A Synapse Fires...

I've moved my blogging endeavors over to www.rebeccamajor.blogspot.com so you likely won't be seeing any more posts here. But I've been doing a decent job so far of posting regularly over there, so feel free to check it out.

Yeah, I just now realized that I already reviewed all the nominations for best novel in July.  *sigh* Well, consider it an interesting study on what details my memory files away as important about the books I read... 

Best Short Story


Amaryllis, by Carrie Vaughn - a sweet, simple story that left me content.  I have a hard time liking most short stories that I read, but this one did a good job of balancing world building with plot and characters, and I didn't feel like it was gimmicky (sometimes I read a short story and feel like they wrote it solely for the "cool ending"  they thought up that maybe isn't quite as cool as they thought... but not this one).  


For Want of a Nail, by Mary Robinette Kowal - this one's about a robot that is malfuntioning... well, it's more than that, but I can't spoil it.  I liked this one, but it probably will have more impact on a slightly older generation.  Like maybe 5-10 years older than me.  


The Things, by Peter Watts - apparently this one is a popular vote; it's a little too odd for my taste, but it's well done.  It's told from the point of view of an alien creature who is trying to conquer earth.  Interesting premise, well written, and not my personal preference, but I can see how someone would like it.


Ponies, by Kij Johnson - I don't know about anyone else, but I found this short story to be rather distubing.  It left me simultaneously with a morbid curiosity to see what everyone else thinks of it, and a wish that I hadn't read it.  Take that for what it's worth.  Maybe it was trying for that...


~~~


I let rhb vote for the rest, since I didn't research those so much.  Scott Pilgrim vs. the World got our #1 vote for best dramatic presentation long form, but all of them were excellent movies.  (Well, HP7-1 wasn't my favorite - too much sitting around in tents, but it wasn't a bad movie by any means.  And Inception was about 30 min too long during that one scene chasing people in the snow.)


Dan Wells and Larry Correia were our top picks for the Campbell; I've heard good things about Saladin Ahmed but haven't tried his stuff yet, and the other two are new to me.  I'll probably take a gander at some of their writing sometime, since if they're in the company of Dan and Larry, it's a pretty good chance I'll like it.


Moshe Feder is Brandon Sanderson's editor, so of course he was a good pick for best editor long form.  Plus rhb met him at World Con yesterday and chatted with him for about an hour, and apparently he's really cool.  CONNECTIONS!  


So in case you haven't gathered, rhb went to World Con this week.  My apartment is very, very quiet.  I think he's at a Tor party right now.  I'm not going to bed til I hear about it, though I might have to settle for a text since it's an hour earlier over there in Reno, and I suspect he's milking this party for all it's worth... or at least I hope he is.  


Tonight, as part of my campaign to not sit in a quiet, quiet apartment all night (again), I went with my sister in law and her five kids to "back to school night".  It was quite the adventure.  I spent most of the time making sure young T (nearly 2) didn't escape into the crowds, though it was usually a safe bet that he'd be by the nearest drinking fountain if he did.  Now my feet are tired of standing and I'm wishing I had a foot bath, but I'll probably settle for a subpar foot rinse and some foot stuff from work instead.  


Last night I decided to exercise.  Unfortunately, I began at 11pm.  Still, I'll take it.  I may not have gotten to bed as early as I intended, but when do I ever?  And nobody was home to mind if I got sweaty, so I had to take advantage of it.  I'm not even sore today.  I wonder if that's because I slept right after, or didn't work out as hard... well, I guess there are a lot of reasons it could be, so I'll pretend it's a good thing. XD


I'm glad I don't live alone normally.  It's nice to have a little reminder now and again of how wonderful rhb is, and what I'd be missing if I'd made different choices 4 years ago when we first met.  It's especially nice when those reminders don't last very long. :)  In the meantime, I'll try to make the most of everything.



Now Mom can't complain that I haven't updated in ages... Three in one day!  That should tide me over til... let's see... about November, by my count. :P

Best Novelette


There were a lot of excellent nominations in this catagory - but of course, that wasn't a surprise after the other catagories thus far.  For the record, I'm putting all of my comments on the stories roughly in the order I like them from best to worst, although that doesn't mean I hated any of them by any means. :)


That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made, by Eric James Stone - an excellent story, with a unique take on how religion would adapt if aliens did exist. 


Eight Miles by Sean McMullen - a fun steam-punk story about a hot air balloonist hired to take a rich gentleman and a strange creature up in a hot air balloon 8 miles in the air.  I really enjoyed the world building in this one, and the ending was satisfying too.


The Emperor of Mars, by Allen M. Steele - This one is about a leader on a colony on Mars who has one of his workers go insane and start proclaiming himself the emperor of Mars.  I expected some major power struggle to follow, but it turned out to be nothing of the sort - and the resulting story acutally strikes a very satisfying bittersweet tone.  It's a quiet story, so I don't think it will win, but it's quite well done.


Plus or Minus, by James Patrick Kelly - This one fell a little flat for me.  It was decent, but I just didn't find the characters as interesting (or maybe it was just that I didn't like them or connect with them).  It's about a group of people on a mining vessel transporting water from one planet to another, and something malfunctions with the ship's air filters.   


The Jaguar House, in Shadow, by Aliette de Bodard - I found this one to be a little too abstract for me.  It is not chronological so it was a bit confusing for me trying to figure out what the heck was going on, especially when the learning curve for the world was a bit steeper than the other stories on top of that.  I felt like it would be a really interesting world (set in Mexico with various houses or tribes fighting for control) but I found it too difficult to follow what was happening.




Work's over, I'll do the short stories another time.

Well, I'm cutting it a bit close... the Hugo awards ceremony is Saturday and I've been meaning to give my impressions of some of the nominations.  Voting closed a while ago, so this is purely for your benefit if you are looking for some suggestions for what to read.  rhb is at WorldCon right now, and thus had the opportunity to vote (before the voting closed, of course), so I acutally got some input on the voting this time.

Best Novel

Feed, by Mira Grant - This was my pick to win.  It's about a group of bloggers following the presidential campaign during the zombie apocolypse.  I was not expecting Hugo material going in, but it blew me away - exceptionally well written and engaging. 

Cryoburn, by Lois McMaster Bujold - another excellent read and my second choice for the Hugo.  It's a tale about Miles Vorkosigan, infamous diplomat (among other things) with a talent for finding and unraveling intrigue.  I actually enjoyed it so much that I went and read every other Miles Vorkosigan book published to date.  Happily, they are all available for free download from Baen for any e-reader (except one, which I snagged from the library).  I probably would have enjoyed this one even more if I read it *after* the rest of the series, but it still stands up well even without the backstory. 

Blackout/All Clear, by Connie Willis - I enjoyed this one quite a bit as well.  It's about several time travelers who go back to World War II for part of their research, get stuck, and try to get back without changing the outcome of the war.  It's a hefty two-volume story, but well worth the time investment.  I was surprised by how well she kept me engaged throughout; I have struggled to finish some of her other novels quickly (I think The Doomsday Book took me at least a year) but I whipped through these easily.  I actually read them prior to finding out they were nominated for the Hugos, so it's been a bit longer since I read them... but they are definitely some of my favorites from her published works.  I do wonder though if I found them more accessable because I'd already read The Doomsday Book and a few others from that world.  I don't think that's a requirement, but the learning curve for the time-travel technology was significantly reduced.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, by N.K. Jemisin - This one is worth reading as well.  It's about a girl who unexpectedly gets named as an heir to the kingdom and is thrown into a whirlwind of political intrigues as the king draws near death.  It utilizes some interesting stylistic choices (successfully, in my opinion) and is refreshingly different because of it. 

The Dervish House, by Ian McDonald - I found this one to be the odd duck in the nominations for best novel.  Quite honestly, I couldn't even finish it - I made it to 12% and quit.  I found it to be uninteresting and slow as molasses, with a lot of seemingly unconnected viewpoints that I had a hard time keeping straight (in part because it's set in Turkey, so everyone has Turkish names).  It read more like literary fiction than science fiction in my opinion, and as one who is not a fan of literary fiction in general, that just didn't cut it for me. 

Best Novella

Troika, by Alastair Reynolds - This one was a little heavy on the sci-fi explanations at times, but the ending was awesome so I forgave it for that.  I really enjoyed this one.  It's about an astronaut from Russia who escapes from a hospital to find someone to tell his story to - the story of his mission to an alien object that appeared in our solar system unexpectedly.  That doesn't do it justice at all, but it's the best I can do.

The Lifestyle of Software Objects, by Ted Chiang - Set in the future when everyone interacts primarily in digital worlds, this one is about several people who help develop AI for pets that can learn to talk and interact like children.  It follows them as they grow attached to their creations and what happens when the digital engine the pets were created to run on becomes obsolete.  The ending was different than I expected - not bad, just different.  One review I read said that the reviewer enjoyed the story more the second time as a result.  I've only read it once, but I can see how that may be true.  I really liked the world created in this story, and I thought the ideas it brought up were interesting. 

The Sultan of the Clouds, by Geoffrey A. Landis - This novella was a fun read - unique setting, interesting characters, and a hint of mystery.  It is set primarily on the clouds of Venus, within a flying city run by the richest family on the planet (and possibly the galaxy, I can't quite remember all the details).  The protagonist tags along with his semi-girlfriend, who is invited to visit by the heir of said family, and then has to unravel the motivations of everyone involved to figure out why the invitation was offered.  It's not a very hard mystery, honestly, and I don't think it's supposed to be.  The focus is more on the culture and... other stuff that I won't go into for fear of spoilers. 

The Lady Who Plucked Red Flowers beneath the Queen's Window, by Rachel Swirsky - I mostly liked this novella, but it is definitely a little more... disjointed, for lack of a better word.  It follows a lady who serves her queen and then dies by treachery, but is bound to a stone so her spirit never dies/leaves/whatever.  It's a strange tale with a wandering plot and an ambiguous ending, but I found it to be an interesting read.  I'd be interested to see what other people think of it, because I can't quite decide how much I liked it.

The Maiden Flight of McCauley's Bellerophon by Elizabeth Hand - This novella was just plain weird.  Not bad, but a little too strange for my tastes.  It's about a guy who becomes obsessed with recreating a silent film clip of a strange contraption taking flight against the laws of physics. 

This is getting a little long, so I'll cover Best Novellette and Best Short Story in a separate post.  For now... happy reading!  Plenty of good stuff to be had here.

 

 Today was my 2 year mark at my job.  My coworkers all decorated my desk with crepe paper, balloons, and Almond Joys (one of my favorite candy bars), and they all brought treats too!  I had jokingly said yesterday that I expected a party, but I didn't really expect one, so it was a very fun surprise.  And it stayed relatively quiet today as well, so that was appreciated too.  I decided to start a new doily in my down time, given that I'm burning through books faster than I have been picking them up, and I got 7-8 rows done today I think.  It's a small one so I'll probably finish in a few days.

My other endeavor today was making freezer jam!  (Not my first time doing so, but exciting nonetheless.)  I got a decent price on strawberries at Costco, so I got 8 lbs (enough for jam AND eating).  My sister in law and her kids helped me make 2 batches of strawberry freezer jam, and then we experimented and made a batch of strawberry-raspberry freezer jam.  I did things a little differently this time and pureed the berries instead of mashing them (to minimize chunks, per rhb's request) so I'm still waiting to see if it sets up normally - I think pureeing might mess up the quantity of berry stuff needed.  We did one batch with 4 c fruit/3 c sugar, one with 3.5 c fruit/3 c sugar, and then the strawberry raspberry concoction  was 4 c fruit/3 and a bit c sugar.  We also strained the last batch though to get out all the raspberry seeds (lots of added work, but oh, it was pretty!  So smooth and creamy looking almost) so that might have affected the amount too... it sure seemed like there was a lot more in the blender than 4 cups, even taking out half a cup or so of seeds.  We figured it must have been air whipped into the fruit puree by the blender that then was lost in straining.  

Behold, the computer case I made for rhb's netbook:


and the back, complete with a little pocket for earbuds:



And here's the other project I did, mostly at work in between calls:  



Two purses!  They aren't quite done yet - the pink fabric will be the lining in them both, if all goes well, and the bigger one still needs the button and the strap, but that at least gives you an idea of the final product.  I found the pattern for free on ravelry.com.  I really like them, even though I wish I'd chosen a softer yarn.  one might turn into my bag for sewing/crafty stuff... I'll have to plan pockets accordingly.  

We purchased a Kinect for our Xbox 360 (at 50% off!) and got it about 2 weeks ago.  Here are my thoughts on it thus far.

( Review under the cut )So sorry if that bored you to tears.  To summarize, I am quite pleased with it overall, and I have high hopes for the future of Kinect games.  And... hopefully this exercise streak persists.

 I made a new plushie today: SUPER MEAT BOY!  My sister in law helped me with the pattern, and pretty much any other time I had questions, or it wouldn't have turned out so nice. :)  All told we created the pattern in a couple hours last week, and the plushie only took about 3 hours tonight to actually make.  Much faster than the companion cube!

And of course, now we must have pictures:
rhb and Super Meat Boy play Xbox!


rhb and Super Meat Boy!


Super Meat Boy and Leafeon (Leafeon came from Ebay; I'm not *that* talented)

I haven't decided what my next project is.  But considering I got all the materials for this one in December and only just NOW got around to making it... it might be a while.