Information High

Questions from rattrap have activated the cloaking device

Interview With A Fanboy

Questions from jazzfish hidden from the casual reader

Dispatch From the Friends List Network

Interview questions from gryphynkit can be found by clicking here

Five more sound bites

Interview questions from ndkid behind the cut

Why is a raven like a writing desk?

It’s the return of the interview meme, with the following rules:

1. Leave me a casual comment of no particular significance, like a lyric to your current favorite song, your favorite kind of sandwich, or maybe your favorite game. Any remark, meaningless or not.
2. I will respond by asking you five personal questions so I can get to know you better.
3. Update your LJ with the answers to the questions.
4. Include this explanation and offer to ask someone else in your own post.
5. When others respond with a desultory comment, you will ask them five questions.

Questions posed by fishy1 are behind the cut

By Klono’s carballoy claws!

I love E.E. “Doc” Smith’s Lensman series. Many of the reasons why I love it are succinctly expressed in the comments to this other user’s LJ entry, in which jordan179 discusses all the SF cliches that Smith practically invented.

One of my favorite comments to the entry is: “When I read a lot of modern science fiction of the “doomed to disaster” variety, I often think that what the characters in the story need is an E. E. “Doc” Smith or John W. Campbell Engineer-Hero to come along and knock the problem on its head a few times.” I talked about this in my “zombie horror” entry. Too many SF / Fantasy characters these days have already given up, and won’t even try to do something about the horrible situation they’re in.

This lead me to the following link: “The Doom that Came to Necropolis”. Imagine a Cthulhu Mythos story starring a square-jawed man of Science! who won’t be cowed by shadows in the dark…

Pushing words through the mush in my skull

I mentioned in a Friends-locked entry a few days ago that my father passed away over the weekend. I locked it because I didn’t know almost anything about the situation at the time, and because I wasn’t quite ready to share publically before I talked to all the family. They all know now, and I know more about the circumstances. There’s no need to share much besides the facts that it was apparently natural and quick.

I’m kind of a mess right now, though I don’t think you’d know to look at me. I haven’t been sobbing or screaming or clawing at the walls, but I’ve been pretty depressed all week, and I’ve had fever-like symptoms off and on every day. My appetite’s been weird too. I’m hoping that the reception and service Thursday and Friday will help clear my psyche.

Perfect time to be making a four hour drive each way, huh? Luckily, I can do that completely on autopilot.

Lots of people offered support both online and off. All I can say is that you folks are wonderful. I am absolutely blessed to have so many excellent people offering me their thoughts and prayers… that’s helped more than you can imagine.

Rambling a bit today, and I know it, but well, I need to ramble.

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Connectedness

I finished Harry Potter 7 on Monday. You’ll find no spoilers in this entry – I’ll just say I found the book satisfiying, and leave it at that.

Both the forums for World of Warcraft and my LiveJournal Friends had to declare spoiler bans, and I’ve had to politely interrupt friends and co-workers to avoid hearing too much. I still accidentally read a leak or two, though nothing to ruin my fun. (I had decided that even a complete spoil wouldn’t kill it for me – little of the book truly surprised me – I felt more curiosity about the journey than the destination, if you get my meaning.) Still, it took effort to avoid knowing more than I wanted. Somehow, my separate worlds of WoW, LJ, NASA, and my local friends circles all became united by this series finale, and there was Potter discussion in every direction.

As the days move forward, it seems to become harder and harder to keep separate all the little facets of my life. Without my involvement, my separate friends groups are merging, my interests are crossing over, my worlds are colliding. I think that the Borg used to be terrifying (pre-Voyager) because we know we are headed in that very direction; a race of minds linked instantly to each other, sometimes even when we’d prefer not to be; a race increasingly unable to escape our dependence on the tools we’ve created without drastic, unpleasant changes in who we are and who we want to be.

I’m not saying it has to be a horrible thing. It’s less stressful, in a lot of ways, to be able to avoid keeping up these compartments in my mind. As well, I’ve gained access to new opportunities and experiences this way. I don’t at all think that we must lose all we treasure about our humanity and become a race of blotchy drones with frickin’ laser beams on our heads; but still, every time I see someone reading e-mail on her Blackberry while talking into her Bluetooth earpiece, I wonder how close we are to the line at which Resistance Will Become Futile.

P.S. Wrote this up on the Newton, moved it to the laptop when I got home, then posted it to LJ. Beep.

Short fiction for today

This morning I read When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth, by Cory Doctorow, linked to me by wilwheaton‘s syndicated LJ feed.

The last two paragraphs hit me hard, and I honestly needed a few minutes to recover. ‘Cause geez, I’ve suspected for some time that the secret to life, the universe, and everything is hiding right there.

Strong stuff.

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