C.J. Cherryh's Blog, page 112
August 19, 2012
Historic ship under sail…
http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/19/us/massachusetts-uss-constitution/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
The USS Constitution, Old Ironsides, rarely moves under sail. But she still can.
Really good Korean drama on Netflix, if any of you have it.
And if you like LONG mediaeval dramas and foreign cultures, this is it for 62 hours of play-time. It’s called The Great Queen Soendaek, and it’s one of those drop what you’re doing and read the subtitles numbers, because if you miss a turn in this sequence, you’ll be left wondering.
We’re really enjoying it. We got hooked on Dae Jo Yeong, earlier, just about as long, and really loved it. These are live action, and for anyone who loves costuming and oriental art, delicious.
As a brief what’s going on, Korea has 3 sections: the north, Gogoryeo, which was the setting for Dae Jo Yeong; the central east, called Silla or Shilla; and the western south, Paek–something. They were separate kingdoms, and to a certain extent separate cultures. Gogoryeo in the north was early on much concerned with invasion by the Chinese (it IS a peninsula) but that is now settled, and this is the 600′s, when Shilla was mostly concerned with an internal power struggle. Reading up on the Korean samurai types, or Hwarang, the “Flower Girls” of legend, they are male at the time of this story, but have a tradition of, apparently, female court officials as the leaders. It’s a different culture, and quite interesting. And the kid who plays young Deok Man (pronounced Taman or Daman) is one of the best actresses I’ve ever seen on screen. She can pitch a tizzy like no other, and the one that plays Deok Man as an adult is no slouch.
Way too much barbecue…
Haven’t been to a genuine picnic in a long time…but a local marine fish club (marine tanks are one of my hobbies) had their annual picnic and raffle, so Jane and I gathered up a goodly lot of the Hammer Coral from Hell (started as three heads and now is uncountable, each head about half an inch of hard skeleton and about 2″ of expanded anemone-like polyp. I’ve traded off about forty heads to the fish store, gave away another thirty to this same group, and finally am thinning it way out—it grows fast, and has just taken over my tank. And the cheatomorpha moss in the sump that helps supply microlife (copepods and other barely noticeable crustaceans to the tank above—that had grown monstrously thick, so I divvied off a lot of that just to give to people. Some people can’t grow cheato worth spit, but my rig does, so I share the wealth—which helps export phosphate (bad for animals, in excess) from my tank (cheato loves it, sucks it up, and when I toss it, that’s getting rid of surplus phosphate.)
So in the raffle we won a really nice favia, kind of looks like a green pineapple skin, about 4″ around with a 6″ tentacle reach. And that’s about all the room we have in the tank so we gave our other tickets to some nice folk we met. We were stuffed. Our 8″ plate diet is working—for one thing, to really remind us when we overindulge, that, yes, our eyes are bigger than our stomachs. But smoky hot dogs, hamburgers, and good pasta salad were just irresistible. Jane says the cookie pudding was special, but I had seconds of the pasta salad and another hot dog. Plus I had beer—I ordinarily don’t drink beer either, and Jane absolutely couldn’t drink it if she had nothing else, but with picnic food and being really cold, it was good. After which we were quite useless.
August 16, 2012
10 things I wondered about when I was 6…
1. When you do numbers in math, and say 1 + 1 equals 2, is the 2 actually 2 units of precisely the same size, or does the quantity within the numbers augment as you go? When you count, are the units in 3 all equal, or is it trickier than that?
2. why did the dinosaurs die? And are we sure they all did?
3. why do they ask questions about apples and oranges being in the same barrel in my arithmetic book? Everybody knows oranges spoil really fast, but apples will last for a long time if you keep them cool, and everybody knows if you put rotten fruit up against good fruit, the good fruit is apt to start rotting sooner. So the answer to how many apples and how many oranges in the barrel is “No oranges if you don’t sell them real fast, and a lot fewer apples than you would have had if you’d stored them properly in their own barrel.”
4. where do shooting stars come from?
5. what makes lightning bugs glow?
6. how does grandma’s crank phone work?
7. why can pigs eat dirt and not get sick?
8. why do rainbows move when you chase them?
9. why does it rain?
10. where did all the water in the oceans come from?
Oddly enough, some are still real good questions.
August 14, 2012
I have decided I know why the universe is expanding…srsly. ;)
I think…remember you heard it here first…that all our atoms and stars and galactic clusters are rushing away from each other because…
…wait for it…
Another Big Bang has happened at the heart of it all, and new matter is accelerated outward, pushing our universe outward at all inner points of origin. Being separate universes we cannot see each other. But that’s it. The cosmos has hiccuped again, and we are one in a succession of such pulses, chasing the wavefront of the universe before us. Dark matter and dark energy are the only manifestation of the other universe threaded through our own—and it keeps on happening.
Of course, I may have another theory by supper. But I enjoy wondering about such things.
August 13, 2012
Under the weather…
I managed to sprain my foot getting off the city carousel, and the nice dinner (after grazing the green room for 3 days) turned out to be based on an onion reduction sauce. It was a beef mole, and they advertised it as 22 spices, a holiday type preparation, which I am very sure was grandmama’s recipe, beginning with, “take one bushel of onions and boil until they constitute one cup of sauce.’ Suffice it to say that I’ve taken every med I have and I’m still feeling the effcts of it. Also I have nearly lost my voice. I did a reading that contained a lot of Ilisidi dialogue, and I can say my voice was appropriate, at least. But I’d expected it to clear up fairly fast after leaving the hotel. Not so much.
August 12, 2012
We’re at Spocon this weekend…
…hanging out with friends, trying to figure why the same printer that printed off a sample of Jane’s cover very well last time is screwing up the image this time. Patricia and Mike Briggs (and Sparky) [if you haven't read Patricia Briggs you should] are there—great chance to hang out, laugh—the cats are of course Concerned because the Food Sources have been late returning, but hey, they need new experiences. At the moment Shu is sitting on the paper as we’re trying to straighten out the ‘old’ printer…we have a cat-jam, or as a repairman legendarily said on a note to Marion Zimmer Bradley regarding why her under-desk printer wouldn’t work, “removed 10 pound cat from paper tray”.
Apparently it was Fluffy’s favorite spot to nap, especially when the machinery was running.
August 10, 2012
Foreigner now on Audible…
Volume 1. Go make it a bestseller. That would be nice. 
The Perseids are falling….
PERSEID METEOR SHOWER: Earth is entering a stream of debris from Comet Swift-Tuttle, source of the annual Perseid meteor shower. Worldwide observers are now reporting more than 30 Perseids per hour, a number that could triple during the weekend when Earth reaches the heart of the debris zone. Forecasters recommend looking during the dark hours before dawn, especially Sunday morning, August 12th, when activity is expected to be highest. Visit http://spaceweather.com for sky maps, observing tips, and links to a live meteor radar.
