Enemy of Entropy

Archive for September 2008

Not Dead Yet

26 September 2008, 6:10 pm. 1 Comment. Filed under politics.

I’ve been almost wholly AFK1 for a bit, due to feel­ing even worse than usual. I’ll be enter­ing “make-​​up posts” tonight to catch up. Usu­ally, I’d do them in order, but this one is too top­i­cal for that.

I real­ize that McCain has claimed to have already won the pres­i­den­tial debates tonight. Wow, his truthi­ness is spec­tac­u­larly crappy, isn’t it? But for those who plan to watch any­way, FactCheck​.org has a nice lit­tle Debate Spin Anti­dote. It’s worth the few min­utes it takes to watch it.You might find the FactCheck Wire handy dur­ing the debate, too.

1 Away From Keyboard

Random Linkage

13 September 2008, 11:59 pm. 1 Comment. Filed under Links.

In lieu of a real post, which would require actual thought…

New Eliz­a­beth Bear short story: The Girl Who Sang Rose Madder

Rumi­na­tions on sci­ence fic­tion, fan­tasy, etc.: Ask­ing the Wrong Questions

Dr. Hor­ri­ble recast with My Lit­tle Ponies

Anniversary!

12 September 2008, 4:16 pm. 2 Comments. Filed under Relationships.

Ten years ago today, Sam took me out on our first “real” date (as in, with­out the kids or any­one else). Thank you, love. Here’s to many more decades!

Between Naps

12 September 2008, 4:03 pm. Comments Off. Filed under Health, Reading.

I gave in to my body and stayed in bed all day yes­ter­day. It helped. If I’m not try­ing to do any­thing else, I can take my break­through pain meds and mus­cle relax­ants. They make me too floppy to walk around safely or use dan­ger­ous tools like but­ter knives.

I’m doing pretty much the same today, but wanted to post an update. Not that there’s really any­thing much to talk about, other than napping.

I have con­tin­ued to read when I’m awake, thanks to Sam’s will­ing­ness to go to the library to sup­port my habit. I fin­ished the first four books in Eileen Wilks’ World of the Lupi series. I think book 4, Night Sea­son, was bet­ter than the first three. The focus switched from one cou­ple to another in this book, and both of those peo­ple were def­i­nitely grow­ing and chang­ing — always a plus in my mind.

I did fin­ish Caitlin Kittredge’s Pure Blood, but it was a close thing. The main char­ac­ter is a whiny, imma­ture brat who blames every­thing on the fact that she’s a were­wolf. The other weres in her world don’t seem to have such poor con­trol over them­selves, so that just doesn’t wash. She’s also stu­pid, con­stantly run­ning off into dan­ger­ous sit­u­a­tions with­out let­ting any­one — like, say, her fel­low police offi­cers — know so they can back her up.

I finally got my hands on Hands of Flame by C.E. Mur­phy, the last book of her Nego­tia­tor tril­ogy. It was won­der­ful! All the impor­tant threads from the series were tied up, includ­ing some that I’d thought merely back­ground. There are five Old Races liv­ing silently among humans in Murphy’s uni­verse, and I love the way she avoids most of the clichés about them. I would like to have seen a few more shades of gray in the por­trayal of one race, in par­tic­u­lar, but all in all she did a very nice job. It’s easy to imag­ine many, many more sto­ries in this uni­verse, focus­ing on new characters.

I haven’t decided what to read next. Sam was so enthu­si­as­tic about Halt­ing State by Charles Stross that I might switch over to sci­ence fic­tion for a bit. It really depends on how well I’m able to com­pre­hend it — Stross’ writ­ing is really good, but more chal­leng­ing to the reader than any of the urban fantasy/​paranormal what­sis books I’ve been dawdling over.

Meme: Reincarnation Placement Exam

11 September 2008, 11:00 pm. 2 Comments. Filed under Humor, Memes.

Your result for Rein­car­na­tion Place­ment Exam…

Gypsy Camp

59% Intrigue, 44% Civ­i­liza­tion, 66% Human­ity, 59% Crowded, 33% Busy.

You sing! You dance! You flee from the authorities!

You were a bit dif­fi­cult to place, because you like civ­i­liza­tion and human­ity — but when it comes to work, you don’t really fit into the sys­tem, the ruts and the rit­u­als, that mod­ern civ­i­liza­tion embraces. You like your own ways… your old ways.

We’ve placed you among a hardy Gypsy fam­ily. They’ll have you pluck­ing a vio­lin before you can talk, and danc­ing before you can walk. The road is your home, and your horses are mem­bers of your fam­ily. You get to wear lots of shiny things.

We expect that you’ll have a good life. Even if your peo­ple are sur­rounded by a world where they don’t really fit in, they have each other, an oasis of com­pat­i­bil­ity in an unbal­anced world. We know you’ll make the most of it!

Take Rein­car­na­tion Place­ment Exam at HelloQuizzy

 

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