Various and Sundry

There’s a lot going on here, so I’ll keep from any attempt at a long, profound post.

Here’s the highlights reel from the last few days:

1. Finally saw “Stranger Things,” and found it almost as good as I’d been promised it would be. Those actors were fantastic, and the pacing and script were excellent. Highly recommended — unless you work with traumatized kids, in which case maybe not. I deliberately had kept from learning anything about the plot, so wasn’t able to forewarn my wife, who was having some tough times by the end of episode three.

2. I read, nay, devoured Peadar O’Guilin’s The Call, and hope to talk about this excellent YA book in detail in the near future, and to interview Peadar over at Black Gate soon.

3. I’ve been reading/playing a book that’s a little like one of those old “choose your own adventure” books and a little like a programmed adventure and I’m enjoying it. The book in question is The Legion of Shadow by Michael Ward. I hear the second one’s even better, so I’m going to hold off final comments until I get to that one, or at least get further in THIS one.

4. Whilst organizing the basement I apparently dislocated a toe. I wasn’t aware of exactly what I’d done when it happened — all I knew was sudden pain when I tried to put weight on my foot. Some 45 minutes later, after icing, while flexing and trying to decide why my toe wouldn’t move right, there was a loud pop, and suddenly I had full mobility once more. So, bad, but then good. I was afraid I’d broken my toe and would have to skip out of my test for second degree black belt Tuesday. As I’ve been looking forward to that happening for two years, I was understandably concerned. Also, the not being able to walk without limping thing wasn’t fun.