Finally plucked up the courage to drive in Europe. I kept on hitting the driver side window with my left hand and veering the rental car too close to the edge on the right. Lifetime of driving instincts, rain and poor visibility made it difficult. One or two hours of pure nerves and then it just clicked.

We wanted to hike on Easter Sunday but it was pouring down all day so we just drove around all day and had a good old blast. We even found a tucked away small family-run tavern in a deserted mountain village and that was the best meal we had in Crete.

This photo was clicked near Rethymno old harbor, at 5x. The mountain is Psiloritis, the highest point on Crete. Early April, and the cap is still holding.

The telephoto cheats a bit. In person the peak is a smaller wedge above the hills, and you have to work to notice it past the sailboats and the espresso bars. The lens flattens 35 km of haze into nothing and pulls the snowline down into the marina. The view, in real life, is quieter.

Somewhere near the end, there are about five pages I’ll just call the teardrop or droplet event. I read it on the Tube on my commute to work. By the time I reached the office, the impact was showing on my face. A colleague, clearly concerned, noticed before we’d even finished saying good morning. It stayed with me for a good few days. Very few books have managed to do that. There is a lot to critique: the overall style, the author’s biases, views that I don’t align with. I loved it anyway. The best book in the series for me.

The Dark Forest on Goodreads

Remembrance of Earth’s Past Series on Goodreads

This is just too cute and funny.

Finally upgraded from my 6S to iPhone X, which shipped with Animoji. Few animated characters that mirror your face in real time using the TrueDepth camera.

I showed it to my toddler. She just saw a cat that copied her face, and completely lost it.

Cat

Few minutes later she found the panda.

Panda

Voilà! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition! The only verdict is vengeance; a vendetta held as a votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. Verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it’s my very good honour to meet you, and you may call me V.

— V for Vendetta (2005)