Jlawrence’s Comments (group member since Mar 08, 2010)

Jlawrence’s comments from the The Sword and Laser group.

Updated with March 30 meetup in first post (aka Borderlands lives) - RSVP !

Also, definitely going to FogCon this Friday at least, maybe Saturday, too (Cat Valente! Kim Stanley Robinson!).

So happy they made it! :D And still pledging my sponsorship tonight.

Update: as a result of feedback from last Thur's public meeting, Borderlands is going to try to stay open through paid sponsorships!

They need 300 $100 sponsorships by March 31st to stay open in 2015. Benefits of being a sponsor & reasons behind it here:
http://borderlands-books.blogspot.com...

I'll become a sponsor on Monday at our meetup. Hoping the support comes through (the majority of attendees Thur said they'd show support in this way).

Randolph wrote: "Olivia wrote: "http://borderlands-books.blogspot.com...

March 2015"

It's a real long time until 2018. Why close in 2015?"

The wages increase gradually over that time frame. Alan believes that the store's financial state is doomed with that increase, so he wants to do a graceful closing early to avoid what he forecasts as a slow painful donward spiral. See the two posts I linked above for more details on his reasoning.

Borderlands blog added some posts from Alan, one about alternatives to closing they considered:
http://borderlands-books.blogspot.com...

and a nuanced post about the way San Francisco's minimum wage law is rolling out:
http://borderlands-books.blogspot.com...

There's a longer post about the reasons for the closing on their website main page:
http://www.borderlands-books.com/

They're also holding a public discussion in the cafe at 7pm on Thursday, February 12th to discuss alternatives to closing the store. Veronica said she's going, and I will too, so join us if you can!

I'm currently reading Catherynne Valente's excellent (so far) take on future AI, Silently and Very Fast, the young adult fantasy/science fiction mix Below the Root, and Vintage Games which surveys landmark video games.

How about you?

Oh mannnnn such bad news! :(

We talked about The Night Circus, The Sparrow - which we will continue discussion of next month since I was the only one who finished it haha, Ridley Scott's hits and misses, The Dresden Files, ham radio, Outlander, CONVENTIONS - specifically DragonCon, ComicCon and the local FogCon which happens this March (see link above!), and much more that I'm forgetting.

Ian, I wish FogCon had their programming schedule up (it's still blank right now), that'd help me decide for sure if I'm gonna go/which days I would go. :)

EDIT: Next meetup is Monday, Feb 23 - added RSVP link to first post, and here!

Dharmakirti wrote: "The group "2015: The Year of Reading Women" will be reading Valente's Palimpsest in July. Come join us. :)"

Nice, will do!

Gah! I was super-delinquent adding the Jan meetup as an event! It's now up, so please RSVP - link in first post.

70 book reading challenge this year, including all the S&L choices, picks for another book club, some re-reads of titles I haven't read since high school, like Lord of the Flies, some recent releases like Ancillary Sword, The Peripheral, and The Bone Clocks, Shadow Scale as soon as it comes out, more Catherynne M. Valente, and the shorter of unread books I have stacked in my apt (graphic novels get high priority for helping with the challenge! ;) Saga will be the first of those).

Hey, I grew up in Houston, too - it's not all bad: there's Jones Hall, the Menil collection, the Museum of Fine Arts, other museums I'm forgetting, the yearly Art Car Parade, and, to get away from Bladerunner-ness, the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center. AND... at least it's not Dallas. ;)

I can't make the 16th, but that'd be awesome of some of you can (again?).

60% through Castle in the Air (Howl 2) by Diana Wynn Jones, hitting the essay portion of Perspectives On Orson Welles and will soon start The Amulet of Samarkand by Jonathan Stroud. Should have those finished by the holiday break, during which I plan to read Permutation City by Greg Egan and a couple of Catherynne Valente novellas.

Glad it went well! Looking forward to re-joining in January!

Hey folks, a note about Monday (Nov 24)'s meetup - Borderlands is having their all-staff meeting that night, so the cafe will close early, at 7pm. They're graciously letting us stay til 8 as usual anyway, the only stipulation is we HAVE to be out of there by 8. I told them it would not be a problem.

Again, I won't be there but V the Supreme Sword will be! Also, there's no Dec meetup, but we will resume in 2015 on Jan. 26. Have fun on Monday, and see you in January!

terpkristin wrote: "but I still have Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo, and the Battle that Defined a Generation and What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions"

I'm especially curious what you'll think of What If? engineering-wise, terpkristin. :D

Jenny (Reading Envy) wrote: "Jlawrence wrote: "I'm almost done with Joss Whedon: The Biography, which inspired me to start the Joss-written Astonishing X-Men, Vol. 1: Gifted, and just so I'll be reading too much at once I'm also about to begin Patricia McKillip's Alphabet of Thorn..."

Ooh I love that little McKillip book. Do you have the one with the gorgeous cover?"

I bought the Kindle version, and that cover shows up as a thumbnail for it in my Kindle library screen, but they didn't include it full-size in the ebook for some reason. :( Been looking forward to reading it for a long time, though!

I'm almost done with Joss Whedon: The Biography, which inspired me to start the Joss-written Astonishing X-Men, Vol. 1: Gifted, and just so I'll be reading too much at once I'm also about to begin Patricia McKillip's Alphabet of Thorn and Greg Egan's Permutation City.

How about you?