| The End of Time |
[Dec. 26th, 2009|12:53 pm] |
Wow.
Damn, that was a good episode.
John Simm continues to impress me more each day.
One brief spoiler/speculation:
( Read more... ) |
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| Thanks for the day |
[Dec. 26th, 2009|10:52 am] |
Today I'm thankful for my 'Safe Step' slip resistant footwear - these wire gizmos that go over the soles of boots. It looks icy out there.
Yesterday I tried shoveling, but it was like shoveling slush - the layer of watery ice left behind seemed more dangerous than the layer of snow - expecially since we don't have any sand or salt around here to keep the ice down. I sent a request to the landlady for same.
Eventually I'll have to go outside and see what I can do about the now frozen former slush. |
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| Boxing Day |
[Dec. 26th, 2009|10:17 am] |
Lynn and I have had the best gift ever: quiet time, lots of it, and lots of it together. Enough time to do holiday cards for the first time in forever. We decided to hold off on our tradition of holding a Boxing Day party - next year, methinks.
So...staying warm, watching the snow fall, reading books, petting cats, and sipping hot chocolate. Mmmmmm, holidays. :) |
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| Birthday! |
[Dec. 26th, 2009|10:12 am] |
Another rare public posting in a shout out to the world's greatest father.
Happy Birthday, Dad! Love you! |
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| happy holidays |
[Dec. 26th, 2009|09:19 am] |
Good christmas loot
got a new coffeepot, some clothes for work,
games: wasabi, Vegas showdown (two copies), circus, blocus travel, outlaws b-movie
new atlas. Pooch loved his cuthulu christmas
 from Seward Street Studios and his plane chase cards for MtG
No major blowups. |
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| Christmas was good |
[Dec. 26th, 2009|07:08 am] |
Well, except for the part where J, B, and B's roommate C had to dig out J's car, which was snowed and plowed in, because it had to be off the even side of the street by 8 a.m. today, and then the part where C and I, with the wonderfully welcome help of a neighbor (B was already in the shower) had to push J's car to get it all the way up out of the alley and onto the parking slab.
But otherwise, excellent. E got here late Eve afternoon, and stayed over that night. We had meatball hoagies for supper, with the usual some-veg and such, and E and I had oyster stew, which C also sampled. Then we opened our family presents (as my family always did).
I woke up very early (like before 5 a.m.), prepared socks for our kids and C (unless and until I have grandchildren to do it for, my "kids" get socks!), and watched the Katherine Hepburn Little Women. Several hours later, other people started waking up. In the course of the day we opened presents from J's mother (as J's family always did), the young people opened their sock gifts, we ate various things, watched TV, read, played video games (P and C--both enjoying being in the same dwelling as another game nut). Dinner was spiral ham ($1.69/lb. from Target, and as good as--J and I think better than--previous years' HoneyBaked), mashed garlic potatoes (prepared by R from a Bobby Flay--her cooking idol--recipe), a couple kinds of veg, biscuits, and three kinds of Baker's Square pie. I have LOTS of ham left, including a great meaty hambone, so bean soup is in our future.
Having been awake since pre-5 a.m., I fell asleep at about 7:30. And woke up again this morning before 5.
ETA: I forgot to mention what I got, as that is the least important aspect. Gift cards to Caribou Coffee, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon, a Mickey Mouse T-shirt, a Mickey-and-Minnie tote bag, and a little Mickey snowglobe that E got up at 4 a.m. to get from Penney's, which gives away these little dated globes each year. And a local-artist calendar from my MIL; she also gave J and me a cool L.L. Bean crank radio that does pretty much everything--including charge up a cell phone through a USB--in case the power goes out. |
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| Day 357 |
[Dec. 26th, 2009|01:18 am] |
Merry Christmas, everyone! Karlie and I spent the day with Aaron and Andrea at their house for dinner and games. Aaron is a fabulous cook, and made the most mouthwatering roast I have ever had. Lots of food and fun was had...a good Christmas to be sure!
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| Day 356 |
[Dec. 26th, 2009|01:18 am] |
Some geeky gifts that Karlie got me. I'm a big Dr. Who fan, so she got me a set of the Doctor's sonic screwdrivers (along with the Master's laser screwdriver). I didn't really ask for anything for Christmas, but Karlie did good picking some fun stuff and some practical stuff. My other gift that she got me was a knife sharpening kit. I think the only reason she got it for me is so that I can sharpen the kitchen knives I got her for Christmas several years ago... :P
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| Day 355 |
[Dec. 26th, 2009|01:15 am] |
Holiday lights under a blanket of snow...
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| Day 354 |
[Dec. 26th, 2009|01:14 am] |
The accumulation has begun...the walk from my garage to the back door.
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| Day 353 |
[Dec. 26th, 2009|01:14 am] |
And so it begins...
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| Day 352 |
[Dec. 26th, 2009|01:12 am] |
Our little tree. Just didn't have time to decorate this year, but it wouldn't have felt right to not have any decorations, especially a tree, so this was our answer for this year's dilemma.
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| Day 351 |
[Dec. 26th, 2009|01:11 am] |
Putting on the finishing touches...
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| Sherlock Holmes |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|10:56 pm] |
Did you know that it is very difficult for people today to read The Day of the Locust because there is a character in it who just happens to be named, well
Homer Simpson?
So too with Sherlock Holmes, which would have been a perfectly acceptable television movie of the week at ninety minutes, if TV still broadcast movies of the week that weren't about ladies with cancer. Instead, it's more than two and a half hours of Charlie Chaplin and his homosexual friend John running around Hogwarts doing passable bartitsu (read my article! Send Clarkesworld money if you like it!) while nothing of any import happens. I mean, lots happens, and all for the viewer's benefit, but nothing really is of interest. So certainly forget everything you know about Sherlock Holmes, and also about, you know, human motivation or understanding.
You see, there is a certain Lord Blackwood, who is a member of the Columbine High trenchcoat Mafia, which you know because he's wearing one of those awful leather dusters nerds wear when they try to act cool all the time. He is doing human sacrifices as part of his plan to conquer the world through ritual magic. He is caught, hanged, rises from the grave with witnesses, and then uses magic to kill a few more people, and then Holmes kills him again after foiling a great plan to kill everyone in Parliament. ("And nothing of value was lost...") And that's the real problem with the movie.
Surely people will make a big deal as to whether the Holmes in this film is authentic. Holmes is a young nerd with severe mental problems in his stories and in this movie he's a middle-aged flâneur with severe mental problems. One out of three...well, that's pretty bad. But the real problem isn't Downey's endless mugging and bug-eyed bug-eyeree, but that the story doesn't support the Holmes character at all. As this is a Holmes picture we're talking about, nothing is ruined by mentioning that Blackwood is in fact not a supernatural figure; he just likes incredibly contrived plans. He is a member of a secret society along the lines of the Freemasons and they do practice rituals, so Blackwood uses various far-fetched chemical methods and technologies to make it seem like he has magical powers. Except that none of this is necessary.
Let's say you're a member of Parliament, and hey, for that matter let's say that also happen to believe in Hermetic magic, even though nothing really seems to ever work. What line are you more likely to fall for:
"Behold, for I have true magical powers that look like special effects! Follow me and I shall use them to conquer England and then America! Also, no, I can't show you how to have magic powers too, or do anything right here to impress you."
or
"Hey, we're all rich bastards and we're in the same room together. Since we're already home secretaries and members of Parliament and even the ambassador to the US, let's use our influence to take over England, and then America! And that way I won't have to kill young chicks for no reason except social bonding. We can do that after we take over."
The latter sounds pretty good, eh? I know I'm ready. I'm not joking. Just get me into one of those smoke-filled rooms for five minutes and I swear your folding money would have my face on it within three years. I read once that if everyone in the world lived like the average American, we'd need four planets. I say that if everyone lived the way I told them too, we'd already OWN four planets! ARE YOU WITH ME? ARE YOU READY TO DIE FOR MEEEEEEE?!?!
Anyway, movie. Sherlock Holmes uses the old trick of depicting genius by making everybody stupid, and then making Li'l Miss Smartypuss (that's Sherlock) a tiny drop less idiotic. So, for example, Blackwood is about to be hanged, so his last request is to talk to Sherlock Holmes so he could give him vital clues and taunt him. If Blackwood was really smart, his last request would be, "No Sherlock Holmes at all, thank you." Don't even talk to the guy! There's no reason to.
I won't go into all the ways in which the plot-spectacle of the film makes no sense—have I mentioned that the film is two and a half hours long, and that's mostly establishing shots? Really! As it turns out, London has a river and a big clocktower and a bunch of poor people with black teeth. I'll just use one example. Much like the audience, nobody in the movie really cares too much that Parliament and everyone in it is being threatened with death. So they throw in a bit about taking over America too. The ambassador to the US objects, pulls a gun on Blackwood, and bursts into flame. Later, Sherlock explains that of course what happened is that Blackwood had installed in the lodge of the secret society a sprinkler that he turned on when the ambassador came to the meeting (late) and that sprinkler sprayed an odorless colorless flammable (or inflammable, if you're a snoot like me) liquid. A spark from the revolver is all it took to make it seem as though the ambassador combusts spontaneously through the power of black magic.
So, even leaving aside this unique substance, created for Blackwood (and the film) by "a ginger midget" in a secret lab that Holmes and Watson just happen to discover, with its experiments all out in the open and apparatus and results on display moments before rather than moments after arsonists come to burn down the place in broad daylight, isn't it
a good thing the ambassador came late so he could get sprayed on while nobody else did
a good thing he's an American and thus not a gentleman, who of course would always have an umbrella
a good thing he didn't just have his coach pull up right to the door
a good thing he decided to wear his magic secret society cloak out instead of changing in to it in the changing room
a good thing he pulled out a revolver instead of, oh, a knife
a good thing he made his speech from across the room rather than doing one of those secret handshakes with Blackwood before trying to shoot him, then they both might have died, or Blackwood would have at least been injured
a good thing he didn't just rush Blackwood even when aflame
a good thing his bullet somehow didn't actually come out of the gun or hit Blackwood, though the powder in the pistol did go off and leave a spark
a good thing he didn't show up just to denounce Blackwood, or was just planning to kill him later when fifteen Very Important People weren't sitting around waiting to be witnesses
a good thing nobody else lit up a cigarette during the ambassador's speech
You know, like that. The whole movie is like that. The super-logical explanations Holmes gives for everything—which, in a clever moment, he does to taunt Blackwood while the villain is about to fall down the Inevitable Hole over which 90 percent of final movie fights take place, instead of it being the hero struggling with the bit while the antagonist gloats—make no sense at all unless we assume an invisible audience of millions of not-very-interested viewers watching everything Blackwood does for kicks.
He's doing it for *points at the camera lens* YOU!
The Ambassador thing isn't even the worst one. It's Doctor Watson being fooled by the ol' "Romeo and Juliet" tonic after Blackwood is hanged—Blackwood died young and left a suspiciously good-looking corpse plus the apparatus that let him live past the hanging while remaining in a vegetative state just long enough to be buried in crypt that was...oh, never fucking mind already—that probably takes the cake. Probably.
The movie also suffers from having only ninety minutes of material. In addition to endless establishing shots and a very silly Holmes-is-really-thinking-NOW montage, all the jokes and little bits of repartee are endlessly repeated. The dog dies three times, for example. The dog also farts once, and that's supposed to be a laugh. At least three-deaths/one-fart is an inversion of the usual Hollywood wacky dog formula. Watson is hideously injured in an explosion but is up and about and ready to beat up three ruffians a few scenes later. (Btw, he walks with a limp and a cane.) The gay subtext is sub-House and Wilson level. There's a joke about autoerotic asphyxiation at the very end, just to give the audience something to think about on the walk home. There is an inexplicable scene in which Holmes has captured some flies. We don't need to know that Holmes is an eccentric nut through such set pieces, we've all already come prepared. And any one or two of the dozen or so asides about how kooky Holmes is would have done. Then there are other things—such as Holmes mental dissections of his fights—that are brought up once or twice and then dropped entirely.
What is in the film isn't much. Jude Law remains famous for no reason. Remember when he was in every film made between the summers of 2004 and 2005 (inclusive)? Oh, those were dark times for humanity, weren't they. Well, he's still awful. Downey who is usually great, or at least has screen presence, probably did the film for the cocaine...and there wasn't any! The female characters were non-entities, the villain has less screen time than a random police officer named Clarkesy and the secondary baddy is named Lord Coward. Guess what he's like?
Also, Moriarty is played by a hat.
A crow appears for no reason several times, except to hint that INDEED there is ACTUAL magic in the movie. (Nah, just a crow.)
There are two types of films that come out on Christmas Day. The first and rarer types are prestige pictures which are leaked into theaters at the end of the calendar so as to qualify for the Academy Awards and be fresh in the minds of the voting members. The second and more common type is the movie that promises thanks to its stars or spectacle or reputation to have a very big opening day and then fall off due to awful word of mouth. The closer a film opens to Christmas Day, the worse even the people who made it thinks it is.
Here's the only mystery of Sherlock Holmes—why did they even book noon and 3PM shows, because all that would do is lower ticket sales for the evening programs? Take the money and run! |
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| Playing games for no money gets you killed by robots. (Cylons 1, Humans 0) |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|11:04 pm] |
So I gave ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) markgritter the Battlestar Galactica boardgame for Christmas, and tonight we played it for the first time with mrissa and greykev. It was a very weird game in that the Cylon fleet basically didn't show up for quite a while, and then showed up massively and wiped us out.
I made three serious errors that may have led directly to the demise of the human race, although we may have lost anyway.
1. On the last crisis before the midpoint jump, I chose the option that would keep all the dials in the blue over the one that would move one dial to red, not realizing that that would lead to a two-Cylon game. That's just an error of not having played with sympathizers before, but it hurt.
2. As the Admiral, I chose the jump that would take us from 1 distance to 4 over a more-or-less equal jump that would only take us to 3, in a situation where clearly no one knew they were a Cylon yet. That was just dumb.
3. Chief Galen M'ris, as the revealed sympathizer, pulled a crisis where succeeding would lead to her being able to brig the player of her choice, in a situation where President Sharon Kev was the universally acknowledged but not revealed Cylon. I really messed this one up by convincing Dr. Gaius Mark to try to fail the crisis on purpose, and only belatedly realizing that I could use my super-Helo power (change one crisis choice made by another player once per game) to brig Kev instead of whichever of us M'ris chose. That was the ugliest error but probably the least costly, as we were about to get completely hosed by the crisis deck anyway.
Ah, well. We all liked the game despite this instance being quite a bit less appealing than the one I played with ckd and numinicious, in my opinion. |
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| It's been a day, or maybe a day and a bit |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|10:24 pm] |
For my fellow Twin Citians - is it raining where you are?
As some of you know, we had a run-in with a guard-rail on our way home from Christmas with iraunink's mother last night. Mad dash across three lanes of highway, both front & back bumpers hit the guard-rail. No deployment of air-bags, a small bump on my wife's head, a broken finger-nail on my part. Just a single car accident - we were in a traffic gap. We've been watching for signs of concussion, haven't seen any.
We decided we really didn't want to leave the house today. Which was a problem, as we really need to go grocery shopping, so there wasn't much to eat. Fortunately, we found a Chinese restaurant that was delivering (Star Moon, near 48th & Chicago).
About 5pm, I declared that on second thought, I really wanted to move the car today. By Minneapolis Snow Emergency Rules, I'm not allowed to park in front of my house starting at 8am tomorrow, until either 8pm or the street is plowed "to the curb". Which means 8pm, because there's no way they're getting to the curb again this winter, which means I'm not going to be able to tell when. (OK, if it's a work-day, I'll park in front of my house when I get home about 7:30pm - but that's not tomorrow.) The plow did go down our street today - leaving about a two-foot wall of snow between my car and the street. Very wet snow. And the overnight forecast calls for lows in the mid- to low- 20's. That wall is going to turn rock-solid. So, I went out and moved it. Fortunately, the plow didn't leave a wall on the other side of the street!
We do need to make it out tomorrow in time to get the dogs to their hair-cuts at 10am.
I did manage to get my quota of Dragon Cave holiday specials today. Yay! |
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| New Years Eve Concert |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|10:00 pm] |
Friends,
My old band-mates and I are having a concert, CD Release Party for Kurt, and NYE party.
Details:
When: Doors 6:30, Music 7-9, Music Circle after until late.
What: Borderlands Reunion - David, Kurt, Ann, Scott, Paul, Jeff
Where: The Thompson/Viviano Residence. Email me lollardfish AT gmail DOT com for details.
Hope to see you there. We are not offended if you come for music then leave for other festivities. That's why we are playing so early! |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|09:52 pm] |
Just back from Chris & Sue's. He made s'kyaki (sukiyaki, but I writing it that way so I'll remember to pronounce it correctly). Stuffed ourselves, but also ate indigestible noodles, so we didn't stuff until we were sick.
After that we watched Across The Universe, which we we all liked pretty much.
Now I'm home and the cat's just knocked something off of the top of my bookshelves so he can sleep there. Merry Christmas. |
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| taken from liberal_talk to answer if there is anything good about this health care reform. |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|09:50 pm] |
In addition to other things, it:
* requires both internal and external appeals processes for denial of claims
* gives grants to states to establish consumer protection offices
* establishes national standards for what constitutes minimally-acceptable health insurance, with both minimum coverage standards and limits on the amount of out-of-pocket expenses on the part of enrollees
* bans lifetime limits on benefits, and provides basis for legal challenge to annual limits as "unreasonable"
* bans rescissions of insurance
* requires preventative health services to be covered with no cost-shifting
* requires coverage for dependent children until they are 26
* requires HHS to develop uniform explanation standards, so that insurance companies have to clearly spell out what is covered and what fees are associated with that coverage
* requires insurance companies to accept every person who applies for coverage. |
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| Christmas afternoon |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|10:20 pm] |
I got about three hours of sleep between the time I went to bed this morning and when P called, blowing the dinner horn and asking me to bring out eggs. Since I didn't have to be there until 2, I went back to sleep for another hour and a half and woke to the sounds of talking heads on NPR. Ugh. Rose, performed ablutions, got dressed, and headed out to Ashburn.
From there, we took P's truck to the Amphora, which has become a weird Christmas tradition for this branch of the Trainor family, and proceeded to nibble on appetizers while swilling coffee until cipherpunk arrived and we could begin the serious business of ordering & eating Christmas dinner. I'd originally thought of ordering breakfast (because sometimes I like professionals to cook my unfertilized chicken embryos) but I was convinced to try one of their holiday specials. This I did, and it was pretty damn good. The soup of the day was chestnut, which I'd never had before, and the dinner was your bog-standard turkey with sides, and they were both excellent. The Amphora, it does not disappoint! Well, okay, they were out of tiramisu, which made C&P sad, but there were suitable options. Which were also excellent. Lots of good conversation about the Internets, fandom and its subdivisions, and more internets until we headed back to P's where the conversation eventually turned to wacky tales of the intelligence & security communities, to say nothing of the regular military. Good times.
P kicked us both out a little before 1800 since she had to make a not-entirely-symbolic visit to the Manassas data center, on account of she was working today, and I drove home through the rain on 28 and 66, the latter of which was infested with people who apparently had never driven in the rain before. *sigh*
And now, having received glad tidings from my Aunt Pat and passed them on, I think I'm going to run the dishwasher, wash down some meds, and go to bed early in the vain hope of getting my sleep cycle back to something approaching normal. |
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| BEST CHRISTMAS PRESENT EVER |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|08:58 pm] |
| [ | Tags | | | family drama | ] |
| [ | mood |
| |  jubilant | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Aaron Static - Power Hour - April 2009 | ] |
My cousin Patsy O'Malley, who is (maybe) in her late thirties, suffered a severe stroke on the afternoon of the 23rd and was medevac'd from her work to Tufts Medical in Boston. First word was that she had blood in her cranial cavity, was paralyzed on her left side, and could not speak. Today, however, she's speaking clearly, is experiencing no paralysis, and looks to be going home on Monday. All credit to the doctors at Tufts, of course, but I can't help feeling the Lord was looking out for her.
Damn, I'm happy. :) |
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| A Very Venture Bros Christmas... |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|07:55 pm] |
For the past few years, the fine folks at Astrobase Go (Jackson Publick & Doc Hammer) have been providing Quick Stop Entertainment with exclusive holiday singles.
This year is no different.
However, there are still some of you out there that haven’t heard all of the tracks from previous years. So let’s rectify that. Below, you’ll find all of our exclusive VENTURE BROS. holiday tunes, leading up to the big debut of this year’s insta-classic.
Click Here For Venture Bros Holiday Musical Goodness!!! |
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| A White Wolf |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|05:25 pm] |
A White Wolf
7" x 9 1/2"
Cretacolor pastel pencils on Anthracite color ClaireFontaine PastelMat coated pastel card.
This one's my gift for Karl, who's very fond of wolves and also of the White Wolf roleplaying games. It took a lot of searching to find the right wolf reference and I'm happy with him, the background's mostly from imagination and took some surprising turns. Because he looked so good on black, I wound up doing a very dark scene with the wolf the lightest element, that was so much fun! |
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| "Zardoz" Variation |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|05:14 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  accomplished | ] |
"The gun is good!"
"The gun is good!"
"The politician is evil!"
"The Politician is evil!" |
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| Revision to "How to Suppress Discussions of Racism" |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|04:59 pm] |
I don't usually edit to old posts or call out edits, but since I still get comments and new links on the original post (Dreamwidth mirror) and people have mentioned passing print-outs on, it seems worth making an exception in this case.
I've removed a few sentences from the warning about ad hominem attacks because they promoted the myth that oppressed groups claim oppression they haven't experienced to win arguments. The oppressed group I mentioned was gay people, and I apologize to them in particular for my homophobic words in this essay.
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| Plain Rain |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|04:26 pm] |
No freezing rain, which is good, and so far, not enough plain rain to cause flooding.
I'm still waking up almost every hour of the night, with too much pain, even though the doctor is letting me take the codeine closer. I see her on the 31st, so I'll ask for something stronger. I'm having trouble even stringing with my beading, and it's worse when Junie sits on the recliner arm and tries to grab it.
It's very quiet here, although about half the neighbors are home. |
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| My birthfamily in a nutshell |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|04:18 pm] |
Aunt: "My favorite Christmas gift ever was the chicken."
Elayna: "Alive or like a roasted chicken?"
Aunt: "Alive! I loved that chicken!"
Grandmother: "I stayed up all night building that chicken coop in the living room in the dark, not letting her find out."
Aunt: "And then that turkey killed it. I liked the pig, too. But it bit me. I want a goat." She addresses her brother: "Hey, if I get a goat, can I keep it in your backyard?"
Uncle: "Sure."
Aunt-in-law: "Excuse me?"
Me: "It should be an angora goat, so you can spin the hair."
Aunt: "Angora goat. We should have two."
Aunt-in-law: "Where would you even get a goat?"
Aunt: "Down in Lake County they have some. I talked to the lady the other day. They're just about ready to sell. We should go goat shopping tomorrow."
Long discussion ensues about what parts of the yard will be fenced off for the goat, et cetera, and Adam is sitting back laughing in utter disbelief and giving me this look that says, quite clearly, this explains you. Yes.
It's nature, not nurture. Now you know.
I still demand a hedgehog. Soon as I get a laptop. I'm up to $565 for that. *nod*
And we are actually totally going goat shopping tomorrow. Win! |
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| I'm going to Mars! |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|12:57 pm] |
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As faithful readers will no doubt recall, back on December 7 I posted a
blog entry
in which I listed my space travel wish list, starting with an actual
stay in orbit ($35 million) and ending with a zeppelin ride ($500). #2
on that list was to participate in a simulated Mars mission (cost
unknown, time commitment substantial).
See, the Mars Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the
exploration and settlement of Mars, maintains a couple of simulated
Mars habitats -- the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah
and the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) in Canada
-- where volunteers perform real research on geology, astronomy,
and medicine in a simulated Mars environment (complete with space
suits).
Well, my old college friend Steve Sywak commented on that post that
he knew someone in the Mars Society. We exchanged emails about
this, the end result of which was that on December 22 I sent an
email to one Ed Fisher wondering if there was any possibility of
me spending a week or two on "Mars". He replied on December 23 that
he was no longer involved with the Mars Society but "I'm sure they
would be interested in your application for a crew position. ...
The current season is underway, so you would probably need to wait
for next season; however, it can't hurt to apply now, because
sometimes there are crew cancellations for various reasons."
The application process was quite simple but it did call for a resume,
and for a variety of reasons I hadn't updated mine since 2001.
However, with the benefit of distance and a "what the hell" attitude,
the usual resume-updating angst was absent and I was able to update it
(and shorten it from three pages to two) in only about an hour. I sent
off my application to the Mars Society on the evening of December 23.
I awoke on December 24 to an email from Artemis Westenberg of the
Mars Society. Even the little snippet of the message I could see
in my inbox made me go "Guh?!"
I have no idea how flexible in dates you are
but for crew 88 we indeed have an opening (9-23 January 2010)
the lady who was supposed to be part of that crew works at Johnson Space
Center in Houston
and her bosses told her very recently that she can not be part of that
crew this season
I have read your resume and would like to invite you to be part of that
crew
I took a few hours to think about it, but really there was no question.
I accepted the invitation at noon on December 24 and bought my plane
tickets that night.
So in less than two weeks I will be on my way to "Mars" (actually
a stretch of desert near Hanksville, Utah), where I will spend two
weeks as a member of MDRS crew 88. The other members are Commander
Stephen Wheeler (Professor at DeVry University, Texas); Health
Officer Bianca Nowak (High School Teacher, Belgium); Astronomer
Paul McCall (Graduate Student at Florida International University,
Florida); Biologist Diego Urbina (Electrical Engineer, Bogota,
Columbia); and Engineer/XO Laksen Sirimanne (Biomedical Engineer,
California). My own crew position is Journalist. I don't yet know
what experiments this crew will be performing or exactly what my
duties and responsibilities will be. This has all happened so very
fast and I don't anticipate it's going to slow down soon. I'll
keep you posted.
You know the character who joins the mission at the last minute?
The non-expert -- under-trained, ill-prepared, and in over his head --
who gives the reader someone to identify with and the author a
perfect excuse to info-dump? Well, that's me.
I am excited, honored, and rather stunned.
For more information on MDRS, please see the
MDRS web page, especially
the press
kit and photos.
Laksen has a blog and has
posted information on the
location
of the MDRS.
My mind is strangely bifurcated. On the one hand, I have two weeks
to prepare for a two-week camping trip in the desert with five
people I've never met, and there are lots of practical details to
arrange.
On the other hand...
I'M GOING TO MARS!!
 |
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| R.I.P. Annette Carrico |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|02:28 pm] |
Annette was well-known to people on the Midwestern con circuit. Although confined to a wheelchair, she was a cheerful, tireless convention volunteer whose specialty was consuites. This blog post has more information, and links to some of her convention activities. The Facebook announcement I saw, which I can't find now, said that she died of cancer.
Fly with the sparks, Annette. You will be missed.
This entry was originally posted at http://stardreamer.dreamwidth.org/561481.html. I prefer that you comment here if you read it here. |
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| Ye Gads! |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|01:48 pm] |
Walked down to the CVS near my apartment, and it's a world slush!
Got some cigarettes, and a pack of nicoteen gum. One pack, then I start on the gum. |
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| Portrait of Miss Gemini for Kitten (cat portrait) |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|01:47 pm] |
Miss Gemini in the Window
6 1/2" x 8 3/4"
Cretacolor pastel pencils on brown ClaireFontaine PastelMat
Photo reference is mine, posted for a challenge on the December 2009 Pastel Strokes event in the Soft Pastel Talk forum on WetCanvas.com where I set the challenge of "change the light." I took the photo at night, that was when Gemini decided to pose and be cute in the window. I changed the scene to daylight and happily had the real cat sitting near me (and moving around a lot) so I could color correct her from the photo to accurate likeness.
This wouldn't have mattered so much if I wasn't doing it as a direct portrait of that cat where it was important to get her colors and markings as true as possible. If I was just doing her as a nice cat picture and didn't know her, I might have changed her markings or colors easily to suit the painting. But I did have her to model and even though she didn't sit still, she purred for me. Also Kitten helped by holding the picture way across the room when I asked her to, so that I'd see it at a distance and know what needed to be done next.
I'm happy with how it came out including the background. I simplified the window view but successfully got the Arkansas sky intensity even in winter and the wooden window shelf the cats lay or sit on, even the color of the wall is close to true.
I have just spent the happiest Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning of my life today. The kids were wonderful, they happily played with their presents, got all excited about everything and shared the candy from their stockings. Gabriel and Sascha loved the books I got them. Sascha identified half a dozen dinosaurs in Dinotopia on sight and Gabriel studiously turned pages in The Lion and The Mouse and enjoyed it.
They both chased New Puppy Rhiannon around and around at high speed laughing. There were no tears, no screams, no squabbles, just happy giggling and occasional singing of Jingle Bells with unique words and tune. Plus of course the deep voiced electronic announcement of Sascha's cherished new toy giving his identity: "I am Optimus Prime."
Gabriel listened a few times and then squared up his shoulders, looked all big and tough and said "I am Optimus Prime" in as deep a voice as he could manage! It was great! |
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| Writer's Block: That's a wrap! |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|01:38 pm] |
No, nothing from my childhood. I have holiday traditions that we're creating now during my grandchildrens' childhood and every one of them is precious. We're creating new ones every year and this year's holidays were the best in my life. |
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| Happy birthday! |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|12:07 pm] |
Happy birthday to arkuat! Hope it's a good one, buried in all the Christmas stuff.
xkcd wishes you a happy birthday, too! |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|12:58 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| | shocked | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Shane MacGowan - Christmas Lullabye | ] |
Ho, Ho, Holy Wow! the_colombian got me an X-Box 360, Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, and Kevin Smith's latest book for Christmas! Thank you, you sneaky bastard!!!
 |
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| Happy Yuletide, everyone! |
[Dec. 25th, 2009|11:31 am] |
My primary gift is The Mortal, a story about the Faerie Folk in the aftermath of The Perilous Gard. It's lovely -- it really captures what I loved about the treatment of the Faerie in the book, with their own fully realized society that is entirely different from ours. I thought that for once I maybe had my Yule Goat figured out (just based on choice of fandom and the timing of when the story was posted)... and then my prime suspect posted a comment on the story! *g*
And apparently I have a Yuletide Treat waiting for me, too! I'm trying not to overload the poor servers by rampant refreshing to see if the Treats have been unlocked yet, but the suspense is killing me. But I'll hold off on further Yuletide exploration until the servers cool off a bit.
This entry was originally posted at http://loligo.dreamwidth.org/387243.html.  comments on that entry. Please comment there using OpenID. |
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