“We are Forerunners. Guardians of all that exists. The roots of the Galaxy have grown deep under our careful tending. Where there is life, the wisdom of our countless generations has saturated the soil. Our strength is a luminous sun, towards which all intelligence blossoms… And the impervious shelter, beneath which it has prospered.”

Dispatches from Mordor: A game of drones

Dispatches from Mordor: A game of drones

The picture that you see up top, is one that I took myself, while walking along the beachfront area of Sochi, not far away from the city centre and the marina building. You are looking at a radar station mounted above the heads of the beachgoers, on the hillside...
Friday T&A: Black Sea Blues Edition

Friday T&A: Black Sea Blues Edition

The Black Sea is a part of the world that most people in the West are not terribly familiar with, unless they happen to have spent some time in Bulgaria, Turkey, or the other bits of the eastern Mediterranean. It is, of course, a very historic area, and served as a...
Monday morning spreading sheet

Monday morning spreading sheet

Monday is upon us again, and hopefully most of you did not have to face the commute that I did – albeit, at the end of the day, and as part of a multi-day business trip. Suffice to say that, while I enjoy driving (a lot), I DO NOT enjoy having to deal with speed...
“To boldly rock where no man has rocked before”

“To boldly rock where no man has rocked before”

Of all the unexpected things to happen (thus far) in 2026 – and we are only a little over halfway through the year – the idea of the legendary William Shatner, aka Captain Kirk, fronting a heavy metal band, surely is right up near the top of the “too crazy to believe”...
Dispatches from Mordor: My kingdom for a fill-up!

Dispatches from Mordor: My kingdom for a fill-up!

Longtime Readers will recall that I went on vacation back in mid-June for a couple of weeks, and I travelled specifically to Mordor, aka Russia, for that purpose. While I was there, I had the chance to observe Russia’s society, culture, and economy, in some detail,...
Friday T&A: Service Resumption Edition

Friday T&A: Service Resumption Edition

Things are slowly – VERY slowly – returning back to normal around this here patch of rants and tumbleweeds. I went straight from vacation mode to long and grinding hours at work, with virtually zero adjustment time, and that was NOT fun. Fortunately,...
And all of Hell rejoiced

And all of Hell rejoiced

When news broke on July 11th that Sen. Lindsay Graham had “died suddenly” after a “brief illness”, the first thing that came to mind for many of us surely was: IT’S ABOUT BLOODY TIME!!! It is often said that one should not speak ill of the dead. That is a concept...
Monday morning paying the reaper

Monday morning paying the reaper

We are BACK, boys! It has been roughly a month since we had one of these up, and we certainly have a lot of catching up to do. I definitely have a lot of poasts to write up – some about the absurdities confronting us these days, and others about my travels through...
The agony of deceit

The agony of deceit

Over the past week, we have seen a whole lot of noise about the supposed “peace deal” between the Epstein Coalition and Iran. The terms of that “pissdill”, to use a Russianism, are nothing short of devastating for the US-Izzraeli side that initiated a blatant act of...
Summer hiatus

Summer hiatus

Yer very ‘eavy, very ‘umble servant finally landed up in Mordor yesterday, which is where I write this to note that, for the next couple of weeks, I am officially on holiday. It is a very badly needed holiday, at that – I originally planned to head...