Eleanor Arnason's Blog, page 125

Fair Warning

Google is switching all their bloggers over to gmail accounts. I did what they told me to do in order to switch my sign-in to the gmail account I never use. However, signing in with my gmail account does not get me to my blog. Google tells me that I have no blogs set up. When I try to input my old sign-in to the Google "change your sign-in" page, it tells me the sign-in is not valid, even though it still works to get me to my blog.

I figure it's only a matter of time before the old AOL sign-in n

April 6

The sunlight looks like spring. The air feels like spring. The trees have buds. The finches are back and singing.

For that matter, the vultures are back. Patrick and I saw a pair along the river yesterday -- big, black wings and a teetering flight.

It calls for a haiku, but I can't think of one right now.[image error]

Feathered Dinosaurs

I just did a Google image search on feathered dinosaurs. I was looking for a specific image to copy here and found it. But I noticed most of the images showed the dinosaurs with mouths open so their teeth were visible and in fairly aggressive poses. Granted, they were mostly predators. But if you look at contemporary predators -- lions and komodo dragons and so on -- most of the time they are lying down or sauntering around with their mouths closed. It takes a lot of energy to leap around with y

April 6

It snowed yesterday. The snow melted when it hit pavement, but stayed on roofs and lawns and the branches of trees. It's gone this morning.

I don't like the new, warmer Minnesota. Snow is April reminds me of our old climate. Snow has been recorded in the state in all but one month, August.

I've seen snow down here, in the southern part of the state, in every month between October and May. I may have seen snow in June and September. I'm not sure.

Patrick and I went to the Mall of America, aka the

P.S.

I appreciate comments. There are times, writing a blog like this, that I feel I am speaking to no one. I figure someday some graduate student will find this useful in her dissertation on North American female science fiction writers of the early 21st century. But it's nice to know people are reading this now.[image error]

In Response to a Comment

Someone commented on my previous post and mentioned she is from Argentina.

I just read an article in New Scientist on very big dinosaurs. The biggest so far is Agentinosaurus. (I think I have that spelled correctly.) It is estimated to have been 110 feet long and 80-100 tonnes (176,000-220,000 pounds). According to Wikipedia, the name means "silver lizard." I would have guessed "lizard from Argentina." But silver lizard sounds lovely.

It's a sauropod, one of the big guys with tiny heads, long n

March Haiku

I am trying to write haiku about this spring and have come up with the following:

I.


Early spring –
the leafless birch trees shine
like white bones or teeth.


II.


Ads for whiter teeth
gleam in the margins
of economics blogs.


III.


The weather warms.
Banks crumble
like calving glaciers.

I like number I and number III.

Number II is true. The blogs I read do have ads for whiter teeth, illustrated with full sets of yellow and white choppers. This is very creepy in the middle of a discussion of Wall Street stealing

Weather

It's snowing this morning.

Yesterday it was raining when I left for work. By the time I got to the bus stop, four blocks away, the rain had turned to snow. When I left work, it was hailing -- smaller than pea size, but definitely hail, rattling on the hood of my parka.

They've had a couple of good-sized storms up in Fargo-Moorhead. The mayor of Moorhead was quoted as saying, "This is ridiculous. It's March 31, and we're looking at 14 inches of snow."

However, the dikes are holding, and the Red Riv

Science Fiction Conventions

I have my schedule for the year pretty well set. I'm attending four cons in the Twin Cities area -- Minicon, Convergence, Diversacon and Gaylaxicon. I missed Marscon, because I wasn't paying attention and was still getting over penumonia. Most likely I won't go to Arcana, since it is devoted to horror. I am not a horror writer or fan.

There will be six cons in the Twin Cities this year. I can remember when there was only Minicon. Of course, Minicon -- at its height -- was as big as all six put t

Fargo

The Red River is due to crest at 43 feet, which is about the height of dikes built in Fargo. People are still working in the snow and sub-freezing weather; and people are evacuating.

I like Fargo. Patrick knows a lot of people up there and is crazy about the town. He'd like to live there. He's stuck in the Twin Cities while the legislature is in session, and is feeling bad about not going up to help. Given his age and back and joint problems, he would not be able to sandbag. But there are doubtl