Λόγια της πλώρης by Andreas Karkavitsas
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Μια συλλογή από μικρές ιστορίες που έχουν ως θέμα την θάλασσα, και την ζωή βγάζοντας το ψωμί σου από την θάλασσα. Αν και η γλώσσα είναι εντυπωσιακή και όμορφη, που μου θύμησε τις λέξεις και τις εκφράσεις που χρησιμοποιούσε η γενιά της γιαγιάς μου, αρκετές από τις ιστορίες δεν με τράβαγαν.

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At first there was iTools.  Then there was dotMac (.Mac), then there was MobileMe, and now there is iCloud. I think this particular service was what I first used as paid web-hosting, and as a Mac user both at work and as school (before always-connected phones), I used mail, calendar, contact and bookmark sync for everything.  As I slowly moved from an iPhone/iPad ecosystem to Android, so did my slooooow migration from iCloud.  Fist, my website needed PHP support, so I went with a proper web-host.  Then I stopped using Safari as my day-to-day browser (given that it didn't have cross-platform capabilities), then my calendar.  It was really contacts that kept me connected to iCloud, but I finally pulled the plug and imported everything to google contacts.

Well,  summer 'vacation' on Risa is upon us in Star Trek Online, and has been for a while.  This gave me a bit of an opportunity to claim a few more accolades that are Summer Event accolades (as well as go back for a few more Breen ones that seemed 'easy' to get)


Unauthorized beach party - Basically come back to one of the beach-front spots after dark to join a fire-side party.  Ever since the developers changed the lighting effects in the game, Risa no longer has a day-night cycle, so you just parked the character at the spot and left them there until the accolade unlocked.
Tepid, Balmy, and Sizzling - titles for finishing the biathlon in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place.  This was a fun mini-game.  Definitely one of my summer event favorites
In a geological sense - uncovered all the temporal artifacts on Risa through the artifact mini-game.  The pain in the butt here was that you only got one artifact per run, and what you got was randomized, so it took a while to collect them all

Shadow Hugger - On the Solenae space station, basically don't get burned.  I had unlocked this on a secondary character, but since the path branching is random, it took a lot of repeat plays to unlock that path and complete the accolade.
Efficient Exterminator - Also on the Solenae space station - basically complete a swarmer task in under a minute.  This wasn't possible (power/ability wise) when I played through this content originally, but being an overpowered fleet admiral does have its perks.

Breen Capitol Punishment - This is in the mission "aid the Deferi" Basically you need to take out 3 Breen capitol ships, which randomly spawn.  So, lots of warping in and out until the darned things spawned.  Interesting note: we've never gotten this ship as a winter event ship!  Tier-6 Capitol ship for 2019???


Deferi Satellite Technician - Do a mission for 10 days (time gate), fix 4 satellites at a time, get accolade...

Star Trek: Khan by Mike Johnson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This takes place after the movie Into Darkness.  I think that the reader gets a sense of the backstory to Khan - starting in the pre-TOS timeline (where things are the same between the prime and kelvin timelines) and moving across into the kelvin timeline events that got us to Into Darkness. Through this story we see where Khan and the Augments came from, and we get a sense of what the Eugenics Wars were about (elevator version: Absolute power corrupts absolutely). This book keeps the door open for future stories (since Khan and the Augments go back into cryostatis), and -to some extent- humanizes the character of Khan - at least, if you believe his testimony in front of the Federation tribunal.

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Star Trek: Discovery: The Way to the Stars by Una McCormack
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Probably my favorite Discovery-era novel thus far.
Some might say "oh, it's Just a Tilly story..." but I saw it as both a story about families, and a story about education. Tilly's mother basically wants to create a mini-me clone for herself, having Tilly follow her footsteps into the diplomatic core, without regard for what Tilly is interested in. Tilly strikes off on an adventure (skips school basically), in order to discover herself (pun intended)



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Άντε ήρθε και ο Ιούλιος!
Η ζέστη ακόμα δεν ήρθε...αλλά τουλάχιστον έχουμε λιακάδα.  Καλό μας μήνα λοιπόν!