Phone.

 We are looking round for a cheap Android phone to replace a mid range phone we've been using since about 2014 / 2015, First as my main phone then as work phone as I phased out a found iPhone4. 

I think its time to put a bullet in it and send it to the mobile graveyard. It lags and frequently runs out of storage. Its an old first gen Moto G, that has seen me through about 3 holidays and about 2 years of work. Complete with beat up case, that looks like its been chewed. I'll be sad to see it go, just gotta get my moxie up and see what will be its replacement.

My requirements are pretty basic, It has to have a good camera and if it was a main phone, some decent storage. A headphone port would be nice, but seeing as I don't make calls much, except in emergencies, having it actually be a phone is low on my priorities. so long as I can receive calls, thats it.

My budget is pretty low, I'd love a RedMi, seeing as my main phone is a Xiaomi, but am tending toward either Oppo or another Motorola, with its gorillion variations.

Embers a review

Edit: all done now.

The Clue In the Embers review

This is not a bad book at all. If you like the Maya and want to see the boys travel to Guatemala in search of a lost temple complex, ala Indiana Jones then this is going to be one for you.

Tony Prito, has inherited a stack of curios from his antique dealer uncle, Roberto. This is not limited to, a bunch of swords, some shrunken heads, and a full sized skeleton.  Also hidden away with some of the other curios,  medals that make a map to the hidden temple of Texichapi. Thanks to some serious hassle from the mysterious Valez and a patriotic society, all clues lead to Guatemala.

While there the boys get to locate the missing temple, and Tony, who has his case go missing at the airport, has to drag up as an Indian shaman. They make a friend of a tribal chief called Tecum-Uman and when Texichapi is located there is a big showdown in the temple before being given a heroes welcome.

It's not bad and at times quite good. There are a few problems here, mainly its to do with the Maya and Tecum Uman. The treasure has quite a lot of gold artifacts, which is nice, but nary any mention of Jade pieces which is what all Maya kings and queens really prized above all else. 

Tecum Uman and his tribe, the Kulkuls do not seem to exist, Tecum himself is a folk hero and probable last ruler of the K'iche Maya, his tribe, though, does not seem to appear amongst the many tribes of Maya Indian peoples. Ladinos, however are widespread and are simply a mix of Maya peoples and later Spanish invaders.

Texichapi itself seems to refer to Tecum Uman, and not an actual place. would like to see how this breaks down in actual Mayan, or if the words exist. Anyway I guess its one of those long forgotten satellite kingdoms in Guatemala, rather than a big centre like Tikal.

The biggest red flag here is not that its super racist or anything (it's not,) or that one of the criminals is disguised as a woman, its that they call them Aztec, which as a people never left Mexico whereas the Maya reached down as far as Honduras and Belize.

The UK text has a few omissions, the boys sorting out the curios when home from the train, and Tony cooking spaghetti, along with a few bits toward the end at Texichapi, but mostly it keeps pretty faithful to the text, with some anglicizing of the text. 

The US rewrite is quite obviously based on the original, with a bit cut out to drop the page count. You lose a few bits and pieces, such as Jorge Almeida speeding, and the arrowhead not being in the campfire bomb at the Theme park. You also get a few bits and pieces added back from the original text, along with a lot of minor edits and not so minor edits as whole chapters are merged together in some cases.

Anyway, its up here and here and here for all three versions.

CSI Vegas

 This should probably go up at the end of the year with the best and worst, but it won't as Alibi finally have a new CSI, this is a reboot of Crime Scene Investigation AKA CSI Vegas.

Like every new show there is a United Nations of a cast which is really weird. They have a black woman in charge, but its OK she's cool, and the only white guy is pretty sketchy. New coroner is OK and there is a Chinese guy on the team (whatever happened to Archie Kao the film Tech) final member is some English Indian lady, as a Brit I know many of them are more English than the English so her accent throws me a bit.  Finally we get Jorja Fox and William Petersen return as Sara Sidle and Gil Grissom and no one else.

Willows has retired and what ever happened to Greg and Nick we never find out. Its been a few years there must be a few people there from the old show. But it seems to be an all new cast. We don't even get Lindsay Willows as a cop.

The case revolves around a cold case that could turn out to be potentially damaging for a lot of old cases, (Hodges keeping a lock up full of old case data that may or may not be a coverup.) Its not bad and we find out that Jim Brass the coppers cop has retired and has some visual degenerating disease. He also shoots dead some guy who tries to assault him, not bad for a half blind old guy. 

Hope they keep the quality up and don't go down the identity politics route or being total wank such as CSI Cyber. I saw the original ads for this while I was coming off of the Coof so, here's hoping it keeps up its quality.

EDIT. Current episode is based in gaming, women dev is killed and of course they namecheck gamergate.

8 years on and they still can't let it die.

Crossrail

Finally kicked Covid into touch on Thursday. Good enough to go back to work, where I find the text I sent explaining my absence didn't go through and now I have a letter moaning about being awol. :I

Seeing as my mum has finally gotten over Covid as well, its decided that we'd go down to Romford a place which we like. Its OK for junk touring nothing spectacular, mostly we go because there's a Pop-in cafe one of the best places around for food. 

As the Elizabeth line is finally up and running, (seriously any one local gonna call it that, Its Crossrail and always will be.) we decided to go that way and change at Liverpool St, If you're going to do it that way be aware its a long walk and you'll be charged for two journeys. Best to get the DLR to Stratford and then get Crossrail to Romford as you'll be charged for one journey.  

Anyway, they're good trains, nice and real long, so much so that the end carriages don't open and you'll need to shuffle down the train to exit at certain stations. Apart from that and the long walk, I'd give it 7/10.

Got SARS2 electric boogaloo

 Was going to end up the Limassol holiday posts with a few thanks and maybe some cat posting if I hadn't done so before then on Wednesday night, I get a fever.

It all started watching QI and laughing like I'm high to some lame joke one of the panel said, like I'm ripped to the tits on E's. Not a good sign as mostly the Toksvig era is normally high on the feminist and low on the jokes. Going up to bed, it all started going wrong. Body temp kicked up and down and got the aches and pains like when I had my jabs. 

Thought it was the flu at first, decided to walk uphill to work from home and that was a big mistake, made ten minutes before texting my line manager and the guys in suggesting I have Covid after its long passed.

Slept till lunch and took a test for about the third time ever, yeah, we have the coof and don't know how I got it. Lost my appetite, my energy but not my sense of smell or taste. Spent the next two days sleeping on and off. Trying my best to keep my distance from my parents who now have it. It's come to the point today that I still have it but now have no symptoms, still a little fatigued and tired. But not burning up or wanting to sleep all day like a cat.

Anyway you might as well have them thank you bits from holiday.

Thanks Harmony Bay for all the cats. You really look after them strays.

Thanks Yellow Cafe Limassol Harbour. For playing that one deep house track while I had my coffee, especially when the 303 kicked in. Along with all the odd reggae covers you played.

Finally thanks to Sigma bakeries. Though we thought you were a national chain of shops rather than the local bakers. Looks like the Cypriots take baking serious. You had really great rolls.