Eleanor Arnason's Blog, page 41

House Cleaning

Off facebook, a a running account of house cleaning, not because I find it interesting. Au contraire.

It was snowing when I got up, and the snow continued all morning and into the afternoon. So this is house cleaning on a snowy May day.

I find the best way for me to do housework, which I do NOT enjoy, is to do it slowly, with many breaks to do things such as go on facebook. This doesn't work if you are pressed for time. I also find it helps me to NOT be systematic. For example, I have started in the bathroom and then decided to clean the top of the refrigerator, which was terribly dusty. Once I climbed a step stool to work on that, I realized that the built-in wine rack above the refrigerator was also terribly dusty. We never use it, though I suppose we could store bottles of mineral water up there. Anyway, I dusted both, then tried racking the Pellegrino. It doesn't work. The bottles aren't the right shape. Back to the bathroom now. It is still snowing.
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The snow continues, though it's falling more lightly, and there is no accumulation. Another house cleaning tip: have plenty of thick, white, cotton bar cloths. They are super for dusting and drying
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Another tip: Be curious, but not obsessive. What is in the medicine cabinet? And while you are in there, clean the shelves and also the dust which has piled up on all the fragrance and lotion and soap samples you have collected, but never used. But if the goal is general cleaning, do not dive into a closet which is going to take hours. Files will probably require a day of their own, also cleaning out the computers.
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Bathroom is done. Furniture moved from living room, so the roomba can vacuum. First load of wash into dryer. Now on to the kitchen...
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I have finished the kitchen, more or less. The living room can't be dusted till the roomba is done. The hall can't be mopped, because the living room furniture is in the hall. The clothes are not dry yet, which means I cannot make the bed.
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Two more tips for house cleaning. Stop when you begin to get tired and frustrated.

Tip number two: always begin house cleaning several days before house guests or a party, so you can stop when you begin to get tired and frustrated and still have time to get the job done.

Tip number three: Consider whether you want everything you found under the kitchen counter. All those plastic bags, most of which are not large enough to be used in the garbage can. The wrapping paper that gets used once a year. The reusable grocery bags sent by grateful good cause organizations. The broken down cardboard boxes, saved for a reason you cannot remember...

The snow has stopped. Per NOAA, rain will follow.

Snow

NOAA predicted a winter storm(in May) for yesterday. 7 inches of snow were possible in the Twin Cities. Alas, it missed us, going south and east. Owatonna, a town about an hour south of the Cities, got fifteen inches. I have friends in Menominee, Wisconsin, an hour and a half east. They have lovely wintery photos and tree branches breaking due to the weight of the snow. I have nothing except damp sidewalks and streets.

Sherlock

Patrick and I saw the Reichenbach Fall episode of Sherlock last night. It's a tour de force emotionally, due in the good part to the acting. The two leads were wonderful as usual, and the guy playing Moriarty was terrific. But I'm not sure the script works. I don't really believe the twists or the explanations. Because of the way the show is paced -- very quickly, with many jumps -- I don't find it especially easy to follow, which I don't mind. But I will have to watch it again to decide about the script. The other problem is -- it's a cliffhanger. Good thing there will be another season.

Mark Gaddis has said there's a clue hidden in the Reichenbach Fall episode, which tells viewers how Sherlock survived the fall at the episode's end. Patrick went on line and discovered there are entire sites devoted to explaining what the clue might be. He spent a couple of hours looking at them, but stopped himself before he watched a video reenactment of the fall made by a zealous fan, showing what might have happened. But he bookmarked the video.

I am struggling with a short story at the moment. It's SF and intended to be funny. I had a solution to the narrator's problem, but it required one coincidence too many. I worry about plausibility when writing comic SF. Do the writers of Sherlock worry? The cliffhanger at the end of the first season is resolved when Moriarty gets a call on his cell phone. Apparently it's Irene Adler, offering hims a deal he cannot refuse, if he will let Sherlock and John live. Likely? Not really. For one thing, how does she know what's going on? And how does she manage to call at just the right moment?

And yet they have an insane smash hit... Of course, it really helps to have Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman and all the other wonderful English actors.

Weather

Rain intermixed with today. I met with Lyda and Naomi to write in a coffee shop. We do this every week, and it's really important to me.

I got work done on a new story, which I think will be pretty good.

Villains

Patrick and I agreed that we did not think it was useful to think of individuals as evil, since it pulls them out of context and makes it seem as if the individuals are the entire problem, rather than societies.

Later the same day, Patrick said he had changed his mind. He was able to think of an individual who can be described as evil. Dick Chaney.

I decided he's right, and I would add Margaret Thatcher to the list of genuinely evil people.

I still have very little interest in villains. They should be put in a safe place where they can do no harm, and if neurologists and psychologists want to study them, fine.

Societies that work badly and unfairly do interest me.

What If Eleanor Roosevelt Could Fly?

I did a panel on alternative history at Worldcon. I wanted to talk about it's so popular right now. The panel moderator and the people in the audience wanted to talk about, what would have happened if the South had had semi-automatic weapons during the Civil War? This reminded me of Saturday Night Live's great parody of a what-if historical discussion, "What if Eleanor Roosevelt could fly?" which ended with images of Mrs. Roosevelt leading bombers over Germany during WWII.

I can think of one alternative history I really like: Terry Bisson's Fire on the Mountain. It gives a genuinely different vision of the past and future, where the struggle to end slavery in the US takes a different course and the end result is a better and more humane society.

The idea that history is contingent and changeable is useful. It gives us hope. We are not doomed to the awful mess that appears to be impending right now.

But often this message gets lost in alternative histories -- in the details of, what if Napoleon had died early in his career? Or Julius Caesar had not been stabbed?

Tery Bisson knows about the broad social issues that underlay Harper's Ferry. He can talk for hours about John Brown and Bloody Kansas. A lot the people who obsess about alternative history do not seem to know context. Their idea of history comes down to key events and great men.

I don't know where I'm going with this. Thinking about the Convergence panel, of course.

I wonder if I could write an alternative history about real change? About humanity reaching the bifurcation in the trousers of time, to use Terry's Pratchett's image, and actually taking the other leg.

Facebook and Computer Solitaire

This is from facebook, responding to a friend who has decided he's spending too much time on facebook and with computer games.

I focused on facebook to break the habit of checking political and economic blogs every morning. The news was mostly depressing and angering. Since a lot of my facebook colleagues are interested in politics, I still get some news, but intermixed with cat pictures and xycd. (I don't have to worry about political disagreements, because I block people whose opinions bother me. For example, everyone who decided that Newtown was a good time to argue in favor of guns got blocked at once. Anyone who doesn't understand good manners in a time of grief and horror is too weird for me.) I do think I spend too much on fb. I'm thinking about ways to move away from it.

I also play a lot of computer solitaire. Sometimes this is useful. I can think while playing, since I am not paying much attention to the game. It's a way of fidgeting while I think. But reading or writing or cleaning house or taking a walk all sound more useful and fun. Life is short, and I am wasting too much of it.

Snow

I suspect the storm last night will be the last of the winter. I cancelled an eye appointment today, because the National Weather Service said six to ten inches of snow were possible. But the storm came and went and left only four inches, which has quickly melted. Only a few patches are left. As storms go, it was a disappointment.

To be fair to the weather people, there were accumulations of ten inches north and south of the Twin Cities.

Twin Cities, April 23

This photo is from the Loring Park Gardens site. It's a lovely little urban park at the edge of downtown Minneapolis.

Free Downloads Warning

I mentioned earlier that many of my stories are online. They are at legit sites, posted with my permission: online magazines, Asimov's, my website.

There are also stories at free download mega sites. Be careful of these. First of all, the work was not posted with my permission. Second, another author has suggested that some of these sites may be scams, gathering information on people who visit the sites and including viruses in downloads.

I pass this warning on for what it may be worth.