13 Mar 2007

Where Does the Time Go?

posted in: Battlestar Galactica, personal news | 0

The last two weeks sure went fast (at least in blog years). The nasty head cold that I’d been dodging all winter while people fell to my left and to my right finally caught me (and most of my family). With perfect timing, it came just before we were to receive a Japanese student to stay with us for five days. We took a lot of vitamins and Echinacea and green tea, and prayed. She arrived today, and is a total sweetheart. I know we’re going to want to adopt her.

A week ago, the high school wrestling team had its annual end-of-season banquet. To my immense relief, someone else produced a video of season highlights, so I didn’t have to. To my immense pride, my daughter Lexi (a graduating senior) received the Coach’s Award for outstanding contribution to the team. She was taken completely by surprise, because she hadn’t had a winning season. But the coach gave a very moving tribute to her hard work and discipline, and her willingness to compete head-on in a sport completely dominated by boys. It was a great moment.

I wrote a while back about the impressive work that Star Trek fans were doing in creating all-new Star Trek episodes. It seems that the producers of Battlestar Galactica have noticed all the fan activity, also, and have decided to facilitate it. They’ve created a video toolkit of special effects, sounds, etc., that anyone can use to produce their own four-minute BSG spinoffs. They’ve even got a couple of samples up. They’re running a competition, and the winning piece will be shown along with an actual BSG episode. (Speaking of which, I’m a few weeks behind in watching, so don’t anyone post any spoilers about what happened to Starbuck in the next-to-last episode!)

Finally, here’s another interesting link, courtesy of my wife:

How about a dance club that’s built their dance floor on top of piezoelectric elements, so that the bouncing of the dance steps provides the electricity to power the club? Go to http://www.inhabitat.com/, and scroll down a little ways to Sustainable Dance Club for a short video. Gotta dance!

6 Mar 2007

Jet-Man, and Daisy the Goose

posted in: Flying, quirky, science, technology | 0

Two interesting videos crossed my radar today, both involving flying. One is about a man who has found a way to become a jet bird, and the other is a goose who thinks she’s human.

Jet-Man is Yves Rossy, from Switzerland. When I first saw the email from my friend Keith, I thought it was going to be someone wearing the latest version of the Buck Rogers jet pack that’s good for hovering around a parking lot but not too much else. But no—this is a guy who straps himself into a set of jet-powered wings and pushes himself out of an airplane like a skydiver…and then spends five minutes zooming and soaring like Rodan, or maybe the Jetsons. Watch the video—it’s pretty amazing. He has a web site, but it’s all in French, so I wasn’t able to read any of the background info. (You can watch the video there, too, if you have trouble at the other link.)

And then…there’s Daisy, the Canada goose. Daisy imprinted on a guy named Dan Steffan, and she likes to go flying with him—he in his speedboat, and she flying alongside. When she gets tired of flying, she perches next to his beagle Sam and enjoys the ride. (That dog sure reminds me of our dear departed beagle Sam!)

Edit Oct 2013: Something made me revisit this story, and I learned to my sadness that both Daisy and Dan Steffan are gone from this world. You can view the whole story here.

2 Mar 2007

Strange Golf Toy, and the God Particle

posted in: quirky, science, technology | 0

I don’t play golf. But I got a phone call yesterday from a software developer I once worked with, a voice-recognition wiz who created a very compact little program called Voice Lookup for Pocket PCs. (When I say I worked with him, I mean that I wrote the user’s guide for him, not that I had anything to do with developing the software.) He’s been working on this software for years, making about as much money as the average beginning fiction writer (of for that matter, the average veteran fiction writer, which is to say, not much). But a new product is about to appear, featuring his “talk to the chip” software—a golf cap that contains embedded GPS equipment, microphone, speakers, and voice-recognition capability.

A golf cap with GPS, you say? Yes, and its purpose isn’t to keep you from getting lost on the links; it’s to put a little advisor in your ear, which can tell you exactly how far you are from the hole, or from the water hazard! I’m not making this up! You can read about it at http://www.skykapllc.com. (Click Products to get the low-down.)

Meanwhile, in other news, scientists may at last be on the trail of the “God particle”—also known as the Higgs boson. You can read about that at the New Scientist.

2 Mar 2007

Conquering Chaos

posted in: personal news | 0

One of the things I promised myself I’d do after finishing Sunborn was take a week and clean my office…really clean it, from top to bottom. It’s been at least ten years since I’ve done this, and it’s looking more than a little messy. I’m surrounded by mountains of half-read magazines, unread books, printouts of web pages, nearly-finished tax returns, unfiled bank statements, and a lifetime of photos, which I set out to organize (or at least box neatly) about six years ago. Didn’t get very far on that one.

But I’m not getting very far on the new book, either. (By which I mean Chaos #5.) I figure if I do this, I’ll feel better, and the feng shui, the chi, the karma, and the Yin Yang of my work space will all smooth out in a Harmonic Convergence that will bring my brain back to life! Also, I’ll be able to vacuum. Or at least turn the Roomba loose.

I started on it this week. It’s about the only job I can think of that competes with doing taxes for making me want to scream. Nevertheless, I will prevail. I think a week may be a little optimistic, though. I have decided that cleaning my office will be a major part of my Lenten devotions (also known as 40 Days of Faith—and boy, will this take faith).

22 Feb 2007

Star Trek New Voyages

posted in: science fiction | 0

Speaking of obsession…and I mean that in the best possible way…

If you love Star Trek, you must visit Star Trek New Voyages. A fan group, with the permission of Paramount, has gathered the time, money, and talent to produce a series of all new classic Trek episodes, available for free download online. It is a completely nonprofit operation, and yet they’ve gotten the support and participation of many veterans of the original series, including George Takei, Walter Koenig, writers Dorothy Fontana and David Gerrold (from whom I learned most of what I know about it), and even professional directors. So far, I’ve downloaded the first two episodes, but have only watched snippets. (I wanted to wait to watch the shows until I could get them burned to DVD and watch them on my TV.) The production values are astoundingly good. They have reproduced the look and feel of the show with incredible precision, and the special effects are up to the standards of current television shows.

The only thing that takes some adjustment is seeing a new generation of talented amateur actors play the parts of Kirk, Spock, and all the rest. Okay, they’re not Shatner, Nimoy, and Kelley—but who could be? My initial impression of their work is very favorable.

Talk about fans throwing themselves into something they love! These people are amazing.

http://www.newvoyages.com/

(By the way, getting it onto DVD is easy in principle, if you have DVD burning software. But Sonic MyDVD, usually my Old Faithful, couldn’t handle it, nor could Roxio MyDVD. Finally I tried Nero, and that worked very nicely. Note, this is precisely the opposite of the experience of the person who wrote their FAQ page.)

Oh—two other fan-created productions are also in the works, at:
http://www.startrekofgodsandmen.com/ and http://www.ussintrepid.net/.

22 Feb 2007

Wikis and Pedias and Obsessions, Oh My!

posted in: Battlestar Galactica, personal news, science fiction, writing | 0

Somehow or other, I stumbled across the existence of Scifipedia, an SF-oriented wiki developed by SciFi.com. Of course, I looked to see if they had a good section about authors, and specifically about me. The answer: authors, yes; me, no. So I set about to remedy the situation. You wouldn’t believe how long it can take to compose a simple encyclopedia article about yourself, especially when most of the information already exists in various documents readily at hand. Nevertheless, I got it done, and you can read all about me and my stuff at Scifipedia | Literature | Authors.

Well, one thing leads to another, and soon I was checking to make sure that various articles about Battlestar Galactica included information about the novels. (They didn’t; I fixed that.) And that led to the discovery of Battlestarwiki, and a search to see if the books were properly referenced there. At first, the answer seemed to be no. A search for novels didn’t lead to much, but eventually I found an article titled “List of Books,” which probably isn’t the best title for search purposes, but never mind. That led to the discovery of a detailed page about my BSG novel, which is truly mind-boggling in its excruciating attention to detail. Some of their speculations are interesting and fun, and some lead me to scratch my head. I’m torn between awe at the energy and intelligence devoted to this, and wanting to say, “Get a—!” But no, no, that’s the last thing I would say to fans! Amazing, truly amazing what these people have pulled together.

19 Feb 2007

Boskone and Beyond

posted in: science fiction, writing | 0

Last weekend was Boskone weekend here in Boston. Boskone is a convention run by members of NESFA (the New England Science Fiction Association), who are possibly the most organized people on the face of the planet, and who have a wonderful publishing program in NESFA Press, bringing back into print in beautiful durable editions all kinds of great classic stuff. A couple of blog readers said hello at the con, which was very nice (Todd, John, good to meet you). During the course of the weekend, I had a very pleasant conversation with David Gerrold, a lovely dinner with Jane Yolen and my own family, and a nice chat with SF artist Rick Berry (who, I had not realized, lives in my town—and whose wife and mine had actually worked together on a school-related thing, without my ever having made the connection).

Boskone this year was held at a new hotel, the Westin Waterfront, which was a nice hotel situated next to Boston’s new convention center, in the midst of a concrete wilderness way out, yes, on the wharf. Let’s hope they plant some trees and build some restaurants in the area soon. On Friday, I took public transit, which is easy enough except for the quarter mile walk across the icy, wind-swept wilderness. Leaving that night, I walked with a fellow Boskonite (Boskonian?), a woman of slender build who would have been carried off by the wind if she hadn’t grabbed my arm.

Which brings me to a very strange news story that my wife came across online today: a German paraglider training for competition in Australia survived after being sucked up into a thunderstorm and carried to an altitude of 32,000 feet (that’s jetliner altitude and higher than Mt. Everest), during which time she blacked out from hypoxia while being pelted by hail and surrounded by lightning. Miraculously, she escaped with some frostbite and bruises. A Chinese paraglider, caught in the same storm system, did not survive.

On a much lighter note, today’s Sheldon comic is the funniest I’ve seen in a while. You will especially appreciate it if you have ever visited an Ikea store, as I have—once.

16 Feb 2007

Fun in the Ice

posted in: personal news, quirky | 0

It’s been a funny winter, here in the Boston area. Here it is, mid-February, and we still haven’t had a proper snowfall. On the other hand, yesterday was a carnival of sleet, sleet mixed with snow, and freezing sleet. Last night and today, everything was ice—including the snowplow ridges at the ends of the driveways. Ours was no treat to get out of, but we were better off than a neighbor who decided to drive over the ridge.

Here is the result, caught by my cell phone camera.

15 Feb 2007

What’s in a Name, Mozy?

posted in: personal news | 0

Back in the mid 1980s, my novel The Infinity Link first saw print. The main character, a young woman named Mozy, had her complete mind and personality uploaded to a spacecraft that was going to investigate alien visitors in the solar system. (Side note: The novel took me five and a half years to write, a record I hoped never to match. I just exceeded it, with Sunborn.)

The other day, I was reading in the latest issue of The Atlantic Monthly an article about computer backup systems. One of them is called Mozy. Writer James Fallows says, “Mozy mirrors your computer’s data not on a detachable drive or another machine but somewhere in the galactic cloud of Internet storage.” Now, that coincidence struck me as being pretty cool. If it’s not a coincidence, that would be even more cool. I emailed the company and asked them where their name came from. I’ll let you know what they say.

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