What I Am Reading - Will to Live: Dispatches From the Edge of Survival

Will To Live: Dispatches From the Edge of Survival

Les Stroud

Read it in Paperback at about 228 pages, large print, pictures, and lists.

So behind on these damn things, especially those non-fiction picks, but in any event, this was the December and final pick for OTC Book Club 2013 slaying season.  BoozyCoug once again got the pick and had selected Will to Live: Dispatches From the Edge of Survival by Les Stroude.

A short little book formulated with extreme stories of survival, each amazing and increasingly bleak, laced with Les's opinion of the situation that the survivors got themselves into, what he might have done, and a checklist for surviving the situation at hand.  In-between, we have recaps of Les surviving as captured in the show, retold with words.

While I was initially very excited about this selection since Les is such an interesting individual in the survival community, it was demonstrated that he should stick to the digital medium instead of the written one.  Personally, I had seen the show (most of it) so the recap was boring and didn't add much that wasn't already covered in each of the applicable episodes.  These gaps between the dispatches dragged, even as a fan of the show.  Most of the dispatches were not really covered all that well.  To me, Les covered it at the 10 thousand foot level without diving into a lot of history, backstory, or comparison for the dispatches.  While I was hoping for a Les prospective and more information on the individuals and their situation, I felt I got no more information than if I had watched a quick news broadcast and Les's input wasn't all that…helpful or insightful.  I guess at least I have the tips to surviving some very extreme events…?

While I know most fans will disagree with me, I am a fan, and this book seemed padded for sales instead of what it should have been.  By my opinion aside, how did OTC take this?

On a scale of 1 to 10 with a 1 being a candidate for stuffing a corpse and a 10 ordained to wrap it:

Th3ee: 3

Dust: 5

Hylen: 6

G$$: 4

SS: 5

BoozyCoug: 6

Shely-the-Don: 3

So we only had seven people finish and pulled an average reader score of 4.5.  Ouch Les.

I am going to skip a lot of our conversation details on this one since they are all pretty pointed towards the survival situations in the book.

What I Am Reading - Ham on Rye

Ham On Rye

Charles Bukowski

Read it in small paperback, 288 easily read pages.

Our August OLT selection by BoozyCoug, short and sweet, with an added bonus that I have never read a book by Mr. Bukowski, ever. Short and sweet, with silly short chapters and an easy read feel throughout.  Let's dive in.

This is the story of Henry Chinaski.  We get to see Henry grow up through the great depression with all of its troubles and tribulations.  The book starts with Henry in his younger years, visiting family, experiences with his father and mother, to his first years at school.  From there we follow Henry through his adolescence, his change from a small boy to middle school, his hard times dealing with an unusual puberty, the problems of other boys and girls at that age, and being in locations you don't feel you belong.  Onward still with his adventures in higher education before the book terminates at the onset of World War 2.

It's short and easy to read, but there is sensitive and graphic accounts here of women and other things people encounter in adolescence.

-Potential Spoilers Below-

For OLT book club, it faired alright.  We had eight esteemed fellows finish with an average score of 5.5 on a scale of 1-10, with 1 being scrap for wiping defecation and a 10 as a world changing text.  Independent scores below:

BoozyCoug: 7

Hylen: 4

SS: 5

TechManDave: 6

Dust: 6

Th3ee: 6

G$$: 3

Shelly-The-Don: 7

Overall not bad of a score really.  If G$$ money had enjoyed it a little more it might be one of the higher rated books this year.  Looking at what everyone put down for their favorite moments, there isn't much consistency, which makes sense since a lot of really interesting things happen to Henry throughout the course of the book.  Some of my notes for favorite/lasting moment include:

"One armed kid fight scene."  Cometh the destroyer.

"Kid masturbating in class" which was another's favorite described as "When the kid is thump-thumping in class and everyone just tries to ignore it."

Obviously Henry encountered some interesting things.  For the least favorite moments, there wasn't a lot to report. 

Overall decent read and was happy enough with it that I would read more Bukowski in the future.

What I Am Reading - Go Like Hell

Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans

By: A.J. Baime

Read it in cheap paper back at 320 pages.

Our November selection is brought to you by Dust.  Our little reading group has two practicing mechanics, a third college educated (no longer practicing) mechanic, and a few car enthusiasts.  One of these enthusiasts is Dust and thus picked A.J. Baime's Go Like Hell.

Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans is well, exactly that.  The car industry in the late 1950's and early 1960's was poised for reformation at the hands of many eager youth looking for freedom, responsibility, and a self-identifying image that they could find in a car.  Sales were directly affected by winning races and Ford looked to get in on that as the company was also looking for a new angle to sell cars and ensure dominance both at home and in Europe for car sales.  Naturally, in there way lay Enzo Ferrari and his quest to win in cars that were beautiful, fast, and most importantly winning.  This is the true tale of the companies, their owners, the teams, the mechanics, and of course the racers that would ultimately come to play their positions in the 1966 Le Mans. 

-Potential Spoilers Below-

Overall I expected high rankings from this book.  With so many people in the field and the many enthusiasts we have in this book club, it was unavoidable.  What many a reader was worried about was the level of detail that Baime would use in his descriptions of the cars, races, and overall technology of the industry in the 1960's.   Luckily Baime did well and for some of us, we actually wanted more details.

From a OTC Book Club scale of 1-10, with a one being a convenient wipe for your posterior and a ten a treasured capsule of prose:

Th3ee: 7

G$$: 8

Dust: 9

Hylen: 6

BoozyCoug: 7

Shely-the-Don: 7

SS: 6

Mech Dave: 8

We had 8 people finish with an average score of 7.25.  I think we all inflated this based on our interest in cars.  I can't say that I would recommend the book to someone that didn't have an interest in cars.  But that's not to discount how much we all enjoyed the book, I just think it would have been a point lower (perhaps a 6.25) if we were a little more critical.

We all had a hard time with are standard template questions that I use to foster conversation about the books.  There are a lot of people to like in this book from the tycoons present in Ford and Ferrari, to the racers for each team who possessed sheer talent laced with mystery and quirks, and of course mechanics with insatiable attention to power and detail.  Shelby probably one the prize for best character as he was in a way, all three of the things described above and had enough charisma to carry the title of our favorite character.  A callout to racer Miles who was also loved by many of us.

One of our least favorite moments was about the end of the 1966 Le Mans in which Ford finally gains their title.  We felt that the ending to the race was a huge disservice to the racers and the competitive spirit embodied in racing itself.  We all felt that the ending might have been different if the racers knew what the teams knew rounding those final laps.  Lets be honest, Miles got fucked, hard.

Overall an interesting pick and we were all pleased with it.

What I Am Reading - The Time Keeper

The Time Keeper

Mitch Albom

Read it in quaint paperback at 224 pages.

October's selection went to Shelly-the-don and saw us reading Mr. Albom's The Time Keeper.  While Mr. Albom is more widely known for Tuesdays With Morrie.  None the less, a tale of time indeed.

Among the first men, there was Dor.  Dor has a thing for keeping track of things, most notably, duration.  This infatuation leaves Dor in abandonment.  Through that abandonment he loses his wife but gains the understanding for time, in essence, Dor is the father of time which he inherited through his incessant measurement of it.  As penance for its creation, wise god locks him up, only to release him with a task in modern time.  Dor's task is to find one who wishes to have more time, and one who wishes to have less.  Through this task, Dor finds Sara and Victor.  This is the story of Dor, Sara, and Victor.

Overall it was a pretty simple tale read quickly.  Albom does a good job of writing short chapters that keep things moving and convey a point, without getting bogged down all that much by pesky details.  This short book was designed to express time and not explicitly for building drawn out sequences to prove his message or give you too much character building to question any of the characters motives throughout, they simply are and exist as part of a greater framework to prove Albom's point(s) about time.

-Potential Spoilers Below-

So how did it fare among us picky, and tried readers.  With a scoring model of 1-10, one being tissue to be disposed of after blowing your less desirable contents on and a 10 being the gospel of life:

Shely-the-Don: 7

Th3ee: 7

BoozyCoug: 4

G$$: 7

Hylen: 7

Tech Tom: 7

Dust: 4

SS: 3

Mech Dave: 7

Baby Deer: 10

We had ten readers complete with an average score of 6.6, which really wasn't all that shabby considering the three people who felt Albom's efforts where a miss.  Those three among us generally felt that Dor's discovery of time was impractical, and some just couldn't suspend belief on that front.  A tricking thing the quantification of time.

For the most part, Dor was an instant favorite, with a call-out for poor Sara (Shely felt compassionate for what transpires in her situation, namely the loss of a hopeful mate which is the Sara sequence of the book and primary character plot points.) A call out as a favorite for the god character and of course one for rich Victor.  Our favorite and least favorite moments vary and for many are interchangeable which for me is always a sign that we have a decent book among us.

As much as we all enjoyed it, I wonder how long Ablom's tale will stay amongst us and if perhaps in review if it would hold its 6.6 average.  I say this based on the lack of pesky details I mentioned above.  Without a level of detail, I find retention of a novel, especially one like this, tends to sway beyond its initial shiny object fixation.  Oh well, we leave that for the year in review. 

What I Am Reading - Command and Control

Command And Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety

Eric Schlosser

Read it in Hardcover at an investment of 640 pages thick with it.

Browsing the book bin at Costco is dangerous, especially when you walk out the door with a 640 page tomb.  None the less this was excellent and consumed it greedily.

"They are out there, waiting, soulless and mechanical, sustained by our denial - and they work." - Schlosser

Command and Control looks at the events leading to the creation of the nuclear bomb, it's creation, how it works, initial use and testing, military and political leaders at the time of creation and their general attitudes towards the bomb, protocol for use, as well as the miss management of the stock pile; and technical advancements from a technological perspective as well as following these criteria to the near current world.  It's  thorough and engrossing to say the least.  All of which is spun through the story of the Damascus Arkansas non-nuclear accident that carriers the reader along as they learn about the most feared weapon on the planet.

There are several themes within Command and Control, but it's most prominent is the miss management of our nuclear stockpile throughout the decades.  It's a theme that is carried throughout the book and broadcast to the reader.  It's presented in such a fashion that as a reader, I am surprised a full thermonuclear detonation has not occurred on the many military instillations across the world, let alone on American soil.  Of primary interests to me was the detailed account of how to make the stockpile current, or if nothing else, safe and the resistance from our military leaders towards that effort.  The amount of money the government was spending to make new weapons of even deadlier caliber, in the name of deterrence, was staggering.  Especially compared to the price of updating the clearly unsafe stockpile we have had throughout the years right here in our backyard.  The list of accidents is long.

In addition, Schlosser identifies and outlines some very interesting world leaders and the part nuclear weapons played in politics.  One of the more interesting things for me in the book is to hear about the actions of our presidents and top brass, following World War Two and into the Cold War.  For instance, Kennedy, a notoriously anti-nuclear weapon president and fathered the famous 'Sword of Damocles' speech often said one thing while directly doing another.  A short time after giving said speech about the prolific destruction that a nuclear strategy guaranteed:

"Today, every inhabitant of this planet must contemplate the day when this planet may no longer be habitable. Every man, woman and child lives under a nuclear sword of Damocles, hanging by the slenderest of threads, capable of being cut at any moment by accident or miscalculation or by madness. The weapons of war must be abolished before they abolish us."

He met with top brass and officials about investigating and considered adopting a nuclear strategy that weighed a first strike option as the only option.  Command and Control is full of this sort of horrifying stuff and much much more.  To try and capture it all here wouldn't do it justice. 

I learned a lot and was highly charmed with every horrifying page, highly recommended, especially if you are a fan of history. 

What I Am Reading: The Devil in The White City

The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America

Erik Larson

Read it in very 'loved' paper back at 447 pages.

This was a referral from a friend, in which we do a book swap upon return.  It's working well.  She has good tastes and reads interesting things.  I have never read anything from Erik Larson, at all.

Erik Larson is a journalist and author, naturally.  His journalism career spans from his early work for The Bucks County Courier to currently contributing to Time magazine and the Wall Street Journal.  So far, as an author, Larson has published six books in total, The Naked Consumer: How our Private Lives Become Public, Lethal Passage: How the Travels of a Single Handgun Expose the Roots of America's Gun Crisis, A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History, The Devil in the White City: Magic and Madness at the Fair That Changed America, Thunderstruck; and most recently, In The Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin.  All, interesting titles.  Larson also currently resides here in Seattle, so I have some natural love.

The Devil in The White City is intrinsically a gripping tale, or should I say two tales.  The first is of the men attempting to create, the second about a man looking to destroy, all intertwined and told together. 

While Europe was shedding the last of its monarchy's and marching towards industrialization in the late 1900's, America was poised on the world stage to do great things with winning the bid for the 1893 World's Fair, or as it was formally called, World's Columbian Exposition.  The previous exposition had gone to Paris, an exposition that had changed expositions forever, so Chicago was  struggling with something that could top the Eifel tower and the other marvels that had transpired in Paris.  With great detail, Larson, identifies the key players that contributed to the creation of the Chicago exposition, their challenges both personally, ideologically, and from the immense project they were working on.  The time table was tight and scope of the World's Columbian Exposition immense.  What these men accomplished was incredible and the things that took place during the duration of the exposition magical.  But for all of their great accomplishments in the exposition a seedy dark side of the exposition was prying on the attendees.  This is also the story of Herman Webster Mudgett, also known as Dr. H.H. Holmes.  While men set out on a great endeavor to draw the nation, Holmes lured unnumbered victims to his seedy death house.  The Devil part of the White City.

Larson is highly successful here.  The amount of research completed by Mr. Larson to write this book is staggering and is all referenced in the back of the book.  As stated by Mr. Larson, pretty much everything that's quoted in the book comes from some source material painstakingly gathered.  Larson explains in the epilogue, that he likes to read the source material in its physical form, which meant he spent a lot of time at the congressional library and many other libraries across the country.  It's impressive.  

Highly recommended! 

What I Am Reading - Child of God

Child of God

Cormac McCarthy

Read it in small paper back at 208 pages.

September's selection went to Sam and another Cormac McCarthy book was selected.  This to be my third and I believe Sam's 4th or 5th McCarthy.  Despite the fact that no one in OLT book club can stand McCarthy's infuriating writing styles, the stories are just too gripping and dark. Child of God is no different.

Child of God opens with the main character, Lester Ballard, losing his home on the auction block.  With nowhere to go, Lester escapes to the mountains of Tennessee living a life of destitution.  Over time, Lester falls victim to more and more depravity, and such is the  focus of the book. 

With such a short tale, I would rather not give any more information in the general review.

If you have not read McCarthy, do not let this be your first…although I can't think of one that should…

Onwards with spoilers below.

This is the second McCarthy pick for OLT book-club.  The first was Blood Meridian which got a pretty high average score of 7.6, so how did Child of God fair?  Well, we had eight people finish, a pretty healthy amount really, and the scoring is on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being a vomit rage and 10 as holy scripture:

Th3ee: 7

Dust: 6

Hylen: 3

G$$: 7

SS: 6

BoozyCoug: 6

Tech-man-Dave: 3

Shelly-the-don: 7

An average of 5.6, lower than expected, but high for a book with such a dark subject matter.

Favorite character went to the deranged Lester, which makes sense since most of the other characters are not fleshed out for the reader.  Some notable call-outs for sub characters in the Sheriff and a black-smith who tries to teach Lester a thing or two.  Lester's killings were among peoples favorite and least favorite moments.  While the people that scored it higher seemed to like the dark nature that engulfs and takes over Lester, many others just thought it was too much and too dark.  I can't blame them, feeding the alligators is hard, especially when you are of moral constitution and kicked out as many alligators in your head as possible.  The higher moral authority among us enjoyed the bits of the book where others were attempting to show empathy to dear Lester.  Universally though, we all seemed to abhor a moment in which a father is raping his daughter or Lester is fucking a corpse, so perhaps there is hope for all of us.

If any of the above paragraph was offensive, do not read this book.

What I Am Reading - The Ludwig Conspiracy

The Ludwig Conspiracy

Oliver Potzsch

Read it in Hardback at 464 pages, they smelled wonderful.

Despite how the pages smelled, Potzsch failed to truly captivate me with this pretty basic tale.  Ever read a Dan Brown book?  Good then you get the formula.  Instead of Robert Langdon professor we have Steven Lukas, antiquated book seller.  Add initial intrigue, mystery, a scary and formidable evil thug, and a plot that revolves around an interesting character and events of history and we are off to the Lost Symbol…wait, I mean the Ludwig Conspiracy.

The last Bavarian monarch was an interesting guy, and probably legitimately crazy.  In an era of industrialization and gun powder, Ludwig was building fairy tale castles in the Bavarian mountains and really doing his best not to get dragged into Prussian/Germany politics.  He was spending vast amounts of money on what his constituents believed to be a complete waste of money.  These things we know to be true.  At some point though the vassalages of power switched to the various more modern establishments and Ludwig was headed straight down the path of disposition.  It is never easy to dispose of royalty and the means in which it was done are still hazy to this day.  These hazy bits are the vehicle used to propel the story.

Mr. Lukas is sitting in his abandoned book shop enjoying a book when all hell breaks loose, through some hazy circumstances he finds himself in the possession of the plausible one true source, a diary, of the events directly leading up to the disposition and events that happened after Ludwig had been captured.  Of course there is more to the story, but you get the idea.  Lukas has to run about the country decoding the journal and advancing the plot to the next big discovery.  Along the way lays danger, intrigue, love, and everything else you would expect in a Dan Brown book.  Mr. Potzsch is capable but obviously looking to a well-established formula for some success.

While I am fascinated by Ludwig, the castles that he built in the era he built them, and the general state of affairs of Bavaria in the late 1900's; the story was forgettable and the puzzles that his characters face where not all that interesting to me.

Nice try Potzsch but I'll refrain from your future work until I see something more original come from your type writer.

What I Am Reading - Empire Falls

Empire Falls

Richard Russo

Read it in paperback at 483 pages.

My fourth Pulitzer of the year saw me reading Empire Falls by Richard Russo. 

Richard Russo attempts to convey, with great detail, the struggle of a floundering Maine town from the vantage point of its many citizens.  The town itself, as the title indicates, is named Empire Falls.  While previously a boom town textile power house, over time the textiles produced were off shored or simply moved elsewhere leaving the town down the straits of slow economic collapse.  Empire Falls exists in the shadow of the textile industry, its main street terminates at the site of the old factory and most of the buildings that line main were built in the same era as the mill itself.  Empire Falls tells the story of a small town in decline and the generational bond that exists from grandfather, to children, and then grandchildren.

For the point of this review, I will skip going into depth on the characters, motives, and general plots.  It really isn't important to the review, despite being rich and detailed.  They really are the fabric of the book and Russo does an excellent job with all of them.  Russo demonstrates some high talent character creation in this book.

When I first started reading this book I was unsure what it was about (which is how I have been jumping into almost all of the Pulitzers this year) and after a few chapters in I decided to look it up (on Goodreads) and see how it had done.  Surprise, my mother had read it to, and rated it pretty standard, a flat 3/5 on Goodreads deficient scale.  When I asked her why so low she couldn't really give me an answer, but then I got to the back of the book and I understood.  As vast and wonderful as the characters portrayed by Mr. Russo are, the ending was less than fulfilling.  In fact there really isn't an ending at all.  While the characters and their interactions fuel the plot, there isn't a lot of closure for you as a reader, despite the 483 page count listed in my edition.  I didn't need to end in any specific way but the end left me wondering why I had invested in the 483 pages to begin with.  This dramatically effects my rating of the book, and not for the better.

What I Am Reading - Titus Groan

Titus Groan

Mervyn Peake

Read it in deceivably small 9 point black print, paperback, at 396 pages.

Before being to ask a reading group for this series of books, I had never heard of them at all.  This was also my first experience with a reading group on Goodreads.  My fellow book devourer is much more active on Goodreads than I am and had invited me to read with him/them.  I had two months to read this first one and I was able to kill it in one.  I had thought it was going to be a faster read than it turned out to but none the less I struck it down and placed in on the shelf next to my other victories.

I have been struggling to write this review for some time.  It's an interesting book.

The author, Mervyn Peake was born in 1911 and is best known as a writer, poet, illustrator, and general artist.  Besides this series of three, Peake is probably best known for his work as a commissioned to depict war scenes during World War 2.  Although the three books known as the Gormenghast series was intended to be a 'lengthy cycle' their completion was halted by Peakes' death from dementia with Lewy bodies during his work on the third novel, Titus Alone.  Titus Groan was published in 1946.

The story opens with the birth of a new heir to the Groan house deep within the towering and ancient complex of Gormenghast.  At this point we are introduced to a plethora of characters that inhabit the castle and work for the Earl of Groan, Lord Sepulchrave, as well as his wife the Countess Gertrude and their daughter Fuschia.  The whole story is riddled with characters of different stations that are forced to interact and work together, despite in some situations hating one another.  This creates some interesting dynamics within the castle as the characters are constantly trying to impress Lord Sepulchrave and vie for power within their little worlds.  As the story comes together you learn a lot of the intricacies and rituals that revolve around Gormenghast. 

I can't recall that I have read a book like this before, in which the surroundings are as much a character as the characters themselves.  While Martin and Tolkien are famed for it I found that they both use the surroundings to set the mood, the surroundings change and as fond as the reader may be of a specific location and its ideals, no real attachment to these lands changes the story, only how the characters might be changed by their surroundings and the interactions within those settings.  This is not the case with Gormenghast.  Gormenghast is a haunted place with a long rich lineage.  Parts of the castle are little more than rubble and the passageways that are still standing are complex and polished with ware.  What is really the defining difference to me is that we don't have any view of other lands beyond the realm of Gormenghast, the realm and castle exist in a timeless state of decay without any other comparison.  At times parts of the castle are busy and bustling while others are always doomed to abandon.  This sense of endurance makes the castle feel as much as the story as the characters that exist within its walls.  As the book progresses the interactions ratchet up and characters start making moves that will irreparably change Gormenghast forever. 

It took me some time, about 150 pages, for Titus Groan to sink in and allow me to start enjoying it, but once I did I was thoroughly mesmerized by it.  It's an enchanting story full of exotic characters and I am excited to read the other two in the 'cycle.'

What I Am Reading - On The Beach

On The Beach

Nevil Shute

Read it in paperback @ 312 pages.

July's OLT book club pick brought to you by the one who often picks post-apocalyptic, sees once again, another classic post-apocalyptic book.  His past choice in the genre saw us reading Earth Abides, and despite its sordid reception from OLT, onward with the next classic in the genre.

On The Beach, written in 1957, pointedly for the time tells the story of a world catastrophe.  Through deception the United States is the victim of a nuclear bomb attach which causes reprisal strikes and a  degrading situation for the entire world as nuclear holocaust ensues.  Lucky, or unlucky, for some, the only remaining population of humans exist in the southern hemisphere of the globe in Australia.  The unfortunate thing is that naturally the radiation is following currents and air trends on a southerly route to eventually consume the entire globe in fallout.  When most of the northern hemisphere has gone dark and those on the fringes of what's still habitable are facing their impending doom there is suddenly a signal from a communications center in the north, in what should be uninhabitable.

The books primary focus are on this signal and how people in the southern hemisphere deal with impending desolation.  At a time when the world was experimenting and creating nuclear arms at an unprecedented level the world was scared of what could come, this book captured those fears and the consequences of what could happen.   

-Spoilers Below-

So how did this classic match up to OLT's standards of fine book selection?  With a score of 1 being a candidate for rolling papers and a 10 being the next Pulitzer, let's see where On The Beach ended up with the 7 of 10 completing it.

Hylen: 6

BoozyCoug: 3

Th3ee: 3

G$$: 2

Shely-the-don: 3

SS: 3

Dust: 3

For us, it averaged out to 3.28 which is only .02 from being our worst selection ever.  Why so low you ask?

Well, for a lot of us, we just felt there wasn't much to the book (this is the spoiler bit.)  For us the book covered two things.  The first being the encroaching nuclear winter in which you get no view into its beginning.  It is all hearsay and general anecdotes about what happened.  A 'shots fired' chapter or a glimpse of what happened to begin with from the view point of one of the characters would have covered this nicely, instead we get nothing.  We know it's coming and generalities but all of the excitement of a nuclear war is just gone.  The second, and the point of the book, is how the last remnants of humanity deal with impending doom.  This was the controversial part of our discussion.  Many felt that the fall was too soft and devoid of the panic that you would expect when people are faced with no chance of survival.  At least many of us felt that way.  To make matters worse, the survivors fill their end times with different activities that just didn't seem to fit in with the story as a whole.  A lot of us were really expecting more from this book.  The inevitably of the demise also means you see what's coming long before the end transpires.

Overall, I bet this book would have been a huge success for OLT if we read it in 1957, instead reading it 2013 we felt that it was just too dated to be applicable. 

Adventures With Oscar - Troublesome Creek WA 082513

I live in Washington state, and for those that don't know, Washington is an outdoor enthusiasts playground.  With major urban locations nested up against the jagged Cascades which split the state.  It's easy to simply disappear into the piney backdrop within 15 minutes and find your way into remote wilderness.   With the investment of 30k into a new capable vehicle, a Wrangler, I have decided to combine my love for the outdoors and driving into a hobby.  This is something the previous car, QX4 was incapable of achieving with any reliance.  The suspension just wasn't built to handle it on any regular basis.

Sunday, everyone was busy so I was left to my own devices and decided that the best way to fill this gap was to go for a drive.  Most of the camping we do is South of I-90 which connects the states Western and Easter Interior, instead I decided to kick north to Highway 2, which also bisects the state but runs through Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest.  Plenty of exploration opportunities.

Treating this as a kind of adult treasure hunt, I selected some camp sites I have never been to off of Highway 2.  Both campsites are located off of Index Galina Rd, and it looked like it would be a straight shot down two and then left onto Index-Galena Rd.  I wanted an easy drive to play with the Wrangler and the maps I had just picked up.  I wasn't going to depend on my phone in the mountains and I have less than 300 miles of experience on the Jeep, who I will now be calling Oscar.

203 through Carnation and Duvall into Monroe (where 203 meets with 2 west & East) is farmland in between two ridges.  It's what you would expect to see, rows of crops and cows.  The roads are well kept but narrow in places and they use a lot of roundabouts to control traffic.  Once you get into Monroe it's easy enough to find 2 since it runs through Monroe, once located I just kicked out East towards Index.  Monroe is big enough but the farther you go east, the smaller the towns get.  Highway 2 is a two lane road and traffic west was already backed up around 1PM.  

Goldbar is a small town with not much going on.  There is a pizza joint and plenty of antique shops with heaps of crap in the front yard.  Highway 2 follows alongside a set of railroad tracks and as I was motoring along several trains would often pass me.  Cadman has some quarries out there so along the rail there are a lot of gravel stacks and whole carts full of rocks ready to be gravel.  The Skykomish river also runs and twines with two as well and a lot of locals have hung signs asking not to damn the Skykomish, my favorite being 'Don't damn the Sky'.  I don't know the dependencies of damning the Skykomish, nor do I know the environmental impact, but based on what I saw of the Skykomish, I hope they don't.  It's a pretty river and wide, and at one point around Baring there looked to be a place where the river has cut its way through some large granite blocks on shore.  There were plenty of people milling about and it looked to be a great place to jump from if the weather was a little better.  Coming into Index, I was looking for Index-Galina RD which wasn't marked but eventually located.  Index-Galena is a narrow two lane road that leads to Index.  Index is actually located across the river and a really nice looking bridge connects Index-Galina to Index itself.  It's a super tiny town with a park, a market, information center and a few other things that promised white water rafting.  It's nestled right on the edge of the North Fork Skykomish River with many a house whose backyard was the river bed.  Rolled out of Index over the bridge and back onto Index-Galina and followed that down.  It's a two lane narrow road with a lot of old tall deciduous trees on either side.  Radio off, windows down, and it's nice to hear the leaves crinkle under Oscar's tread.  Although it isn't fall yet, the leaves are starting to turn the early stages anyways.  Unfortunately I couldn't take it all the way in do to some flood damage.

I probably could have navigated Oscar through but they have it blocked thoroughfare with some large boulders.  There were a lot of cars parked at the blockade though and I think you could get to the campgrounds on foot but the detour listed on the outage looked easy enough.  Back down Galina left onto two and headed for Skykomish, left on Beckler River Rd, which is well marked from Highway Two.  Beckler is a lot like Index-Galina but terminates onto a gravel RD which belongs to Forestry Services, FS Rd 65 to be exact.  This is all gravel with three paved single lane bridges.  I was actually surprised with the amount of traffic on the FS RD, though most of it was going the other way, which I would expect on a Sunday.

 Following FS 65 leads along a ridge as you steadily ride that ridge up, and then back down farther along.  Some decent views but nothing all that good as you are riding along at about 2500 feet.  When you come back down to Jack's Pass, you have the options.  NF-6574 leads back up higher along the ridge behind you, right is NF 6550 which kicks east, or following NF-65 (continuation of FS Rd 65), which is what I took.  There are a lot of switchbacks as you careen down the ridge towards the North Fork Skykomish.  It's easy enough (I paced it around 30mph) with no difficulty as they are really well maintained, only had to catch myself on some of the pins because I wasn't expecting another car coming down the trail.  This terminates at a bridge which connects back to the other side of Index-Galina and is paved, or you can follow NF-63 up to some springs.  I chose the bridge and followed it to the first of the camp grounds I wanted to see.  The road is nicely paved with a  lane or two here and there full of gravel from washouts.  Nothing scary.

The first of the camp grounds is San Juan Camp Ground (http://www.allstays.com/Campgrounds-details/32709.htm)

It's well maintained, the bathrooms are flawless, and buts up right to the river, and is a pay site.

Keep following Index- Galina and you get to my final destination, Troublesome Creek Camp Grounds (http://www.recreation.gov/camping/Troublesome_Campground/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=70639)

This had previously been closed and just re-opened last year.  The site is split on either side of Troublesome Creek, with a  walking bridge over the creek to connect both sites.  These are also pay sites but are also very well maintained.

Mission accomplished.  I didn't get hopefully lost or stuck and Oscar behaved flawlessly.

From there I just backtracked home, and had to sit in traffic for a long time coming back West on Two.

What I Am Reading - THEM: Adventures With Extremists

Them: Adventures With Extremists

Jon Ronson

Read it in glossy paperback at 336 pages

OLT books clubs June pick, selected by no other then this here writer.

In Ronson's journey THEM: Adventures With Extremists, Mr. Ronson meets with all sorts of folks from different extremist positions and finds that they all have a universal belief that the world is, or soon will be, controlled by shadowy rich and elite cast that meets in dark rooms to discuss the fall of governments' and the expanse of personal wealth and power.  The Extremists he meets with include the leader of the Ku Klux Klan, Omar an Al Qaeda spokesman, a few survivors of Ruby Ridge, David Icke, and a few others of equally nefarious or questionable ends.  An interesting tid bit, was that all of this was written prior to 911 so it's interesting to see the frame of reference since.

Some of the interactions are better and more interesting than others, but they are all pretty much ice cream, just different flavors. 

This had been on my list to read for two years and I wanted to change the pace of our book club away from the standard that we have been reading.  After all, one of the points of book club is to read something you wouldn't normally read, right?.  This is the second book I have read by Mr. Ronson, although this is his first published work, it had been the second book 'The Psychopath Test' that had peaked my interest at all.  Sadly, as echoed by the reviewers below (including myself), it didn't go over well.  Really, we all felt that this would have been better suited as a collection of papers for a blog or some other digital distribution. 

-Potential Spoilers Below-

We only had six of our ten members finish (a bad sign), and we grade on a scale from 1-10 (instead of the deficient five point scale on Goodreads) with 1 being a candidate for the shredder and 10 being a true relic.

Th3ee: 5

Boozy: 4

SS:  4

Shely-the-don: 6

Hylen: 4

Dust: 4

Average of 4.5. :/

Overall everyone's favorite scene was near the end of the book when Jon (accompanied by some interesting folks) breaks into a secluded private camp ground to crash a party of some the world's elite and powerful.  Although we did have one call out for an interaction with the Ku Klux Klan head honcho in which he apologizes for some of their discriminatory adjectives.

Oh well.  Onto next months.

What I Am Reading - Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now

Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now

Douglas Rushkoff

Read it in hardback at 256 pages

As an employee of a large software distribution company, I see what Douglas Rushkoff calls 'Present Shock' on a daily basis.  While most people can certainly relate to Rushkoffs example of the dinner/bar situation in which everyone you met to mingle is instead on their cell phone, that hits home for everyone, after all; who hasn't experienced this yet? I have seen some fantastic things, most notably people so absorbed on their laptops that they have tumbled down stairs or fallen over second story banisters.  I also see how future technology will only cement the charms of a digital life we have now and lay the foundation for even more integration in the future.  There is no escaping it.

With all of this in mind, I saw Mr. Rushkoff hocking this book on some late night political satire show on Comedy Central and figured it might be worth my time. 

In Present Shock, Rushkoff outlines what he believes present shock to be, as opposed to future shock, as well as why he believes we have found ourselves in this situation.  A kind of cross street between past and future avenue.  While everyone clings to each Facebook update or Tweet, they fail to realize that everything on the net is the past and while they think they are more connected to the present, each entry is a time stamp of the past.  Something that makes that dinner/bar ordeal so painful when it's guilty members could be living in a present only shared with those around them but choose to immerse with the past instead.   The book aims to outline why Mr. Rushkoff thinks this is and does so through a series of examples (corporate, consumerism, etc.) along a hazy timeline in which he believes the switch occurred.  Obviously escalated the more that technology has entered our lives.

The content of the book is pretty superb as it relates to what he believes present shock to be, and I loved a lot of the examples he chose to use to convey the feeling.  His argument gets significantly more flimsy with the examples of how we got to where we are and most definitely falls apart about where we are headed.  I lost a lot of steam as the book was winding down, although I must admit I was on a vacation where reading was a hard task to complete.

The most stunning rumination of Rushkoff from Present Shock for me:

"We think of time as the numbers on the clock, rather than the moments they are meant to represent" - Rushkoff 

What I Am Reading - The Big Sleep

The Big Sleep

Raymond Chandler

144 pages of wide, terrible, paperback which was censored.  (Avoid Serenity Publishers at all Cost)

Raymond Chandler was born in 1888 and eventually lost his job as an oil company executive during the great depression.  Looking for a new line of work, Chandler decided to start writing detective novels.  The Big Sleep is his first full novel he produced and it was published in 1939.  74 years later it was selected by one man in our book club for May's selection.

The Big Sleep follows Marlowe, a quick wit detective, as he attempts to figure out who is framing a high ranking retiree in shady LA.  As the story progresses we have a heaping serving of murder, deception, lust, drink, and everything else that would become the central requirements of this genre.  Short sweet and to the point, Chandler spent a lot of time mastering this tale.  The amount of time and love forged into each chapter is apparent.  Since it is a mystery, each chapter was written to deliver a specific set of information without spoiling the story.  Delivered in a way to keep the reader engaged and guessing but not in a way that detracted from the pace of the story.

Chandler is so successful in fact that we had some very avid reader feedback from this month's OLT selection.

-Potential Spoilers Below-

Overall Marlowe was everyone's favorite.  It's easy to see why as he is the one with all the wit, the answers, the smokes, the booze, gets all the ladies, and of course the hero of the story.  In an effort to create panic and sow seeds of decent, on member opined that Carmen, the whore and generally 'not right' fem of the story, was their favorite as he particularly liked the parts she was in and her demeanor.  Translation, he fiends for that type of female in his life. 

Moving on.

Everyone's favorite and least favorite moments were everywhere.  While some people loved X portion, others hated it, and while some liked Y bit, others hated it so I won't go into much details here.  The sequence closer to the end where Marlowe makes a stop at a particular auto shop on a rainy night though seemed to stick with most of our merry band.

From 1 to 10 with one being a loathsome tomb worth Hitler's burning and ten being interred at the Vatican, The Big Sleep did really well.  All of our readers completed, something that's been going well this year, and this is the second highest avg. score for a book this year at 7.3 (only losing by .1 to Enders Game).

The Breakdown:

Hylen: 6

G$$: 7

BouzyCoug: 7

Th3ee: 6

Dust: 9

Tech n' Tom: 6

SS: 10

Shelydonsaurus: 7

DavidK: 5

Eleach: 10

Happy Readings.

How Life Comes Today - Too Stoned To Sleep

How Life Comes Today – A series of some of my more obsessive traits and observations.

Too Stoned to Sleep -

So here I am, in a predicament. I am too stoned to sleep.  Weird, I know.

I am riding this sweet mellow high and am not ready to put the lights out but it's far too late to run around the house since everyone is under the guise of sleep.  Weed doesn’t always make me tired, I like to float and when I find it I ride it, so naturally, it's movie time and it has to be one of two things, since the aim is to stay awake, an overboard action movie or a terrible horror movie are the only options.

I went with the horror movie and chose ‘The Collection’.

I am not sure if this is the second or the third in the series but the first plays out like this…

People in a house, guy breaks in and rigs the whole place with booby traps and then releases a victim, he has brought with him from some previous escapade, from an elaborate red trunk to play bait, I guess.  Victim is all fucked up in the box and makes terrible sounds, as which is fitting for bait.  The people in the house realize a bad situation is underway and proceed to attempt escape but the stupid elaborate booby traps start getting them one by one in equal grizzly fashion.  Somewhere in here is a nice rack of tits and a whole lot of blood shed until it's just The Collector, The victim, and the Victim to Be.  Boil it down super simple.  The Collector is some sort of weird dude that collects people but not until they have survived his traps, but when they do he wants them something fierce and basically they go in the box and the last victim that came from the box dies as well as everyone else in this way…at the end of the movie he of course escapes with his victim which now transports us to this magic moment, possibly with another movie in-between.

As the title suggests, it looks like this time we will get to see the Collectors collection.  Word and joy and shit.  My muddled senses are ready.  I am comfortably seated in my bed, dog snoring away chewing through the previews that I can't skip on my RedBox edition.

Act 1

A small girl is in a car with her dad and he is telling her he will never leave her when BAMM car accident.

Opening credits of weird bugs and news broadcasts saying how this twisted killer is on the loose.  This is all cut with the Collector dude getting all suited up.  Final montage bit with him lacing the straps on his weird creepy mask and him cutting people open and shit.

Fade to black.

We re-open to a girl in her room and we are led to believe it's the same girl from the accident just older, she's got a shaved head, and it looks like she is getting ready to go out for a night on the town but the phone rings and it's her boyfriend.  We are going to call her Shaved moving forward for simplicities sake.  He's got bad news, he's got to work and Shaved is devastated but understands as he promises he would make it up to her.  Just when Shaved is about to call it quits for the night and roll into her bed her best friend texts or rings and says 'no were going out I got this bomb party to go to' and it peaks her interest.  Shaved leaves the super stacked nice house and meets up with her friends, somewhere in there we get a scene of her tucking her drunk dad in…so at least he didn't die in the accident or whatever.

Here they are on the way to the party yammering about the killer on the loose and just when they think they are there they can't find the correct door.  Queue creepy fuck from opposite door.  He looks like a Viking, if you ever saw that YouTube clip 'Techno Viking' you get an idea of what this guy looks like.  He doesn't say a word just stares all creepy like at them until Shaved remembers the password and screams it out.  Techno Viking produces a fancy remote control and opens a door in which loud techno babble and red lights are emanating and Techno Viking fades back to his closet.   Shaved and cast walk in and descends stairs, pan camera up to Collector who is hiding in the rafters watching the entire party with his gimp mask on.  He's obviously up to no good.

So Shaved and friends are meandering through the rave and everyone's having a great time just dancing and Shaved is walking through the crowd taking it all in enchanted with the lights and music, just a grand fucking time when she sees her boyfriend.  Ah shit, he was supposed to be working and to make matters worse, he's dancing with a floosy with long hair.  Shaved is pissed, and she makes eye contact with him right before Shaved just lets him have it.  Pops him right in the nose and now he's bleeding everywhere.  Pan back up to Collector who is still hovering in the rafters, and takes notice of Shaved and this stern action, he's interested and we zoom into his creepy pig eyes.

So Shaved is running through the rave trying to take a second for some solace. Shaved is distraught, Shaved really liked this dude and her girlfriend is attempting to keep up but loses her in the swell of it all.  She runs through the maze of a place and eventually picks the darkest creepiest hallway where everyone is making out.  This enrages Shaved so she ducts into a room to think and what do you know, a fancy red trunk is there and it's wobbling.  Of course Shaved ain't ever scared, she did after all just assault her boyfriend, so she marches up and unlatches the trunk.  When she does this two notable things happen.  A victim comes rolling out of the trunk (see first movie and I don't know if this is the same guy or not) and it sets off a chain reaction.  When the trunk is opened it releases a mechanism, some sort of wire thing that’s rigged throughout the rave building and then culminates in the release of this people thrasher.  The deets on the people thrasher are pretty simple, it thrashes people.  It’s a spinny-spikey gizmo that operates much like a push lawn mower.  It rolls through the rave dance floor killing everyone in a terrible graphic way.   Arms, heads, everything…just shredded.  No one see’s it coming so one minute dance dance fun time and the next minute a pile of flesh on the ground.  It’s really very disgusting.  Even the people near the end that see this thing coming just scream and take it.  Anyways, so the whole rave is dead and those that are not are running around in a panic.  The Collector really enjoys this, you can see it in his eyes that he has popped some sort of morbid chubby.  Since he knows that someone had to trigger this orgy of rending he starts making his way to the box room, but first there are some people that need to be crushed. 

In the chaos, there happens to be an elevator that can be completely enclosed.  Really I am not too sure on the specifics but it appears that as he is going to the room, Shaved is running from the room, and their paths intersect at the death elevator.  He’s on top riding it down onto the poor group under him while Shaved is screaming because her best friend is in the elevator.  Reunited and feels so…crushed.  Yep Shaved watches her best friend and the other thirty people get smashed.  It’s equally as gory as the spinny gizmo and we also get a lot of crushing and popping, but once again the Collector is just riding it down looking like Captain Morgan on his bottle of rum.  The whole time he’s just looking at Shaved.  I have to presume he’s taking the Captains pose in an effort to hide the chubby.

Shaved has only one option, run back to the box room.  While we were gone watching the crushing it appears the victim has emerged from the box, released their manacles and is running for a window at the end of that hallway.  He’s there trying to jimmy the window open and having a tough time of it when boom Shaved rounds the corner and see’s him and then the Collector comes around the corner too.  Good old game of pickle with Shaved as the prize.  The victim tries to warn Shaved but she’s in a panic and he says fuck this shit and out the window he goes breaking his arm on top of a car during the culmination of his flight out the window.  Shaved runs for the window but this game of pickle is over and he manages to wrangle her into the box and slaps the cover down.

Meanwhile the Survivor, that’s what I will be calling him now, runs as fast as he can.  He stops at a building to see if he’s being followed and of course there is the Collector looking out the window like he has just lost the best piece of ass in the land.  Sirens are coming so he’s out and pokes back into the building.

Act 2

So cut, and we are in a police station and Survivor is getting questioned like crazy on the whole thing.  He’s angry and just wants to go home.  These are all reasonable things since he has been in the clutches of a deranged killer for some time.  Some dialogue filler for a bit about how terrible the Collector is and then they release him.  When he’s in the parking lot or what not a strangely serious man asks if he can help them find Shaved.  Survivor tries to explain how dire the situation is but this guy isn’t having it.  Survivor says she is probably dead, Serious doesn’t care.  Survivor says no and serious threatens him.  Survivor still says no, but Serious isn’t having it and eventually makes and argument to sway Survivor.  He’s on board and he knows how to find the Collector so promises to take him there and there alone.  He won’t go back to the…Collection.

Now we get to meet the breach team spear headed by Serious and financed by Shaved-s rich father.  This is a group full of bad ass.  They got guns and knives.  They got terrible and cocky attitudes.  Pretty standard castoff casualty models.

Next Survivor goes into how he knows where the Collection is located.  While he was in the box he had a system for tracking where they went.  Since he knew where he got abducted they had a starting place.  He had tracked turns and duration by cutting his arm with hashes and things.  So off they go, left, right, straight, and into the Collectors Collection they go.

When they get there it’s a big empty warehouse building or industrial jibber jabber.  It’s dark and scary and all the windows are blacked out.  The only sign of life on the lot is two homeless dudes standing by a barrel keeping themselves warm.  When they get to the back door Survivor is all ‘cool, got you here, enjoy, and don’t die’ but the breach team says no.  Serious demands he picks the lock.  So Survivor picks the lock for them and tries to bow out again but now they are demanding he goes in with them.  He says no again and Serious pulls a gun on him.  Says something about how it’s not an option and they all go in.

So we are now on the lowest floor of the Collection.  Obviously when the doors swings open it triggers some sort of really intricate alarm which is good because we are about to get back to Shaved and her unfortunate situation.  While all this crap is going on with Survivor, Shaved is still in the box and she can see through the key holes of the trunk.  What’s the Collector doing?  What he does best, he’s cutting people up and stroking other victims that are screaming on surgical tables.  This dude over here has an organ or do-dad he wants so he cuts it out, puts it in a jar and kills the dude.  That kind of stuff.  She has no idea when it’s her turn and she’s panicking.  When the alarm goes off though the Collector is distracted and runs out of the cutting room.  Shaved seizes the moment, and with a show of high intelligence and cunning, removes her bra and uses the wire to unlatch the trunk.  Boom she comes spilling out into the cutting room.  It’s all clean and white, full of people specimens.  People are on tables all cut up and decorated with their organs.  There are more trunks so she opens one and a victim comes spilling out but they are all cut up and screaming, missing their hands and feet.  When they are screaming the Collector hears it or what not and comes down to check.  He obviously sees that Shaved has escaped but he gets calm with it.  Starts looking around the room, making sure she isn’t just going to stab him with a sharp bit.  Dispatches the victim with a knife.  Just doesn’t even give a shit neck slit kind of thing.  Shaved meanwhile is watching the whole thing and hiding under one of his collection wracks.  The Collector is hip with it though and decides this is a great opportunity to play with some friends.  Why he has a bunch of spiders in a jar is a mystery to me, but he releases these things all over the floor to find Shaved.  At the moment in which Shaved has to decide fight or flight though an alarm goes off and the Collector runs out the room.  Shaved gets up all disorientated and somehow manages to get out the door two before it locks or whatever.  Now she is running around in this complex too.

But Survivor and Serious are up to some interesting things with breach squad.  As they worked their way through the maze they see some weird scary shit that has them all shook up and jumpy.   Of course they make Survivor go first despite his excessive whining but when they round a particular corner they realize two things.  One, they are not alone. Two, that there are things in this maze with them.  Things as it would be are victims that have been turned into zombie like fast moving killing machines that wear little clothes and have their faces all cut up.  Bang, bang, popping caps, breach squad is shooting them as fast they can.  Sadly though it’s a horde of them and there are traps so we lose a few of breach squad right off the bat.  The rest are looking for a way to get out of the maze and Survivor takes this opportunity to flee from breach squad and take his chances on his own.

Back to Shaved, she’s going down hallways with doors and they all seem locked until, just her luck, she finds a door that’s open.  She saunters on in and sees a trunk, a bed, and a desk full of makeup.  Naturally she opens the chest and the heavily make-up wearing female comes out.  Right away we know she’s deranged since she’s screaming that Shaved isn’t supposed to be here.  Shaved manages to calm her down and explains that they are going to escape together.  Despite the fact that the deranged lady doesn’t want to go, Shaved insists.  So here they are running down hallways and the deranged lady is telling her what doors to avoid and stuff.  It’s all looking good for Shaved and then she runs into Survivor.  Survivor is super happy to see her and they start working as a team.  Things are going well, dodging traps and stuff when they run into Serious and the remainder of breach squad. 

Fast forward.  We have lost another member or two of breach squad.  One from a trap and the other from the Collectors blade.  They are running and observing the many horrors of the Collection.  Every room is a new grisly thing.  They eventually get to the top bit and Survivor can see the two bums at the barrel and he’s got a plan.  He takes Serious’s handgun and shoots one of the bums at 200 yards, Survivor is an amazing shot it appears.  This of course draws the attention of the Collector so he’s trying to get into the room, they run.  Everyone is shaken up so they take shelter in another room of the deranged woman’s selection and they think they are safe but the Collector is close so the deranged lady starts screaming that they are all fucked and goes to open the door.  When she does this someone tries to grab her and she spins into a trap that mangles her all bloody.  She’s dead, puking blood everywhere while she’s stuck in the contraption, and the Collector comes in and shreds one of the last of breach squad.  No so tough I guess.  In the ensuing melee Serious sees the opportunity to try and dispatch the Collector and also give Shaved the opportunity to escape and the expense of himself so he releases this battle cry and charges the Collector.  They both have knives so they start slashing at each other while Shaved and Survivor run.

They run up to the top again and look out the shooting window and see all of the cops that have come to help the bum and Survivor has one more bullet.  Why he didn’t shoot the Collector I don’t know but he levels it and shoots a cop.  So now the cops are spreading out to enter the building.  Plan successful.

Meanwhile Serious is having a hard time with the Collector.  Dudes legit with a knife I guess.

More melee and bam! Serious is kicked into a trap and if he moves he’s toast so he sits there and the Collector just looks at him for a solid ten seconds before running after Shaved and Survivor.  Those two are back to running around creepy land and somehow get split up.  The Collector sees what happened with the cop situation so he goes into self-destruct compound mode.  Why wouldn’t he have the compound all rigged to pop?  Of course he does.  So he goes into a room and hits a big button which I would assume is blow up mode because when he hits it the lights in the building go darker and yellow lights are flashing.  Best to alert everyone that the self-destruct sequence is activated. 

Act 3

I start to nod off but when I wake up Survivor, Shaved, and someone else (I think the last surviving member of breach squad) are in a cage surrounded with explosives and the lights flashing.

They have to get out but they can’t seem to hit the latch and Shaved is fresh out of bras.  Instead, Survivor has a plan.  He sticks his arm through the bars and re-breaks his arm because his bad ass quotient needs to be met.  Now that his arm is hanging like limp spaghetti he has the maneuverability to hit the latch, despite the pain.  Click-clack and they are free and running around the complex.

They end up down in some menagerie of horrors.  The Collector likes to pick his finer creations and put them on display for whomever in these giant specimen tanks.  He’s coming so they hide behind a wall that has a victim trapped to it getting fed chemicals intravenously.  It’s a bad situation for the victim and the Collector comes and kills her while the survivors are hiding.  The whole place is on fire and we are making some great leaps towards an end battle sequence.

Through some turn of bad luck the Collector finds them and Survivor decides to go toe to toe with him while Shaved looks for an exit, but she can’t find one as the giant door is latched.  So Survivor has a knife and the Collector have a knife and it ain’t going well for Survivor.

But remember Serious?  Yea, he’s managed to free himself from the trap so he comes in to get in the melee too.  So now this spinny melee is going on and the place is burning up all with the backdrop of these cadaver tanks.  This is a fantastic end battle scene.

Of course Serious is fatally wounded in the ordeal but Serious got him pretty bad too and Survivor is going in for the kill and throws him down a shaft back to those zombie things he made.  Finally the door gets opened and they leap to safety over falling flaming debris.

Yay!

Some news casts about how the end of the killing spree is over despite the fact that they didn’t find a body.  Yada-yada-yada.

Cut to Survivor tracking down the Collector in some small town, he’s not wearing his mask but it’s all back-shot so you still can’t see his face.  Survivor says something about bugs and then it fades to black and we have completed our journey.