Monday, April 07, 2014

Ahhhh, Vermont



9 comments:

  1. Cool, sweet, rainy spring day!

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  2. Temps have edged up above 50, but tomorrow nights predicted lows are "lower 30s." But hights in the 60s the latter part of the week. Typical for March. (Yes, I meant March.)

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  3. Mid 50s today with highs for the rest of the week predicted to range from mid 50s to mid 60s.

    Currently reading both Chart Throb by Bem Elton and The Hidden Reality by Brian Greene. Elton is a new author to me. I'm both fascinated and repelled by this novel and will most likely finish it. The plot revolves around a "talent show," the Chart Ghrob" of the title and some of the people, contestants and judges, connected with it. Some of the characters are very appealing, some quite the opposite. Greene is a String theorist, who of whose previous books I have read and enjoyed. The Hidden Reality is also an enjoyable read.

    Already this week I've earned two badgelets, one that I set out to win, "Don't Stop" and the other of which, Smarty Pants," came as a surprise. I'm still in a bit of a quandary about the quiz I'm supposed to be writing for Adventures in Authoring. I'm short one question and can't seem to find anything suitable. Wanna get that done. Maybe this new Greene book will yield something.

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  4. Don't think I mentioned that on the Spokane trip I read Cory Doctorow's Little Brother. The British Isles tip will include a dinner with Doctorow, and I figured I should have read at least one of his books.

    Couldn't really get into it. The scenario is that after terrorists blow up the San Francisco Bay Bridge, Homeland Security cracks down with a vengeance. The Patriot Act is pablum and CIA renditions a mild foretaste. The protagonist is a 17-year-old who becomes a cyberterrorist to take his country back. (Yes, Doctorow uses that slogan.) There were three reasons I didn't really get into the book. First, too much infodump. I don't really need to know how all these hacks are accomplished. Second, I can't relate to the protagonist. From the befinning, he is totally unlike anything I was like at 17. More like me at 67, when I had gained the self-confidence to go out knocking on doors to take my country back. Not quite the same thing, but close enough I might have made the jump if there had been less emphasis on the protagonists age. And third, I couldn't suspend disbelief in the scenario. Not that it was absolutely unbelievable, but I fundamentally didn't want to believe that sort of thing might actually happen.

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    Replies
    1. I understand exactly where you're coming from, Bill. Modern Speculative Fiction, especially post September Eleventh often cuts uncomfortably close to excesses I truly do not want to believe although (or maybe because) they are now no longer unthinkable.

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    2. That's a very helpful review, Bill! Mind if I share it with my coworkers at the Library?

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  5. We topped 60F today!!

    While I was in town (two towns from here), I heard and saw Redwinged Blackbirds and saw a pair of Turkey Vultures riding thermals. All good signs of Spring! :-)

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