What are U doing today? (Ongoing thread) Showing 3,751-3,800 of 8,509

[Jim]

Neither or both. That's what I like about it. It defies genre pigeon-holing like The Einstein Intersection, Lord of Light, & several others favorites.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "Neither or both. That's what I like about it. It defies genre pigeon-holing like The Einstein Intersection, Lord of Light, & several others favorites."

Now I'm confused again. :)

[Linda]

We heard on NPR (National Public Radio) a discussion on some TV Series. One was House of Cards. Can stream from Netflix. Stars Kevin Spacey, acting as Frank Underwood - a politician in revenge.

Fast moving, highly entertaining, very interesting - that after the first episode my husband and I looked at one another and said we have time to watch another episode. I just read online that this is "binge-viewing" when you watch multiple episodes at one sitting. OK, I'm guilty of being a binge-viewer with House of Cards. Can't wait until tonight to watch another episode.

What am I doing today? Going to work and waiting for this evening to watch another episode. :)

[Jim]

Joy, Creatures of Light and Darkness supposed to be confusing, that's part of it's charm. As a long time reader of both SF & fantasy, not being able to classify a book as one or the other makes them somewhat mutable, providing different areas of speculation depending on my mood. Roger Zelazny was a master at it. Many (most?) of his books blend the elements of SF & fantasy into a story that makes it better than either to me. It makes them incomprehensible to others.

Werner's explanation of what defines SF & fantasy is excellent: "...SF deals with speculative elements that it explains naturalistically, while fantasy/supernatural fiction speculates about things that it explains supernaturally..." 'Naturalistically' means it could happen in nature & any sufficiently advanced technology could reproduce the effect.

Arthur C. Clarke was an SF writer best known for 2001: A Space Odyssey, but Jackie is reading one of his Rama books now. He actually came up with the idea for geostationary satellites. Clarke's third law is "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

When I read SF, I have a different set of expectations than when I read fantasy. Each has styles & elements - conventions - that have come to be expected & relied on. Faster Than Light (FTL) travel is an accepted element of SF. It may be magical to our current science, but SF makes such leaps in technology. The rest of the book's world is generally based on scientific principles. Even psi powers (psychic powers, like telekinesis & telepathy) are SF elements when handled in a scientific manner.

Creatures of Light and Darkness takes the definitions above to extremes, to a place where they fail. (It was actually an experimental piece that Zelazny never intended to publish.) In it, space contains planets with life on them. The overall fortunes of these planets is somewhat controlled by the flow of energies between artificial constructs, space stations. If the energies from one polar station, the house of life, outweighs those from the house of death, then the world suffers from overpopulation.

Are the 'energies' SF or fantasy elements? The book makes them sound like a super advanced technology, which makes them SF elements, but the overall idea smacks of nature worship, the planet has its own energies & that has an effect on its people. Still, I'd call it SF.

The commanders of the stations are Osiris & Anubis, who look just like the Egyptian gods of those names. While a fantastic element, our world could have legends of them, if we were one of the worlds in their sphere of influence since they do occasionally visit the worlds they control & it's part of their way of coping with their job. They have used their science to become what they do & changed themselves into something unique. So overall, this basic tenet is handled as SF.

They aren't the only beings in control, though. There are others, known as the Immortals. They all have some psi powers which they augment through this extremely advanced science & they're bored with existence, so they put on airs, too. So, we're led into an SF world that has fantastic trappings, but is really SF.

The Prince Who Was A Thousand has psi powers that are well beyond most of the rest. He can teleport to any place he can imagine. One of his sons, Typhon, is the embodiment of The Abyss, a place in space that is absolutely devoid of everything. They are beyond the ken of even the rest of the Immortals, so fantastic elements.

The setting has both fantasy & SF elements. When the action takes place on a planet, the Immortals are viewed as gods. When they're in a space ship or station, they're simply powerful beings & among peers. They're not truly immortal - well, most aren't - since they can be killed.

To add to the confusion of genre, Zelazny wrote this is different pieces with different styles. A chapter is descriptive free verse, others read like something out of a religious text. Still others read like a straight SF adventure in true space opera style. So the reader has to switch between reading styles of metaphor & logic.

When the last passage has been read, written in a religious metaphor, I'm not quite sure whether I read a fantasy or SF story. Since the story has no real beginning & the end is less than complete, it's a head scratcher - a riddle with no answer or many answers, depending on the reader & the mood. It certainly defies genre classification, though.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Linda wrote: "We heard on NPR (National Public Radio) a discussion on some TV Series. One was House of Cards. Can stream from Netflix. Stars Kevin Spacey, acting as Frank Underwood - a politician in revenge. ..."

Hi Linda! I haven't watched "House of Cards" yet but it's in my Netflix Queue for streaming. Below is a link to an IMDb page which summarizes all 13 of the 2013 episodes.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1856010/e...
Wiki page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of...

I'm not a fan of political dramas but I do like Kevin Spacey. The Wiki page says: "He often breaks the fourth wall to speak directly to the viewer." That might be interesting. IMDb has a page with a list of movies which break the fourth wall here:
http://www.imdb.com/list/aWELypo-MUc/

I probably won't binge. Instead I might just nibble. :)

Here's the book the series is based on: House of Cards by Michael Dobbs

PS-Netflix took a different approach with this series. "On Feb. 1, it made all 13 episodes available at once." FROM: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/...

[Jim]

Linda, we occasionally binge view, too. Some shows just capture us. We did that with "The Mentalist" & "News Room".

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "Joy, Creatures of Light and Darkness supposed to be confusing, that's part of it's charm. As a long time reader of both SF & fantasy, not being able to classify a book as one or the other makes th..."

Jim, thanks for the great explanation of SF vs Fantasy. I can see that a story can switch between both.

I like Clark's Third Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarke%2...

The idea of teleporting is fascinating to me. Unfortunately: "What we won't see soon, or ever, ... is a contraption that can teleport humans from one point to another." SEE ARTICLE on teleportation research at: http://www.time.com/time/health/artic...
(Title of article: "Teleportation Is Real – But Don't Try It at Home". :)

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "... To add to the confusion of genre, Zelazny wrote this is different pieces with different styles. A chapter is descriptive free verse, others read like something out of a religious text. Still others read like a straight SF adventure in true space opera style. So the reader has to switch between reading styles of metaphor & logic. ..."

I would find that switching of styles within one book difficult to deal with. Time shifts and place shifts also bother me. The reader has to have a good memory to be able to juggle all the switches and keep them straight. It's the same with a book which has an overabundance of characters.

The advantage of a good memory is very important but we never think about it. I find that my mind is continually grasping for elusive facts while reading a book. I know they're there but I can't retrieve them. The "search" application is a big help to me in situations like this. I'm able to go back and review the various facts given in previous pages.

Also helpful is the computer's ability to hold articles in different tabs for me so that I can go back and forth between them. Before the computer age we didn't have all those advantages. The kids growing up nowadays don't know how lucky they are!

I know I'm pretty good at logic and analysis, but a good memory is a prime requisite for applying logic and analysis. On the other hand, a person with a good memory but poor analytical abilities isn't worth a penny.

[Jim]

Decades ago, there was a really horrifying SF story about teleportation. Can't recall who wrote it or the title, but basically it ran with the idea that you can't teleport mass, but you can teleport information & even people's minds.

So, if people wanted to go to a different planet, they'd walk into a room & get teleported. The receiver on the other end would get the information & create the person there. Once it was sure everything was correct, send a signal back to that effect. The original would be destroyed instantly & automatically - out of sight & mind of everyone until no one really thought about that part at all, except the backup, human operator.

The story is about what happens one day when the automatics fail. There just can't be 2 of the same person allowed to exist & the story explores the legal & moral reasons why the person must be killed.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "Decades ago, there was a really horrifying SF story about teleportation. Can't recall who wrote it or the title, but basically it ran with the idea that you can't teleport mass, but you can teleport information & even people's minds..."

What a concept!

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Teleportation of people seems pretty impossible. But how about the idea of mental telepathy? I find it fascinating. We know that radio waves exist for transmitting information. What about brain waves, which are "patterns of electrical activity in the brain."
http://addictions.about.com/od/glossa...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbKKyH...
http://www.doctorhugo.org/brainwaves/...

I suppose brain waves don't operate outside of the brain whereas radio waves operate anywhere... even in outer space.

It all involves electricity. Hmmm, now I'll have to find out what electicity actually is. LOL

Enough thinking for today. :)

[Jim]

Joy H. wrote: "Jim, thanks for the great explanation of SF vs Fantasy. I can see that a story can switch between both...."

Not so much switch as BE BOTH. Think of it this way: If you put a slice of onion on a burger, you can easily eat beef or onion. Chop the onion up, mix it with ground beef, & cook the burger. You can no longer tell where one stops & the other begins. Pick out the onions, they taste of burger & vice versa.

Zelazny does that a lot. Lord of Light is written as a fantasy. It's full of gods, demons, sword fights, & other fantastic elements, but they are eventually all explained as psi powers bolstered by science lost to the general populace after a starship colonized a planet centuries before. Still, not everything has a neat scientific explanation.

This Immortal is a post apocalyptic novel that seems to be SF on the face of it, but there are enough hints throughout that it seems fairly sure Conrad isn't just a mutant, but quite likely the demigod Pan.

To mix another genre, Today We Choose Faces is a murder mystery, but it takes place in an SF setting. This is quite common, almost prosaic. Jackie & I are both Firefly fans. That's primarily an SF show, a space opera, but there are horror & western elements mixed in. They all mix well & easily with both SF or fantasy, so no one thinks twice about them.

I think it only gets confusing & really interesting when these two genres are mixed. As Werner said, some just call both SF & fantasy speculative fiction. They don't differentiate because the dividing line is so hazy & yet they seem mutually exclusive - science versus superstition. Here we run back into Clarke's 3d Law.

What explanation would Aristotle have for a Walkman? Much is in the point of view, how the story is told, not the elements themselves. Fun, isn't it? Stretches your mind & puts a new perspective on things. What we KNOW might not really be so.
;-)

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "Not so much switch as BE BOTH. ... Much is in the point of view, how the story is told, not the elements themselves. ... I think it only gets confusing & really interesting when these two genres are mixed. As Werner said, some just call both SF & fantasy speculative fiction. They don't differentiate because the dividing line is so hazy & yet they seem mutually exclusive - science versus superstition. Here we run back into Clarke's 3d Law. ... Fun, isn't it? Stretches your mind & puts a new perspective on things. What we KNOW might not really be so.
;-) "

Ah, I'm getting it! Thanks!
Yes, it's all very hazy. :) (but it's getting clearer)
Thanks for taking the time to explain.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Wrap your mind around this:
"MIND OVER MATTER" [re: "Global Consciousness"]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-08Ho5...
http://www.williamjames.com/Folklore/...

[Jim]

A LOT has been done with telepathy in both SF & fantasy. Great grist for the writing mill.

In SF, Robert A. Heinlein used it to hold conversations between identical twins over huge distances in defiance of the speed of light in Time for the Stars. One twin went out to colonize the stars while the other stayed on Earth. One aged normally, the other seemed to almost stop aging as the ship approached the speed of light.

The Demolished Man by Alfred Bester is a classic that a group I'm in just read recently. A whole society based on telepathy. Octavia E. Butler later did the same thing & more in her Patternmaster series. Mind of My Mind was one of my favorites.

In fantasy, telepathy is often used to control or speak with animals. Anne McCaffrey wrote Dragonflight / Dragonquest & a whole bunch of Pern books with that at its core.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim wrote: "A LOT has been done with telepathy in both SF & fantasy. Great grist for the writing mill.
In SF, Robert A. Heinlein used it to hold conversations between identical twins over huge distances in de..."

I'd probably enjoy those books. The idea of Mental Telepathy is intriguing. It's amazing how you retain all this information!

PS-I've put those books on my keep-in-mind shelf.

[Jim]

Joy H. wrote: "Wrap your mind around this:
"MIND OVER MATTER" [re: "Global Consciousness"]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-08Ho5...
http://www.williamjames.com/Folklore/..."

I'm afraid I'd have to see & investigate for myself. I read Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife & she pretty much debunked spiritual mediums, a fun trip. Anyway, I won't rule it out, but I've yet to see it.

If someone did have psychic powers, what would happen to them. In Firestarter, Stephen King made it not sound like much fun.
;-)

[Werner]

I use "speculative fiction" myself, as an umbrella term for all the genres that speculate about things that are outside of our normal reality, whether they explain them by natural or supernatural causes. (As opposed to "descriptive fiction," an umbrella term for the genres that purport to describe the normal world as it is.)

Joy, you might be interested in the book Poltergeist!,by Colin Wilson. He takes a serious, case-study approach to "poltergeist" phenomena, which he believes (and IMO demonstrates pretty convincingly) are genuine; but he believes they're not caused by spirits, but by unconscious telekinetic energy built up in situations of disturbed, dysfunctional family dynamics. I'm inclined to provisionally accept that hypothesis, on the basis of the evidence he presents.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Jim and Werner, IMO, this paranormal stuff is too hard to believe. But it's fun to think about. :)

Werner, I like the term speculative fiction. I found the following at Wiki:
==========================================================
"Speculative fiction is an umbrella term encompassing the more fantastical fiction genres, specifically science fiction, fantasy, horror, weird fiction, supernatural fiction, superhero fiction, utopian and dystopian fiction, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and alternate history in literature as well as related static, motion, and virtual arts."
FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speculat...
=====================================================

[Jim]

I finished mowing the entire lawn for the first time last night. Gorgeous out, almost 80, but windy. The Purple Martins & Tree Swallows showed up yesterday, too. They're at least 2 weeks later than normal this year.

Marg & I went for a ride. Chip & Lily were hot so we all went into the pond & had fun splashing about. Being a wimpy human, I knelt on Chip's back & didn't get too wet. Those two had a blast, though. Marg didn't try with Rascal. Besides having a saddle on, Rascal thought we were crazy.

We started getting Rascal used to the wash stall. The hose is like a hissing snake & he doesn't like the water. I'd turned Chip loose, but he decided to help by trying to hog all the water & mooching for another biscuit. You'd think he would have calmed Rascal down, but that idiot thing just wound himself up tighter all the time. I called it quits earlier than Marg wanted to, but I was afraid he was going to blow. Better to spend 3 times as long than have him cause a disaster.

I don't know if we'll be playing with water again tonight, certainly won't tomorrow. A big front is moving through, so we're supposed to have bad storms tonight & tomorrow is supposed to be 30+ degrees cooler. Brrr!

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Horses playing in a pond! I love to see horses playing. I remember seeing horses roll on their backs in a ring after a horse act in a theater down south near Daytona Beach, FL. The show was called "Arabian Nights". They evidently were let loose in the ring after the show. I was late exiting and got to watch them. What a treat! Never saw such a thing... big horses acting the same as our little dogs do.
Here's a pic of them before they started rolling on their backs:
http://pic20.picturetrail.com/VOL1420...

PS-About the weather, we're having chilly, rainy weather here too. I hate it! :-(

[Nina]

I watched, "House of Cards," on Masterpiece Theater a while back; the British version and so hated the main character, I could not finish the series. I doubt I bother with the US version. Even though our magnolias are in bloom all over the city now it is a cold Thursday.

[Werner]

Great picture of the horses, Joy; thanks! I'll show that one to Barb; she'll like it too.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

No "House of Cards" for me either, I think.

Ah, Nina! Magnolia's evoke memories for me. My father had a big magnolia tree in his garden. He was able to somehow start another tree from his tree. (There's a word for that but I can't think of it. It's on the tip of my tongue. grafting?) That tree is now in my sister's garden.
I found a pic of magnolias online:
http://www.google.com/imgres?start=27...
==================================================
PS-"It is named after French botanist Pierre Magnol. ... In 1703 Charles Plumier described a flowering tree from the island of Martinique in his Genera. He gave the species, known locally as "talauma", the genus name Magnolia, after Pierre Magnol. The English botanist William Sherard, who studied botany in Paris under Joseph Pitton de Tournefort, a pupil of Magnol, was most probably the first after Plumier to adopt the genus name Magnolia."
FROM: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnolia
====================================================
I never knew that until now!

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Werner wrote: "Great picture of the horses, Joy; thanks! I'll show that one to Barb; she'll like it too."

Hi to Barb, Werner!

[Linda]

Readings "Woman's Day" and found http://musicandmemory.org - Donate your old Ipod and give new life to someone you love. Help Spread the Music—and Give New Life to Someone You Love
No one wants to end up alone and isolated in a nursing home. It’s hard enough to lose someone you love to Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia. It’s terrifying to think you could end up there yourself, someday.
But there’s reason to hope for a better life as we age. At Music & Memory, we help elders in care facilities suffering from a wide range of cognitive and physical challenges find renewed meaning and connection in their lives through the gift of personalized music.
Beloved Music Can Renew Lives Lost to Dementia
Our approach is simple, elegant and effective: We train elder care professionals how to set up personalized music playlists, delivered on iPods and other digital devices, for those in their care. These musical favorites tap deep memories not lost to dementia and can bring residents and clients back to life, enabling them to feel like themselves again, to converse, socialize and stay present.
Music & Memory’s work is rooted in extensive neuroscience research. The results can be nothing short of miraculous.

[Linda]

Around 4pm today we had at least 100 Juncos visit our yard and feeders. They were in the trees, on the ground (made the ground look as though it were moving), in the trees, on the garage, on the feeders, just everywhere you looked. At the same time 2 red-bellied woodpeckers visited the feeders. Twenty minutes later a flock of red-breasted robins were in the yard playing in the leaves. Lots of bird activity.

[Linda]

Joy H. wrote: "No "House of Cards" for me either, I think.

Nina and Joy - up to the 10th episode the series was good. Then the last 3 episodes some disturbing events took place. When the next season is available I'll have to consider watching or not.

[Jim]

Awesome bird activity, Linda. We have quite a few woodpeckers here, but I've never seen that many juncos at once. Maybe a dozen or a bit more tops.

The music & memory thing makes sense. I have a lot of memories associated with music. It does hit some deep ones.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Linda, I saw juncos in our yard a few days ago. Interesting that you saw them too. We call them snowbirds.

About the iPods for the elderly in nursing homes, we gave one (with music already on it) to our 100 year old aunt as a gift a few years ago. The problem was that gifts like that were quickly stolen at the nursing home. So she didn't keep it. I guess if the nursing home monitors them, the idea would work.

Interesting about music bringing back memories for the elderly with dementia problems.

[Werner]

Around noon today, we're planning to welcome Rebekah and Tony, arriving from Australia (by way of Asia, Europe and Chicago). They'll be with us until April 23; Barb and I are off work until then, so we can spend as much time as possible with them. Accordingly, I don't plan to spend much if any time online while they're here. But I'll be back next week, and thinking of you all in the meantime!

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Werner, have a good visit with Rebekah & Tony! Thanks for letting us know that you'll probably be offline. We'll miss you!

[Werner]

Thanks, Joy!

[Nina]

Joy, hope your goodreads group receives this as I am not receiving any today. Wish me luck.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Nina wrote: "Joy, hope your goodreads group receives this as I am not receiving any today. Wish me luck."

Nina, your post came through to the group. Good luck!

[Nina]

I know the feeling Werner as my family came back from India and I was thrilled. Have fun!

[Nina]

"The Orphan Master," by Adam Johnson Novel of North Korea wins the Pulitzer. No prize was awarded last yeat for fiction. Fiction award finalists were "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank," by Nathan Englander and "The Snow Child," by Eowyn Ivey.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Nina wrote: ""The Orphan Master," by Adam Johnson Novel of North Korea wins the Pulitzer. No prize was awarded last yeat for fiction. Fiction award finalists were "What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Fra..."

Thanks for reporting this news, Nina!
Here's the Pulitzer site with the list of winners:
http://www.pulitzer.org/
Here's the winner for fiction which you mentioned:
The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson

[Jim]

We had our first asparagus of the season today. My wife & I aren't much for gardening, but we do love fresh asparagus.

Bad news on the horse front: Speedy, my daughter's old Games pony, has a bad abscess in his jaw. He's over 30 years old & hasn't been doing as well the past few years. We just got Blue, my wife's favorite old Thoroughbred, through 3 months of doctoring for something similar. We didn't think he was going to make it.
:-(

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Sorry to hear about Speedy and Blue, Jim. Hope they'll both be OK. That's the downside of pets. It's heartbreaking when they aren't doing well.

Enjoy your asparagus. Wow, that's early! Never heard of growing your own asparagus!

[Jim]

We've always had an asparagus bed. I think I dug my first while a teenager for Mom. They're kind of a pain the first time, but then last for 30 years or more.

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Amazing! I love asparagus!
You made me curious. I searched and found these pics:
http://www.google.com/imgres?hl=en&am...
https://www.google.com/search?q=aspar...
Didn't know they stuck up out of the ground just like that!
Do the rabbits get them?

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Found this: Asparagus Planting Zones:
http://www.ehow.com/info_8245639_aspa...
Excerpt (there's more interesting info there too):
"Asparagus grows well in all U.S. Department of Agriculture zones except for zones 10 and 11. The reasons behind this is that the plant needs cold winter temperatures below freezing so they are able to go dormant for a period of time, which is important for its growth."

[Nina]

Jim, Sometimes our weather is almost the same; yours coming soon after ours but I wouldn't wish ours on you now; it's back to winter, twenty eight degrees wind chill and it probably will be June before my tulips bloom at this rate. My husband says he's waiting for Global Warming to show it's face around here. Oh, do I envy you the asparagus..Wish us warm..

[Joy H., Group Founder]

Warm wishes for warmth, Nina! :)
We have 55 degrees F here at 11:15 PM.
Looks like a rainy weekend coming. :-(
http://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick....

[Jim]

I've never seen a rabbit chew on asparagus, Joy. It's planted by buying roots in a bundle, generally 2 dozen or so. You dig a trench, 18" per root, 16" deep & as wide as the shovel. The first few inches are loosened dirt with manure mixed in, then the roots (soaked in water over night) are laid out & 6" of dirt/manure mix are put in. The rest of the trench is filled up as the plants grow.

They're not cut the first year & lightly cut the 2d, heavier the 3d. After that they're well established, but care needs to be taken to make sure every root has a fern or two that is allowed to mature. They'll push up over a dozen stalks per root, sometimes twice that, so there is plenty to eat. Marg cuts them when they get about 1' tall a couple of inches above the ground.

In the fall, the fern goes brown & is cut off. Manure is heaped on the trench which helps kill off grass & weeds, too. Around Feb or early March, I sprinkle salt on the patch. Asparagus was originally a sea grass, or so I've been told. It seems to like slightly salty ground.

[Jim]

We had a big storm go through this morning. It was 80 yesterday, but windy. I woke up about 3:30 to the rain & wind slamming the house. I dozed until 4:30 when I got up to come in to work. It was 55 out, the high for the day. The rain has stopped, but it's below 50 now, just 4 hours later. Tomorrow morning is supposed to be close to freezing.

[Jackie]

Jim, the image didn't come through.

I went back to work this week, I've forgotten just how hard and how dirty the job is. It's only for a few weeks and I'm already looking forward to it ending, lol

[Jim]

Jackie wrote: "Jim, the image didn't come through..."

What image?

Is your company back up & running then since the fire?

[Jackie]

Jim, I must have been on the wrong page, the trebuchet.

Oh yes, the fire was 11 years ago. We got new owners about 5 years ago and that's when I downgraded my employment status to part time. So now I just go in when they're under time constraints and need an experienced hand.