Fear

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown." -- H.P. Lovecraft in "Supernatural horror in Literature" (1927)

Never compromise.

"Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon." -- Rorschach in Watchmen

One of the best movies I have seen in past decade. Though personally I would not agree on the quote, I must admire the character's consistency (others might call it stubbornness, but I am not).

Old Man's War

I have finished John Scalzi's "Old Man's War" some time ago, and it was really nice, solid Science Fiction in my humble opinion. Although some compare it Robert Heinlein's "Starship Troopers" I cannot say the same. While Heinlein's novel has kind of the same structure as Scalzi's work, it has more depth in terms of military background and a more philosophical approach. Scalzi's work on the other hand is more science orientated and the description of the alien societies is far more intriguing.

What's the story? Here's the back cover teaser from the book:

John Perry did two things on his 75th birthday. First, he visited his wife’s grave. Then he joined the army. The good news is that humanity finally made it into interstellar space. The bad news is that planets fit to live on are scarce - and alien races willing to fight us for them are common. So, we fight, to defend Earth and to stake our own claim to planetary real estate. Far from Earth, the war has been going on for decades: brutal, bloody, unyielding. Earth itself is a backwater. The bulk of humanity’s resources are in the hands of the Colonial Defense Force. Everybody knows that when you reach retirement age, you can join the CDF. They don’t want young people; they want people who carry the knowledge and skills of decades of living. You’ll be taken off Earth and never allowed to return. You’ll serve two years at the front. And if you survive, you’ll be given a generous homestead stake of your own, on one of our hard-won colony planets. John Perry is taking that deal. He has only the vaguest idea of what to expect. Because the actual fight, light-years from home, is far, far harder than he can imagine. And what he will become is far stranger.

Would I recommend "Old Man's War"? That's a definitive yes, if you like Science Fiction in general and military SF in particular.

By the way, In the meantime I have finished the sequel "Ghost Brigades", although sequel is maybe the wrong term here, since it is located in the same universe, but from a totally different perspective this time.

Monks

This week I had to stay in Munich, Germany on the weekend due to job obligations. Since I didn't have to work on Sunday, I took the opportunity to take a tour of Munich. My main point of interest was the Alte Pinakothek, which has an impressive collection of german and dutch paintings from the 15th to 17th century. After taking a look at these paintings (you should do, too), I strolled through Munich's inner city area and took some additional pictures.

Left: The Glyptothek is a museum with a collection of Greek and Roman sculptures.


Right: Detail of one of the niches on the façade.

Left: Lenbachhaus with the last day of a Wassily Kandinsky exhibition.


Right: Alte Pinakothek is an old art museum, which suffered greatly during World War II.

Left: Pinakothek der Moderne, although I didn't enter it today, it's possiblly one of the next I want to visit.

Right: The New Munich Townhall at the Marienplatz.