Six Firefly Haiku
firefly
forgotten
as a new one appears
Ah lightning
when you were a firefly
& I was a boy!
wishing
to see all of you,
firefly
closed carnival
only fireflies
still flashing
leaving the fireworks
I enter the silence
of fireflies
firefly
never quite
going out
Haiku by Carl Patrick, Vincent Tripi, Donna Fleischer, John J. Dunphy, William Cullen Jr., Carl Patrick. From Lanterns: A Firefly Anthology, edited by Stanford M. Forrester: Bottle Rockets Press, Windsor, Connecticut, 2007.
Photo by Tsuneaki Hiramatsu, from Smithsonian magazine.
Happy July, everybody!
I wonder if there are fireflies in Athens? It’s not quite green enough for them right where I live, but maybe in the parks?
I’m sure there are loads of them in Athens, Georgia, right now, but I haven’t a clue about Athens-where-you-are.
Is the new “highlights” bar on the main page that cycles through the last five posts intentional? I don’t feel strongly about it either way but think it might be fruit of an accidental upgrade?
Your “accidental upgrade” theory is correct. I’d switch off the Highlights feature, but there’s no obvious setting for doing that. I might have to change the code.
If “Bonjour tout le monde” is a common French greeting that literally means “Hello, whole world” and “Hello world!” is a phrase commonly used to test that a computer program works, does this mean all computers are French?
Only if they weigh the same as a duck.
Things I did say:
– Maybe my family should go to the local Fourth of July street fair tomorrow
– Actually, since my dad pointed out that a guy me, Tangerine, and Hibiscus were in a teen cover band with in 2012 will be playing there with his new band and we can have a reunion and see how great things could have been for us, we probably shouldn’t go because my dad will talk about the band all day and ruin everything
– He can hit us, we can all cry, it will be just like old times
Things I did not say:
– When we were in the band my dad “beat us constantly for no reason”
– Every time I remember being in the band it gets worse
Things I wish I had said:
– He hit Tangerine at least twice during that year, and still stands by his decision and sees no problem with making then-13-year-olds live in fear of physical pain if they caused trouble
– It’s kind of creepy and pathetic that he still keeps up with local teen bands on social media and updates us on their successes several years after we had any interest in playing again
Erm… Am I the only one reading this and thinking “holy cakehead”? I’m sorry for what you had to go through.
Happy Fourth of July!
Happy Amerexit! (too soon? almost certainly.)
Does anybody know of any good urban fantasy set in non-western (for lack of a better term) cities? Or any recommendations for African/Asian/Caribbean/South American SF/F generally? (I’m mostly interested in F.)
“The Ear, The Eye, and the Arm” is youth SF set in future Zimbabwe.
Ooh, I liked that book a lot.
Same. I remember that being a good book.
I enjoyed it as well!
ZNZ,
On Goodreads I found an interesting (though typically rambling) discussion of Caribbean science fiction:
www . goodreads . com/topic/show/981715-caribbean-science-fiction . Fantasy may be rarer, but Karen Lord’s Redemption in Indigo sounds as if it could be the sort of thing you’re looking for.
In John Brunner’s SF novel Stand on Zanzibar, much of the action takes place in fictional countries in Africa and East Asia. It’s a dystopian classic, but it’s almost 50 years old; I’m not sure how well it holds up today.
Is that the one whose page on The Cliche-Cataloging Black Hole Website starts off with “It’s the 2010s and the world population has just reached seven billion…”, goes on to list a lot of other things that sound like reality, and then says “Oh yeah, did we mention that this book was written in the 60s?”
*looks up*
Holy cake, yes it is.
That’s true: a lot of it isn’t science fiction anymore. Reading it early on helped me keep ahead of unfolding events.
I’ve read Nalo Hopkinson’s Midnight Robber and thought it was good. Haven’t picked up any of her other stuff.
Nnedi Okorafor! Seconding Robert’s recommendation of Nalo Hopkinson. Monica Byrne ‘s Girl in the Road is more science fiction. I’ll let you know if I have more ideas!
So, Juno has reached Jupiter and (more important) stayed there! Pictures coming eventually. Meanwhile, elated scientists!
Hurray!
I haz a new computer! It’s a bit weird, since everything looks different now. The last “new” one I got was in 2010. But the first website I pulled up was still MB, so cheers to that!
MB is always the first website I visit on new devices too.
Maybe I should change the tagline to “Hello, world!”
Or “Bonjour tout le monde†?
So judging by Facebook
stalkingsocial investigation, they actually still give out those huge I-won-the-lottery format diplomas for BScs too? Apparently, that’s what that weird grad ceremony is for. I bailed because a) it seemed boring, soulless impersonal b) it wouldn’t be my dean handing them out c) I wouldn’t know anyone there d) it costed extra money. Huh. Oh well, guess I have to get a grad degree. That one better have a shiny gold stamp though…My undergraduate diploma from Swarthmore exemplified Quaker plainness. It was drabber than a gift certificate and so small that I could have used it as a bookmark.
My father’s Naval Academy diploma, by contrast, was huge and gaudy. It had everything: a gold seal, hard-to-parse Gothic lettering, engraved pictures of ships and anchors and sea monsters and Neptune with his trident-scepter and a retinue of mermaids — the works. It hung on the wall of our den wherever we lived, and I spent a long time starting at it as a child. That was a document you wanted to show off.
To be completely honest, my first though upon seeing a picture of the large-format diploma on *social media* was: “Wow, you sure could clobber someone with that.” Not very shiny though…
The description of the Naval Academy alone makes me want to enrol! Muse Academy better give out Kokopelli statues or something.
My grandmother’s doctorate is also pretty plain, but fascinates me because of the script. It’s in latin, typed and also intended for the wrong gender- apparently, there were too few women graduating with that degree at the time to merit their own form. So whoever filled out the diploma crossed out the endings and corrected them in immaculate script in thick black ink. The penmanship is so precise I have no idea how they pulled it off. Unless they were part-inkbender.
My dad’s has always hung in the room that was his study at my grandparent’s house. It’s still there. The study served as our bedroom on childhood visits to Grandma, so that diploma was one of the last things I’d see before going to sleep. It seemed like something out of an old fairy tale book.
Here’s a picture of another 1940s Naval Academy diploma that I found online. Trippy, no? Angel, eagles, anchors, seahorses, two sea dragons…
My Grandpa’s certificate from when he first crossed the equator in the Navy during WWII hangs on the wall of our kitchen. I think it might be the same style as this one:
I’d love to keep it for my house someday.
[Source: https :// upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d4/Shellback_Certificate_for_Robert_C_Fay_aboard_USS_Diphda_(AKA-59)_on_28_August_1945 . jpg]
One of my life goals is to visit the place off the coast of Africa where the Equator meets the Prime Meridian, which would make me an Emerald Shellback.
I have a friend who is worrying me because her parents always tell her what to do. They always tell her that she can’t pursue the things she loves doing so that she can have a “proper career”. She gets stressed out and upset because she feels like she has to listen to her parents. I just don’t know what to do. I feel like her parents are maybe putting too much pressure on her, and I really wish she could do the things she loves to do. But I just don’t know how to convince her.
Maybe convincing her isn’t the best way forward right now. Sooner or later, your friend will grow up and be able to make choices about things like *a proper career* on her own. Until then, what about supporting her in doing the things she loves as hobbies/extracurricular activities and/or finding a part time/summer job to save some money for whatever the future brings?
There’s not a lot of convincing to be done- parents can be pretty set in their ways. But your friend will have lots of opportunities throughout her life to practice the activities she loves, and for now all you can do is to make sure she knows that you support her, no matter what her endeavors.
I got a gig! My first official one! One of the people who has a little stand next to me at the Farmer’s Market asked me to play at an art gallery he has! Granted, the art is just made by kids from a summer camp that he was running for the past two weeks, and all the visitors will just be parents, but I’m getting paid!
Congratulations! That’s great!
Yesterday, our dig group had an argument about the pronunciation of several words, including “apricot”. I realized that orangutans are the real ape-ricots, being apes with fur the color of apricots.
What makes the Hottentot so hot?
What puts the “ape” in “apricot”?
What have they got that I ain’t got?
My Midwestern friend Buck also respected my pronunciation with a joke of his own that an app giving you information about where to buy apricots would be a real app-ricot.
Yesterday, I realized that I was an American sitting in an Irish pub in Greece, talking with a Greek waitress about a book about an Italian and an Austrian climbing a mountain in Argentina, while the Tour de France was playing in the background.
Hey, this is something of a chance coincidence, but I’m currently in Athens, Greece as well! I don’t know your availability and don’t want to make any pressure, but let me know if you’d be interested in some sort of spontaneous Greco-kokonvention!
How long are you going to be in Greece?
Just until the 16th, at which point I’m headed to Italy.
Maybe our group can do something with you on Saturday or on Friday night.
Okay! Just if it can work for you. No worries if it doesn’t.
How would tomorrow evening at the Acropolis Museum sound? I don know if you’ve been yet, but you haven’t been with archaeologists!
What luck! That’s the one major museum I haven’t been to yet. I would love that.
Now we just need to work out timing and identifying each other. When will you be able to?
Our dig ends at 2, but we’ll want to shower and rest afterwards. Maybe 5 or 6? My friend Nicky and I can meet you in the lobby.
I’ll plan to be there somewhere around 5:30! The picture of me a couple posts ago on here would be good but for the unfortunate presence of a travel beard. Other than that, blue shirt and green shorts. I’ll also be sure to check on here again before I head that way for the possibility of any updates.
So who’s playing Pokemon Go? Or who isn’t playing Pokemon Go? I was walking around Boise all day today and there were Pokemon trainers absolutely everywhere. Go Team Mystic!
Yay Team Mystic!
Last night, I was in [boyfriend’s city] with my boyfriend, his sister, and his cousin all hunting for Pokemon together. The cousin had a Lure, so we put it on a Pokestop at the neighborhood park. We wandered away looking for other Pokemon before the Lure’s time was up, and when we came back that way, there were no fewer than 10 other Pokemon Go players in this relatively small park, telling each other where to find the Arbok and the Eevee and joking about throwing Pokeballs at one another’s dogs.
I got off the bus in my college town this evening, and there were four Lures and 30-40 people playing Pokemon Go on the block right in front of City Hall. I swear the less tech-savvy older people in town must have thought the young people were mounting an insurrection, there were so many there.
Absolutely wonderful but surreal. I feel like I’ve been dropped into a YA science-fiction novel (e.g. Ready Player One) where suddenly the whole world is playing a virtual reality game, and it’s shaping the world in ways both amazing and disturbing, most of which we can’t foresee yet.
Amazing: The four of us young people at my boyfriend’s house could spend literally hours walking outside, having fun with one another despite the 10 year age range. We were meeting others and playing cooperatively. It’s already gotten us to find new areas to walk in and notice public artwork that we never would have otherwise.
Disturbing: Apparently the Holocaust Museum has become a major playing area. I’m all for attracting people to important public places, but there are some that should be treated with seriousness and reverance. On the same theme, one of my favorite quite spots on campus now has a gym in the middle of it, and I hope it doesn’t become overrun by disrespectful people all the time now.
Overall — I’m a big fan! Loving the reimagining of these social norms more than being disturbed by it, knowing that there are bound to be bumps along the way.
*quiet spots, not quite spots
SFTDP
Yeah, the algorithm that chooses gyms has chosen a couple of memorials as gyms around my area. Also, every single place of worship I’ve passed is a pokestop. The synagogues, mosques, temples, churches, and chapels- I haven’t passed a single one that isn’t marked as a pokestop. It’s interesting- I’d like to know more about how the algorithm works.
The Panathenaic Stadium is a gym, apparently, which is very appropriate. I do not think, however, that the gym leader is based on Pierre de Coubertin, which is a missed opportunity.
So many missed opportunities in the world! You should hire yourself out as a consultant, KaiYves.
I don’t think they necessarily tailor gyms to their real-world locations, although I can see why they might in the future to create more unique experiences.
I didn’t mean for this game in particular. Many other games could also benefit from having history-and-science consultants on their creative teams. Movies and TV shows, too. The first Harry Potter movie even had a chess consultant (although the filmmakers ignored most of his advice). If you’re going to have the ideas anyway, you might as well get paid for them.
(Hm, by that logic, I suppose I should moonlight as a guidance counselor.)
Not playing it- though the way everyone is talking about it, I’m starting to get interested. It would be a nice excuse to run around Vienna.
Mystic!! The other night my friends and I drove around to various locations to hunt Pokemon together. We encountered a fair number of other players, including in some random park at 2 in the morning. It’s a magical experience.
Also, my lolita community is now planning a Pokemon Go lolita meetup, though it may have to wait until the weather cools off.
I love it! I’m glad some of you all are team mystic because my friends are all team valor which is sad. I walked like ten kilometers today and went to several gyms. I walked downtown and all the landmarks were pokestops. There was a gym and a good twenty of us-I ran into some friends- were all sitting around trying to beat it. It’s so funny seeing people walk around who are all playing the same game as you! My dad asked me how the game worked so he could impress his coworkers! I’ve gotten so much exercise and this game is actually getting me out of the house. 10/10!
Go team Mystic!!! Although I haven’t gotten out to do much walking yet.
Are all MBers on Team Mystic? Well, we know which is going to achieve world domination!
I vote we branch out into the pizza business.
*ducks tomatoes*
Tomato pie! Highly splattable.
I’m playing on a shared account with Tangerine and Hibiscus on my mom’s phone! We’re Team Mystic but only because Tangerine picked a team without us. So far the game is really confusing with a ton of different Pokemon, objects, fighting moves, and currencies. It seems a lot more complicated than Ingress, which is strange because Ingress is the niche sci-fi game played mostly by nerdy twentysomethings and Pokemon is the cute child-friendly franchise easily picked up by eight-year-olds everywhere. I did catch a Mankey and name it Dexter though.
I don’t have a smartphone yet but I hopefully will sometime relatively soon, so when I do: probably Team Mystic?
Solar Impulse took off again, to cross the Mediterranean from Spain to Egypt. From Egypt, it will be a short hop back to Abu Dhabi to finish the circumnavigation.
The map on the website is being extremely unhelpful about loading, so I don’t know if they’ll be flying over Greece, but I will keep my eyes peeled.
They’ve keeping south of Crete, so there’s no chance for me to see the plane. Sigh.
They landed in Egypt! Woo! Next stop, Abu Dhabi and the history books!
They’re airborne and bound for Abu Dhabi! Good luck, guys!
Woo! They did it!!!
AAAS, where I work, has just posted this notice for an internship. I’m passing it on:
https://www.irecruit-us.com/index.php?OrgID=I20090201&pg=initiallist#job29
Science, the world’s largest-circulation journal of general scientific research, news, and commentary, has an opening for an intern to assist the Multimedia team. This full-time position runs for six months and is based at our headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C. The internship is expected to pay $16.00 to $18.00 an hour, depending on skills and qualifications.
Major duties and responsibilities:
Work with the Multimedia team of Science on video and audio projects connected with the content of the magazine and web video series
Specific tasks may include podcast production and editing, video production and editing, motion graphics, and post-production
Support staff writers, producers, and editors. Fill in as needed for absent staff
To see the kind of work we do, visit our Youtube channel and podcast page.
Minimum qualifications:
Extensive university or college level coursework leading to a Bachelor’s degree and/or Master’s degree.
Educational background in media or science
Hands-on experience in video and audio editing
Familiarity with YouTube and other social video channels
Basic office software skills
All applicants must submit a video reel/portfolio to be considered
If I still lived in the US, I would be all over that.
Well, as of today I am an adult, so that’s something.
Welcome aboard!
Happy birthday!!
Happy belated birthday!
Guess who’s running spotlight for an outdoor college production of Little Shop of Horrors? (It’s me.)
Apologies for neglecting MuseBlog recently. Lots of bits of wood need to be glued together, and people want me to glue them faster, while other people demand that I go and play at them, and – well, British things, don’t you know?
ANYWAY
My Facebook page has been rather delightful today, since I shared an aimless new pastime which popped up. The idea is to give yourself a Tory name. One that would be worthy of a crumbling member of the landed gentry. Here’s the process :
Take the first name from one of your Grandparents, then the name of the street you first lived on and hyphenate it with the name of your first headteacher.
Mine is
Ada Kingsley-Huffer.
You may refer to me in that fashion from now on, if the mood takes you.
Have fun!
Augustus Sigsbee-Dentz at your service.
It doesn’t quite sound the same with Italian names…
Dominica Woods-Depetris.
That’s more of an NPR reporter’s name.
I could also have used “Melika” as the first name, but that’s the “wrong sort” of Greek name for sounding posh.
Mary Hardwood-Guns
?
I thought this might cause amusement.
Caroline Yellowstone-Freedman. Erm.
I haven’t tracked down the first street on which I lived as a baby, so I’ll have to settle for toddler. That makes my Tory name (for now) Clifford Halidon-Wollitz. Or Virginia Halidon-Wollitz, to maintain the pattern of GAP-ic gender-bending.
Florence Chula Vista-Mackleroy sort of drives itself into a brick wall midway through.
Another fun one is your cop name, where you combine the first name of your worst childhood enemy with the thing that caused your earliest remembered injury. Lauren Fryingpan here!
Michael Mailbox. Hm. Not sure about that one.
A superhero name, perhaps?
I think I have the most depressing one yet.
Mother Mother.
*Or Lisa Mother, after rereading the conditions.
Ah, dude, I’m sorry. <3
At least you share a name with a good Canadian indie band?
Dorothy Epworth-Martineau.
I’ve also got a grandfather named Earle. I almost went with that, but I thought it was a little bit on-the-nose.
ZNZ’s Tory name is the Toriest one yet.
I always strive to be as Tory as possible.
…wow, I have to go ritually cleanse myself now.
I am now Clarence Newport-Harmon. I’m not sure how I feel about this.
Simon Remsen-Colner here. I’m intimidating myself!
Call me Judith Lakeshore-Mifflin.
(Side note: First MB post from my new laptop! Yay!)
Pies have become squids. Pies are redundant.
Can someone enlighten me?
I have been away too long.
Paul,
I’m not sure what you’re seeing. The blog doesn’t look that different from the last time you were here. Pies are pies, and squids are squids, and never the main shall tweet.
Oh, hang on. It’s the spacing. The number of pies on a post is printed a LONG way from the pie symbol, right next to the squid symbol. the number of squids is also a LONG way from the squid symbol. I thought it was a dismebodied number of uncertain function.
It’s doing it on Chrome and Edge, so it doesnt’ look like a browser thing.
Anyway, now I know what it is, I’ll stop fretting.
New plug-in. I’m working on it.
Sterling fellow!
I think I know how to fix it. In YoutubeLikeRating.css, try commenting out “width: 87px;” on line 30.
Aha! Thanks, Groundhog!
Success! A thousand thanks, Groundhog! Now to figure out how to get rid of that annoying “highlights” carousel on the front page.
Also of notice, I cannot seem to preview posts anymore. I hit the preview button and I can see my name, and my image, and the date and all that, but not the text I wrote.
Nope. Nor me. The gremlins are out tonight. If I get chance tomorrow, I shall investigate.
Meanwhile, nighty-night!
No, I know it isn’t. But it is in Kingswinford.
Good feelings: when you re-read a book you liked as a kid and it turns out to be even better than you remember. This post brought to you by my terrible sunburn from spending most of my afternoon in the sun with Dark Lord of Derkholm.
I love that too. I had especially happy times re-reading The Wolves of Willoughby Chase and The Phantom Tollbooth.
Now I must read Dark Lord of Derkholm.
I re-read The Phantom Tollbooth a few months ago. What a great book. (It was an annotated edition, too, and it had a lot of interesting extra info in it.)
Annotated Phantom Tollbooth sounds awesome!
Oh my gosh, annotated Phantom Tollbooth. I just suggested to both local library districts that they acquire this (we’ll see which one gets on it first…). I’ve been wanting to reread it over the summer anyways.
I just re-read Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce. The language was pretty simple, so it felt like a surprisingly young book. Still, I enjoyed it, and I can absolutely tell why it had such an impact on me when I was younger. Alanna is the greatest. Her friends are also the greatest. Also, a YA book where a prominent plot point is the protagonist getting her first period, at which point a mother-figure reassures her that it is perfectly normal and hints that someday she might find the idea of lying with a man enjoyable rather than gross? I appreciate how revolutionary that is (from 1983, no less!) so much more now that I’m older.
Ooh, Willoughby Chase is in my to-read pile! I’ve somehow never gotten round to it.
Derkholm is set in the same world as Year of the Griffin and The Tough Guide to Fantasyland, and I think probably the reason I never rated it very highly before is that it’s the weakest of the three, or at any rate the one least calculated to appeal to me. The Tough Guide is funnier, and Griffin is an academic fantasy which is a genre I’ve always loved. I read
Derkholm last and expected it to be more like the other two, so it disappointed me.
Thanks, ZNZ. The only book I’ve read by Diana Wynne Jones is Charmed Life, so I have a lot of good reading ahead of me
Charmed Life is one of my very favorites, and I’m always ready to talk about DWJ.
Me too!
I’d recommend starting with the other Chrestomanci books.
I felt the same about Gordon Korman’s “Everest” series when I re-read (the first book of) it last January.
Been in Hong Kong for a few days now. How did I ever live in this humidity?
In Elementary School, I liked the taste of Sunny Delight so much that I would add water to the bottle when I got to the last drops so that I could drink every last bit of it. I called the resulting mixture “flunk” for some reason. The other day, I was doing the same thing with peach juice (because the fruit juice here in Greece is seriously amazing, you guys), and something in my mind went “It’s peach flunk”, and I realized how useful a word it is to describe that situation. I think I will try to use it more.
What would happen if a flea were to be released into space? Would it become like a meteor or just go poof?
~Me, sitting with a flea-infested dog and imagining all the things I would love to do to the little dots from hell if I could.
This was actually a legitimate question for those who don’t know. Would anything special happen to fleas in space? Or would they just die like humans would?
I don’t think flea would be any better equipped to survive in space than humans would.
If you haven’t yet, you might see about taking your dog to the vet to obtain medication to kill the current fleas infesting her, as well as to obtain monthly preventative to keep her from getting re-infested. (And then see about what steps need to be taken to rid the fleas from the environment, ie, your house)
It COULD actually become a meteor. Most visible meteors are between the size of a sand grain and a small pebble. Your flea might actually be too small to see, but if wasn’t then you could watch the flea literally burning to death, with its miles-long trail visible across the entire state (or even a sizable fraction of the country). What does this mean? Obviously that SpaceX’s next launch should definitely include a box filled with viruses, bacteria, and parasites that have caused humans discomfort across the years – just for the satisfaction of watching it burn up in the atmosphere.
Is this a crowdfunding project? I will donate.
We could be able to pull an Oatmeal and get Elon Musk on board too (like Matthew Inman did with the Nicola Tesla museum). Or am I the only one here who reads The Oatmeal?
I haven’t caught up with it in a while, but yeah! Pretty neat what they’re doing with the Tesla Museum thing.
And I wonder when the world will be
Like that July afternoon
When we were one man
Walking on the moon?
Lizzie, if you happen to see this, any advice for avoiding a sore back from playing while sitting on less-than-comfortable chairs, seven hours a day? I always sit up straight if that’s relevant.
Shift your weight from time to time by crossing and sitting on different legs?
If you can bring in a chair pad, get one of those memory foam ones that have the cutout for your coccyx.
I tried some different things / ways of sitting today and it was much better (full rehearsal chairs are more comfortable than sectionals chairs so that helps). So all is well!
Selenium – Hey sorry I didn’t see this until now. If you can, ask for a chair that’s appropriate for your height – most chairs are too tall for me, so adding a pad actually makes things worse. If you can’t get an appropriate chair, if it’s too short try adding a pad or putting something under the legs, and if it’s too tall try putting something under your legs or wearing heels. You also want the seat of the chair to be either flat or sloping forward, so prop the legs accordingly.
Also, make sure that you’re moving like you would in quartet. A lot of the time in orchestra people tend to freeze and so you end up holding a lot of tension in your lower back – don’t be afraid to cue, move with the music, etc. Also, make sure that your’e supporting with your abs.
Thanks! The full rehearsal chairs are comfortable and we’re doing much fewer sectionals now (where the low / sloping backward chairs were) so it’s better. I naturally do a lot moving around and cueing anyway, especially since I’m leading the seconds, but I’ll make sure to be extra conscious.
Going to see Star Trek Beyond with my mom tonight! Pretty excited, but getting self conscious about the fact that I’m planning to wear my Starfleet uniform (my new one that is very very true to the original series, ie, short) and I’m worried everyone will be staring and that no one else will be in costume.
What if I see people there I know? Worse, what if I see clients. Would you take my veterinary advice seriously after seeing me in public in a Starfleet uniform microminiskirt?
I was by far the best dressed. A couple girls in new universe starfleet uniforms (the cheap, flimsy halloween costume material uniforms that they sell online), a few guys w/ similar uniforms going to a different showing, and when we left a couple was coming to a later showing in TNG uniforms. One middle aged, scruffy guy sort of leered at me as we were leaving, but very few odd looks all things considered, and i actually felt overall quite comfortable despite the shortness of the uniform.
The movie…Well. I’m not sure. I didn’t love it. Whereas STID which is the first one I saw, I fell in instant love with Star Trek, then saw 2009 and it was even better, and then watched TOS and it was love all over, and well you guys know the rest. This one….I just don’t know. Things felt off. Characterization seemed off. Everything was so dark, you couldn’t see the actors’ faces in over half the scenes. Way too much action. It was like Fast and Furious meets Star Trek (which given who the director is was exactly what I feared…and disclaimer I’ve only seen one F&F movie and I rather thought it sucked but was ok for what it was a straight up action no physics applied flick) which is not what Star Trek is suppose to be. I’m a bit surprised by how good of reviews it’s getting.
Luna,
Of course you were the best dressed, and of course you worried about it beforehand. All perfectly in character!
So, big news here in GAPA-land: I’m retiring! This is my last day on the job as a news editor at Science. Henceforth, I’ll be able to stay at home reading books, communing with cats, and hatching new stealth world-betterment projects for the Illumiminati.
This has been in the works for several months. I haven’t mentioned it on the blog, because it doesn’t affect anything here. But it does mean that future Kokonventions in Washington, D.C., will no longer take place in my sunny corner office (now awash in dinosaur balloons from yesterday’s farewell party).
Congratulations on beginning this new chapter!
Thanks, Selenium! I expect and intend to be busier than ever.
Good luck, sir! I’m ashamed I can’t think of anything more intelligent to say, but good luck!
Oh man!!! Congrats!! The only downside is now I don’t sound quite so impressive for knowing a former news editor at science
I guess now you’ll be full-time world-domination coordinator instead now!
And what a good exciting week to send off on, with the lichen news!
Congratulations and good luck!!
Congratulations! I can’t wait to hear about books, cats, and world-betterment projects alike.
Oh my gosh, Robert, do you happen to know a Fred Leichter from your Swarthmore days? I was Googling you to see if anyone had written about your retirement and realized you graduated in math in ’79 and he graduated in math in ’80. He’s my new boss.
Congratulations! May the road rise to meet you &ct.
Look out, Koko! Now that Robert’s got time to spare, you’ve got serious competition. (Unless his cats hypnotize him. Or HPBs…)
Congratulations, Robert!!
It’s a bit late, but – congratulations, old fruit! I hope you enjoy your inevitable descent into idleness, decadence and vice.
Actually – now you have time to build the cyclotron. I think Ebeth has been waiting for that to further her world domination sheme.
I hate guilt-tripping e-mails that say things like “Will you sign our petition? [Button] Yes, I care about elephants [Button] No, I want elephants to go extinct”. Really, who in good concience is going to click that they want elephants to go extinct?
I especially hate the guilt-tripping social media posts that tell you you’re a heartless monster if you don’t give the post positive reception.
I didn’t know that this one post was the gateway between heaven and hell that would determine my character and decide if I was a worthy human being.
Ah, the good old JPEG-encrusted “Share this post if you’re a decent human being, ignore if you’re a soulless monster who’s going to hell”.
I remember when my friends and I all first got email addresses and we’d email each other long chain emails. They’d been forwarded so many times you had to scroll a mile down to see the actual message, and then it was all “If you don’t send this to everyone in your contacts list, your worst nightmares will come true, but if you do, your crush will ask you out!!”
Oh Koko, chain letters, I hate them. People use words like this a lot to exaggerate on the Internet, but I am not exaggerating when I say that when I was 12, I was emotionally scarred by a website that told me I was going to be cursed and a ghost girl was going to come kill me if I didn’t share it. (Because of course I didn’t, I just freaked out and closed the page and ran away.)
Cake creepy chain letters and cake anyone who creates them.
Ugh, right? There are lots of emotional responses that can spark meaningful activism, but I doubt that guilt is one of them.
So, the next America’s Cup World Series event is kicking off in Portsmouth tonight, and it will probably be easier to watch in Greece than Chicago was because the time difference won’t be as bad. (Assuming I can find WiFi.) I still like all of the teams but have a soft spot for Team Japan, but given how crazy some things happening in the UK have been, I hope that Ben Ainslie’s team does well this weekend so that people can at least be happy to see their home team perform well on their home waters, just like everybody in Boston was so happy about winning the (baseball) World Series in 2013.
Well, they’re in the lead after today, although technically tied with Team France. And USA and Japan are tied for second. Sorry Sweden and New Zealand.
The final podium was UK first, then US, then Japan. Definitely something for the people of Portsmouth to be proud of, and further proof that Team Japan are neophytes no longer! And Teams UK and USA are also now in those positions in the overall series, unseating New Zealand from the lead they’d had all year. Who knows what’ll happen in Toulon in September?
So I made my first professional poetry submission this week! I know it’s not really big news unless I get accepted, which I probably won’t, but I’m really proud of myself anyway for ~putting myself out there~, and I have plans for the next piece(s) I’m going to send away.
Congratulations on that big step!
Is it normal to have a celebrity crush for over four years, or am I just going crazy?
If “normal” and “crazy” really are the only options, I vote “crazyish but mostly harmless.”
I’ve only ever had one celebrity crush, and it’s still going strong after five years. So…
Well, chances are they haven’t changed significantly in four years, and your tastes haven’t changed much either in that time, so it seems fairly reasonable to me.
I haven’t really had any celebrity crushes, but the pool of ‘celebrities I find super-duper hot/attractive’ has been fairly consistent over the years. The only thing that has changed for me is age- at fourteen, 25 year-olds who looked their age seemed ancient to me, and now those ‘hot’ fourteen year-olds look like cute kids at best.
Oh. Oh wow. I hadn’t realized the actor who played Admiral Marcus on Into Darkness had been on Star Trek before. Just started the 3rd to last episode of Enterprise (Demons), and I was thinking woah, that guy looks a LOT like Admiral Marcus, like really a lot, like maybe he’s the same guy except that’s unlikely but let’s look…OMG it IS. Yeah. That’s gonna give me new appreciation the next time I watch STID
In other semi related new, Karl Urban has cancelled his appearance at Star Trek’s 50th anniversary convention. Which has left me quite disappointed. I was absolutely elated 2 weeks ago when he was announced as attending (and wasted no time at all in jumping on a photo op ticket)…..and now some genius has decided to move up the filming date of his next movie, and so he has cancelled. So now I’m sad.
But hey Star Trek 50th convention next week. If the 115 degree heat doesn’t kill me, it’s gonna be a blast. (But seriously. The forecast temperatures are terrifying).
Just finished Enterprise….and while it took me months (and I mean many, many months, of not watching any Trek) to get through season 3, I have powered through season 4 in just under a week. And have to say it’s a shame it took until 4th season for it to hit its stride, because aside from not being keen on the sheer number of 3 parters, season 4 as a whole was quite good (at least in comparison to the previous 3 seasons), and quite enjoyable for Trek as a whole.
And then the last multi part episode, Demons and Terra Prime…Holy cake. When did Enterprise become so sad and depressing and dark, and Terra Prime left me heartbroken and sobbing. And then I stupidly, w/ great trepidation given the dark rumors I’d heard about These are The Voyages being absolutely awful (and Terra Prime being the real finale), watched These are the Voyages. Which was a terrible mistake, and makes me want to rip the throats out of the imbeciles responsible for its creation, because it was an appalling way to end the series, and if anyone plans to watch Enterprise who hasn’t? For the love of your sanity, don’t watch the last episode. Just don’t. Stop after Terra Prime, completing the series is not worth it.
It also leaves a bitter taste in my mouth about a couple characters (if you’ve seen it, you’ll know who i mean, if you haven’t….spoilers).
But ugh. Makes me want to go revise my ranked list of autographs and knock those two lower down…..Nostalgia had increased my regard and then the episode cut it off at the knees…..
Anyway. I need sleep.
That’s how I feel about the Serenity movie.
I didn’t think it was terrible, but it felt like plot developments that should’ve been elaborated over the course of a couple of seasons rather than a 2-hour movie. Which might have been unavoidable, but eh.
One thing I like about being in Greece is that I don’t have to hear about the US election everywhere. I hear enough, but it’s not on every single front page like at home.
I’m sure you already have more than enough information to vote intelligently.
Yes, and I think there should be some kind of rule preventing campaigning before a certain date. Maybe New Years Day of the year before the election? I just feel like it’s been nonstop ads and articles since the last one ended.
Do any MBers have experience with henna? I’m thinking of buying some to
shamelessly doodle on myselfgive myself some temporary tattoos.Jadestone and Choklit Orange have discoursed on henna in the past, as has the occasionally encountered Fantasy Fan.