Book Review: Spy x Family Vols. 5 and 6 by Tatsuya Endo

Spy x Family Volume 5 by Tatsuya Endo

With their new pet dog who can see the future (but only Anya knows), the Forger family gets back to work on Anya's progress at Eden Academy. Anya has midterms. Any failing grades will put her closer to getting kicked out of school. If she scores in the top two she'll get Stella Stars, putting her closer to the real target. Twilight plans to break in and change the grades. Too bad another spy with another agenda is also breaking in to change some grades. If that wasn't enough trouble, Twilight gets a new side mission with a temporary partner, codenamed Nightfall. She wants to be his permanent partner, as in she wants to be Twilight's wife, which will mean trouble for Yor who is posing as Twilight's wife for her own reasons.

This is another solid issue of entertainment. Nothing earth-shattering is going on but it is a lot of fun.

Recommended.

Spy x Family Volume 6 by Tatsuya Endo

Twilight and his work partner Nightfall infiltrate an underground tennis tournament run by a rich man who has a work of art with a secret code that could start a war. Since the tournament is run by a questionable element of society, the rules are questionable. One pair of opponents are pumped up on steroids, others have special gadgets like rocket-powered rackets. The competition is delightfully over the top with physical comedy. Nightfall's romantic obsession with Twilight adds some extra jokes. Once that's done, it's back to infiltrating Eden Academy in hopes of finding out more about Twilight's main target, political figure Desmond Donovan.

Yet more fun and games. This series is perfect light summer entertainment.

Recommended.

Book Review: The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis

The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis

Famous Christian apologist C. S. Lewis wrote a series of letters during World War II called the Screwtape Letters. Screwtape is a fictional devil that gives advice to a younger devil, Wormwood, who is assigned to lead astray a young Englishman. Screwtape gives all sorts of diabolical advice on how to corrupt the youth and muses on various situations in which people find themselves. The young man lives in a small town and has some irreligious friends but also discovers a pious young woman with whom he becomes romantically interested. World War II is looming, and in fact starts by the end of the letters. Screwtape has a lot of fodder to work with as he guides Wormwood in the ways of temptation.

The style and content of the writing makes it a nice anti-advice column. If Screwtape recommends it, it's probably something you shouldn't do. He's a part of a demonic bureaucracy that seeks out efficiency and ruthlessly condemns failure. Hell wants human souls and if the workers don't deliver, they will pay with their own spirits. Screwtape vacillates between an avuncular and a voracious attitude toward Wormwood. The writing has a certain charm and honesty, but cherishes horror, vice, and corruption as ideals.

The key insight underneath it all is that evil is a corruption of good, so any advice that seeks an evil end has to start with a good that can be ruined. Screwtape is really concerned about the young woman and advises Wormwood to look for little habits or mannerisms that might annoy the young man. His other tactic is to make the man's faith life subordinate to a political or social cause, or to have the man see his faith as valuable only insofar as it supports another cause. As the war looms, Screwtape suggests hinting at all the possible bad outcomes that may happen to the young man, even contradictory ones, so as to heighten his anxiety unnecessarily and, more importantly, to take focus off of what he has to do right now. Temptation is a delicate art with lots of pitfalls, since a humiliating moment may inflame bruised pride (good for the devils) or cause genuine contrition (bad for the devils). Screwtape gives some careful analysis to create the worst outcome, though Wormwood is not as successful as he could be.

The letters are very readable and enjoyable, understanding how to interpret what's being said. The narrative is an excuse for presenting theological and moral reflections in a creative way. The book goes quickly and has lots of insights that are as applicable today as they were in the 1940s. Eternal problems are always contemporary, as one of my professors used to say.

Highly recommended.

My pastor, Father Larry Young, has done a video commentary letter-by-letter on YouTube. Check it out!

Movie Review: Kung Fu Zombie (1981)

Kung Fu Zombie (1981) written and directed by Hua Shan

For October (Halloween month!), I am reviewing a sampling of Asian horror, working my way from least to best of the films I watched. Enjoy!

A criminal wants revenge against Pang (Billy Chong), the guy that put him in jail. He hires a wizard to help him but the magician is more bumbling than brilliant. He can raise corpses, thus creating zombies, but they do not do very much. The criminal sends his lackeys into town to lure Pang to the graveyard. They've dug a pit trap with knives at the bottom. The criminal winds up in the pit, getting killed. The soul of the criminal torments the wizard, hoping to get put into another body so he can get his revenge. Meanwhile, another criminal (a much more serious one) has come to town to get revenge on the whole family because of what Pang's grandfather did. Pang has been training with his father all his life for this fight. The dad is not interested in fighting, so Pang does the job. The wizard and the ghost wait outside, hoping to take the loser's body and put the ghost in it. That doesn't work out so well--Pang's dad dies from overcelebrating the victory and the ghost of the serious criminal winds up in the body of Pang's dad. The regular criminal, as a ghost, teams up with the serious criminal, as the zombie dad, to take down Pang once and for all.

This movie capitalized on two crazes in the early 1980s--kung fu movies and zombie movies. The kung fu fighting is plentiful and entertainingly over the top (many characters make impossibly high jumps in the air as they fight), though the bouts don't always make sense. The zombies are fairly low-gore and not very scary at all. As you might guess from the description above, the dominant genre for this film is comedy. Most everything is played for laughs and it easily passes the six laugh test. The production quality is low and I watched it dubbed on Kanopy (also available on Tubi). The dubbing is not that great either, but it does help in the comedy department. The movie aims to entertain and, with the right mindset, delivers the goods.

Slightly recommended--this is a rainy Saturday afternoon movie or a late-night indulgence, not great cinema.

Movie Review: Let the Right One In (2008)

Let the Right One In (2008) directed by Tomas Alfredson

Oskar (Kare Hedebrant) is a shy, bullied twelve-year old in early 1980s Sweden. His parents are separated, he has no friends, and he's a weakling both physically and morally. A girl (Lina Leandersson) moves in to the next door apartment with an older man, presumably her dad. He meets the girl at night on the small jungle gym in the apartment's courtyard. They sit and have awkward conversations. Her name is Eli and initially she does not want to be friends with Oskar. She also is lonely and withdrawn, but that's because she's a vampire. Her "dad" tries to collect blood for her from various victims he finds in isolated places. I write "tries" because he is very incompetent at his task. Eli winds up fending for herself. With both of them active, the local news is dominated by a killer in the area. The only bright spot is the blossoming friendship between Oskar and Eli, two kids seemingly doomed to misery who might be able to help each other out.

The movie has a sad and weary feeling, like the Swedish winter during which it is set. Oskar's unhappiness is not complete. He still loves his parents and has some fun being with them, though they don't provide him with any help in his problems. Eli encourages him to fight back against the bullies, a strategy that changes Oskar more than his situation. Eli, who has been twelve years old for a long time, has a strained relationship with her "dad" mostly because he does not provide help with her problems. Her nocturnal hunting is not a happy task for her and makes staying in this new town much harder. 

The actors do a great job, especially the two young leads who carry the weight of the story. They make the situation believable, compelling, and heart-breaking. Their frankness with each other helps to make the supernatural elements more mundane and believable. The depiction of vampirism is unsentimental and unsexy. She'll take blood wherever she can get it, even licking it off the floor. Her life is miserable--all she seems to do is hide from the daylight and feed whenever she can. When they first meet, Oskar has a Rubik's Cube, a puzzle she's never seen before, and he loans it to her. She leaves it for him on the jungle gym solved, indicating that she has greater skills (and probably a lot more time) than Oskar. He brings a more human dimension to her life, something beyond mere vampire survival. She brings more strength to him, something beyond mere bully survival. The strength she offers him is brute force, which turns out not to solve his problems. The humanity he offers her is not enough to get her back into society or anything even remotely close to a normal lifestyle. She never puts any effort into changing herself, only changing Oskar. Their ending strikes me as especially tragic for Oskar.

Recommended for a thought-provoking vampire story.

This movie is reviewed on A Good Story is Hard to Find Podcast #292. Check it out for much better commentary than mine!

Book Review: Death Note Vols. 8 and 9 by T. Ohba and T. Obata

Death Note Volume 8: Target story by Tsugumi Ohba and art by Takeshi Obata

MASSIVE SPOILER FROM THE PREVIOUS VOLUME AHEAD!!!

The narrative of the series took a big shift in the last volume when Light was able to pull off what seemed like it would be impossible, namely that L was killed. The story jumps ahead four years. It turns out that L's original home, an orphanage in England, has been developing other orphans to be just as brilliant. The headmaster offers the top two students, Mello and Near, to become the new L (specifically to hunt down Kira). Mello balks at sharing the job and leaves. Near starts a new investigative organization with the American government called SPK (Special Provisions for Kira). Mello joins a mafia group that works to find Kira or a Death Note to use for their own profit. Light leads L's Japanese investigation of Kira and resumes Kira's project of world peacemaking through mass slaughter. The mafia kidnap Light's younger sister in an attempt to blackmail their father (who is the head of Japanese police) into giving Mello the Death Note. The delivery, while incredibly complicated, goes off without a hitch, making the Americans mistrustful of the Japanese. Now Light has to cross swords with both Near and Mello as he tries to bring world peace by killing all the bad people.

I was very unhappy with the death of L and was not really sure the book could keep going without him. The creators found a way to split L in two so that there's a good half and a bad half. While not a great continuation, it's interesting enough for me to keep reading. Also, I know the series only runs to twelve volumes, so presumably resolution is not too far away.

Mildly recommended--if you've come this far, might as well go a little farther.

Death Note Volume 9: Contact story by Tsugumi Ohba and art by Takeshi Obata

The battle over the Death Notes continues as Light/Kira orchestrates an attack on Mello's headquarters. Mello is extremely clever and has a shinigami on his side. Light also has a shinigami, the one working with the task force (sort of--the shimigami makes comments and gives unhelpful answers to any question asked of him). Near is focused on capturing Kira and has his suspicions of Light's group. A lot of pieces get moved. The big problem is public opinion shifting in favor of Kira, making it harder to hunt him as governments start to pull away from the hunt.

Weirdly, the idea that governments are no long actively hunting Kira is taken as approval of Kira. The popular admiration for Kira quickly morphs into idolization, almost literally, as pro-Kira mobs call him their god and are ready to do his bidding, or at least to go after anyone who opposes him. I give the book points for trying to grapple with tough ideas, even if it doesn't know where to come down on them.

Recommended.

Book Review: Lincoln by David Herbert Donald

Lincoln by David Herbert Donald

There's probably a million and one biographies of Abraham Lincoln available, from a ten-page kids book to a multi-volume academic tome. This 700-page biography (the last hundred are notes, bibliography, and index) sits in the middle, with a lot of well-researched details, but not every last detail. Author David Donald says his specific angle in telling Lincoln's story is to go back to the original sources, Lincoln's writings and the writings of the people he knew, along with extensive newspaper articles. Many papers in the 1840s to 1860s had their political biases, so researching them all provides a balanced view. Donald's ultimate goal is to get a sense of Lincoln as a person, what he thought and felt about his life and times. 

The book traces the whole of Lincoln's life, starting from his birth in Kentucky under humble circumstances. He did not have much education and wandered from job to job in his younger days. He wound up in Springfield, Illinois, where he became a lawyer. Reading as much as he could, he prepared meticulously for cases. Lincoln spent a lot of time at various intellectual clubs where the members discussed politics and other things. He vacillated between political service and lawyer work. 

Lincoln moved up the political ladder in fits and starts, with a mix of success and failure. The situation around slavery was complicated. Balancing out the various extremes was a constant battle, leading Lincoln and his compatriots to form a new political party, sometimes called the Unionists, eventually becoming the Republicans. Lincoln brought together various factions, even in his own presidential cabinet, to get different points of view and to test his ideas on widely different thinkers. His ability to change plans and find different ways to achieve goals is fascinating to read.

The book is most interested his personality. He loved to tell stories and jokes, sometimes less refined than appropriate for his surroundings. He was shy with women, not knowing how best to woo someone. His first engagement to Mary Todd was broken off. They came back together and lived a marriage that was not always easy. Mary had ambitions for her husband and enjoyed the finer things in life. Lincoln was more laid back and did not care so much for his appearance (he was not an attractive man, by all accounts) or even what he ate. While he did not have mood swings, he did have times of joyful exuberance and times of exhausted sorrow. His outward Christianity (he did not attend any specific church) had its grounding in a sense of fate or destiny controlling people's lives. His fatalism made him more courageous and more melancholic. He was a man who rose to the occasion even if he did not feel comfortable doing so. 

This book gives a lot of details to show how Lincoln lived. He's elected to president less than half way through the book. The presidential years are focused on his activities in office, mostly dealing with the American Civil War and the various factions in Congress and the press. His conduct of the war was mostly providing supplies and troops...and trying to get the various Union generals to attack their opponents. There's no descriptions of individual battles, only of overall strategies and the Lincoln's changing opinions as he saw how the generals performed. He made many visits to the army headquarters and battlefields, partly out of curiosity, partly to know what was going on and how he could help. Much of his efforts was with Congress and his own cabinet members.

The end is abrupt--Lincoln is shot on April 14, 1865, and dies the next day. The book ends in a crowded back room where Secretary of Stanton says, "Now, he belongs to the ages." The author provides no summary of Lincoln's legacy or the aftermath of his death. The book is a look at Lincoln as a man who rose up in extraordinary circumstance to lead the nation through one of its darkest times.

Highly recommended.

Sample quote on Lincoln's storytelling: "Most stories he recounted simply because he thought they were funny. Laughing along with his visitors helped break the ice. But he also knew how to use storytelling to deflect criticism, to avoid giving an answer to a difficult question, and to get rid of a persistent interviewer." [p. 259]

Geocaching September 2022

The month of geocaching started off with an easy find in a commuter parking lot, The perils of Commuting (caps in original). The lot is under construction, so the possibility of professional muggles was high. I managed to hit the sweet spot in between commuters parking and workers working, making the find without any unwanted observers.

The cache is not buried

I found Opportunistic Placement after donating platelets at the nearby Red Cross donation center. It was a fairly easy cache and dash without the usual light post shenanigans.

Not a view of the parking lot

The Caballero was a fun fund in a business park. The hiding spot is very original. I found the cache on a Saturday morning so nobody was around to see me searching. The name is a reference to the hint.

The only car was mine

Off in a quiet little neighborhood is Blue Duct Tape, so named for the red bucket camouflaged with blue duct tape. The bucket was hanging on a tree, so I spotted it from a distance, though that does bring up the question why blue duct tape as camouflage. The area is fairly isolated so no muggles will happen upon it by accident regardless of the color.

Civilization isn't too far away

In a quiet little industrial park I found Belay without delay, a reference to a nearby wall-climbing gym. The cache was so small that I couldn't get the log out of the container. I will have to start carrying needle-nose tweezers.

A different part of civilization

On a shopping trip we found Road's End Rain Garden. The cache is an earthcache, a location with geologically-interesting features. This particular spot is set up to filter run-off water. Various plants, stones, and such are placed to slow the flow of rain water from the neighborhood. The water sinks into the ground, filtering out pollutants before the water gets into the Magothy River (which feeds into the Chesapeake Bay). The kids were along and enjoyed playing in the small park.

Matching shirts!

The Valentine Cache... is another quick hide in a parking lot. It was a good way to fill in a calendar hole on a rainy day.

More than one hiding spot in this photo

After a couple of did-not-finds (leaving some days open on the September calendar), I found Abbott's Park. The cache container was open and the log was too wet to sign. Hopefully the cache owner can do some maintenance!

Even the baggie couldn't protect it!

The nearby trees (and the end of a power line)

RAKMD11:do yard work for a neighbor is another in the Maryland "random acts of kindness" series, though you'd better be careful what kind of yard work you do for your neighbor. Trimming trees may not be desired! Maybe it's better to ask than to be random.

Out in the woods, no neighbors in sight

Another cache had me climbing a tree to make the find. Highlight & Climb is a mystery cache that is very easy to solve but very hard to sign! I was nervous up in the tree and had a very sketchy signature in the log. The cache write-up recommends not dropping the lid of the cache container. Bringing a pen with you is a must!

Can you spot the cache?

Here's a closeup

The next find was more down to earth, all the way down to the water! Boxie's Beach is off of one of the myriad Columbia (Maryland) trails. The beach itself is not much to look at but it is a quiet spot. I saw a deer nearby. It was too fast to get a picture. The container is a classic ammo-can style that had lots of swag inside for swapping. We've been trying to pare down our swag collection, so I left a couple of items and took nothing.

May be a turtle's ideal beach?

I saw this cute guy later on the walk

An easier mystery cache is "A New Beginning" - Littleblkdog's Retiring. Littleblkdog is a geocacher in the area who has hidden a lot of caches and found over 11,000 caches. The cache was placed by MrsLittleblkdog and the write-up for the cache says that Littleblkdog is retiring from the US Navy in October 2022. Whew, he's not retiring from geocaching! The cache container fits thematically with the name of the cache, making it a fun find.

Sorry, you can't see the cache, you'll just have to go there

We need the rain is by the Patuxent River just as it feeds into a reservoir that two local counties use for drinking water. If the water levels are high, that's good news. When the cache was placed in 2008 the water level was down ten feet, so they definitely needed rain then. This cache also had a critter nearby, though not as cute as the bunny above.

View to the water, not much to see

Crossbreeding wasps and spiders should be illegal!

A group of geocachers meet every Monday morning for coffee at a nearby shop. One member hid Coffee Crew Word Search with, surprise, a word search that reveals the coordinates for the find near the cafe. We made the find fairly easily. I would go to the coffee meet-up except (1) I don't really like coffee, (2) I don't get up that early (5:45 to 6:30), and (3) I am an introvert.

I think the coffee shop is over there

I dragged the kids to find Virtual Reward---- Odenton (sic) which is near an unused train spur. The cache is a virtual cache, meaning there's no container to find. To prove we were there, I had my daughter take a picture of us guys on the rails.

The serious photo

Making silly faces

After a run to the county dump, I found Turf Valley Multi. Finding the clue for the first stage was very easy, letting me find the final coordinates before I even arrived. Since it was early on a Wednesday morning, no one was around to spot me searching for the cache, though a leaf-blowing guy came by just after I put it back in the hiding spot.

A sunny, fall day

The Most Embarrassing State Gemstone? is another earthcache off the trails in Columbia, Maryland. The state gemstone is the Patuxent River Stone, which was assumed to be agate or fossilized dinosaur bone. Gemologists complain that it's just quartzite, a fancy bit of sandstone. So maybe it's embarrassing? At least it is only found in the Maryland area and it's not so rare that it can't be found. The cache location is a sand bar in the Patuxent River that has plenty of stones. I could not find any Patuxent River stones when I was there (go to the cache page link above if you want to see them). Still, it was a fun spot to visit.

Proof that I was at the cache location

The river

My final cache for the month was another easy mystery cache, X marks the spot, or does it? a LOB. I am not sure what "LOB" stands for, but the find was easy enough. The find is near a pharmacy, so maybe Rx marks the spot?

View from the cache area, railroad tracks nearby!

I end September with only three holes in the calendar, so definitely under the goal of fewer than ten. The cumulative count is 138 for the year (a new high) and 664 altogether. A good month!