I’m Baaa-aack

Somewhere I can hear Steven Tyler’s rasping vocals

The holidays were spent mostly work free. The plan was to be 100% work and deadline free but a stack of chapters for the Hyper-V book came back for review.  We’re into the production or PDF review stages now.  4 of my 6 chapters have gone through their third of 4 reviews.  Not long now!

My Christmas holidays usually feature a lot of gaming.  This year I bought Red Dead Redemption from Gamestop (a used copy).  The disc was scratched.  This is usually where I rant …  but the staff in the Newbridge store checked the disk, checked for alternative copies (there were none), and gave me an apology and my cash back.  Nice one, Gamestop!

I’ve loved GTA IV and the add-ons so I wanted to play this game: Grand Theft Auto with cowboys   I got it via Xbox Live and spent way too much time raising hell out west:

I also finished reading No Easy Day, the story of one of the DEVGRU (Seal Team 6 guys) that was second or third into the room when UBL was killed.  That was quite an interesting read.  The thing that stands out: the top special forces unit in the USA, a country filled with guns, well … they use guns made in Germany.  H&K have a lot to thank the SAS and the Iranian embassy for.

Free time and good weather rarely crossed paths in 2012 so I didn’t get much time out with my camera gear last year.  I scouted the coastline in my home country for some likely spots for a sunrise photo shoot.  I hate New Years Eve and was early in bed, planning to take advantage of good (too good actually) weather on Jan 1st.  I drove out, and started a 2 point turn to park on the lane.  My car got stuck in some wet sand on the road’s edge.  It was still 90 minutes before sunrise so I resolved to get loose when I got back from the beach and my shoot.  There were no clouds to speak of, so no colour, and the decision to “shoot” black and white was made.

Afterwards I went back to the car.  Rocking, pushing, rocks under wheels, bags under wheels … none gave me traction so I had to call my rescue service.  40 minutes and a 3 second tow later and I was free.

I was back in the office today. The self-imposed non-blogging has ended.  There’s a series of posts that I’m thinking of doing.  In the meantime, I’ll keep updating with the usual snippits.

And no, I don’t know when the book is out.