City of Rocks Trip, Pioneer Day 2015

Over Pioneer Day (July 24th for non-Utans) we packed the family up for the weekend and headed for Idaho. City of Rocks to be precise. The pictures below are shown as small for reading purposes. Click on them to blow them up enlarge them.

We've learned that with three kids we need more stuff and have less room to pack it. We ended up dropping one of the "captain's chairs" and then packing everything around the kids in order to get it to fit. We're already considering a top mounted cargo pod although Angel wants a trailer. Our van doesn't have a hitch but that hasn't stopped Angel from researching how to attach one.

We arrived at the visitor's Center in Almo in time to eat lunch before heading in. We also watched the 15 minute video about the park and I learned a few things. For instance, the cause of the granite formations in the City was a huge uplifting of magma from which the surrounding dirt was eroded away over many, many years. Interestingly enough, a similar event caused the San Rafael Swell in Emery County, Utah. After getting Camp set up near Practice Rock (one of my family's favorite climbing spots) Kanga, Tigger and I when exploring and had some fun while Angel put Roo down for a nap. We got back to a happy boy and some storm clouds building. We were going to do hobo dinners (tinfoil dinners) but the chicken was still frozen solid, so we did a potato and sausage cook up we had planned for Saturday. We were able to cook dinner between smatterings of rain and it everybody loved it. We got cleaned up and into the tent before the real storm hit. The rain was coming down so hard it sounded like hail and the wind was blowing most of the night. It rained off and on throughout the night, but we all stayed dry. We've been considering getting a Springbar Tent but weren't sure what size to get. We asked Mom and Dad if we could borrow their 10'x10' for this trip and were were glad we did. Our regular tent would have let the rain in and would have been chilly and unpleasant. The Springbar was awesome and kept us dry and warm.

The next day we enjoyed a long hike through the City. The weather was perfect in the morning and the kids did great. Even Roo was a good sport. Granted, I was carrying him. Everyone had water and snacks and despite there being a fair amount of up and down everyone did a good job with very little complaining.

Mom, Dad and Babe (my youngest sister) came up that afternoon and we enjoyed chatting with them before roasting hot dogs and making cobbler before the weather started to turn on us. Tigger had been splashing in puddles earlier in the day and so his feet pruned up nicely. Again our borrowed tent kept us dry and warm. The kids were mighty tired after all the running around thy did.

The City has over 600 climbing routes, not to mention bouldering and hiking opportunities. It's not uncommon to look up at a rock and see climber skylined against it as they ascend or rappel down. If you blow up enlarge the pictures below you will be able to see the climbers on the back side of Elephant Rock and Morning Glory Spire (you can read the labels on the sign to identify Morning Glory Spire - the climber is on "Skyline"). Have I ever mentioned how amazed I am by my phone's camera?

Saturday morning we had our chance at climbing. We got Kanga all suited up and she gave it a valiant effort, but in the end decided she wasn't ready to trust the rope. Before anyone can climb they first must trust the rope. I respect her hesitancy (I backed out of my first rappelling opportunity myself) and Angel, Mom, and I made the ascent. Babe belayed Angel and Mom, but didn't want to belay me, so Dad did. The kids ran around and had fun. There were others climbing on the same rock and so lots of good community.

We climbed until lunch at which point Mom, Dad, and Babe headed home and the kids and I went exploring again. We hit Breadloaves and Bath Rock and ended at Window Arch. Angel met up with us there. We coordinated the meet up with radios. Those have come in rather handy since we picked them up. The kids had a lot of fun (as you can tell from the picture at Bath Rock). That night Angel and actually stayed outside playing games until the stars came out. There was still some cloud cover, but no rain. 

Sunday Morning we packed up and headed home. We had a nice Day of Rest, but missed going to church. All in all a very good trip. The kids had a blast playing on the rocks around camp. Tigger had a fine collection of bruises from his hip to his knee from taking various tumbles. He also got bit by an ant which caused him to freak out. I must confess that I was impressed by how willing he was to climb about and on the rocks. Here he is below with his walking stick. While I can't remember what game he was playing I'm calling this picture:

I HAVE THE POWER

Book Review - Trackers, The Untold Story of the Australian Dogs of War by Peter Haran

I've watched a lot of videos by Youtuber Brady Haran. I've also listed to a couple dozen episodes of his podcast with CPG Grey, Hello Internet. In fact in was in one of these podcasts that he talked about going to Vietnam with his father, Peter, to visit some of the places that his father fought in during the Vietnam War. What I found interesting is 1) there were Australian troops in Vietnam (I always thought it was a strictly American war) and 2) Peter was there as a dog handler for a tracking dog. When Brady mentioned that his father had written a book about his experiences, I was intrigued. Trackers is just one of books that Peter Haran wrote that you can find on Amazon. I got the Kindle edition. Peter uses an interesting format for his writing. He provides an overarching narrative separated with short vignettes of interesting occurrences. The writing feels very honest and it's not too hard to keep track of the people involved, even though there are a decent number of them. Overall, it was an enjoyable read that found interesting and informative.

Plot: Fighting during the Vietnam war was characterized by hit and run attacks in the middle of the sweltering jungle. It was not uncommon for the enemy to simply disappear after firing on U.S. or Australian troops. In order to try to eliminate as many enemy fighters as possible tracking dogs were trained and sent over with the troops. Their job was to try to find the enemy so they could be eliminated, or their bases or strongholds destroyed. Peter Haran was an 18 year old soldier who broke the first rule of military service and volunteered for the tracking wing. After going through a year of training with two different dogs he was shipped to Vietnam and spent a year watching the hindquarters of a mutt like his life depended on it, because it did.

My personal favorites: Peter has some fun stories, and not just about trying to hunt down the enemy. His writing is free from graphic violence or descriptions of the horrors of war. He shares many of his emotions, sadness, depression, humor, frustration, anger, and joy. And exhaustion. You can't forget that. It some ways I feel that this book was a very human look at war without the visceral horror that is often used. He is honest about his own feelings and the aftermath of the war, including a rather personal assessment of the psychological scars it left on him. It was hard not to develop a respect for him and his comrade "Diggers" as I read the stories he shared.

Considerations: The only consideration that must be noted is the language in the book. Trackers is a soldier's tale written by a soldier and he is faithful in his record of what was said when. While the narrative is relative clean with only occasionally strong language, there is a lot of very strong language in the accounts of the dialog between the players.

As part of his trip to Vietnam, Brady took his camera (of course) and filmed his father explaining the M-16 "jumping jack" mine as well as retelling one of the stories from the book at the location where it happened. There may be additional videos uploaded in the future, but you can view the two mentioned at this link.

Audible Book Review - The Powder Mage Trilogy by Brain McClellan: Promise of Blood, The Crimson Campaign, & The Autumn Republic

This is what I've been listening to for the last couple of months. I figured that I would review the whole series together so as not to give spoilers with each review. I first heard about this series from Howard Taylor who said,:"I've read several debut novels over the years, most by authors who've gone on to do quite well for themselves, and I can confidently state that Promise of Blood, by Brian McClellan, is the best of them." (A link to his spoiler free review here). That caught my interest and then a good friend of mine mentioned it out of the blue with instructions to read it. Cliff, I've read it, and thanks for the recommendation. I was excited to see them on Audible, as it would make it easier to get and finish. Here is the Audible link for the whole trilogy (because you will want all three). The whole trilogy was narrated by Christian Rodska, the same person who did Mr. Midshipman Hornblower, who did a really, really good job. I grew up with David Eddings and consequently have always considered fantasy of being comprised of heroic warriors, powerful wizards (men and women), Gods (wrathful and benevolent), and battles both big and small. The Powder Mage Trilogy has all of this plus muskets, canon, and intrigue. This is a classic fantasy story set in era of muzzle loaders and it is awesome!

Plot: Field Marshal Tamas is tired of kings who only care about their wealth and power, who bleed the people for pleasure, and who are not loyal to their own country. So he stages a coup and washes the city with the blood of the nobility. But now he has to forge a government and continue to fight the people's battles against enemies. However, it appears that there are enemies among his own ranks. Regardless of the challenges before him, Tamas is hell-bent that this new country and government will survive. And he might just be able to do it.

Inspector Adamat is a man who a perfect memory and a history of getting the job done. Brought in on the recommendation of an old friend, Tamas hires Adamat to discover the meaning of the last words of the slaughtered Royal Cabal's Privileged (powerful sorcerers who worked for the king). This places Adamat in a position of power, the Field Marshal's pet terrier, but it also places him in danger. More important, it places his family in danger.

Nila first learns of the coup when soldiers storm the noble house that she works in as a laundress. Out of love for the noble family's son, she hides him from the soldiers and goes on the run. Scooped up by a royalist faction she finds herself being used by everyone she meets for their own ends. Needless to say, she begins to tire of this and soon learns to fight back.

Taniel Two-Shot, who is rarely seen without the mysterious "savage girl" Kapoel, is a returning war hero who is just in time to enter the fray of Tamas' coup. First, sent after a rouge Privileged, his running battle with his prey destroys whole city blocks before it's resolved. And then he gets an even messier task. Moving from conflict to conflict, ever increasing the notches on his rifle, Taniel and Kapoel go from frying pan to fire and from fire to inferno as they battle every enemy of Adro, ultimately earning the personal attention of a mad god.

My personal favorites: The characters are amazing! The four mentioned above lead the narrative and we get the most from their points of view, but they are only a small part of the whole cast. What's amazing is that, despite the sheer number of people in the story it was fairly easy to follow who was who. I cheered, I mourned, I raged, and I laughed with them. Every POV change was frustrating and yet exciting. The pacing of the story was well done with both introspection and excitement for all the characters. There was drama and intrigue as well as action and humor. I also loved the magic involved. Even though McClellan does not explain much about how it works we understand limitations and abilities and it was just plain cool. What's more, there were at least three different types, not including the various strengths and weaknesses of characters in their receptive magic. The writing clean and very well done with plenty of show and not a lot of boring tell. The whole series was a wild ride through the birth of a republic and the personal strength of the individuals that are trying to make it.

Considerations: There is some strong language, but no "f bombs." The vast majority of curse words were "in world," meaning the words they use related to the world's pantheon and religious beliefs. There was little in the way of sensual material, although there were references to sexual intercourse. There were no gratuitous and few graphic descriptions of violence. I wouldn't have any difficulty referring the trilogy to an older young adult audience. For comparison, with the exception of the occasional strong language I would compare the level of sex and violence to the Sparhawk books by David Eddings.

I think this may be my longest review yet and I could go on about how much I enjoyed the story of the characters involved in forming a nation, but I don't want to spoil anything. The books are great and the narration brought them alive. It would not be unlikely for hardbacks of these books to show up on my bookshelves someday. Promise of Blood was just over 19 hours. The Crimson Campaign was just over 20 hours. And The Autumn Republic was just shy of 19 and a half hours.

Audible Book Review: Legion by Brandon Standerson

Angel and I were able to get a $10 reward credit at the end of April and so I scooped up the first Legion book, since I had already listened to the second one. Once again, Sanderson, the king of epic fantasy, proves that he can write short fiction as well. I hope that he continues to do so, as he does such a good job at it. I would enjoying seeing more of Steven Leeds a.k.a. Legion. Here is a link to Audible's page for the book. It was narrated by Oliver Wyman who is very good.

Plot: Steven Leeds is not many things. He is not a genius. He is not insane. And he is not cheap. Working as a free-lance consultant and problem solver (think corporate detective) he charges a lot for his services because it costs a lot to house several dozen separate aspects of your personality. Again, he is not crazy - his aspects are. When a company comes to him with a case to find a camera that takes pictures of the past he first wants to turn them down, but ends up being drawn into the case. This leads (pun intended) him down a path that will require much from him and his aspects. In fact, he might uncover more questions about himself than he answers.

My personal favorites: I really liked the ending. Since that would be a bit of a spoiler, I'll talk about the other things I liked. All of Leeds' aspects are a lot of fun. I like the way that Sanderson tells Leeds' story so cleanly and incorporating the different personalities of his aspects. I can only imagine what Leeds would be like in person - but I think that's the idea.

Considerations: As per the norm, Sanderson is a clean write and the only thing that would discourage me from reading this from my children would be the understanding necessary to follow along with Leeds' condition. But give my 7 year old a couple of years and she'll be good.

I have yet to read something from Sanderson that I did not like and this keeps with the current trend. It's a great introduction to his writing and a short journey into a pretty cool character's head. The total length was just over two hours.

Studying under the stars

As I'm mentioned, I've had a lot of homework as I was finishing up my capstone project. I usually study in the basement, but with the nice weather I decided to take my studying outside. For my birthday, I got a Yeti 400 from Goal Zero, an impressive unit designed to run mid-sized electronics (laptops, small TVs, CPAP machines, etc.) and which can be charged from solar panels. My father introduced us to Goal Zero last Christmas (and is my supplier) and we've been very pleased with their stuff.

Anyway, there were a couple of nights that I studied on the deck with the yeti powering my set up (laptop, phone, and a small light or two) and it was kind of nice to change things up a bit. However, for my capstone I couldn't study in just a camp chair, I needed more room to lay stuff out. So, twice last week I pulled a folding table and chair out into the back yard and set up underneath our pear tree. a couple of lights hung from the branches and the laptop whirring contentedly and I was good to go. Both nights the weather was fantastic and only the second night had any bugs, but those were easy to deal with. When I was done, I turned the lights off and looked up at the stars. 

I remember giving my dad a bit of a hard time when he went to a scout camp and took his laptop with him. He was one of the organizers and he would have access to a generator, but I still gave him grief. Camping is about getting away from technology. However, the fact that I now have the means to power personal and professional electronics does change my view a bit. I'm looking forward to using electric lights I can recharge during the day in place of propane to play games at night. If I have an assignment due, I can still work on it if I need to. If there is an emergency I can charge my phone or personal radios. Even when not camping, we use our Yetis (we have a 150 and a 400) around the house to power supplement lighting, or the laptop. In an emergency we have light and power, albeit limited. Technology is pretty amazing and I'm thankful for the opportunity to study under the stars.