C.J. Cherryh's Blog, page 166

Our Mariners team (Seattle) has a new manager…

Wedge, who shepherded the Cleveland Indians in 2007.

Jane and I are both…I don't say, baseball fans, because we won't watch just any game…but staunch Mariners fans. We really love going to Mariners games at Safeco. We've had two rotten years. And we've got some class 1 good players. So once again—hope springs eternal! Maybe 2011 will be our year!

Will books be phasing out in 5 years…after 4000 years of use?

This chap thinks so. And he has some interesting points.

demise of books

Mostly his argument hinges on the developing world.

So you advance literacy in Africa and Asia. You need books. You need a lot of books. A lot of trees…

When phones came to Asia, they didn't start with miles of copper wire. They used cell towers…

When electrical power comes to remove villages, it doesn't come so much with power lines, but solar panels.

Personally, I think the market IS shifting faster than anybody had predicted. I don't think it'll go quite that fast, because book lovers are sentimental about books—BUT—if you're sitting in a village in Africa, a laptop with 10,000 books installed is a library. And the classics, textbooks, and reference books will probably be the mass of books that does go that direction. The outlay school districts make in books is huge.

So what happens when that money goes, not to, say, venerable old Putnam or MacMillan, but to Microsoft, and the makers of e-readers? Personally, my money is on the Very Cheap Laptop for that job, because it doubles as a math-science-internet machine. And the cost is about equal.

But what happens to Putnam and MacMillan?

What happens when Johnny's dog eats not just his homework, but his entire laptop? I'm sorry, Miss Jones, my computer crashed?

Not, Report to the principal's office, but Report to IT.

It's an interesting new world out there. Again, my bet is a long, long period when we'll see Original print books, and then people hawking copies of Original Print, etc.

Heaven help us if we have a major Coronal Mass Ejection equalling the one in the 1800′s and a few months (or years) off the grid.

Of course by week 1, half the country would be gibbering lunatics.

If you re-log in, since we installed the new anti-bot gateway, it will do differently…

We think it will send you to your own dashboard. From there, just hit the WAVE in the dark grey header and you should instantly get where you thought you were going.

If you should mistakenly get sent to the admin dashboard, do let us know.

Got the Subaru back and it runs like new.

Dunno if timing chains get worn or what, but it seems peppier. You might think 'racket', replacing a still functional timing chain, but over the years, I've come to believe Subaru when they say at x0,000 miles you should replace x. The car has always run better afterward. Brakes are nice. Real nice thing to have. New wiper blades: I figure the rubber is the same age in all 3. Heavy hit on the credit card, but the car's now fit for another 38,000 miles. It already has 112,000. It's not unusual to see Subarus up here going 200,000 miles and more. You pay more upfront, but they last.

I tossed a bunch of 'members' with too many letters in member names…

…and if I accidentally tossed a 'good guy' I do apologize, and hope you will re-enlist! My rule is if it's got too many improbable consonants in a string, or too many dots, it goes, as probably a 'bot trying to get in to sollicit members for something. We're getting an absolute flood of 'bot signup attempts right now, so I really hope I haven't accidentally tossed one of our valued members!

Jane has a new shirt design up: the Blood Red Moon cover…in time for Halloween…

See her page for details and links.

OSG has got info on someone in Spokane with 3 very needy adult kittehs…

If you're in a position to take one or more of these, it'd require a pickup in Spokane.

The faithful Subaru's in the shop, getting it's 110,000 mile checkup.

Got it in 2004, and it's been perfect. We try to take good care of it. It's carried us from Spokane to Memphis, to Dallas, Chicago, Toronto, and to San Diego and San Francisco without a glitch. It's amazing on snow: you'll have cars in the ditch left and right, and our little Forester just keeps going, steady and never losing traction. We had bumper cars atop Snowqualmie pass, on our way to a Rustycon: we saw 'em in snowbanks, in the ditch, everywhere, but our little beast just kept going. There's a reason every third car in Washington is a Subaru. They can't take chains, because of the AWD, but then, they don't need them. Gas consumption is good, even by today's standards. And they're comfy—not to mention the heated seats in front. Those are to die for on a snowy morning. It never has a mechanical issue. It's in today for routine maintenance and an oil change, and I may say the mechanics at Appleway Subaru hung the moon. There's a reason there's not that much turnover of personnel in that shop. They know you, know your car, keep careful records—I just got a call confirming (since they didn't do the last oil change: they're quite a far drive) that I still use synthetic oil.

You know we travel with cats…

We found this marvelous thingie to replace our ferret cage. http://www.dogkennels.com/dog-kennels/dog-exercise-pens/softsideplaypennavytan.cfm



It weighs incredibly little, pops open, folds in a jif, and when all zippers are zipped, even a ferret would not easily get out, unless it ate its way through. Cats won't. Dogs—well, generally won't. And for those of you who like to take a trip with your pets of almost any sort, this is big enough to contain the food dishes, litter pans, water, you name it, plus a sleeping mat. Our big multi-shelf thingie is good, it rolls, but it'll take two or three fingers as a pinched offering before it stays put. This one is a grab-it-shake-it, zip-it, assembly and easily fits under your suitcases in the car trunk.

Chilean miners are out…and here's wishing them a happy privacy…

…with their families, and such as they may need to get caught up on the world.

If this had been done as a NASA mission, they'd have studied and selected, and studied some more.

There were not so many 'selection criteria' on these guys, except they were all male, all Chilean (except 1 guy from Bolivia), all in fair condition—enough to be employed, but not without some medical issues. And they were very lucky to have an Elvis fan, a guy with paramedic training, and some strong-minded people who were not fatalists. If you haven't been up on the Chilean miner deal—they spent over a week without them knowing what was going on and with the world thinking they were dead; then they turned up alive, and the world beat a path to their doorstep—so far down they had some real technical challenges getting to them.

NASA had some helpful experience to offer, but I think they'll want to talk to these people, no question; a previous mine rescue (I think in PA) had some technology to offer—and in general these guys are very, very lucky.

SF conventions have proven again and again how much expertise you can find if you put a bunch of people in a hotel for the weekend: should civilization go down, we could probably rebuild it. And we'd have a library.

But an Elvis fan? he became the de facto morale officer. The medic got far more experience than he'd ever had. And the average guys just hung on and kept hoping, which also saved everybody's bacon. There were some negative moments, high tensions; but y'know, the average guys just hung on and kept the peace, and it all worked.

A nice moment for the world.