#commissionearned
Tweet of the Day, May You Never Have To Be This Metal edition.
Well now.
Died at the age of 92, by the way. This is how he described the event:
Continue reading Tweet of the Day, May You Never Have To Be This Metal edition.03/25/2023 Snippet, Notes from the 2078 United Nations Antarctic Archeological Survey.
Tech! And Trouble!
February 5
We’ve programmed a new search pattern for the drones — or, rather, we found the parameters of a suggested new search pattern in the software. This was a surprise to me, because I didn’t know the software could do that. That surprise became apprehension when Hooper explained that the software couldn’t do that.
Fortunately, Ann Rochard’s our local Amalgamation tech expert, and she explained what happened. I wish I understood any of it, beyond the level of, “the drones can’t really think, but they can learn our software, and then guess what you want.” …How this is different from “the drone is magic and can cast spells” was not immediately obvious, but then I feel that way about most Earth technology. I wish we had magic available. Divination, psychometry — indeed, I would give much for access to a reliable necromantic ritual. It would make archeology so much easier if we could simply talk to the dead.
News from home could be better. More reports of deaths from ricin; turns out those Gaian bastards managed to contaminate Homeland Security’s antidote stockpiles. Not all of it, but enough that they don’t dare use it. They’re back to activated charcoal and electrolytes, and it’s not helping much. There are a lot of senior positions vacant in the agencies now. God knows I don’t care for how the government never does anything anymore, but I didn’t want any of those people to die.
Book of the Week: Walking Through Dreams.
I won’t deny that Walking Through Dreams (Lands of Red and Gold Book 1) by Jared Kavanagh is for a particular kind of reader. Said reader would have to like: alternate history; a book that establishes the narrative in the first chapter, then spends about seventy-five percent of the book establishing the changes that occurred from having Australia acquire a staple crop that would permit settled agriculture; and then going back to the narrative, once you’ve been given the basic details about this utterly changed continent at the point when the Dutch stumbled upon it. …I happen to like all of that, sure. But even I can admit that it seems weird, when I write it all out like this.
Ugggggh staring at a map all day.
It was a necessary thing, mind you. I had a spreadsheet full of people who all had requests for particular spots (perfectly legitimately, since I had asked if they had requests), and I needed to slot all of those on the map. Everybody fits, which means that the scheduling headaches have yet to truly begin. You never get everybody in the right spot, with no hangups. Fortunately, we’re doing a walkthrough tomorrow for the event next week, so I’ll be able to have other people look the site over with me in person.
Still ugggggh, though. It’s that nagging worry that you missed something, even when you’ve been careful to check everything off. Hopefully, we’ll catch it all before Friday.
‘The Transformers (Theme).’
Looks like I’m Seeing JOHN WICK 4 over Spring Break.
A three hour flick isn’t a deal breaker, per se. But it’s hard to go to one next week, and I absolutely don’t have the time for it this weekend, for various reasons. I can always see JOHN WICK 4 a week from now, when we’re not actually doing anything in particular for Spring Break.
I do want to see the eventual four hour cut, though. Or at least find out if it sucked, or not.
03/24/2023 Snippet, Notes from the 2078 United Nations Antarctic Archeological Survey.
Dun dun dun!
February 10
The drones discovered something in the Shackleton Range. And I do mean ‘discovered.’ Our records have no entries for scientific expeditions or surveys in that particular area, so whatever it is, it is a genuinely new find.
Only, what is it? The anomaly is under a fifty foot snowdrift and is either embedded in rock, or close enough to it that the resonators are only getting basic details. It’s definitely metallic, and arguably regular. The astrophysicists think it could be a meteor, everyone in the Project is scouring the historical record for possible lost or private expeditions, and Claire Bishop in Maintenance is coming up with steadily more obscure conspiracy theories. She has already suggested the Hollow Earth, the Starkweather-Moore Hoax, and Antarctic Space Nazis; no doubt tomorrow she will find something even more obscure.
(That sounds disapproving. In reality, Ms. Bishop is an excellent engineer and technician, as well as in possession of an impressive library of videos. Including a few she only shows to her, ah, companions.)
Feeling better, but busy weekend.
I’m running field coordination for my SCA barony’s event next weekend, which is happens to be the latest coronation for my SCA kingdom. That means I spend this weekend playing Land Allotment Tetris… which will be promptly folded, spindled, and mutilated when we have a walkthrough on Sunday. Which is awesome! We still need to have the rough draft to beat into the ground, though.
That’s not the only thing I gotta do, though. I could give you a whole list, but the only potentially thing of outside interest is: my birthday’s next week! Fifty-three! Huzzah. Yes, yes, it definitely beats the alternative. So if you want to celebrate it with me, buy my books. That is always an appropriate gift for an author, by the way: buy a copy (or more!) of their book and give it to somebody. We love that.
We are at the “sinus pressure and headache” stage of this cold.
Well, I am. Hopefully, the rest of you are avoiding it. This is my first real cold in several years; I had forgotten what they were like. If you don’t remember: they kind of suck.
But! I am getting better. I’m all wheezy and congested, but getting better. Just… taking it easy, that’s all.