After a major storm passed, I looked up to see the ISS and the space shuttle, sailing quietly overhead.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I had some very good shrimp tacos for dinner tonight.

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David Drake has released a new issue of his newsletter, outlining various projects. Possibly the most interesting item for me is... more...

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New Dog is settling into her territory and starting to bark; unfortunately she also seems to bark at her reflection in the window.

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I'm reading a very interesting book right now, one that wasn't on my reading list until yesterday.

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'You danced?' cried Jack, far more astonished than if Stephen had said 'as we ate our cold roast baby'.

'Certainty I danced. Why would I not dance, pray?'

'Certainty you are to dance most uncommon graceful, I am sure. I only wondered. But did you indeed go about dancing?'

'I did. You have not travelled in Catalonia, sir, I believe?'

'Not I.' more...

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The problem of new dog vs. old dog is that new dog is full of energy when she comes in from her walk in the morning; all old dog wants to do is take a nap!

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He had an ordinary face. He seemed an ordinary person. As ordinary as many others who stepped in during the end game. You see many people like this during a disaster; people who step up to lend a hand, without being asked, without being paid, even without being thanked. more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:09 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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And the news flashes Earthwards...it appears the toilet is working again on the International Space Station!

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Not only will nobody admit to spilling chocolate on the stove, but the stain won't come off either.

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I forgot to write a sentence yesterday.

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The last time he really truly saw her was the day of graduation from college. And even then you could not really say he saw her well. Her mother was there, and her stepfather, and her mother did not care for her much. As did his parents; they thought he was wasting time with her. more...

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A Falcon IX test of all five engines!

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I would like to write a novel, but I don't know where to start.

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...will be one of these! What else can I add to my "basket"? more...

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John Ringo: A Hymn Before Battle (Baen Books, 2001, ISBN 978-1-4165-3321-4; cover by Patrick Turner).

I had read this volume once previously, but picked it up again as I'm trying (desperately!) to catch up on the various series that I keep accumulating. Alas, with somebody like John Ringo (as with several other authors from Baen Books) this is proving difficult...since many churn these puppies out faster than I can consume them. Someday, someday... more...

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Harlan Ellison and Isaac Asimov: I, Robot: The Illustrated Screenplay (Warner Books; 1994; ISBN 0-446-67062-6; illustrated by Mark Zug).

Inspired by this podcast mentioned by the folks at SF Signal, I hauled this book down for another read. I had read it once before, enjoyed the two introductions (one by Asimov, one by Ellison) immensely, but had kind of been left cold by the rest...I found the form (a screenplay) hard to handle.

This time around, I must have been in the right mindset. Because I found this to be the greatest science fiction movie never made. more...

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Another month, another Ansible!

Ah, the wonder of it all...

Moshe Feder listens in: 'I heard an interview on our local public radio station's "Leonard Lopate" talk show with a guy named Toby Barlow who's written a new novel about werewolves in LA, called Sharp Teeth. [...] I was immediately wondering how the heck Harper's publicist managed to book him with Lopate, who usually interviews authors of literary fiction and serious nonfiction. Then Leonard comes on and starts saying that the guy has written a novel "unlike anything we've seen before" and I'm practically sputtering at the radio that there are dozens of novels about werewolves around these days. I'm assuming, of course, that it's another case of mainstream media being ignorant of SF and fantasy, as when all the reviewers praised The Truman Show for its "original" concept. But then he adds the kicker: the novel is written in free verse; it's an epic poem. At that point, all I could do was shut up, listen, and crank my jaw back into position.'

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John's Reading Report (May 200

Over the past month I have finished:

The Martian General's Daughter, Theodore Judson

All Tomorrow's Parties, William Gibson

Oath of Fealty, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

In progress:

Pattern Recognition, William Gibson

Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Douglas R. Hofstadter.

Consciousness Explained, Daniel C. Dennett.

On deck:

Extraordinary Relationships, Roberta Gilbert.

Suite Francaise, Irene Nemerovsky.

Soul Made Flesh: The Discovery of the Brain--and How it Changed the World, Carl Zimmer.

Spook Country, William Gibson.

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Fred's Reading Report (May 200

Book count for the year? 28 books.

Short story count for the year? 255 short stories (goal for the end of the month was to get to 152).

While the numbers look good, I still feel like I'm reading a lot less these days. Maybe it is time to unsubscribe from a few internet timesinks!

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