The lighting diagram:

I wanted to take a photo of Scarlett on this background with this dress. She’s in her crazy 4 year old phase, so the poses were all of her own design0. The only one I was able to direct her to do was the one with the glasses. Here’s the lighting diagram:

Someone a few houses away from mine planted a very colorful garden. A few days ago I stopped by to take some photos.

Arcanum 101: Welcome New Students by Mercedes Lackey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I kept going back and forth between 2 stars and 3. I’d probably consider it 2.5 stars, but that’s not an option and I felt like giving the book the benefit of the doubt. I purchased the book as part of one of the first book-related bundles I ever bought. (I *think* from Storybundle) This wasn’t the book that made me buy it.

A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The previous book was mostly about how the war had affected the common folk. While some of that is still present in this book, this time it’s mostly about how the aftermath of the war affects the noble folks. Mostly they’re working on dealing with consequences of their scheming. It’s almost entirely based out of King’s Landing, but includes their deals with the Freys and others. It’s interesting seeing how complicated unwinding some of those deals are. It would be an exaggeration to say it was a Pyrrhic victory, but it wasn’t nice and tidy either.

Star Wars: Dark Empire II by Tom Veitch

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The story had some fun elements like a steampunk Jedi with a steampunk spaceship. But overall, it was a flat sequel that undid a lot of what mattered in the previous story without doing much the advance that main story. That’s probably because the source material, unless I’m misremembering, was a couple graphic novels. There isn’t a lot of room there to change a lot about the Star Wars extended universe. The only thing that made me groan was the catch-phrase-ification of a lot of the main characters’ famous sayings from the first trilogy.

Ansible by Stant Litore

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Like Wool, a series of short stories that slowly reveal more and more if this world. It’s hard to say too much without ruining the beauty of this story. Let’s just say that it is much more terrifying than I thought it would be from the descriptions. And, as I predicted, when you get to the last story, it really hits you with a real whammy.