Ravings of a Textual Deviant

It’s a lot like birdbrain, if you rearrange the letters.

At long last, I have a moment of time and a smidge of wherewithall simultaneously to get caught up…

The past couple of weeks, the other 50% of my time has been spent on a New Project at a New Client. While I can’t go into details, I can say that it’s been a while since I enjoyed the level of job satisfaction that I did upon completing my deliverable. I’ve gotten positive feedback on it as well, and it’ll be interesting to see what happens next. (There are a couple of meetings next week that will help determine that.) At the same time, I am glad to have a little breathing room until whatever happens next actually comes along; even though I didn’t put in that much overtime in the last couple of weeks, it felt like a lot. At any rate, even though things were a bit stressful, it was totally worth it just for the experience I had. Whatever else comes along will be icing.

Wedding planning is also advancing nicely. Invitations are about 60% addresses and assembled; we’re still collecting some addresses, but I’m confident that we’ll get them out on time. Contracts with the photographers and caterer are coming along. My dress is back from alterations and fits perfectly. We have measurements for the site, so we can plan tent setup, etc. Checklist, blah, blah blah…I am getting to the point where I want to get past all the planning and picky details, and just enjoy the anticipation. At T-70 days, I’m actually starting to feel like The Bride.

The big news this week, though, is the total eclipse of the Saturn. Priscilla, Queen of the Suburbs, has done her last drive with us. The old gal was no longer weatherproof, she was burning oil like a Kuwaiti well, and it was past time for her to go into a well-earned retirement. We traded her in on Friday for a 2008 Civic LX; gray interior and “atomic blue” exterior (I always wanted to be the person who got to name colors). It’s my first brand-new car, and I have to say, it’s kinda weird driving something without any weird sounds or smells. It almost feels too nice for me to drive. I seriously considered the hybrid, but it was about 20% more than I had planned to spend, and the handling felt kind of stiff and strange on the test drive. The LX, though, handles so well (at least, compared to what I’m used to) that it’s almost not like driving. I console myself with the fact that at least I’m reducing my emissoins by not driving the 14-year-old oil-burner. Part of the reason we took so long to get this done was that I hate going car shopping, to the point where I had never bought a car that hadn’t been found for me by a mechanic. However, the dealer was easy to work with, and the customer service was good; they waited while Fiancé read every bit of paper I had to sign, from the financing and warranty to the odometer statement, even though it was well past closing by the time I handed over a check and drove off. When we accidentally left a parking hang-tag in the Saturn, they had it waiting for us when we pulled up.

And now that spring has finally sprung, I’m feeling much better. Since the equinox, we’ve had enough sunshine to go a long way towards banishing my winter blahs. I have a bridal shower to look forward to (Squee!! Getting to see people I haven’t seen in ages AND have cake!) as well as a seder to plan (already!).

Stay tuned for more news, next time I get a break.

Arthur C. Clarke has passed at the age of 90, leaving us with over 60 years’ worth of exceptionally high-quality short stories, novellas, essays, novels, and technical non-fiction. One of the most telling things I ever heard said about his work was that if he’d been consistent in his treatment of religion in his work, he might well have started one. Most people will talk about Childhood’s End, The Sentinel, and The City and the Stars as examples of this. Personally, though, I think that his short stories “The Star” (which I seem to recall was made into an episode of the new Twilight Zone series back in the ), “The Nine Billion Names of God,” “No Morning After,” and especially, “The Possessed,” offer something that the novels don’t–a peek into a quirky sense of humor about the relationship of sentient beings with the universe. In fact, I think that for all the 55-gallon drums of ink that have been spilled writing about Clarke’s oeuvre, his sense of humor doesn’t get nearly as much play as you would expect, given how much of it seems to have gone into his work, and that’s a shame, as it’s one of those exceptional, quintessentially British senses of humor that simply don’t come along often enough.

It’s a good thing he had a sense of humor, too. Clarke lived long enough to see himself proved wrong on multiple predictions, (my favorite is that by the 1960s, apes would replace humans as house hold servants—temporarily, at least; “…of course, eventually, our super chimpanzees would start forming trade unions and we’d be right back where we started.”). He also saw several predictions come true that might have wished hadn’t—I’m thinking of “Death and the Senator,” again, and “I Remember Babylon”—he may have missed an entire medium (the Internet), but he was spot on with the message (the increasing prevalance of pornography). On the other hand, he also saw a communications network that far outstripped anything he could have imagined in his 1945 Wireless World article that discussed the theoretical possibility of of using geostationary satellites as communications relays. Of course, predicting the future is always a crapshoot, as Sir Arthur himself pointed out when he noted that “If an elderly but distinguished scientist says that something is possible he is almost certainly right, but if he says that it is impossible he is very probably wrong.”

Clarke also had a way of delivering a message—humourous or not—that not only packed a punch, but stayed with you. “Dog Star” is a deeply moving tribute that anyone who has lost a beloved pet can appreciate. And for over twenty years now, I’ve thought that “Death and the Senator” is the best presentation of the law of unintended consequences that anyone could ask for—and that it ought to be required reading for all Congresscritters. Clarke’s work will not only make you think, but you’ll enjoy the experience.

So, let’s raise a glass to Sir Arthur, and thank him for his work and his theological restraint. The go get yourself a copy of Tales of Ten Worlds or The Fountains of Paradise, and enjoy your space odessey.

An actual quote from one of Fiancé’s client interviews–

“What do you mean they’re going to give my baby my husband’s last name? He’s not the father!”

After a minor freakout on my part when we hit T-89 days, we’re back on track with all the wedding to-dos. I’ve sent checks to the band and the location coordinator. I’m ready to write another one to the florist on his cue. I’ve had my dress fitted, and it looks like it’ll be ready on the 17th; Fiancé has his shirt and bowtie, finally managed to order a tux (sizng issues, rather than procrastination, caused the delay), and has succeded on his shoe-hunt. I’m going with the “something old” (or at least, something I already own) option for shoes and accessories myself. We have a reception menu set, and one tent is arranged for (Note to self–send check) and as soon as we get measurements on the location, we can arrange for the second tent. As soon as our officiant is over her penumonia, I hope we’ll be able to meet with her in person (and if not, we’ll do it by phone) to talk about the most important part—the ceremony.

We’re collecting postal addresses, and I think we’re at about 75% on that. We’ve got a new printer cartidge so we can get a good print run on the invitations. (That should have happened last this weekend.) Note to anyone who owns an HP printer; according to a very knowledgable source, the print heads are actually inside the cartridges, which means if they get clogged, there is no self-cleaning cycle and no matter how much ink there is left in the cartridge, you have to replace it if you want to print something that doesn’t have that “overspray” look to it.

Amusingly enough, a couple of our biggest tasks are actually legal work. Fiancé is helping the photographers with their contract, and he will be writing one for the caterer/cake baker.

And then there’s the non-wedding stuff. One of the cars is no longer weatherproof. It hasn’t been its best for some time, so I have already done research not only into what we’re going to replace it with, but which dealer I want to deal with. We were planning to replace it this fall anyway, and I got our taxes done just in time to get our refunds to put towards this expense…if the IRS would kindly get around to disbursing one of them. I’m starting a new assignment at work that will probably result in me putting some overtime in the next couple of weeks, so finding the time to replace the car will be interesting…because we’re going to Louisville to see Fiancé’s family next weekend (note to self—find someone to feed cats on Sunday morning), and we need the weather to clear up so we can rent a chipper and dispose of a truly impressive amount of landscaping detrius from the chainsaw rental a couple of weeks ago. Also, for the new work assignment, I had to find a couple of new suits in a hurry, which will necessitate some express alterations.

I’ve also managed to come down with some sort of spring cleaning bug that has me cleaning out closets, spontaneously scrubbing the odd bit of tile, procelain, linoleum, or grout, and wanting to steam-clean carpets. So far I’ve emptied the pantry, cleaned it from ceiling to floor, gotten rid of all the packages that had expiration dates that started in “19″ (which is really bad when you consider that I moved into the house in October of 2000), gotten new bins and containers, and sorted everything out. It’s clean, organized, and I need to make a trip to Goodwill to get rid of a few small appliances.

And somewhere, in the midst of it all, I’m occasionally managing to fit in trips to the gym, keep us in clean laundry and dishes, relax to get the contnuing work drama off my back, have evenings out with friends and the like. You know, having a life. I was just starting to get used to it.

Sometime between 6:30 and 7:15 on Thursday night, Minx and Magnus got into one of their usual rough-and-tumble play sessions. Unfortunately, Magnus somehow managed to give Minx a scratch on a cornea. The eye in question was very watery and Minx kept holding it shut. We were pretty sure that he wasn’t ill, but we went to the vet on Friday, just in case.

The good news is that it’s already healing up nicely, and the vet gave us some antibiotic eyedrops in order to ensure that continues. The even better news is that the eyedrops apparenty don’t sting, because giving a fully-clawed, twelve-and-a-half-pound, slippery-quick cat eyedrops is not an easy proposition under the best circumstances.

The vet tells me that he’ll be fine, and the cloudiness will clear up on its own in a few weeks. Minx is still walking around all squinty, though. I feel as though I should teach him to say “aaaaaaaarrrrrrr!!!”

ETA: As of Sunday, Minx is starting to open the injured eye a bit, and it looks much less red and cloudy.

Gaming Buddy sent me this link regarding the demise of Gary Gygax, the original gaming geek.

My immediate reply was “How much would it cost to have him raised?”

It hasn’t been all sturm und drang the past couple of weeks; I did actually get out to see two recent films based on young-adult novels, Jumpers and Spiderwick Chronicles. Now, there’s a lot of good YA lit out there that I read and enjoy; Phillip Pullman is my current favorite. The film version of his Golden Compass wasn’t bad, but it seemed to be missing something…a theme that carried through both Jumpers and Spiderwick Chronicles.

I have to say that I loved the concept of Jumpers, and even the inconsistent physics didn’t really bother me (example: does momentum carry through on a jump, or not?). The action sequences were exciting and watchable. But somehow, it didn’t grab me. Nothing was particularly bad, but I didn’t think that anything was particularly noteworthy, either. I haven’t read the book, so perhaps whatever-it-is that the film lacks comes through in print. All in all, I found it mildly entertaining, but wouldn’t have missed it if I’d missed it.

I do know exactly what I was missing from Spiderwick Chronicles—character development. This film’s pacing is definitely designed to hold the interest of a young audience, and that doesn’t leave much room for depth. Throw in a happy ending—something I tend to find unsatisfying in mot cases—and the film comes off as pretty, but lightweight. The production design is very nice; the special effects have an excellent degree of realism, and the actor who plays both Jared and Simon did such a good job that I didn’t realize until the end credits that it was the same kid. Again, I haven’t read the book(s), so perhaps that would be a more satisfying version of the story for me. But I didn’t really have a reason to care about the film’s characters, so I didn’t.