Excitement (Urinating Dog)

Terry Pratchett. I doubt there's a living author who's branded himself more firmly upon me. Well, now I get to perform a once-in-a-decade feat.

See, I like to read Pratchett's novels (there are many, and I'm only missing most of the Johnny Maxwell stuff), and I can pick any of them up at random points after reading some hardcore sci fi and use it to chill out. They are always fresh, in my mind.

BUT I've never read them in published order (the main Discworld stories), because I've always just read the fourth book, or the eighth, or right before I read the 27th I read the fifth.

This year I haven't read any since February ("The Truth", late 20s). So yesterday I started with "The Color of Magic" and will proceed through to "Thud!"

Cheers (urinating dog)

In the Crosswalk Part II

Some clarification:

I'm reading Wil McCarthy's Lost in Transmission, which is the second of a brilliant science fiction trilogy (prequeled with Collapsium) about a time period where everyone is immorbid and the very walls can provide a person with anything they need. It is paradise. And then these generally immortal people have kids.

Kids rebel against their parents (enough do, rather). And when mom and dad will always be there? More particularly, if the rulers-for-life have a son, he'll always be a prince. This is the premise for the series, told from the perspective of a good friend of the prince.

In Lost in Transmission, the kids (read: 20-to-30-year-olds) take an interstellar voyage to colonize a star for the first time. Now, the number of sci fi novels that deal with first colonization is huge, and I've read quite a few of them, and a lot aboot humanity well past this initial expansion. But McCarthy takes an interesting approach to it: that it will fail, a reflection of what will happen later.

The colony fails because the colonists, specifically the prince, try to recreate the world they came from. The not-quite-evident problem is that there is not enough manpower to generate the economy needed to support this. Things almost immediately begin a slow spiral downward (there are other reasons, too, but this is the one that fascinates me).

So if they had taken a step back, several rungs down the economical ladder, and worked from there, the colony may have worked. If they had ditched their weekends, become less dependent on the technology they came with, rediscovered how to use their hands and minds (and bodies, for pregnancies), they probably would have survived. The series ends with the idea that these old skills were relearned, and proves that humanity is adaptable to the circumstance.

That may not clarify my previous post entirely, but it may help. Thanks.

In the Crosswalk

The jist is, at some point in human history, the weekend was invented. Before then, humans (us) worked when we had to to do the stuff we needed to to survive. At some point, enough of us existed that we could have weekends, and relax, and party, and become alcoholics or abusers, and get into rehab (and there were people to help you out of rehab), and people to guard people who were habituals ...

Well. Are we better now?

OK, Poker, AP Stylewise

I play poker. Online, now. Cause our weekend group doesn't meet when I want to play, which is always. And when it meets, it's REALLY fun. But sometimes, you know, I want my 7 hours on Saturday night for other stuff.

So I play online. I came in 33rd in a tourney that would've landed a chance for $120K, entirely with no cost to me in cash. About 8 hours of real life, tho. Just tonight I doubled up my faux chips in no time flat, so ... Guess I'm OK at this.

Guess why it's AP style and I'll kiss ya! :)