The Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)
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seawasp's LiveJournal:
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| Saturday, July 4th, 2009 | | 2:04 pm |
Advice on Vidgames (Sqrl especially?)
We just got a Wii for my son Chris. I'm looking for good games to pick up for him. RPGs are the primary genre of preference; we will be getting the new sports one that's coming out in a couple weeks, and I may consider Punch_Out for nostalgia's sake. But I'm looking more for fun stuff he can play (and possibly I can, too) which lasts, which is generally RPGs. We have already gotten the latest Zelda. | | Saturday, June 27th, 2009 | | 11:49 am |
BRRrrraiiiins! Brrrraiiiiiiiiiiinnns!
I am a zombie. No sleep last night. Just as I was getting ready to go to bed, Vicky comes running out of her room crying... and vomiting. She then continued to throw up every 40 minutes. I finally gave up on sleeping and took her out of our bedroom so Kathy could get SOME sleep. She seems to be recovering now; she's eaten a few things, drunk some water, and it's been about 5 hours since she threw up. | | 8:29 am |
For anyone aware of the SBIR Program...
... you should be concerned about the current reauthorization fight for the Small Business Innovation Research program. This is the program from which the company I work for (IEM) gets a large amount of our research dollars, but if the current-frontrunner in the reauthorization bills (from the House of Representatives) gets passed, we'll have a much harder time of it. In essence the new bill permits small businesses backed by VC firms to have a significant competitive advantage. This is almost directly CONTRARY to the original spirit of the program, as it means that it will REDUCE the number of awards given to small firms that HAVE NO OTHER INVESTMENT SOURCE. There are a number of reasons (the most obvious being maintaining control of your company) you would not WANT to have a VC company involved, but this change to the SBIR program could, effectively, kill off large numbers of small R&D firms who try to avoid VC involvement at the research level. In addition, the bill permits much larger awards to be given at all levels (Phase I AND Phase II). At first blush, you might say "hey, isn't that good? More money!". Well, it WOULD be... if they increased the budget for SBIR by the same amount, or greater than, the increase in permitted awards. But they aren't. Which means that there will be FEWER overall awards, making competition that much harder and once more squeezing out other firms who might have won, but now can't make the cut because where there would have been three SBIR Phase I awards there are now 2, and where there might have been 2 Phase IIs there will now be 1. The winners will win bigger, but there will be far more losers. | | Thursday, June 25th, 2009 | | 7:18 pm |
The Poster AND the Glove...
... are gone. In one day. Farrah Fawcett (once Farrah Fawcett-Majors), who made possibly the last truly iconic "pin-up" poster (which imprinted itself indelibly into the minds of just about every young man of my generation), and who then became an activist as well as an actress and who fought cancer for years... is gone. And in the same day Michael Jackson, the Gloved One, one of the greatest dancer-icons of any era, a singer, a songwriter, and also an icon of the strangeness of Hollywood, is also gone. Two of the defining celebrities of my youth are gone, in a single day. That's pretty stunning. | | 9:52 am |
| | Wednesday, June 24th, 2009 | | 10:06 am |
Update...
MEDICAL: It appears I probably do have gout. Uric acid levels were elevated; the X-ray showed some form of anomaly at the joint (could be arthritis). However, there were some other oddities such as elevated liver functions, so they've started doing more tests. FAMILY: Both Vicky and Gabriel had their surgeries and have recovered nicely. On initial evaluation Gabe does appear to be behaving overall better, but it'll take a while to be sure. Kathy's pregnancy is causing her the usual plethora of Pain In The Ass symptoms (ranging from indigestion to exhaustion and nausea) but she's doing well in general and the baby is kicking in a healthy manner. Maria and Donny are scheduled to move out next week, I believe, which will give us two rooms back. WRITING: I am at close to 70,000 words for Polychrome (AKA The Story That Made Me Write It Or Else), 45-50,000 words for Fall of Saints, and I just this morning had a revelation on how I can fix some of the problems I was having with Spheres of Influence, not that I'm going back to it soon unless GCA does well or Toni asks for it. I've been sent the current proposed cover by Stephen Hickman and it's BEAUTIFUL -- captures the spirit of the book and uses one of the actual scenes in the book (with some modification for artistic license, of course). I'm also planning on doing some personal publicity for GCA, and to that end a couple of kindly fans (you know who you are, but I don't know if you want me to blab it here) have been working on some images I can put into a YouTube video ad/trailer, and they're looking REALLY good. Alas that I can't get real animation (rather than what I'll have to do, which will be some artistic fades from stills), but that would probably cost more than any book I ever write would make. I *am* seriously considering a billboard ad in the local area, about a month before release. Billboards appear to be startlingly inexpensive, relatively speaking. | | Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 | | 8:36 pm |
| | 6:26 pm |
By Jove...
... I remember back in '67 I heard a noise outside our tent, and stepped out and shot a rhino in my pajamas. And how he got into my pajamas I will never know. Ha! Apparently the most likely diagnosis for my problem is gout. GOUT! That's a disease in Agatha Christie novels, for old former Colonial Indian Colonels surrounded by Benares Brass and eating curries cooked for them by their man that they brought with them from Delhi! Blast it all, am I going to have to start growing those muttonchop whiskers? | | 3:01 pm |
At the doctor's...
... I've had a pain in my foot, about at the base/joint of the big toe, for a while, but it's been getting much worse in the last couple days. Hopefully she can figure out what's up... | | 8:35 am |
Biological/forensic question...
Is it easy, hard, or impossible to determine the actual age of a person from a biological examination? I'm not talking about the obvious wide divisions (infant, little child, older child, teenager, etc.) but within a year or two. For example, if you're presented with a boy claiming to be 17, would it be possible to determine for sure that he is in fact 15? If yes, is this limited only to "growing years", and precision would drop drastically once you pass to adulthood? (for example, presented with a woman claiming to be 24 and she is actually 22) If either or both are possible, what would the indicators be? | | Tuesday, June 16th, 2009 | | 6:39 pm |
It's rare one finds a truly literate loon...
But when you do, it can be mindbogglingly spectacular. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, I give you: Mary W. Walters. ( Details below cut )Note that all this comes from someone who DOES NOT YET HAVE AN AGENT, so it's not as though I'm defending agents out of personal self interest. I'm doing it because I ran headlong into the lunacy, and it was too funny not to respond to. | | 10:37 am |
Writer's Block: Set the Scene
For me, only one setting REALLY creeps me out: murky water. I have to resolutely ignore the murkiness when I go to the beach. Even a murky pool is creepy enough that I generally avoid them. | | Monday, June 8th, 2009 | | 2:29 pm |
Another Real World Science question...
... I'm trying to find information -- preferably text with an accompanying diagram/image mapping things out -- on how the propagation of a blast wave works in the presence of an object such as a human being caught in it. Naive assumption on my part would imply that what you'd get is a high-pressure ridge on the portion facing the blast, with a lower pressure area on the other side, but that it's possible another, high-pressure shock could result ON the opposite side due to the shockwave pressure being delayed and channeled around the object, to meet in opposition on the other side and producing a secondary shock-ridge. I've found papers on various aspects of blast physics and so on, but none that give me the overall look at what happens around an object like that caught in a blast. (like the prior ones, these are questions springing from proposal research I'm doing) | | Thursday, June 4th, 2009 | | 11:40 am |
"It is said...
...that a Shao-Lin priest can walk through walls. Looked for, he cannot be seen. Listened for, he cannot be heard. Touched, he cannot be felt..." Farewell to David Carradine, star of many movies, but to me always remembered as Kwai Chang Caine, the soft-spoken, philosophical half-Chinese, half-American Shao-Lin monk in the 1970s series "Kung Fu". Carradine's Caine was my first exposure to martial arts of the Eastern variety, and -- though the depiction in that series was poor in many ways by today's standards -- he was the one who made the martial arts something "cool" to me, something that went beyond (as Ed Gruberman would say) "Beating People Up". The imagery from that show permeated the perceptions of our culture -- and, I am pretty sure, right back through the Japanese, Hong Kong, and other cultures where the martial arts began. The Wise Old Masters (including the Blind Man who can outfight the sighted ones), the philosophical underpinnings changing the way you perceive the world, the seeker after peace and unity who is always forced into violence, these are things Carradine and Kung Fu first brought to me, and I suspect to a whole generation of Americans. My love of anime undoubtedly draws upon some of that first perception as well. Carradine performed in many other productions, including a TV revival/reimagining of Kung Fu in I think the early 90s ("Kung Fu: The Legend Continues"), but in more recent years was best known for his depiction of the stylish, complex, dangerous master of assassins "Bill" in the Tarantino duology "Kill Bill". According to initial reports, Carradine hanged himself in his hotel room. Why he would have done this is not known at this time, but if true it would be a terrible blow for those who knew him and cared for him, and it's very saddening to think that he chose to exit that way, without even a word or gesture to let people know that he felt his time was up. Given that it occurred in Thailand, and given other events involving actors in the same general subgenre, I would also be unsurprised to hear rumors that he was killed for some bizarre reason; to this day there's speculation about the death of Bruce and Brandon Lee, for instance. Still, this is a sad day for me, and I salute Carradine's work and its influence on me and others. May you find a happier place, Grasshopper. | | Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009 | | 10:05 pm |
What's up with that?
In the trailers/forthcoming films for the near future I see: Nine 9 $9.99 and District Nine. Any idea as to why 2009 is filled with 9 movies? (For me, the answer is "Nein!" | | Sunday, May 31st, 2009 | | 7:03 pm |
Not bad...
... 6800+ words today in 5 hours, or a bit more than 1300 words per hour, split between Polychrome and Fall of Saints. Edit: Got another 1300 words done, bringing my total to about 8,000 words! | | Friday, May 29th, 2009 | | 1:25 pm |
Another Rotorcraft Question...
... I've been noodling around doing searches to find out how much it costs to keep the Kiowa Warrior (OH-58D) and other Army rotorcraft flying -- cost per flight hour -- and I'm finding wildly variable numbers ranging from around $960 up to around $10k per flight hour. Ideally I'd like to know how much is maintenance parts/spares and how much is the time and effort expended keeping it running, though total cost (including maintenance hours, fuel, etc.) is fine as long as I know that's what it is, and have a SOURCE for this info ("Some Guy's Webpage" isn't a very good source) | | Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 | | 1:07 pm |
For the military aircraft people on my list...
... can anyone tell me what those little oddly-bent things sticking up from the front of a Kiowa Warrior (OH-58D) rotorcraft are? They look, in the pictures I have, like tubes or pylons that have the tips bent over, right above the cockpit, and none of the diagrams I have tells me what the heck they are. EDIT: Answered! They're the secondary FM antennae, with a wire-strike cutter between them. | | Friday, May 15th, 2009 | | 8:20 pm |
Update on Quote...
The definitive word is in. The quote comes from my friend Robert Fenelon, who was playing a character strongly derived from Nikolai Nikolai in "Illegal Aliens". Apparently the quote spread far from its original speaker. Now I just have to write something I can use it in. | | Tuesday, May 12th, 2009 | | 4:08 pm |
From whence this quote?
I've run across the following quote a couple of times quite recently; up until recently, I had thought it was from a friend's RPG and was said by a character in that RPG. However, it's turned up enough places that it MUST have come originally from some wider source (or else my friend's had a lot more influence in more places than I would have guessed). The context: The speaker is talking to some aliens, who I believe were trying to threaten/frighten him: "...We release TOXINS into our air and water to weed out the weak! We detonate ATOMIC WEAPONS in our ONLY biosphere! We NAILED our GOD to a TREE! Do not F**K with the Human Race!" I've heard this said with a German accent; I've seen it attributed to an (apparently Russian) general "Nikolai Nikolai". Any definitive source for this quote? |
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