Raithe

Have some people I know attending Anachro-Con in Georgia this coming February, and got an invite along to catch up with them. So I decided to take time off work and book a flight over the pond for it. Of course, not originally paying attention to the specific date until after I said I'd go, I've suddenly realised it's that whole 14th-16th February Valentines Weekend... and one of those people is an ex of mine. So that might be a little quirky. Still, steampunk ahoy and all that.

Had one of those long weekends. Took Friday off work, had all sorts of plans and things to get done. Then just that constant stream of petty, minor mechanical issues cropping up to nearly everything I was doing. I mean, sure, we all get those "5 minute job that ends up taking an hour because x happened", that's part and parcel of life. But good grief, EVERYTHING this weekend was that. I'm almost looking forward to Monday for the love of life. With the way Murphy has been riding everything creative I've tried doing this weekend, I've decided against cooking flapjack cookies and pondering on a deep bath, and/or watching Dollhouse on Amazon Prime instead.

Wired - Google's "Quantum Supremacy" isn't the end of encryption

Trump White House - The irony of the Secret System "Instead, the transcript was loaded into a separate electronic system that is otherwise used to store and handle classified information of an especially sensitive nature. One White House official described this act as an abuse of this electronic system because the call did not contain anything remotely sensitive from a national security perspective."

I was being entertained by this.. up to the point of "Roman War Chariots"...

The New Yorker - Trump says he has been treated very unfairly by the people who wrote the constitution

Sony and Marvel strike new deal to keep Spider-Man in the MCU

The Onion - Area family putting a little money away to one day blow on a single health scare...

Mary Mallory / Hollywood Heights - Schafer Simplifies portraits The background of the photographer who gave the world "Thou shalt not"

Anna. Doesn't have the usual Luc Besson over the top visuals, so that's a bit of a surprise. However, it does have a whoole lot of matroshka doll storytelling via flashbacks to show you how the motivation and story you think you're seeing is actually something else. As that whole espionage with a semi-willing female operative looking for freedom, does have a element of Nikita-vibe and callback to it. Basically the story of a girl turned into a KGB operative, and being caught up in the powerplays between the KGB and CIA in the late 80's and early 90's. Works nicely, if you can enjoy that sort of "5 years earlier", "6 months earlier", "1 year later" sort of back and forth. With a definite strong supporting cast of Helen Mirren, Luke Evans, Cillian Murphy, However, there is the slight glitch of some anachronisms that might throw you out - general technology; laptops, mobile phones, and basically usb drives, being used in Moscow in that time period... But ah well. Sit back , ignore the plot holes and oddities, and enjoy some spy silliness.

I've been caught out a bit, I spent about 15 odd years not getting to bed until after I'd settled my mother and made sure she had her meds and was dozing off. Which meant, I wasn't in bed till about 0230-0300. Then I'd be up around 0930-1030ish to get her the morning meds and start the day. Now I'm working in an office environment, I'm having to get up at 0630, but find it's pretty much impossible for me to fall asleep before midnight. So for the last 6 months, I've been averaging around 4-6 hours sleep a night.

For that slight callback... FIlmSchoolRejects - Rutger Hauer, Blind Fury