Catching up on these...


( Thinking, Fast and Slow, by Dan Kahneman )



( Tam Lin by Pamela Dean )



( Wicked Gentlemen by Ginn Hale )



( Merchants of Doubt, by Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway )


Other Media Consumed:


( Doctor Who Season 6 )


Total Books: 4
Recent Publication: 1/4
Rereads: 1/4
Recommendations: I don't think any of these were specifically recommended by anyone--although I certainly did a lot of recommending of the Kahneman afterwards.
New Music: none
New Media Produced:  I don't, at this point, specifically remember what I wrote in January, so I'll just save this for when I catch up. 

S and I are both on on panels this year.  Not only that, but we conflict!  On Monday morning--when everyone is exhausted and kind of punchy--you can either watch me talk about serious socioeconomic issues or... well, see below.

My panels:

Science Fiction on Broadway               Sat, 10:00–11:15 am               Room 623

Moderator: Jeanne Gomoll. Ruthanna Emrys, Chip Hitchcock, Bill Humphries, Dorian Victor Lorre Jensen

Andrea Hairston is both a novelist and a playwright. Let's talk about what science fiction stories we'd like to see made into stageplays. What characteristics make a story a good candidate for a play? What kind of stories don't have what it takes? Broadway has produced some fantasy plays, mostly from Disney or comic books, but perhaps there are gems hidden among SF short stories, ripe for stage productions.

Writing the Singularity                           Sun, 10:00–11:15 am             Room 623

Moderator: David D. Levine. Ruthanna Emrys, James Frenkel, Lettie Prell, Talks-with-wind

How do we write stories about life when people are no longer human? What would your characters be like? What would their conflicts be? What would their needs (if any) be? Can you write an agglomerated personality? What about a personality that had never been a biological human? Writers already have difficulty keeping up with current technologies (cell phones, for example). Will writing become even harder as technological advances continue accelerating?

Not Everyone Lives in the Future           Mon, 10:00–11:15 am             Room 623

Moderator: Carrie L. Ferguson. K. Tempest Bradford, Ruthanna Emrys, Jesse the K, Na'amen Gobert Tilahun

Technology has an undeniably transformative effect on our lives and it is worth examining who has access to those effects. Geeks are generally very engaged with technology and it is easy to assume that the Internet, cell phones, computers, etc. are a given in everyone's lives. However, there are large communities where technological access is not at the level that geeks take for granted. How does lack of access to technology impede communities' ability to prosper? How can geeks help to make technology more available to communities that may benefit from them? Are these transformative effects even desirable? What are good examples of SF that highlight or problematize this issue?

The Pregnancy Trope in SF TV Shows    Fri, 4:00–5:15 pm               Conference 5

Moderator: Jenny Sessions. Sarah Emrys, Beth Friedman, Katherine Olson/Kayjayoh

Over the past year it seems that many SF/F TV shows have used a main character's pregnancy as a device. It's never about having a baby; it's something to move the plot forward. It's either sped up (Fringe) or happening somewhere else (Doctor Who). Also, the kid either dies, grows up rapidly, or is whisked away and does not become a character in the show. What's up with this? What does it say about our culture and how we view women, motherhood, and small children?

MUPPETS!!!                                            Mon, 10:00–11:15 am         Room 634

Moderator: Christopher Davis. Sarah Emrys, Jackie Gross, Joanna Lowenstein, David J. Schwartz

What's been your life experience of The Muppets? Does your age group make a difference in how you feel about them? Did you meet them through Sesame Street, Tales from Muppetland, The Muppet Show, commercials, movies? What did you think of the 2011 film? Can the Muppets be a vehicle for social change?

After about 2 years of mostly getting distracted by work foo, I have finally finished the second Aphra Marsh story.  Which turns out to be a novellette at 11,000 words.  About half written in the last month, so I seem to be back on track for writing habit, huzzah.

I'm still not sure what I'm going to call it--"Going Between," the title of its elisem necklace, doesn't quite fit, and "The Shadow After 'The Shadow After Innsmouth'" is about as inappropriate as titles come.

To do list now: 1) Edit. 2) Figure out where to send the much longer stand-alone sequel to an unsold Lovecraft pastiche. 3) Figure out whether to focus next on the post-singularity domestic hard SF novel, or the urban fantasy with landscape architecture and hot boy-on-boy scholarly collaboration.

On the national mall.  Surprisingly, we also got some work done.

So this was not the most Hallmark of Passovers--fortunately, Hallmark has yet to fully co-opt Passover.  Bobby spent a good part of the seder with gastrointestinal troubles, which made for a lot of interruptions and parents getting up and down with him.  He spent the rest of the seder alternating between misbehavior (trying to blow out the candles) and cuteness (insisting on answering rather than asking the four questions).  But it's meant to be a family ritual, and we had family and friends happy to help out and participate, lots of good food, good discussion, and good questions.  In some sense the seder spread out through the whole day--S and I talked about how "freedom" is used in modern political discourse, and A and I got into a debate over whether Jews are permitted to question G-d's morals, all well before we sat down at the table.

And speaking of ritual prep, S did something wonderful.  For the past few years, she's insisted on getting the fancy round matzah for the seder itself, even though we use the ordinary square box matzah for the rest of the week.  The round matzah make perfect sense to me intellectually: they are hand made, and look like they were baked in a hurry on a hot rock.  But they've never quite had the same emotional resonance as the square crackers I grew up with.  This year, though, we discovered that there's a lot more demand for fancy round matzah in DC, and if you don't buy them a couple of weeks in advance, you don't get them at all.  So S, in cooperation with page_of_swords, did something she's been talking about for years--they actually made matzah, right in our kitchen. 

The rabbinic rule for matzah is that you can have no more than 18 minutes between water touching flour and putting the bread in the oven.  Ostensibly this is too fast for free-floating yeast to start the rising process; it's also numerologically significant in some fashion.  In fact, it turns out to be just the right length of time to be doable, but still feel genuinely rushed.  This is the bread of haste.  It's the simplest, most primordial flatbread that you can make in a modern kitchen--flour and water dough, thrown onto a baking sheet, cooked briefly in the oven and brushed with olive oil and salt for flavor.  It's perfect.  It's nothing like what I grew up with, but it tastes right anyway--all the ritual's emotions invoked by one of the most basic foods of civilization.

For the record, we used our bread of haste at the table, but we did not use it for the hidden afikomen.  Hiding a prototypical-but-oily pita-chapati-tortilla in your child's bedroom is not effective ritual.

Me: Bobby, we're trying to get ready for guests--put that blanket back in your room.
Bobby: *ignores me*

*repeat cycle 2-3 times*

Me: Bobby, put that blanket back in your room 1... Bobby, put that blanket back in your room 2...*
Bobby: Mama 1, Mama 2, Mama 3!
Me:  ...are you counting at me?  Did the mama do something wrong?
Bobby: Yes!
Me: ...what did I do?
Bobby: *thinks hard* You ate my head!

*Thank you brynnya for teaching us that trick.  Works 99% of the time, although this was not one of those times.

The "work-in-progess" meme, via robling_t:

1. Go to page 77 (or 7) of your current manuscript.
2. Go to line 7
3. Copy down the next 7 lines – sentences or paragraphs – and post them as they’re written.
4. Encourage other people to do it!

I've got two current manuscripts...


"It's a strange sort of power," I murmured.

"This?" Jon hefted his compass.

I shook my head and swept my arm at the fair.  "It's turned into a legend, one of the things that holds Chicago together.  And it's beautiful.  But these people would never have wanted a gay Jew taking such liberties here."  I tried to avoid glancing sideways, checking his reaction.

And in the distant land of science fiction:

“Come on.  Let’s go find a place to sit.”  Ignoring the little breakfast nook right there in the kitchen, she led the kid back out to the main room.

Fortunately, her platform was one of the lower ones.  “Can you climb?” she asked.  He scrambled up the ladder.  She balanced the plate on her head (cloud-aided) and followed him, then handed it over.  He poked at it gingerly, and she added a belated fork.


In other news, I just spent two days at a workshop for people trying to build tricorders.

Very successful, and unfortunately I didn't keep careful track of ratios:

1/2 C peanut oil
1/2 C lime juice
1/4 C fish sauce
about 1 t sesame oil
pinch of ground dried chili pepper
2 pinches dried lemongrass
pinch brown sugar
large pinch dried cilantro
large pinch dried mint
2 cloves crushed garlic
about 1 t preserved minced ginger
tiny sprinkle sea salt

Which together made about 4 times as much as we needed to feed 3 people.  The salad was mesclun greens, thinly sliced sweet peppers, thinly sliced onion, and beef sauteed in peanut oil and a splash of the dressing.

The fellows had a "data blitz" tonight.  Twenty-two of us (presumably those with more dubious judgment than the other 130) gave Powerpoint presentations on the research we did before the fellowship--in 90 seconds each, with cowbells and audience mocking if we went over time.  This is a sufficiently limiting format all by itself, but...

S and I had an argument a few weeks ago about whether rhyme or alliteration was a better mnemonic technique.  S opined that either was preferable to the usual presentation format at scientific conferences...

So, Experiment 1 from my masters thesis:

Some say that memory is pure and clear:
If photographic, photoshop’s to blame;
Beliefs and distant outcomes we hold dear
Can quickly shift a face, a fact, a name.

Two psychics split predictions, ill and good:
One knows the future eight times out of ten;
One errs more oft than guessing ever could;
We ask the readers who said what and then

Using ANOVAs we compare recall
Of trusted sources saying things desired
And saying what we hate to think at all
And thus we see the way the mind is wired:

What’s wished for trumps the truth, often with ease;
The mind holds back much trouble the eye sees.


And yes, it went over well.  In a room full of biologists and chemists.  One of whom invited me to a Shakespeare reading party.  Have I mentioned that I love my colleagues?

I'm never going to look at Enrique Borgos's seduction attempts in A Civil Campaign quite the same way again.

I love my wife.

I got home today and saw a copy of The Watchtower on the coffee table.

Me: Oh, did we get Jehovah's Witnesses today?
S: Yes, apparently some live nearby.
Me: So, what happened?
S: They asked whether I'd noticed all the bad things happening in the world, and whether I agreed that things seemed to be getting worse all the time, and didn't I think that was a sign of the coming apocalypse?  I explained to them about the availability heuristic* and about how rates of violence are actually getting lower.
Me: I love you--what did they say?
S: That it made sense. And they stayed and rested a while before they went back out in the rain.

And now I feel like I ought to put these things together in a convenient pamphlet for the benefit of people not married to psychologists.


*I can't find a good link for this aspect of the heuristic, but in general it's easier to think of bad things that happened recently, because it's generally easier to think of things that happened recently.  And it's definitely easier to think of bad things that have happened during your lifetime.  This leads to every generation imagining a recently lost golden age when this stuff was unheard of.

Books Read: 56--fewer than last year; life will do that. Twelve non-fiction, and, er, one fiction that wasn't SF or fantasy. Nineteen rereads, mostly Brust in preparation for Tiassa. Eleven authors that I've never read before, some whom I could probably have done without (Meyer) and some of whom I will take great delight in continuing to follow (Daley, Vinge).  One book thrown against the wall.  Five books failed the Bechdel test: some with good excuses (first person narrative by a gay male couple; focused on Thor and Loki), and some not so much (disappointing William Tenn short story collection, I am looking at you).  Twilight passed, thus proving that the Bechdel test isn't everything, even from a feminist perspective.

Music: 6 new albums (also life will do that). Genres include filk, neoclassical, folk, and scientifically based Gregorian chant.

Movies: Seven.  Which may be the most I've seen in a year since I graduated from college.  One of them was even good.

TV: Seasons from four series.  Doctor Who continues awesome; Being Human I am entirely done with

Other: The Star Wars radio plays, and several podcasts.

In and around trips to S's family in Michigan, my family on Cape Cod, and papersky and rysmiel for New Year's in Montreal.


( All the Dan Ariely you can shake a stick at )


I'm now in the middle of Kahneman's recent book on the same topic.  In addition to being deeper and more intelligently written, Kahneman isn't trying to boost his own ego.  It's refreshing, and I'd recommend it over the Ariely easily if you're interested in the topic.


( Somewhere Beneath Those Waves, by Sarah Monette )


Twilight, by Stephenie Meyer.  Reviewed elsewhere.


( Brokedown Palace, by Steve Brust )



( Reality is Broken, by Jane McGonigal )


Other Media Consumed:


( Hadestown )


Plus the usual assortment of podcasts.

Total Books: 6
Recent Publication: 3/6
Rereads: 0/6
Recommendations: The Arielys were for work, but recommended only in the sense that we decided to do a book club on them, pre facto, and technically that was my idea.  Going to be an interesting discussion tomorrow; I'm not the only one who found them annoying. papersky reviewed Brokedown Palace some time ago. robling_t is, um, responsible, for Twilight. Hadestown was recommended on the SF Squeecast.
New Music: 1 album
New Media Produced:Some Aphra Marsh, some Highways and Labyrinths. 

Sometime over Thanksgiving, S heard my parents reading Bobby a particularly insipid version of Goldilocks--one where the bears don't even get angry because Goldilocks is too cute, or something.  In response, she read him Three Bears Norse.  My parents may have been a little alarmed, but Bobby loved it, and insisted she reread it several times.  But he also told her, repeatedly: "I want Three Bears Norse in a book with pictures!"  We were, of course, unable to comply, but we passed on the compliment to papersky, not expecting anything further to come of it.

The book is now available!  There is not enough squee in the world, and I cannot wait to see Bobby's face--or B & A's.  I haven't told them yet; I'm planning on presenting the thing in person.  Meanwhile, I believe there are about 50-odd copies left.

I wrote down comments as I went along, mostly snarky; this is what allowed me to finish.

( Cut for length and spoilers (major for Twilight and minor for Luminosity) )

I was not going to read Twilight.  I really wasn't.  But robling_t asked really nicely.  ("I will read this if you write it," is a pretty nice way of asking for something.)

I do wish to point out that Stephenie Meyer gets really excellent covers.  Unfortunately, they are instantly recognizable from across a room.  Or a subway car.  I wanted to carry a sign saying, "Only reading this to make fun of it," but I would have worried about being accosted by the many actual fans doubtless present.  Maybe "My other book is an in-depth exploration of the psychology of human error."  Actually, I'm not sure how much a distinction that is.

Overall Impressions

I had previously read summaries and deconstructions of the book, and had not expected to like it.  I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it is reasonably well-written.  There's even some genuinely beautiful writing, mostly when Meyer gets into landscapes.  I would happily read a whole book, character-free, in which she contrasts the pacific northwest and the Arizona desert.  This is, of course, not that book. 

This one, however, does start with a rather cool literary conceit, which is that Bella, in the midst of her whining, describes moving to Forks in terms normally used for, well, becoming a vampire.  She is "saying goodbye to the sun forever."  It makes her skin look sallow and unhealthy.  Forks is "literally my personal hell on earth."  There is, in fact, a whole parallel with (better) stories about people with one angelic and one demonic parent, or similar.  Charlie is bound to Forks, and Renee actually left him over it.  I mean, this town is actually the reason for their divorce, and Bella refused to do visitations there, and Charlie wouldn't leave to keep his family together.  There's a whole different urban fantasy romance failing in the back story.

Several people have described Twilight as dreamlike or surreal.  It doesn't feel that way to me.  Poorly thought out, at times, but not deliberately dreamlike.  I am therefore judging it as an actual story in which details and plot elements are meant to be taken as stated.

My biases, let me show you them

I read Luminosity first.  In my head, these are the canonical versions of Bella and Edward and the rules for sparkly vampires.  I can't help making the comparison, and am not particularly going to try.  Luminosity, for those who haven't read it, is part of the relatively small subgenre of rationalist fanfic, along with Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.  Additional recommendations would be very welcome, since Luminosity is complete and MoR has been stalled for months, and there are some moods where I just want to read about characters nitpicking their own worldbuilding details.  In accordance with rationalist fanfic commenting standards, characters from different versions are referred to as rational!Bella and irrational!Bella, etc.

( Cut for spoilers, like you haven't heard everything that happens in these books ten times already through cultural osmosis )

I think that my live-blogging notes from the read will go in a separate post.

Back up to a normal reading speed--I should start doing these monthly again.

( A Dance With Dragons--mild spoilers, and general statements about the series that will come as no surprise to anyone who's actually read Martin ever )

( All Men of Genius by Lev Rosen--no spoilers )

I don't normally mention beta-reads here, because it's not like they're available for everyone else to read.  But I feel I can safely predict that gaudior's as-yet-untitled first novel will be available for the rest of you to read at some point.  At which point, you should read it.

( Cradle to Cradle by Bill McDonough and Michael Braungart--nonfiction )

( 1493 by Charles Mann--nonfiction )

( The Tempering of Men by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette--no spoilers )

( The Wooden Star by William Tenn--no spoilers )

( The Zanzibar Cat by Joanna Russ--mild spoilers for "When It Changed" )

( Fostering Sustainable Behavior by Doug McKenzie-Mohr & William Smith )

( A Shadow in Summer by Daniel Abraham--slightly vague spoilers )

The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman.  Comfort reread.  Gaimans that I have read and loved many times are never going to disappoint me.

( The Logic of Failure by Dietrich Dorner--nonfiction )

( A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge--no spoilers except for a description of one awesome alien species )

Other media Consumed:

( Shadow Unit and assorted podcasts )

Total Books: 13
Recent Publication: 4/13
Rereads: 1/13
Recommendations: Someone on Tor.com recommended All Men of Genius.  My boss recommended Cradle to Cradle.  Both papersky and rushthatspeaks recommended A Shadow in Summer; sorry, guys. papersky also recommended A Fire Upon the Deep; thank you!  My old boss lent me The Logic of Failure about six years ago, but this is my own copy because I didn't get to it until now.  Which says more about my old job than the book, really.
New Music: none
New Media Produced: More on both the Aphra Marsh story and The Jester's Child.  A couple of papers for work, which actually seem to be having some effect.

My wife got me a 4 pound duck at Eastern Market, because she knows me and loves me.

Day 1: Roast duck with five-spice powder. Stock from the carcass.
Day 2: Yorkshire pudding baked in duck fat. Salad with duck cracklings.
Day 3: Fingerling potatoes roasted in duck fat.
Day 4: Duck liver mousse (padded with chicken liver). Deviled heart and kidney, plus one liver piece I accidentally left out of the mousse.

Still to come: risotto with duck stock and the remaining cracklings.

I'm not sure why I can't get a week's worth of meals out of a 4 pound chicken, which has twice as much meat on it.  Possibly just not as inspiring.

The pictures from our tour of the old DC sand filtration plant are up in a set on Flickr.  Many thanks to S for putting in descriptions.  It's an awesome old Industrial Ruins of Elfland site.

The right tool for shelling chestnuts turns out to be... the nutcracker my parents gave me 15 years ago, and which I never used until today.  I know, right? Who knew?

( Iorich & Tiassa, by Steven Brust. Spoilers for narrative format, but not plot. )
( Feed by Mira Grant. Vague spoilery hints. )
( Requiem for a Ruler of Worlds by Brian Daley, no spoilers )
( Technology and the Future, Edited by Albert H. Teich )
Other Media Consumed:

( Return of the Jedi, radio play and movie. Spoilers. )
Time After Time.  Reviewed elsewhere.

Shadow Unit (Season 4, Episode 0: "Walking Back to Houston"). Ouch.  And interesting.  I had to look up the title, and it's nicely ambiguous, and has all sorts of interesting implications.

( Peter Pan (2003), mild spoilers )
Raiders of the Lost Ark.  I give up on George Lucas.  And possibly on watching movies I thought were really awesome when I was 20.

Star Wars Symphony.  But I do not give up on John Williams.  The music is awesome.

Total Books: 5. I know.
Recent Publication: 2/5
Rereads: 1/5
Recommendations: I forget who recommended Feed; the others I got to on my own. 
New Music: 1 album
New Media Produced: A little on the Aphra Marsh story.  A short white paper for work; I've never written one of those before so we'll see how that goes.