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.

Father's Day tradition

Last year, I decided that for a gift I would give myself time with my kids. As we went to the zoo last year, I decided to take them to the Living Planet Aquarium. Sharadee took the day off as well and joined us and we had a lot of fun.

Tigger liked the sea turtles more than the Caimans in this tank. He had a lot of fun running after his sister.

"I've got my eye on you!" Kanga at the other side of the Caiman tank

They both thought the shark tunnel and tank were pretty awesome, but I couldn't get a good picture of both of them. They kept screwing around. Dang kids!!

Roo (living up to his pseudonym) waved at all the fish from Angels' front pack. He was fearless and adorable.

What is not shown is that this megalodon jaws was sponsored by  a dental office. I like the kids' faces in this one.

Kanga had no problem with this. Tigger didn't think he would have a problem but then did. Not surprising.

I love getting out with my family and we had a lot of fun looking at all the fish and animals. The last time we went they were in a remodeled supermarket, which they did great things with. Now, they have their own building that is, for lack of a better term, awesome. They have expanded and had a lot of cool areas including local fish and animals. There were some good activities including a 4D short movie. Roo didn't like getting sprayed in the face with water, but he was very curious about the giant moving pictures, even if they were out focus (he wouldn't wear the glasses). We had dinner at Firehouse Pizzeria and enjoyed a nice evening.

In addition taking the kids to the aquarium Angel also got me two gifts. She had been holding onto one of them for about six months apparently - an extended battery for my phone. The other was the complete America's Test Kitchen cookbook. I've already made cream cheese brownies and sugar cookies from it and found both really good.

For another year I am very happy to be a dad and I love me three children very much. It's exciting and terrifying to see them growing up.

They did some worksheets at church this year and they were as enjoyable as last year.

Kanga:

My Dad is _31_ years old. (plus or minus a year)
My dad is really strong, he can lift a _10 pound baby_. (Roo is getting bigger, so I might be able to life a 15 pound baby soon.)
My dad's favorite color is _red & yellow_ (although it looks like she wrote "red 8, yellow," like the dye).
My dad's favorite food is _lasagna _. (and she spelled it "lavonua." Wish I could say I spell it better.)
My dad always says, "_do you know I love you_", (She usually answers "yes")

My dad is the best at _everything_. (Shhhhhh. Don't tell her the truth.)
My dad's job is _answering questions_. (Yup, she know my job.)
My dad laughs when _my baby brother laughs_. (It's hard not to.)
If my dad had time, he would love to _eat a lot of lasagna_. (Can't say no to that.)
My dad and I like to _work in the garden_. (I don't know where that comes from.)
My dad really loves _my mom_. (NAILED IT!!!!!!)
I LOVE my dad because _he makes the best pizza_. (I make the crusts while they pick the toppings.)

Tigger:

My dad is _5_ years old. (Plus or minus 27 years.)
My dad is really strong, he could life a _house_. (I've been working out, but not Mr. Incredible style).
My dad's favorite color is _red_. (Yup).
My dad's favorite food is _everything_. (or at least almost everything.)
My dad always says "_Boo!_" (I think you're projecting, little boy.)
My dad is the best at _ making everything in his cookbook_ (the one that I got as a gift.)
My dad's job is _to fix things_. (Sometimes I fix things for people, but not in the way he may be thinking.)
My dad laughs when _he says "Boo!"_. (Only when it works.)
If my dad had time, he would love to _play some cars with me_. (That would be really nice, Tigger).
My dad and I like to _play cars_. (I didn't know we did it that often, but I apparently need to do it more).
My dad really loves _cars_. (Okay, Tigger. I get the message. We'll play more cars.)
I love my dad because _he putted my hinges on_. (I took his door off the hinges because he slammed it so much. That morning I had put it back on for him. For the record, he hasn't slammed it again.)

It's fun to see me through my kid's eyes. I'm not sure I want to see what they say in ten years.

Tis done!

Last night I submitted my capstone project for my Master's program. It may not have been a thesis, but it was a challenge. I'm finishing my last class, which looks like it ends at the end of July, and then I'll be done. That is assuming that everything is satisfactory.

This project was really stressful for me. I had less than a month to complete it, which is a fair amount of time. The difficulty arose when I started working on one of the choices and couldn't figure out how to do it. I knew what I needed to do but just couldn't conceptualize it. I contacted my advisor after a week and a half of trying to figure it out and while I got the answers I needed, he mentioned that the time might be too short to continue that option and suggested doing the case study review. I didn't really want to do the case study review, but I conceded that it would be easier to plan.

I must have been really bad at reading instructions because I didn't see that each case study review (we had to choose three) could only be 1200 words (about two single spaced pages). My response to the first case study was over 1800 words and my second was 1600. Luckily I read the instruction again before starting on the third, so that on is closer to 1000. It didn't take long to cut the other two back to just under 1200 by chopping a couple of paragraphs and cleaning up the others. In the long run it was good. I finished up the other components of the project Monday night and spent last night just doing a final proofreading before sending it off a day early.

I will gladly and willingly acknowledge divine intervention in this case. A week and a half before the deadline I was stressed beyond breaking. At one point I was hyperventilating so bad that my fingers went numb. I just felt like I was getting pulled so many directions (I had a big project due in my class, was trying to give my family the time they needed, and was feeling pressured in my church responsibilities. Angel helped me calm down and reminded me that I had her full support. I couldn't have done this without my wife. I also took it to the Lord in prayer. I can attest that every time I started my nightly work with a prayer I was able to focus better, remember resources, and was generally vastly more productive than when I didn't. As my mother always taught me, "Pray like it's all up to the Lord than work as if it's all up to you." It works. This capstone project is proof. Ten days ago I was a wreck and was considering taking off work in order to finish it. Last night, I watched Ocean's 11 with my wife a still had time to play a game before bed after submitting it.

And the greatest blessing in regards to my Master's. No student debt. Never let it be said that God is not mindful of his children.

Crazy three weeks

Tomorrow my final capstone paper for my masters is due. Needless to say the last three weeks have been a little crazy. I'm happy to say that I finished the paper last night, despite what I thought would happen last week, and will be proofreading and submitting it tonight. This will free up my time so I hope to return to my blogs (and finish my last class).

I do have two books that I've listened to and need to review, but I've decided to wait until I finish the third book (I'll be getting it on the 26th). That way I'll be able to review the series and not worry about giving spoilers. I'm currently listening to The Three Musketeers and enjoying it quite a it. However, I'm not quite half way through and almost everything that usually happens in the movies has already occurred, so I'm excited to see how it will go.

Father's Day was good. I got a new battery for my phone and a new cookbook - America's Test Kitchen's complete cookbook. I'm very excited. I've already made cream cheese brownies and they were GOOD!!! I need to find some more recipes to make. I'll be uploading some pictures of the worksheets the kids did at church that talk about how awesome I am. Last year's were great and this year just about keep up.