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review, books, urban exploration

Access All Areas

I’ve always thought it strange that one would write a book about urban exploration. There doesn’t seem to be a need for it. What more is there to say than ‘don’t be stupid’ and ‘don’t get caught’? But Ninjalicious pulled it off with Access All Areas: A User’s Guide to the Art of Urban Exploration. While the high points of the book are the author’s stories of explorations, he offers an amount of good advice and even managed to expand my definition of the Art. It’s also a superior piece on social engineering to Mitnick’s The Art of Deception.

It’s by no means a must-read, but if you are interested in UE, I think it’s worth a skim in the bookstore.

A Question

How can one sanely equate tracking with protection?

I’ll take invisibility for my protection any day.

review, books, rantmedia

The Scabbed Wings of Abaddon

The Scabbed Wings of Abaddon is Sean Kennedy’s second published book. Like The Bloodstained Rabbit the book is a work in occult-horror, but this one is much more mature, both in its concepts and execution.

The editing could still use work – misused punctuation and similar looking but incorrect words are all to be found, though, unlike Bloodstained, not often enough to detract from the overall work.

A recommended read for fans of Sean, the occult, and/or horror.

You Can't Get Run Over By An Abstraction

…and it’s a good thing, too.

review, books

A Song Called Youth: Eclipse

Eclipse is Volume One of John Shirley’s oft-overlooked cyberpunk trilogy, A Song Called Youth.

In it, NATO and the Russians, fighting World War 3, have agreed to limit their warfare to only small-scale, tactical nukes – painfully drawing out the death of the planet (and FirStep, the space colony). Behind the scenes is the Second Alliance, a sort of combination of PNAC, Blackwater, and Jesus Camp. Worldtalk, a stand in for Newscorp, has developed a device allowing them to scan and selectively remove memory of their subjects. The New Resistance, a collection of fighters, refugees, philosophers (and a musician) headed by an ex-Mossad agent (with questionable funding and support), is the only hope against the neo-fascist-corpolitical takeover.

An excellent book, it is perhaps the most disturbing look at our corporate-dominated future. Shirley truly puts the punk in cyberpunk.

Trespass

I went exploring earlier today.

Along a beach, I happened upon three different shelters, all within a few minutes walk of each other. One concrete, one wood, the other plastic (not quite straw).

IMG_0864

(The later two looked occupied, so I didn’t enter.)

A Rare Case of Government Getting Something Right

Washington Governor Signs Bill Rejecting REAL ID

As part of a growing state rebellion, Gov. Christine Gregoire today signed a bill rejecting REAL ID, a new federal identification system that would create a de facto national ID card. Legislatures in four other states -- Maine, Idaho, Arkansas and Montana -- also have adopted measures opposing REAL ID, and lawmakers in more than 20 other states are considering similar action.

State government needs to stand up to the feds more often.

A Mysterious Encounter

I was waiting at the bus stop today when a construction worker walked up to me. He stared at me for a few moments and said “Wow, you look impressive. Cargo pants and everything.” I chuckled, told him thanks, and he went on his way.

About a minute later he came back and said “I don’t want to bother you or anything, but I got to thinking a guy dressed like that could use some wheels.” He handed me a business card and walked away. On the back was written:

www.imz-ural.com Gear-Up Model 2006 Download Manual

Now all I need is $10,995.

The strange part is, this bus stop was in the middle of a large parking lot with no construction site around. When I turned around to see where he walked off to, he was gone.