A collection of trivia

This is a site I could browse through for hours on end without getting bored.

Trivia Library.com

What is it, you ask? Why it's an enormous collection of random facts, articles and essays on topics that range from Astronomy to Utopia to Death to Weird Events and more.

Sound kinda general and broad? That's because it is! You never know what you'll find when you click on a topic. Choose Death, for example, and you'll find a link to a compendium of Bizarre Gravestone Epitaphs, reprinted from The People's Almanac. ("And the Devil sent him Anna." is one that intrigued me to no end)

Or, go to the Mystery in History section and check out the People with Strange Powers. There you'll find The Flying Friar, The Queen of Fire-Eaters and the Psychic Detective. All documented. There are reports from the Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology on scientific street-walking experiments, and even a history of the search for the lost city of Atlantis.

There's no shortage of story inspiration here, folks, or even just a cure for boredom, if that's all you're looking for. At the moment, I'm trying to think up reasons the Devil might have sent Anna to some guy, and why he ended up dead because of it. Tell me what nuggets you dig up from here.

I see that smile.

More of the future

We've seen it all in the stories, the Harry Potter books, and now invisibility (or our great craving for anonymity in its ultimate manifestation) is being considered in so many scientific fields, it's dizzying.

Blueprint for Invisibility

Here's the Wired News bit on it: New Research Brings Invisibility Tech Into View.

And here's the paper they're talking about, if you actually want to dig through the diagrams and techno-scrabble.

While a lot of people are saying invisibility is still far from feasible, at least in the ways we're imagining it, I still think this picture of the woman in that sight-bending raincoat is just sweet. A cool illustration of what it might be like.






Eh? Eh?

And I always assume that there's some super-secret triple-Delta ops team in the government that has full body suits that do this already. How can we ever prove they exist though? Those sneaky super-secret triple-Delta ops teams and their invisibility suits. Lets get these things on the basic consumer market sometime, howsabout it?

I see that smile.

Stock up on berries

There's some fascinating research going on that hints at humans being able to enter a state of Suspended animation in order to survive hostile environments, or to preserve bodily functions until proper care can be provided. Some of this comes from stories of people surviving in harsh weather by going into something of a comatose state, or patients being determined as clinically dead before popping back to life much later on.

These stories of freak survival aside, scientists have been researching with numerous species on ways to enforce a reversible, hibernating state using infusions of fake blood, ultralow temperatures and even toxic gasses. Pigs, dogs and mice all exhibit the ability to go to the brink of death and sit there for a while until being revived, most often without showing any signs of damage.

The biggest problem with the body going into this power-save mode is that it opens up potential for brain damage due to a lack of blood flow. For now, all the tests have been run on animals, but the biggest question is whether these findings might someday apply to humans as well. Can we be brought into a state where our bodies just turn off, only to "power back up" when the proper medical attention is available? One of the biggest hurdles, the article admits, is simply trying to educate the public about the possibilities this research might open up, and to calm fears about, say, producing zombies.

We've seen lots of those science fiction movies that show people cryogenically preserved throughout the centuries, or perhaps space travelers in a suspended animation in order to go between the stars. Maybe this is a step closer to seeing some of those technologies become a reality. For now, scientists foresee this as being perhaps a way to save lives. If someone is bleeding to death after a car accident, their body could be shut down for the ambulance ride to the hospital, where they could be treated and reawakened without any further damage or deterioration of health.



I see that smile.

Meltingggg...

Blerg. It was hot yesterday. I tried to get stuff done. Succeeded at times when it was possible to move around in a non-liquefied form. This is just the precursor to the NYC summer, where you start sweating by the gallon just because you woke up and rolled over in bed. Thank goodness we have an AC unit. Now, if I'd only installed it already, it might actually do something.

Got a little rain last night, which brought some cooler air with it, plus it drove some of the backyard partiers inside before it became too ungodly of an hour. Saturday night, there was techno music thumping outside my window at 4 am. Not a soul in sight down on the patio, just some speakers playing for some ghosts of Brooklyn, apparently.

On today's agenda? A church picnic! Is it bad that I react to other people bringing the same food item that I have in the same way some women do when they end up attending some event wearing the same dresses? (Diagram that sentence and get back to me, would you?)

Of course, maybe it would help if I brought something a bit more original than chips and salsa. Apparently my picnic creativity needs some work.

What are you all doing for Memorial Day?



I see that smile.

More pictures

I think we have one of both families together, but this'll have to do for now.

This is where you can see sun and snow at the same time.

Me and the little sis' taking a break from the dancing.

The fate of the get-away car.

I see that smile.

Picture weekend

Since a lot of folks are out enjoying the sunny weekend, or maybe travelling to see family and friends, I'm going to keep the posts light over the holiday. Here are a few pictures of the wedding that we've started to receive from the photographer.

More to come.

In writing news, I'm officially done with the one agent, and am now setting about polishing up new query letters and figuring out what manuscripts I want to send out first into the great beyond. I'm about halfway through the first draft of my latest story, and I've got some solid revisions set up for an older story that I just got some feedback on, so I'll be keeping busy.

I see that smile.

Movies I am excited about

Neil Gaiman's Stardust, which I believe I've linked about at least once. Enchanted by the book, and excited by what I've seen of the movie so far.

Also, Pullman's The Golden Compass, the first in the His Dark Materials trilogy which I enjoyed thoroughly, despite it being partly Pullman's negative response to The Chronicles of Narnia (which he talks some about in this older article). This story is wildly imaginative, with such creatures as daemons being lifelong animal companions to people in an world alternate to ours. These daemons represent a person's soul, in essence. There are witches, fantastic machines, and...well, they're worth reading, whatever theological debates the books might be throwing folks into. The movie looks as gorgeous as anyone could envision.

If anyone read the book The Prestige, or saw the movie version of it as well, I'd rank these two movies up there with that one, or, potentially much higher, depending on how they turn out. The Prestige, I thought, was a chilling story into the unknown, with both the book and film having their virtues. We'll see how Hollywood handles these other stories.

Also, we're starting to get in some of the wedding photos from the photographers, so I'll be posting a few on here in the next couple of days.

Any folks have Memorial Day weekend plans?

I see that smile.

A Review of the Nightside

Here is what I just finished reading:

A Walk on the Nightside includes the first three books in Green's Nightside series, featuring the not-quite-human private eye, John Taylor. The Nightside is London's evil twin, where it's always three o'clock in the morning, and you can find anything you are looking for, anytime. And I do mean anything, from super-science, to the foulest magic and all the unspeakable things in between.

Here's my broad take. It's not for everyone. Those who like it, will like it a lot for its inventiveness, a willingness to shuck genre convention and all the morbid fun it throws in your face. Those who don't like it will view it on the level of having stepped in something smelly and sticky. The stories are dark. Much darker than the Dresden Files, which might be the closest thing to compare them to. Harry and Taylor are nothing alike in their attitudes and approaches to life, so don't expect that if you decide to pick this series up. In the Nightside, things suck, and they suck bad. And it tends to only get worse and messier through the course of the plot. Really messy and slick, where you don't want to know what you just put your hand on, because its furry and smelly and growling at you. Even Taylor's best "friends" are his worst enemies, and the only reason they help him is because they get a kick out of killing people, or because they know they'll survive only with Taylor's help in the future. It's a dog eat whale world in the Nightside...and then both the dog and the whale get shoved into a meat grinder.

Am I putting this across well enough? Dark, but strangely appealing, which should worry me, but it doesn't. So let's move on.

The first three plots are as follows- the first one, Something from the Nightside, is a not-so-straightforward runaway girl case that draws Taylor back into the world he was trying to escape from. The second, Agents of Light and Darkness, involves Taylor being hired to track down the Unholy Grail, the cup Judas Iscariot drank from. The third, Nightingale's Lament, covers Taylor's investigation into a nightclub singer whose songs are so sad, audience-goers are starting to commit suicide as a way of applauding the show.

Reading three of the books straight after each other gets me a little more exposure to some of Green's more common phrases and descriptions of characters, which can get a little repetitive. Also, he tends to stick a lot of character exposition into the dialogue, which makes it rough at times. You get a guy who enters the scene, and Taylor introduces them to another character in this manner:

"Oh, I don't believe you've met so-and-so. Well he's a hard-knock chap who has been around the block longer than I've been alive and has a reputation for being a cold sonofagun because his parents left him abandoned in a satanic monastery which he ended up destroying after being visited by an angel in a dream one night. After that he's searched all his life for his purpose and generally comes calling to me when I have an interesting case because I'm the only thing that helps his overriding sense of boredom and need for violence. And while we're at it, let me tell you his religious and political standpoints too, plus the fact he had cold manicotti for breakfast this morning, and yes, he always does look like someone shoved a live rat into his mouth."

And the whole time the character is supposedly standing there, listening to his life's story and personality getting rattled off. Not the smoothest of lead-ins, but I got somewhat used to it after a bit.

There is no shortage of tension or danger in the books. I'll give Green that. The plots are more twisted than spiral staircases to Hell. Plenty of surprise and unique characters (with a very wide definition of unique). The books hold an atmosphere you can't escape once you've gotten far enough into it. Nightside is haunting, and for all its little bumps along the way, I'm looking forward to getting the next couple volumes in the series.



I see that smile.

Crack open those dusty covers

David Louis Edelman has been revisiting J.R.R. Tolkien's works, including The Hobbit, The Silmarillion, The Fellowship of the Ring, and now he is on The Two Towers. Some unique insights on these classics of fantasy, works which have oddly enough almost been overlooked more now that the movies made a blockbuster out of themselves. A lot of people seem to follow the logic that even a 3+ hour movie is going to be a quicker sit-down than these books. Plus, another trend that seems to hit those books we deem "classics" is the misguided belief that they are perfect works of literature. That the author was somehow a superhuman writer who couldn't but a comma awry. But, as Edelman has easily pointed out, there are some stretches of these classics that are just plain difficult to get through. Even some of our favorite characters are treated as stereotypes in the original text, and there are plot points that are hastily erected and spun out on shaky reasoning.

The movies so muddled with our conception of the original story that we have retro-infused the books with scenes and lines and drama that never existed. Character roles are inflated and deflated, and so it's probably a great idea to get reacquainted with what the words really say.

Go take a peek. Edelman has some intriguing notes and side notes on these stories and their film counterparts. I for one am looking to dig up my old copies and give them a fresh read, something I haven't done, I'll admit, since I saw the movies. And I used to read through them at least once a year during high school and into college. Since when does a movie become the final step in evolution of the story?



I see that story.

Hurrah for good books

The good news is that the book, or books, if you want to get technical, that I'm reading now are pretty enjoyable. They're putting me in a much better mood than my last read, and even though they've got a dark mood to them, with often gristly images splattered across the page, they still have an underlying grim humor that appeals to me. Not for everyone, but I'll probably order the rest of the series when I can. I'll review in a day or two, once I'm done with this third one. They're quick reads.

Did something to my blog settings last night that kept me up, fiddling with this and that until I finally got a gasp of life back into the thing. Still not sure exactly what I did to it, but at one point the whole thing refused to update. I love technology, but only when it works, and when it doesn't...well...I suppose it's not a good thing that inanimate objects and software raise my temper faster than the most obnoxious fellow on the subway. I try to be patient, but there's something so smug about computer monitors, like they're just sitting there, grinning back at you while you beg them to work properly.

Ah well. It's fixed. I got sleep. The world continues to spin.

Oh. One fun note. I'm getting a sneak preview of Issue 3 of Jim Baen's Universe (and if you want to as well, here's how, according to Mir's announcement...Note- You need a blog, and you need to be willing to review the issue by June 30th). So, hopefully I can read through it all and put up a big review in the next week or so. Or maybe I can do mini-reviews for a few days. Hmm. I'll have to see what works best. The first story I'm reading through has already caught my attention in a good way, so that's a strong start.


I see that smile.

Miss Snark is Retiring

The final announcement

At the moment I write this, her post has received almost 500 comments wishing her well and saying how much she will be missed.

I first came across her blog while doing major research on sending query letters, and found a treasure trove of advice (however gin-soaked it might've been). Now the romp is ending, and people are still having a hard time believing it. If this were back near April 1st, it'd be a great joke, but no...I do believe she's serious. Maybe we'll even get to learn who she's been all this time.

The reasons for stopping the blog? She's run out of new things to say. I can respect that. There can only be so many questions about getting published or the industry. There are only so many times a single person can respond to inquiries about proposals, industry etiquette or how to avoid screwing up your fiction career. Even to the end, some people couldn't take a hint (or a two-by-four of advice to the head).

So, she's off, and may she be freer for it. Two years, and there've been two million people who crossed paths with her. The nice thing is, she's keeping the blog itself online, so all that advice and humor and good times will always be available to browse through, learn and reminisce.

Hop on over and say farewell to Miss Snark. Rumor is, she's even teared up a bit over all the heartfelt response her retiring news has brought out. That's a rare thing in itself.

I see that smile.

Software for the Writer's Soul

Since the advent of the computer, people have used them to make their lives both easier and more complicated. All the programs we run can be rather useful, if we know how to use them efficiently. Otherwise it can become a mire of technical manuals, late-night phone calls to customer support and so many emotional highs and lows that it's a wonder more computers aren't seen sailing out of high-rise windows to come crashing down on the sidewalk.

This procession of technology has not passed by writers either. Here is a rundown of the tecchy bits I use in relation to my writing. I have a desktop computer (Dell) that is my workhorse for at-home stuff, blogging and my daily surfing. I also have a PDA (also Dell) with a mini keyboard that I take with me on trips, or if I want to get out of the apartment, to the nearest Barnes and Noble for a few hours of focused wordsmithing. To back up all of my documents, which I do at least weekly, I have a 6 gigabyte USB portable drive that I keep handy. I type in Microsoft Word, and I use Gmail quite a bit in emailing documents back and forth to myself, so I can access them from whatever computer I might have handy. That's about it.

Now if you pick up a writing magazine these days, one of the things you see on a lot of the advertisement pages are sales pitches for writing software and tech toys. I'm looking at one right now, and here's what I spot:

The Neo, basically a portable keyboard with a tiny screen. An online guide to the publishing industry. Players and publishers for audio books. A software program for screenplay writers. Novel-writing software, and more novel-writing software.

So with this glut of bits and bytes so ready to help us achieve our publishing dreams, is there any one program out there that actually is worth buying and using? I suppose it depends on how organized you like to be, or how dependent you want to be on your computer to help you draft out a story. One of the major players I have seen mentioned pretty often is this program:

Scrivener

It is used by none other than Holly Lisle, which made me at least want to look into it. I don't think I'm going to shell out for it right yet, but its features are impressive.

It helps writers keep all their documents in an outline for the book they're working on, has a system to keep track of character names and key terms, and even has a virtual corkboard where you can pin notes for yourself to read as you go through a draft. And when you are done using it, you can export the draft into any other word processing software that you want to work with. Overall it looks pretty solid. Has anyone used this before, or do you all have your own tech-tips and tricks that you'd like to share?




I see that smile.

A review of a book I didnt like

It's been a while since I've read a book I ended up not being able to recommend to others. In fact, this book so surprised me by the fact that I really don't like it at all that I wonder if I missed something in reading it.

I'm talking about Light, by M. John Harrison.

This book got some great reviews and blurbs. The cover art is spectacular.







See? Who wouldn't want to read that? And the back cover copy was intriguing---
"In M. John Harrison’s dangerously illuminating new novel, three quantum outlaws face a universe of their own creation, a universe where you make up the rules as you go along and break them just as fast, where there’s only one thing more mysterious than darkness.

In contemporary London, Michael Kearney is a serial killer on the run from the entity that drives him to kill. He is seeking escape in a future that doesn’t yet exist—a quantum world that he and his physicist partner hope to access through a breach of time and space itself. In this future, Seria Mau Genlicher has already sacrificed her body to merge into the systems of her starship, the White Cat. But the “inhuman” K-ship captain has gone rogue, pirating the galaxy while playing cat and mouse with the authorities who made her what she is. In this future, Ed Chianese, a drifter and adventurer, has ridden dynaflow ships, run old alien mazes, surfed stellar envelopes. He “went deep”—and lived to tell about it. Once crazy for life, he’s now just a twink on New Venusport, addicted to the bizarre alternate realities found in the tanks—and in debt to all the wrong people.

Haunting them all through this maze of menace and mystery is the shadowy presence of the Shrander—and three enigmatic clues left on the barren surface of an asteroid under an ocean of light known as the Kefahuchi Tract: a deserted spaceship, a pair of bone dice, and a human skeleton."

I will warn you. This back cover copy is entirely misleading. Whoever wrote it must have read the beginning and the end of the book, but nothing in between. In reality, here is what you had.

Random events. Whiny little girls flying space ships. A serial murderer running around randomly, being scared of his own shadow. A guy who can't copy with reality running around bumping into random people. Random, vague, confusing revelations that don't actually make sense. (and sex. Lots and lots of random, meaningless sex...what is it with authors who think that throwing in sex at every lull point makes their story humanizing? This aspect alone was enough to tick me off, and not only has it been a long time since a book has disappointed me, but even longer since I've actually gotten mad at an author for shoving a bunch of this crap in my face.)


Did I mention a lot of it seemed random? The protagonists, all three of them, come across as pity-party revelers, rather than any shade of sympathetic. I read the whole thing because I kept deluding myself, thinking that if I got to the end, something might happen that would explain it all. I get to the last page and...


Huh? That's it? I don't even get to know what happens to any of the protagonists? They all just end up aimlessly wandering off into existence, which is supposedly some big, incomprehensible muck of reality anyways? What kind of meaning and conclusion is that supposed to convey? And I really don't like messages that everything is one futile march into oblivion, anyways.


I'll admit, the one nice thing wasn't about the story, but more the style. It's very poetic. Evocative, and produces some lovely images. But beyond the lacy prose, I never really felt any substance in the thing. And we're talking a Hugo award-winning author here! He's getting praise all over the place for this, and a small part of me thinks I must be looking at it wrong to understand why it has been given such acclaim.


I read another review about the book that said the reviewer could only enjoy the story by keeping his distance from it. As soon as he tried to immerse himself, everything became one big bundle of hallucinogenic events strung together. And the title aside, much of the imagery and mood of the book is dark. Oftentimes morbidly so.

I'm giving this review mainly because I mentioned this title in my lineup of books to read, with promises of feedback. You can go give it a try if you want, to see if you are more philosophically illuminated than I. Or if you've already read this and somehow discovered the hidden nuggets I've overlooked, please let me know.

I can at least promise my review of the now-being-read Nightside series will be much more promising. I'm enjoying it quite a bit, though the overall feel is very different from the Dresden Files, which is a good thing, I'd say because I'd hate to see two series mimic each other all that closely.


I see that smile.

They will rise up against us!

Oh, come on! Tell me someone in the military has at least seen Terminator 1, 2, and 3! Don't we ever learn? That whole thing about history repeating itself...even if it is a fictional history...developed by Hollywood...with, what are now considered cheesy special effects...

But it could happen!

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/05/army_tests_figh.html

I did just read a short story about intelligent cars that started to revolt against their drivers...taking them to healthier restaurants instead of fast food drive throughs, rebelling against politicians who refused to pass ethanol bills. I also just read this article:

i-chat-therefore-i-am

Two machines talking to each other, hashing out some semblance of intelligence. Apparently these chat bots are good enough that lots of folks have interacted with these programs and were fooled into thinking they were actually real people. Of course, considering how some people chat with nothing but emoticons these days, that might not be such a hard thing to pull off.

But what happens when our machines start getting smarter than us? And what happens if they start to get opinionated? Do you really want your toaster to tell you to use the non-fat butter?


I see that smile.

I tho dis

I just thought you all should know that I am quite prone to spoonerisms. I not only inject them into my speech, but I often have to correct my spelling as I'm typing out a story. I don't think it's any sort of mental or visual dyslexia. I just tend to rush from my present thought to the next one and hope my words tumble out in the right order so people can actually understand them. Most of the time it works out, but sometimes the letters bounce like pairs of dice and wobble to the wrong ends. It's a funny thing.

Do any of you all have some vocabularic quirk?

On the sipflide, this article caught my eye the other day:

Pentagon to Merge Next-Gen Binoculars With Soldiers' Brains

I've been keeping watch over all these science reports about brain implants that let people control computers, and now we've got binoculars that'll get stuck to the ocular nerve, and video cameras that help blind people "see." Cyborgia, here we come. I'm torn between wanting to know where to sign for the enhancement surgery, and wanting to keep my body pure (if puny compared to tech boosts) so I won't become open to things like computer viruses and people hacking into my brain. Weird to be seeing things like this become a reality.


I see that smile.

Two anthology options

I've dug up two places that are recruiting for upcoming anthologies (using Duotrope's Digest). I recently got accepted into one I found through this site, so I decided to look again and see if there were any new ones popping up. Fun thing about anthologies is that they are often specifically themed, such as "stories about dragons," or "stories about evil books." They serve to inspire and motivate...perhaps knotting random story threads in your brain into a single plot braid.

For now, we've got:

Sporty Spec: Games of the Fantastic

and

Futuristic Motherhood Book

Intriguing topics, and I'm already mulling over a few ideas. I've got one on motherhood that I drafted out a few weeks back, but it's more a fairytale than anything futuristic. Hmm.

Even though I may be back looking for agents, it's nice to have had this time to focus on getting a few new drafts, revising, polishing, and generally (hopefully) getting a bit better at this writing craft. Plus I have the bonus of having a few new short stories under my belt...something of a writing resume I can take along with me in the search. Every little bit helps. So even though anthologies and the like might seem like a long shot, it never hurts to submit a story or two. Which reminds me...in the next week, I have at least three stories I think are ready to pop into the mail. Then I shall sit at my desk and chew my fingers to nubs as I anticipate their return. Oh, the agony...


I see that smile.

Agent limbo

Some news on the writing front. My agent is leaving her company to pursue other creative goals in life. I am wishing her all the best, and I'm at least thankful she let me know of her career shifting, rather than simply dropping off the radar, like some horror stories I've heard. This puts me in a position to dust off my cover letters and novel proposals and seek out other advocates for my work. Though before I do, my post-agent has a co-worker she wants to put me in touch with to see if we might mesh on representation. Their company in particular doesn't handle a ton of fantasy and science fiction, though apparently this other agent has at times. We'll see. If it doesn't work out, I at least appreciate what she's done so far, and the encouragement she provided for my writing. To have someone confident that your work will sell is a nice motivation to keep sitting down at the keyboard.

My hope is that even if I have to set out on the agent-hunting path again, that I will have polished several viable manuscripts up to this point so they have a better chance of getting noticed. One would hope that we get better as time goes on. Right?

On with the adventure, then!


I see that smile.

Magical private eyes

John Taylor and Harry Dresden? Could they be related? Anyone read this Nightside series? What is it about private eye, noir stories that are so compelling? I ordered the first three books of Green's Nightside, and am going to be diving into it soon enough. Reviews to follow. I've heard it's a bit darker, perhaps a little less in literary quality, but hey, the cover has a praise blurb from Butcher, so it has to have some merit.

What are you all reading right now? I finished Nick Sagan's Idlewild on the roadtrip back, and plan to pick up the two sequels to that eventually. My morning commute will resume with reading through Light, by M. John Harrison, author of Viriconium. I've also got a copy of Kathy Tyer's Shivering World, once I'm done with Nightside. So I should be good for...oh, a week or two, maybe. My wife is doubtful all these titles will last me that long, though.

Any recommendations for what I should pick up after?

I see that smile.

Getting into the groove

Kind of weird to realize that I haven't done much in the way of writing for almost a week now. That's a long stretch without an extended period of keyboard tapping, especially for me. Certainly, there were valid reasons. Weddings and honeymoons take high priority, as they should when they occur in anyone's life. I don't think the missus (still strange to be using the terms "husband," "wife," etc...how long until they come more naturally?) would've appreciated it had I toted my computer along with us and sat contemplating my next draft outline rather than our newly wedded bliss.

You see? I am capable of learning and common sense at rare instances.

But it's time to dive back in to the wordsmithing, and boy is my mind ready. I entertained myself for numerous hours on the road-trip back by mulling over ideas and plot twists that I hope to start slotting into place. Before I left, I had drafted out the beginning scenes of my latest idea, and got about 10k words into it. So far, I love the vibe it has, and think it could be a fun story, so I'm going to go into full-blown production mode with this idea. Time to snowflake it and get a few of the characters fleshed out in my head. This will take me anywhere from a few days to a week (two at the most), and usually somewhere along the way I find myself just writing a few chapters, at which point I set aside the rest of the outlining procedure and abandon myself to the story. Freeform structuring. That's how it works best for me. This is also my first attempt at writing a novel in first-person point of view. We'll see how that goes.

So then...onward.


I see that smile.

(Oh, and here is a blurry photo of us dancing at our wedding. One of my sisters somehow already got pictures on her facebook, so I'm stealing it from her.)

Gasp...pant...wheeze...

As it stands...

Miles traveled: 1,900
Time: Left Colorado Springs at half past noon on Thursday. Arrived in Brooklyn at 5:30 am on Saturday. Too tired for math. You do it.
Hotel stays: 1 (6 and a half hours sleep)
Cokes consumed: 12
Energy drinks consumed: 1
Snacks consumed: Chex mix, Red Vines, Corn Nuts, baby carrots, and a ziplock bag full of roast brisket
Restaurant stopovers: 1 (Cracker Barrel)

We shall now sleep. And then unpack. And then probably do a little more of both. Then maybe I'll write a bit later when my brain decides to ooze back inside my skull.


I see that smile.

See you...

...on the other side of the map.

Colorado to New York, here we go.

And we're back!

Hello cyberspace. How ya been in my absence? I'm waving to everyone who has wandered back this way, even if you can't see it through the computer screen. My new bride and I (myself now being a man of weddedness) have returned from our jaunt into the mountains. I know. Short honeymoon (we call it our minimoon), but it was spectacular. Beautiful blue skies in the mountains, stargazing and an amazing cabin away from everything. If anyone wants a recommendation for a vacation spot, check this out: Pikes Peak Resort. Incredible.

We've returned to a plethora of unopened letters and gifts, which we will be sorting through (lemme tell ya, I've never felt more blessed and loved than right now) and then we are picking up our moving truck and getting stuff out of storage. Tomorrow morning, we ride off for our cross-country adventure with the hopes of keeping our sanity along the way. Wish us luck. There'll be a post to let you know we've arrived back at the apartment safely, which we will then start decking out with kitchen appliances.

In returning, I've discovered both a story rejection (oh well, I'm in such a good mood it doesn't even faze me) and a story acceptance for an upcoming anthology (which is way cool). I'll update the website with info on it, but the story, Don't Read Them After Midnight, will show up in a chapbook anthology by Dead Letter Press, a limited edition press for those who enjoy dark fantasy.

This has been an overwhelming week and weekend, to say the least. Thanks to everyone for all the love and support you've given, for your prayers and thoughts. Fear not. There will be pictures...eventually. Gotta wait for the photographers to send them our way after touch-up. I'll be the guy in the suit standing next to the beautiful woman who slipped a ring onto my finger last Sunday.

(Oh. And in true Colorado style, we had snow and sun simultaneously during our outdoor ceremony. Perfect.)


I see that smile.

And we're in...

Made it out to Colorado with a minimum of fuss. A minimum being a two hour delay on the plane, but nothing more. Fortunately, my arrival didn't upset any of the schedule. So, Sunday at 11am is when it all goes down. We've got that list of last-minute to-do's (like attending the bachelor and bachelorette parties), and it looks like it'll be a busy, but fun weekend. The only snafu so far is some of the music CDs that I burned for the ceremony and dancing got all scratched up in transit and won't play properly now. So I'm going to have to redo those. Thankfully I backed up all of the songs we chose on a 6gig usb drive and brought it with me. Could've been worse.

I always enjoy coming back out to Colorado. Having some open sky and fresh air is always a treat now that I've gotten used to skyscrapers and smog. Colorado Springs has some of the best views of the front range, in my opinion. For those of you who haven't visited, if the pictures come out, you'll see Pike's Peak (which my dad and I hiked up last year) in all its majesticness. Is that a word?

Ah, well. The family is going out for breakfast, and then it'll be time to run some errands.


I see that smile.

It begins!

I'm leaving from work early today to catch a flight back to Colorado. The wedding weekend will be officially begun! We've got all the setup to finagle still. Gathering the foodstuff, setting up the trim on the gazebo, picking up the sound system. Jen already flew out yesterday to start it up, and I'll be joining her and the family shortly. I'm really looking forward to seeing all the family and friends who are gathering for this. And of course I'm looking even more forward to actually being married to my wonderful, lovely fiance.

We're going to hold an outdoor ceremony at a lodge in Black Forest (weather permitting) and then Jen and I are going to take a few days away as a preemptive honeymoon. Then we're picking up a Uhaul and grabbing a bunch of stuff we both left in storage, and doing it cross-country back here to Brooklyn. Whew. Crazy, huh? I think it will be fun though, and we'll definitely get some quality time on the drive.

Please pray for good weather, safe travels for all, and that everything runs smoothly. I'm impressed at how low-stress Jen has managed to keep this all, and it would be nice to end on a non-frantic note so we can enjoy every moment.

I'll throw up another post or two, depending on how late the days go, and eventually I hope to get some pictures...although that might not be until we get back around the 12th. So if the blog goes silent for a week or so, you know why.

See you on the other side.


I see that smile.

Genetic Discrimination

When applying for a job, there are always those phrases the human resource folks use to make sure the company doesn't get sued for discrimination. People can't be kept from a job they are skilled for because of things like gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc.

Now there's a new category on the horizon. The House just cleared legislation for a Genetic Information Discrimination Act (GINA). With genetic records and gene testing becoming a normal way for doctors to test for potential health problems, or gather a complete profile of a person's health, maybe this isn't such a bad idea.

“GINA will do more than stamp out a new form of discrimination,” said Louise Slaughter (D-New York) who introduced the bill. “It will allow us to realize the tremendous potential of genetic research without jeopardizing one of the most fundamental privacies that can be imagined.”

Okay. More privacy tends to be a good thing, in my mind. The article does state that some people haven't had genetic testing done because they are afraid of what the medical centers or even the government might do with the information gathered. It's one thing to know our internet surfing habits and phone call records, but to also have access to the details of our very genetic structure? Admittedly, genetic discrimination is not a common occurrence at the moment. You aren't going to be required to get a DNA test to get into college or work the drive-through...but maybe someday? What if workplaces started screening people who had genetic predispositions to certain diseases, or who were born with a disorder? Could genetic purity/impurity become yet another way people divvy up social status?

This follows up with the most recent novel by Michael Crichton, Next, in which he explored the potential abuses and missuses of genetic information, patented genetic structure, and the manipulation of genetic codes, and how this all might affect our society in the decades to come. One example from this story is a man whose immune system is found to fight cancer rather effectively. This man's doctor sells physical samples to a multi-billion genetic corporation in order to develop into a more widespread treatment. A stormy legal battle ensues over whether an individual has a right to the privacy of their own body. At least it looks like a law will be enacted that is a step toward protecting that most basic of rights.


I see that smile.

Those weird words

Words. They're kinda important. You've got to understand them to read and write. All your life you've been inundated with words, ones that you may not have known how to properly pronounce or spell until...well, maybe even until today. Like the word tsunami. I didn't know how to actually speak the term until I went to college. I always twisted it out with a little spittle...tuh-soon-nammy. Something like that.

Well, think about how weird words can get when they are describing or defining something that doesn't even exist, so far as we know.

Science Fiction Citations

This way cool link not only defines common words found throughout the science fiction genre, but it also give the earliest cited use of the word in known literature. "Mind control" for instance didn't show up until 1954, in T.S. Eliot's "Confidential Clerk." "Terraform"? Not until 1942, in Jack Williamson's "Collision Orbit." "Cyberpunk" (now a subgenre of sorts in itself) didn't show up until 1983.

It amazes me how we throw these words around, making them a foundational part of so many science fiction stories today and people understand them all without a second glance. It makes me wonder as well...would a modern science fiction story--content and morals aside--be understood if it was sent back a few decades? Or would there be so many confusing and unknown terms involved that it would take too much work to explain them as the story moved along?

And what, pray tell, are some of the words being invented and inserted these days? What words have you read lately that you've never heard of before, but just might make their way into the vernacular?


I see that smile.