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"In the beginning, there was the Word." So it is with me; I have always been an avid reader, preferring SF, historical fiction, military & naval history, and biographies to other genres, though I did go through a stretch where I was reading a lot of mainstream fiction. Gave up on it because most of it was depressing and/or tales of awful people doing awful things or living awful lives. (See Bright Lights, Big City or The First Deadly Sin.) I still do a lot of reading and have the Kindle and physical libraries to prove it.
Reading SF eventually (inevitably?) drew me into science fiction fandom. I attended conventions in the Baltimore/DC area and elsewhere from 1974 (Discon II, the Worldcon in DC) until 1983 when I got married and moved to Minnesota. There I became more active in traditional fanac: I pubbed a perszine, joined and dropped out and rejoined Stipple-APA, became involved in media fandom thanks to Space: Above & Beyond and the 59th Ready Reserve Squadron, went to a few Minicons, more Convergences and Diversicons and Arcanas, volunteered and served on staff for some of those, and eventually became heavily involved with anime fandom at Anime Iowa, so much so that I was one of the founders and chairmen of Anime Detour, which I remained on staff with until I left Minnesota for Virginia in 2007. I returned to Anime Detour (and continued to volunteer there) after moving to Virginia and Las Vegas, but eventually the staff there did my son dirty, and I severed all connections with them. I'll be going to Anime Fusion in Minnesota this year for my son's 40th birthday, but purely as a spectator. I dropped out of Stipple-APA after descending into abject poverty in Virginia, but after moving to Las Vegas in 2015 I became involved with the National Fantasy Fan Federation (N3F), sporadically contributed to N'APA, and eventually became treasurer along with wearing a few other fezzes. I am currently the chairman of Son of Silvercon, a small relaxicon in Las Vegas that aspires to become a mid-sized regional convention.
Fandom led me into historical boardgaming/wargaming, which was a big thing in the 1970s and 1980s before TSR bought SPI at bankruptcy and gutted the hobby. I was a D&D dungeonmaster and a Traveller referee; I was also interested in several other RPG (Twilight:2000, Call of Cthulhu, Delta Green) but never actually played them. Wargames are still around, but it's a lot harder to find opponents, and games, like everything else, have become a lot more expensive thanks to inflation and the fact that it's a niche hobby now. Mostly I play video games like Civilization and Hearts of Iron IV, which have some of the flavor of the old monstergames. I used to be involved with EVE-Online as part of Goonfleet, and was there when we broke Band of Brothers, lost Delve and fled to a new home, reorganized under Commissar Mittens and grew to be a great power in the game again, but I don't remember clearly when I stopped playing. Probably in 2018, when I got horribly sick and was homeless for a couple of months. Everyone I used to know in GF is out of the game now, and I don't feel any strong urge to go back. Aside from the aforementioned strategic video games, I also play Fate/Grand Order and Azur Lane on my phone, the former more than the latter because Azur Lane's story is confusing and silly by turns. Played Cookie Run for a while but it wound up being more grindy than cute, and Girls Frontline just didn't hold my interest. I should probably get out and play more Ingress because the walking would be good for me.
I came very late to baseball. As a kid, I was a fan of the Washington Senators, who moved to Texas in 1972 and took my interest in baseball with it. My now ex-wife was a Twins fan, though, and between her interest and Rotisserie baseball, I got back into it. For a few years I scored games at home for STATS, Inc. and published a newsletter on the independent minor leagues (which caused some road trips to towns like Aberdeen, Austin, Duluth, Fargo, and Madison) but that fell victim to Anime Detour, which pretty much ate my life from 2003-2007. I played fantasy baseball on Yahoo for a few years but dropped out of that; I was also involved in a Pursue the Pennant league until it fell apart in 1992. Nowadays, I casually follow the Nationals, Twins, and Red Sox, and am managing the Senators in a Dynasty League Baseball league run by fellow blogger Pete (Da Tech Guy), but Major League Baseball's current commissioner has alienated me with his woke stupidity, and I'm not much interested in seeing the A's when they move from Oakland to Las Vegas in a couple of years.
I don't watch a lot of TV or movies. Used to watch a lot when I was married, but that went by the wayside in favor of watching anime, and these days I watch very little because Hollywood isn't making a lot of stuff that interests me, and I find video games more rewarding. Someday I'll probably finish watching Fallout, because it's on Amazon Prime and the first five episodes, which I saw while visiting Stacy McCain this spring, seemed pretty decent. People tell me I should watch The Expanse, and maybe one of these days I will. Webcomics fall under this heading; I was really really interested in Girl Genius, Megatokyo, Erfworld, and a couple of other webcomics, but I fell out of the habit of following them (probably around the same time I stopped playing EVE-Online, for some of the same reasons) and I can't think of any webcomics I follow at all, with the exception of Terminal Lance, Clinic of Horrors, and occasional postings by Merryweather Media.
Not sure where this really fits in, but thanks to my Dad's final assignment with the JCS, I acquired an interest in nuclear weapons and power, which has led me to a seat on the board of the Nevada Security Site Advisory Board, a group of citizens who provide oversight to the Department of Energy's ongoing cleanup and monitoring work at the former Nevada Test Site. I don't get paid for it, but they do reimburse me for my travel expenses, which is nice, and the work is interesting, with a lot of callbacks to some weird history. For example, they're currently demolishing & cleaning up Test Cell C, which is where testing of NERVA rockets and Project Pluto went on during the early 1960s. Coincidentally, there's some discussion of nuclear rockets again in connection with Elon Musk's ambition of going to Mars.
I suppose I could also describe this as a report on the state of my fandoms, and it will probably wind up on the Substack in somewhat altered form...
So my weight has been bobbling up and down in the mid-380s, which isn't as good as having it go down into the 370s but beats having it pop up into the 390s. BG has been mostly good, BP the same, but if I keep scarfing up frozen Mexican foods it probably won't stay that way.
Raley's instituted a first responder/veteran discount on the first Tuesday of the month, which is 10% off everything and stacks with the seasoned citizens 5% discount. So I went out Tuesday and bought $110 worth of groceries for $73 after all the sales and discounts and coupons. Forgot the eggs, but I'm not out of those yet.
After staying up late reading D.J. Butler's wild steampunk adventure The City of the Saints, I started reading Julie Frost's Pack Dynamics, but it was Too Exciting, so I put it aside in favor of Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising, which has a lot of action too, but it's slower-paced than either of the preceding. I am also looking forward to John C. Wright's A Book of Feasts and Seasons, which Chris DiNote gave a good review of.
Over the next couple of weeks I'll be on the road quite a bit. Next Thursday is a low-level waste stakeholders conference at the Molasky Building in Vegas, and possibly a photo shoot that night. Then home Friday morning...only to turn around and head back to Vegas Sunday night for some VA appointments on Monday (8/19), and a packaging observation Tuesday morning (8/20) after which I'll come home and die. Or at least pass out for a couple of days. Next month will be even busier: a cardio appointment on 9/5, the NSSAB meeting on 9/11, and then I make the hajj to the holy city of Oak Ridge from 9/22-9/27.
One of these days I'll finish watching the first season of Fallout. I am currently in a replay of Fallout: New Vegas and despite my best intentions, I've trapped myself into the No Gods, No Masters track; I also tried to get out of Big MT without killing the Think Tank, but failed at that too.
Raley's instituted a first responder/veteran discount on the first Tuesday of the month, which is 10% off everything and stacks with the seasoned citizens 5% discount. So I went out Tuesday and bought $110 worth of groceries for $73 after all the sales and discounts and coupons. Forgot the eggs, but I'm not out of those yet.
After staying up late reading D.J. Butler's wild steampunk adventure The City of the Saints, I started reading Julie Frost's Pack Dynamics, but it was Too Exciting, so I put it aside in favor of Tom Clancy's Red Storm Rising, which has a lot of action too, but it's slower-paced than either of the preceding. I am also looking forward to John C. Wright's A Book of Feasts and Seasons, which Chris DiNote gave a good review of.
Over the next couple of weeks I'll be on the road quite a bit. Next Thursday is a low-level waste stakeholders conference at the Molasky Building in Vegas, and possibly a photo shoot that night. Then home Friday morning...only to turn around and head back to Vegas Sunday night for some VA appointments on Monday (8/19), and a packaging observation Tuesday morning (8/20) after which I'll come home and die. Or at least pass out for a couple of days. Next month will be even busier: a cardio appointment on 9/5, the NSSAB meeting on 9/11, and then I make the hajj to the holy city of Oak Ridge from 9/22-9/27.
One of these days I'll finish watching the first season of Fallout. I am currently in a replay of Fallout: New Vegas and despite my best intentions, I've trapped myself into the No Gods, No Masters track; I also tried to get out of Big MT without killing the Think Tank, but failed at that too.
Getting to know Spruce
Dec. 19th, 2022 10:55 pmI could have gotten up at 0900 but I went back to bed and dozed for a couple more hours before getting up, hitting the scales, etc. Weight dropped like a rock, probably because I didn't eat that much yesterday and what I did eat was mostly protein. BG was low but not quite normal, BP was normal.
Spent part of the early afternoon marking up Christmas cards, which will go in the mail tomorrow, and then watched the latest Dumpster Fire from Bridget Phetasy, which never fails to amuse. I shaved and changed shirts for the Spruce class, which turned out not to be necessary since the instructor muted everybody's mic and shut the cameras off too. Spruce looks interesting, and that's about all I can say about it. Don't know if I'll get it for my phone, since I don't really need a lot of the things it does (or I have other apps that already do those things) but I suspect management will want us to get it just as they urged us to get MyBlock. In addition to the Spruce class, which was better than most online classes I've done before because of 1) muted mics and 2) the instructor not just reading from the PowerPoint, I also knocked out a couple of Skills to Win classes and will do some more tomorrow when I go back to do the Spruce test.
I did the book post last night but somehow forgot to include Tweets From Actuary Problem Dog, which is unfortunate since it is as humorous but less grim than the Ciaphas Cain omnibus.
In addition to watching YouTube video and shaving, I also bagged up a couple bags worth of garbage. Maybe I'll take it out tomorrow along with the mail.
Spent part of the early afternoon marking up Christmas cards, which will go in the mail tomorrow, and then watched the latest Dumpster Fire from Bridget Phetasy, which never fails to amuse. I shaved and changed shirts for the Spruce class, which turned out not to be necessary since the instructor muted everybody's mic and shut the cameras off too. Spruce looks interesting, and that's about all I can say about it. Don't know if I'll get it for my phone, since I don't really need a lot of the things it does (or I have other apps that already do those things) but I suspect management will want us to get it just as they urged us to get MyBlock. In addition to the Spruce class, which was better than most online classes I've done before because of 1) muted mics and 2) the instructor not just reading from the PowerPoint, I also knocked out a couple of Skills to Win classes and will do some more tomorrow when I go back to do the Spruce test.
I did the book post last night but somehow forgot to include Tweets From Actuary Problem Dog, which is unfortunate since it is as humorous but less grim than the Ciaphas Cain omnibus.
In addition to watching YouTube video and shaving, I also bagged up a couple bags worth of garbage. Maybe I'll take it out tomorrow along with the mail.
No great hurry
Dec. 7th, 2022 10:34 am Looks like it snowed last night, but it also looks like it's begun to melt off the asphalt, so hopefully the drive to Vegas won't be too awful.
Weight was down, BP about the same, but waking BG was a touch high. I suspect the lack of Detemir is starting to make itself felt.
I chose convenience over price this time and booked a room at the Cannery, which means I'll most likely be having sushi from Sam's for dinner. IIRC there's a Lowe's right next to the Sam's Club by the Cannery, so I can pick up the boards tomorrow morning on my way to the VA. On the other hand, the German Bread Bakery is considerably out of the way, but it's not too far from the World Market on Lake Mead, so maybe I can hit it right after the appointment before I head home (with a stop at the Walmart or the other Sam's Club en route).
Got the e-mail from Corel I was waiting for and downloaded WinDVD12 to the Dellbox. Watched a little bit of the first episode of Seventeen Moments Of Spring but will have to wait until I get back to watch the rest since the episodes are slightly over an hour long. Very reminiscent of 1960s American crime dramas, with lots of narration & voiceovers. Subtitles work fine, if sometimes sounding a little weird compared to the original Russian, which I can understand bits and pieces of.
Anyways...I should get to packing and see if I can hit the road before noon. I do need to top off the tank at Shell, taking advantage of my 25-cent Fuel Rewards discount, and of course the obligatory stop at Raley's for tea and maybe sandwiches.
Weight was down, BP about the same, but waking BG was a touch high. I suspect the lack of Detemir is starting to make itself felt.
I chose convenience over price this time and booked a room at the Cannery, which means I'll most likely be having sushi from Sam's for dinner. IIRC there's a Lowe's right next to the Sam's Club by the Cannery, so I can pick up the boards tomorrow morning on my way to the VA. On the other hand, the German Bread Bakery is considerably out of the way, but it's not too far from the World Market on Lake Mead, so maybe I can hit it right after the appointment before I head home (with a stop at the Walmart or the other Sam's Club en route).
Got the e-mail from Corel I was waiting for and downloaded WinDVD12 to the Dellbox. Watched a little bit of the first episode of Seventeen Moments Of Spring but will have to wait until I get back to watch the rest since the episodes are slightly over an hour long. Very reminiscent of 1960s American crime dramas, with lots of narration & voiceovers. Subtitles work fine, if sometimes sounding a little weird compared to the original Russian, which I can understand bits and pieces of.
Anyways...I should get to packing and see if I can hit the road before noon. I do need to top off the tank at Shell, taking advantage of my 25-cent Fuel Rewards discount, and of course the obligatory stop at Raley's for tea and maybe sandwiches.
Where did the weekend go?
Dec. 5th, 2022 07:37 pmWeight's been slowly creeping up again. I'm sure the ribs, cheese & crackers last night didn't help.
Didn't do much over the weekend except play Civicrack, bag up garbage, run the dishwasher, and make an Irish cake that was heavy on the oats. It turned out nice and dense, the way I like it.
The super came by to fix the door and the sink today, which was nice. I gather the delay was partially because my neighbors have been breaking things a lot.
Wiped out against the Red Sox yesterday. The first game wasn't close; the second two I had a shot but just couldn't get the guys to hit.
Have to go down to the VA Wednesday and am dithering over whether I should stay at the Strat to save some money or at the Cannery so I don't have to drive across Vegas twice in the day. I have a couple of days to figure it out.
Picked up La Vie Electronique Vol. 3 over the weekend. Good stuff. Also downloaded a free DVD player, but it can't find the subtitle track on Seventeen Moments of Spring. I'm going to wait for Corel to send me a cookie so I can re-download WinDVD12.
Didn't do much over the weekend except play Civicrack, bag up garbage, run the dishwasher, and make an Irish cake that was heavy on the oats. It turned out nice and dense, the way I like it.
The super came by to fix the door and the sink today, which was nice. I gather the delay was partially because my neighbors have been breaking things a lot.
Wiped out against the Red Sox yesterday. The first game wasn't close; the second two I had a shot but just couldn't get the guys to hit.
Have to go down to the VA Wednesday and am dithering over whether I should stay at the Strat to save some money or at the Cannery so I don't have to drive across Vegas twice in the day. I have a couple of days to figure it out.
Picked up La Vie Electronique Vol. 3 over the weekend. Good stuff. Also downloaded a free DVD player, but it can't find the subtitle track on Seventeen Moments of Spring. I'm going to wait for Corel to send me a cookie so I can re-download WinDVD12.
Chili Time
Oct. 30th, 2022 10:46 pmSlept in until just before noon again. Weight was down very slightly, BG and BP were normal.
Had flax muffin and coffee for breakfast, dealt with various e-mails from friends, and finally got off my butt to run the dishwasher and head out to the Raley's. Bought almost $80* worth of canned goods, sour cream, potatoes, chopped onions, shredded cheese, Kleenex, spices, 7-up, tea, sour cream, and tortillas. Wound up making three burritos out of the chili and other essentials (kidney beans, sour cream, cheese) and OMG they were good. I was amused by the Louder With Crowder episode about Elon taking over Twitter, which also had a few things to say about diesel fuel & engines, the stupidity of electric school buses, and Chinese spying.
I played a little FGO today. The current event is interesting and I got Yang Guifei (Foreigner) in the event 10-pull.
Originally planned to do laundry tonight but I was in a carb fog after the burritos and just sat around looking at Reddit until it was time to put this together. Okay, I did add some cumin to the chili.
Back to the elections board tomorrow.
*Final bill was $61 after various discounts.
Had flax muffin and coffee for breakfast, dealt with various e-mails from friends, and finally got off my butt to run the dishwasher and head out to the Raley's. Bought almost $80* worth of canned goods, sour cream, potatoes, chopped onions, shredded cheese, Kleenex, spices, 7-up, tea, sour cream, and tortillas. Wound up making three burritos out of the chili and other essentials (kidney beans, sour cream, cheese) and OMG they were good. I was amused by the Louder With Crowder episode about Elon taking over Twitter, which also had a few things to say about diesel fuel & engines, the stupidity of electric school buses, and Chinese spying.
I played a little FGO today. The current event is interesting and I got Yang Guifei (Foreigner) in the event 10-pull.
Originally planned to do laundry tonight but I was in a carb fog after the burritos and just sat around looking at Reddit until it was time to put this together. Okay, I did add some cumin to the chili.
Back to the elections board tomorrow.
*Final bill was $61 after various discounts.
...and everything arrived at once.
Apr. 6th, 2016 10:55 pmWeight dropped like a rock this morning and BG did likewise; it probably would have dropped further had I not forgotten to take my meds yesterday evening. I am below 390 for the first time in a long while. Probably need to start wearing the size 56 pants soon, and maybe investing in a new belt besides.
The TV arrived today, as did the Fire Stick - and the vacuum cleaner, which I had stupidly sent to the office. Picked up the TV en route to work and hauled it inside once I got there, since the trunk is unreliable, and left the vacuum behind when I went home. I can always fetch it home tomorrow night. On arriving home, I hauled the TV upstairs, went down to the mailbox to fetch the Fire Stick, and spent the next half hour assembling and plugging stuff in. The HDMI sockets were a pain in the butt both on the video card and the TV, but I got it all working. I know I'm going to have to shell out for an MLB.TV account, but the ESPN Watch app seems pretty useless since it insists on me having a TV provider. What's the point of having a Fire Stick if I'm paying for cable? Ah well; most of their programming is shit anyway. Will need to repurpose one of the empty Amazon boxes to elevate the screen a wee bit.
Work was busy, busy, busy. My first hour was free, but otherwise I had clients (or their work) from 1400 on through to closing. The first and last clients paid off; for all the first one's grouching about the cost, he took a Federal and a State RAC along with an Emerald Card. Fred's return, of course, was pretty hefty and we're going to talk in the off season about getting his expenses more organized and paying some estimated taxes so he doesn't have to write a five-figure check to the IRS. One of my clients from Virginia finished their return and paid for it tonight as well, so I had a REALLY good day from the revenue POV.
Didn't eat much today for lack of time. Lunch was the first meal of the day - a half-pound guacamole bacon thickburger with side salad - and I had a protein bar around 1600 when I finally finished going through two years of bank statements for a client who'd dropped off his returns. So for the day I'm sitting at ~1500 calories, 14.7 net carbs; I'll have a bite of cheese before I retire so I don't wake up hungry in the middle of the night like I did last night.
Tomorrow is going to be busy as well - need to clear out a bunch of boxes so that the deliverymen from Walmart can get the bed into my bedroom. It'll keep me busy and out of trouble, I reckon.
The TV arrived today, as did the Fire Stick - and the vacuum cleaner, which I had stupidly sent to the office. Picked up the TV en route to work and hauled it inside once I got there, since the trunk is unreliable, and left the vacuum behind when I went home. I can always fetch it home tomorrow night. On arriving home, I hauled the TV upstairs, went down to the mailbox to fetch the Fire Stick, and spent the next half hour assembling and plugging stuff in. The HDMI sockets were a pain in the butt both on the video card and the TV, but I got it all working. I know I'm going to have to shell out for an MLB.TV account, but the ESPN Watch app seems pretty useless since it insists on me having a TV provider. What's the point of having a Fire Stick if I'm paying for cable? Ah well; most of their programming is shit anyway. Will need to repurpose one of the empty Amazon boxes to elevate the screen a wee bit.
Work was busy, busy, busy. My first hour was free, but otherwise I had clients (or their work) from 1400 on through to closing. The first and last clients paid off; for all the first one's grouching about the cost, he took a Federal and a State RAC along with an Emerald Card. Fred's return, of course, was pretty hefty and we're going to talk in the off season about getting his expenses more organized and paying some estimated taxes so he doesn't have to write a five-figure check to the IRS. One of my clients from Virginia finished their return and paid for it tonight as well, so I had a REALLY good day from the revenue POV.
Didn't eat much today for lack of time. Lunch was the first meal of the day - a half-pound guacamole bacon thickburger with side salad - and I had a protein bar around 1600 when I finally finished going through two years of bank statements for a client who'd dropped off his returns. So for the day I'm sitting at ~1500 calories, 14.7 net carbs; I'll have a bite of cheese before I retire so I don't wake up hungry in the middle of the night like I did last night.
Tomorrow is going to be busy as well - need to clear out a bunch of boxes so that the deliverymen from Walmart can get the bed into my bedroom. It'll keep me busy and out of trouble, I reckon.
The Man in the High Castle
Oct. 26th, 2015 11:40 amA couple of folks at the Geek Cons group on Facebook are having a hard time swallowing the premises of the show, and while I understand where they're coming from (American exceptionalism rules OK) I think they're missing the boat on this one.First of all, the source material is a PHILIP K. DICK novel. Secondly, the production team is Frank Spotnitz from The X-Files and some guy whose name I don't recall from Twin Peaks. This means you absolutely cannot trust anything said by any of the characters! One character says the Resistance is weak and thoroughly penetrated by the SS, and yet they manage to almost pull off an ambush of New York's Obergrueppenfuehrer in broad daylight. We are given hints that the conquest of America may not have happened the way the Reich's history books say it did - otherwise, why the massive hunt for the makers and distributors of what is apparently a homemade alternate-history movie? We are also given hints that there is a secret war going on between the Army's SD (Security police) and the Party's SS. There are rumors that Rommel, who apparently didn't get swept up in the July 20 conspiracy in this timeline, may step in and play Zhukov as Goebbels and Himmler squabble over Hitler's rapidly cooling corpse. (The time is about right for this parallel, in fact.)
Secondly, America passive under the occupiers' boot is an old trope, and arugably first used outside SF by Sinclair Lewis, who wrote It Can't Happen Here, about a Fascist takeover in the 1930s. This was an actual fear of many folks in that decade - retired Marine General Smedly Butler even testified before Congress about a conspiracy to remove Roosevelt and his New Dealers in favor of oligarchic capitalists. You can look it up. Dick's book isn't even unique in SF; there is Cyril Kornbluth and Fred Pohl's Not This August and more recently, Maureen McHugh's China Mountain Zhang, though in both of those stories the occupiers are Communists. The fear of a Fifth Column goes back a long way, and had a kernel of truth to it; not all the Japanese in the internment camps were innocent of collaboration with the Japanese, and quite a few members of the German-American Bund went to jail after Pearl Harbor for being a little too cozy with the Reich. Even Star Trek went there - have you all forgotten why Kirk's Depression-era girlfriend had to die? I could go even further down the rabbit hole and posit that in an America where FDR was praised for his Mussolini-like actions, and the Germans were the only ones with the atomic bomb, a lot of folks who supported Roosevelt (or Long, or Coughlin) might sign up with the winning side. You may not want to believe these things, but I submit that Dick was a lot closer to that time than we were, and better able to craft them into a novel fans found compelling enough to give the Hugo for Best Novel.
The bottom line is that these folks are making assumptions based on the statements of a whole cast of unreliable narrators, who may not actually know the truth themselves and sure aren't blurting it out in front of God and everybody in a time and place when the truth is liable to get you beaten half to death and then shot. I personally thought the first two episodes were excellent, possibly better than the book (which I haven't read in decades), and chock full of delicious, hallucinatory surrealism.
Secondly, America passive under the occupiers' boot is an old trope, and arugably first used outside SF by Sinclair Lewis, who wrote It Can't Happen Here, about a Fascist takeover in the 1930s. This was an actual fear of many folks in that decade - retired Marine General Smedly Butler even testified before Congress about a conspiracy to remove Roosevelt and his New Dealers in favor of oligarchic capitalists. You can look it up. Dick's book isn't even unique in SF; there is Cyril Kornbluth and Fred Pohl's Not This August and more recently, Maureen McHugh's China Mountain Zhang, though in both of those stories the occupiers are Communists. The fear of a Fifth Column goes back a long way, and had a kernel of truth to it; not all the Japanese in the internment camps were innocent of collaboration with the Japanese, and quite a few members of the German-American Bund went to jail after Pearl Harbor for being a little too cozy with the Reich. Even Star Trek went there - have you all forgotten why Kirk's Depression-era girlfriend had to die? I could go even further down the rabbit hole and posit that in an America where FDR was praised for his Mussolini-like actions, and the Germans were the only ones with the atomic bomb, a lot of folks who supported Roosevelt (or Long, or Coughlin) might sign up with the winning side. You may not want to believe these things, but I submit that Dick was a lot closer to that time than we were, and better able to craft them into a novel fans found compelling enough to give the Hugo for Best Novel.
The bottom line is that these folks are making assumptions based on the statements of a whole cast of unreliable narrators, who may not actually know the truth themselves and sure aren't blurting it out in front of God and everybody in a time and place when the truth is liable to get you beaten half to death and then shot. I personally thought the first two episodes were excellent, possibly better than the book (which I haven't read in decades), and chock full of delicious, hallucinatory surrealism.
Thought I'd posted this already
Aug. 18th, 2015 10:22 pmIt occurred to me sometime today that I'd never gotten around to actually posting my Hugo votes here, as I said I would on Facebook, but I did post them over at Stacy's joint (with guest appearances by Vivian James WH40K-style and Wendell the Manatee from CorreiaTech) so anyone that's really interested can go look at it there. Too much work to retype it, or even worse, copy and reformat.
I was going to take some Tylenol and crash. No time like the present.
I was going to take some Tylenol and crash. No time like the present.
a weekend between two worlds
May. 23rd, 2011 12:50 pmThis was one of those weekends which reminded me how lucky I am to have such a wide range of friends and also prodded me out of my near-agoraphobic basement-dwelling existence, both of which are Good Things. I mean, I get along well with all kinds of people, including people you'd think would be slowly backing away from me and making warding gestures as they did so, and every so often I get to go out and hang with a bunch of people who apparently have next to nothing in common with me. Yet, it somehow winds up being a good time.
Saturday wasn't like that; I went up to Reston to hang out with my old friend Mark, watch movies (about which more later) burn steaks, and talk about stuff. We wound up seeing several classic movies: Night of the Hunter (downright WEIRD), the original Cat People (AWESOME), and Curse of the Cat People, which latter was bitterly disappointing since it has all the elements for a bloody revenge filled sequel to the first movie, but instead wound up being this sappy and only occasionally creepy movie about a little girl's invisible friend who JUST HAPPENS to be the ghost of Daddy's ex-wife. You know, the one who used to turn into a panther and stalk Mommy in order to claw her to ribbons? But the ghostly invisible friend doesn't do that, so unlike the original it is Not Recommended. We also watched episodes 4&5 of Game of Thrones, which is just getting more hardcore and awesome as it progresses. So much treachery and brutal awesomeness. I am definitely going to have to drop by the library and pick up the original books now, because I'm positive there's a lot of additional stuff I'm missing.
Now Sunday was interesting. Old classmate Tish Hall, who when last seen was going into the bread-baking business in a big way, was throwing a fundraiser for her daughter Sara, who is having legal difficulties that I can't go into here, and so I got into the Toaster and motored forth into the trackless wastes of Northwest Washington. It was good to see Tish again; the interesting thing is that while we agree on very little when it comes to religion and politics, we nonetheless get along extremely well. It was also good to see her husband Gavin and their boys again, meet her daughter Sara (who has great taste in music) and Tish's sister Celeste, and hang out with a bunch of Sara's friends. There was too much good food, and I'm afraid I ate too much of it, but the conversation was good and I stayed maybe longer than I should have, considering that I needed to take care of things online.
The next two days are going to be pretty quiet around here; I'll be laying low until I get my unemployment on Wednesday, at which time I'll be shelling out money for my Intermediate Accounting text and starting the clock on that course. Further down the timeline, won't be going to Balticon but a trip up to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
brian_edminster's place is a distinct possibility.
Saturday wasn't like that; I went up to Reston to hang out with my old friend Mark, watch movies (about which more later) burn steaks, and talk about stuff. We wound up seeing several classic movies: Night of the Hunter (downright WEIRD), the original Cat People (AWESOME), and Curse of the Cat People, which latter was bitterly disappointing since it has all the elements for a bloody revenge filled sequel to the first movie, but instead wound up being this sappy and only occasionally creepy movie about a little girl's invisible friend who JUST HAPPENS to be the ghost of Daddy's ex-wife. You know, the one who used to turn into a panther and stalk Mommy in order to claw her to ribbons? But the ghostly invisible friend doesn't do that, so unlike the original it is Not Recommended. We also watched episodes 4&5 of Game of Thrones, which is just getting more hardcore and awesome as it progresses. So much treachery and brutal awesomeness. I am definitely going to have to drop by the library and pick up the original books now, because I'm positive there's a lot of additional stuff I'm missing.
Now Sunday was interesting. Old classmate Tish Hall, who when last seen was going into the bread-baking business in a big way, was throwing a fundraiser for her daughter Sara, who is having legal difficulties that I can't go into here, and so I got into the Toaster and motored forth into the trackless wastes of Northwest Washington. It was good to see Tish again; the interesting thing is that while we agree on very little when it comes to religion and politics, we nonetheless get along extremely well. It was also good to see her husband Gavin and their boys again, meet her daughter Sara (who has great taste in music) and Tish's sister Celeste, and hang out with a bunch of Sara's friends. There was too much good food, and I'm afraid I ate too much of it, but the conversation was good and I stayed maybe longer than I should have, considering that I needed to take care of things online.
The next two days are going to be pretty quiet around here; I'll be laying low until I get my unemployment on Wednesday, at which time I'll be shelling out money for my Intermediate Accounting text and starting the clock on that course. Further down the timeline, won't be going to Balticon but a trip up to
brian_edminster's place is a distinct possibility.a weekend between two worlds
May. 23rd, 2011 12:50 pmThis was one of those weekends which reminded me how lucky I am to have such a wide range of friends and also prodded me out of my near-agoraphobic basement-dwelling existence, both of which are Good Things. I mean, I get along well with all kinds of people, including people you'd think would be slowly backing away from me and making warding gestures as they did so, and every so often I get to go out and hang with a bunch of people who apparently have next to nothing in common with me. Yet, it somehow winds up being a good time.
Saturday wasn't like that; I went up to Reston to hang out with my old friend Mark, watch movies (about which more later) burn steaks, and talk about stuff. We wound up seeing several classic movies: Night of the Hunter (downright WEIRD), the original Cat People (AWESOME), and Curse of the Cat People, which latter was bitterly disappointing since it has all the elements for a bloody revenge filled sequel to the first movie, but instead wound up being this sappy and only occasionally creepy movie about a little girl's invisible friend who JUST HAPPENS to be the ghost of Daddy's ex-wife. You know, the one who used to turn into a panther and stalk Mommy in order to claw her to ribbons? But the ghostly invisible friend doesn't do that, so unlike the original it is Not Recommended. We also watched episodes 4&5 of Game of Thrones, which is just getting more hardcore and awesome as it progresses. So much treachery and brutal awesomeness. I am definitely going to have to drop by the library and pick up the original books now, because I'm positive there's a lot of additional stuff I'm missing.
Now Sunday was interesting. Old classmate Tish Hall, who when last seen was going into the bread-baking business in a big way, was throwing a fundraiser for her daughter Sara, who is having legal difficulties that I can't go into here, and so I got into the Toaster and motored forth into the trackless wastes of Northwest Washington. It was good to see Tish again; the interesting thing is that while we agree on very little when it comes to religion and politics, we nonetheless get along extremely well. It was also good to see her husband Gavin and their boys again, meet her daughter Sara (who has great taste in music) and Tish's sister Celeste, and hang out with a bunch of Sara's friends. There was too much good food, and I'm afraid I ate too much of it, but the conversation was good and I stayed maybe longer than I should have, considering that I needed to take care of things online.
The next two days are going to be pretty quiet around here; I'll be laying low until I get my unemployment on Wednesday, at which time I'll be shelling out money for my Intermediate Accounting text and starting the clock on that course. Further down the timeline, won't be going to Balticon but a trip up tobrian_edminster's place is a distinct possibility.
Saturday wasn't like that; I went up to Reston to hang out with my old friend Mark, watch movies (about which more later) burn steaks, and talk about stuff. We wound up seeing several classic movies: Night of the Hunter (downright WEIRD), the original Cat People (AWESOME), and Curse of the Cat People, which latter was bitterly disappointing since it has all the elements for a bloody revenge filled sequel to the first movie, but instead wound up being this sappy and only occasionally creepy movie about a little girl's invisible friend who JUST HAPPENS to be the ghost of Daddy's ex-wife. You know, the one who used to turn into a panther and stalk Mommy in order to claw her to ribbons? But the ghostly invisible friend doesn't do that, so unlike the original it is Not Recommended. We also watched episodes 4&5 of Game of Thrones, which is just getting more hardcore and awesome as it progresses. So much treachery and brutal awesomeness. I am definitely going to have to drop by the library and pick up the original books now, because I'm positive there's a lot of additional stuff I'm missing.
Now Sunday was interesting. Old classmate Tish Hall, who when last seen was going into the bread-baking business in a big way, was throwing a fundraiser for her daughter Sara, who is having legal difficulties that I can't go into here, and so I got into the Toaster and motored forth into the trackless wastes of Northwest Washington. It was good to see Tish again; the interesting thing is that while we agree on very little when it comes to religion and politics, we nonetheless get along extremely well. It was also good to see her husband Gavin and their boys again, meet her daughter Sara (who has great taste in music) and Tish's sister Celeste, and hang out with a bunch of Sara's friends. There was too much good food, and I'm afraid I ate too much of it, but the conversation was good and I stayed maybe longer than I should have, considering that I needed to take care of things online.
The next two days are going to be pretty quiet around here; I'll be laying low until I get my unemployment on Wednesday, at which time I'll be shelling out money for my Intermediate Accounting text and starting the clock on that course. Further down the timeline, won't be going to Balticon but a trip up to
brian_edminster's place is a distinct possibility....a couple of things of interest from around the Intertubes.
Jersey Shore Gone Wilde. (GVDL)
Vietnam: Historians At War. Truth will out, no matter how diligently liars try to hide it. (Maggie's Farm)
The results of the Auditing final were posted; got an 89 and a C for the class. Better than a poke in the eye, etc.
Hung out with Mark T. yesterday; he insisted on showing me the first three episodes of the HBO series A Game Of Thrones, based on the George R. R. Martin series of the same name. Man, I haven't seen a show with so many characters I wanted to see die in a fire in ages. Awful, awful people. Dire wolf puppies v. cute though, especially when they grow up to be v. protective critters. All the Byzantine political maneuvering reminds me of the more unpleasant parts of Drake & Stirling's Raj Whitehall novels; Westeros in general gives off a strong vibe of 13th century England with a heavy injection of the Eastern Roman Empire where it needed it the least, but that's the way it is. I may have to read the books, once they're all out.
Took some time this afternoon to head down to the VEC office and see what happened with my unemployment, and it's a good thing I did. Will go back tomorrow to resubmit my job apps for the last two weeks and hopefully will get paid Thursday. We'll see how it goes.
Jersey Shore Gone Wilde. (GVDL)
Vietnam: Historians At War. Truth will out, no matter how diligently liars try to hide it. (Maggie's Farm)
The results of the Auditing final were posted; got an 89 and a C for the class. Better than a poke in the eye, etc.
Hung out with Mark T. yesterday; he insisted on showing me the first three episodes of the HBO series A Game Of Thrones, based on the George R. R. Martin series of the same name. Man, I haven't seen a show with so many characters I wanted to see die in a fire in ages. Awful, awful people. Dire wolf puppies v. cute though, especially when they grow up to be v. protective critters. All the Byzantine political maneuvering reminds me of the more unpleasant parts of Drake & Stirling's Raj Whitehall novels; Westeros in general gives off a strong vibe of 13th century England with a heavy injection of the Eastern Roman Empire where it needed it the least, but that's the way it is. I may have to read the books, once they're all out.
Took some time this afternoon to head down to the VEC office and see what happened with my unemployment, and it's a good thing I did. Will go back tomorrow to resubmit my job apps for the last two weeks and hopefully will get paid Thursday. We'll see how it goes.
...a couple of things of interest from around the Intertubes.
Jersey Shore Gone Wilde. (GVDL)
Vietnam: Historians At War. Truth will out, no matter how diligently liars try to hide it. (Maggie's Farm)
The results of the Auditing final were posted; got an 89 and a C for the class. Better than a poke in the eye, etc.
Hung out with Mark T. yesterday; he insisted on showing me the first three episodes of the HBO series A Game Of Thrones, based on the George R. R. Martin series of the same name. Man, I haven't seen a show with so many characters I wanted to see die in a fire in ages. Awful, awful people. Dire wolf puppies v. cute though, especially when they grow up to be v. protective critters. All the Byzantine political maneuvering reminds me of the more unpleasant parts of Drake & Stirling's Raj Whitehall novels; Westeros in general gives off a strong vibe of 13th century England with a heavy injection of the Eastern Roman Empire where it needed it the least, but that's the way it is. I may have to read the books, once they're all out.
Took some time this afternoon to head down to the VEC office and see what happened with my unemployment, and it's a good thing I did. Will go back tomorrow to resubmit my job apps for the last two weeks and hopefully will get paid Thursday. We'll see how it goes.
Jersey Shore Gone Wilde. (GVDL)
Vietnam: Historians At War. Truth will out, no matter how diligently liars try to hide it. (Maggie's Farm)
The results of the Auditing final were posted; got an 89 and a C for the class. Better than a poke in the eye, etc.
Hung out with Mark T. yesterday; he insisted on showing me the first three episodes of the HBO series A Game Of Thrones, based on the George R. R. Martin series of the same name. Man, I haven't seen a show with so many characters I wanted to see die in a fire in ages. Awful, awful people. Dire wolf puppies v. cute though, especially when they grow up to be v. protective critters. All the Byzantine political maneuvering reminds me of the more unpleasant parts of Drake & Stirling's Raj Whitehall novels; Westeros in general gives off a strong vibe of 13th century England with a heavy injection of the Eastern Roman Empire where it needed it the least, but that's the way it is. I may have to read the books, once they're all out.
Took some time this afternoon to head down to the VEC office and see what happened with my unemployment, and it's a good thing I did. Will go back tomorrow to resubmit my job apps for the last two weeks and hopefully will get paid Thursday. We'll see how it goes.
It's ALWAYS a good time to buy gold!
Jan. 18th, 2011 10:21 amWell, no jury duty today. I'll call back this afternoon to see if my group gets called in tomorrow. As much as I fancy the idea of serving on a jury, I hope they don't call tomorrow, since I'm supposed to be at the tax mines and I kinda need the money.
There's been an ad running on Fox News (the default TV channel in the tax mines) for Rosland Capital featuring G. Gordon Liddy and three cartoonish, pantomime constructs: a house, a bank, and a piggy bank. We have the TV muted, and the closed captioning is hilariously sporadic. so I have no idea what the G-man is saying, but it's pretty obvious that he's talking about the collapse in value of houses, failing banks, and inflation raping your savings. As he walks by the house, bank, and finally the piggy bank, he whacks the air valve on each, and they deflate, which is pretty amusing until he gets to the piggy bank. I have the same thought every time I see the ad: poor piggy.
Related, but more hilarious:
There's been an ad running on Fox News (the default TV channel in the tax mines) for Rosland Capital featuring G. Gordon Liddy and three cartoonish, pantomime constructs: a house, a bank, and a piggy bank. We have the TV muted, and the closed captioning is hilariously sporadic. so I have no idea what the G-man is saying, but it's pretty obvious that he's talking about the collapse in value of houses, failing banks, and inflation raping your savings. As he walks by the house, bank, and finally the piggy bank, he whacks the air valve on each, and they deflate, which is pretty amusing until he gets to the piggy bank. I have the same thought every time I see the ad: poor piggy.
Related, but more hilarious:
It's ALWAYS a good time to buy gold!
Jan. 18th, 2011 10:21 amWell, no jury duty today. I'll call back this afternoon to see if my group gets called in tomorrow. As much as I fancy the idea of serving on a jury, I hope they don't call tomorrow, since I'm supposed to be at the tax mines and I kinda need the money.
There's been an ad running on Fox News (the default TV channel in the tax mines) for Rosland Capital featuring G. Gordon Liddy and three cartoonish, pantomime constructs: a house, a bank, and a piggy bank. We have the TV muted, and the closed captioning is hilariously sporadic. so I have no idea what the G-man is saying, but it's pretty obvious that he's talking about the collapse in value of houses, failing banks, and inflation raping your savings. As he walks by the house, bank, and finally the piggy bank, he whacks the air valve on each, and they deflate, which is pretty amusing until he gets to the piggy bank. I have the same thought every time I see the ad: poor piggy.
Related, but more hilarious:
There's been an ad running on Fox News (the default TV channel in the tax mines) for Rosland Capital featuring G. Gordon Liddy and three cartoonish, pantomime constructs: a house, a bank, and a piggy bank. We have the TV muted, and the closed captioning is hilariously sporadic. so I have no idea what the G-man is saying, but it's pretty obvious that he's talking about the collapse in value of houses, failing banks, and inflation raping your savings. As he walks by the house, bank, and finally the piggy bank, he whacks the air valve on each, and they deflate, which is pretty amusing until he gets to the piggy bank. I have the same thought every time I see the ad: poor piggy.
Related, but more hilarious:
Stacy McCain does the fish-in-a-barrel thing with Katie Couric, who seems to think that the cure for Americans' suspicion of radical Islam would be a Muslim version of The Cosby Show. Putting aside for the moment the fact that there just aren't any Muslim comics as funny and popular among the kufr as the Cos was among whites, I think la Couric is guilty of gross insensitivity and ignorance here. How can such a worldly, with-it talking head gal be unaware of that smash CBC hit Little Mosque On The Prairie? I mean, according to Wikipedia, Fox is looking at doing an American version.
Stacy McCain does the fish-in-a-barrel thing with Katie Couric, who seems to think that the cure for Americans' suspicion of radical Islam would be a Muslim version of The Cosby Show. Putting aside for the moment the fact that there just aren't any Muslim comics as funny and popular among the kufr as the Cos was among whites, I think la Couric is guilty of gross insensitivity and ignorance here. How can such a worldly, with-it talking head gal be unaware of that smash CBC hit Little Mosque On The Prairie? I mean, according to Wikipedia, Fox is looking at doing an American version.
Baseball announcers I love to hate
Nov. 10th, 2010 08:42 pmOne of them, Joe Morgan, has been let go by ESPN after 25 years of doing Sunday Night Baseball and irritating the hell out of baseball fans everywhere. There's a good summary of what baseball fans in general thought of Morgan over at Joe Posnanski's blog; the tl;dr is that he was a great player, unquestionably a Hall of Fame second baseman, but a horrible, horrible announcer. I'm not even going to get into his obsession with Moneyball or his disdain for sabermetrics. I'm just going to let it go by saying I'm glad he's retiring so I don't have to listen to him any more.
The other one, who I am hoping Fox will terminatewith extreme prejudice before the next post-season games roll around is Tim McCarver. I have loathed him since 1991; it is no exaggeration to say that he is an obnoxious, opinionated blowhard who cannot control his bias toward the National League, and I consistently hit the mute button when he is on, even if I have to watch the game in silence. God, he is such a jackass. The only person who comes close is Chip Caray, who recently became obsessed with players "fisting" the ball into short right or left field, to the point where TBS' Braves broadcasts quickly approached NSFW levels of double entendre. McCarver, like Morgan, was a great player in his day, but he's worse than mediocre in the broadcast booth. Compare this to Bob Uecker, who made quite a career out of self-deprecating humor that revolved around his marginal catching skills, and went on to become the beloved voice of the Milwaukee Brewers. Bob was recently in the hospital for heart surgery, and the outpouring of affection, not just from Brewers fans, was something to see. If McCarver went into the hospital, on the other hand, nurses would probably need armed escorts to fend off all the fans who would offer them bribes to smother him in his sleep. Probably the only fans who like him are Cardinals fans, and I daresay he probably gets on their nerves too.
Rob Dibble, on the other hand, I kinda miss, which probably makes me one of the few Nationals fans to say that. Rob flubbed a number of things in his time, most notoriously his criticism of Stephen Strasburg the day the kid threw out his arm for the season, but he was seldom boring, and he had a good foil in Bob Carpenter. His replacement is considerably less colorful, to the point where I can't remember his name. Ray Knight, maybe? (Why do all these ex-Reds players keep showing up here?) Anyway, he was bumrushed out of the booth shortly after that, and Nats games on MASN are going to be rather less interesting next season. We'll see how it goes.
The other one, who I am hoping Fox will terminate
Rob Dibble, on the other hand, I kinda miss, which probably makes me one of the few Nationals fans to say that. Rob flubbed a number of things in his time, most notoriously his criticism of Stephen Strasburg the day the kid threw out his arm for the season, but he was seldom boring, and he had a good foil in Bob Carpenter. His replacement is considerably less colorful, to the point where I can't remember his name. Ray Knight, maybe? (Why do all these ex-Reds players keep showing up here?) Anyway, he was bumrushed out of the booth shortly after that, and Nats games on MASN are going to be rather less interesting next season. We'll see how it goes.
Baseball announcers I love to hate
Nov. 10th, 2010 08:42 pmOne of them, Joe Morgan, has been let go by ESPN after 25 years of doing Sunday Night Baseball and irritating the hell out of baseball fans everywhere. There's a good summary of what baseball fans in general thought of Morgan over at Joe Posnanski's blog; the tl;dr is that he was a great player, unquestionably a Hall of Fame second baseman, but a horrible, horrible announcer. I'm not even going to get into his obsession with Moneyball or his disdain for sabermetrics. I'm just going to let it go by saying I'm glad he's retiring so I don't have to listen to him any more.
The other one, who I am hoping Fox will terminatewith extreme prejudice before the next post-season games roll around is Tim McCarver. I have loathed him since 1991; it is no exaggeration to say that he is an obnoxious, opinionated blowhard who cannot control his bias toward the National League, and I consistently hit the mute button when he is on, even if I have to watch the game in silence. God, he is such a jackass. The only person who comes close is Chip Caray, who recently became obsessed with players "fisting" the ball into short right or left field, to the point where TBS' Braves broadcasts quickly approached NSFW levels of double entendre. McCarver, like Morgan, was a great player in his day, but he's worse than mediocre in the broadcast booth. Compare this to Bob Uecker, who made quite a career out of self-deprecating humor that revolved around his marginal catching skills, and went on to become the beloved voice of the Milwaukee Brewers. Bob was recently in the hospital for heart surgery, and the outpouring of affection, not just from Brewers fans, was something to see. If McCarver went into the hospital, on the other hand, nurses would probably need armed escorts to fend off all the fans who would offer them bribes to smother him in his sleep. Probably the only fans who like him are Cardinals fans, and I daresay he probably gets on their nerves too.
Rob Dibble, on the other hand, I kinda miss, which probably makes me one of the few Nationals fans to say that. Rob flubbed a number of things in his time, most notoriously his criticism of Stephen Strasburg the day the kid threw out his arm for the season, but he was seldom boring, and he had a good foil in Bob Carpenter. His replacement is considerably less colorful, to the point where I can't remember his name. Ray Knight, maybe? (Why do all these ex-Reds players keep showing up here?) Anyway, he was bumrushed out of the booth shortly after that, and Nats games on MASN are going to be rather less interesting next season. We'll see how it goes.
The other one, who I am hoping Fox will terminate
Rob Dibble, on the other hand, I kinda miss, which probably makes me one of the few Nationals fans to say that. Rob flubbed a number of things in his time, most notoriously his criticism of Stephen Strasburg the day the kid threw out his arm for the season, but he was seldom boring, and he had a good foil in Bob Carpenter. His replacement is considerably less colorful, to the point where I can't remember his name. Ray Knight, maybe? (Why do all these ex-Reds players keep showing up here?) Anyway, he was bumrushed out of the booth shortly after that, and Nats games on MASN are going to be rather less interesting next season. We'll see how it goes.
All you Blackadder fans...
Oct. 31st, 2010 11:12 am...and I know there are plenty of you out there!
You may want to jump on this deal from Amazon:
Black Adder Remastered: The Ultimate Edition
Today only. I'd do it myself, but I have some more urgent priorities at the moment...
You may want to jump on this deal from Amazon:
Black Adder Remastered: The Ultimate Edition
Today only. I'd do it myself, but I have some more urgent priorities at the moment...
