Movie Review: Alien: Romulus (2024)

Alien: Romulus (2024) co-written and directed by Fede Alvarez

A group of young adults decides to leave the mining colony because they have no future prospects other than dying in the mines. The Weyland-Yutani Corporation runs the planet and never lets anyone out of their contracts. The group spots a derelict space craft in a reachable orbit. Their only chance to infiltrate the spacecraft is Rain's (Cailee Spaeny) "brother," a Weyland-Yutani android called Andy (David Jonsson). With his corporate tech, he can access the ship's systems and take out the cryochambers. With those, they could make the nine-year interstellar flight to the closest free planet. Rain is a bit reluctant but goes along, especially since Andy was programmed by her dead father to do whatever is best for her. When they get to the ship, they find it's really a derelict space station that harbors scientific experiments that turned it into a derelict (though they don't recognize the danger right away). So bad things are on board, things that wake up once they dial up the internal thermostat to a livable temperature.

This movie is a throw back to the original Alien movie. It is a haunted-house thriller in space. This movie uses the same visual aesthetic, a future that's a bit grubby and uncomfortable. Nearly fifty years later, the special effects are more gruesome and lean into the body-horror and reproductive-horror that are staples of the Alien franchise. This film doesn't get into any deeper issues, it's just a fight for survival that depends more on grit and circumstance than intelligence. The young people are desperate enough to stay in a situation that is beyond their capabilities. Some rise to the occasion, some don't. The real question is if anyone can make it out alive. It's akin to the slasher genre but no viewer is going to root for the killer.

Nothing new is added to the Alien mythology which is good, given the track record of previous films that made a hash of adding more narrative and explanations. This film is just a straight-up horror. It works well in that vein if it does depend on gross-out moments too often. The actors do a good job at their roles though no one is outstanding. The ending shares a lot with the first Alien film, which is comfortingly familiar and disconcertingly unoriginal. 

Mildly recommended--if you are a fan of the series, this is enjoyable even if it doesn't add anything to the bigger picture. 

TV Review: Kleo Season 2 (2024)

Kleo Season 2 (2024) created by Hanno Hackford, Bob Konrad, and Richard Kropf

See my review of the first season here.

Kleo (Jella Haase) is back in action pursuing a red case that has valuable documents in it. With German reunification imminent, a lot of the old-line communists in Germany and the Soviet Union want the deal to fail, something the contents of the case can facilitate. Kleo teams up again with the somewhat bumbling Sven Petzold (Dimitrij Schaad), a West German cop who is too focused on grand conspiracies and is a bit smitten with Kleo. Kleo's crazy roommate Thilo (Julius Feldmeier) has discovered his space princess (he thinks he was born on another planet), a relationship that somewhat mirrors Kleo's relationship with other characters while also going off on bizarre, drug-addled tangents. So the show still has a mix of revenge drama and oddball comedy, especially with the introduction of some ambitious, if not entirely competent, Russians and Americans.

The show is still entertaining. The plot is enjoyable yet implausible, but in a good way. The actors keep things fun and engaging even with some off-the-wall shenanigans. The ending definitely hints at more to come and I am willing to follow along for another season.

Recommended.

As I write (February 2025), this is only available streaming on Netflix.

Battle of the Books 2025 Reviews: Fast Pitch and How Do You Spell Unfair?

My youngest is engaged in the Battle of the Books, a competition sponsored by our local public library. His team of classmates are reading nine books and getting ready to answer trivia questions at a county-wide meeting in late April. I am reading some of the books too. The first two I read have reviews here. Now for another two...

Fast Pitch by Nic Stone

Shenice "Lightning" Lockwood is a catcher on an all-black female fast-pitch softball team in the U12 level of the Dixie Youth Softball Association. They are the first all-Black team to make it to the playoffs. Lightning is the team captain and carries a family tradition of "batball," as her younger brother calls it. Her father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all played in their time. Complications arise when she finds out about her grandfather, JonJon Lockwood. He played in the Negro League and had ambitions to go MLB...ambitions that never played out. She doesn't know the story of why he stopped playing ball. Her dying great-uncle tells her that the career-ending moment was a crime that JonJon did not actually commit. Great-uncle has some evidence and wants Shenice to clear his brother's name. So she's got a lot on her plate aside from being a twelve-year old on a championship-bound team.

The book does a good job blending the soft-ball drama with the more dominant personal-history drama (and lots of comedic touches to keep things a little lighter). She has to navigate her family, which doesn't know about the scandal (it got swept under the rug). She discovers a lot of discrimination that her family experienced, especially living in the American South. She still experiences some discrimination but clearly not as much as her forefathers. One or two hard-to-believe plot contrivances make the book at bit longer than it needs to be. Otherwise this is an entertaining middle-school read.

Recommended.

How Do You Spell Unfair? MacNolia Cox and the National Spelling Bee written by Carole Boston Weatherford and Illustrated by Frank Morrison

MacNolia Cox was one of two African-American girls to compete in the 1936 Scripps National Spelling Bee, the first time since 1908 that a black child participated in an American national spelling bee. She came from Akron, Ohio, where locals were proud to send her off to the Washington, D.C. championship. Her trip was not the best experience as she encountered segregation (she had to switch to the "blacks only" train car once they crossed into Maryland; she and her escorts had to stay at a different hotel from the white contestants in D.C.). MacNolia made it to the top five spellers (the other African-American girl went out in tenth place). She failed on the word "nemesis," which she had not studied because it was not on the official list. Her teacher and the Akron journalist who accompanied her protested to no avail. Even so, coming in fifth in a nation-wide pool was a proud accomplishment, recognized on her return to Akron in 1936 and by the U. S. Senate in 2021.

The story is both inspiring and heartbreaking. The main downside is that the reader does not get to know MacNolia as a person--did she have a sense of humor or a sense of style? What did she think of school, of spelling, of her fellow spellers, of her teacher? She isn't so much a distinct person but a character in the history of American Civil Rights. I wanted a little bit more about her. The art is great, with splash pages depicting the scenes in a charming style.

Recommended.

Our Son's Passing

Our son died earlier this month. It is a heart-breaking and difficult time for me and my family.

I'm not sure how long the funeral home will host the obituary page (see it here) so I am copying over the basics so they are not lost to cyberspace. The web site also has a tribute wall and a video montage of photos of Jacob.

Jacob Reninger Obituary

With great sorrow but steadfast trust in God, the Reninger family announces the passing of our beautiful son, Jacob Michael Reninger, age 17. He is survived by his parents, Joseph and Angela, as well as his younger sister and brother, and many other close and extended family members and many loving friends.

A student at Reservoir High School, Jacob will be greatly missed by all who knew him. Jacob had a compassionate heart that poured out kindness to others. At St. Mary of the Mills Catholic Church in Laurel, Maryland, Jacob was a volunteer catechist and the first to learn all the kids’ names every year. He was also a dedicated altar server - waking up early to serve at the 7:30 am mass. A Boy Scout, Jacob advanced to the rank of Eagle Scout and was proud of his project with the organization Sleep in Heavenly Peace that built beds for children in need.

Jacob was happiest outdoors. He loved camping, biking, swimming, and hiking. If he passed a piece of trash on the hiking trail he would pick it up and carry it out, even if that meant he was carrying a dripping, muddy bottle for a mile. He also enjoyed music and was an excellent saxophonist in the Reservoir High School marching band.

For the last several years, Jacob struggled with depression and anxiety. Before this illness gripped him, he enjoyed many happy afternoons playing touch football or casual basketball with friends. He was also fascinated with maps and world languages and would quiz his beloved sister and brother on obscure geographical facts. A keen chess player, he was always ready to join in any board game or a game of chess.

We give thanks to God for Jacob’s life, mourn Jacob’s untimely death and place our hope in the resurrection. We join St. Paul in saying: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. “ Romans 8:38-39

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Sleep in Heavenly Peace Howard County.

Book Review: Usagi Yojimbo Book 12 by Stan Sakai

Usagi Yojimbo Book 12: Grasscutter by Stan Sakai

This epic tale in the life of Miyamoto Usagi, the rabbit ronin hero, centers on a legendary sword called "Grasscutter." Four prologues give the history of the creation of Japan and the sword used by an ancient emperor to fight his enemies. The sword was lost in the sea over a thousand years ago. In Usagi's time, several different factions hope to gain the sword and thereby control in Japan. The Conspiracy of Eight has a member who uses a witch to locate and raise the sword from the seabed. Things do not go according to plan and Usagi winds up with the weapon. At the same time, several other previous characters (some of whom seemed to be in one-off stories) become involved in the pursuit of Grasscutter.

The presence of so many familiar faces give the story a huge, sprawling feel. This one story fills the whole volume and is the best story I have read yet. Sakai did a lot of research into the history of the sword (it isn't made up!) and lays it out clearly for the reader. So many little payoffs are made with previous characters and storylines, as if the past eleven volumes were building to this moment. The story is highly compelling and the art, so detailed and so evocative, makes it all the richer. Happily, the story goes on and I can't wait to read more.

Highly recommended.

Movie Review: Captain America: Brave New World (2025)

Captain America: Brave New World (2025) directed by Julius Onah

Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) has been elected President of the United States of America and makes a great speech about how he wants to unite the country. Turns out, it's not just the country he wants to unite.  With the discovery of adamantium, a metal potentially more valuable than vibranium, most developed countries want to stake a claim, maybe the only claim, to the resource discovered in the Indian Ocean. He's brokering an international deal but the situation is perilized when a high-tech criminal group led by Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito), has stolen a sample en route to Japan. He's selling to a mysterious bidder and they are supposed to meet in an isolated Mexican church. The new Captain America, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie), is sent to retrieve the lost item. Of course, he wants to rescue the hostages too. The mission is successful but opens a big can of worms for Ross, who seems to have some ulterior motives and background resources involved in the situation. Since Sam's long history with Ross is full of conflict, the mistrust between the two men threatens to make things worse. The possibility of an international incident drives them both into difficult situations.

The movie builds an intriguing political thriller with superheroes in it. As layer after layer of the conspiracy is peeled back, the tension increases. Some bits are far-fetched but overall the plot is very satisfying and gets to the final showdown (which is spoiled by every piece of marketing), an exciting battle between unmatched opponents. While not as great as Winter Soldier or Black Panther, this is solid entertainment and what fans come to Marvel movies for. It's exciting, has some good humor, and is reasonably intelligent.

Recommended, especially if you have been disappointed by a lot of the post-Endgame material.

Book Review: Saint Katharine Drexel: Apostle to the Oppressed by Lou Baldwin

Saint Katharine Drexel: Apostle to the Oppressed by Lou Baldwin

Katharine Drexel was born the middle daughter in an upper-class Philadelphia family in 1858. Their extended family had varying degrees of Catholic fervor but the three Drexel sisters were very devout. Katharine was especially devoted to the Holy Eucharist and wished she could receive daily communion, something not possible at the time. Her parents died and left a large fortune to the three daughters, though they only received the income from the fortune during their lives. Many young women were taken advantage of by fortune hunters and Francis Drexel wanted to protect his children from exploitation. Even so, the income was substantial.

Katharine struggled in her young adulthood with her vocation. She wanted to serve the poor, especially the African-American and Native-American communities that were at best neglected (more often despised) in late-19th century America. The Catholic Church, while interested in all peoples, only had limited abilities (and struggled with prejudice against it at that time). Katharine funded several missions out west and started schools in Philadelphia. The Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions formed in the 1870s and Katharine was a staunch financial supporter.

She was convinced by her bishop to start her own religious order dedicated to ministering to these underserved communities. The process was long and arduous. She began with temporary vows and training at the Religious Sisters of Mercy in Pittsburgh. Soon enough, she established a convent in Philadelphia and drew young women to her own Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. Several years were required by the Philadelphia Bishop O'Connor before the sisters could go out west--they needed both spiritual formation and practical education to minister on the reservations. Drexel began a vocational school that would eventually transform into Drexel University. The sisters began serving a variety of communities in the American west.

She also funded several schools and parishes for African-American communities, starting in Philadelphia and branching out to the American South. Memories of the Civil War were still fresh in many minds and hearts. Fighting both segregation and discrimination became an ongoing battle for her nuns. She founded Xavier University of Louisiana, the first Catholic and Black university in America. Katharine traveled often to visit the sisters across the country. 

She lived to the middle of the twentieth century. Her cause for sainthood was opened almost immediately (several people who knew her thought she was a saint during her lifetime). She was canonized in 2000, the first U. S. citizen to be declared a saint. 

This biography does a good job recording Katharine's history and her personal character, going through the events of her life starting with her grandparents, the first Drexels to come to American in the 1700s. The overview in interesting and inspiring.

Recommended.

Sample quote, from Cardinal Dougherty, the Archbishop of Philadelphia during Katharine's Jubilee year in 1941:

Humanly speaking, the sacrifice was heroic. She did not give up nets and other fishing apparatus as the first Apostles; she did not leave poverty and drudgery; she turned her back on wealth, social prominence, enjoyment of all that money can buy in order, even in her early youth, with its bright prospects, to dedicate her life to the outcast, downtrodden despised Indians and Negroes of the United States. [p. 185]

Book Review: Space Usagi: Death and Honor by S. Sakai et al.

Space Usagi: Death and Honor written and drawn by Stan Sakai and colors by Emi Fujii

The Japanese medieval ronin Miyamoto Usagi has a descendant who both follows in his ancestor's footsteps and has traveled into outer space. Space Usagi is a rabbit warrior for a clan who follows the same bushido code that his ancestors did. He is a general in Lord Shirohoshi's fleet. When they are attacked by a rival clan, Usagi is assigned to protect the Lord's son, taking him away from the battle and to the Mino clan where an arranged marriage with the Mino princess will solidify their alliance. The story follows the typical Usagi arc with a lot of medieval-style ships and outfits in the science fiction setting. I enjoyed it a lot even as I guessed the ending.

The book also includes Space Usagi: Yokai Hunter, a short work about the medieval Usagi going to a haunted castle to save the daughter of some coal merchants. He fights a bunch of spirit creatures and monsters as he works his way up the castle. It's a nice exercise in creative creature craft and has a little twist at the end that goes on a bit longer than it needs to, but is still charming. I enjoyed it.

Recommended.

I read this on Hoopla, a service available from my local library (and maybe yours too!).

Movie Review: The Bishop's Wife (1947)

The Bishop's Wife (1947) directed by Henry Koster

Cary Grant stars as an angel named Dudley who is working the big city crowd one Christmas season, helping people safely cross the street and such. He runs across a somewhat lonely woman named Julia (Loretta Young) who is the titular bishop's wife. Bishop Henry (David Niven) is a young and ambitious fellow who wants to build a cathedral. He has to court big donations from wealthy donors who are not as spiritually motivated as Henry is. He really wants to succeed and, after a frustrating meeting with a donor who wants a memorial to her dead husband in the center of the cathedral rather than more appropriately on the side, prays for help. Dudley shows up at his house and promises to do what he can for Henry. Dudley is already a bit smitten with Julia, so when scheduling conflicts arise, Dudley volunteers to take Julia out. He shows her the fun time that she wishes she was having with Henry, causing some conflict.

The story is an endearing fairy tale told with a more-or-less straight face. Grant has his usual suave and charm. Niven is very young, not quite convincing as a bishop, but gives a good performance nonetheless. The story has a couple of magical moments from angel Dudley, including tree-trimming and refilling glasses of port. The narrative is enjoyable but not quite weighty enough to make this the sort of Christmas classic like It's a Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street.

Mildly recommended--this is a fun seasonal watch for Christmas, and maybe for Valentine's Day too?

Winter Showcase 2024

Our ballroom studio, That's Dancing, had their Winter Showcase back in December. We performed two numbers in a delightfully full schedule.

Our first dance wasn't until the second act. We danced a tango and waltz comedy routine to I Can't Tell a Waltz from a Tango by Patti Page. My wife was the waltz advocate while I wanted to do the tango, as you can see in the video...

Nice swish to the skirt!

Interpretive stillness?

The "interpretive stillness" line is an ongoing gag with our instructor, encouraging her to make the choreography less complicated. The rose is a fake. For some reason, it has fake thorns. That was more desirable than the other fake roses I saw in the store that had petals going brown. Too much realism, people!

Our second routine was in the third act (we were the fourth couple to dance!). We had a fun East Coast Swing dance to "Red Light" by Indigo Swing. This performance was a more typical dance routine.

Nicely spun!

Wait, where am I?

Because of the song name, I acquired a light-up bowtie. It does a variety of colors and even flashing patterns. If that is not amazing enough, it also has a usb port to recharge the battery! I wonder if I can upload other patterns to it?

At the end, they gave out certificates of accomplishment and awards, along with announcing the theme for the Summer Showcase--Elton John. We have already picked out songs.

Each student gets a live rose

All the dancers for the evening

A thank-you gift from the studio!

Book Review: From the Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury

From the Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury

The Elliott family lives in a northern Illinois town in a creaky old house. A foundling is left on their doorstep, Timothy. He is unique to them because he sleeps at night, can't fly or turn invisible, and hasn't lived for hundreds of years. Timothy is a normal human child adopted by supernatural parents with an eclectic extended family who come for a visit when Timothy is ten years old. Uncle Einar has wings, Cecy sleeps all the time but travels into others' consciousnesses, and A Thousand Times Great Grandmere is literally older than Methuselah. All sorts of odd adventures follow.

Like many other Bradbury novels, this is a compilation or fusion of many short stories that came before this book was publish in 2001. In the afterword, Bradbury tells that the first story was written in 1945 and published in Mademoiselle magazine, which got Charles Addams (the cartoonist creator of the Addams Family) to make illustrations. Bradbury and Addams had planned to do a series of illustrated stories that would turn into a book but their careers went off in different directions. This novel embodies the charm of Bradbury's fanciful prose and elaborate imagination. After the first half, a more novel-like single narrative starts as the family deals with the rest of the world no longer believing in haunts and spooks and the like. It wraps up with the typical Bradbury winsomeness.

The novel is a delight to read and goes by too quickly.

Recommended, highly for Bradbury fans.

Geocaching January 2025

I started the new geocaching year off with a bang. Ease into the New Year 2025 was a community celebration event for 25 years of geocaching. A lot of cachers have been granted events (including yours truly), this is the first of hopefully many. The event was at Game On Arcade, which we had a gift card for, so my family came along to snack and play games. I did the socializing.

Mom and youngest do DDR

Earlier in the day, I was on the WB&A Trail to find Thomas Knowlton and Shughart Gordon. The day was windy and the trees were a bit too creaky for my taste! Just outside the trail is Race Track Road C&D with a fun container.

Woods on the WB&A Trail

The next day I signed another cache on the Odenton Cooperative Challenge Trail--OCCT #12: Unknown/Mystery 250 Challenge. The WB&A finds qualified me for the 250 mystery caches I needed. The day after, I found Mile Marker 14 on Old National Road along with two more mystery caches, A Little Piece of Howard County History and an old DNF for me, Mission Possible, which was indeed more possible to find after the summer vegetation was gone. I was surprised to see the previous logger was DG or Dudley Grunt, one of the Monday Morning Coffee people. Since I am part of Dancing Gophers, we would share the same initials except I usually put an S on the end for clarity's sake.

DG and DGS in alphabetically order on the log

I had to go shopping at a game store (does anyone really have to go shopping at a game store?) and found some caches nearby. Ha! Run Dale! is a pun on the town's name, Harundel. Code Cross 1 filled another mystery day and Slurpy or Icey was a bonus on the way home. 

Code Cross the Road is more like it!

The next day I had to take my wife to a Virginia airport so I found some caches in the neighborhood. Reader's Delight was in a Little Free Library (yay!) and not too far away I found Doggo Walking: Alice Never Lived Here, a trickier find with a cryptic name. I also found a pair of challenge caches nearby, Picky CHALLENGE: Doggo Walking 200 and Doggo Walking 400, which require cachers to have found enough caches with the "Dogs Allowed" attribute. At one of them, a cute little pooch was barking at me through the fence. The fence had a hole big enough for his face but not for him to escape.

Cold enough to freeze the pond out back

Maybe he just wants out?

The next day was a massive snow storm, so I used one of the caches I signed in Virginia to keep my mystery streak going. Picky CHALLENGE: Doggo Walking 600 requires 600 finds, I had 627 before making these finds.

Picky CHALLENGE: Ow! I'm Stuck! 200 requires 200 thorn-attribute caches, for which I have qualified. MTO 2014 Icebreaker is another mystery cache, this one requiring some mathematical wizardry at home before making the find. 

I really did have to break some ice here

Annapolis, MD 21401 is another fun mystery I found the next day. Picky CHALLENGE: Happy Baby 200 requires 200 stroller-friendly caches which I have far surpassed in my finds. Random Wiki Puzzle: 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix is an easy to solve puzzle that wasn't buried in snow at Ground Zero, as was Math Mnemonic. Another puzzle I solved had a buried cache which I could not unbury.

Lamp Post Cache...to find later

Witchcraft Horror Series #1 brought me to a cemetery.

Salem Cemetery, but in Maryland

Also nearby are RWP: Filipe Machado and Define Definite Definitions #2, a series I hope will continue. Where's The Beef? was a fun find the next day. 

Hair Is Tea Tour is by a supermarket. Nearby I found what was left of Bees by the River...

The cache was removed with extreme prejudice not by the cache owner

That's a lot of work to put into a message for geocachers! On Route 40 I found Old National Pike Mile Marker 14, part of a series on the old road from Baltimore to the west, and different from the Mile Marker 14 cache mentioned above. 

The next day I went to Annapolis's western suburbs and found Dentophobia, a tooth-based puzzle cache. Also in the neighborhood was C and D Version 2.0, which had a lot of creepy vultures around it.

What are they waiting around for?

Also in Annapolis I found Festival of Lights: Night One, Two, Five, and Six. Nearby I found Fuzzydave s Rocks #1: Maneskin and ON BOARD!. 

Another snow storm put a damper on caching for almost a week, but then I got out again. Been Around Since the 1950's - Who Knew? was an easy mystery to solve. Then I went into DC on an errand and did some caching. CAA DC Edition: South Dakota Avenue is part of a series "Cache Across the Avenues" with hides on each street named after a state. This was my first one, so I have a lot more work to do! Nearby I found the multicache Existence Intertwined Mural which uses some information from the mural to point to the final cache. A guy was out grilling on the chilly morning, which surprised me. 

View to the mural

I found an Adventure Lab in Langdon Park that also had a Bonus Cache that I found. The park has a memorial to Chuck Brown, a guitarist who was a local legend in the Go-Go Music scene (he's called the "Godfather of Go-Go"). I had trouble finding the final cache--after emailing with the cache owner, I was allowed to take credit for finding it. 

Chuck Brown Memorial

Empty final location?

I found another string of mystery caches to fill in some of the days I have missing: What's in Your Pocket? and Name That Richardson!!!! The day of the Richardson find, I found most of a Hanukkah Nights series: Three, Four, and Six. Five and Eight seemed to be missing, so I emailed the cache owner to let him make replacements if necessary. Nearby is Fuzzydave Comes To Town #1 which was an easy find. They were all close to this bowling alley where I decided to park as a central location.

Another potential hobby

We did a quick tour of The Catholic University of America with the Catholic University Fun Facts Adventure Lab. I also picked up the Bonus Cache that was an easy find near a cybertruck.

Probably won't be there when you go to find the cache

I finished the month finding Lakeside after failing to donate blood (not enough iron!), along with two Random Wiki Puzzles: NFL Top 100 Players of 2019 and Galegos (Povoa de Lanhoso). 

I guess I could have taken a shortcut to the cache?

The month ends with 62 finds (two-a-day average!) and 1712 overall. I probably won't break into 1800 next month since February is shorter and I've already found mystery caches on every day, so my main project will be sidetracked. I'll concentrate on solving or qualifying for other mystery caches.

Book Review: Hellboy and the B.P.R.D. 1956 by M. Mignola et al.

Hellboy and the B.P.R.D.: 1956 stories by Mike Mignola and Chris Roberson, art by Mike Norton, Yishan Li, Michael Avon Oeming, and Paul Grist

1956 is a transition year for the Bureau for Paranormal Research and Defense They are getting more funding, which means hiring more agents and getting better equipment. The small staff has been overworked since WWII ended, so the influx is welcome. Well, mostly welcome. Director Trevor Bruttenholm is a bit concerned with the new hires who are mostly law enforcement transfers. The paranormal research may be out of their league. More concerning is where their true loyalties lie...with the B.P.R.D. or their previous agencies (including CIA and FBI)?

Meanwhile, in the Soviet Union, the Special Sciences Service (the Soviet equivalent of the B.P.R.D.) is also struggling with larger government interference. The Politburo wants the SSS to produce results, especially in developing weapons. SSS head Varvara (the demon girl from previous stories) is less interested in bureaucratic nonsense and keeps a tight and terrifying grip on the Service. She is keeping tabs on Bruttenholm and seems more connected with Hellboy's fate as Destroyer of the Universe than with the success of the Soviet programs. Her story runs parallel to the B.P.R.D. story, with the back half of each chapter set in the former Russia.

The story here is less compelling than in other volumes. Things move forward at a snail's pace, with little action and only punctuated moments of drama. The cloak and dagger stuff just isn't exciting. Some developments happen toward the end of the story, including the return of Hellboy from Mexico, but they are not a big payoff. Having separate artists and visual styles for the parallel stories is an interesting choice.

The final story in the book presents one of Hellboy's Mexican exploits--co-starring in a luchador film as The Devil, which is fun but inconsequential.

Mildly recommended. This is a narrative connector piece for larger stories but is not all that interesting in and of itself.

Movie Review: The Most Dangerous Game (1932)

The Most Dangerous Game (1932) directed by Irving Pichel and Ernest P. Schoedsack

Bob Rainsford (Joel McCrea), famous game hunter, is shipwrecked under mysterious circumstances on a seemingly deserted jungle island. He hikes into the interior and finds a castle owned by Count Zaroff (Leslie Banks), a Russian nobleman who fled the communist takeover of his homeland. Zaroff is also a hunter and has some other shipwrecked guests--Martin (Robert Armstrong) and Eve (Fay Wray), a brother and sister stranded a few weeks ago with a couple of sailors from their ship. Zaroff's boat is under repair, so he can't send them back to the mainland just yet. At dinner, Eve draws Bob aside and warns him that there is some sort of danger, because Zaroff has taken the sailors one by one to see his trophy room. The sailors still haven't returned. Zaroff claims there is some special animals on the island that are ideal for hunting but he gives no details at all.

The plot is based on a popular short story by Richard Connell and has been imitated many times in cinematic and televisual history. It makes for an exciting story, with fine performances from the cast and some good hunting and chase sequences. The movie's lean 63-minute run time makes the story move at a satisfyingly quick pace. This was probably a warm-up for the cast and crew to make King Kong a year later, with some similar sets and great action sequences. Even though it is overshadowed by the later film, this is a solid entertainment and well worth watching.

Recommended.

I watched this on Kanopy available through my local library.

Game Review: Sky Team by Scorpion Masque

Sky Team published by Scorpion Masque, designed by Luc Remond, and art by Eric Hibbeler and Adrien Rives

Winner of the 2024 Spiel des Jahres (the German board game of the year award), Sky Team is a two-player co-operative game where players land a plane as pilot and co-pilot. 

A central board represents the plane's controls and each player has a set of four dice (blue for pilot; orange for co-pilot) which they roll behind a screen. 

Control Panel

Before they roll the dice each round, they can discuss what strategy they will use for that round. After the roll, players are not allowed to talk. They place their dice one at a time, alternating between pilot and co-pilot. In the first round, the pilot places the first die. In each subsequent round, they swap who places first.

Players have seven different spots they can place dice representing seven different actions. Two actions are mandatory:

• Axis--Each player must place one die. Once the second die is placed, the plane's axis tilts toward the higher die, moving the number of space of the difference between the two dice. So a 4 and a 2 result in the plane tilting two spaces on the central axis control. If the plane tilts too far, it crashes and the players lose.
• Engines--Each player must place one die. Once the second die is placed, the die numbers are added together to get the speed. Just below the central axis control is the speed gauge with two markers (blue and orange). If the total speed is below the blue marker, the plane does not move forward. If the speed is in between the blue and orange markers, the plane moves one space forward on the airport track. If the speed is greater than the orange marker, the plane moves two spaces forward.

Axis & Engines (sounds like another game)

The other actions are not mandatory but are necessary to land the plane safely:

• Radio--The airport track has planes on it and the crew needs to radio the airport to remove those planes. In each round, the pilot has one radio space, the co-pilot two (at the top of the control panel). If the planes are not cleared before the airplane advances, the plane crashes into the other plane and the players lose.
• Landing gear--Only the pilot can deploy the landing gear, i.e. all three wheels (on the left side of the control panel). As each is deployed (they can go in any order) the blue marker on the speed gauge moves one space. The pilot has to activate all three before they reach the airport or the plane crashes and the players lose.
• Brakes--Only the pilot can deploy the brakes. The dice are played sequentially (2, 4, 6) to move the red brake gauge forward, though the dice can be played in separate rounds. In the final round, the speed has to be less than the brake amount or the plane crashes and the players lose.
• Flaps--Only the co-pilot can deploy the flaps (on the right side of the control panel). The die are played sequentially from the top to the bottom of the flaps area. Each time a flap is deployed, the orange marker on the speed gauge moves one space. If all the flaps are not deployed when the plane reaches the airport, the plane crashes and the players lose.
• Concentration--Either player can add a die with any face value here to brew a cup of coffee. The cups can be spent to change the face value of a die up or down one number per cup used. 

Brakes and coffee

After all the dice are placed, the altitude track moves down one and the players retrieve their dice from the controls and can start talking again. They slide under the two slots at the top of the control panel. As you can see below, sometimes the team will have to fly two spaces toward the airport in order to arrive when the plane reaches the ground. The black cube icons on the airport track indicate adding extra airplanes using a black die.

First flight

Once the altitude track and the airport track are on the same space, the last round is triggered. The plane needs to have a level axis, the speed value has to be less than the brake value, the flaps and landing gear have to be completely deployed, and no other airplanes can be on the airport track. If all those are true, the players win!

A successful landing!

We found the very first mission, landing in Atlanta, to be fairly easy. The game comes with several different airport tracks, all of which are two-sided. A harder approach is on the back! The game also adds in other complications, like controlling fuel usage, having an intern to train, dealing with headwinds and tailwinds, and other challenges. A second rule book details the additional rules and the airports have symbols at the top indicating which add-ons to use. One possible add-on is a bonus power (or two) that give some help (like an extra die or cup of coffee) in landing the plane, so not all the add-ons are challenges...just most of them. In the photo above, the synchronization card is a bonus power and the fuel track on the left is an extra challenge.

My wife and I enjoy the game immensely. We got it for Christmas and played it once or twice every day for a couple of weeks. Most of the airports take more than one go to have a successful landing. Part of the challenge is the luck of the roll, but the variety of spots to place the dice helps to mitigate the randomness. On an easy airport, the players get two re-roll tokens to use during a round. The hard airports only provide one. Re-rolling after getting four of the same number on the dice might be necessary. Since the players are not allowed to talk, the player choosing to reroll does so on their own though the other player can also reroll their dice. Each player can choose how many dice to reroll. Any placed die cannot be rerolled.

Making a successful landing is very satisfying. The game plays very quickly (under twenty minutes) so we have had times where we just tried again right away, especially if we crashed early. That happens with bad dice rolls or bad dice placement, often a combination of both. But resetting the game is easy and replaying is rewarding. We can see why it won the award.

Highly recommended--easy to get to the table, quick to play, and cooperative!

 

Book Review: Arguing Religion by Robert Barron

Arguing Religion: A Bishop Speaks at Facebook and Google by Robert Barron

In 2017, Bishop Robert Barron was invited to Facebook headquarters in Silicon Valley to give a presentation. He decided to talk about one of the great challenges of our time, how to have a civil conversation on a topic people disagree on, in this case, religion. He was then invited to Google where he talked about how religion opens up the intellectual world, not closes it down. These two talks have been combined into this short book.

A lot of fruitless encounters happen on-line, with people virtually shouting at each other. Barron has experienced this first hand as he engages the broader culture through social media. He makes a lot of great points about how religion is falsely perceived in our culture (like it isn't rational or it is a private matter not meant for public discourse) and shows ways that can bear a lot of fruit in mutual understanding, a requisite first step in persuading other people about anything. He urges readers to follow the example of Thomas Aquinas, the 13th-century theologian and philosopher. Aquinas often quoted others he did not entirely agree with, like the ancient Greek pagan Aristotle, the medieval Jewish thinker Maimonides, and the medieval Muslim philosopher Avicenna. Aquinas found good and salient points in these thinkers and was able to integrate them into his own thought, even if he didn't agree with their conclusions or some of their principles. Thomas is a model of fruitful intellectual dialogue.

In the second part of the book, Barron describes how human nature is aimed at the true and the good because we humans have intellect and will. We want to know the truth because it is good in and of itself. Everyone desires happiness even if they don't all agree on what creates happiness. Barron explores the classical ideas of human fulfillment (wealth, power, prestige/honor, pleasure) and how they are never fully satisfying. They are all finite goods that cannot give full satisfaction. Only an ultimate good will ultimately satisfy our longing for goodness, for happiness. 

The book reads very quickly and is very on-point. Barron's text is persuasive and concise. This is well worth reading.

Highly recommended.

Cute Kid Pix January 2025

More photos that didn't make their own post...

We had a serious bit of snow the first Friday in January, I happened to be out running errands when it started. 

Snowy parking lot

Our front porch even more decorated

Little did I know the next week would bring an even bigger snow storm with two days off from school for the kids.

9 a.m. photo

We took that time to put away the Christmas tree and indoor decorations. The outdoor lights were already partially buried in snow so I decided to leave them up.

Vacuuming up fake needles that fell off our fake tree!

We had a family video game night for which the kids were especially enthusiastic...

Are we having fun yet?

The next day we played in the snow, or at least the youngest did...

Sledmaster!

I forgot to post this video with last month's post (or even the Christmas post), so here is the rocket launch from our cul de sac. What an awesome Christmas present!

Our youngest was the top speller in his classroom in December, which meant he moved on to the school-wide spelling bee in January. The school sent two tickets home for parents or other adults to come watch on a Friday afternoon. He was eliminated in the fifth round when he stumbled on "committee." Too many double letters! He confided in me afterwards that he did not want to go on to the county-wide spelling bee and would have deliberately misspelled a word if it was down to three students.

Some chairs emptied by round three

On the spot

We went to a concert for our eldest held at his school. It was a fun time!

High school band

We did our first rollerskating of the year at the nearby rink. I swear my youngest has other t-shirts!

Wearing a chess shirt to a roller rink?!?

I was amazed to see a certain chocolate bar in a local convenience store. Our family is convinced that Mr. Goodbar only comes in the Halloween multi-packs, but there it was.

No more need to go looking for Mr. Goodbar

We went ice skating at Color Burst Park, which was a lot harder than the roller rink.

Making a face

Making the same face

Sister gets in on the act

It was a fun, if cold, month.