found_drama

Incredible.  As Americans, we made history yesterday.  We came out to the polls in huge¹ numbers to decisively elect Barack Obama as the 44th President of the United States of America.  It seems that everyone I know or have spoken with is a-buzz with this news.  As I write this, President-Elect Obama has 349 electoral votes with only North Carolina and Missouri still outstanding.

The things that I have been thinking about all day:

• McCain’s concession speech was gracious.  It’s too bad that it was ruined by the reactions in the crowd.
• We have overcome a huge hurdle.  America’s first black President.  I’m looking forward to the day where no one even bats an eyelash at this sort of thing.  But for now, I’m captivated by the energy this seems brings out in people.
• Obama’s victory speech was moving.  But more so…

…I’m glad that he acknowledges that the hardest parts are yet to come.  Barack Obama is not going to save us.  But he brings the right attitude and he brings hope to people, he inspires them.  And we’re going to need that kind of inspiration to dig our way out.

So let’s get to it.

(Original photo on Flickr.)

1. Record?[↩]

(Original posted on Flickr; credit to victoriabernal.)

Well, the 2008 garden has been put to bed!  We hadn’t done much with it in about a month or so.  Tough to say how much we got out of the garden this year.  I’m tempted to say that we bit off more than we could chew this year; A. & I over-estimated how much we would be able to handle with an infant in the family — even an infant as good as H.

We were a bit underwhelmed with our crops this year.  Certain things (e.g., carrots and cucumbers) did just fine, right as expected; others (e.g., the squash and, oddly, tomatoes) less so.  We had some unexpected problems this year, too:  a couple of times we would harvest something only to find it was DOA at home (e.g., some butternut squash that were punctured) and we had some problems with theft (e.g., tomatoes and butternut squash).

All in all, not a bad year but not as good as last year, either.  Next year is…  questionable.

(Original photo on Flickr.)

Although I will argue that my judgment was impaired, A. talked me into creating a Facebook profile two nights ago.  I don’t really remember the circumstances or her rationale.  But she made an impassioned plea that on some level resonated with me, for better or worse.  So there I am.  Time will tell if this was foolish or not.  Leaning toward “not”.  That said, some first impressions: Read the rest of this entry »

Wrapping up Q3 of ‘08¹…  The results are in for my personal goals for 2008: Read the rest of this entry »

1. See also: Q1 and Q2 results.[↩]

• Godel, Escher, Bach by Hofstadter¹
• Cryptonomiconby Stephenson²
• Cold War: An Illustrated History, 1945-1991 by Isaacs and Downing
• The UFO Phenomenon (Mysteries of the Unknown) by Time-Life
• Orbiter by Ellis (illustrated by Foran with Stewart)
• How to Get Happily Published by Appelbaum
• The New Space Opera edited by Dozois and Straham

(Original at Flickr.)

1. Yes, still reading this.[↩]
2. Yes, reading this again. As a substitute for reading Anathem.[↩]

The “classic” sci-fi time waster is not just restricted to colonizing distant suns and/or flying around blowing up shit.  No.  Sometimes it involves flying to distant suns that are already colonized, geting out of your spaceship and then blowing up shit.  And after all, isn’t that — the epic space opera, anchored on some Byzantine galaxy-spanning empire — what makes science fiction so much fun?

And if that’s the case, then wouldn’t that make Paragon Software’s two games in the MegaTraveller franchise among the best, most “classic” sci-fi games ever made?

Kind of?  Sort of?  Maybe sometimes?

Well, MegaTraveller 2 sure was fun.  And it rounds out our “top 4″ classic sci-fi time wasters…

Read the rest of this entry »

In the previous two installments of this series, we discussed two “classic” science fiction games from the PC world: Sierra On-Line’s Outpost and Microprose’s Lightspeed.  A theme common to both of those games is a sense of isolation — you’re cut off from the rest of humankind and you’ll have to live by your wits (and a little luck) if you’ve any hope for survival.  Both of these games also share a sense of grim responsibility.  That “hope for survival” we were just talking about?  That’s the survival of the entire human species, pal.

How’s that for escapism?

Certainly not all science fiction games are like this.  Realism?  Adherence to the laws of physics?  Doomsday scenarios where only you can stop our extinction?  Who needs to be worried by all of that petty nonsense when you can strap yourself into a modified Centurion-class heavy sloop¹ and rip through the sector with the haughty derring-do that only a pirate privateer possesses?

Read the rest of this entry »

1. I admit it: I made up the “heavy sloop” part.[↩]

Well, the garden is winding down. Aside from one or two cherry tomato plants that are holding on for dear life, about the only thing left to harvest is the butternut squash. And they’re not quite done yet. Just about all the carrots and everything else have finished their respective runs.

It was a good year, overall. We’d like to do it again next year but we’ll see what happens (what with The Boy and all)…

(Original photo on Flickr.)