Whatta Fiasco

I’m just more and more impressed by Neal Asher’s science fiction. Portraying a war that takes place via time travel across millions of years and probability shifts is not a small task. He completes it admirably and entertainingly with bonus dinosaurs and Roman soldiers along the way. Not all of it succeeds equally well (Henry VIII’s cameo felt a little forced and under used) but as a whole the work stands well.

[amazon]

The sickness part of the past week seems to be receding, if slower than we would like. By dint of either taking care of myself or luck, I haven’t (knock wood) come down with whatever bug has been making the rounds. For this, among other things, I am truly grateful.

Friday night I drove back into town to enjoy a surprise birthday party for one of our fencers. I played some ping pong (both right-handed and left-handed to nearly equal effect) and chatted with someone who works at the Folger’s factory next to my office. It turns out that they do still process French roast, but only in much smaller batches these days. seven thousand pounds at a time instead of seven hundred thousand. Just the thought of that many coffee beans boggles my brain.

Saturday morning was spent being relatively lazy, with a trip out to the farm late in the afternoon to make chicken and dumplings, get some more baby and toddler time, and even some adult conversation. Saturday night, extending into early Sunday morning was a mess of dealing with a sick server. Unplugging the box and reseating everything made some noticeable improvement, but diagnostics and hardware shopping continue.

And Sunday was a trip to visit my parents. More conversation, some software configuration issues, pet the ponies, get my shoelaces nibbled on by the goats, and a nice turkey dinner. The only stress of the day involved driving back through the tail end of high winds and rain that spawned a tornado or to closer in to Kansas City, but long before we got there.

It was an ever so exciting Thanksgiving day at Chez Fiasco. When I got up on Thursday morning I found a hubby propped up on the couch only half asleep and plenty feverish. Pretty much where I’d left him the night before, only not looking as healthy. So we canceled the plans to drive down south to spend the afternoon with friends old and new. Instead we stayed inside and bundled up to stay warm. The cat was thrilled to have people to sleep on. I didn’t feel bad but not spot on either. I kept wandering down to lay on the bed and read, only to fall asleep for another hour long nap. By evening, after cooking a jolly holiday dinner of hole wheat pasta in marinara sauce (hooray for having at least that much in the house!) I was distinctly feeling the start of a fever. And in spite of the multiple naps, I had no trouble at all in getting to sleep early.

I’m still feeling a tiny bit dodgy today, but it was off to work for a half day anyhow. We’re facing a decision point on a delivery deadline early next week so I had a lot to get done. And then I get to relax for a little while longer. You know, the day goes amazingly fast when they close the office at noon.

This is the third book in a loose series, preceded by Iron Sunrise and Singularity Sky. This book stands even more on its own than the previous one. It’s an ambitious story line, covering vast reaches of time, crossing generations, and spanning a tangle of virtual and alternate spaces. Maybe a little too ambitious. Almost as son as I was invested in finding out what happened to a character, the story went jumping someplace else. Frustrating. And yet, the end tied the plot lines up more neatly than I had ever expected. So I have some reservations, but it’s worth a read, particularly if you enjoyed the first two.

[amazon]

It’s going to be a short week because of the holiday. No Friday or Saturday practice. We had a moderate turn out on Monday night. We were missing A. because he didn’t get home from the Wisconsin Turkey Meet until three-thirty in the morning and he was pretty tired. On the other hand, he also took third in both foil and epee, earning his C2005 in epee. Heartland circuit has turned into quite the little ratings generator. Anyhow, we had a decent number show up and got plenty of epee fencing in. Maestro focused his attention on giving a couple of very tough lessons so I got to focus on figuring things out for myself.

I was all set to get some more work done on Wednesday night, but when I drove up to the school, there were no lights on in the building except for the entrance way, and some folks were standing around outside the door. Oops. Looks like it was a day off for the school. Darn. So we got hold of everyone we could think of who might show (I hope we didn’t miss anyone!) to let them know not to bother driving over. Back to regular practice next week.

This was our second experience with the IMAX screen at the local metroplex. Is it better than the regular screen? I don’t know. I still haven’t seen the same movie in both formats. I don’t think this will be the one we try it with either. Not that it’s a bad movie. I enjoyed it quite a bit. But there’s one heck of a lot they try to pack into a film that people can sit through without an intermission. There are plenty of memorable moments but there are weak spots along the way that keep me from loving the whole package. Michael Gambon as Dumbledore is particularly not quite on.

For something a little different, check out this Korean GOF poster.

Warning: Stephen Chow silliness ahead, including execrable nose hairs. One the other hand, you get a nicely done spoof of the James Bond credits and a delightfully campy bit of female cross dressing. It’s not high art, but it’s fun. And where else are you going to find a Chinese costume drama with an alien in it?

Have you ever let contact with a distant friend lapse for longer than you intended? Have you ever had that happen hen you knew, without any evidence to back the feeling, that things were not going well? And no matter how much you would want to help, there wasn’t going to be anything useful you could do, other than just be there, far away? So, maybe that hasn’t happened to you. Maybe it’s just me.

For various reasons I got in touch with this particular friend for the first time since June. And not only was it as bad as I had feared, but even worse. And more worse even than that, because this particular friend doesn’t do life by halves. Or perhaps life doesn’t treat my friend by halves. No, I’m not even going to provide a pseudonym on this one nor any unhappy details. It’s just not my story to tell. I am very glad to find that my friend is dealing well with a completely crappy situation. A lot of my friends would have gone completely wigged under these circumstances, but this person has much more resilience and sense than most people would credit. The bad news is that things are likely to get even worse before they get better. I’m just glad we’re in touch again. I still can’t do much to help, but at least I can listen to the minor ranting without getting in the way.

In better news, I had a lovely lazy weekend. I slept in two days in a row. I got to bed before midnight. I read. I watched movies. I spent some quality time with Baby G. and Ms. K. And I did precious little else all weekend. And tomorrow hubby gets home. Happiness.

Four tournaments, six events, in six weeks means no sleeveless tops for me for another week or so. I have bruises all up and down my left arm, and more. But it’s been some good fencing. I’ve enjoyed it and it’s what I need.

Monday night we were back to regular practice again, although we still have one club member at the NAC. I got to listen in on a discussion about how a straight attack should be met with an angular counter and vice versa. Straight versus straight or angular versus angular tends to result in double touches. Then there was another discussion about the geometry of fencing. Foil was described as a point attack defended by a line. Saber is a line attack defended by a plane. Epee is a series of cones.

Then I got a brief description of how to properly do the six-seven bind I’ve been using. I’ve been doing a much looser version of what ought to be an expulsion hen properly tightened up. That’s something I’ll want to spend a little time on over the next few weeks. But more importantly, I spent some time on Monday night working on a syncopated attack, and on forcing myself to lunge, just to get used to doing it in a bout. I was very happy with Monday night’s fencing.

Wednesday night’s fencing was marred by very stiff knees and fatigue. Usually when I get to fencing feeling stiff, I do a slow warm up and things are fine once I get going. Wednesday night I never did get completely loosened up. The fatigue might have been a factor there. D. also did a thorough job of picking off my wrist, over and over. I’m thinking it’s a good time to ask my opponents to concentrate on hitting my wrist so I can get more practice defending against it.

But on Friday night I didn’t get to work on anything specifically from earlier in the week. I had been walking around like an old woman in pain all day and wondering if I’d be able to move at fencing. e only had three epeeists, and then maestro kept setting us up in situations to work. The score is such-and-such and you have this many seconds left in the period. How do you fence? What do you do? I managed to get in a two short steps and then a (short) lunge touch that I was very very happy with. Then maestro wants me to do a prepared action (provocation) followed by the tiniest of hesitations and then accelerating attack. Oy. It is so hard for me to pull something like that off on command. Oddly enough, I did manage to pull off exactly what he’d asked for… but only in the last ten minutes of practice, after he had left for the evening. But I did it. Yay me.

And given how sore I was starting the day on Friday and how hard I worked Friday night, I think I’m going to give myself a chance to sleep in a bit on Saturday morning instead of going to practice. I also need to remember to send out an email this weekend reminding folks that we won’t have practice on Friday or Saturday of next week because of the holiday.

It’s still too cold, even though inter is just barely settling in. It’ll barely get below freezing tonight, but I’m cold. But I’m in a good mood. My new fountain pen ink showed up in the mail yesterday. I had left over saag paneer for lunch today. I had sushi for dinner with Ms. K and Baby G and parents. Eating sushi one-handed is just fine with a sleepy baby on your shoulder. When I got home, the practically full moon was shining out through a lumpy sheet of clouds, leaving an extra halo of moonlight surrounding it as the clouds scuttled by. And once I give the cat her insulin shot. I think I’ll go curl up in bed and read before getting to sleep early. Life is good.