debian

27 Nov 2025

Planet Debian

Russ Allbery: Review: A Matter of Execution

Review: A Matter of Execution, by Nicholas & Olivia Atwater

Series:	Tales of the Iron Rose #0
Publisher:	Starwatch Press
Copyright:	2024
ISBN:	1-998257-08-8
Format:	Kindle
Pages:	131

A Matter of Execution is the introductory novella that kicked off the Tales of the Iron Rose series. It is steampunk fantasy with airships. I previously read and reviewed the subsequent novel, Echoes of the Imperium.

As noted in that review, I read the novel first. That was a mistake; this is a much better place to start. A Matter of Execution was clearly intended as the introduction of all of these characters. More importantly, I think reading the novella first would have given me enough affinity with the characters to not mind the worst part of Echoes of the Imperium: the extremely slow first half that seemed filled with the protagonist's impostor syndrome.

A Matter of Execution opens, fittingly, with Captain William Blair, a goblin, former Imperial soldier, Oathbreaker, and series first-person protagonist being carted to his execution. He is not alone; in the same prison wagon is an arrogant (and racist) man named Strahl, the killer of one of the rulers of Lyonesse.

Strahl is rather contemptuous of Blair's claim to be a captain, given that he's both a goblin and an Oathbreaker. Strahl quickly revises that opinion when Blair's crew, somewhat predictably given that he is the series protagonist, creates a daring escape for both of them. The heat of action gives both a chance to gain some respect for the other, which explains why Blair is not only willing to invite Strahl to join his crew, but to go back for Strahl's companion.

Breaking out Strahl's companion will be a more difficult, and surprising, problem.

Nicholas Atwater is a role-playing game GM, something that you will learn the "about the author" section at the end of this novella but probably will have guessed by then. Even more than Echoes of the Imperium, this novella feels like a (good) write-up of an RPG adventure. A wildly varied cast of characters come together and form a party with a well-defined objective that has some surrounding mysteries and surprises. Each of those characters get their individual moments to show off their specific skills. Readers with a certain gaming background will know exactly where to insert the Borderlands-style title card with a slightly demented description of each character.

This is not a complaint. You may be able to see the bones of the setup adventure for a long-running campaign, but I like this style of character introduction and the story moves right along. There are a ton of varied characters, some interesting villains and maybe-villains, a rather satisfying heist setup, and some good chemistry and a bit of banter. This is not a deep story - it's clearly an introductory episode for both the characters and the world background - but it's a fun way to spend a few hours.

I think the best part of this series is the world-building. If you have read my review of Echoes of the Imperium, you have unfortunately been mildly spoiled for the revelation in this novella. I don't think it hurt the story that much; you will be able to predict what obvious gaps in the novel backstory the novella is going to fill in, but it's just as enjoyable to see how that happens. But the Atwaters aren't going to drop any of the big world-building bombs in the introductory novella, of course. Instead, you get a gradual introduction to the nature of magic in this world, some of the political setup of the recent war, and a quick introduction to the capabilities of Strahl's mysterious companion.

If you've not yet read this series, I recommend starting here. It's a quick investment to see if you'll be interested. The novel is heavier and slower, and the pacing of the first half isn't great, but the world-building is even better.

If you've already read the novel, this is still worth reading as long as you enjoyed it. You'll have a few moments of "oh, that's how that happened," and it's a fun and fast-moving way to spend a bit more time with the characters.

Followed by Echoes of the Imperium. The back matter of the novella says that The Winds of Fortune is supposedly forthcoming.

Rating: 7 out of 10

27 Nov 2025 5:34am GMT

Russell Coker: PineTime Band

I've had a Pine Time for just over 2 years [1]. About a year ago I had a band break and replaced it from a spare PineTime and now I just had another break. Having the band only last one year isn't that great, but it's fortunate that the break only affects the inner layer of plastic so there is no risk of the watch suddenly falling off and being broken or lost. The Pine64 web site has a page about this with bad options, one broken link and a few Amazon items that are have ridiculous postage [2].

I started writing this post while using the band from a Colmi P80 [3]. I bought one for a relative who wanted the metal band and the way the Aliexpress seller does it is to sell the package with the plastic band and include the metal band in the package so I had a spare band. It fits quite well and none of the reported problems of the PineTime having insufficient space between the spring bar and the watch. The Colmi band in question is described as "rose gold" but is more like "pinkish beige" and doesn't match the style of the black PineTime.

I ordered a couple of cheap bands from AliExpress which cost $9.77 and $13.55 including postage while the ones that Pine64 recommend have over $15 postage from Amazon!

The 20mm Silicone Magnetic Buckle Watch Strap Band For Huawei GT2 Smart Watch Connected Bracelet Black Watchband Man [4] cost $13.55 including postage. It has a magnetic unfold mechanism which I find a bit annoying and it doesn't allow easily changing the length. I don't think I'll choose that again. But it basically works and is comfortable.

The 20mm Metal Strap for Huawei Watch GT2 3 Quick Release Stainless Steel Watch Band for Samsung Galaxy Watch Bracelet [5] cost $9.77 including postage. I found this unreasonably difficult to put on and not particularly comfortable. But opinion will vary on that, it is cheap and will appeal to some people's style.

Conclusion

There are claims that getting a replacement band for a PineTime is difficult. My experience is that every band with a 20mm attachment works as long as it's designed for a square watch, some of the bands are designed to partly go around a round face and wouldn't fit. I expect that some bands won't fit, but I don't think that it's enough of a problem to be worried about buying a random band from AliExpress. The incidence of bands not fitting will probably be lower than the incidence of other AliExpress products not doing quite what you want (while meeting the legal criteria of doing what they are claimed to do) and not being used.

I'm now wearing the PineTime with the "Magnetic Buckle Watch Strap Band" and plan to wear it for the next year or so.

27 Nov 2025 12:37am GMT

Valhalla's Things: PDF Planners 2026

A few years ago I wrote some planner generating code to make myself a custom planner; in November 2023 I generated a few, and posted them here on the blog, in case somebody was interested in using them.

In 2024 I tried to do the same, and ended up being even more late, to the point where I didn't generate any (uooops).

I did, however, start to write a Makefile to automate the generation (and got stuck on the fact that there wasn't an easy way to deduce the correct options needed from just the template name); this year, with the same promptness as in 2023 I got back to the Makefile and finished it, so maybe next year I will be able to post them early enough for people to print and bind them? maybe :)

Anyway, these are all of the variants I currently generate, for 2026.

The files with -book in the name have been imposed on A4 paper for a 16 pages signature. All of the fonts have been converted to paths, for ease of printing (yes, this means that customizing the font requires running the script, but the alternative also had its drawbacks).

In English:

daily-95×186-en.pdf: blank daily pages, 95 mm × 186 mm;
daily-A5-en.pdf daily-A5-en-book.pdf: blank daily pages, A5;
daily-A6-en.pdf daily-A6-en-book.pdf: blank daily pages, A6;
daily-graph-A5-en.pdf daily-graph-A5-en-book.pdf: graph paper (4 mm) daily pages, A5;
daily-points4mm-A5-en.pdf daily-points4mm-A5-en-book.pdf: pointed paper (4 mm), A5;
daily-ruled-A5-en.pdf daily-ruled-A5-en-book.pdf: ruled paper daily pages, A5;
week_on_two_pages-A6-en.pdf week_on_two_pages-A6-en-book.pdf: weekly planner, one week on two pages, A6;
week_on_one_page-A6-en.pdf week_on_one_page-A6-en-book.pdf: weekly planner, one week per page, A6;
week_on_one_page_dots-A6-en.pdf week_on_one_page_dots-A6-en-book.pdf: weekly planner, one week per page with 4 mm dots, A6;
week_health-A6-en.pdf week_health-A6-en-book.pdf: weekly health tracker, one week per page with 4 mm dots, A6;
month-A6-en.pdf month-A6-en-book.pdf: monthly planner, A6;

And the same planners, in Italian:

daily-95×186-it.pdf: blank daily pages, 95 mm × 186 mm;
daily-A5-it.pdf daily-A5-it-book.pdf: blank daily pages, A5;
daily-A6-it.pdf daily-A6-it-book.pdf: blank daily pages, A6;
daily-graph-A5-it.pdf daily-graph-A5-it-book.pdf: graph paper (4 mm) daily pages, A5;
daily-points4mm-A5-it.pdf daily-points4mm-A5-it-book.pdf: pointed paper (4 mm), A5;
daily-ruled-A5-it.pdf daily-ruled-A5-it-book.pdf: ruled paper daily pages, A5;
week_on_two_pages-A6-it.pdf week_on_two_pages-A6-it-book.pdf: weekly planner, one week on two pages, A6;
week_on_one_page-A6-it.pdf week_on_one_page-A6-it-book.pdf: weekly planner, one week per page, A6;
week_on_one_page_dots-A6-it.pdf week_on_one_page_dots-A6-it-book.pdf: weekly planner, one week per page with 4 mm dots, A6;
week_health-A6-it.pdf week_health-A6-it-book.pdf: weekly health tracker, one week per page with 4 mm dots, A6;
month-A6-it.pdf month-A6-it-book.pdf: monthly planner, A6;

Some of the planners include ephemerids and moon phase data: these have been calculated for the town of Como, and specifically for geo:45.81478,9.07522?z=17, because that's what everybody needs, right?

If you need the ephemerids for a different location and can't run the script yourself (it depends on pdfjam, i.e. various GB of LaTeX, and a few python modules such as dateutil, pypdf and jinja2), feel free to ask: unless I receive too many requests to make this sustainable I'll generate them and add them to this post.

I hereby release all the PDFs linked in this blog post under the CC0 license.

You may notice that I haven't decided on a license for the code dump repository; again if you need it for something (that is compatible with its unsupported status) other than running it for personal use (for which afaik there is an implicit license) let me know and I'll push "decide on a license" higher on the stack of things to do :D

Finishing the Makefile meant that I had to add a tiny feature to one of the scripts involved, which required me to add a dependency to pypdf: up to now I have been doing the page manipulations with pdfjam, which is pretty convenient to use, but also uses LaTeX, and apparently not every computer comes with texlive installed (shocking, I know).

If I'm not mistaken, pypdf can do all of the things I'm doing with pdfjam, so maybe for the next year I could convert my script to use that one instead.

But then the planners 2027 will be quick and easy, and I will be able to publish them promptly, right?

27 Nov 2025 12:00am GMT

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