Sunday, December 26, 2010

A review of "Faceless Killers"

by Henning Mankell

Faceless Killers is the second Kurt Wallander novel that I’ve read (my first was Firewall). I’m now officially a fan of Henning Mankell; this was even better than the first.

Again we’re given the little details that make Wallander a realistic character. While investigating a horrific murder, he deals with mundane issues like weight loss, an aging father, a failed marriage, a troubled child. Many of these problems he’s hopelessly ill-equipped to solve, and he seems to recognize this but soldiers on anyway.

On top of that there’s a peek into Swedish immigration problems. It’s always interesting to get a look at what’s going on in other countries, even in works of fiction.

I’m going to make an effort to find the other books in the Wallander series, and anything else by Mankell that I can lay my hands on.

Tank one hundred and forty-five

Total miles: 50367. Trip miles: 346.8. Gallons: 7.499. Price per gallon: $3.099.

Screen mileage: 50.2 mpg. Tank mileage: 46.5 mpg.

Long drive in the cold, plus some short trips, and a snow storm.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Tank one hundred and forty-four

Total miles: 50020. Trip miles: 180.5. Gallons: 5.016. Price per gallon: $3.099.

Screen mileage: 37.6 mpg. Tank mileage: 36.0 mpg.

Terrible mileage! Lots of cold, short trips, and de-icing time spent with the car sitting and the engine running.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

more climbing

I made it back to the gym yesterday. I was feeling a little tired, and only stayed for about 1 h 20 min.

I started with the most difficult, outward slanting wall, where I still can barely get halfway up a route. Then I moved around back and forth between the vertical wall and the easier one that's less than vertical. I didn't do as well as last time. I completed several 5.5s and the same yellow 5.8 as last time, up the vertical wall. I'm suspicious of that 5.8, because it seems almost as easy as a 5.5. I couldn't complete any 5.7s this time.

Thursday, December 09, 2010

Tank one hundred and forty-three

Total miles: 49839. Trip miles: 243.6. Gallons: 5.204. Price per gallon: $3.039.

Screen mileage: 47.4 mpg. Tank mileage: 46.8 mpg.

Tuesday, December 07, 2010

at the gym


at the gym
Originally uploaded by wereldmuis.

I went for another climb today!

I started out on the wall which slants out a little more than vertical. This is still pretty tough for me, I can't even make it halfway up yet.

That soon got me tired out, and I switched to a wall that was completely vertical. Here I was able to do a 5.8! It was a bit weird, since I could do one of the 5.8s but not the other one. And I couldn't complete a 5.7 either.

When I started to get too tired for that, I switched to a wall that was a little less than vertical, which makes things easier. There I did a 5.5, 5.6, and 5.7.

As usual, it was incredibly fun! I'm glad I finally started up doing this again.