Opposable Thumbs

So, just a quick update to let everyone know why I've disappeared and have been unable to find even a few spare seconds to update the blog. I've been just a wee bit busy.

Last month I attended OSCON and helped put on FOSCON II. Both of which were awesome and exhausting. I met a lot of great people and learned about some interesting things. Hopefully I'll find time to dig in a bit deeper on some of it.

Since then I've been working on two new projects. The first has been tech reviewing a new book for O'Reilly that's coming out later this year. More on that later.

But the most important activity in my mind has been putting together dorkbotpdx, the Portland chapter of the truely amazing dorkbot group. This one is certainly going to lead to more blog fodder, but that, too, will have to wait.

Neil Gaiman lists the nominees for best novel at the 1965 Nebula awards:

• All Flesh is Grass by Clifford D. Simak
• The Clone by Theodore Thomas & Kate Wilhelm
• Dr. Bloodmoney by Philip K. Dick
• Dune by Frank Herbert
• The Escape Orbit by James White
• The Genocides by Thomas M. Disch
• Nova Express by William Burroughs
• A Plague of Demons by Keith Laumer
• Rogue Dragon by Avram Davidson
• The Ship That Sailed the Time Stream by G. C. Edmonson
• The Star Fox by Poul Anderson
• The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick

Quite a list. I've only read a few of these, but based on name recognition, I'd say it might be fun to pick the whole lot up for a little SF nostalgia.

Just noticed that latest from the O'Reilly Hacks series of books, Mind Hacks, is suppossed to be out this month. This one looks very promising and they've got up samples! Check out some of the other Hacks books while you're there. Everyone I've looked at has been a winner.

So, today I discovered another no-no in the way of personal combinations that lead to possibly dangerous results. I was on the way out to my Sisters house to help her out with some work she's doing (staining her concrete floors -- more about that later), when I decided to stop and get a bowl of pho at one of my favorite vietnamese restaurants. For those of you not so culturaly aware, pho is a vietnamese soup made made with a very flavorful beaf broth to which is added rice noodles and various beef bits (depends on where your tastes lie -- I stick to the normal stuff usually, but could have some tripe thrown in there if I asked nicely). All this is served with a plate of various herbs (usually some fresh basil and occasionally cilanro, bean sprouts and thinly sliced jalapenos). I usually throw in all of the above and top it off with a little bit of rooster sauce (sriracha, I believe, is the actual name of it) to spice it up even more. Needless to say, this is a potent mix. It's been known to have had a significant hand in clearing away more than a few sinus infections (just hold your face over a bowl of this stuff for a few seconds and see how much better you're breathing shortly thereafter). It's also been known to set my eyes watering on a few occasions from a misguided pepper seed getting into just the wrong spot (be it somewhere in my mouth, throat, nose or, ack, even eyes). So, there I was eating this lovely concoction while trying to read one of my latest literary acquisitions -- the posthumous collection of Douglas Adams' miscellaneous writings, Salmon of a Doubt. I don't know how many of you have ever read any of Douglas Adams works before (or, if you were really damn lucky like me, gotten to hear speak in person), but let's just say that the reader is prone to occasional random burst of laughter. Indeed, when I first discovered the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy at the ripe old age of 13, my Dad at one point insisted on knowing what the hell I had discovered when I started lapsing into continous convulsions of giggling. I'm sure by now, most of you, being the astute readers that you are (what, people actually read this site? Yes, my Dad even told me that he discovered it recently!), have put two and two together and figured out what danger awaited me with this fearsome combination. Needless to say, I quickly found that I had to put the book down for fear of personal injury or (even worse) causing a disturbance so gross as to be asked never to return.

After my roommate completed this book which has been in my collection but unread for a number of years, the guilt finally overtook me and I decided to pick it up. Boy was I in for a surprise. In less than a week (which is pretty impressive considering it's a 500 page book and I've been busy with work, school and various projects all the while) I tore through this fairytale of nanotechnology. I found myself unable to set it down, to the point where I had to force myself to finish it today in fear that I might start putting off other necessary tasks in favor of reading.