Great Pumpkin Runs 2017

The folks who organize The Great Pumpkin Run stay busy in the fall, organizing races in ten different cities this year. I went to two of them, near Lansing and Grand Rapids.

Both events took place at cider orchards. Early in September, I drove over to Uncle John's Cider Mill north of Lansing. And a few weeks later at the end of the month, I went up to Klackle Orchards in Greenville, north of Grand Rapids. It took me an hour or so in each case, since I live south of Grand Rapids.

Both of these cider orchards are popular family outing places even when there's not an event like The Great Pumpkin Run. Play areas for the kids, band stages, cider and donut vending, etc. Fortunately the races happen early in the morning before the rush of regular visitors arrive. I'm glad I signed up for the early race waves, because there were a ton of people showing up even as I was finished and leaving. Traffic was pretty heavy, especially at Klackle.

The race routes went through apple orchards, as you'd expect, as well as pumpkin fields and some forest trails (in the case of Uncle Johns). Part of the Klackle course even went through their corn maze. Probably not going to set any personal records on those courses, but they're a fun change of pace from road routes. My GPS said that both courses were a bit under five kilometers, which was probably intentional as there were a lot of twists and turns, plus the finish lines were uphill from the starting area.

For the adventuresome, runners could sign up to carry a pumpkin around the course. I have enough minor back pain without carrying extra weight while running, thank you, but I saw quite a few other people doing it. One guy had a huge pumpkin that he had balanced on one shoulder as he made his way around the course. Weird, but impressive.

Always nice to have a little cider at the end of a run, and the orchard routes are interesting as long as it's not raining. The Great Pumpkin Run was fun, though I probably won't do two of them in future years. One per year is plenty!

Orconomics: A Satire

Orconomics: A Satire by J. Zachary Pike
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Since it's right in the title, it's no surprise that Orconomics: A Satire pokes fun at the high fantasy genre. It's more than just a parody, though, with some interesting extrapolation of what could happen when such a world runs into some of the more sophisticated and manipulative ideas of the modern world.

The world that Pike has built in this novel has all the familiar underpinnings of high fantasy. Many races - Elves, Dwarves, Goblins, and so on - roam the land. Wizards throw fireballs and delve into forbidden magic. Kings and queens and various heirs to thrones are (at least nominally) in charge. Heroes of all stripes go on quests of all kinds. A pantheon of gods, some modern and active, others ancient but never totally forgotten, are served by temples and priests. The author makes quite a few references to other such worlds - Tolkien's Middle-Earth, role-playing games like D&D - so there's no doubt of the foundations.

This world, though, has progressed further than the typical high fantasy setting. Technology is mostly the same, largely in the medieval era, but other areas of society have innovated. The hero profession has been institutionalized and drives the economy. Powerful financial houses invest in heroic quests and wield great economic and political power. Manufacturing of magical items is done at scale with assembly-line techniques. Traditionally evil races (orcs, goblins, etc) have begun to integrate into society.

The story follows a small company of largely disgraced heroes, who are forced together by circumstance to join the followers of a mad goddess. Motivated by the opportunity to regain their status in society, the group takes on a quest and stumbles through repeated danger. Interpersonal relations in the party are tense at best, but improve over time, and eventually the group works together well enough to complete their task. At which point it all falls apart, setting our heroes against pretty much all of society.

I liked pretty much all of the main characters, who start largely as fantasy stereotypes and then develop more depth. I thought Pike did a fine job capturing the feel of a misfit adventuring party, and then giving the reader reason to care about each of the less-than-perfect characters. Even the least likeable (for me, the "bard") have redeeming moments.

Pike's writing style fits nicely into the story and setting. There are a few awkward placements of jokes that fall flat (at least for me), but that could just be differences in sense of humor. On the whole, I found the book to move along at a good pace with plenty of interesting happenings along the way.

Orconomics was a fun read, though I suspect anyone not familiar with high fantasy worlds might feel a bit lost at some of the references. Pike is writing a sequel, which I'm certainly interested in taking a look at once it's finished.

Hidden Figures (movie)

I'm a sucker for pretty much anything to do with space travel. Hidden Figures takes place at NASA in the 1960s, so it definitely falls into that category. But it's the extraordinary story of black women overcoming racial and gender stereotypes that really drives this film.

As a computer nerd with a moderate interest in history, I'd heard of Dorothy Vaughan, a supervisor and self-taught programmer who worked with the first computers at NASA. Only the basic outlines, though, without much of the personal detail that the movie shows. And the stories of Katherine Johnson and Mary Jackson were entirely new to me.

There's a lot of casual racism and sexism portrayed in the film, as you'd expect when the setting is the early 1960s. In quite a few spots, I found myself thinking "I'm sure glad we're past that" - segregated fountains, separate coffeepots, refusing to let a woman into meetings, colored-only bus seating, etc. But then there were other parts that I think haven't changed as much as I'd like. Mistaking Katherine for a janitor, for instance. Or high-level decisions being made in meetings consisting entirely of white men. Anyone who thinks that society has moved past the issues portrayed in this film needs to look a bit more closely - there's been progress, but there's still plenty to be done.

The tension of the space race and cold war is worth noting, too. For people of my generation and older, it's not all that remarkable - we grew up with the Soviet Union always out there, with nuclear holocaust looming if either side blinked. But anyone who can't remember the world before 1991 has never known that tension, so references to "duck and cover drills" and the fierce patriotism felt by the entire country when opposing the Soviets has got to be an alien concept. I thought the movie did a good job of portraying this, though of course I'm not exactly the target audience.

As with most historical movies, not everything is perfectly accurate. I'm no expert, but I did read a few articles afterward about where the movie made some changes. From what I found, I think the film makers did a fine job of making sure the concepts were communicated, even when they couldn't use the exact people or events. And when they did follow the historical record, everything I read said that they did an outstanding job.

I really enjoyed Hidden Figures, and recommend it to anyone. I hope it's a part of inspiring the next generation of mathematicians and engineers, regardless of who they are or what they look like.

ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept.

ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. tells a story of politics, intrigue, and long-lost royal scions on a vaguely old-world-European fictional continent (shaped for some reason like a bird).

The series takes place in the kingdom of Dowa, which is divided into 13 territories which are mostly autonomous. An organization called ACCA provides most of the essential services in the entire kingdom, operating mostly independently of the monarchy. The main character, Jean, is an ACCA inspector who visits each of the 13 territories in the course of his job.

Each of the territories is a themed caricature - a desert region with only mining industry, a super-fertile region where everything grows to huge size, a Las-Vegas-like tourist region with casinos, etc. Much of this is just side flavor in the story, but two territories in particular have more significance. One is Furawau - a Middle-East-style region with large oil reserves, made very rich by that bounty of natural resource, and controlled by a single large family. The other is Suitsu, where travel restrictions and a very strict division between nobility and commoner have resulted in economically poor conditions and rebellion.

The story takes enough twists and turns that it's not easy to talk about it without spoilers, but it's probably no surprise to anyone that Jean gets caught up in intrigue that affects the entire kingdom. This takes the form of a coup, timed to prevent the ascension of a new ruler to the throne. Prince Schwann, the heir apparent, is dismissive of ACCA and plans to dismantle it. The powerful figures behind ACCA have no intention of going quietly.

In the last few episodes, particularly the last one, the path the story took isn't particularly credible. There are a lot of plot twists, which are very exciting but not very believable. Perhaps with a bit more explanation and/or groundwork to set up the sudden shifts, it would have felt more realistic. As it was, it felt like deus ex machina at the end.

ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. has some fairly pointed commentary on social and political systems. Condemnation of the restriction of freedoms in Suitsu is an obvious one. Strength through diversity is emphasized, as ACCA incorporates people and resources from all 13 territories. The dangers of autocratic rule is a central theme, both in terms of the kingdom monarchy and the hereditary control in Furawau and Suitsu. At the same time, there's a heavy emphasis on maintaining culture and tradition, exemplified by the fact that no one advocates actually overthrowing the monarchy - just replacing the prince.

There are some fairly silly side themes in ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept., too. Many of the characters have a fascination with sandwich bread, which for some reason is only made in the Badon territory. Jean is a heavy smoker in a society where almost no one else smokes, and giving him gifts of territory-specific cigarettes becomes a plot device. These sorts of things add a lighter side to the series - silly, yes, but I think it mostly worked well to balance out the heavier intrigue plot points.

I thought ACCA: 13-Territory Inspection Dept. was reasonably good for a short series, despite what felt like clumsy writing in the plot twists at the end. Not bad if you like the intrigue theme.