newnumber6

Let's start with the Book Foo:

Finished: Revelation Space, by Alastair Reynolds
Started: Needle, by Hal Clement

Thoughts on Revelation Space behind the cut. General concept spoilers only. Short version: Left me a little cold, actually. ( Read more... )

Finished: A Fire Upon the Deep, by Vernor Vinge (reread)
Started: A Deepness in the Sky, by Vernor Vinge (reread)

Reread AFutD several times, so there's no need to talk about it again. Always makes me want to read the prequel immediately afterwards. Key phrases: hexapodia as the key insight, still enjoyable.

So, this weekend's been a bit strange. In addition to not having a normal TV (Which does weird and unexpected things to your sense of time), because of minor concerns with the computer of mine that wasn't specifically failing, I decided to run a ScanDisk on it, and see it through to the end. That Scandisk? Took more than 24 hours. So I was without my main talking computer (I segregate things somewhat - one computer is for mail, LJ, forums, and other such that I'm interacting with people, the other is for researching weird things and watching videos. I can do limited switchover, but not in all cases and not especially easily). It was almost a weekend without communicative net. If the progress bar didn't lie to me, it likely would have been. It was at a point where each 1% complete was taking 2-3 hours, except when it reached 95% complete it jumped right to 100%. I'm not complaining, mind you, it's just a little odd (and considering the first 80% was done in something like a half hour, well, progress bars are filthy, filthy liars). Combine that with another weekend without much TV, and it looks like a recipe for boredom.

This was alleviated somewhat with a chip orgy. I'm using the term orgy metaphorically, of course, I may have the odd fetish here or there, but I'm not a freak. Well, not in that way. Since Pringles were on sale for $1 at No Frills and so were Herrs Tortilla chips, I bought a bunch on Friday. Normally I limit my chip intake, but I figured, what the hell, I'm bored, depressed, and hungry.

The other thing I did was watch cartoons on my computer, specifically Avatar the Last Airbender, and surfthechannel.com. See, I only caught onto Avatar somewhere in the early 2nd season. I missed the 1st season almost completely, and never got around to catching the third (they changed the time on me and by the time I realized it, the 3rd season was half over). So I figured since nothing was going on, I'd go back and watch from the beginning. I'm about halfway through the first season now. It's interesting the misconceptions you can develop when you watch a show from the middle. (Cut for length, not really spoilery except for the status of characters in the first episodes)( Read more... )

Speaking of cartoons, Canada's started airing Wolverine and the X-Men (yay Canada), which means that even though I don't have that channel, due to... magic, I could watch it. Overall... promising start. (minor spoilers, and I'll be listing the characters I noticed appearing) ( Read more... )

Writing-wise, despite my writing computer being out of commision all of yesterday, because I got a good head start on it I didn't lose any time and am on target to complete my quota. Also finished a new story- still needs hellacious editing, but on the plus side it's shorter than I usually get. Next up I'm going to try a top-to-bottom restart on a story who's general concept I like but the execution blew.

And we'll finish off with a meme, stolen from donna_c_punk....

1. Comment on this post.
2. I will give you a letter.
3. Think of 5 fictional characters and post their names and your comments on these characters in your LJ.


donna_c_punk gave me the letter G. It was a bit of a tough one. Despite the letter being associated with some of my all time favorite characters, once you got beyond those, it was hard to think of any that qualified that I'd given much thought about at all. So, here we go... (images also under the cut for most of them)
( Read more... )

Finished: A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge (reread)
Starting: A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge (reread)
Still reading (Wednesdays): The Timeline Wars by John Barnes (reread)

Non-spoilery (except basic plot info) thoughts on the Vinge novels behind the cut... ( Read more... )

Apricot jam does not go very well in Peanut Butter sandwiches.

Now, with that completely irrelevant opening out of the way (it is the random post) I'm very passionate about a particular cause for which I was sadly probably born far too early for it to really matter. That cause is probably best summed up as 'AI Rights Advocacy'.

To start with, there's a concept I like to bring up now and then. I call it the Robot vs. Puppies dilemma.( Read more... )

New Topic! So when I had dinner with my mom she gave a bunch of little mini gifts. Among them was a shoulderbag, which I claimed for myself because my previous one was... wearing out.

And by wearing out, I mean the following: ( Read more... )

Book Foo! I have finished: Wild Cards, Book 10: Double Solitaire,
by Melinda Snodgrass. ( Read more... )

And... done!