Colorful Local Phenomena
Apr. 11th, 2010 10:53 pmI am still not used to these "oh BTW, there will be rain, high winds and hail" weather predictions coming true. Especially the hail.
Also It's Still Raining
May. 7th, 2009 12:04 amOkay, you know what I hate about the 'burbs? Everything closes early, at 9 PM. And I am not an early person.
In better news, hump day is over, and paypal un-choked on my seed account payment (YAY, and wow, two hundred icons), and the sun almost came out for the first time this week. It should be back, oh, next Sunday. My soaked shoes are looking forward to it.
I'm at least two and maybe four days behind my LJ reading list, so if your life has been amazing or not amazing, I don't know much about it.
Reminders about the evils of presenting:
1.) Do not read your powerpoint slides verbatim.
2.) Do not say "um" three times in a row.
3.) Try to remember your audience. A room of people taking an infectious disease class may have heard of MRSA just a couple of times. Make it funny if you can't make it new.
In better news, hump day is over, and paypal un-choked on my seed account payment (YAY, and wow, two hundred icons), and the sun almost came out for the first time this week. It should be back, oh, next Sunday. My soaked shoes are looking forward to it.
I'm at least two and maybe four days behind my LJ reading list, so if your life has been amazing or not amazing, I don't know much about it.
Reminders about the evils of presenting:
1.) Do not read your powerpoint slides verbatim.
2.) Do not say "um" three times in a row.
3.) Try to remember your audience. A room of people taking an infectious disease class may have heard of MRSA just a couple of times. Make it funny if you can't make it new.
A Moving Wednesday Post
Apr. 29th, 2009 10:24 pmBack during college, when I walked to campus every morning, I eventually learned that sticking dry socks in my backpack went a long way toward dry feet on drizzly (or worse) mornings.
Today's squishy socks were a potent reminder that there are a very few things I might miss about college.
Work started the Summer of Shifting this week. One group is swapping space with another company in the building this week, and during summer proper we'll be expanding again. R&D is promising some rollouts too, with a host of knock-on effects for everyone. I am doing my best to keep my head down and ask pertinent questions while project bosses and senior staff clump at impromptu hall meetings about where to put stuff next.
I've been feeling weirdly laid back this week, which I blame on getting enough sleep. 7-8 hours a night? When did that start? I've also been trying to be a little less insanely driven at work, because my forearms are killing me, and I need to rearrange the ergonomics at my lab bench, or I'm going to be banned from the computer after work.
Today's squishy socks were a potent reminder that there are a very few things I might miss about college.
Work started the Summer of Shifting this week. One group is swapping space with another company in the building this week, and during summer proper we'll be expanding again. R&D is promising some rollouts too, with a host of knock-on effects for everyone. I am doing my best to keep my head down and ask pertinent questions while project bosses and senior staff clump at impromptu hall meetings about where to put stuff next.
I've been feeling weirdly laid back this week, which I blame on getting enough sleep. 7-8 hours a night? When did that start? I've also been trying to be a little less insanely driven at work, because my forearms are killing me, and I need to rearrange the ergonomics at my lab bench, or I'm going to be banned from the computer after work.
Cold, bottled unsweetened green tea is not disgusting. "Disgusting" is your first taste of Manischewitz wine during the sedar. Unsweetened green tea is just bitter and a total waste of $1.20, and only really drinkable with honey and soy milk. (And by "with", I mean 1-to-1.) So I'm not doing that again.
This is the first really hot weekend of the year: 93 F yesterday, and on track to match that today. Hence the cold tea. This is great weather, if you have nowhere to go and a cold drink on hand. If either of those conditions are not met, this is, in my opinion, not great weather. If both of those conditions are violated, it is lousy, sweaty, nasty weather. Can it please be October now?
Oh! I am traveling in May! I fly into Chicago on Tuesday, May 20th, and will be exploring the Windy City's summery charms until![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
norabombay and I drive to WisCon on Friday. (I was a lot more excited about WisCon before RaceFail. Now I am reserving the right to sit by a pool with something more than water in my glass Sunday afternoon.) We roll out of Dairyland Monday morning-ish; I fly out of Chicago Tuesday morning. Because I am a genius, I padded my leave request (turned in before the end of February, thanks much) and will have eleven uninterrupted days off work. Chicago and Madison people: meetup? The only hard point so far is the Monday night Cubs-Pirates game.
This is the first really hot weekend of the year: 93 F yesterday, and on track to match that today. Hence the cold tea. This is great weather, if you have nowhere to go and a cold drink on hand. If either of those conditions are not met, this is, in my opinion, not great weather. If both of those conditions are violated, it is lousy, sweaty, nasty weather. Can it please be October now?
Oh! I am traveling in May! I fly into Chicago on Tuesday, May 20th, and will be exploring the Windy City's summery charms until
norabombay and I drive to WisCon on Friday. (I was a lot more excited about WisCon before RaceFail. Now I am reserving the right to sit by a pool with something more than water in my glass Sunday afternoon.) We roll out of Dairyland Monday morning-ish; I fly out of Chicago Tuesday morning. Because I am a genius, I padded my leave request (turned in before the end of February, thanks much) and will have eleven uninterrupted days off work. Chicago and Madison people: meetup? The only hard point so far is the Monday night Cubs-Pirates game.
Flippant Haiku and Serious Genre
Apr. 19th, 2009 07:16 pmSpring indications:
lawn mowers buzzing long greens,
light heating branches.
What on Earth moved me to buy three Heinlein novels and one short story collection Friday? I have serious and persistent problems with his fiction, because Uncle Bob does not know best, and yet, I still pick up these skinny time-faded paperbacks. I blame Heinlein's ability to actually tell a story and write witty prose, which means I still remember most of the stories from The Green Hills of Earth. That's a testament to skill, since I tend to lose short stories out of memory faster than I misplace my keys. (Fortunately, the keys keep turning up.) Heinlein is one of the greats of his SF cadre for a reason. Even if picking which Heinlein to read next is much like picking one's way through a minefield. (Citizen of the Galaxy: greatness. The Puppetmasters: erk.)
If one were going to pick the formative authors for a generation of SF fans, I'd point to Heinlein, Clarke, and Asimov. I am not asserting they were consistently the best writers, but you can invoke the Foundation or "I'm sorry, Dave", or "the one with the lunar revolution and Mike" and people know what you're talking about. It's the background against which everyone reacted (and )is still reacting).
Who are the top authors of my generation, and the next?
I think Bujold, Pratchett and maybe Gaiman are the Big Three authors who everyone in my fannish age cohort has read; I could be wrong, because I am wildly biased about Bujold, and Gaiman really depends on whether you count Sandman or just his novels. The up and coming cohort might include some combination of Scalzi, Doctorow, Gaiman (version YA), Novik, and/or Stross. That totally ignores non-genre novels widely read by fans (Laurie R. King's mystery novels come to mind), and media fannishness, comics (see Sandman), and fan fiction, some (but far from all) of which has surprisingly cool speculative fiction content. And once you open the floor that much, you have to question what pool of readers you're talking about, anyway, and that changes the game (and Big Name Author list) significantly.
lawn mowers buzzing long greens,
light heating branches.
What on Earth moved me to buy three Heinlein novels and one short story collection Friday? I have serious and persistent problems with his fiction, because Uncle Bob does not know best, and yet, I still pick up these skinny time-faded paperbacks. I blame Heinlein's ability to actually tell a story and write witty prose, which means I still remember most of the stories from The Green Hills of Earth. That's a testament to skill, since I tend to lose short stories out of memory faster than I misplace my keys. (Fortunately, the keys keep turning up.) Heinlein is one of the greats of his SF cadre for a reason. Even if picking which Heinlein to read next is much like picking one's way through a minefield. (Citizen of the Galaxy: greatness. The Puppetmasters: erk.)
If one were going to pick the formative authors for a generation of SF fans, I'd point to Heinlein, Clarke, and Asimov. I am not asserting they were consistently the best writers, but you can invoke the Foundation or "I'm sorry, Dave", or "the one with the lunar revolution and Mike" and people know what you're talking about. It's the background against which everyone reacted (and )is still reacting).
Who are the top authors of my generation, and the next?
I think Bujold, Pratchett and maybe Gaiman are the Big Three authors who everyone in my fannish age cohort has read; I could be wrong, because I am wildly biased about Bujold, and Gaiman really depends on whether you count Sandman or just his novels. The up and coming cohort might include some combination of Scalzi, Doctorow, Gaiman (version YA), Novik, and/or Stross. That totally ignores non-genre novels widely read by fans (Laurie R. King's mystery novels come to mind), and media fannishness, comics (see Sandman), and fan fiction, some (but far from all) of which has surprisingly cool speculative fiction content. And once you open the floor that much, you have to question what pool of readers you're talking about, anyway, and that changes the game (and Big Name Author list) significantly.
Thursday Wipeout
Mar. 26th, 2009 10:48 pmThis week is going on forever, kind of like winter did. I am beaten down. I am happy to see the forsythia, and usually I'm not a fan of that much yellow in one place. Yet this year I look at it and think it's a pretty sight, especially at sunset, when it looks like so much congealed sunlight. Only without the negative connotations. See what I mean about tired? Also, today's rain is not welcome to stay the weekend. I want to be outside.
My roommates are driving me less crazy, and I've decided to take their outbreak of madness as an inspiration: look! I am not going to pieces and driving the people around me up a wall! I have pulled my act together more than I thought I had! Also, it's obviously time to take up an exercise regimen as an alternative to being in the house and available for roommate upset. I. Don't. Care. The well of empathy is dry until I get seven hours of sleep in a row and talk to people whose opinions I value on topics I find interesting.
Barring that, I will take the "worst of MTV" Youtube challenge. Team K&L were the most interesting thing I saw at WSFA last week when they showed me Tainted Love (unwanted touching from starpeople) and I brought Total Eclipse of the Heart (with inexplicable dancing ninjas) to the table. K&L tried to top this with a video that made Eurovision look like the height of good taste, and I have, thank you, blotted that one from my memory. What's your favorite "how did anyone think this was a good idea?" music video? Bad special effects are not an instant win: utter tastelessness must be on display.
My roommates are driving me less crazy, and I've decided to take their outbreak of madness as an inspiration: look! I am not going to pieces and driving the people around me up a wall! I have pulled my act together more than I thought I had! Also, it's obviously time to take up an exercise regimen as an alternative to being in the house and available for roommate upset. I. Don't. Care. The well of empathy is dry until I get seven hours of sleep in a row and talk to people whose opinions I value on topics I find interesting.
Barring that, I will take the "worst of MTV" Youtube challenge. Team K&L were the most interesting thing I saw at WSFA last week when they showed me Tainted Love (unwanted touching from starpeople) and I brought Total Eclipse of the Heart (with inexplicable dancing ninjas) to the table. K&L tried to top this with a video that made Eurovision look like the height of good taste, and I have, thank you, blotted that one from my memory. What's your favorite "how did anyone think this was a good idea?" music video? Bad special effects are not an instant win: utter tastelessness must be on display.
