102922 • Thrift Store Finds

We only went to two thrift stores, and I went to a third. We’ve been to zero for a long time, so this was fun. Almost made it to a fourth store, but something came up and we had to call it a day. Amazing that I found no music, but that’s okay as I have plenty keeping me busy.

• Western Apache Raiding & Warfare • I have read a bit of this already, it is full of first-hand accounts, including the 100-year-old woman, born in 1830, daughter of an Apache chief!

• War at Sea • Full of fantastic paintings by the same artist, illustrating a history of the World War at sea.

• United States Navy Destroyers of World War II • The different classifications for ships has been explained to me a lot, but I still don’t understand exactly what the differences are, which is made far more difficult in that different countries have different definitions, and there are a lot of gray areas. But it looks to be very interesting and I wasn’t going to see it again if I passed it up.

• Science Fiction: The Illustrated Encyclopedia • I almost didn’t get this one, but it goes into a lot of authors and has a lot of great book covers in it. Maybe I’ll keep it, maybe I won’t. But I will read it!

• Hellfire Boys • This looks to be a very interesting book on the logistics of trying to kill and maim the enemy in new, innovative ways. So glad I wasn’t a part of this war.

• Churchill By Himself • A big book full of quotes big and small and in context. Not many people can have a book like this made about them, and this is the only one I know of like this. There might be one on Abraham Lincoln in my dad’s library, but other than that, this is it!

• Grant • I saw this when it was on television, and it was great. Thanks to this, I have an interest in learning more about Grant. Picked it up on DVD at Walmart for three bucks!

• Act of Valor • I did see this a long time ago, and all I remember is that all of the action was really, really good. After watching Open Range last month, a movie I saw years ago and only remembered it as boring, that movie upon re-watch was very good, so maybe this will be the same for Act of Valor. Also, I’m far more interested in this kind of movie after American Sniper, 13 Hours, 12 Strong, Lone Survivor, and Hurt Locker.

• Lone Survivor / American Sniper • I didn’t have a copy of Lone Survivor and only the DVD of American Sniper. Considering that all of the Blu-rays I found today were two dollars or less, it was time to get them.

• Lord of War • I watched this years ago, and every once in a while catch a little bit of it on cable. It’s a bit depressing, but interesting and like I said, it was two bucks.

• 1883 • Paid full price for this at Walmart today, on the strength of Yellowstone. Just finished the first episode, and it’s very good so far. I don’t buy full-price, new Blu-ray series very often, it has to be something I know will be really good.

Finished Re-Reading All Vince Flynn Books!

Just finished all twenty-one Vince Flynn books! (The last eight were written by Kyle Mills.) That only took thirteen months, with breaks in every book or two. I actually bought the latest one brand new, something I never do (except for the Collectors Editions) because it was released right as I finished book number twenty.

So, now I’m starting the twenty-one Brad Thor books, and then I’ll read the ten Kyle Mills books (that he wrote before taking on the Vince Flynn series after Flynn passed away from cancer.)

One of the interesting things about these books is the research that goes into them; Flynn was investigated by the CIA at one point because his books went into things he wasn’t supposed to know; I think it was Thor, who actually went to Afghanistan, embedded with some troops, so that he could accurately write one of his books. And, Mills posted last year about how things he’s been writing about has been coming to pass, which is terrifying since Total Power was about how quickly the world as we know it goes away if the power grid is suddenly gone, and how inept the government is in preventing and dealing with it. Within weeks, millions would/will be dead. It is a pretty simple catastrophe, which doesn’t take much to understand. We all live by a thread.

Learning To Predict The Future