Walter Jon Williams's Blog, page 131

Parkour Crazy

It’s Damien Walters’ latest show reel.

Uncle Hugo

Hugo Gernsback, the founder of modern science fiction, at his desk.
Feel free to make up your own joke.
(And what is that thing attached to his telephone?)

Five Armies, No Waiting

For the most part the holidays were spent in attitudes of collapse, but I did manage to drag myself to the theater to viewThe Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies.
Those who remember my notes on the previous two films will recall that I feared the third movie would consist only of the Battle of Lake Town, the Battle of Dol Guldur, and the Battle of the Five Armies, for two and a half hours of solid combat. And alas, I was pretty much right.
The Battle of Dol Guldur, at least, is mercifully brief,...

Part Six, At Last!

The grand serialization experiment is over, andHardwired, Episode Six is now available at Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. The folks at Apple are apparently taking an extended holiday, and Episode Six isn’t yet available on their site despite my waiting more than 24 hours to make this announcement.
It’ll probably be up on iBooks by Monday, though.
It has to be admitted that the experiment of serializing a book that is already available in its entirety hasn’t been a great success— t...

My Private Idaho

This morning’s surprise was to look out the window and see 4-5 inches of fresh powder lying on everything. My neighbor had hooked up a small sled to his ATV and was pulling his little girl around his yard. (Safety experts would cringe, but I thought it was lovely, and kinda wanted to jump on myself.)
We usually get 3-4 severe winter storms each season, but the snow almost always melts after a few hours. This storm came after many days in which the temperature rarely got above freezing, so thi...

Dropping the Light Ball

It’s New Year’s Day. I am for the most part recovered from the stomach bug that’s kept me down the last couple days, and which meant that instead of going to any New Year celebrations, I remained at home and watched the Times Square ball dropnot on CNN, because CNN cut to commercialjust before midnight, causing me to jump to NBC just as the countdown reached 11.
(I know that all the celebrations were on tape delay, because the ball dropped on the East Coast two hours before midnight here, but...

Chickenhawk

There’s a massively important article on the American military in the currentAtlantic, which is fortunately readable online. It’s by James Fallows, who has always seemed to be the military analyst who asks the right questions.
Here’s your take-away:
If I were writing [a history of our times] now, I would call itChickenhawk Nation, based on the derisive term for those eager to go to war, as long as someone else is going. It would be the story of a country willing to do anything for its military...

Dates and Times

We have released our lovely calendar for the year 2015. As in previous years, the calendar features images from the previous year’s travels, plus a list of holidays from the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and the U.K.
As with previous years, I make no money from this. I just do this to share my life with my friends.
You’ve probably got to have a calendar, so why not this one? (Not the best advertising slogan, I must admit.) But it is very pretty, and besides, if you have a pressing need to find out when...

25 December

Have a happy Isaac Newton’s birthday!

Nature and Nature’s laws lay hid in night:

God said, “Let Newton be!” and all was light.

Pre-Electric

On Christmas Evethe Los Altos neighborhood on the west side of Albuquerque turns off its street lights and returns for one evening to the 19th Century. The only illumination is the soft golden glow of luminarias, which are basically a candle in a brown paper bag, with a bit of dirt or kitty litter in the bottom to keep it stable.
Photos really can’t do justice to the silent flickering flame, in this case outlining every curb, sidewalk, wall, roofline, garden, and driveway. Most years we walk t...