9.5 is the new 2.4

So it's been a few days. Very well. It's also been quite busy, but that's okay. It's how most people keep from dying from boredom, anyway.

So, I've already tacked on the labels for this post before I even got into it, so there's a guideline, yessiree. No digressing sideways, upsidedown, invertedly, oops I'm already doing just that!

First item on the agenda: hockey. Notably, roller hockey. It's one of my favorite pasttimes, but don't remind me of that when winning is hard to come by. When winning is hard to come by, then analyzing roller hockey becomes the favorite pasttime. I've been playing at the Bridgeville Rollerplex, goalie for the Cluster Pucks. Last time we played, we went 7-3, won all playoffs games to win the championship, and I went 2.4 goals against avg (gaa) in the regular season with a 1 gaa in the playoffs. I managed to garner 2 season shutouts and slammed the big blank against the best regular season team in the playoffs. Granted, my defense was amazing - a notch or two above all the other defenses, even if our offense was sort of bland.

This season, through 2 games, I've let up 19 goals! Jimminy-friggin'-cricket, what the bat-crap is going on?! A few things, really. Let's put 'em in a list, but I'll leave it to you to figure out how significant it is, since the Droid X topic is chomping at the bit. And the reasons are: 2 previous d-men don't return, 4 new faces affect team chemistry, current d-men are re-learning which goal they're supposed to protect, there's a gap between "Cluster" and "Puck" whereas last time it was one run-on phrase (kind of an apt analogy for the way the d-men are moving), music before the game? not so much, rt. 79 between Cranberry and rt. 22/30 too intense, Mondays before - Thursdays now, much too humid in all that goalie crap, and added 10 lbs of bacon sees waistline as an ideal place to raise the baconlets.

Second topic: Droid X. Yes, I went all in recently on acquiring the new Droid X, Verizon's recent answer to Sprint's HTC Evo and Apple's iPhone4. I'm on my second Droid X. The first one decided it would develop a screen problem (think ADHD of technology) within 7 hours of activation and found itself back in a box and in the manufacturer's hands not long after that. Replacement showed up Thursday, and so far so good, it's still paying attention. Obtaining one's first 'smart phone' is a good way to develop one's own version of ADHD, btw, as all the new bells and whistles compared to the 2 year-old flip phone clamor for attention. This here blog will be snazzed up sometime soon when the photos and videos start rolling out, giving you people some blurry visuals to feast your eyes on. Yes, blurry. I never had a proper camera before the Droid X, and it's supposed to be the equivilant of a normal digital camera, so we'll see.

Third up: book review! I recently read Catherine Fisher's Incarceron, a YA read that was quick and relatively enjoyable thus far. Thus far? But didn't I finish it? Why, yes, I most certainly did! But it's book one in a series (trilogy most likely), but the books have already been released across the pond in the UK, so the follow up books will be fairly short waits. The next one is slated for release in the US in the Fall.

But who cares, says you, what about the book? Yes, it's an interesting read. I've not read any stories based on an isolated prison that is sentient. The story is about a boy, Finn, who lives inside the prison, known as Incarceron, and is convinced he was born on the outside and thus goes on the quest to find a way to escape. On the outside of Incarceron is a girl, Claudia, who is about to be married to a jerk of a prince and who finds out that Finn may be the long-lost thought-of-as-dead legitimate heir to the throne. Hijinks ensue. It's an enjoyable story thus far, but there are far too many questions left to be answered, as it should be in a series, so my final impression will hinge on how well Fisher addresses those questions.

I would say that it's a story propelled forward by plot, notions of right and wrong, and questions of identity. The characterization isn't all that strong, even though there are a few blah twists, which seem a bit sloppy in my opinion. I guess those twists may take on more significance later on, but it's my experience that they don't. Hopefully Fisher will prove me wrong. I think the biggest question I want to see answered is how Incarceron came to change it's behavior from it's original 'setting', if you will, and turn from a benevolent chaperone to a sadistic justice-above-all entity. The social implications of the Incarceron's original purpose certainly add a moral quandary flavor to the story, and it's done well enough without becoming gratingly repetitive.

And that's today's journey at the Spacefaring Librarian.