Follow up about my Russian fan(s)

It'd been disturbing me a little.  What do the Russians find so fascinating about my blog?  Could I be on a KGB watch-list?  (Yes, I grew up during the Cold War.)

And I finally looked up the referring site.  They're a known spam site.  Not that I want spammers, but why don't they want to spam my page?  Am I doing something wrong?  AM I NOT GOOD ENOUGH FOR SPAM?  I mean, I'd have to remove the spam comments and all, but I'm not sure if I should be offended.

End of the world and literature

While full-length novels are fantastic, especially Heinlein and the classics, SF short stories are sometimes the way to go.  You can find new authors that way, without having to commit to a potentially awful book.

One that hasn't really ever completely left my mind since I read it sometime in the past year is World Without End, by F. Gwynplaine MacIntyre.  Even that story on its own makes it worth buying the collection The Mammoth Book of the End of the World.  (Try to find it in a local independent book store if you can!)  Although it sounds like he was a strange and unstable man in life, I will be looking up some of his other works.

But then today I came across In Fading Suns and Dying Moons by John Varley.  That one is definitely getting another reading or seven.  Another end of the world story, with a more sudden and defined end than the aforementioned story.  Which in turn, makes me think of the absolutely brilliant The Nine Billion Names of God, by Arthur C. Clarke.

What is it about these kinds of stories that can draw one in so thoroughly, even a not-very-often morbid person?  How do some people manage to draw you into their imagination in such a way that it sticks, possibly forever?

And how sad is it that at least in Ontario, fewer children seem to be reading for pleasure?  Books were my world when I was little.  When I needed them, books were there as an escape, as a journey, as an enhancement.  As any freaking thing I wanted.  Even now, it's nice to curl up on the couch with a warm drink and a new (or old) book.


P.S.  Yes, in fact I did discover an online version of The Encyclopaedia of Science Fiction today!

Books, energy, and nuclear wolves

Been spending the last several days devouring some of those books.  When I've had the time.  And doing work-related stuff, and trying to finish up the little bit of xmas shopping that I have to do.

Something relating two of the three above is that I found a LIFE magasine from before WWII, in almost perfect condition.  Hope my aunt hasn't secretly found this blog, because she's going to love it.

And one of the things keeping me busy is trying to put together a coherent, non-rambling response to my friend Leslie, who is wanting to keep believing in nuclear energy.  So much to say, it's almost like being in school again and putting together a position paper!  The "green" renewable sources generally need a back-up as things like wind and solar can rarely be at full capacity.  Hydroelectric is fantastic, but not every country has that option.  People are backing away from fracturing because of possible environmental concerns.  And really, nuclear isn't as terrible as most think, the accidents are so few and far between that it's ridiculous, and even then, the consequences are generally not as terrible as initially assumed.  Well, the radioactive wolves near Chernobyl sound scary.  As The Bloggess says, "We may have over-planned for zombies, and under-planned for nuclear wolves." 

Do you think that being bitten by a radioactive wolf would give you super powers?

Old book stores

I adore old book stores.  Especially used book stores.  Everything there is possibly a volume that somebody has loved and maybe agonised over passing on for somebody else to love.

To paraphrase Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, there's something about the feel and smell of an actual book.  A computer or e-reader can never replace them, at least for me.  Maybe an e-reader for a one-time read of a popular book, but I'd rather my classics and my beloved sci-fi be right there, allowing me to turn the page, bring in anywhere without worrying about power left.

There's a lovely used book store a block or two from me.  The man who works there seems to know most of the store intimately.  He can chat with you about the genre you're interested in for ages.  If somebody comes in and says they want a particular volume, he can generally tell them directly where to go, and know without a computer that there is still at least one copy left.

And the treasure-trove behind his front desk!  Well-preserved and old books and magasines galore.  For my father's birthday last year, I found him an excellently-preserved LIFE magasine from the 1940s, and have seen some from as early as the 30s.

For me, one of the sadder things in life is a person who doesn't enjoy, or doesn't know how to read.  On a personal note, one of the sadder things is the realisation that I don't have enough shelf space, or room for for shelves in which to keep all my books.  But maybe through some place like this store, somebody else can love some of my treasures.

Games!

Wow, so Steam is having a huge sale right now.  Have a lot of poking around to do.  One that I spend a fair amount of time on is SquareLogic.  Even managed to get members of the family addicted.  The thing is, it looks like a math game, but it's really a logic game.  Most of these sorts are - people just get scared off by the numbers before realising that you could substitute shapes or letters (if the hint pop-up showed what combos you could use in shapes instead of numbers).  But looks like busy times this week, determining if anything cheap enough is something to stock up on for the next few months!

In other strange news, most of my page views are coming from Russia.  It's an incredibly small sample size, but still weird to me.

Zombies and Classic Literature

Anybody who hasn't read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is seriously missing out.  It takes a Jane Austen classic, and modifies it slightly to not only add zombie action, but to also make Lizzie a woman who today's women can relate to.  Somebody who stands up for herself and others, and is willing to fight people to the death for lack of honour.

I've read the aforementioned book several times, but just found an exciting-looking related book.  The Readers Unauthorized Guide to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  (Am I incorrect in thinking there should be an apostrophe at the end of "readers?")

Now I'm in the mood to re-read Max Brooks' World War Z:  An Oral History.

Can't blame anyone but myself when I get a week's worth of zombie dreams.  Oh well.


Updated: OMG, I just found The Zombie Survival Guide Journal.  I suppose it'd be viewed as unprofessional if I used it for work, but there are surely other uses.

And in more shallow news...

I'm finally getting around to trying to set up Power Auras to replace some of my other add-ons in World of Warcraft.  If it's done right, Power Auras should replace all timers, indicators, announce missing buffs, alert me to bad stuff, tell me when procs come up, and I know I haven't even gotten into any of the advanced functionality.  Until now, only very basic auras were set up.

I have been wondering whether WeakAuras might be worth checking out, but can't get enough of an idea of the differences from the page I looked at.  Anybody know?

"Pretty"

I really do wish that I could make everybody watch this, particularly if there's even a possibility that they might ever influence a young girl.  The last 30 seconds or so are the most powerful, but the rest is needed as the lead-up.

On the importance of language

Word choice can be very powerful.  One example is Sarah Bunting's absolutely amazing essay called A Four-Letter Word.  That four-letter word is "slut," and how it is used.  Read it, you won't regret it.

But just today, I came across a video How to Get More Women in Tech in Under a Minute (video below), by Caroline Drucker.  How in professional settings, allowing others to call us "girls," or even doing it ourselves, undermines us.  About how giving disclaimers so that we don't seem arrogant makes us look unqualified, makes us more of a "girl" than a "woman."

Really though, this doesn't apply only to tech.  Women should be called women in the workplace.  We're all adults, and need to be treated as adults.  In personal life, use what terms you will.

Ending this with one of my favourite quotes of all time.

"Girls do what their mothers tell them. Ladies do what society tells them. Women make up their own minds."
- Karen Kijewski

That was fast

Today I received the book The Internet is a Playground in the mail, written by the hilarious David Thorne.  No, I'm not getting paid to write this, and yes, he's one of the funnier people I know of.

As somebody apparently still living in the dark ages, I do not own a computer device smaller than a wide laptop, plus I love real books, so it's lovely to be able to curl up on the couch to read.  I confess, I've even been known to buy bound copies of some webcomic collections.  I'm dangerously close to buying the Dr. McNinja books, actually.


UPDATED:  I bought the Dr. McNinja books.  And they are as fantastic as I hoped and dreamed.

Hello world!

What a way to start - a reference to the first C program most people learn (or what they used to teach, at least).

For those who aren't huge Heinlein fans, my blog name is a reference to one of his books, Podkayne of Mars.

This site will surely evolve into something different (including the look), for now, I'm just getting the first terrifying post out of the way.  This place may include some math, science, humour, random musings, and zombies.  (Why yes, my avatar is a custom one from Plants vs. Zombies.)


P.S.  The font's pretty awful, isn't it?  And yet somehow I love it.  Will likely be changed in the future, but it stays for now.

UPDATED:  Changed the main body font already.  Don't know if this one is staying yet.