Tag Archives: science fiction

Work and relaxation with friends

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After I got home mia_mcdavid and I went to colgaffneyis work party to load our newly repaired trailer for the Farmington show this weekend. There were enough people, all in good spirits, so this went well. Just took a while because we had changed how we pack for shows, and twolodge had to rethink how to load the stuff. Since he will be towing the trailer with his truck, he gets to have it loaded just the way he wants :-)>

Afterwards c_nocturnum, her husband, Mia, James, and I went out to dinner at the Bulldog Restaurant a couple miles away. This was a delayed birthday dinner for me. Excellent beer, food, and company. I had a Kobe beef hamburgers (rare) and French fries with Parmesan cheese and truffles. First time I ever had Kobe beef, and it lived up to expectations. Kobe beef and truffles–I was reminded of a line from one of Poul Anderson’s SF stories about Dominic Flandry: “What is the point of living in a decadent age if you don’t know how to enjoy the decadence?”

Something Different

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This weekend mia_mcdavid, our son James, and I are going to Penguicon, a combined science fiction and open source software/Linux convention in Michigan. This would not be a prudent financial decision, but we had purchased non-refundable airline tickets before realizing what a deep hole we were in. Mia is really keen on the music there and in getting away from that of the local SF scene. We also hope to see an old friend from Chicago fandom, Frank Hayes.

Mia is driving, and is visiting a friend in the Chicago suburbs tonight. James and I will fly out tomorrow afternoon and she will meet us at the Detroit airport. James actually seems quite excited about this. We will bringing his laptop which can help keep him entertained as well as giving us some connectivity (the convention has free wi-fi). Alas, it runs Windows XP. However, I will also bring my Nokia 770 internet tablet, a proper Linux device.

I was very reluctant to go at first, but I am warming to the idea. The programming is much more diverse than I had expected. In addition to all sorts of techie stuff and the usual SF panels, there is a martial arts track and some items about food. Not terribly surprising if you actually know geeks and fans. There is a techie twist to the refreshments: Ice cream made with liquid nitrogen. That brings back memories of my work in a cryogenics lab at Stanford, more than 30 years ago. In fact on paper in HTML the programming looks far more extensive and interesting than I have seen at the local Twin Cities SF conventions.

While I expect to look in on all sorts of things there, I will definitely be looking at some of the open source computing sessions. I need a reminder that computing can be fun. My managers at work have been trying to hide that from me for a year now.

Scotty’s ashes

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They are to be launched into space, but what then? Celestis, the company that arranges for handling the cremation ashes, suggests that they are going into orbit. However, the firm that is providing the rocket clearly states that their vehicles are only capable of suborbital flights. More at Bad Astronomy.

Orbital or suborbital? James Doohan and Gordon Cooper certainly understood the difference, and I think it would matter to them.

Terminology

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In my database work here I deal with a lot of documentation. As reading matter, most of it makes a reasonable cure for insomnia. However, today something caught my eye: I was going to deal with “names that are entities or non-humans”.

Of course, this is really about corporations and similar bodies. But I am still pleased to that see “non-humans” is part of government bureaucrateese.