Ex Libris
Now that I have cleared out some books, and indeed started another stack to go, I feel less guilty about picking up a few more.
Reading right now:
Storm Front, by Jim Butcher
A little something madwriter suggested to me
Wanting to pick up ASAP:
In the Serpent’s Coils, by Tiffany Trent
Benighted, by Kit Whitfield
Wizards at War, by Diane Duane
The Sagan Diary, by John Scalzi
The Empty Chair, by Diane Duane
I’ve had books 2 and 3 of Butcher’s Dresden Files for over a year. Now that I have book 1, I feel I can finally start reading through, though after all these years I’ve finally learned to break up reading a series with other books by other authors. Having met Tiffany two Technicons ago, I figure it’s high time to read Coils; and cjmr knows why I’m planning to read Benighted. With A Wizard of Mars coming out, I need to catch up on my Young Wizards; and I can finally wrap up the story of my favorite literary Romulan Commander with Empty Chair (out for over a year, and I somehow never noticed).
I’ll save comments on madwriter‘s offering for some other entry sometime 🙂
More thoughts: I’m not sure I’ve bought many new books over the last year. Most of these have been on the shelves for a while. I think I needed to convince myself that it was okay to spend the money again, as long as I don’t let my living space collapse under the accumulated weight. Also, I’m pleased about how many of these authors I’ve gotten to speak to, even briefly and electronically. I love the 21st century. Lastly, I’m depressed by the difficulty of finding a science book section in B.Dalton’s or Waldenbooks. It’s not like I can’t get the individual books I’m interested in from Amazon or have Jesse down here order them for me, but I wish I lived in a country that wanted to read about science.
Clouds thinning by morning
Feeling much much better this morning. I have been trying to find an explanation for feeling so lousy last night… less caffeine, lingering crud from the weekend, full moon, etc etc… but I think that there’s no special explanation: I just felt bad. This is not satisfying to the logical part of my mind, but all the other possibilities just don’t ring true.
I think it helps that I did again wake before the alarm, though I had a bout of chills about 1/2 hour into my morning. I’m hoping that garbage goes away as the weather gets a little warmer.
My WoW backpack has 16 “item slots”, each of which holds anything from a rabbit’s foot to a 6-foot mage’s staff to an armored chestplate. These slots fill up insanely quickly – collecting additional bags ASAP is practically mandatory – so I’m disinclined to believe the “upcoming patch notes” that claim we’ll be seeing a “scaling” pack which starts at 10 slots and gets to 24 slots at level 70. 10 slots isn’t even enough for a newbie character.
(I love how, in loot-based fantasy gaming, the same pair of armored trousers somehow fit both a 3.5-foot tall gnome male, and an 8.5-foot tall tailed alien female. Imagine how easy clothes shopping would be if all clothing fit the moment you put it on!)
Since I’m WoW-gabbing this morning, here’s a great post on the official forums by a player who’s compiled a short history of Azeroth, giving players some background for a lot of those quests where something more seems to be going on. WoW lore’s pretty darn rich and full, even for a series of 4 video games. It may be no Silmarillion, but that’s a plus for some folks.
To-Do Listing
This was supposed to be the week where I caught up on sleep and email and life. I think I’m about 83% caught up on email, but the rest of it all still needs some work!
Just had to write another program book blurb about me. I hate doing that, I never feel like I’m any good at selling myself. But I’m pleased with how it came out, so I’ll consider it additional experience in an unfamiliar writing style.
I found today the Federation Models (http://www.federationmodels.com/) website which has all the customization pieces I wanted to complete the Grin’elle Kriet-era U.S.S. Yeager model kit. This is really tickling the bits of my brain that want to dig out the Dremel Tool and styrene glue again.
This concept is Anathema
Did you know that, as recently as the eighteenth century, “engine” meant any generic “device” or “tool”?
Of course, in the twenty-first century, “engine” almost always means “machine that provides motive power”. We still, though, have some leftover of the old meaning when we talk about someone who designs, maintains, or operates devices and tools as an “engineer”.
In the older usage, a loom might be a “weaving engine”, a crane a “lifting engine”, or a computer a “calculating engine”.
The only reason this is on my mind at all is that, while waking up this morning, and sorting and filing the loose random thoughts of a foggy brain, I suddenly heard Scotty warning that “The devices canna take tha strrain!”
…
Look, it’s not like I’m charging you admission.
Frankie Say Relax
The other day it was cold enough for me to wear my Fourth Doctor scarf to work. This morning it’s so warm I didn’t really need a jacket, and there are mightily-confused birds singing in the trees.
Elfie.org seems to have been down since yesterday. How am I supposed to see all your comments of love and adoration without my e-mail? Sob. Weep.
I was unsettled and short-tempered all weekend, and I’m not really sure why. Was it a late bout of S.A.D.? Have I been obsessing too much about my sundry responsibilities? Or was it just my time of the month? Not sure, but I’m done with it, and I’m determined that this week is going to be a week where I get things done and yet enjoy myself.
And I’m-a gonna crack this Writer’s Block I’ve been having right down the middle, yes sirree.
Dream A Dream
“What are your dreams?” I was asked. I couldn’t answer – I wasn’t sure.
I’ve been spending a lot of years focused on making it to the next day. If I thought extremely far ahead, I made plans for two weeks away. I’m not saying it was a daily struggle for food and shelter – I’ve been fairly comfortable the whole time. My dreams got little thought, though. I was busy.
What have my dreams been in the past?
– I wanted to be a starship crewman. (Well, I’m working for NASA. Not bad.)
– I wanted to be an experimental particle physicist. (Less interesting to me now as a career, plus I’d need to devote something like 15 years to catch up to that horse.)
– I wanted to be a well-known movie and TV actor. (I’m having plenty of fun, and eating better, doing that as an occasional hobby.)
– I wanted to be an airplane pilot. (After my trip up two Novembers ago, I’ve decided to go after my license as soon as my slowly-increasing savings will support that.)
– I wanted to be a well-known novelist. (Still not impossible, though I’ve done pathetically little toward that dream in the last years.)
There are one or two others, but those are the oldest ones. The next question is, what are my dreams for the future? It looks like some of those carry over, but I ask myself now not only what I want to be, but what do I want to do? (A clearly related matter.)
Worth some introspection.
Canon gets in the way
Star Trek fans know that, no matter how much time we spend patching the holes with our beer-and-pretzels skull sessions, that the stories of our beloved characters don’t always match up. This has been a problem since the 1970s, when authorized novels were published that flatly contradicted each other. This wouldn’t have been a problem if some of them hadn’t been quite good.
Eventually, Authorities were appointed to patch some of the holes by releasing official documentation; but sooner or later, an Authority would banish a beloved tale to the dustbin. This would happen, the fans would solemnly acknowledge the proclamation, then accept or ignore it as desired in their own private versions.
As time passed, new Authorities would come from the ranks of the fen. New screened, televised, and printed stories would appear, and the new Authorities would take the opportunity to work their own patches in, or negate older ones of which they disapproved. And the fen would take what they liked, and ignore what they didn’t, and spend more beer-and-pretzels evenings arguing uselessly if entertainingly about the merits of individual patches.
Eventually, as any specific fan grew old enough they’d be more likely to decide that a good story is a good story, and if they don’t all match up, well, in some ways that’s even more fun. (See the works of Douglas Adams for a shining example.) And that may be because they have realized that, if you don’t worry about canon too much, you get more stories. And if only 10% (or less) of the stories out there are any good, we’re going to need a lot of them to get our fix.
So, authors, get back to writing that fanfic! There’s a tiny chance that one day, you might be in the position of writing an Authorized sequel… and at least when the day comes, perhaps your experience will give you something interesting to say, and practice dealing with the flame wars to follow 🙂
I Know I Am Wasting My Time
With the released news that Peter Jackson will once again be working on “The Hobbit”, the “OMG Jackson got Lord of the Rings ALL WRONG!!!” people have come back out of the woodwork.
Of course, in fandom, the concept “I would have liked if Jackson had done x differently” is the same as “He completely screwed it up, he ruined the books for me forever, I had to burn my copies afterwards!” This is crap. If you want to see LotR completely screwed up, Ralph Bakshi can help there. Jackson didn’t even come close.
Y’know, I would have liked it if the last “Pirates of the Carribean” movie had done some things differently. I still had a good time in the theater, and felt like my cash was not ill-spent. I’ll probably go see number four when it inevitably gets made. There’s a difference here.
I still say the same thing to these flamers: a whiny blog post doesn’t cut it. Write your script, get the budget, assemble the creative team, hire actors, film your work, get it edited and scored, and get it distributed, and gather widespread critical acclaim. Winning 13 Academy Awards is not necessary, though it won’t hurt anything. Once you’ve done that, I’ll allow that yes indeed, you might be able to make a better LotR than Peter Jackson.
And I’ll gleefully read all the posts from all the fans letting the world know that yes, you too have completely screwed up The Lord of the Rings.
Wizardly Secrets
Speaking about her books at Carnegie Hall in New York, J.K. Rowling filled fan fiction writers everywhere with glee when she outed Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore.
Hapana.com and news.yahoo.com both report: Rowling said she “always thought Dumbledore was gay” and that he originally fell in love with the wizard Grindelwald.
Dumbledore’s orientation isn’t a factor in the plots of the books, so it doesn’t change much for me, though I’m pleased at the additional glimpse of his character. Anyone else have thoughts?
