Phil's Rambling Rants
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Below are the 25 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Phil Parker" journal:[<< Previous 25 entries]
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10:33 pm
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Book review: The Dragon DelaSangre
Today's book review is The Dragon DelaSangre by Alan F. Troop.
This book seems to be about trying to understand the psyche of a creature that is not human, in this case a dragon. It has some appeal, although that may mostly be because I like dragons so much. The general conception of dragons seems to be self-consistent and make a certain kind of sense, and part of the point seems to be that the dragons have to be what they are. But there is so much that's unbelievable about the main characters, in the contradictions in how the dragon treats humans as both fellow people and as food, but mainly in how a creature that's so crafty and clever that he's managed to remain unknown to humans in the modern world, and yet can be so blindly stupid to further the plot, really pulls me out of the story. Plus, the plot seems to be a bunch of arbitrary things that just happen so the author can show the characters in them, rather than a story that works.
It's not a complete failure; if it were, I wouldn't actually care about the characters enough to be annoyed. It's disappointing precisely because the seeds of something much better are there. But I think you have to really want to like dragons (who by their nature do horrible things) to even make it through the book. 5 out of 10.
( plot summary )
Tags: book review
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08:17 pm
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Hard walk around Lake Mingo
Carrying a backpack and a heavy camera makes a lot of difference. Because of all the time I spent looking at stuff through the camera lens, it took me almost 7 hours to get around Lake Mingo. It feels like I was actually walking all that time, even though it was only the same trail that I walk in 3 hours if I don't stop.
There were lots of birds. Warblers were flitting about. I only positively identified yellow-rumped and palm; if I knew warblers better (especially if I knew their songs) I'm sure I'd have many more. Wood thrush, Baltimore oriole, scarlet tanager, tree swallow, kingbird, and a catbird in practically every tree were some others that gave me joy. Based on what I'm seeing, I think the geese are having a bad year. The few groups of goslings I'm seeing are growing rapidly larger, but there seem to be a lot of adult geese in groups rather than pairs and not very many families. When I started seeing a few broods of goslings a couple of weeks ago I thought I was just seeing the early ones, but since thinking that I have not been seeing more groups of little newly-hatched ones -- just the same relatively few groups.
Also a good day for wildflowers. There's still a fair number of spring beauties, but phlox was the dominant wildflower of the day. Also many mayapples, and a patch of wild geranium which I didn't expect to see yet.
Tags: birds, nature, walks
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09:58 pm
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Book review: The Green Trap
Today's book review is The Green Trap by Ben Bova.
Eeyurgh. This is quite simply the worst book I've read in quite some time. I very nearly abandoned it in disgust when the characters started acting in ways that would make the worst TV soap opera seem like Shakespearean insight into humanity and we were presented with a scientific howler that a high school student shouldn't have tolerated. But for some perverse reason, I kept reading. It didn't get better. Several different ludicrously cliche villains bounce off of each other. Then after nearly getting killed several times, our hapless hero suddenly decides to do what he should have done on page 50. And just in case you make it to the last page without feeling you've totally wasted your time, the last thing that happens in the story serves to add a distinct note of unpleasantness on top of the multiple too-painful-to-read stupidities.
2 out of 10.
( plot summary )
Tags: book review
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08:06 pm
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Unpleasant milestone
I had to get gas today. So, of course, today was the day our corporate masters decided it would be fun to raise the price another 30 cents.
For the first time, it cost over $40 to fill up.
Tags: car, life, society
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09:34 pm
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Fighting the bleahs by looking at birds
I had the bleahs today and the fact that it was cold, grey, and looked like the threatened scattered showers were likely to start up as soon as I stuck my head out of the house kept me inside longer than I should have been, but I eventually got out. It was late enough that I wasn't sure I'd have enough daylight to make it all the way around Lake Mingo, so I went to the marshes instead. It didn't rain, and it was pleasant as I went along the trail through the woods, but I was just kind of drifting until I got back to the marshes and spent about 20 minutes slowly making my way between the two marshes where the beaver dam is. I went slowly because I was so enchanted by the kingbirds who were willing to tolerate my being pretty close to them and especially the swallows. There were at least 4 kingbirds and maybe as many as 6, and they seemed almost to be acting like a flock rather than pairing off. And there were a bunch of swallows. A couple of tree, one barn, and the rest plain brown which a look in the birdbook tells me must be rough-wings. Amazing acrobatic flying; I would have enjoyed lingering longer, but I was starting to need to pee, so I went back to the car.
At this point, I considered that I still had more than an hour of daylight (and the clouds were breaking up, and I was feeling better), so I drove to another bit of the park that I thought I hadn't been to before, the Raccoon Run Trail. When I got there I realized I had in fact been there before but it was still a pleasant area. I spent a few minutes watching a fish in the little dammed up ravine there called Adrian's Pond. I don't know anything about identifying fish, but this one was unusual for casual just-looking-in-the-water fishing in that he was, I'd say, just over a foot long, actually big enough to be legal to catch. I also had a red-headed woodpecker on that bit of trail. It happened to bubble up in my memory that in the silly kid's game Careers, there's a square you can land on that says "spot Yellow Bellied Sapsucker, 4 Happiness" -- but the red-head is the species that gives me the most happiness points.
I returned to my car and decided I still had enough daylight left that instead of going home I would go to Heron Park. The sun had actually come out enough that I needed sunglasses. There, in addition to a couple of herons and many redwings, I spotted a chimney swift, a coot, 4 goslings, and a little rail. Rails being a type of bird that one doesn't actually see even though they may be around, I have no experience identifying them. It seemed more grey than brown. Looking at the bird book, I think it was more likely a sora than a Virginia. I also heard a strange call that I'm sure would clearly identify the caller.
Tags: birds, nature, walks
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12:03 pm
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Book review: Puck of Pook's Hill
Today's book review is Puck of Pook's Hill by Rudyard Kipling.
This story is a series of episodes about legendary ancient Britain, loosely stitched together with a little bit of "present day" (that is, Victorian era) stuff, plus poems interspersed between the chapters. Several of the poems are familiar, since they've been set to music, and they do relate to the legends being recounted. Several of the legends do fit together into a larger story which is actually told in the poem "The Runes on Weland's Sword" -- though before I'd read the book, the poem never made any sense, so I don't think that's much of a spoiler. It's easy to read; the choice of words doesn't feel quite like 21st Century American writing, but it doesn't have any of the headache-inducing stuffiness that I still subconsciously expect any time I see the word "classic" printed on a book cover because of high school literature classes. Since I know little of either real British ancient history or the traditional legendary treatment of those times, it's fairly fresh ground for me, and enjoyable, though I didn't feel that it was all that heavily infused with deep significance.
There's some material which may be objectionable to Jews. I don't want to go into the issues much, but I feel that I should mention that as I was reading it I had the feeling that I was reading stuff that would make some people upset.
I don't think it was truly great, but it was fun and interesting enough that I think it deserves to be remembered a century after it was written. 8 out of 10.
Tags: book review
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05:26 pm
[Link] | Today's reason why we must pursue genetic engineering vigorously:
(Found at Dark Roasted Blend, where all kinds of weird stuff pops up. You have to scroll down a ways to get to the critter, and all there is is the picture and a note that they don't know who created the image.)
Tags: cool links, humor
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09:27 pm
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A little springtime peace
I left work early so I could get my allergy shot, and then when I got to Carle they told me they still weren't giving shots. A week ago (on my regular day) they'd called me to say their refrigerator had failed and destroyed all the serums, and they thought it would be a couple of days to get them remade, so I shouldn't come in. I hadn't really remembered that they'd said to call before I came in; I just assumed that they had to have it fixed by now. And they didn't.
This meant that instead of just being able to squeak in a walk before dark, I had plenty of time. I perhaps should have done a longer trail, but I just went to Kickapoo for my usual walk on the Riverview trail. There were a fair number of birds around. Just off the top of my head, I had phoebe, kingbird, towhee, gnatcatcher, red bellied woodpecker, flicker, catbird, song sparrow, white throated sparrow, red winged blackbird, a song that was maybe an oriole but I'm not sure, mourning dove, cardinal, blue jay, robin, an I-think-great-horned owl hooting, a pair of swans and of course bunches of geese on the lake, and a turkey vulture overhead as I went home. After I'd finished walking the loop, I went over to the pond east of the parking lot and sat on the bench. As I sat and tried to let go of the day, I could momentarily catch the illusion that rather than the wind making ripples on the lake go by, I was actually moving in the other direction. It was very peaceful for a few minutes, but when a couple of people jogging by on the other side of the pond and talking loudly shattered the illusion, I decided I should go home and make dinner.
Tags: life, nature
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07:39 pm
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Spring at Kennekuk
For the first time in what seems like forever, it actually managed to be nice on a Saturday when I wasn't out of town. I've been itching for weeks to do the Lake Mingo trail and I finally had the chance.
Boy am I out of condition. I skipped the side trip down to the place where I took the otter picture, and I cut off the one easily skippable loop. Still, my feet hurt and I feel quite tired.
The spring beauties are in full bloom, so much of the park is carpeted in white with pink highlights. Very pretty. Spring beauty is my favorite plant for today. Other flowers include violets, both the regular violet sort and yellow, phlox, bluebells, a couple of red trilliums. And the redbuds are in full, lovely bloom everywhere.
There were some warblers around. None that I could identify positively, but I think I had yellow-rumped and palm, plus one that I think was an ovenbird. One interesting experience where I was admiring a great blue heron coming in to land, just thinking about how pretty he was, and suddenly realized that he was chasing an egret away.
I saw a few butterflies: one of the anglewings with green hair, a mourning cloak, and a couple of white sulfurs. A couple of small dragonflies and tiny damselflies. If I actually knew anything about bees, I'd probably be able to report a lot of different species -- although there weren't large numbers of individuals, there seemed to be a whole lot of different kinds.
Tags: nature, walks
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10:07 pm
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Book review: Endless Blue
Today's book review is Endless Blue by Wen Spencer.
This is a new universe unconnected with Spencer's previous work. There's certainly enough unanswered that a direct sequel is possible, and more stories could be told in this world, but it is a complete story. Contains sexual situations highly inappropriate for the minor children of even slightly prudish parents.
This book starts out very well, presenting a rather original world with enough detail to intrigue but not so much that it falls apart, and gives us several important characters that grabbed my attention and made me really care about what happened to them. And then we introduced some metaphysical stuff that's harder to swallow. It doesn't wholly fail, but it doesn't wholly work either. There's a strong theme about the humanity of genetically modified humans which is some mix of insightful and "please stop beating me over the head with the message". This is Spencer's strongest novel to date; it sucked me into the world very strongly, making me happy every time I picked the book up and frustrated to put it down. But I'm still scratching my head over whether I can deal with where the main plot ends up. Separately, I know that some people will majorly squick at some of the bad things the bad people do. For me, it's somewhere on the border of going too far; we need to know how bad the bad guys are in some detail to understand the character and motivations of our good guys, who have flaws of their own. But for some, it's going far enough over the line to inspire flamewars if not bookburnings.
I'm going to give this a 9 out of 10 because I want to remember the great things.
I don't want to post this without a plot summary, but I really have to go to bed.
Tags: book review
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10:59 pm
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The meaning of life
Sorry for being Posty McPostalot this evening, but I have one more entry.
The 7:00 To the Best of Our Knowledge was a show that really got me thinking. It was ostensibly about "green" lifestyles, but it had a lot of stuff that really resonated with me. I feel too tired for coherence so I'll try to just blurt out some thoughts. Hopefully when I read this, I'll actually remember more than I can put into words now.
It talked about how actually living according to the principles one believes in is very important for feeling happy. I make the effort, when I have a fairly easy choice, to minimize packaging and throwaway things. I feel uncomfortable using paper plates and plastic silverware. I'm not willing to go as far as the guy they profiled who lived in New York. He refused to use electricity or carbon-powered transportation (even the elevators in his building) and wouldn't use anything that created trash. He supposedly didn't use toilet paper. I wish they'd actually pressed him on how he cleans himself after he takes a dump. But I wish I could find the courage and fortitude to say to friends when I'm visiting "instead of putting out paper plates and forks, please use real plates and silverware, and let me help with the dishes".
They talk about how our lifestyle has us rushing and stressed all the time. I wish I could simplify my life so that I didn't have to do the things that force me onto a schedule where I'm always feeling rushed and I never have time, but it seems like modern life is a package that's all stuck together, and I can't see how to cut out one piece without that meaning that I also have to cut out the next. I think I could give up a lot of my stuff; I could probably handle having just a room in a shared space. And if I didn't have to have a house that's a big part of the reason I have to have a regular job. But the one piece that really scares me about trying to break out of the rat race is health care. I have to have a real job or I get to find out experimentally if my asthma is cured or just in long term remission, by dying if I stop the Flovent and it does come back. Without a real health plan, that one prescription costs more than I spend on food.
Tags: life
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10:02 pm
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Lovely housefilk
Last night, I had the pleasure of attending a housefilk at the home of ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) bedlamhouse and ladyat. I've been hoping to attend one of the Indianapolis filks for about as long as I've been aware that there are such, and this time it came together, because (a) they're not actually in Indy, but conveniently just west in Danville (Indiana, that is, not Illinois), and (b) they generously offered crash space and a willingness to get up early enough the next morning that I could be at EFRC at more or less my regular time.
The sad thing is that it's really hard for me to say much about the actual events of the evening, because most of the people there were people I either hadn't met, or whom I vaguely recognized but couldn't attach names to when they first arrived, and even though we did a round of introductions, by the end of the evening I still didn't know their names. Ernest Clark, who wrote a whole bunch of really great songs back when I first started in filk but whom I only see sometimes at Chambanacon, was there and he told me he's in Lafayette these days. There was an older fellow with an odd looking but nice sounding guitar (which he explained is actually an Elizabethan-styled instrument, based on the first proto-guitars that actually sported metal strings) and an impressive repertoire of Irish songs. I managed to pick up that he's an SCA member and his SCA name is John of someplace. When we broke for eating and socializing, he and I told each other how much we enjoyed each other's music.
Sitting in the circle helped me to remember why I've spent all this time and effort on music. Going through my filkbook as my turns came up kept whacking me with the painful knowledge of how many songs I used to do in circles that I no longer remember fully. (The book helps with words, and a little bit with chords, but when I can't remember the playing style and rhythmic feel I used with a song, I'm just reduced to trying to reinvent something on the spot, and when I can't remember the tune, having it in the book doesn't help.)
I hope we can do it again real soon.
Tags: filk, friends, life, music
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09:37 pm
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I want my 4 hours back
I didn't have time to write this entry yesterday, precisely because of what this entry is about.
Sometime in the middle of last week, one of the folks at work emailed an announcement to everyone in the building that there was a computer recycling event this Saturday. Since I have been tripping over a dead 21" CRT monitor in my living room for months and I have a couple of dead printers lying around, this seemed like a good idea. Unfortunately, nothing in the announcement mentioned that what appeared to be half the population of Champaign would also think it was a good idea and the folks who were going to be accepting the junk would be utterly overwhelmed.
( too much detail about a really long wait )
I'm glad that I am rid of the junk and that it's in the hands of someone who's at least purportedly going to recycle it rather than just landfilling it. I'm glad that the governments and volunteers who made it happen did it. I hope they can repeat it on a semi-regular basis. But I also hope they can find a better system so that hundreds of people don't have to sit in a queue of cars, or at the very least that they can provide some warning.
Tags: c-u, life, tech
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10:04 pm
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What I want in photo management software
As I wrote a little about recently, I really need a better software solution for photo management. I'm trying hard to untangle the things that would just be nice about the perfect system from the things I truly need so that I can keep up as I go forward, acknowledging the flaws in my own character.
( long winded description )
Bleah. I forgot to mention that I am presently a Windows user, but I'd like to get over that, so if software for another OS would cover these bases better, or maybe even as well, I'd be interested. I am strongly considering buying new hardware with my tax refund and economic stimulus payment. I'm thinking that my current machine is getting a little old, and if I want another Windows box, I need to get it while I can still get XP, because I will not own Vista; on the other hand, I'll have enough money I think I could swing a Mac. And if I could cover my photo management needs with Linux, that would be sweet. But I need to write another post, another day, about buying a new computer.
Tags: photography, tech
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09:43 pm
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Taxes done
Taxes:
- Computed in spreadsheet - CHECK
- Copied onto paper forms (checking numbers copied into spreadsheet) - CHECK
- Labels affixed - CHECK
- Photocopied (Yay for printer that is also a copier) - CHECK
- Envelopes stuffed, addressed, and stamped - CHECK
- Envelopes mailed - pending (not making a special trip out of the house tonight)
Perhaps some year I will e-file. I plan on e-filing either (a) when they start charging a service charge for paper filing, or (b) when I believe that I can do it myself, through my current web browser, without having to buy or install software, pay fees, or suffer undue gaggage.
Perhaps some year I will actually be together enough to do this in February.
Tags: life
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08:44 pm
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Impediments to Photography
I wrote a comment in pleonastic's LJ that I should actually make as an entry in my own blog. I'd like to be able to actually capture all the trains of thought that this has set off in my mind, but to begin with I'll just repeat what I said in that comment. Hopefully soonish I can expand on some of this.
Upthread from this comment I'd mentioned that there were some things holding me back as an on-line photographer. I then expanded on that to say:
What's keeping me from posting pictures on a reasonable regular schedule is that it takes me so much time sitting in front of the computer before I can actually post something, and secondarily that it's such a chore.
I need:
(1) a reliable broadband Internet connection;
(2) a software solution to organizing pictures so that I can pull the memory cards from the cameras I used that day, stuff them in the card reader, and not have to use my brain at all to get the files copied
into the file structure *I* want them in;
(3) a software solution to organizing, uploading, and presenting as a web page the edited pictures I want from that day.
(2) and (3) are things I ought to be able to do for myself, but I'm so damn burned out on software and computers that I've made zero progress towards those goals in the more than 3 years I've known I need them. I have a tremendous aversion to paying commercial software prices, but if there were a package that would just do what I wanted, I'd be willing to pay for it. What I'm not willing to do is to pay huge wads of money for something that I then have to deal with learning to use, hoping that I can actually get it to do what I really want.
Tags: life, photography, tech
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11:06 pm
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Book review: Dancing with Werewolves
Today's book review is Dancing with Werewolves by Carole Nelson Douglas.
This is yet another entry into the modern vampire genre. It appears to be the first in a series, but it isn't terribly blatant about trying to blackmail the reader into reading the next book. There's certainly a number of things left unresolved, but it introduces the world and characters and it comes to a reasonable ending.
This book is something of a quandary. There's so much I can point to that's wrong with it that it if I didn't approach the book really wanting to like it, there's no question I'd say it was dreadful. The world-building is weak, and there's a huge amount, from the apparent lack of any limits other than the author's whim on supernatural powers down to the question of how the heroine can afford all the amazing outfits she wears (which are described in rather excruciating detail), that really strain the sense of disbelief. And there's the frequent turn of phrase that comes off as sophomoric attempts at cleverness. I almost gave up after a few chapters, but something kept me going, and managed to engage me well enough that I could almost believe that all, or at least a lot, of the apparently terrible writing was deliberate, because in spite of everything wrong, I enjoyed reading the book. And for all the times I felt a feeling of deus ex machina, I never really felt cheated by it. Finally, I need to mention the sex. There's quite a lot of romance; I can't claim to be a connoisseur of romance writing, but I think that aspect of the writing is actually fairly good. Douglas can actually make reading about the date interesting, whether any actual sex happens after or not.
If you're even a slightly picky reader -- if flaws in the world or the writing disrupt the experience -- you'll hate this book. But if you can go with the flow, there's a lot of fun here. 6 out of 10.
( plot summary (partial) )
Tags: book review
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09:59 pm
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Book review: A Princess of Mars
Today's book review is A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs.
This book is nearly a hundred years old, and back then there was very little of what would come to be called SF to compare with. It's certainly interesting to see where the field came from; Burroughs is one of the writers who ultimately inspired the genre I enjoy today. And there's certainly good action in here, and some ideas that were fresh and new at the time. But to my jaded 21st century taste, the writing is bad enough that it takes some effort to appreciate the good. The language is terribly pretentious and the dialog worse. I just can't picture, even a hundred years ago, someone stringing together such complex sentences with so many polysyllables in the middle of a fight. But ultimately, what really really hurts the book is the shallowness and absurdity of the characters' motivations and interactions. I have to consider this book as of historical interest only, because the characters are more believable in fan fiction.
5 out of 10.
( plot summary )
Tags: book review
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07:14 pm
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Paging Sally Headford
I want to friend you but I want to be sure I have the right LJ name (which I won't mention in the same post as the real name, in case you're trying to keep the connection non-public). Replies are screened, or email me (my first name at my LJ name dot net).
Tags: lj
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07:07 pm
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FKO report
( long and boring account of my trip )
Somehow I've managed to mostly avoid mentioning the various conversations I had with people, the conversations that made me feel like a valued member of the FKO family. I left home on Thursday thinking that I probably should have stayed home, but by Friday night I was very glad to have gone. I may have found a lot to bitch about on the trip, but it was very good to me, and I'm very grateful to all of the FKO concom for all their efforts. I really needed a good con.
Tags: conrep, cons, filk, friends, travel
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10:48 pm
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Home from FKO
Made it home safely. Extremely tired, though still pretty wired rather than sleepy; I hope I can sleep when I go to bed (very soon).
A very good con at a time when I needed a con very badly -- much worse than I consciously realized. More later if the gaggage in my life leaves me the time.
Tags: cons, travel
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07:17 pm
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Say that again, BBC?
When you're sort of half listening to the BBC news on the radio in the other room when you're already exhausted, you can hear the oddest things.
"... nuclear winter has emerged preventing a second round ..."
*blink* *blink* oh, they're talking about the election in Zimbabwe, and what he actually said was no clear winner has emerged...
Tags: humor
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07:21 pm
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Not eaten by troll
I managed to leave my windbreaker at birder2's on Monday, and not notice it until today, and I need it tomorrow, so I had to travel west. So I decided I'd take my walk at Homer Lake, since it's slightly on the way, instead of being in the opposite direction. I knew it would be muddy. I had my boots, I thought I'd be OK. But as I slogged through a whole lot of mud and quite a few pools of standing water that completely covered the path, I started to imagine that I would sink in, get stuck, and be eaten by a troll. However, no trolls or other monsters were in evidence; the closest we came was several friendly doggies who were walking as well.
Nothing is looking very springy, and the wind blowing off the lake felt darn cold, even though the car thermometer claimed it was 48°F. Except for the frogs in the shallow lake north of Oak Ridge, it felt more like winter than spring.
Tags: life, nature
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02:29 pm
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Book review: Draw One in the Dark
Today's book review is Draw One in the Dark by Sarah A. Hoyt.
At least as far as I know, this is a standalone novel. It starts at the beginning of the story and it ends the adventure well. It does leave characters with lives to live that might be interesting, but it certainly isn't trying to blackmail us into buying a sequel.
this is a modern werewolf story, but it's pretty different from the usual fare. The supernatural creatures are a little bit less silly than the standard (less bound to the full moon). Of course, it's still a pretty hard premise to swallow, but everything else follows pretty well from the premise. There are dragons that are pleasantly different, and villains that you almost have to laugh about, but they work. There are a few places where the plot is a little hard to swallow, but it mostly works, and it lets us examine some things about love and relationships and responsibility that are worth reading. The novel's main strength is in managing to making the characters matter to the reader.
Not a perfect book, but as long as you're willing to believe in were-creatures and dragons, definitely a good one. 8 out of 10.
( plot summary )
Tags: book review
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07:12 am
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Thanks
Thanks to everyone who wished me a happy birthday.
Tags: friends, life
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