Healthcare, Re-reads and Peggle

For the last few days, I have had some sort of viral issue with my sinuses. According to the Urgent Care physician I saw, this happens and there isn't much that can be done. Apparently the test to determine if something can or can't be done is to tap or put pressure on your face (over the eyebrows, dead center between the eyebrows and on the cheek bones below the eyes). If it is uncomfortable/painful and you already are stuffy/drippy, etc. you might have an infection. Otherwise, stuffy/drippy stuff in your head that moves around when you lay on one side or the other may just be something viral that will have to just run it's course. Notice all of the ifs and maybes here? It seems like a lot of guess work.

It doesn't help that all of it just dehydrates you like a mad-man (or woman) and makes your eyes all scratchy so playing games/reading/looking at the world is not nearly as much fun. The doc prescribed a steroidal nasal spray to reduce the inflammation and said he would leave a note in my file that if I called with pain they would call in an antibiotic prescription without me needing to come back to the clinic. Now on to healthcare.

Working for a company that provides health insurance options, I have what is called a high deductible plan with a Health Savings Account (a pre-tax funded by your own money - or company contribution - account for healthcare related expenses). This means I pay every bit of the health costs until a meet a deductible ($3000 for the family) and then I pay 10% of costs until I reach out of pocket maximum ($4,500 I think). While paying all of the fees, I still get the insurance negotiated rate for any health services. Sounds normal, right? Guess what a 1 hour visit to Urgent Care (where I saw the doc for 5 minutes and most of the time was spent filling out my paperwork) and a 30 day supply of Nasonex from the pharmacy costs at "negotiated rates"? $308. A $167 for the office visit and $141 for the prescription.

It probably didn't help that right now is open enrollment for benefits at work and my annual premium for health insurance is going up $250 a year over last year. The max pay increase I am eligible for is 1.25%, so basically after taxes my raise will cover the health insurance increase. Yay!

So what does this have to do with re-reads and Peggle? When I am sick, I have more free time on my hands than usual because the family won't come within 15 yards of me (except the dog, but she is a kindly idiot). Unfortunately, I don't have much will to do anything. After trying to watch Eureka! on Netflix, continue to read Reamde and play ShadowRun Returns, I found myself mainly reading Twitter and playing Peggle. Twitter reminded me that Leigh Butler is still finishing her A Memory of Light (spoiler-filled) re-read over on Tor.com and when I popped over there I was instantly sucked in (again). I don't know if it's the fact that I have already read the books so that this is just refresher or the witty commentary, but in my unhappy state it is easy to follow and the posts can be read in 10 - 15 minutes (perfect amount of time between nose blows).

And that brings us to today's review of re-reads and Peggle - since I don't think you care about the best way to blow your nose without killing your family with germs review. Re-reads, and there are many of them on the internets - especially at Tor.com, are when someone summarizes what happens in a book and then comments on it. They tend to provide insight into how the story relates to other books or pick out foreshadowing and other easter eggs in the story you might have missed. Each post tends to cover one or more chapters of a book (there are also re-watches for TV shows and movies out there). I find that they are like being in a book club without a) having to have book club people to deal with and b) having to do any "homework" for the club. You get to read other people's opinion on the story, get some interesting insights that you might have missed when you read the story and the comments on the post are usually amusing as well. I highly recommend finding one based on one of your favorite books or series. Leigh Butler's Wheel of Time re-read is very good and nearly complete and I highly recommend it if you like Wheel of Time. I am even mulling over doing a re-read here on H. Beam Piper's Space Viking - so maybe watch for that (plus the book can be found for free so you could read along).

On to Peggle. If you have lived under a rock, don't play games or generally don't like fun - you might never have heard of Peggle. Peggle is a fun little game from PopCap Games (yeah those Plants vs. Zombies folks). It has been around for YEARS and is on just about every platform you can think of including mobile, PC and console. The gist of the game is a physics-based puzzle pinball/pachinko variant where you shot 10 balls at little lighted pegs trying to clear all of the orange pegs before you run out of balls. If you hit enough pegs on a shot, you can earn an extra ball. Or if your ball hits the moving bucket at the bottom of the screen you can also get an extra ball. I had a pachinko machine growing up, so this brings back fond memories.


To add a little variation to the game, on each level you are helped by a Peggle Master (a character with a special power up) who, once you hit one of the two special green pegs, will let you use their power for a turn or more. The power-ups might be spooky ball, where the ball falls off the bottom of the screen only to reappear at the top to drop through again and take out more pegs (very high scoring). Or the Fireball that shoots straight and wipes out any pegs in it path. Or Zen ball, that nudges your shot to a more favorable outcome before you fire.

This is a simple little puzzle game that rewards you for placing the ball trajectory just right. There are 50 main levels in the Adventure mode of the game and then many challenge levels to beat as well. There is also a sequel, Peggle Nights, if you beat everything the game has to offer. I also like that Ode to Joy is played when you beat a level - a great way to celebrate. Warning though, the levels go by quickly but you might just keep playing and playing. I have picked it up thinking to do one level only to look up and 45 minutes are gone.

There you have it. If you are sick, try finding a re-read to remind you of one of your favorite books or pick up Peggle, kick back and shoot some pegs. I give Peggle 5 Mick Happies. Until next time...

A Memory of Light Review (spoiler free)

Well it's all over now. More than 20 years and thousands of pages later I now have the full story of the Wheel of Time. The epic fantasy series by Robert Jordan and finished by Brandon Sanderson is the longest continuous narrative I will probably ever read. I have read other series like Robert Adams' The Horseclans novels and the Dresden Files, etc. that already stretch over more books (or eventually will), but those series don't feel like a single story told in 14+ parts.

Often the journey is more satisfying than the destination (or in this case the end). A Memory of Light is a satisfying end to a long complex tale. It isn't the same end that Robert Jordan would have given us in that the pieces are put together in a different way, but the pieces would most-likely have been the same.

A Memory of Light (AMoL), as promised ends the story begun in The Eye of the World but does leave some minor questions for us to ponder regarding the future of this world. One that we will only see in our imaginations after this point. Brandon Sanderson and the team behind this book have done a great job of tying together this long narrative and seem to take special efforts to link in even some of the smallest hints and events in prior books and make them relevant and important to the end of the story.

AMoL is a long book with a staggering number of points of view with many chapters featuring two or more POV. The book has many of the epic moments that has defined The Wheel of Time and many are given quite a bit of space while others come in a single sentence or paragraph leaving you re-reading to make sure you caught what just happened.

Not everything is perfect with the book or the story. Some points are drawn out and tiring to read through while others are rushed and don't feel like they are given enough time or focus. That aside, we get closure - perhaps not in the way we thought it would be or as we hoped but fitting nonetheless.

I recommend AMoL to anyone interested in epic fantasy and contend that the journey is worth investing in the several million words that is the Wheel of Time. It will take a while for it to settle in that the story is now done, but I am happy to have read it. A Memory of Light gets 4 and a half Mick Happies. I hope you take a ride on the winds of time someday (if you haven't already).

My Wheel of Time Collection

P.S. I did get the answer to my RAFO question about Mat and the Deathwatch Guards. (see Towers of Midnight review below for more on that).

Towers of Midnight Review

With the release of A Memory of Light on January 8, 2013, I decided to re-read Towers of Midnight to prepare. Towers of Midnight is the 13^th main book in the Wheel of Time Series published by Tor and written by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. For those few who don’t know, The Wheel of Time is an epic Fantasy series that will, when finished, span 14 main books and a prequel novel. Unfortunately, Mr. Jordan passed away before completing the series and Brandon Sanderson was chosen to finish it based on his notes, outlines and partially written pieces. I won’t try to bring you up to speed on the story so far or explain the series beyond that. If you want a terrific in-depth study on each book, see Leigh Butler’s re-read of the Wheel of Time at Tor.com.

Towers of Midnight (ToM) is the second book that Mr. Sanderson has completed and he does a very good job of delivering a book that is definitely part of the Wheel of Time even if some of the individual words and sections are not exactly as Robert Jordan would have written them.

When I first read ToM two years ago, I found myself impatient with some of the characters and plot lines that get a greater share of the page count. On re-reading the story, I have a better appreciation for how it all weaves together to get the characters to the right place at the right time for the final confrontation to happen. For several books leading up to book 12, The Gathering Storm, the Wheel of Time had slowed down and the story felt like it was grinding under the large weight of the scope of it all. However, within that I had the greater sense that everything was going to come to a final head well before any of the “good guys” were prepared and all of the planning and scheming they were doing was going to be for nothing.

In The Gathering Storm, all seems bleak for the forces of good and it looks like the Shadow (the forces of evil) will win. In ToM, we see that all is not lost for the Light (the good guys) and that they may actually have a shot at winning. There are a lot of great scenes in ToM, which pay off nicely on the narrative debt built up over the previous 12 books. I won’t spoil them, but many are epic, some bittersweet, a few things happen that have you wondering how they will impact the last book and as always you get a sense that the end will not be all roses for everyone. This isn’t George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Fire and Ice where I swear bad things will happen to everyone, but a lot of horrible things have happened over 13 books and there are bound to be more in A Memory of Light even though the events of ToM were pretty pro-good guys.

I realized the other day that I have been reading Wheel of Time books for over 20 years, longer than my daughter has been alive or I have been married. My father suggested I read Eye of the World and I didn’t recognize what he was suggesting I read until a college roommate was reading it and raving about it. For about half my life I have been reading these books and enjoying the journey. I had the opportunity to meet Mr. Jordan a couple of times (4 or 5) at book signings. Most of the time I didn’t have anything to say other than thanks for the story. The last book tour I saw him at (Crossroads of Twilight) I asked two questions:

How long would it take Lan to ride to Tarwin’s Gap?

Would Mat be able to command the Deathwatch Guards?

To both questions I got the usual answer of “Read and find out”.  At the end of ToM I know the answer to one of the two, roughly. I expect the answer to number two will come in A Memory of Light.

I recommend the Wheel of Time series. It can be long and frustrating and enjoyable. ToM is a very satisfying piece in the series and rewards the readers for sticking with the story for over 10,000 pages. Towers of Midnight gets 4 Mick Happies. It isn’t the best of the series, but it is right up there and ramps things up for an epic conclusion in A Memory of Light. Hopefully Mr. Jordan would be satisfied with how it all ends.

Note: There are many websites devoted to The Wheel of Time. One of the best is Dragonmount.com. Here is a trailer that the Dragonmount folks made for Towers of Midnight: