S. Evan Townsend's Blog, page 136

Another Blog Interview

Read an in-depth interview with me at My World Blog.  Find out who my favorite character is that I've written and what I like to read when I'm not writing.

Voted

In Washington State we have all vote-by-mail elections.  They send you a ballot, you fill it out, and send it back by midnight election day (I think).  I like this because it's easy, convenient, and I can have the ballot there while I'm googling about people I'm not sure about.  Actually, this year, there was only one of those, a non-partisan judge position.

But I don't like vote-by-mail because I like the idea of the community coming together to vote.  You meet your neighbors,you put some effort into voting, and I always took my kids to inculcate them in the responsibilities of being a citizen.  But since vote-by-mail it's sorta "hey, kids, I'm voting" and they glance up from the X-Box (actually, they are all of voting age now; scary thought).   Plus it seems vote-by-mail has too many ways to game the system (one woman registered her dog to vote).

Unfortunately, I live in a very blue state so my vote for president doesn't really matter, much.  But it still feels important to vote and there's a lot of "down ballot" votes, too (Senator, Congressman, etc.).  Just wish I didn't have to wait two weeks to find out who won.

Snow?

Just checked the weather forcast and they are talking snow possible for tomorrow and Wednesday.  Maybe I waited to long too put the snow tires on.  On the bright side, it's supposed to be above freezing so probably won't stick around.

Six Sentence Sunday: The Club

Today's Six Sentence Sunday from Chapter Two of Book of Death :

The music assaulted me like a barrage of noise.  The band on the stage was amazingly loud for a trio of scraggly-haired men.  I was sure the place was in violation of the fire code judging from the number of bodies writhing on the dance floor.  It was dark and the only lighting was flashing and changing multi-colored lights that battered the eyes.  Even so, I could see there were a few men without shirts dancing in the throng of flesh in the center of the room.  There may have been some topless women, too, but with most of the hair both male and female reaching the back, it was difficult to be sure.

Go Dawgs!

As of this moment, the University of Washington Huskies are 3-3 (1-2 in conference).  They have played the #3 team in the nation at the time (LSU; lost), the number 8 team (Stanford; won), the number 2 team (Oregon; lost), and the number 11 team (USC; lost).  So being 3-3 with that schedule is nothing to be (too) ashamed of.

Tonight they play unranked but not doing too badly Arizona.  And I'm hoping they win (of course).  Then the week after they play Oregon State who are currently ranked 8.  But after that the Huskies' schedule gets much much easier (Cal, Utah, Colorado, Wazzu).  If they win tonight I think they can easily pull off a 8-4 record (assuming they lose to OSU).  If they lose tonight they still should be 7-5 but that's worse than last year.

The problem is, they went 8 and 4 last season so 8-4 this year would not be an improvement (unless they win their bowl game and go 9-4).  Yes, this year they've been plagued with injuries (and it shows every time Keith Price has to scramble out of the way of a sack).  But eventually fans are going to get tired of saying "maybe next year."  To me the perfect Husky season (other than a 13-0 national championship) would be a winning record, winning their bowl game, and beat Oregon, USC, and WSU.  Is that too much to ask?  So far this year it looks like we'll at least do two of those.  (Sorry, Sare, for the stupidball post.)

UPDATE: we lost … badly.

Another Great Review for Book of Death

Another great review for Book of Death at Worlds of Escapism.

Planet Just Around the Corner

Scientists have found an Earth-sized planet not too far away, as astronomical things go.  Colonization potential?  Probably not since it is too close to its star and surface temps are a bit balmy at 2,200 degrees.   The planet circles Alpha Centari B which is about four light years away, or about 25 trillion miles.

But not all is lost because this planet might mean there are more planets circling the star and some might be capable of supporting life, even human colonists (or Kzin invaders).

Problem is getting there.  If you could send a spaceship at the speed of the Voyager probes, now the furthest away human-made things, which is around 35,800689 mph according to Google, it would take . . . about 689 million hours (in round numbers).  That's about 79,000 years.  To get there.  So obviously we'd have to figure out something faster.  And forget sending humans (80,000 years of "are we there, yet?").

But it is interesting.  Let's just hope the Kzin aren't there waiting for us.

Not your Grandparents' Snow White

Last night I watched on Blu-ray Snow White and the Huntsman.  (It took me until this movie to figure that Thor was Captain Kirk's father?)  I enjoyed it more than I thought I would.  It was a big production stylistically shot (according to the Internet Movie Database it had a $170 million budget).  Charlize Theron and Kristen Stewart were both lovely in it (although Charlize had the cooler costumes) and there was enough action, adventure, and fun to keep even me interested.  They didn't over-use CGI effects as is so common in movies these days.  There were a lot of CGI effects but they were part of the story, not the story itself.

I did think the writers/directors needed to study medieval war tactics a bit more for accuracy sake.  And I was trying to decided if explosions pre-dating gunpowder were an anachronism or were magical.  I gave it three stars on Netflix but it was closer to 3.5 (not an option on Netflix).  I enjoyed it, I just didn't really enjoy it.

Me on Horror

Read about why I don't read horror at Noracast. Also an excerpt from Book of Death.  Check it out!

Sunday Six: The Sniper

Today's Sunday Six from Chapter One of Book of Death :

I thought somebody dropped a dish.  I heard a tinkle of broken glass, but it was followed by what sounded like a distant gun shot.  Anica made a yelping noise and I looked at her.  Blood was flowing down the front of her dress, staining the tasteful blue to dark red.  It seemed to take me ages, but in reality was probably less than a second, to realize she'd been shot and the bullet had come from the woods across the lake and had broken through the window. I dove over and knocked Anica to the floor as the window shattered, letting in frigid air and the sound of more gunfire.