Star Wars Advent 2018 Day 3 and A Wing

Day 3 ! What's in the box .....

As per usual, click for bigger.

I asked for opinions on one of the Discord servers and we think that it's an A-Wing star fighter.

The A Wing was an interceptor star fighter. Lightly armed, a hull like paper but the fastest thing out there. Until you got to the TIE Defenders and some of the other ships where you could abuse game mechanics to make them go even faster.

How about the books ?

I got something wrong yesterday. I put a copy of Around The World in 80 Days on the stand and all my brain saw was The Time Machine. Today, The Time Machine is there ! But I talked about that yesterday.

Around The World in 80 Days was a charming book. I'm sure you all know the story, a newspaper journalist comes up with a plan to go around the world in just 80 days and manages to recruit Phileas Fogg and loyal servant Passepartout to embark on the epic trek. I can't remember much of this particular book except for it being a page turner. It's well worth finding a copy to check out the original legendary tale.

Since then though, there was an animated tale with an anthropomorphized animated man dog character called Willy Fogg taking on the journey. This was a series that I'd race home from school to watch and definitely enjoyed that. It was a similar story with the Michael Palin series, which was recorded in 1988 with Michael Palin attempting the same goal.

One thing that strikes you about these stories is that while they are amazing stories in their own right, the world has massively moved on from when they were written. They are still utterly valid in their own times ... but you become painfully aware that the same journey could not be done now (it would be done differently). Like a trip in a sail junk through the Suez Canal around the Horn of Africa and Yemen. I don't think that trip could be attempted now due to the piracy and rebel problems around there.

We have tamed more of our world but the world has become wilder in the taming.

I'd highly advise you to check out both the book and the Michael Palin series. He has a dry wit, very sharp, highly entertaining.

Next up is Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson and tells the tale of the first 100 settlers to the red planet.

I loved this book and the story of Nadia in particular. In the book, she builds the first permanent settlement and the telling is of a credible settlement that tackles the challenges of heat, power, protection from radiation plus the psychological challenges that are presented to an outdoor culture being forced to live underground.

Red Mars is a compelling book, followed by the decent Green Mars and then Blue Mars, a book which felt like it lost its way for me. As if the series were 1 book too long and the author didn't know how to wrap up the tale. Must read Red Mars again some time.

The last book is one of the legends .... it's Triplanetary by E.E. Doc Smith, the first of the Galactic Lensman books.

When this first came out in 1934, it did not merely add to an established genre, it created it. And I really, really need to read it. I think I read the opening couple of chapters and then had my attention drawn away. I must remedy that.

What else have I been up to ? Check out these brave souls :

Yes, those are Christmas jumpers. What are they flying ?

Glorious isn't it ? The game is called Bomber Crew and I've been checking out its early stages. I wasn't feeling too great over the weekend (ate something that has been disagreeing with me) so I didn't play too much but I did unlock another bit of outfit :

Special hats to keep the crew toasty at higher altitudes.

Oh and that one on the far right, I have my eye on him. He's a rebel.