Bookstore Haul: Volume 7 – Those Buddies of Mine

I tell my co-workers about who should be their best buddies. That term, the way I use it in this context, isn’t for people, but items – tools or techniques – that they should make themselves highly familiar with and which will make their daily chores better. Then there are the enemies, or rather, just one at the moment. Enemies again are tools that they need to battle with on a daily basis, a necessary evil.

I say my second buddy is my current Configuration Management tool. He will get you out of sticky situations. Don’t like the code you just wrote? Revert. Who broke the build? Blame. Need to explore alternatives? Branch. Need to deliver? Tag and release. A good CM tool is just the best.

My one and only enemy is Jenkins. It’s a Continuous Integration server. It is opaque to me. It’s got buttons that run jobs. But what they do? I don’t know. Then there are the happy weather, the sad weather, and the stormy skies. Stormy is bad. It always seems to be that.

Jenkins: The Definitive Guide is a book which I hope will make me understand Jenkins. And use it correctly. Eventually, the enemy will be an ally.

Git In Practice is a book to make my second good buddy a good buddy again. Lately, he’s been punching me in the face. I need to know why.

Jason Bourne

Hollywood is bereft of ideas. Jason Bourne, a sequel that no one asked for, is a prime example of the death of creativity in movie land.

It’s a movie that is unnecessary. Bourne’s story was done. He should’ve stayed hid. Yet, like Al Pacino in Godfather III, they kept pulling him back in.

It starts with Julia Stiles showing back up. She’s been gone from Hollywood movies so it was a surprise to see her back. She too should’ve stayed hid because any girl linked with Bourne ends up in a sniper’s sights. She pulls Bourne in with the most hoary of cliches – it was Bourne’s father who started Treadstone and that Bourne was recruited because the government had to lock him as the country’s most steely assassin-spy.

And that was it. A back story which was dumb. He was a better character because of the mystery.

This will be a terrible summer for movies.

1 of 5 stars.

Star Trek Beyond

Star Trek Beyond is the best movie I’ve seen this summer. Thoroughly enjoyable. Currently, I think that it is the best film of the summer. I’ll admit, though, that this summer has been pretty bleak in terms of movies. They have all been mediocre at best.

Anyhow, Star Trek Beyond wants to bring the franchise to the status quo as a television series. It is ready now to boldly go where no one has gone before now that all movie baddies have been defeated.

4 of 5 stars.

Lights Out

I read a review of Lights Out that said the movies sub-text became actual text. Horror films seem to deal with things we can’t really handle in an imaginary way. For this one, the fright was all about depression. That’s all that needs to be said because you can imagine what that the ghost/haunting was about depression. Depression made all too real and literal.

But the word part, the movie did not scare me. I went home, went to bed, closed out the lights in my house. I wanted to be scared of the dark. I wasn’t. I put the lights out on this one.

2 of 5 stars.

Ghostbusters (2016)

Damn, I should’ve written this Ghostbusters review soon after I had seen it a couple weeks ago. Right now I can’t remember anything to say about it.

Okay, now I know. Escalation of stakes was missing from this one. In the original, as the movie progressed the stakes were raised. And the stages could be felt. For this one, not so much. I guess they couldn’t mimic the original too much lest they are accused of cheap imitation. It could’ve used some escalation.

The actresses were fine though. They actually were the funnest parts of the movie. And to be honest, the first scare had me hiding my eyes behind my fingers.

I will enjoy this when they run the Ghostbusters double feature on Comedy Central.

3 of 5 stars.

Bookstore Haul: Volume 6: Overdue Library Books

I forgot that I am doing this series. Whelp, it isn’t the first time I don’t post anything until later. Just look at how long it takes me to write up a movie post…

Now why did I get another book? I haven’t even gotten through the myriad of ones purchased already for this series. All books are languishing on the nightstand not being read. Do I really need another one?

The book I had gotten was William Finnegan’s Barbarian Days, autobiography of a journalist/surfer. I’ve read some of the book before. I may even have already a copy! Who knows?

Also bought was Monocle magazine’s annual city ranking issue. Now that makes me want to go visit Japan…

Slaying at the Center

Holy! Let me tell you the godliness going on here. First, the song is Keyakizaki46 breakout first single, “Silent Majority.” Everyone and their oji-san loves it. Second, it looks like the Kami-7 of AKB48 plus a few of their senbatsu sousekyou members. Third, Nogizak46 and their most popular members. Fourth, Keyaki-chan represented by their most popular members as well. And finally, Ikoma Rina from Nogizaka46 killing as center.

Now, this makes me believe that anyone can slay at the center of this song.

Ice on This Hot July Day

Ice! I, too, have a story about ice and Germany similar to the author of this New Yorker article. America is the land of the Free and the land of free ice…

The hotel we were staying had a bar. They all do. Hotels. Bars. The ‘we’ at the moment is co-workers as this was a business trip to a supplier in Germany.

Anyway, in the evening of this one night we had convened at the bar for a night cap. It was one of our last days there so I just wanted a Coke. I was kind of done with drinking beer so I ordered a Coke.

The bartender places a skinny, tall glass of Coke in front of me with one cube of ice in it. Just one cube!

I asked for more ice. They gave me another two cubes!

Germans don’t believe in ice. Europeans don’t in general. In America, we have the free ice.

When we were on vacation in Los Angeles early this month, I lamented the face that there was no ice machine on our floor. That was until I found out it was located around the corner. There is one in every floor.

USA! USA! USA!

ICE! ICE! ICE!