Lexin

Update for Christmas and the New Year

2018-01-02T14:43:23Z

Christmas went well, I had a guest, aunty_marion and we ate various comestibles all either from packets or from frozen. I don’t believe in cooking if I can avoid it. Aunty Bessie does roast potatoes much better than me. aunty_marion doesn’t like things like raisins or sultanas so I had all the Christmas pud, which made me very happy. Having a guest for Christmas was lovely, and Aunty Marion is welcome any time.

My two cats are still not on speaking terms, though Pixel (the new cat) almost put a foot out of the bedroom yesterday. So minor progress there. Smokey and she hiss when they encounter each other, though judicious use of treats as a reward for quiet is reducing the incidence of this.

I’m considering how Pixel might be brought into the living room without World War III breaking out. Any advice gladly received.

In other news, I have had a cold over Christmas and New Year, much coughing was coughed, and it is threatening to return. I can so live without that, and so can the cats. No sooner has a cat settled on me (either Smokey in the living room or Pixel in the bedroom) than I start to cough and the poor cat leaves in a huff. It’s not much fun for me, either.

This entry was originally posted at https://lexin.dreamwidth.org/650988.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

Pixel

2017-12-02T13:58:34Z

A couple of people have asked for pictures of Pixel, my new cat. This link should work:

http://i88.photobucket.com/albums/k169/lexin0/Pixel/IMG_0075%202_zpswojjp8yr.jpg

She is a darling - very sweet, small, black and white kitty.

This entry was originally posted at https://lexin.dreamwidth.org/650334.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

News of the non-newsy type - mostly about cats

2017-11-30T14:35:11Z

No news I can give you on the job front, things continue to grind on in a grindy sort of way.

I do, however, have a new cat.

It is thus: a friend of a friend was looking for someone to take on a cat of hers. She started the year with four cats. One, the eldest and grande dame of the household, Pippo, died. This left three cats, Pixel, Squeakerton and Polar, none of whom were happy without Pippo. Pixel was being bullied by Polar and Squeakerton was acting out (peeing where he shouldn’t and so on) so she decided to try to rehome Pixel, and Squeakerton if she could find anyone suitable.

I said I’d take Pixel. This was in June. The FOAF was going to South America in August, so said she would wait until she came back to pass Pixel over. August came and went, and I got in touch with her, and she said she’d got flu, so could I wait. I waited. September came and went, as did most of October.

Finally, she said she was ready to pass on Pixel and even then it took a little while to arrange a suitable weekend to bring her down from Norfolk to London.

Pixel spent the first two weeks here living at the back of my wardrobe and only coming out to eat, drink, pee and poop. In the last ten days or so, she’s come out into the bedroom and now sleeps either on my bed, on me or on the chair I’ve sprayed catnip all over. But she won’t come into the rest of the flat, and if Smokey goes into the bedroom, Pixel hisses and spits at her. Smokey just looks confused, but does do that fur-all-out thing that cats do – her tail looks like a bottle brush and she looks twice her normal size, and hisses, but doesn’t spit. Every other day they have a yowly disagreement, but separate without damage to either party.

Sometimes Pixel will growl at nothing – no sign of Smokey, but she sits under a chair and has a growl to herself.

I’m not sure what to do now – I’ve bought Feliway Friends and put it in Pixel’s room. Smokey has ordinary Feliway in the living room.

I want them to co-exist, if not peacefully, without fighting or growling. Any suggestions?

This entry was originally posted at https://lexin.dreamwidth.org/650019.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

A Kirk/Spock Convention in the UK

2017-09-03T12:41:46Z

From the organisers (of which I am not one...)

We are delighted - but slightly staggered - to announce that KISMET 2018 is ON!! We’ve signed the contract and paid the deposit, so we’re committed (or perhaps should be…)

When? : 31 August – 2 September 2018

Where? : Lane End Conference Centre (the same rooms we had last time!) Church Road, Lane End, Bucks HP14 3HH (www.lane-end-conferences.co.uk)

How much?: Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon (fully inclusive of en-suite accommodation and all meals & refreshments) £245

For those who want to continue the fun - Friday afternoon to Monday morning (to include Sunday dinner, & Monday breakfast) £345

Supporting membership £30

It’s still early days, but further information & updates will be provided as soon as possible. We’ll be looking for lots of help, especially on the more techie stuff, and will post requests as we think of things we need (You have been warned!)

Any questions? Ask here, message Chrissy or email us at kismetcon@gmail.com

Want to register? (please!) Contact Chrissy for payment options (we have lots!) on chrissy.hornby@btinternet.com

Love from Anne & Chrissy (who are currently being measured for their straitjackets ~ Chrissy: Can mine be Vulcan green? Anne: Only if I can have Science Blue)

****

ETAAs a further attraction, I shall be going. I have already decided, though I haven't yet talked to aunty_marion about sitting Smokey. Plus, it's only a week after my gaming event in Wales, which is irritating.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/648113.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

Update

2017-05-11T15:36:11Z

Still applying for jobs. Still not getting any. I get the odd interview, but so far none have been successful. I’ve got one interview outstanding since March – they interviewed me in March and I still don’t have the outcome. But then one of my FB friends applied for a Civil Service job last June and started a week ago, so I’m not quite losing hope on that one.

In other news, there is no real other news.

Smokey is very well, full of beans and cat food. She’s currently asleep on the sofa – we had a lovely cuddle this morning, but then I had to get up from my recumbent position and start doing some work on the computer. So she stretched out into my spot, perhaps thinking it would stay warm.

Oh, I know what I’m doing – I bought the AD&D 5e (Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition for those who aren’t geeks) and have been writing a basic scenario so we can see how it runs. In this I’ve been assisted by my friend Patrick who is such a geek he even out-geeks me, and he calculated everything on his character sheet out by hand to ensure that I wasn’t cheating him out of any advantages his character should have.

What between him and me, we managed to spot a bug in the computer program I’m using to roll up characters, which made us both very happy. We’re strange like that.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/644629.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

Redemption redux

2017-02-28T14:27:55Z

I’m safely back from redemption_con; the journeys were totally straightforward and the trains were on time there and back.

I enjoyed the convention. Numbers seemed down (if you like a fan-run convention do go along to Redemption in 2019, it runs better with more people) and the convention over-organised for the numbers (at times there were nine streams of events), but that didn’t bother me. I just went along to what appealed to me and dodged anything that didn’t.

I spent a lot of time with legionseagle and julesjones over the weekend, and with various other people whose LJ and DW names I have forgotten. Much gossip was gossed.

Guests were Dr Lynette Nusbacher, Steve Lycett , Miranda Gower-Qian, Thalia Evans and David Wake. Probably you’ve never heard of any of them, I had only heard of Dr Lynette who is one of the presenters of the wargame TV show “Time Commanders”. She was lovely, though I didn’t go to any of her talks she was very nice and approachable when out and about and she always wears lovely clothes, which she told me mostly come from TK Maxx.

The only complaint I heard about the food offerings in the restaurant was from the two people I know who can’t cope with spices. All the cheap restaurant meals (Chinese, Indian and Mexican) were not suitable for them. But they had the option of pizzas in the bar, though one person did mention that it was a bit same-y to have a plain pizza two nights running. I liked the desserts on the cheap restaurant meals, the fudge cake was yummy, and they were quite happy to supply cream if asked.

One night I had the New York hot dog pizza and that was very nice, though I wasn’t expecting it to be quite so physically hot for some reason, and hot cheese is a really hot thing when you bite into it.

The carvery baps were very good, decent portions, as were the sandwich bar options.

Breakfasts were adequate mass catering, though I liked the fact that they were frying eggs practically on demand.

Other things: yes, some of the panels were under attended, but I put that down to the convention being somewhat under attended overall and the sometimes nine streams meaning that people were spread a bit thin. The panels I attended went off well, even if there weren’t that many there. I thought six streams would be fine for the number we had attending, with room to expand it if more sign up.

I forgot about slash Pictionary. I’d have been there if I’d remembered.

One thing I would like to see for Redemption 19 is a slash/adult stream as there’s no general slash con (that I know of) being run in the UK currently.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/642427.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

Uodate

2016-08-02T05:13:56Z

It’s 5am and I have given up any pretence of sleeping. I have no idea why I have insomnia tonight. As has the cat, who is meowing round me as if I might have a clue what she wants. It’s probably food, but Smokey is not a cat who fusses for her food usually. I have put food out, but she’s not eating it. Maybe she’s just worried about me.

It doesn’t help that I have in some way banjaxed my back and hip. They are ouchy. And I’ve had a couple of goes of cramp in my right calf, leaving that sore. I found some painkillers in the back of a cupboard and they’re about cutting in now.

In other news I’m playing a couple of computer games. Skyrim retains its interest, not least because you don’t have to rush around beating creatures up to get anywhere. Building your own house can take up hours of innocent fun. Not so Shadow of Mordor. Oh, what a dull game that is if you’re not very quick with your button recognition. I frequently mix up square and circle, and thus end up dead more often than alive. Plus, the baddies level up if you don’t kill them quickly and I’ve ended up with a couple of bosses at 20th level that appear whenever I do and I can’t kill them because they’ve about 25 supporters who appear likewise. Largest number of orcs I can do away with is about six. More than that and I’m outnumbered. So it gets a bit boring.

My brother bought me Arcania for my birthday, and that’s a bit more interesting. Doesn’t require me to learn any button combinations to hit things, and that’s always good. Not as pretty as Shadow of Mordor though, or rather, not as well drawn because I wouldn’t call Mordor pretty but they’ve really put a lot of work into how it looks.

There’s another game a friend bought me for my birthday, a game set in modern times, but I’ve put it somewhere and don’t remember where it is or what it was called. Maybe it’s in a box I still haven’t unpacked from the decorating.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/638385.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

Meme!

2016-01-10T09:15:54Z

Meme collected from legionseagle.

Rules: go to page 7 of your WIP, skip to the 7th line, share 7 sentences, and tag 7 more writers to continue the challenge.

Elrond waited for the other elf who did deliveries for the bakery to arrive and she, too, said she’d not seen anyone around in the street.

Elrond sighed. So that was the end of that possibility.

#

Finding a residence in a fold of hills leading down to the sea outside the city proper, it had amused Elrond to call his new home Rivendell. The only resemblance it bore to his house on Middle-Earth was that it was, if possible, even more rambling than his former home, and had been built over a long period in a variety of styles and painted a number of colours. His amusement, he knew, was not shared by all of his household, but at least there was little confusion about who lived here.

He’d chosen it because it was the only house available that seemed large enough to contain his household. He’d arrived with a few friends, the Ringbearers among them, but his foresight had not failed him and in time the numbers grew.

I don't tag, it always strikes me as unfair.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/633789.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

Anyone know of any book blogs?

2015-11-02T13:04:10Z

Does anyone know of any book bloggers who would be interested in reviewing books that the writers describe as "far-out insane grimdark epic fantasy."

If so, let me know and I'll pass the details on to my two writer friends who hope to be having their books out soon-ish.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/629342.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

lexin @ 2015-10-27T16:50:00

2015-10-27T16:56:28Z

I'm not sure I really understood what was required, the tutor had asked for a monologue addressed to someone else and this is what I produced. He said it was a bit of a cheat. However,

New to the game

I promised I’d tell you about it, didn’t I? I don’t know why you’d want to know but here goes.

I’d only been in the CID for about a week when we got a 6am call to the Leyton Orient Stadium in Oliver Road. I got there to discover that a groundsman, who must have had a sleepless night or pissed the bed to be up at that hour, had found a dead body, head bashed in, just in front of the home goal.

“What do you make of it?” DI Shaunessy asked me. He was dressed in the usual blue paper onesie, nitrile gloves, and had paper covers on his shoes. I noticed that the zip on the onesie was pulled right to the top just under his chin – you know Shaunessy, he has a reputation for being the best dressed man in the Met, and he probably intended to keep it that way. Anyway, he was standing well back from the corpse, as if he were afraid the blood might spill.

I did my best to be debonair, though this was my first murder scene. “Is the blow on the head the cause of death?” I asked. I don’t think anyone was fooled.

“I can’t be sure at this stage.” I took the woman who answered to be the Home Office pathologist. It seemed a good guess as she was kneeling by the corpse. She said, “I don’t think we’ve met?”

I said, “DC Sheldon. I’m new to the area.”

She said she was Dr Elizabeth Mackintyre.

I reckoned I’d have to stay on her good side, so I asked, “Do we know anything about him?” From what I could see he looked fairly ordinary, but you know looks can be deceiving.

“His clothes are foreign,” said one of the crime scene technicians, the pretty one with red hair. I think her name’s Roberta something. She flipped the jacket open to show the maker’s label on the inside pocket.

I could see that not only was the jacket foreign, the writing looked to me to be Cyrillic. “Russian?” I said. “What’s a dead Russian doing here?”

“I think it’s Serbo-Croat,” said Dr Mackintyre. You know, I knew she’d be cleverer than me. “I think that word – she pointed to one of the unintelligible words – is Budapest. That means he could come from anywhere round there.”

“I see what you mean,” I said.

“I don’t,” DI Shaunessy sounded annoyed, though whether with me or the pathologist, I wasn’t sure.

I told him, “Serbo-Croat is the language used in Serbia, Croatia…”

“I gathered that!” said Shaunessy.

It was my turn to be annoyed. “I hadn’t finished. It’s also spoken in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and Montenegro.” If looks could kill – as the saying goes – Shaunessy’s would have felled me. You know how he can be. “Or,” I continued, “he could be from anywhere and just bought a decent jacket in Budapest. Or even second hand. Lots of Serbians live round here.”

Shaunessy looked at the corpse, meditatively. “It’s a start, though,” he said.

Dr Mackintyre stood up and I could see the corpse properly. It struck me, not for the first time, that seeing pictures of corpses never prepares you for the real thing. I’d seen my grandmother die and that wasn’t pleasant, but she’d been in a nice clean hospice. This was far worse, it had a reality and an immediacy that pictures and the written word lacked. I would never forget this man’s face, or the blood staining the Astroturf.

Comments welcome, as always.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/628691.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

Palaver

2015-10-26T15:15:15Z

I’m arranging to go to my Auntie Queenie’s funeral on the 9th of November – what a palaver it all is.

The village she lived in, Thorne (South Yorkshire), has two stations, and it has taken me three days to get my waffly Auntie Peggy to tell me which one is most convenient for them to collect me from and for the church. My brother, who is not nearly as waffly, would have given me a lift at least from Doncaster, but he can’t go as he can’t get the leave from his employer.

That leaves me practically on my own, as the only people I’ll know at this jamboree are my Auntie Peggy, her husband Geoff, and their daughter Margaret. I’ve never met Auntie Queenie’s daughter, my cousin Diane (or not that I remember – I may have been to her wedding when I was a little girl) and only met her brother, my cousin John, once and that a long time ago, again when I was a child. Should be a laugh a minute.

Thinking about it, it will be a laugh in one way or another. Any given family event involving my family, something goes horribly wrong in a weird way, and the only way we can find to cope is to laugh at it because the alternative is to scream and throw things or have a massive row.

The only members of the family alive from my father’s generation are the aforementioned Peggy, Geoff and Uncle Sonnie’s widow, Pat. I don’t know if Pat will be there as I don’t know how well she got on with Queenie, or what her health is like. Auntie Pat must be in her 90s as well. I mean, some of my cousins are pensioners already. Of all the cousins, I’m the second youngest at 53 and my brother is the youngest at 51. It’s a sobering thought.

Still, tickets are booked and will be in the post to me tomorrow. I’ve elected to travel first class there and back as it was only a few quid more and I don’t want to be uncomfortable as well as miserable.

I shall have to look out a black handbag as I don’t feel my normal bright red handbag is suitable for a funeral, and I shall have to decide which of my coats is the best option. I have four coats: light grey, dark grey, bright green and navy blue but with checks. I’m leaning towards the dark grey.

What do people think? Suitable coat to wear to the funeral of an aunt you like but were not particularly close to?

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/628348.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

Back!

2015-10-25T17:13:25Z

I am back from Nottingham, where I was attending the British Fantasy Convention. I had a great time, saw some excellent panels and met a gaggle of writers and people who teach writing. I attended with my friend Anna Smith-Spark (@annalibitina on Twitter), whom I know from work. When I worked of course.

My only quibble was the choice of people on the panels. I get that it’s largely an event for writers and aspiring writers, but I got mildly tired of hearing people say something along the lines of, “When I wrote my book [name of book] I did [this awesome thing].” I know that a lot of the people who attend are there to sell their book, but really? Is it necessary to hammer it home that hard?

@annalibitina did not over sell her book in the panel that she was on (she has an agent, though not a publishing deal – yet) though the reading she did was the best I heard and made me want to read her book properly. Also from discussions I had with her, I think she and legionseagle would get on a storm. Not that they’re writing the same type of book, because they’re totally not, but their politics mesh very well, and their views of fantasy as a genre.

Anna is concerned that she doesn’t end up with fans who miss the point of her book (“Death! Death! Death!”) and don’t realise that she’s playing with the trope.

Sadly, she can’t make Eastercon – but maybe I can get them to meet up for lunch sometime.

I gather the next British Fantasy Convention will be in Scarborough. A tidy step from where I live. And will be in September, which is also a bit close to my gaming event. We’ll see how my finances bear up, too.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/628171.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

Three good things

2015-10-07T16:53:16Z

Three good things have happened today, both of which fill me with quiet pleasure.

Firstly, I bought some writing software which has encouraged me to write 1000 words on my Elrond/Thranduil story about them meeting in Valinor. That's a move forward as I'd been stalled.

Secondly, I managed to find (remember) my Fanfiction.net password. Remember fanfiction.net? Well, I sort of do, and not being able to get into my account was an occasional niggle. Not a day in day out niggle, just something that irritated me when I remembered it. So I spent some time today working through the options for the email address and password combinations that it could be. And, in the end, I found it.

Thirdly, I finally put the 'missing' story of mine on AO3. I've finally accepted that I've lost touch with the co-writer (some fan called Tidmag) and just put it up on my account. Maybe she'll get in touch, maybe she won't, but that won't be niggling at me, either. I only wrote it in 2006...

So that's it.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/626781.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

Old computers

2015-09-12T10:30:47Z

In the comments of my last entry, the question was raised about whether I remember not having computers - and I do.

I bought my first computer in 1986, and it was an Amstrad 8512, it had two disc drives and an integral printer, which was the reason I'd bought it. The word processing program was called Locoscript, and was a total bugger to learn, though I did get quite adept at it in the end. I can't imagine I paid for it myself, my husband and I largely lived on welfare benefits, so I think it was either a Christmas or birthday gift from my parents.

At the time, I lived in Scunthorpe, in Lincolnshire and was married. All that was to change pretty quickly.

So, yes, I do remember what it was like before computers.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/626173.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

Sometimes...

2015-08-16T09:02:23Z

Sometimes the help files for computers are maddening. I found one which started

"Problem: You cannot print" and then went on to say, "You may find it easier to follow the steps if you print this article first."

Are they for real?

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/622722.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

Argh! Computers suck sometimes #2

2015-08-12T18:08:18Z

The big question...do I update to Windows 10, or don't I? I'm still undecided. I've been reading marahmarie with interest and care. She recommended a BIOS update for my laptop, which I'm applying even as I write, but actually my turn for having my desktop updated has already been notified to me.

Still very leery. Nothing good comes of Windows updates, in my experience.

In other news, Plex sucks like a sucky thing. Barely a day passes but it drops connectivity and has to be patiently coaxed into working again. Three things connect into it (the TV, the PlayStation and the iPad) and keeping all of them so they'll connect is almost a full time job.

So nervous of a Windows update.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/621745.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

Lexin's first map

2015-08-04T22:52:09Z

I bought some map designing software because I've always wanted it since I saw it advertised a few years ago when I was poor. I couldn't buy it then, and it disappeared of the site of the company that was selling it.

The other day, I found it again and couldn't resist it. Since then, I've been playing with it - the learning curve is practically vertical with it, I've never used computer aided design before, and it's complicated.

Today I produced a map of a village. It's a rough old village, but here it is:

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/620882.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

Technology...

2015-07-28T11:58:47Z

I used my iPad as phone, today. My first use of Skype. What a weird thing that is.

Anybody wishing to Skype me will need to know my real name (and there are many people with my name, including three also living in London) and also let me know so that I can have the iPad or the laptop on. My desktop, which is my workhorse computer has no microphone or camera, and is staying that way. I have enough trouble with the bloke who contacts me through FB chat if he happens to catch me - I keep it mostly switched off to discourage him.

On the plus side, though, I have managed to finally find an app which allows one to use an iPad as an extended screen. The odd thing about it is that it's wired, not wireless. Good thing is that there's no lag, but it is strange. I've invested in a six foot fire cable for the iPad for my trip to Wales.

Knowing my luck, they (that is Lone Wolf Development) will announce their browser version at Gen Con, and I'll have bought it all for nothing. We will see.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/618968.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

Reviews of Hugo nominations, tranche 4

2015-05-31T14:52:10Z

I am somewhat behindhand on my reviews of the Hugo nominations. This is largely because I started the novels and the first one I picked up is “The Three Body Problem” by Cixin Liu. Other people on File 770 have raved over it, but I’m finding it very hard going. I will try to finish it, but I’m only prepared to give it another couple of days before I give up and move on. It’s not the translation – the translator did a bang up job – I’m just struggling to dig up much interest.

It’s also because I had to prepare to run my occasional Call of Cthuhlu campaign for my two friends, which always takes up time. We had a good game, though. Well worth it. We’re still looking for a third player, in case anyone’s interested.

The final two "related" works…and there are no spoilers in these items, for once.

“Why Science is Never Settled”, Tedd Roberts (Baen.com)

The article is a good short outline for the uninitiated that “science is a process, not a conclusion.” I would hope that anyone who’s done basic science courses already knows that. If they don’t, they didn’t pay attention.

The article is well laid out and presented, but doesn’t cover anything new and I’ve seen the same argument made far more attractively and cogently by the likes of Dr Ben Goldacre (I particularly recommend his book “Bad Science”), Professor Brian Cox and the blogger Orac (Respectful Insolence).

Nothing new, though adequately explained. 6/10. The nomination appears on both the Sad and Rabid Puppy slates.

Wisdom from My Internet, Michael Z. Williamson (Patriarchy Press)

This book consists of tweets and other bits culled by Williamson from the internet. It’s a bit like those books that one keeps in the lavatory so that any user who is constipated has something to keep them occupied while waiting for things to happen.

I struggled through between a quarter and a half of it, before giving up in disgust and boredom. Occasionally there is a nugget of something I found mildly amusing, for example, “When my neighbors found out I was agnostic they burned a giant question mark on my lawn” and, “Guy Fawkes Day. We celebrate to remind Parliament that, while it failed, it would not have entirely been a bad thing had it succeeded.” I should point out, though, that these examples were at least ten pages apart.

Pretty much bilge. I don’t know why this was chosen for anyone’s slate – it doesn’t even seem to have much to do with SF/F. 1/10. On both Rabid and Sad Puppy slates.

This entry was originally posted at http://lexin.dreamwidth.org/612957.html. You can comment here or there, it's up to you.

Reviews of Hugo nominations, tranche 3 (long!)

2015-05-24T00:07:53Z

On Thursday, I had a bit of a hiccup. I decided that, after a year of using it, I didn’t like the way that Windows 8’s standard email program dealt with emails. So I resolved to sort it out and get Outlook 2013 up and working and make it my default program for email. I thought it would be easy. A ten minute job.

How wrong could I be?

As it turned out, very very wrong. It took me only a few minutes to make it work with my outlook.com email address. Very simple. Done in three clicks. For some reason the icloud.com email address I have but never use was already linked to it. Don’t know how that happened, I’d certainly done nothing to make it do that.

The sticking point was my standard gmail.com address, the one I use for 90% of the time.

Gmail’s instructions make it sound simple. “Put these settings into the email program and watch it work.” So I put the settings into the email program and it did not work. I varied them according to the instructions for over four hours and it still did not work. I had a cup of tea and tried again. No dice. Rebooted. No dice. Cuddled the cat in a marked manner. No dice.

Finally I tried settings I was sure I’d tried at least twice before with no results…and it worked. Eh? What was with that?

My old friend yonmei once said that she’d been working with computers since 1991 and still sometimes the only explanation for why the thing has done what it’s just done is, “It’s possessed.” I concur.

Hugos reviews, continued. Note: rampaging spoilers herein. Please do not click on the links if you can’t cope with spoilers.

I’m currently working my way through the “Best Related Work” list. I should say up front that I haven’t finished two of these, and doubt if I will finish them – if I’m even meant to finish them which I’m not completely sure I am.

Letters from Gardner, Lou Antonelli (The Merry Blacksmith Press)

This is one I didn’t finish. I’m sorry; I got bored.

The book comprises Antonelli’s personal history, and writing advice interspersed with examples of Antonelli’s writing in the form of short stories. I read about the first 150 pages before giving up, and hadn’t learned anything about submitting SF/F professionally that I couldn’t have got from online sources or from the first 50 pages or so of the Writers and Artists Yearbook. The writing advice was kind of interesting, but I do have several books on writing already so none of it was really new. I’m not sure why it was on the Puppies slate, even.

His stories were mildly diverting, some of them better than the one he has up for a Hugo this year (“On a Spiritual Plane”, previously reviewed) making me wonder why this particular story had been chosen – it could, of course, be the only one he wrote that was published in 2014 that was the right length. Pity.

Hard to mark, given that I didn’t finish. 6/10, maybe. This entry is a Puppy nomination, but I’ve lost my bookmark which set out which of their slates are which, and much googling has not helped.

“The Hot Equations: Thermodynamics and Military SF”, Ken Burnside (Riding the Red Horse, Castalia House)

I like science in general, but I’m no physicist (I gave up studying physics over 30 years ago, though I did get an O level in 1978) so I approached this with some trepidation. What if it was all equations I couldn’t follow? Equations stump me, they always have – when I studied for my Master’s degree, I had to study how poverty is measured. There were some equations in that which made my brains trickle out of my ears. Even when I studied Physics I used to worry about them and at O level they were fairly simple.

However, no worries on that score, the writer explained most of it quite straightforwardly so that I could follow it as long as I paid attention and didn’t let myself get side tracked by watching the cat.

I came away with the impression that (a) things are more complicated than they might appear at first, and most SF books, films and TV have their exciting space machines fuelled by pure handwavium rather than following the rules of real physics as they are currently known. I had always suspected as much. (b) That in the unlikely event that I write a book where there are space ships, I will also fuel them with handwavium. It seems by far the best way – better to have made that shit up in order for it to work the way you want it to than to have someone infinitely better than me at science say that it doesn’t work that way.

I also read some of the other stuff in, “Riding the Red Horse” in preparation for consideration of the “Best Editor – Long Form” and “Best Editor – Short Form” both of which Vox Day has been nominated for – he is the editor of this book.

The stories so far range from the forgettable - in the time since finishing it (Friday) I’d forgotten that Eric S. Raymond’s, “Sucker Punch” even existed. Clearly not a story which stayed with me.

Vox Day’s story, “A Reliable Source” was more interesting. It concerned a Colonel of the US Air Force who is blackmailed by Big Bad (what kind seems unclear though people with brown skins are not to be trusted and may be the enemy within) and who just gives up for no reason that I could determine. If you recall I reviewed VD’s book “Summa Elvetica: A Casuistry of the Elvish Controversy” and pretty much panned it. For all its faults, “A Reliable Source” is an improvement, and on this evidence VD is better at writing thrillers set in the near future than he is at fantasy.

“Understanding 4th Generation War” by William S. Lind was also worth reading. He gives a potted history of warfare to the present day, and discusses why the US (and the UK but mostly the US) are doing so badly in Iraq. What is it about their forces training and attitudes that have gone so badly awry? I thought he made some interesting points that I’d like to see expanded upon.

The best of these stories, however, at least as far as I’ve read, is the one by Jerry Pournelle, “His Truth Goes Marching On” first published in 1975. It’s a SF reworking of the experiences of the volunteers in the Spanish Civil War. What makes this stand out from the crowd is that it has a simple straightforward style, it doesn’t get tied up in what sort of gun the soldiers are carrying (as too much military SF does) has characters you can feel for, and it carries its message lightly.

For the Thermodynamics essay, 7/10. I’ll hold off giving a mark for the whole work. Again, the essay and the work appear on the Puppies slate.

Finally for this tranche we have:

Transhuman and Subhuman: Essays on Science Fiction and Awful Truth, John C. Wright (Castalia House)

I read three of the essays in this collection, the title essay, “Transhuman and Subhuman”, “The Hobbit, or the Desolation of Tolkien” and “Saving Science Fiction from Strong Female Characters.” I may return and read more, but then again I may cut my toes off with shears first. The jury is out on that point.

“Transhuman and Subhuman”

I cannot list, because there isn’t enough space or time in the world, the number of times I disagreed with something Wright posits in, “Transhuman and Subhuman.” Quite early on in the essay he says, ‘High Fantasy occupies the mental universe where (1) truth is true, (2) goodness is good, and (3) life is beautiful unless marred by sin and malice, and when marred life may yet, not without terrible price, be saved.’ He compares it to what he calls, ‘Sword and Magic User fiction’ which has no overarching religious figure, and he specifies Elbereth and Aslan as overarching religious figures.

I don’t agree. I believe High Fantasy (what’s with the capitals?) can include situations where the world described has grey and less grey areas, like our own. One example is one of the other nominated works the novel, “The Goblin Emperor.” Totally High Fantasy, full of grey areas. For those who haven’t read it, the book is about a young goblin, Maia, whose father and three brothers are killed in an airship disaster, leaving him heir to the title.

Raised by an Uncle who has no love for him and who ill-treats him, he has little training for the part because nobody expected him to inherit. He has to work his way through a positively Byzantine court, crammed with people who all have their own agenda, trying to sort friends from enemies and at the same time trying to find out both who killed his family and to prevent it happening to him. The world has a religion which is not particularly fleshed out, and we learn that Maia is more-than-incidentally devout, showing this by meditation.

I also don’t agree that there is a realistic difference between ‘High Fantasy’ and ‘Sword and Magic User’ fiction. I don’t think it’s a useful distinction to make. Nor do I think it’s true that, ‘High fantasy has a Roman Catholic flavor to it, whereas Sword-and-Sorcery is somewhat Protestant.’

I also thought Wright’s inclusion of Elbereth didn’t support his claim. Elbereth was not the ‘god’ of either Arda or Valinor (for there is no god as such in either place.) I think Wright may mean Eru, who was the Creator spirit, also called, ‘Ilúvatar’ by the elves. Elbereth was one of the fourteen supporting spirits, the Ainur who entered the world at the behest of Eru to bring order to his creation. There was a fifteenth spirit, Melkor, and the other fourteen had to combat his evil. (I’m a pedantic Tolkien-ite, and I seem to recall that Tolkien had a long discussion with C. S. Lewis on this point.)

Wright then goes on to deliniate four types of people which he says are, ‘the Worldly Man, the Cultist, the Occultist, the Anarchist’, using some classification of his own to describe the different types. The one which struck me as particularly odd was the Anarchist – his use of the term wasn’t any that I recognise, and he didn’t seem to be using it in its normal (to me) political meaning. But then I’m a Socialist, what do I know?

His critique, “The Hobbit, or the Desolation of Tolkien” a commentary on the film, ‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ I enjoyed much more. The language is massively overblown, but a lot of people find that funny. I did myself for the first two thirds, until it became a bit much. His points chimed sometimes with the thoughts I’d had about the film. I mean, I loved it – visually it was flawless – but I’m sadly aware of its faults.

He didn’t like Tauriel, which I thought a pity as during the film I warmed to her. She’s not in the book but I forgave her that because she was warm, funny and kick-ass. What’s to dislike?

However, I thought he was completely on-target calling Legolas, “the Moderator’s Pet NPC.” For those who are a bit puzzled, Wright explains, “This is when a moderator [Game-Master in Dungeons and Dragons terms] introduces a character into the adventure who does everything better than any player character, and the entire universe (the moderator’s invented universe, that is) showers him with blessings and love.” I have to admit that in my youth, in the very first AD&D campaign I ran, I committed a ‘Moderator’s Pet NPC’ who could be every bit as irritating to the players as Wright makes it sound. He was a half-elf called Lexin. So now you know.

Wright didn’t like Thranduil as much as I did. I adore Thranduil to little minty balls and have so many pictures of him on my Pinterest that it’s embarrassing. I did agree with him on one point, though, “[W]e get to see Thranduil’s face melt for a second, as if he is hiding by enchantment (an enchantment that slips when he is angry) some old scar from where the dragon burned a huge hole in his cheek…” That little moment made no sense to me, either, and is never explained in the film. It’s just weird.

And so on and so forth. Worth reading, because it is amusing in parts and mostly apposite.

Finally, “Saving Science Fiction from Strong Female Characters.”

Astoundingly annoying and not as described in the title.

Wright opens, “Anyone reading reviews or discussions of science fiction has no doubt come across the oddity that most discussions of female characters in science fiction center around whether the female character is strong or not.

“As far as recollection serves, not a single discussion touches on whether the female character is feminine or not.”

In the next paragraph he says, “Different reviewers no doubt mean slightly different things when they speak of the strength of a female character: but the general meaning is that the strong female character is masculine.”

No, they don’t mean that. They don’t. At least, I don’t. The rest of that paragraph goes on to describe what Wright thinks are (or should be) the defining characteristics of “men” and of “women”. It should, in my opinion, count as an outstanding description of why (as I believe) the patriarchy (yes, I’m a feminist, so sue me) damages and undervalues men as much as it does women.

This line in particular I want to take and shred, “The female spirit is wise rather than cunning, deep in understanding rather than adroit in deductive logic, gentle and supportive rather than boastful and self-aggrandizing.” A woman like this would get absolutely nowhere in the modern workplace, and women have to work. It’s bizarre nonsense. Some more, “Of classical virtues, temperance and prudence are essential to femininity, especially that temperance of the sexual appetite called chastity…” I mean…ack?! So bizarre that this applies to women and not to men.

He then rails against Political Correctness, without at any stage understanding that what he calls ‘Political Correctness’ those of us with working moral compasses of our own call ‘good manners’.

He also doesn’t seem to understand feminism when he says that feminism means that women are considered ‘weak and helpless’. This is the sort of tripe one hears from the kind of person who calls feminists ‘feminazis’, the sort of person who espouses the ‘mens rights’ movement and seeks training from ‘pick up artists’. That anyone thinks that is…well, I find it creepy as well as misinformed.

He is perhaps at his most bizarre when he discusses vulgarity, and the differences between men and women. He allows men to swear because, “[T]he vulgarity may have the positive effect of stirring up emotions ranging from team spirit to desperate anger which aids the will to win…”

To which I say, “Er…what?” Why would that apply to men and not to women? Aren’t women allowed to win?

He tells us women, however, should not swear because, “[W]hen women in the kitchen or the nursery use the name of the Lord in vain, and the children they are nursing and teaching hear them, the vulgarity has the negative effect of deadening the emotions of the youngsters and making them vulgar and indifferent to vulgarity. Youngsters indifferent to vulgarity with very few exceptions cannot have a reverent or respectful attitude toward man or God. This absence of respect infiltrates to every compartment of their lives; they are mean to the poor, callous to women, negligent of duties, contemptuous of authority, and so on.”

I’m sorry, this is just wacky. What if the woman has no children? Is she allowed to swear then? It seems not, “[A] woman who is crude inspires contempt, because she has contempt for God and man. The difference is that a woman who loses her native delicacy and modesty does not become an object of fear and respect, but an object of contempt and loathing, because the aura of sanctity women naturally inspire in men is tossed away.”

“Aura of sanctity?” Does that give her +1 on saving throws and +2 against undead or something? It’s flapdoodle. Men and women are human beings alike, and both are entitled to equal respect.

He goes on a bit later in the essay, “My theory is that in the postwar years, the returning servicemen, having survived the hell of war and emerged from the purgatory of the Great Depression, yearned for and created the most pleasant environment imaginable to the human race: the well-tended suburb, complete with elm trees, white picket fences, automobiles with tailfins, televisions with rabbit ears, schoolhouses, (and shoes), for their children, washing machines, and, in yearning for domestic bliss, asked for an exaggerated form of domestic femininity from their women, complete with high heels, aprons and pearl necklaces. They had certainly earned it; and the women graciously granted their wish, and behaved in a more feminine fashion than their mothers.”

He’s looking back to a never-never land that existed, I think, only for a comparatively small number of people both men and women. Poor women have always had to work, they did before, during and after the heyday of the 1950s and 60s that Wright imagines with such affection. What helped the people of the post-war era to have such comparatively lavish lifestyles (compared with the situation before the war in any case) was the rise of organised labour in the form of trade unions which pushed up wages, and an increase in conspicuous consumption. It wasn’t brought about by women being ‘real women’, men being ‘real men’ (and small furry creatures form Alpha Centauri ditto.)

This view of suburbia also applies (as does a lot in all of Wright’s essays) to the situation in the USA. Europe was different, and is still different now. That white picket fence suburbia as outlined by Wright does not exist to the same extent in Europe, and never has.

Wright then goes on to show – at some length – that his understanding of feminism is simplistic and limited. I won’t go into details as I’ve gone on long enough.

Could have been better, the essay on strong female characters particularly lets it down. The critique of the film saves it from total disaster, but I still didn’t think much to it. 3/10. Another Puppies nomination.

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Reviews of Hugo nominations, tranche 1

2015-05-19T15:31:10Z

The Hugo Awards packet came out yesterday (yippee! I’ve been waiting for this) and I think what I’m going to do is to post probably short reviews of the stories as I read them, mostly as records for my own voting purposes so that I’ll remember what I read and what I thought of it when I read it. I plan to give them marks out of ten, but reserve the right to alter these as I read more.

I’m also going to start cross posting to my WordPress thingy at mpmrommel.co.uk as I don’t currently make use of that and I really should. I shall just have to hope that if I overstep the allowances the hosts get in touch and let me know.

I have to say, also, that anything that isn’t in the packet and isn’t available on the web probably won’t get read. It’s not that I don’t want to read those stories, but that I’ve spent this month’s allowance on books, and can’t afford to spend more.

Note: rampaging spoilers herein. Please do not click on the links if you can’t cope with spoilers.

“On A Spiritual Plain”, Lou Antonelli (Sci Phi Journal #2, 11-2014)

The basis of this story is that a Methodist Minister (I assume young, I don’t know if it’s stated) is sent to a distant planet where the spirits of the dead hang around until they are ready to move on. Once they are ready, their tribe escort them to an area of the planet where the electrical thingys are thin enough to allow them to dissipate.

A young (human) man is the first person to die there among the human visitors, and the Minister has to sort out his dissipation. So to speak.

I thought it was an interesting idea, but it left me with a lot of questions. Obviously not all questions can be answered in a short story, which is a limitation of the form – this idea, I thought, required a novelette if not a novel. I didn’t understand, for example, why the dead man was in such a hurry to disappear. What was pushing him to go? Especially since with the original inhabitants of the planet, the dead remain with their descendants for six generations before taking the final journey. Which also begs the question if every dead person does that, or if some hang around for longer and shorter times. If so, why?

I couldn’t help thinking of Nearly Headless Nick in Harry Potter, who is afraid of moving on and therefore stays…and stays…

There were also some clunky sentences, which rather threw me out.

Interesting idea, not especially well handled. 6/10. Appears on both the Sad Puppies and Rabid Puppies slates.

“A Single Samurai”, Steven Diamond (The Baen Big Book of Monsters, Baen Books)

I didn’t like this. I find samurai hard going at the best of times, I don’t know what it is about them that irritates me, but it’s hard to dig up much enthusiasm.

This particular samurai finds himself on the back of a huge (beyond huge, giant, mountainous) creature. It’s so big that it takes the samurai several days to hack his way to the top of the thing, fighting four-eyed cat monsters as he does. We discover that his sword is an über-sword, linked to him in a way similar to the way that the Ring is linked to Sauron.

Eventually, the samurai finds his way to the top of the creature-mountain. He falls over and breaks his leg (as they do) finds his way into the creature’s nostrils (I think) and then (to his surprise but not that of the reader) kills the mountain-creature by sticking his horcrux-sword into its brain.

Again, there are some infelicities of language which should have been picked up by the editor.

Not a very interesting idea, adequately dealt with. 4/10. Again, this is appears on both the Sad and Rabid Puppies slate.

“Totaled”, Kary English (Galaxy’s Edge Magazine, 07-2014)

A sea change, this one. Hooray!

A scientist, Maggie, has had a car accident and wakes to find herself a brain in a jar. It would give anyone a bit of a turn and despite the fact that Maggie was herself working on the project, she is not immune.

I liked Maggie very much. She adapts to the situation far better than most would do (in any Lovecraftian story where this happens, the sufferer goes immediately insane), and though she misses her children, she sets to deal with the issue with the logic one would hope for from a scientist.

The end of the story (which I will leave unspoiled) hits with the genial cheerfulness of the 9:15 from Bristol hitting the buffers.

A much better story, much better written. 8/10. Sadly, this also appears on both the Sad and Rabid Puppies slate – sadly because I’m in two minds about placing anything which appears on a slate higher than ‘no award’.

So that’s the first three.

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Neti Pot

2015-02-03T20:58:58Z

Does anyone have any helpful advice about using a neti pot?

I have a post-nasal drip that just will not quit. A neti pot is my last attempt to cure it myself before throwing myself on the mercy of my doctor. I've already tried allergy medication.

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Some photos from my trip to the zoo, and some others

2014-12-11T15:28:07Z

This post is image heavy, so I'm cutting it. If you want to see them, you might have to let the images load.

Picture of Smokey, investigating a lava lamp. This was take a few weeks ago - she was fascinated by the way it moved.

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The zoo, where I went because I haven't been to a zoo since I was a very little girl. I'm not sure I approve of zoos, but they do a job and I do like animals.

A Komodo dragon. I was quite a way away, but luckily have a very good camera with an excellent zoom.

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Otters (not a very good photo, I didn't want to use a flash in case it upset them). For legionseagle.

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Meerkats!

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Sloth. Not a very good picture because it was very hot and wet in the Rainforest World and my lens kept fogging up.

Giraffe.

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Zebra

Pygmy hippo, female

Spectacled owl

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Llamas and alpacas (I don't know which is which - the friend I was with did.)

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Galapagos tortoises

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Three baby tigers, sleeping

Adult female tiger, sleeping (there is no zoom on this picture. She really was that close to the glass.)

Male tiger on his warm rock

We never got to see the bearded pigs, it was a very cold day and they stayed in their den (very sensibly). However, here is a picture of a large pig which I took at Bede's World, when I went to stay with a friend.

Basically, I went to the zoo, and I photographed everything that moved. A lot of things didn't show themselves because it was cold, and because Gorilla Kingdom was closed due to one of the gorillas having given birth overnight.

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Book review

2014-09-02T15:14:55Z

Quite by accident (I thought they were detective stories) I’ve started to read the Whyborne and Griffin series of books by Jordan L Hawk – for some reason I got bored with the fanfic I was reading and had a look what I’d got on the Kindle.

These are horror stories with a side order of m/m sex when the eldritch pseudopods aren’t reaching from beyond the stars, or, in one memorable moment, when the sandstorm is howling outside the tent and there’s nothing else to do.

The two protagonists are Dr Percival Whyborne, comparative philologist at the local museum and his friend Griffin Flaherty (I think it’s Flaherty – it’s something Irish beginning with an F) detective, thrown together by the events of the first book Widdershins, which is also the name of the New England town in which they live.

They’re both attractive blokes but the stories are mostly told from the point of view of Whyborne who suffers from a chip on his shoulder about his appearance so heavy he should be nicknamed Mr Chippy. Also along on the adventures is Christine, the museum’s Egyptologist, who seems as at home with a rifle and a swordstick if she has to as she is down among the mummies – skills which would come as a surprise no doubt to a real Egyptologist.

When I say these stories are horror, I mean a very specific kind of horror – anyone who’s ever read the stories of H P Lovecraft will recognise the milieu: Nylarthotep trying to reach from beyond the grave or from beyond the beyond, Yog-Sothoth worshipped by hooded cultists mostly from New England (sorry New England), Cthuhlu and the canning factory…you get the picture.

As such they’re about right for me – the horrors are not at all believable, to my mind – and anyway I run regular scenarios of the horror roleplaying game Call of Cthulhu, so I doubt these stories can dig up anything worse than the stuff I’ve encountered already in the game.

And they’re good page turners. They keep the suspense going and the action going. I recommend them if you’re looking for an adventure with a bit of loving thrown in and have a few hours to kill.

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Cat!

2013-11-08T18:35:06Z

Smokey has returned, not hungry, slightly dazed and confused, with a bare bit on one leg where they put the anaesthetic in, but with sparkling teeth.

I'm told the tartar was worse than they'd expected - really very bad in places, and she had swollen gums because of it. So done just in time. But the teeth underneath the covering of crap are in good condition and none needed to be extracted. They didn't do x-rays as the teeth didn't give any indication of caries.

I've been told to feed her on special "dental" cat food one day in three or so and to slowly stop feeding her wet food. She won't like that, though I wonder if her preference for wet food was because of her teeth.

Smokey behaved well throughout, didn't bite anyone and was quite laid back about it all.

I am, of course, being given the cold shoulder treatment by the kitty - though from fairly close by. So she's annoyed with me, but wants to be near me, just in case.

I'm so pleased to have her back safe, I can't tell you!

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