people expect so much realism in TV shows, isn’t life itself real enough already?

I went with only 20 euros cash to not go overboard, granted I don’t drink alcohol instead taking bottled water with me. I tasted 4 dishes(shared the hefty ones) ranging from a mix of seafood and meat, seafood and veggie, and an indo platter of rendang, and skewered pork in peanut sauce. The Indo platter was nothing wow but again I’m not a fan of Indo food.

The food I liked best was the baked fish and veggies with jasmine sauce.

And king crab with seaweed and bean sprouts sans the fried shrimp pictured.(I’m allergic to shrimp so I got mine without it.

There where also Japanese and Thai restaurants but they all had shrimps dishes so I didn’t taste them. Would have cost a fortune either way and would mean that I would have eaten way too much. See the rest of the images.

One of the restaurants also have a special until May 31, a whole lobster thermidor or lobster with parsley butter with asparagus and potatoes for 25 euros. I took a folder with me see if I’ll get a chance to go before the end of the month. I love lobster!

Today was quiet a foodie day and off course wine flowed like there was an unlimited supply. I met an acquittance who runs restaurants/cafe’s and he informed me he opened a new one so I should drop by there soon for lunch or dinner.

All in all a tasteful event.

Since discovering Scarlett Thomas I have realy come to love her books, while they are fiction you learn a thing or two about physics and homeopathy. Not two things you’ll come across easily together in one book.

In Our Tragic Universe Meg contemplates her unfinished novel, going back and forth over in which format she should write it. As a matter of fact Our Tragic Universe reads like a story-less story which is the format Meg is constantly mulling over. But this doesn’t mean the book is boring, the story is partly driven by a book Meg mysteriously gets about how we are all immortal.

I new by this piece on the back flap of the book that I was going to like it:

Meg is lost in a labyrinth of her own devising. But could there be an important connection between a wild beast living on Dartmoor, a ship in a bottle, the science of time, a knitting pattern for the shape of the universe and the Cottingley Fairies? Or is her life just one long chain of coincidences?

Just like her previous book it’s a good read that leaves you wanting for more. This is the second time I finished one of her books and wanted something similar to read but I have yet to come across a book that will match her books.

I read the first book of the series, Want to Play?(UK title) about four years ago. A plot involving cops, internet and hackers is just my kind of thing being the geek that I am. Set in the cold city of Minneapolis, Minnesota two homicide cops Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth are trying to solve a series of murder with the help of a group of very eccentric software developers/hackers. Since then three books has been released and now with Play to Kill going back full focus on the Monkeewrench gang and Magozzi with Rolseth.

It has been four years since the last book, Snow Blind, was released. So when I found out about Play to Kill I couldn’t wait. I re-read all previous four books with e exception of Dead Run to refresh on the characters.

As soon as I saw the book for sale before release date I bought it and of course read it in less then 24 hours.

The plot

A serial killer is terrifying enough, but when the murder videos begin showing up online – well, then it becomes an issue for computer analyst Grace MacBride and her eccentric crew of geniuses and mavericks. Recruited by the FBI, MacBride, along with Minneapolis cops Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth, work together to hunt down the killer. Using sophisticated tracking software, MacBride and her team scour the internet for signs of a possible attack, trying to weed out the staged videos from the real thing in hopes of finding a pattern. But bodies keep turning up, and videos keep being posted, and the team is getting desperate to save lives. It’s not until they come across a sinister website that a real lead is discovered. And it takes them all the way to a shocking conclusion . . .

The book read just as good as the first one, keeping you on the edge constantly. But unlike the first book the story has to many holes in it. I’m always able to overlook things and just enjoy the book but in this case I felt let down with how many holes there where in the story.

For starters you should really read at least the first book before reading this one, otherwise the story will feel bland and superficial without the background knowledge of the characters. And some knowledge of internet most popular websites is also good to increase the thrill of the story.

The book is worth the read, it may not be my favorite one of the series, I always like the first books of any series the most. But if you are a fan of P.J. Tracy and with four years without a new release this one will read like a breeze.

If you haven’t read the book yet stop reading! The next part contains spoilers. You have been warned.

Spoilers ahead

The psychology behind the internet

YouTube, MySpace and Facebook are keys to the plot line. With murder videos and messages being posted on these sites with no way to trace them back to the poster.

Internet is compared with the Roman Colosseum. Now a day you can see all kind of violence on the internet without restrictions. This free and easy exposure to violence is believed to make people less sensible and trigger people with killer instinct who otherwise wouldn’t act on their instincts.

The law on internet is such that it is not possible yet to target the criminals without forfeiting the freedom of knowledge and privacy.

Another topic touched in the book was how now a days everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame. Which is true, people will post anything on YouTube to get attention, reality show are only fueling this trend more. Heck even marriage wreckers give interviews requesting to speak to the wife of marriages they just ruined. Morals are far sought in a large group of the population now a days thanks to internet.

The “love” story

I’m someone who needs characters relationships to be part of a story to keep me interested. The Monkeewrench series created a set of very unique characters with the geeks, especially Grace MacBride who is so traumatized that she always wears riding boots, black clothes and carries two weapons. She lives in a fortress of a home with the latest in security. Then you have Leo Magozzi who had a bad marriage and divorce and not much luck in love.

Yet Grace and Magozzi connect with each other and he gets her to let go of some of her fears. But in Play to Kill we find out that not much has changed and that Garce still keeps him at bay, while Magozzi’s partner Rolseth keeps wishing Magozzi would forget about Grace and move on.

Then the FBI hating Grace somehow without any story line build up connects with FBI agent John Smit. We are led to believe it having to do with Grace fearing she will end up alone like John Smit. Even Magozzi sees there is something there but Roadrunner tells him it’s more of a daughter/father thing.

Meanwhile Maggozi meets FBI profiler Dr Chelsea Thomas, who has the looks, brains and everything. They meet up over work, they connect with each other and have a nice evening. I was hoping the would take this storyline and expand it more but it didn’t go farther.

At the end John Smit who has quit the Agency a few month before retirement asks Grace to join hin on his sailboat to sail around the Caribbean. She doesn’t agree nor deny him. So at the end when Magozzi went to her place I thought they would end in the same situation, so I was surprised Grace chose to join John Smith on the sailboat and leave Magozzi and her crew behind.

It is so unlike Grace MacBride to not only completely flip her lifestyle overnight but to join a FBI agent and leave her trusted circle of friends behind. And I actually felt for poor Leo, always hoping Grace would change and never imagining that a change would not include him.

I hope there will be a sixth book and that we find out more about what happens after with Leo and Grace. Also with the Monkeewrench team as Harley Davidson kept mentioning to John Smith that “someday” there would be a way to spy on all the foreign servers looking for criminals. Seemed like Harley was brewing onto something.

Basically to me it was an open end and I would like to see more to the series.

Shoot to Thrill US release.

Play to Kill UK release.

I’m tired of just using print paper to draw up the database so I went shopping for a note block.

I ended up with the Rhodia Bloc #18, blank A4 pages. I also needed an orange pen for detailing, the only one they had was a Pentel Slicci 0.7mm. I rather have 0.4mm or less but the shop doesn’t has any and like I mentioned in an other entry I can only get good pens online and not in stores here.

I’m happy with the paper quality, I already filled the first one with SQL tables using a black Sharpie pen and some detailing with the Pentel. I’m not a fan of huge note blocks but this is better then having countless of lose A4 papers scattered all around. I’m still resisting the urge to order again at JetPens, buying pens and paper is addicting.

I have a recent photo of me taken by my mom while she was here visiting siting on my computer for almost a month. Now that I have getting used to seeing myself on the photo I decided to put up here. This is a personal weblog and it needs my face on it. That head shot I have on my about page has always been tiny. So here is my most recent photo:

This was taken after a dinner I cooked for my mother, sister and her boyfriend. I made oven baked tenderloin meat with mushroom sauce and oven baked potatoes with garlic and rosemary. First time also the meat came out well with advice from the butcher on how long it should stay in the oven. Everyone enjoyed theirs with a glass of red wine and me with my Cola Light sans caffeine, I have been off caffeine for six months now. No iced tea, only decaf cola light and decaf coffee. The last one being easy I was never a coffee drinker till last year, so drinking it decaf is a non issue.

The next post will be accompanied with a photo also but with me behind the camera…