This is Dinant:
You have now seen Dinant.
What, you want more? Oh, alright then…..
Brussels – 3
Welp, time to take a walking tour and learn about the history of Brussels. I booked a tour online through Viator, but it doesn’t seem like you need to do that. Just get to the Grand-Place / Grote Markt (Brussels’ main square) early enough, and look for someone carrying a brightly colored umbrella with a flag on the top. They’re a tour leader, and the flag indicates the language of the tour. I don’t think they care if you tag along; a lot of the umbrellas say “Free Tour”, and there’s no sign that they check people at the start. Just show up and tag along. At least I didn’t pay much for my tour.
Brussels – 2
I stayed at the La Bourse Hotel. As the name suggests, it’s located next to The Bourse, which used to be Brussels’ “stock exchange”. It’s also rather centrally located, a few blocks away from the Grand-Place, the city’s main square. It’s a small hotel; there’s not much room in the city center for jumbo resort megahotels. But all you really need in a hotel is a clean and comfortable place to sleep, change clothes, wash up, and store your stuff. La Bourse did all that.
Brussels – 1
I am of the opinion that if you are flying to a foreign country, especially a “first world” one, you simply must travel via that country’s national airline. You’ll be eased into life there – announcements will be in the country’s language as well as English, the food might be from the country or otherwise reflect their cuisine, the amenities kit that you get in business class will be made by a designer from there, etc.
Brussels – 0
It’s been several years since I traveled to Europe. I’m not getting any younger, so I felt it was time to go back while I’m still young enough to enjoy it. Being able to afford it now helps.
Why Brussels? Mostly because it’s a little off the beaten path. I also considered London and Paris, but decided against them as they are too common. I wanted someplace more on the unusual side – so people would want to hear my travel tales. Belgium is known for two of my favorite things – beer and chocolate – so I’m sure to have a good time. Also, English is spoken quite regularly there, and there are direct flights from my nearest international airport.
Planning, though, can be a pain.
Pond in a Jar 10
Well, after nearly two years, it’s still alive! Can’t say I could call it “thriving”, but there are three little snails in there. None of them are visible in the photo – but you should be able to pick out a bit of hornwort that managed to survive getting crowded out by the other plant. The one that we watched grow from a little seedling – and is now trying to push against the lid. Some parts of it are not doing so well (no idea why the leaves are spotty and brown (and I don’t really care)), but others, as you can see, have a nice lush green color.
Still plenty of that ugly fuzz, and not as many swimming dots as before. I hope that’s a seasonal thing. I’ll try and catch some more when I get water for the next topping off – which won’t be too long from now; evaporation in the summer heat is noticeably lowering the water level.
A different viewing angle this time.
MOVIE REVIEW: The Big Clock (1948)
George Stroud (Ray Milland) is the editor-in-chief of “Crimeways”, essentially a print version of a “True Crime” podcast that’s earned a reputation (and its market share) for identifying the guilty before the police can. He’s trying to take a well-earned vacation with his wife, but his bully of a boss, Earl Janoth (Charles Laughton), pulls him back to take charge of a new story – a model who did some work with another magazine in Janoth’s publishing empire has been found dead in her apartment. George is tasked with finding the killer RIGHT AWAY before they have to call in the police.
What Stroud doesn’t know – but we viewers do – is that Janoth is the killer. The model was his mistress, and he killed her in a fit of anger when she broke up with him. What Stroud does know is that after he believed he got fired and missed his train to head out on vacation, he went out for a couple of drinks to drown his marital troubles – and wound up meeting the mistress, visited a few drinking establishments with her (and doing things that made him memorable), and then saw her back to her place before heading off to join his wife. And all the investigating he’s doing is making it more and more likely that he’s going to be nailed for the murder.
A rather interesting set up for an early “film noir”, isn’t it.
At the Halfway Point
Well, not literally, the teams have already played Game Number 81. But it’s still close enough, and the usual time to take a break and assess the season so far.
There’s the usual chatter about Surprises (Tigers) and Disappointments (Orioles), First Half Award Winners – and can they keep it up in the second half (Cal Raleigh), which teams will be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline….but I’m not enough of a fan to speak with any sort of expertise on any of that.
With regards to the All Star Game, we’re so used to interleague play that the prospect of seeing the stars of the two leagues facing each other holds no special attraction to many fans. And 24/7 sports media coverage means we’ve already had the chance to at least become familiar with any star players (even if we haven’t seen them in a game).
As much as some might try to, making the actual All Star Game exciting is a wasted effort. Forcing things so that every player on the rosters – all 70 (is that how many there are these days?) of them – gets into the game means there’s not that much chance for excitement (we were lucky this year). Paul Skenes won’t be staring down Aaron Judge with the game on the line in the late innings…. Heck, the high point of the whole thing is the player introductions – which FOX made a mess of as usual. You had those nice little name and team graphics for the starters; would it kill you to have them for all the other players, too?
Is it really necessary to analyze the Home Run Derby and give us all sorts of pointless stats and “takeaways”? Let the thing be nothing more than what it is – a fun, cool, awesome – and pointless – thing. But a “Home Run Derby” as a tiebreaker is a stupid way to end a game. I understand why they had to do it, but you still can’t make me like it. Especially since there was no hint that it was how a tie would be resolved in the broadcast of the game. By the way, how is the final score recorded in the record books? 6-6? 7-6? 10-9???
At least they didn’t have those garbage special “All Star Game Uniforms” and let the players wear their actual, normal ones during the game.
BOOK REVIEW: Service Model
Service Model
Adrian Tchaikovsky
Tor Publishing Group
Copyright 2024 by Adrian Czajkowski
If Charles the Valet-Bot were programmed to feel boredom, he’d probably be bored out of his mind over the constant repetitiveness of his tasks. There’s never a single change in the daily routine; his misanthropic hermit of an owner is content to just sit around his estate watching TV all day.
Until one day when Charles starts finding unusual reddish stains everywhere. He slowly comes to the conclusion that his owner was murdered – and he’s the murderer. This means he must report to Central Processing to be reprogrammed, since one cannot have killer robots on the loose.
This starts “Uncharles” (as he now designates himself) on a picaresque odyssey across a post-collapse landscape, searching for another master to serve – and trying to make sense of all of this.
Sound Familiar?
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world.
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent.
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury.
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences.
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us…
– Excerpts from the charges against King George III in the Declaration of Independence.
Pure Blather 