Friends

Capricon is coming up soon - Feb 11 - 14, 2010, and in only a couple of days the registration bumps from the incredibly good deal of $45 to the only slightly more painful $55.

And this is important because Mike and I will both be there, courtesy of the convention, since they've chosen me as the Fan Guest of Honor. Even better, they have Fred Pohl (!), Spider and Jeanne Robinson, Robert J. Sawyer and Lucy Synk as Guests. I'm reliably informed that GT will have a gathering room on Friday and Saturday.

I haven't been back to the Midwest very often since we moved waaaay out here to Vashon and I am very, VERY much looking forward to seeing folks there.

Well, so much for getting anything done on the first day of my vacation. :)

Actually, the problem was that I slept very badly last night, was up for about four hours in the middle of the night, and then -- by the good graces of daisy_knotwise! -- was able to crawl back into bed around 8 AM and sleep until nearly 1 PM. But that pretty much shot the day...

Tomorrow should be better.

The terrorist webmasphere is all abuzz about this glorious new explosive that will pass through airport security. The yutz who burned himself on the NW flight to Detroit had pentaerythritol tetranitrate (PETN) sewn into his underwear. PETN is a very nice explosive, one of the most powerful liquid explosive around. The problem is, this guy appears to have tried and simply light it. They stuff will burn, much like C4, but it requires a explosive slap to set it off, again like C4. And anything that will generate enough of a shock to set it off will appear on the scans.

Now this incident will push the TSA to install "puffers" at all the airports. I'd like to see them push the back scanner full body scanners, but everytime they push for them, some group gets pissy about people being able to see the outlines of their bodies.

I still feel we're destroying ourselves. If it keeps going like this, eventually it will be so complex or expensive to scan for every possible danger we will end up driving the airlines completely out of business and then where will we be?

Apparently a new anime con is starting up in Chicago and has chosen, through either ignorance or hostility, to be the same weekend as Windycon. It is hard to say which since their website does not provide any information about who is actually running it.

...on the movie stuff.  Mere is resigned to not seeing Sherlock Holmes, and hoped we could see it ourselves, and is probably going to go see Avatar in 3D early on New Year's Day.

Went cross-country skiing yesterday at the local nature center and for a nice long walk at Aman Park this morning. Snowing constantly since Sunday morning.

Just finished an excellent book called Forest Born, by Shannon Hale. Hale is shaping up to be another LeGuin. In Enna Burning, she described the moral issues surrounding the use of the atomic bomb. In this one, she describes the curse/gift of "people speaking," aka charisma combined with the extreme empathy of very sensitive people (especially those who were abused as toddlers). Looking forward to reading her graphic novel & adult fiction. On the other hand, I wasn't interested enough in Madeleine L'Engle's The Joys of Love, which she wrote for her granddaughters in 1940, to finish it.

Enjoyed visiting my sister & nephews on the 19th, and our best lesbian friends in Ypsi from the 18th-20th. Had fun at Trader Joe's & Whole Foods, & the tour of Zingerman's Creamery. Good goat cheese, batman! Also had a giggling good time visiting with my friend Jim on Saturday.

Ron went to work with me Thursday, after an opthamologist appointment, with the plan to do some photography at the park.  Unfortunately, it started raining about the time we got to the office.  But he did get a few pictures.

Ron got a Lensbaby Composer (http://lensbaby.com/lenses-composer.php) and optics set (http://lensbaby.com/optics.php) for Christmas, so the original plan was to go to Brookfield zoo and play.  We decided that we had no desire to go to the zoo in the cold and rain, though.  We did go to a friend's house and shared our bison standing rib with them. 

We did go to the zoo on Saturday, after a stop at the Oak Brook Calumet Photo for a good monopod.  We got some good pictures, but not as many as our previous trip when Whirrl the tiger was out playing.  Saturday her mother was out, and posing nicely, but not as active.  Then we got home and found a check from relatives, so yesterday was yet another trip to Calumet, so Ron could get the super-wide-angle converter for the Lensbaby.  Yeah, it's been a Lensbaby Christmas for Ron.  He's out tromping around the park in his new waffle-stomper Yooper sneakers at the moment. 

Besides the pot rack that Ron and Robin put up last weekend, I got a couple good kitchen knives, and some other small goodies.  Robin got his kayak, accessories, and some miniatures.  I believe he's spending his break painting. 

Steve and Dorotha dropped by for dinner tonight and a good time was had by all. I'm tempted to say especially by Katie and Julie, who thought that Mr. Steve was a lot of fun.

There were survivors. :)

Book 26 - Flesh Circus by Lilith Saintcrow (it's not what it sounds). This is the fourth in the the Jill Kissmet series. Good - not as good as the last two, but still pretty dark and enjoyable, and I do like Saintcrow's writing.

Movie 22 - Avatar. daddy_guido was kind enough to make sure that I didn't have to sit through this one alone. The story was straightforward and pretty predictable, but I'm good with that. The effects were AMAZING. I would say that if you can't see it in the theater, I don't know that it's worth renting - not because it's not worth seeing, but because seeing in the theater really makes this one. For all those theater owners and film studios are worried that people don't want to go out to the movies? This will make people want to go, for sure.

I was hoping to get through movie 23 tonight, but I had to stop half way through District 9 for a couple of reasons. And for one of those same reasons I won't be able to see Sherlock Holmes tomorrow morning like I'd planned, either. I'm sure I'll find a way to get the rest of the movies in this week, though.

Katie and Julie seem quite happy with their Christmas gifts. Julie loves her Elmo scooter and stuffed Elmo doll. Katie loved her Curious George outfit, her Curious George movie, and her new (really cheap!) telescope. And both girls love their new magnetic drawing slates, which are a sort of Etch-a-Sketch in reverse with a stylus that draws on the screen and a bar that you slide across to erase them.

daisy_knotwise and I liked our presents too. :)

Today, we went out and I picked up gift wrap and bows from the after-Christmas sales. Before dinner, we made my Mom's chocolate pie which later became dessert. The successful field test means that we'll deploy it again when catalana comes up to visit in January.

And dinner was sandwiches of leftover roast beef from yesterday, chips, and salads.

Burp! :)

It must be the end of the year, I'm starting in on the final archiving of the 2009 photos. It looks like 7668 photos, and 55GB (aka 51.5GiB). Still some parity archives to generate, sigh.

Mere, who recently saw YOUNG SHERLOCK HOLMES and really dug it, has really wanted to see the new SHERLOCK HOLMES movie with Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law.  Everyone else in the house wants to see it, but we’re not sure as to whether it’s really appropriate for the little mystery junkie.

Same situation with AVATAR in regard to not-sure-if-appropriate-but-everyone-wants-to-see-it.

Post your thoughts, ESPECIALLY if you saw either of the movies, as to whether you thing either one would be something she could deal with.