A scanner darker

I did not enjoy this story. 2/5 stars.

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mfw@wyle.org | 1.425.249.3936

Valkyrie Burning

Book four of the series picks up a loose end to continue the story from book three.  I am enjoying all of these books and hope the author can churn out some more.  5/5 stars.

Valkyrie Rising

This military space opera series is starting to become less mysterious. And the author is anthropomorphising the aliens to the point where they may as well be human, sigh.  None-the-less the story is fantastic and thoroughly enjoyable.  5/5 stars.
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The Churn

This Novella is another small vignette that provides background about a character in the "Expanse" universe.  I enjoy the books but this one is not as awesome as most of the other works the authors have published.  4/5 stars.

Tangent lines between two circles

I helped my nephew with his Math homework tonight.  I remembered my geometry from over 40 years ago!

Words of Radiance

This series is as good as Tolkien.  Fantastic high fantasy with great characters and storytelling. 5/5 stars; cannot wait for the next one.

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mfw@wyle.org | 1.425.249.3936

Gods of Risk

I am grateful to the editors for cutting these scenes from the original books and also very happy to read them stand-alone and expanded into novella form.  Please keep them coming.  5/5 stars

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mfw@wyle.org | 1.425.249.3936

Why I love eBay

Cultures

I love to experience the "big picture" pattern of other cultures with all of my senses and apperceptions.  I want not only to see the sites when I travel, but also smell the diesel fumes, taste authentic street food, and here the "flavor" of local dialects.  But more than that I want to feel and viscerally experience the attitudes, values, opinions, and sensibilities of the locals, to "get into their heads."  I love to experience the culture, not just observe it.

And it is not only travel that enables this joy.  

Film

Slice-of-life movies like "Breaking Away" (1979) or "Hell or High Water" (2016) are similarly thrilling, especially when the director and dialogue writers craft the accents and phraseology for authenticity.   I even put up with Hollywood Insider provincial films like "Bird Man" (2014) for these glimpses of the Thespian culture.

One of my favorite movies, "The Iron Giant"  (1999) is a perfect example of a slice-of-life culture experience.  Many B plots and background scenes are deeply insightful  hints of the Western USA 1950's culture.  For example, when the main character's mother calls him in from playing with his friends outside you notice the boys were violently fighting and bloody. No one noticed or cared. It was normal.

So what does all of this "culture" experience have to do with eBay?  I am glad you asked. 

EBay

Here are two of my recent purchases on eBay:

And here is an online recipe for homemade twinkies: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/12328-homemade-twinkies

My family and I can now live the same experience in that scene from the movie: whipping fresh heavy cream and spraying it into fresh baked Twinkies.

Selling on eBay

I actually finance many of my eBay purchases by selling on eBay.  It is fascinating to discover the "true" prices -- what an efficient market will bear -- prices of my old stuff that I no longer want.  Right now I am having success selling rare coins.  But I continue to sell old electronics as my family travels the upgrade treadmill.

eBay provides a great marketplace with many buyers who pay much more for my stuff than alternatives.

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mfw@wyle.org | 1.425.249.3936