Saving the Chumash...

Just finished "Sky Coyote" by Kage Baker a little while ago. This is the second book in the Company series by this author. We have returned to the main characters of the first book, Mendoza and Joseph, but the focus had shift from Mendoza being the "first person" to Joseph. He is a much more interesting character and because he has been in the Company longer, we learn much more about the behaviour of it's management and leadership (and whether those two are the same).

It tells of a tribe in what will eventually be California that is quite advanced but, like all of the interests of the Company, is doomed to be lost. Sending back hundreds of Company staff, immortals as usually as well as mortals from the future, they record and take samples of everything they can lay their hands on that has anything to do with this tribe, even the people themselves. Baker does a very good job of dealing with different cultures at different levels and with different experiences. I liked this book a little more than the first one. Hopefully this trend will continue.

Dreams of freedom...

I really look forward to moving and getting a new job. I mean, I've loved working for the Queens Library here and being supervisor of the Cyber Center has been great. But it's just so expensive here in the NYC area. It'll be nice to have the money and the time to go on vacations or little getaways now and then. There's so many things I want to do that I haven't been able to do: visiting other libraries (yes, I AM a librarian and a geek), go away camping occasionally, road-trips, maybe a cruise (that's for my wife), taking the kids to amusement parks and such... Weeeeeee!!!

Movin' on...

Not yet, but we're slowly getting ready. I've still got my interview on August 12th so I'm looking forward to that, preparing and all, but regardless of the outcome, we're moving anyway so now we're just trying to clear out as much of the garbage we've been collecting for a while now and make our packing and moving as simple as possible. Hopefully, after this move there will be very little moving afterward. We're hoping to get a house (crossing every finger) and finally have somewhere where we can settle down and spread out a bit.

On a related note, don't you hate when dinky little dollar stores insist that you leave all bags and backpacks at the front when you come in? Like I'm going to steal your crappy little stuff. I just turn around and leave when that happens now. Screw them. The ironic thing is that the last time that happened, I was going to spend a whole bunch of money on plastic bins with lids for packing our stuff. I'll just be going somewhere else now. Again, I reiterate... screw them.

Walk it off...

I watched three movies recently in a "Being a Man" theme.

"Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" directed by Kerry Conran, starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law: Very "classic" sci-fi film about a guy (the fighter pilot) and a gal (a reporter) and a lot of robots and flying things in a very 50s future world. The story's kind of interesting (a mad scientist has set into action a plan to save the best of the world, rocket it to another world and destroy the old, in one fell swoop) but it's really the style and cinematography that you want to see this movie for. Oh, you'll want to strangle Gwyneth Paltrow's stupid character and you get to see Angelina Jolie for about 5 minutes.
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"The Return" directed by Andrei Zvyagintsev: A Russian film (with subtitles... excellent!) about two boys who go on a "fishing trip" with their newly returned father (after about 12 years) and the relationships that change between them and form with their father (not very good). The father's a bit of a disciplinarian but it seems like he means well, but it's not really about him (as you'll find out near the end). It's about how these boys deal with loss and growing up.
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"Stage Beauty" directed by Richard Eyre, starring Billy Crudup and Claire Danes: For some time in England, women were not allowed on stage in a public performance and female roles were all played by men. Then one day, by decree of a certain King Charlie, not only were women allowed to act but it was made illegal for a man to play a woman on stage. This film is an entertaining and emotional look at how this change affecting the men and women involved, for good and for bad. Deals with issues of gender (duh), transvestitism, homosexuality, prejudice, politics, prostitution, love, and self-conception.
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Meeting Dr. Zeus...

I finished reading "In the Garden of Iden" by Kage Baker last night. This is the first book of her "Company" series, stories about time travel and imortality - but really about the clash/prejudice (resulting from the immortality) between the immortal people "of the future" and the people in the past. Through technological means, children can be alterned so that they can't die. Those children found by Company agents to be doomed by their circumstances are "saved" and become agents themselves, altered and "taught" to work for the Company, saving other doomed things: plants, animals, art, other people, etc. for the good of the future.

I would have liked a little more technology, explanation and detail. That's what I really like in science fiction. In the previous books I read, the Catherine Asaro, Skolian Empire series, she, being a physicist, put a lot of really technical, math-y kind of things in it which may not be what some people like, but I loved. But I have heard that the later Company books get a little more technical so I'm looking forward to that. This first book is a very interesting play on human prejudice, the human condition, and human nature. Very good and well-recommended.

Kids...

Went with the family to the local park yesterday. We had a little picnic in the sheltered area (I hate the Sun.) And the daughter went and played like a maniac in the big seahorse water fountain. All the kids were there playing and getting soaking wet, bathing suit or regular clothes. I don't understand it. What's with kids and their love of water? My daughter has no problem going in in jeans and coming out with them soaking wet. They're practically falling down, they're so heavy with water! Kids...

Let me help...

I finished the Asaro book and quickly read "Batman: War Games Act One Outbreak". I've always liked Batman. What a cool character. None of these pansy-wussy-loser super-powered heroes for me. Triumph of the individual over society. Or at least the attempted triumph. This story is about an all-out gang war that breaks out in the gang-laden streets of Gotham. To save the city Batman and his 'friends' struggle to keep the the violence at bay and the people alive. What the story is really about though is the relations between the 'friends' of Batman. Truly, Batman is hardly in this one, and what I see of him I'm not sure I like. He doesn't seem right somehow. But that's not the point of the story: it's about the various (and rather different) Robins (a common theme), a character named Tarantula, the turned-from-the-Dark-side Catwoman, and a handful of others. There's also a quiet theme of "Does Batman et al really help, or does this kind of response to crime and violence only beget more?"

Time goes by...

Been real busy. The phone interview went extremely well, IMHO. I'm going for a in-person interview on August 12th, so that's cool. I'm doing a million things to prepare but all I want to do is daydream about the new life... *sigh* Anyway, so I'm up to my neck in work, both at work and at home, but that's ok.

I'm on the last book of the Skolian Empire Catherine Asaro series I will be able to get my hands on anytime soon. I can't wait til I start the new series (the Kage Baker "Company" series). I hope it's good.

My son's got three teeth now... It's driving him crazy, therefore it's driving us crazy. Or more accurately, my wife. At least I get a break by going to work 5 days a week. And my daughter's going to school this year. They grow up so fast...

Big day...

I'm wearing my suit today. No real big reason. I've never worn it to work before and I've got a couple of meetings today so I figured I would wear it. The "library planner" is meeting with some people today to talk about reworking the Central Library. That will be cool. I always like change. And I also like giving my opinion and solving problems. So that should be fun.

I've also got a phone interview for a new job today. It would be really great if I got it: good location, good library (Queens University), and good position. Wearing the suit, according to my wife, should put me in the appropriate mindset. I hope. Actually, all I feel right now is semi-nervous. And it's just a quick filtering interview. Anyway, wish me luck!

Oh, and I'm working on the last Catherine Asaro, Skolian Empire saga book I have access to. I finsihed "The Moon's Shadow" and am now working on "Schism: Part One of the Triad". There are still two in the series that I haven't read but the Central Library doesn't have them and the branches have greedily made them non-requestable. *laugh*

Winding down...

Finished reading "Spherical Harmonic" by Catherine Asaro yesterday on the ride home. Now I've started "Moon's Shadow". I think I'm getting near the end. Of this currently 10 book series I have 3 left: "The Radiant Seas", "The Quantum Rose", and "Schism". Not yet published is "The Final Key".

Who said life was fair...

Surfing around, and I happened on the July 12th entry from Rebecca's Pocket linking to an entry from "Radical Peace" entitled "Why isn't our media reporting the real news?" I mean, any idiot knows that the news is not THE NEWS, that they're not giving us facts and information anymore (if they ever were) and, if you think about it, it's probably not hard to come up with why they like entertaining us more than informing us. But why has it been relatively recent that this lying and cheating and newsfoolery has become so popular and widespread?

Well, there ain't no more fairness anymore! That's why. It stopped being an important thing in around 1988. Here's the actual act that said that tv and radio should give equal time to both sides of issues. Quite a valuable act if your crazy enough to think that living in reality is something useful. But whatever...

Might get hurt...

Finished reading "Primary Inversion" by Catherine Asaro today. Damn, I love it when I find a good long series to read! And hopefully she's still writing books in the series so that it will be a while until I catch up.

This one's another good one. A little touch of Romeo & Juliet at the end, but that's ok. Good action, good ideas, good relations. It took a little longer getting into this one that the other ones but this is her first so that's forgivable.

Whazzah...

Just finished reading... well, skimming the book "Preparing for an oustanding career in computers" by M. Rafiquzzman. Very valuable book. Not really a page turner though. It's a collection of questions and answers on computer related topics written to the professional or the student - not the regular Joe. Unless you are really into computer science/engineering, you will probably put the book down after around question 15 in the first chapter. Don't get me wrong: this book is full of information and is presented in a good format. It's just not for me.

So I put down that book and have started skim-reading through "Google Hacks" by Tara Calishain & Rael Dornfest. I'll tell you about it after I've gotten a little farther into it, but it looks good so far.

On a roll...

Still reading more of Catherine Asaro's works: I finished "Ascendant Sun" on Saturday (July 2nd) and "Catch the Lightening" yesterday (July 4th).

It's funny. I haven't read these 4 books in anything close to the order they were written in, but (I think) I've read them in internal chronological order. They span such a large amount of time, it's hard to really be sure. I gonna try to find her first book in the "saga" for my next read.