Tilt-A-Whirl

Book Notes

I have had this book in my to-read pile for-ev-var. And a day. I think it might have been one of the first books that Mom put on my list, actually.

The book is the first of a series of (currently) eight books about John Ceepak, a war veteran turned cop / detective in a small seaside town, and the murder of a local billionaire. I've had the book long enough that only the first two Ceepak books are listed in the book.

In this book, the local billionaire murder was witnessed by his thirteen year old daughter. The two of them were on the local amusement park Tilt-A-Whirl, hence the title, with the crazy, local, beach bum, stoned guy being the clear suspect.

Except this Ceepak guy has a code, and that's no lying and don't tolerate those who do lie. And so, as Ceepak works with Danny Boyle, the local just-out-of-school, part-time cop, he works through the clues and hints of the murder.

The book has enough twists to be interesting. The Ceepak Code means all of Ceepak's statements are the truth, but the truth has many viewpoints when you can't see all the details. I enjoyed the book. Unsure if I'm going to read the rest of the Ceepak books, but this one was cute.

Night School

Book Notes

Reacha!

Okay, the latest in the Jack Reacher series, this one is a throw back to the mid-nineties, a filler story in the Reacher history. A great thing about this book is that we learn about Reacher, but we also learn about Neagley, which is also a great thing.

The basic plot of the book is that the various intelligence agencies hear about a $100,000,000 deal, want to know what it is, and, realistically, stop it as anything that big being done in secret is going to be bad news. Not knowing the item for sale makes tracking the deal difficult.

What I like about the book is that Reacher doesn't follow a straight path. He misses the bad guy left and right, walking right by, seeing and not seeing him. Of course, Reacher gets the girl. I know, shock.

What I didn't like about the book is this complete and utter bunk "science" that Child tries to pass off:

And best of all, the linear measurement between the bruises on the victim’s buttocks and on her elbows was self-evidently the precise distance between the sharp base of the assailant’s pelvic girdle and his kneecaps. Which after standard deductions for the joints in question gave the precise length of his femur. And the length of the femur was considered an infallible guide to a person’s height.

"And the length of the femur was considered an infallible guide to a person’s height." What a bunch of bullshit. I have a femur right here that you can't tell my height from. Hell, if you use that femur, I am 5' tall, and you'd be off by a lot.

Counter balancing this horrible "science" fiction was Child's commentary about patriotism:

Morning Walk

Blog

I went for a morning walk this morning, as I do most mornings. Today's walk felt great, as my legs were sore from yesterday's run in the delicious, "I exercised beyond my normal bounds" sort of ache. I love that feeling of muscle soreness. I believe I'm odd in that delight.

During the walk, I noticed an odd noise I couldn't place coming through my earphones. I took them out and listened. After a few moments, I realized, I could hear screaming. In particular, I could hear an adult male screaming words, children crying "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" and an adult woman yelling incoherently.

I started walking towards the sounds, curious if I would be able to both figure out which house and understand the words being said. As I approached the sounds, the yelling and screaming stopped. I couldn't figure out which house the sounds were coming from, despite narrowing it down to four houses, two on the street I was on, and two on the next street over.

5k

Blog

I ran a 5k today.

While I've been walking 10k steps pretty much every day for the last I don't know how long, I haven't been doing any aerobic exercise to speak of. The occasional five sets of 200 jumprope jumps in a row, while intense, aren't really consistent enough to "count" as aerobic. Hard, yes. Aerobic, yes. Long enough timewise to matter? I'm unsure.

And the deconstructed burpees? Yeah, those are all slow paced.

Well, don't do this.

Blog

For the record, don't use a ceramic knife on a glass pie plate to cut pie.

Just saying.

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