S. Evan Townsend's Blog, page 90

Outplayed

During last night's game between the University of Washington Huskies and the Nike Ducks (who play for the University of Oregon), I kept thinking of a line from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. In reference to their enemy's ship, Kirk says "She can still outrun us and outgun us." And last night the Ducks were doing both: outrunning and outgunning the Huskies. And, unfortunately, there was no Mutara Nebula to even the odds.

Duck quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. would be on the run from the Husky defenders, looking like he's going to have to throw the ball away, and, bang, he'd hit a receiver. This happened over and over. I can only think of one time he missed while on the run.

The first half of the game was a defensive battle with multiple punts by both teams. But the young Huskies would make a mistake, get a crucial penalty, and save Oregon's bacon too many times.

The Huskies put a valiant effort in the second half, coming back from a 16-3 deficit to within one touchdown of winning the game. But then our true freshman quarterback, Jack Browning, was injured and we had to put in a second stringer. With 1:11 left we had to go 80 yards. But on the third play, the replacement quarterback threw and interception and that ended the game. The final score was 26-20.

This is the 12th straight loss by the Huskies to the Ducks. After last week's win against USC, I thought we might be able to beat them. But no such luck.

The Huskies are a young team who lost a lot of key players to the NFL last year. I think there's great things in the future for this team. But I am getting tired of every year saying "next year we'll be great." I hope one of these times, it's true.

The Speculative Fiction Cantina with Valerie Willis and Kimiko Alexandre

Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are pleased to welcome Valerie Willis and Kimiko Alexandre.
Valerie WillisValerie Willis 

Valerie Willis spends her spare time writing novels inspired by a wide variety of forgotten lores, mythology, and history. Growing up, she always had a love for writing and during her early school years published several poems in Anthologies for Youth Writers. Some of the authors who have inspired her are Robin McKinley, James Clavell, and C.S. Lewis.

Valerie's Books:

Cedric the Demonic Knight 

Romasanta: Father of Werewolves 

Tattooed Angels Trilogy: Rebirth 

Valerie's Links:

Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Amazon
ReadWave

Kimiko AlexandreKimiko Alexandre

Kimiko Alexandre isn't Japanese. You can tell that by looking at her but she loves the Japanese culture. So when she was looking for her pen name she decided on Kimiko; it was just a bonus that it meant 'Noble Child'.

She's an import from Kansas and currently lives in New Jersey. (Please no jokes - about either state. She doesn't have a dog named Toto, nor does she have a Jersey accent.) She’s wanted to write since she was about 12 when she started reading her mom’s bodice rippers. It was only in 1995 that she started reading sci-fi and urban fantasy and then she was hooked. She started out early in her "career" on the web as one of the first webcam girls (no there were no sex involved). She loved being a "life cam" girl and chatting with the people who came to her chat room to talk to her.

She started a podcast for writers and readers of urban fantasy called Talechasing in 2006 to share with others her road to getting published. She was also going to attempt to write it and podcast it as she went. (Yes she knows it was stupid). She had to put it on hold in 2007 when her mother got sick but picked it back up in 2009. In 2014 she got serious and sat her butt in a chair and finished her work in progress. In her free time (like she has much) she does audio work and can be found doing audio books for other authors when she isn't writing.

She has plenty more plans for more in her book series and even has ideas for another series stored in the back of her head. She loves mail, so never be afraid to message or mail her. She'll get back to you as soon as she can. After all, without readers she'd just be shouting into the dark.

Kimiko's Books

Guardians: Awakened

Kimiko's Links:

Website
Podcast
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram
Pintrest 

From Today's Show: Mission to Saturn's Moon to Look for Life

Listen to this show at 6:00 PM ET / 3:00 PM PT or in archive here.

Movie Review: Furious Seven

Last night I watched Furious Seven on Blu-ray. The seventh movie in the Fast and Furious franchise, it will probably be the last due to the untimely death of Paul Walker.

While Furious Seven wasn't as improbable as Fast and Furious 6 was, it still bordered on the ludicrous. In my review of six I proposed a new genre: "real world fantasy." That's because what happens in these moves that are set in the "real world" is almost fantasy. People survive car wreaks that would result in serious injuries or death in the real world. Cars move in ways they can't in real life. And a hacker turns out to be a pretty female. Not very realistic at all. (Okay, that last one is probably more probable than some of the other things in this movie.) And I love when people jump out of moving cars onto pavement and don't get a scratch.

***Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD***

In one scene they are chasing a bus (or large RV) with the hacker as a prisoner on board. The sides of the bus open to reveal miniguns that proceed to shoot up Paul Walker's Subaru. Okay, that should have killed Walker's character. So the character driving the bullet-proof vehicle cuts between the guns and the car. But the bullets are then declared "armor piercing." Yet no one whose vehicle is shot up is hurt. Well, except later when the bad guys get shot up.

And they never explained how the bad guy (Jason Statham) kept showing up wherever the good guys were. I was expecting there to be a leak in the government secret agency they were working with. But nope, no explanation.

***Spoilers Done***

So, yes, it was a fun (and loud) movie but park your critical thinking skills at the door.

And it seemed that Chrysler had some deal with the movie makers. Every time there were cars, there was at least one Mopar product, usually vintage (like an old Charger) but sometimes  new. In one scene there are four cars driven by the good guys: a McClaren, a Ferrari, a Bugatti, something black I didn't recognize but obviously a supercar (the black color made it hard to discern the shape), and a new Dodge Charger.  Of course, Chrysler is owned by Fiat, as is Ferrari, so they got two cars in that scene.

I gave Furious Seven three stars on Netflix mostly because I was mostly entertained. I just wish they'd cut the hand-to-hand fighting scenes for more car chases or shots of scantily-clad women.

Don't Mess with Tradition . . . Maybe

I'm not sure what made me think of this true event (except maybe that Monday was Thanksgiving in Canada).

My sister loves to experiment culinarily. She subscribes to magazines with all sorts of gourmet recipes.  Which is usually okay. She's a great cook and she's come up with some interesting things to try, most of which have been good.

One year for Thanksgiving, she wanted to try this rice stuffing for the turkey. And what sort of amazed me was how unhappy, disappointed, and frankly upset I was about it. I look forward to traditional turkey dressing all year and here it was, denied me. I don't even remember if the rice stuffing was bad or good, I just remember that it was wrong.

The lesson, of course, is don't mess with tradition. Well, except sometimes.

My wife's family has this Christmas tradition. You take turns opening presents while everyone watches. They start with the youngest and go around the room by age until everyone has opened one present. Then they start back with the youngest again and keep doing that until everyone is out of present. Some people run out of presents earlier than others so they have to sit there watching other people open presents.

One year, Christmas was at my house. So they said it was up to me to decide how to open presents. I glanced over and saw my wife's aunt, the oldest person in the room, but also the shortest adult. So I decreed we'd do it by height, shortest to tallest. Now the aunt, who was always last ,was fourth after the three children (my wife was fifth). I was second to last, my preternaturally tall brother-in-law last. I thought it worked out pretty well and no one seemed upset about it. The kids still got to go first it just changed the order of the adults.

So I guess in some ways it's okay to mess with tradition.

Just don't mess with my turkey stuffing.

Upset!

Going into Thursday nights game against the University of Southern California Trojans, the University of Washington Huskies were double-digit underdogs. The Trojans were ranked #17 and the Huskies were 2-2 on the season after a bad loss to California. The game was in prime time on ESPN so this was another game where they Huskies were expected to lose in front of a national radiance (like their season opening game against Boise State).

And to top if off, the game was being played on USC's home turf in front of their rabid fans and with their band doing all it can to intimidate opponents.

But there's something about USC. The Huskies have a habit of beating them when they aren't supposed to. The Husky defense forced turnovers including two interceptions. At first, the Washington offense had trouble capitalizing on those turnovers but eventually they made a touchdown after a fumble with a trick, two-pass play.

The USC offense couldn't catch a break and only converted on one third down the entire game. Their quarterback missed passes he shouldn't have including a 2-point conversion attempt. At one point the score was 17 - 6, UW on top.

A late rally by USC closed the gap to 5 points but USC couldn't get past the Huskies' very young defense. The game ended at 17 - 12, Washington on top. Washington is now 3-2 on the season and, gee, guess what, so is USC. I don't know if this loss will bump USC from the two 25 (where they were once ranked 6th), but it's not going to help them.

What made the game even a sweeter victory was it was against former UW coach Steve Sarkisian who Husky fans felt jilted when he left for USC at the end of 2013 regular season but before the Huskies bowl game that year. Already some in the media are saying Sarkisian was a bad choice for USC.

The Speculative Fiction Cantina with Sally Ann Melia and Amanda Clemmer

Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are pleased to welcome Sally Ann Melia and Amanda Clemmer
Sally Ann MeliaSally Ann Melia

Sally Ann Melia is life-long Science Fiction fan. She saw  Star Wars as a child and has loved Space Opera fiction and tales of huge Galactic Empires such as Frank Herbert’s Dune series and Iain M. Banks Culture. Guy Erma and the Son of Empire is her first full-length novel to be published.

She lives in Farnham, Surrey, UK with husband David, and has two children and 3 gerbils.

Sally's Books:


Guy Erma and the Son of Empire

Part 1. KIDNAP
Part 2. HUNTER
Part 3. EXILE

The Artwork of Guy Erma and the Son of Empire (free today)

Sally's Links:

Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads

Amanda ClemmerAmanda Clemmer

Amanda Clemmer is a full time writer who lives in New England with her husband and two cats. In her spare time she plays violin, reads, and plays epic board games. You can sample more of her work on her under-50-word short story blog, and on the official website for Automaton .

Amanda's Books:

Automaton

Mostly Human

The Exigency

Amanda's Links:

Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Google+
Goodreads

From Today's Show: NASA Europa Mission

Listen to this show at 6:00 PM ET / 3:00 PM PT or in archive here.

Restaurant Review: Miner's Drive-In Restaurant, Yakima, Washington

Yesterday I was in Yakima, WA, for a freelance assignment and I decided to try Miner's Drive-In Restaurant for dinner (or "supper" depending on where you live). I'd heard about Miner's from people saying it has good food and lots of it. I was a little concerned when my brother said they sell empty mayonnaise buckets for 75 cents. And indeed, there was a sign saying "Buckets: 75 cents" at the cash register.

When you walk into Miner's, head to the right where the cashiers are and order your food there. This is not cheap fast food. A "combo" with a bacon burger, fries, and a medium drink was more than $12. After ordering they give you a number on a tall stand and empty drink cups. Like most fast food joints these days, you fill your own cup. Interesting, they had Pepsi products but one fountain said "Coca Cola." Not sure how they get away with that.

The food arrives and if you've never been there before, prepare to be shocked. The hamburgers are huge and the medium fries were enough to feed a family. A family like the Duggars The hamburger was almost the size of a small dinner plate.

My wife was happy as they have fry sauce there (ketchup and mayonnaise) and also ranch and BBQ sauce mixed together.

So there's lots of food. How is it? The fries are okay, nothing special. I ordered the hamburger with their default fixings. That seemed to be lettuce, pickles, raw onions, and mayonnaise. I joked there was a pound of mayonnaise on my hamburger. There probably wasn't (probably a pound of hamburger, though). If you like mayonnaise on your burger, you'll love Miner's. I don't and I didn't. I would rather have less of a good hamburger. Like Five Guys.

My wife ordered a plain chicken sandwich. The chicken looked like un-breaded chicken fingers. She said it was okay. Of the four, she ate three. She ate them with a knife and fork so she wasn't eating the huge bun that they came on.

I'm glad I ate there once to experience it. But I won't go back.

Unless I need an empty mayonnaise bucket.

Miner's Drive-In Restaurant is located at 2415 S 1st St, Yakima, WA 98903, near the Valley Mall in south Yakima.

The Speculative Fiction Cantina whit Dianna Beirne and R. J. Eliason

Today on the Speculative Fiction Cantina we are proud to welcome Dianna Beirne and R. J. Eliason.
Dianna BeirneDianna Beirne

Dianna Beirne is the author of the Young Adult Fantasy series Aurelious Forty which includes Aurelious Forty; Volume One, Aurelious Forty; Volume Two and, the about to be released, Aurelious Forty; Volume Three. Prior to dedicating her time to writing, Dianna taught undergraduate and graduate courses about using literacy in the elementary, middle, and high school classroom.

She graduated from St. Bonaventure University with a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education, then obtained a Master’s degree in Literacy from Hofstra University before culminating her own academic endeavors with a Doctorate in Education specializing in Curriculum and Teaching from Northcentral University.

Dianna lives in New York and is the grateful mother of a son whom she misses terribly when he is away at college.

Dianna's Books:
Aurelious Forty; Volume One
Aurelious Forty; Volume Two
Aurelious Forty; Volume Three
Dianna's Links:
Website Facebook Twitter
R.J. EliasonR. J. Eliason
Ms. Eliason is both a writer and a fan of deeply immersive science fiction and fantasy novels. She loves to share with her fans the worlds she is creating, and the ones she is discovering. She writes contemporary YA novels dealing with LGBT themes under the name Rachel Eliason and fantasy/science fiction under R. J. Eliason.
R.J.'s Books:
Children of a New Earth
The Mage Chronicles
R.J.'s Links:
Website/Blog Facebook Twitter Wattpad
From today's show: Giant Ice Sheet on Mars
Listen to this show today at 6:00 PM ET / 3:00 PM PT or in archive here.

Is All-Wheel Drive/Four-Wheel Drive Good for Winter Driving

I just finished reading an article called "Do you Really Need AWD in the Snow?" The gist of the article was that a good set of snow tires on a car with front or real-wheel drive can be better than all-wheel-drive or four-wheel-drive without snow tires.

What's the difference between all-wheel drive (AWD) and four-wheel drive (4WD)? AWD is permanent, all the time. It is designed to operate in all conditions including dry pavement.  4WD can be turned on and off. It is usually designed only for off-road or slick roads. It used to be (still might be) you could damage a vehicle by using 4WD on dry pavement.

(And why is four-wheel drive abbreviated "4WD" and not FWD? Because FWD means "Front Wheel Drive.")

I currently own a car that is AWD. I didn't buy it because it had AWD. I bought it because, well, I wanted it. The AWD was an added bonus (the car doesn't come any other way).

Last year I put snow tires on it and happened to drive over Snoqualmie Pass on what turned out to be the worst weather day of the year. The State Patrol had turned on the "Chains Required" sign. But, if you have AWD or 4WD and snow tires, you don't have to put chains on. So I didn't (I don't even own chains for that car). At one point I was going uphill in a lane that hand not been plowed or driven in recently and I was passing people (I was doing about 45 mph). It was great. I've never had more confidence going over that pass in bad weather. (And I've done it in a car with fat summer tires with chains required.)

At one point a Dodge Durango passed us going what I thought was too fast. And I was apparently right, because about a mile down the road, he was wrecked, having ran off the road and into the mountain side and bounced back into the road. He managed to stay on his wheels but there were pieces of sheet metal scattered about.

Which brings me to my point. AWD and 4WD will get your car moving in slick conditions. But you still need to be able to stop and turn. And for that you need snow tires. Some people with AWD/4WD think it makes them invincible in slick conditions. It doesn't. It helps, but snow tires help more.

So while the article argued that snow tires might be a better option (and cheaper in the long run), I think it more has do with the driver and their skill and intelligence level. As I said, I took a car with fat summer tires over Snoqualmie Pass when chains were required and didn't put on chains or anything. Because I knew how to drive in snow (having grown up in snowing Southeast Idaho) I could do that. That, and I was young and crazy.

Snow tires help a lot, and are cheaper than AWD/4WD. And AWD/4WD helps, but even still you'll probably want to put on snow tires.

But driver attitude and skill are going to trump technology every time. As we used to say on the racetrack, money can buy a nice car, but it can't buy skill or talent. The same is true for winter driving.

Turnovers Killed Us

In the University of Washington's loss yesterday to the California Golden Bears, going into the end of the fourth quarter the Huskies had given up five turnovers which resulted in 17 points for the Bears. We lost by 16 points (30-24). The game ended when a last-hope drive by the Huskies was stopped by yet another Cal interception, for a total of 6 turnovers.

For a while it look good. The Huskies were on top of a very good California team. But then the turnovers happened. The score actually doesn't reflect the dominance of the Bears. The Husky defense seemed to play most of the game but still did well, often holding the Bears to the field goal or simply forcing them to punt.

I'm still impressed with true-freshmen quarterback Jake Browning. Yes, he made some bad mistakes but he's improving every game. The Bears defense was just better then what he's faced before, except maybe the BSU Broncos in the first game of the season.

This loss moves the Huskies to 2-2 for the season and 0-1 in conference. This is looking more and more like a re-building year and maybe next year we'll live up to the hype that Coach Chris Petersen was hired with.

The Huskies have a bye next week and then on Thursday October 8th play USC in Los Angeles. We can pray for a miracle.