Out-of-towners

I think that's a reference to something... I don't remember what. Beyond that, it really refers to Paige and I. We have traveled so much this year, we can't even keep up with it all. One or both of us have initiated air travel just about every 17 days since the third week of December 2007. Tack on return flights 2-7 days after travel is initiated and you have a good look at just how much time we've spent in airports this year. It's a shame it hasn't all been on the same airline or we'd have been racking up the mileage. Scattered across Alaska, American, Jet Blue, Southwest and United, it doesn't mean much.

We're finally home for a few weeks but later in May we have a weekend trip to Albuquerque followed five days later by another Durham odyssey. I have one last trip to Seattle planned in June before we'll do the trans-American migration, at which point our hope is to GO NOWHERE (until Christmas, probably).

We had a nice 48 hours with mom and Tim in Huntington this past weekend, though Paige was feeling ill from about Wednesday through Saturday. I was happy that they took time to pop over from San Diego county at the tail-end of their trip. The bummer Paige's cold was that the last nap she took on Saturday afternoon, just before we took Mom and Tim to the airport, seems to have been the deciding factor in her getting over the hump. Her nap before we left the house was pretty intense, apparently, and following that she was ready to go! As I said... bummer. But, it was still nice to play host for M&T, and we found another neat little spot in Laguna for brunch (Zinc).

I've been totally swamped at work lately, writing communications for our internal blogs, making presentations and even occasionally, working(!) so I haven't been very active here, but I did discover something today that I thought I'd highlight.

On or around April 8 (as I said, I just discovered it today and had to do some backtracking to find a launch date) Amazon kicked off a few "theme" stores whose intention is to unite a whole bunch of like-products from across a genre including books, dvds, music, toys, etc.

My favorite of these, Cosmotopia, is where all things Science Fiction hang out. There are the usual nifty widgets that collect "universes" (Star Wars, Star Trek, Babylon 5, etc.) into sub-stores, and things like the "spectrograph" there on the left, that plots (rather arbitrarily) where certain series live on the line of sci-fi for the everyman, vs. that which appeals only to certain connoisseurs. I'm probably over on the red side, if you're keeping score, which actually means that I am a fan of the entire spectrum, not just a "dabbler" in the pool.

One thing that isn't here, which I'd like to see from Amazon given all the data they have at their fingertips, is a Science Fiction time line that plots the Hugo/Nebula winners, along with the names of folks who were publishing heavily in any given year, along with certain "Science Fiction Expert" notes or high points -- those highlights of certain "firsts" or notable moments. It could be a really neat tool to bring people further into the genre and also to help people identify new things they may like that they may not have discovered. For instance, there are a lot of folks who collect pulp from the 30s and 40s and it would be interesting to see how some of that looks in the larger spectrum of Science Fiction.

I've used the Hugo/Nebula site a lot to discover new works and authors I didn't know about, but those awards don't give you a "big picture" of the space (sic), rather, just what was mainstream in any given year. (I still don't follow how or why so many people dig on the Uplift saga. Seriously. Dolphins in space. I know David Brin is a CalTech guy, but c'mon!)

Anyway, check it out. Amazon continues to impress. Even though they seem caught up in their own hype re: the Kindle.

If I were a kid, this is where I'd hang out...

Working in an aerospace company -- even on the decidedly non-technical side -- you come across things from time-t0-time that drive curiosity.

Take gyroscopes, for example. I've never been particularly enthralled by them. I understand their basic operation of and remember always having an interest in, if not fascination with, centrifugal forces. As I've gotten older, I've gotten to see practical application of gyros in vastly complicated devices -- everything from the upright mobility in a Segway to the inertial guidance system in an ICBM Missile. That sort of thing comes up sometimes, even in my work.

Today, following a rabbit trail online after something mentioned in an article I was reading on our intranet, I ended up on a page that debunked certain false "technologies" used in certain science fiction works, and finally landed on NASA's Glenn Research Center home page, where the "featured" areas on the right side of the page are: "Moon and Mars," "Aeronautics," "Space Operations," and "Earth and Space Science."

If I were a kid and I found this page, I would read every single thing on this site. I'd be all over the NASA web presence, in fact. I remember wanting more than anything to go to Space Camp when I was a kid. And as I got older, I got a huge book from CostCo (then, Price Club) called The Book of Modern War Planes. I think every boy my age had that book. I memorized that thing, from schematics of the planes mentioned, to armory, to radar characteristics... Everything.

If I were a kid between the ages of 7 and 12 today, I would be all over the internet, and one of my favorite haunts would be NASA. NASA's site is great -- all the NASA sites. They're graphical and easy to read, and really invite the public in to see the super cool stuff going on.

As an adult it's a bit hollow feeling though, knowing that even as all this incredible stuff going on at places like NASA, California is trying to cut some insane amount of money from the public budget that will end up laying off hundreds of teachers, the US is spending upwards of $30 Million per week in Iraq, and programs that have to do with actual good science that we need, might never see a dime.

Ahh to be that kid again and have nothing but dreams of discovery...

Coming in at number 8: Show up

Reading my feeds this morning, I see a post from Seth titled, Write like a blogger, in which Seth talks about how to improve your business writing (e-mail, articles, white papers, marketing, etc.) by following a few simple rules.

In my business writing, I follow them -- headlines, interactivity, lists, etc. In fact, I manage three major employee communication vehicles in my organizations (MovableType blogs) and I follow these basic tenets and more.

That said, as for number 8, in relation to this blog, I always seem to fall short. I predictably forget/neglect/fail to "show up." Recently, some of that is due to the amount of blogging I do at work behind the firewall. I get home and I'm tired of blogging. Some of it is also due to with how slowly some of the personal decisions we're making are moving. That's the nature of the move though -- nothing really happens until it totally happens all at once.

But that's not everything going on. I suppose I could be a little giving... for example I've been reading a lot lately -- more Octavia Butler. Bleak, man, but good. Here's a little review of two of her books that I recently finished:

Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents -- Octavia Butler brought personal narrative to a new level of power and quality in her dystopian visions that followed the life of Lauren Olamina from a burned out community in Robledo (Southern California), up the coast towards Humboldt County, and beyond. Someone on LibraryThing reviewed these works as "Difficult to read in the same way that the [nightly] news is difficult to watch." That's accurate. There were several moments in the course of my reading when I had to put the books down and calm myself. The power of these stories is in their believability. Nothing is so "out there" as to be unrealistic. From the impact of Christian Fundamentalist leaders on a reactionary populace, to the path taken by social upheaval as a result of climate change, to the catastrophic impact of "designer drug use" and economic collapse across the country, it is all frighteningly real. This is especially true in light of the many power grabs that our current administration has made in recent years. These books are generally placed in the Science Fiction genre, but that's a hard category see unless you understand the scope of the genre. Science Fiction is much, much more than space ships and aliens. This is literature.

Browse Instantly

Paige and I have been using Netflix's Watch Instantly feature a lot lately. When it first launched, I was maxing out my 10 hours of "credit" within a weekend plus a day, for episodes of Dr. Who, obscure movies I didn't care enough to see in theaters, and classics (Day the Earth Stood Still, etc). That is to say, I was already a fan when they revised the policy to grant unlimited hours to Netflix customers. I hope the trend continues and more movies get added to the instant feature. I love it!

An easterless Easter

I woke up at 6 with anxiety around some of my work projects. I don't normally have anxiety, but because I'll be moving soon and I'm trying to maintain the highest possible standard for delivering results that nobody else can deliver, simultaneously, I'm experiencing it now. I have some stuff due tomorrow that needs to be good. Well, it needs to be done -- on the platform proscribed by our organization which means it won't necessarily be good, just correct. These days, more and more, correct passes for good in my organization. (It's one reason why, IMHO, the American corporation is on the decline.)

I took a shower, made coffee and went back upstairs to read in bed until Paige woke up. She was stirring already, so we just relaxed for a few minutes. I realized then that I hadn't done anything Eastery, at all. Didn't color eggs, no church (obviously), we don't eat ham or pork or other traditionally Easterish dishes... And I was a little sad. It's hot today. Hot. High 80s here, low 90s inland.

I worked from 8am until 9am, then I did yoga (missed your call M&T, during that time). I'm leaving the house in a few minutes to teach my only class of the day, at 11. I think Paige will do my class today and then we'll see what sort of lunch we feel like -- probably a big salad comprised of veggies from the farmer's market that we got yesterday, and croquettes.

About 2 p.m. we'll take our regular Sunday nap. I'll then come back to the computer. Paige may continue watching Season 2 of The Office on Netflix On Demand. I'll listen. We'll take a walk -- maybe in the neighborhood across Beach -- and talk about moving, Southern California, yoga, Durham, school, people we know, dreams we've had the last few nights, and books we're reading. Then we'll come home, find something to munch on, and go to bed.

It's a nice Sunday, but not Eastery. Perhaps there's still time to change that.

Decison '08

Davis was great. We loved it. The folks were very enjoyable. The farmer's market was amazing -- packed with people, superior food and produce. Downtown was adorable, with houses, businesses, restaurants and cafes all lovely, inviting and totally livable. Even the train from Oakland to Davis was a breeze. All the seats have power outlets and there's free wifi if you need it. I can hardly believe what a simple move that would be. The largest store in Davis is ACE Hardware, for goodness sake!

All that said, the program Paige would be a part of is struggling for funding and the general atmosphere isn't one of "we got your back." It's more like: "We got your side, mostly, but you have to get your own front and back, and your other side. Also, I tend to slip every now and then and may leave you open to a flanking." It's not like you're exposed, its just that the resources really aren't there in the same way that they are at, say, Duke. It's a UC -- what can one expect? Wonderful academic scholarship comes from the faculty at Davis, and Paige fully intends to stay in touch with people there. But when it comes to giving her access to what she wants to be successful throughout her doctorate and beyond... Well, maybe Davis can hire her when she's done and we can go be a part of that community then.

Now, it comes to me. Will my employer support my going virtual? I think Davis would have been a slam dunk, but Durham is a slightly different story. My job doesn't require me to be collocated with any particular site, and I've made more strides for the library and our organization in terms of reputation and innovation in the past two years than it has experienced in five. I believe that. But that alone will not make going virtual a sure thing. Too much that I can't control affects that and all I do is say, "At least in my case, past performance is absolutely indicative of future returns. Believe it."

Paige and I begin planning for Durham this week. We could move as soon as June.

And the winner is...