This just in. Episode 1 of The Wheel of Time was very, very good. The screenwriters did a good job portraying the events of half a book in the first 30 minutes. Moraine and Lan were perfect, Perrin, Egwen and Mat pretty good and Rand…the jury’s still out. He reminds me too much of Christian Haydensen, the awful precursor to Darth Vader.

But the scenery, the trollocs, the visualization of the One Power…all good.

Episodes 2 and 3 will have to wait – Kentucky plays hoops in a little while, so off to Parlour we go to get some crowd vibes. But this first TWoT sample bodes well for the series. Jordan would be happy.

UPDATE: Parlour was a bust tonight. Two on a scale of ten. Had to work hard to get the UK game on screen (their reputation was a big UK hangout), and waited over an hour for no pizza. Server and bartender blew it off as “normal”, while people all around me got their food and left. Not happy, but managed to leave with grace. No casualties.

Walked down to Fork and Barrel and had the exact opposite experience. Great service, great food, a chat with the owner, the game on TV at my request – all while they were dealing with a much larger crowd. Management matters. I voted with my credit card and F&B was the big winner. I’ll give Parlour another chance sometime, but this was a bad night for them.

Well, it’s finally happened. I’ve hit peak charging. I have so many devices to charge that (a) something is *always* out of power, and (b) I’m running out of places to plug them in. I travel with an iPad, a MacBook, an iPhone, an Apple Watch, a standalone camera, the Bose noise cancelling headphones…it’s out of control. And we wonder why Apple is worth a trillion dollars.

I do like my gadgets. It’s a side effect of being an electrical engineer – every one of these things is a modern miracle, in terms of the electronic design and manufacturing. It’s an age of wonder – except for all the damn batteries.

And speaking of “age of wonder”, the Wheel of Time premiers today! I could watch it right now if so inclined. Fingers crossed that it doesn’t suck.