Missive #549

The grand conflict for control of the continent of Derlavai rages on in a battle with all the drama and terror of the Second World War— only the bullets are beams of magical fire. The tanks and submarines are great lumbering beasts, and the fighters and bombers are dragons raining fire upon their targets.

This is the fifth book in the series with one more to read. I like Turtledove’s alternate history very much but this series is alternate history mixed with fantasy which is not as good in my opinion.Hope may be dawning at last. The terrible onslaught of the conquering forces of Algarve— who power their battle magics with the life energy of their murdered victims— has begun to founder. But though the tide has begun to turn, the conflict is far from over. As the deaths of innocent civilians on both sides continue to feed the flames of war, those who have struggled to survive and preserve their freedom have only their passions to see them through… — Book promo @ goodreads.com

My looking into using SVG icons and images has lead me to Mapbox and a new learning experience. The documentation that Mapbox provides is as poor as Google API with even less help to be found by using internet searches. If I didn’t have ChatGPT to help me I would not have been able to achieve what I have so far.

What I have been doing with Mapbox for the past few days is creating a map that will replace one that I created many years ago using Google API. I have now accomplished that; I have an interactive map with markers, popup labels and a line route between two markers. The next step is to generate a static map from what I have created that I can insert in a WordPress Page as an image which when clicked will link to the full size interactive map. There are other maps that I have made from Google API that have multiple markers that when clicked link to places in the page text all using HTML. My next Mapbox project, duplicate one of those as well. Maybe I’ll have something to show you before too long. A lot of time and effort but it is keeping me busy and keeping the mind working. HA

I went to the Adobe Bakery & Cafe again this morning for breakfast then back to Reserve. There I picked up a few grocery items at Jake’s and filled Desperado’s gas tank with some expensive gasoline. With this full tank I’ll get a measure of what the new engine miles per gallon might be. It has to be better than the old engine.

So there’s no solution to America’s situation. It’s in a quandary. It’s not a problem that can be solved. Whatever Trump does is going to make things worse. So, as mathematicians say, America is in the optimum position right now. This is as good as it gets. Anything Trump does is going to make things worse. It’s a hard time to be president. — Dollar On The Brink Michael Hudson