Book Review: This Is Not A Game by Walter Jon Williams

This was a super quick read. And not a wholly satisfying one. Williams is a well know sci-fi author and was one of the early writers within the “cyberpunk” arena via his novel “Hardwired”.

“This Is Not A Game” (TINAG) is not cyberpunk and barely qualifies as sci-fi. Its time period is the “present” or really the “present” when the book was written in about 2010. At that point many of the gaming and technology concepts may have seemed advanced but have been really outpaced in just the past 10 years. The most prescient parts of the work lie in the realm of government, tech firms, politics, monetary policies, global conflict, and automated/machine learning investment bots coming together as forces for chaos.

The focus of the internal conflict of the work revolves around a firm and its founders who create and run real world “alternate reality games” where real people participate in fictional events occurring in the real world—think “solving puzzles that reveal more information about a larger mystery within drips and drabs of information populated around the globe all leading to a satisfying conclusion”. The real world participants are drawn in and used by the principal characters to solve a real world series of murders and financial mysteries.

Far more a “thriller” than a work of sci-fi the characters are poorly drawn and cliche. The story not all that thrilling—rather than focus on the run of the mill nerds and gamers participating in these issues, I’m far more interested in the Russian mafia, Chinese investors, the private military contractors, and global players causing the downfall of large economies. All of these get short shrift in the work and instead we get the primary characters swimming in hotel pools and having lunch in a diner.

The best parts of the work are the real world action sequences and descriptions and its here Williams should focus. The descriptions of the growing chaos and fall of Jakarta as well as the closing assassination descriptions work best. The “gamer” interactions and internal dialogues which make up the bulk of the work are the weakest.

Feel free to pass.

Why Defeating Russia in Ukraine Carries Second Order Importance

Was reading through a brief article today on NATO pressing South Korea to provide arms to Ukraine in its fight against Russia (https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-nato-urges-south-korea-participation-be006936069bfed0ec4b39491754b333). South Korea? Really??

I mean you can kind of get to the idea of a direct threat to the United States by Russia given its near peer status on the world stage, aggression in Eastern Europe, Syria, Libya, ties with China, general kleptocratic nature, assassinations, Putin’s stated desire to recreate not the USSR but Russia of the mid 19th century, etc. You can make an even greater case as to Russia’s threats to European NATO and prior Russian states like Estonia, Latia, Lithuania, Ukraine, etc. as well as those states in its sphere of influence but tangentially independent (Bulgaria, Hungary, Moldova, etc.) But South Korea? You have to go pretty far to get to a direct threat by Russia to South Korean interests.

So you have all of Europe including the Nordics, Iberia, and much of Eastern Europe as well as the US, Canada, South Korea, Japan, Australia, Israel and others assisting Ukraine militarily and economically. While not a full blown World War…it is a “world war” in all other sense. With other major players (China, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Nigeria, South Africa, Saudi, etc.) largely staying out of it for now, why are we (the US specifically) so concerned with trying to defeat or degrade Russia’s military forces with what appears to be the least amount of blood and treasure (except money—that we can print in endless supply)?

Its not to defeat Russia or to dethrone Putin.

I came to that realization in reading this article here: https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/usaf-general-warns-of-war-with-china-over-taiwan-in-2025

And the real importance of the fight is not being done at the forefront of the minds of those actually pushing Ukraine…you think Biden, Pelosi or the other political apparatchiks in DC know what they are doing? Not hardly. Nor do I think that Miley or Austin have a clue what they are doing. All are too busy figuring out which face diaper to wear and what self flagellating training courses they are going to require of our forces while degrading our military’s ability to be an effective killing machine.

No, the true reason why the conflict takes on the importance it does (drawing in global parties) and requiring a defeat/degradation of Russia is that it would eliminate the prospect of a two front war in the coming and inevitable confrontation with China. Make no mistake, Russia has a plethora or aged men, material, ammo, equipment, etc. but at its heart its Iraq circa 1991 on steroids. A bloated armed force used to getting its way out of its sheer bulk rather than combat effectiveness. Without a centime of modern airpower, artillery, tanks, or virtually heavy weaponry of any kind, Ukraine’s small infantry, small arms based units have obliterated any pretense to Russia as a military power. Now, they still have thousands of men and decrepit tanks and gear they can throw at the battle, and probably will, but every day that goes by, they get weaker, using reserves they can’t afford to lose.

With this in mind, we turn to China…they are growing by leaps and bounds in traditional capabilities—churning out ships at a rate not seen since the US industrialization of WWII, developing near-peer equivalent airframes (though without the engines or pilots the West has), burrowing themselves into Africa and the Pacific islands, mass producing missile salvos and sustaining the largest manned army on earth. They still aren’t quite at the point where they could defeat the US and West 1V1 in a straight up confrontation but they aren’t far either. Advances in AI, quantum computing, drones and other asymmetric efforts could well bring the balance of power even closer.

The West could NOT successfully take on Russia in Eastern Europe and China in the Pacific at the same time and the most important people (Xi, Putin, some at the CIA, some in Congress, some in the military) know this. This is the true nature of the threat posed by Putin. If the West has to tie itself down to supplying mass quantities of arms and men to keep Russia from rolling its arms across its former territories as it has been doing for the past decade and a half in a more slow roll approach, it could never simultaneously take on China’s impending Taiwan takeover, it would fold without a whimper. China isn’t ready to take on the US as of today, its still ramping up production to the point where it wants to be—which is where it was in Korea and Russia during WWII, able to simply overwhelm opposing forces in sheer number-their ships and planes don’t have to be as good as ours…not nearly so, they can just mass produce them at a scale unheard of, but they aren’t there quite yet.

In a few years though? Those air incursions over Taiwan aren’t being done for fun. Preparations for the most difficult operation in any military’s handbook (an amphibious landing against a contested shore) are well underway in China. While China can fill the sea with ships and land thousands of men on Taiwan’s shores…it remains extremely vulnerable to submarine incursions/attack as well as air based counterattacks. The US won’t be sending its carrier fleets in range of China’s land based anti-ship capabilities, but is more than capable of deploying an aircap over the entire Pacific that China can’t match—opening its supply, transport, and any other water based craft required for the invasion at extreme risk…Then if China holds a beachhead? US air and seapower will get an even greater fixed target list incurring a price even China may not wish to pay.

So where does that leave us? Unfortunately, as much as it might be nice to stay out of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and make the Libertarians out there happy (who have never acknowledged that violence and strategic thinking is required if one is going to exist in a violent world—which I always find weird for a group that always claims to want critical/advanced thinking) it would leave the West and specifically the US grossly out of options when it comes to fighting wars on two sides of the planet. For all the yammering coming out of the “generals” and “admirals” in Washington, the US does not anymore possess a true five ocean navy or any capability to fight two major wars at the same time, as is given lip service to in their doctrine.

It must seek to limit what forces are required to contest a peer state to a single theater. It has lots of shiny toys…some of the best toys ever created for the destruction of an opposing force…but the supply of them is limited, its government coffers dwindled, its people indebted, its culture stuck in perpetual adolescence and navel gazing.

So why not throw everything we have (F-35s, full tank divisions, high end ballistics, etc.) against the Russians and defeat them quickly to prepare for China? Wouldn’t it then benefit us to get the Russian conflict over ASAP? Its a very delicate line we are playing with Russia. Here the Libertarians and peaceniks are right. Embattling a nuclear power who still possesses mass reserves of all kinds (note Russia’s submarines have stayed out of it, as has a significant portion of their high end aircraft) and a penchant for asymmetric violence is not something to be taken lightly. Walking that line of supplying Ukraine with sufficient armament to degrade and defeat Russia while not tipping them into full psychotic killers of world ending catastrophes is a difficult proposition. We don’t want to have to expend limited and valuable resources there. Every F-35, or Abrams, or tomahawk lost/expended there is one less for use in the South Pacific (yes, I know the Abrams is highly unlikely to show up in that conflict due to its nature—you get the point). If anything, use of those resources there may accelerate the China conflict as we’d have shown our hand in terms of what side of the globe we were willing to take the gloves off for. China knows our limitations just as much as some of us do.

There is a saying that propagates throughout certain corners of right wing commentary every time a rainbow flag is pushed by the US military, standards reduced, fleet or air wing downsized, project “contested” by lawyers of a competing company, our best soldiers pushed out due to politicization, or CRT theory taught over marksmenship…

“We are going to lose a major war”

That most certainly is true if we fail to defeat Russia before China makes its move. The clock ticks both ways. Which chimes first?

Dakar 2023 Nissan Results

The other day we did the Classic entries, today we’re doing the participants in the primary event. This is much tougher and the real show. Recent years have seen declining numbers of entrants using Nissans but Redlined Motoring has really brought the platform back to being a major player.

Unfortunately a number of Nissan entries that were expected to be present this year, did not show. Given that it appears as if the entire Turkmenistan team of Patrols did not attend and there had been a number of other “Russian-related” teams that did not attend, I suspect there was a bit of a kerfuffle between the ASO and this group which unfortunately resulted in them not participating.

That said…the Nissan results are as follows and are extremely impressive with all four of the Redline built Navara’s crossing the finish with Daniel Schroeder being the foremost among them. Despite this being one of the older Navara’s produced by Redline, Schroeder has lots of prior experience with this being his 7th Dakar and second behind the wheel and finishing 36th last year. In three prior Dakar’s he was codriver for his father and also has two Dakar finishes on a bike in 2011 and 2012.

#235 Daniel Schroeder, Nissan Navara VK50—56th of 123

#245 Thomas Bell, Nissan Navara VK56—72nd of 123

#249 Mohamad Altwijri, Nissan Navara—DNS

#259 Ibrahim Almuhna, Nissan Patrol—DNF on Stage 6

#263 Ronald Van Loon, Nissan Navara VK50—106th of 123

#266 Dave Klaassen, Nissan Navara VK56—80th of 123

#271 Gurbanberdi Danatarow, Nissan Patrol—DNS

#272 Hydyrberdi Abdurahmanov, Nissan Patrol—DNS

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Dakar 2023 Classic Nissan Results

For both the main show as well as the Classic entrants, 2023 was a solid event for Nissan based platforms. The lead story is that of the South African built Navaras which went four for four in finishers showing excellent reliability and speed. They aren’t likely to compete with the Gazoo Hilux machines but as an option for competitors looking to run well but not at a factory backed level, these Redlined Motorsport creations (whether powered by the VK50 or VK56) will be tempting options.

We’ll start in the Classic entries where there were 13 Nissan based entries and all 13 finished. The Classic entries saw an 11% DNF rate so not nearly as hard as the main race but seeing all 13 across the finish is still really solid for platforms that are 30 years old. Future Classic editions should continue to see old Nissan’s brought forth for use given the prevalence of Nissans at the pointy end of the field in the late 90s, early ‘00s.

#722 Valentina Casella, Nissan Pathfinder—17th of 80 finishers

#729 Gian Paolo Tobia Cavagna, Nissan Patrol GR—27th of 80

#748 Luis Pedrals Marot, Nissan Patrol K260—48th of 80

#749 Radek Vara, Nissan Patrol GRY60—58th of 80

#750 Urbano Alfonso Gherardo Clerici, Nissan Terrano (Pathfinder)—50th of 80

#754 Francisco Javier Benavente, Nissan Terrano (Pathfinder)—24th of 80

#757 Jean-Christophe Moine, Nissan Patrol Y60—14th of 80

#767 Gian Enrico Duetschler, Nissan Terrano 2 (Pathfinder)—31st of 80

#773 Luis Barbero Garcia, Nissan Patrol 260—23rd of 80

#790 Riccardo Garosci, Nissan Teranno 2 (Pathfinder)—4th of 80

#792 Franco Majno, Nissan Terrano (Pathfinder)—61st of 80

#796 Adriano Furlotti, Nissan Terrano (Pathfinder)—47th of 80

#806 Peter Schey, Nissan Terrano (Pathfinder)—28th of 80

Book Review: No Way Down

Well, they can’t all be winners. Despite all the superlatives on the front and back cover claiming that this work was the equivalent of a new “Into Thin Air” which recapped a first hand perspective of a climbing disaster on Everest about 15 years before the events taking place in this book, its really not even close.

The largest issue here is that the author was not present on K2 during these events as Jon Krakauer was on Everest. Nor is the author here in Graham Bowley, an actual climber. Both factors result in a very dry work. This is a newspaper recap of events gathered second hand from interviews weeks and months after the event. Bowley doesn’t know the difficulties of operating at altitude, the cold and wind of the high peaks, the gasping for breath in thin air, the smell of yak dung fires or the taste of warm goat milk.

The whole work comes off very antiseptic. That doesn’t mean the work is incorrect or wrong. It may very well have recapped the order of events and described disputed decisions appropriately. It just doesn’t carry the emotion and rawness of being there the way “Into Thin Air” does. Further, while Krakauer has an obvious skill at “investigatory” writing—deeply researching a topic, covering events, drawing reasonable conclusions as he has done over and over in his writing career (see “Into the Wild”, “Under the Banner of Heaven”, “Where Men Win Glory”, etc.) Bowley doesn’t have that. It certainly doesn’t feel like he has a deep understanding of the history of K2 and its climbers or feel like he knows what its like to travel from Lahore to K2 basecamp. Instead it comes across as he has been airdropped into the events to cover them at a superficial level providing the who, what, where, when (but not the why) of the events. That he does. Its simply doesn’t carry the emotion or interest that such events in the hands of a more capable writer would bring.

Book Review: The Naked Warriors

This was an old book of my father’s gifted to him back upon its issuance in 1956. The above photo is of a later version than the one I possess. The first edition of these are actually a bit of a collector’s item in the military world going for $50 and up if it is in decent shape.

The core of the work regards the formation and early missions of the Navy teams that would eventually be dubbed “SEALs” but when created were UDT or Underwater Demolition Teams. Covering their creation in the middle of WWII it is interesting to see the start of what would become the world’s foremost kinetic operators. The original UDT efforts were decidedly not offensive in nature. Their tasks throughout all of WWII and into Korea were exclusively related to reconnaissance and obstacle destruction in preparation for amphibious landings. From North Africa to Normandy and particularly the Pacific, UDT teams blew up tank traps, determined water depths, cleared shipwrecks, located mines and so on. The title of the book “Naked Warriors” derives from the fact these teams were essentially unarmed. In fact they often were scolded when they became overzealous in joining the Marines or Army ashore and taking action to the enemy—quite a different role from how the SEALs are viewed today.

The book itself is a good primer or recap of that development and early operational history of these UDTs in a chronological order. So it makes a great reference book for research and the history of this area of Navy operations. The book is quite dry however. It includes a few anecdotes and comments on the characters who play various roles in the actions covered but it is not a narrative of any sort. Its more a collection of “The UDT teams were formed here…they first were seeing action here…then this other team was over there…then a commander thought they would succeed here”. As a historical record? Excellent and one that records the important deeds and actions of exceptionally brave men. So, its essentially a great synopsis of after action reporting. A work of art or crafted word it is not. Keep it on your shelf for reference, not for pleasure.

TV Review: Rogue Heroes

This one one of 2022’s revelations that likely saw few viewers in the US (comparatively). Right in my sweet spot of shows I am bound to like, Rogue Heroes checked all the boxes.

British? Yup.

Historical? Yup

Based on reality? Yup

Military? Yup

Fantastic actors? Yup

Beautiful landscapes? Yup

I mean what is not to love. You have the formation of one of the world’s tier 1 special forces group in the desert of WWII played out by Jack O’Connell, Alfie Allen, and Conor Swindell with support from Dominic West. O’Connell is the brightest of these lights and builds upon his fantastic work in another lesser seen BBC work, also in ‘22 and that I greatly enjoyed (The North Water).

While The North Water was a decidedly cold and icy adventure, Rogue Heroes is based in the deserts of North Africa and filled with familiar locales—Cairo, Benghazi, etc. while the color palate used by the film makers is just right in its washed out, tan, tendencies. You can feel the grit finding its way into every crevice of the human body in these scenes.

Here O’Connell is playing Paddy Mayne and while he is of lesser rank than Allen and Swindell’s characters it is clear from the start where the audience’s interest will lie. He owns every scene and Paddy Mayne lends his legends to military iconoclasts who did it their way to the aggravation of their peers and commanders but looked fondly on by the victories they gained.

Based upon the book of the same name by Ben MacIntyre (which I will now have to read) it is “factual” in as much as any TV show can be but the real story is so fantastic (Really? Raiding the New Zealanders for equipment and food because the high command won’t provide you supplies? Yup…true…) It shows the life and death decisions made under extreme duress and those fateful days where the free Western world hung in the balance and only a few hard men stood in the way of true evil. No one is imagined as perfect, good men die, questionable deeds are performed…its reality.

A great work of TV and one worth anyone’s time. Season two is supposedly in the works and will focus on the SAS efforts in Italy and Europe in general as WWII progressed. This isn’t a documentary intended to enlighten you to the material, tactics, or strategy of war. Nor is it supposed to be encyclopedic of its retelling of the SAS origins. Its just a fun and emotional tale of individuals making their own mark on history.

Book Review: The Passenger by Cormac McCarthy

Ultimately to be viewed as a lesser work by one of America’s greatest authors The Passenger still stands light years ahead of most works of fiction.

The Passenger carries all of the usual quirks of a McCarthy novel—the lack of punctuation, lack of separation between speakers, a use of vocabulary that is stunning in its depth and breadth, deeply philosophical discussions regarding our place in the universe, and so on. Its all here for McCarthy fans who are unlikely to be disappointed in anything he produces.

Count me among McCarthy fans and The Passenger will be a work that stays with me for a long time as well as will be referring back to and rereading. It is not a complete work though. Having worked on The Passenger on and off since the 1970s I would have expected a more fully formed set of characters and coherent narrative. Instead the work is largely a channel through which McCarthy is able to discuss topics he is interested in since his residence at the Santa Fe Institute and his long term interest in the hard sciences of physics and advanced mathematics.

The primary character in Bobby Western may be a salvage diver, a former race car driver, and son of Manhattan Project scientist but he’s really a shell of McCarthy’s personal interests in the hard sciences while all activity that swirls around Western in the course of the novel does not serve in moving a narrative forward, it merely services as random encounters that allow for exposition on the physics topics McCarthy wants to discuss and what these topics mean for how we view our (and really how McCarthy views) existence.

All of which can be very interesting (and it is), can scramble your brain in terms of implications (it does), and create beautiful turns of phrase on par with any crafter of the written word ever. What it doesn’t do is create a true story like McCarthy’s other works. There is no question as to the “story” that lies at the heart of works like Blood Meridian or any of the Border Trilogy works. There are core characters that have a life you can touch and feel…you know their place in the world and how they interact with it. Here, Bobby Western is a passive creation upon which events occur rather than one who drives the action or events. Its a very different creation than the father in The Road, John Grady Cole from All the Pretty Horses, or Anton Chigurh in No Country for Old Men. And overall it is less satisfying—just not less interesting, mind altering, or likely to drive a review of how you see the world. McCarthy’s best works do this within a narrative and characters that the reader finds value in and long term attachment to and this one doesn’t get there alongside his Tier 1 works.

Nissan Based Entries In The 2023 Dakar

Well, the other day we posted the Nissan Classic entries in the 2023 Dakar, now we move to those who will be partaking in the big show. While in recent years the number of Nissan entries was very small—I hoped sometimes to find even a single Nissan entry it seemed—this year we are up to eight Nissans. The driver behind this increase has been the stellar efforts of Redline Motoring out of South Africa who keeps churning out VK powered platforms to buyers across the globe as well as a multi-car effort out of Turkmenistan. None of these are going to be competing for the top rungs by any stretch but it will be great news if a few of them get to the finish!

• #235 Nissan Navara (Frontier) VK50 Daniel Schroder

• #245 Nissan Navara (Frontier) VK56 Thomas Bell

• #249 Nissan Navara (Frontier) Mohamad Altwijri

• #259 Nissan Patrol Ibrahim Almuhna

• #263 Nissan Navara (Frontier) VK50 Ronald Van Loon

• #266 Nissan Navara (Frontier) VK56 Dave Klaassen

• #271 Nissan Patrol Gurbanberdi Danatarow

• #272 Nissan Patrol Hydyrberdi Abdurahmanov

Nissan Based Classic Dakar Entries...

Lets face it…Nissan has always been an “also ran” in the Dakar…coming close a few times but never taking the top spot in the world’s best endurance race. That said…with the opening of the Dakar Classic category the last few years it has brought out some cool vehicles from mothballs and I like to track them and see pictures of them. So here with the official release of the Dakar ‘23 entry lists we can see what we have for this edition. They’ll be up against the usual range of Mitsubishi Pajeros, Landcruisers, Fiat Pandas, Rothsport Porsches, etc. but are represented in surprisingly good numbers with many coming from the Italian firm of Tecnosport who is sending a whole range of Nissans over for the Dakar Classic as you can see in the car hauler picture at the bottom…So without further delay, here are your Nissan based Dakar Classic entries for 2023 and a few photos of the vehicles.

• Team # 722 Nissan Pathfinder Valentina Casella

• Team #729 Nissan Patrol GR Y61 Gian Paolo Tobia Cavagna

• Team #748 Nissan Patrol K260 Luis Pedrals Marot

• Team #749 Nissan Patrol GR Y60 Radek Vavra

• Team #750 Nissan Terrano (Pathfinder) Urbano Alfonso Gherardo Clerici

• Team #754 Nissan Terrano (Pathfinder) Francisco Javier Benavente

• Team #757 Nissan Patrol Y60 Jean-Christophe Moine

• Team #767 Nissan Terrano 2 (Pathfinder) Dutschler Gian Enrico

• Team #773 Nissan Patrol 260 Asier Duarte Rodriguez

• Team #790 Nissan Terrano 2 (Pathfinder) Garosci Riccardo

• Team #792 Nissan Terrano (Pathfinder) Lorenzo Piolini

• Team #796 Nissan Terrano (Pathfinder)

• Team #806 Nissan Terrano (Pathfinder) Peter Schey

Book Review: The Quiet American by Graham Greene

This was a huge treat. After slogging through The Secret Agent by Conrad this was an amazing read along the same line of topic.

Instead of a secret Russia agent in late 1800s London, we have a CIA operative in 1950’s Vietnam. Other than those similarities, there is little comparison. While Conrad and the Agent are slow moving to the point of boredom and the language therein is overly filled with adjectives and extraneous descriptions, Greene and American are clear and concise. Greene realizes that there is much value in what is unsaid as there is what is said.

American is built as a triangle between a Vietnamese woman who is looking for the best benefactor possible, the aforementioned American CIA operative, and a crusty British journalist. The characters make for obvious allegories between the third world, old world imperialism, and new world American hegemony. Greene has his clear biases in portraying the American as an ignorant, blundering—even if well meaning—force that is book read but reality blind. Americans crashing about, causing unplanned damage through the unintended but foreseeable consequences of their actions is a recurring theme throughout the second half of the 20th century but seeing it called out so clearly in the mid 1950’s is stunning. Greene is an incredible observer of international politics and national character. I don’t necessarily agree with the conclusions he comes to through his proxy-character of the English reporter (who is given his own faults—adulterer, coward, drug addict) but damn if he isn’t good at his observations.

Seeing forecasts of the coming Vietnam war through this work (that Greene did not know but certainly guessed at) is brilliant while his portrayal of the use of a third force and insurgent campaigns carries parallels to major US conflicts to come including Afghanistan and Iraq and hearing critiques made regarding mistakes made 70 years ago that still haven’t been learned means this should be required reading for any individual interested in military conflict and the repercussions of seemingly well meaning actions of major world powers monkeying around in locales where they haven’t been welcomed. Just a wicked tourdeforce in this book. Couldn’t place this book higher in my pantheon of readable, enjoyable, brilliantly crafted written works.

Quite Interesting...

Well…here is a sneak peek at one of the most exciting and pleasing aspect of the new build…but also one of the least important.

Liveries do nothing for speed, safety, or performance (despite all those 20+ HP for that sticker jokes!) but they do make the vehicle “yours” and distinct from all others. I mean, who wants yet another blue Subaru? I’m also not a “professional” racer so there is nothing to be done with the livery that will financially support the effort so it can be a blank slate to do what I want. Hell…I may even put fake sponsors on the vehicle to make it look the way I want.

Here I worked with Serra Graph https://www.facebook.com/SerraGraph/ who has worked quite often with a number of American teams including Racing for Heroes that provided a solid recommendation. We’ll be wrapping the whole vehicle to give it a uniform look and a bit of paint protection as well. They have been super responsive and easy to work with in making modifications to the design as I wanted. The wrap wouldn’t go on the vehicle for a long time yet but check one more item off the list as the basic design is now done. Just a hint of it here that does include the look of the Braid wheels as well…Any more would give away the whole thing.

Mildly Interesting...

So here is a small item that I had to install after my original build on the old rally truck. A map light from Hella. The number of night stages in rally these days are fairly minimal at this point but its still nice to have a direct light on your page notes and directions when you need it without having to breakout and hold a wobbly flashlight. It comes with a red lens as well so as not to ruin nightvison—which I definitely need at this point given how bad my old man eyes are going. It will attach to the ceiling and bend down on its flexible line to wherever the co-driver needs it and is hard wired into the vehicle. Just another widget to move the project forward. A few more weeks before the car heads off for its build to put all these parts to work together…

Music Review: The Car by the Arctic Monkeys

Given this is the first music review I’ve put on here should let you know how strong I feel about this one. Music is even more intensely “personal” than film and narrative and my likes and dislikes are generally so niche that I don’t feel like addressing them with anyone.

This though? Felt strongly enough to put it down. For the first time in my life I have actually bought a musical issuance and deleted it. Thing is, i like the Arctic Monkeys…or “liked” as it were. They were kinda garage rock like when they first came out a decade and a half ago. Their music was raw, clean, aggressive, fun, British…very different than whatever rock was being played at that point in time. They were brash enough to carry real rock swagger with a touch of “dangerousness” to it. They were loud and didn’t particularly care if they were liked or no. A bit of Oasis, a bit of the Stones with a AC/DC.

So it was I went to purchase this album. Wow…written by the Monkeys’ “leader” Alex Turner the work is utterly and entirely garbage. Of course the “critics” loved it…old white guys left in print media are an unsurprisingly fawning audience as they refuse to be critical of any of their favorite idols…and certainly the Monkeys were once a favorite of those same journalistic hacks. Cited similarities to this work include those by Burt Bacharach. That’s not far off…you want boring elevator music to be lobotomized by? This is it. There is a real drum line or guitar work to be found here. Its snoreworthy crooning with repeating beats and rhythms. Its almost impossible to tell one song from another. You want to be a jazzy, old school, singer? Great…be Sinatra. This is what happens when a lead singer becomes so self involved he has no idea what got him where he is and thinks he provides value in self indulgent noodling. Just another example of the death of anything resembling rock in popular music.

Book Review: The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad

Now there is a disappointment.

Conrad is one of those authors you are supposed to read and adore. He’s also right up my alley with works on international intrigue, world exploration, and the like. I’d dipped into Heart of Darkness n the past and never finished it when younger.

Here it was recommended to read The Secret Agent as a work covering late 19th century London full of anarchists, socialists, scheming Russians, terrorist plots, and so on. All of which makes it very relevant to our current world. The work also had been turned into a film in 1942 by Alfred Hitchcock that I had watched recently and GREATLY enjoyed, retitled as Sabotage and contains some much improved plot elements as well as reduced cast of characters. .

Unfortunately, this is the rare case where the film is much better than the written word. While Hitchcock’s work is tight and focused and moves with purpose (not shocking given the director) Conrad’s work is intensely wordy and drags for 300+ pages. Conrad writes as if he is paid by the word and brevity is not a skill of his shown here. Characters are introduced and dropped without resolution (see the Chief Inspector as an example) and overall concluding actions are immensely dissatisfying.

Now. the book isn’t without merit. There are a number of one liners here describing the hypocrisy of communism/socialism and its adherents as well as their anarchist supporters are fantastic and appropriately scathing. There is not a member of London’s counter culture that comes out looking well—depraved, basic, ignorant and nihilistic are the common depictions and Conrad pull no punches or uses any “greys” in his coloring.

Its unfortunate then that you can flip the book open to any page and find a sentence like this “The walls of the houses were wet, the mud of the roadway glistened with an effect of phosphorescence, and when he emerged into the Strand out of a narrow street by the side of Charing Cross Station the genius of the locality assimilated him". Its just…too….much….A reader loses the thread about 20 syllables into the sentence and you forget where you even started the thought. So much more could be accomplished with so less.

Hitchcock knew this. Go watch the film. Ignore the book.

Book Review: Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys

This short sci-fi novel was a bit of a surprise. I didn’t know the author or anything about it coming in. The work did see nominations for awards in its genre when published in 1961 and has been included in whatever is the “Science Fiction Hall of Fame” collections but I was not familiar with it.

That said, what a fantastic little piece of writing. Its really only “sci-fi” in the sense that some of the story takes place on the moon and there is essentially a “matter transmitter” device at the heart of the action, facilitating the core focus of the work.

Its far more a discussion of what makes humans, human. What is the nature of our consciousness? What makes someone, “them”, and not someone else? What are we driven by? A fear of death? A need for power? The need to be desirable? What is it that we leave behind when we are gone?

These large existential questions are the core of what Budrys is getting after in placing his central characters tasked with handling the idea of human doppelgangers destined to die over and over again in search of answers surrounding an unknown object on the moon. The fact that this object is never detailed or resolved in any manner by the end of the book tells you all you need to know about where the true nature of the book lies. Its far more interested in exploring inside ourselves and trying to resolve much bigger questions than just another alien artifact.

Its a great piece and well worth your time. If you are looking for answers on what comes after death, what the nature of our existence is…Rogue Moon won’t provide you any answers…but it will get you asking the right questions.

Interesting...

Oooo…now here is a set of parts that may not be easily recognizable…

These are bushings and supports for the vehicle’s drivetrain. A known weakpoint for this vehicle we are upgrading it to start to hopefully eliminate some early teething problems. There will undoubtedly be issues but at least we are trying to get ahead of some of them. In truth I have a feeling I’m going to drive this vehicle pretty gingerly compared to my prior rally truck which was just a point and go setup without care for rocks, dips, ruts or pretty much anything else. This won’t be that…hopefully we can hold it together by upgrading certain key areas…This being one of them.

Interesting...

Here we have a “cool” item I’ve always wanted and didn’t have on my old rally vehicle…a quick disconnect steering wheel attachment! In the old truck it wasn’t really necessary and my steering wheel was hard connected but didn’t interfere with getting in and out of the vehicle given there was so much room in the truck. I always wanted to be one of the cool kids in taking my steering wheel off and placing it on the dash and now I get to do that! Also needed an adapter which is pictured here as well. Can’t remember if there are more items in the mail but we’ll see!

Interesting...

Well, parts continue to arrive. Today it was the replacement urethane motor mounts. These will stiffen up the front end and scrap the stock ones, hopefully preventing an early failure. Good to have in place and cheap insurance.

Interesting...

So another part in today…and honestly…there are a ton more that are coming in during the next week but most of them are going direct to the builder’s location so I don’t have to bring them with me when I drop the vehicle off for its cage and build.

This here is just a high flow fuel pump (who would have guessed) that is standard for this build so that we know that there is a brand new one in there since there will be an anti-starvation device going in as well. Might as well make sure its all new on such a key and cheap item…Never had a starvation problem in my prior vehicle whether it was with the stock fuel system or the fuel cell…but if this is what it needs, then this is what it needs…