Happy Birthday Cflute!
Here's hoping that things have generally been good for you this year, and particular hopes that this day is extra special!

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Happy Birthday wishes for chaoswolf !

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WGN's "MANHATTAN"
This is an original show produced by WGN about building the A-Bomb.  But even more, it's an exaggerated and charicatured version of how people were reacting to the stresses of working on the project (if scientists) and living in such poor conditions with no explanation of "WHY?" (for the families of the scientists).

I also saw a little bit of the show ABOUT making this TV show.  In that they mentioned that they weren't trying to RECREATE Los Alamos, they were trying to get at "the truth" of Los Alamos (thus the exaggeration and charicatures).

Now, in "spot the anachronism" of a period piece one can go with just errors of fact (like their use of 50-star US Flags instead of 48-star flags). But they also seemed to have several "possible but highly unlikely" things that were basically put in modern terms to apparently get at that "truth".

For example, one scientist is really torn about not being able to tell his wife the truth - so he lies and says that they are working on a super-radar to help win the war. But in 1943 radar itself was highly classified.  And while it's certainly possible for some of those super-brains to be familiar with it, the wife acts like she knows all about radar - and so do the other wives that she blabs to.  In another case, a scientist worries about what happens in the next war - "What happens when Stalin has the bomb?  China?  The Shah of Iran?"  Never mind that all 3 are allies of the US at the time. Never mind that while the name Iran was officially adopted in 1935, it was still FAR more widely referred to as Persia until MUCH later. (The 1961 Encyclopedia Brittanica, for example, does NOT have an article on Iran - just on Persia. It MENTIONS that the name Iran was put in place in 1935 - but then proceeds to make every other reference in the article to what Persia did (even after 1935). And in 1943, the old leader (Riza Shah) had just recently left power when Great Britain and the USSR sent troops to Persia and DE FACTO occupied it. Riza Shah (who had been a capable leader able to get a lot of things done) abdicated in favor of his son. So you have a 22-year old, inexperienced nobody on the throne of an occupied territory. NO ONE was worried about the Shah of Persia in 1943. What they did is to take the nations that historically came to trouble us LATER and had the scientist fret about those FUTURE ENEMIES.  That is their "truth".

Outside of that, they had a daughter talking to her dad about sexual opportunities in a manner better befitting 1993 than 1943. It was really jarring to hear that sort of conversation in that time period. Not impossible, no, but jarring all the same.

Certainly there were harsh living conditions, suspicions from security people, inability to leave or even have their presence there explained. They seem to be going way overboard with them, but they were certainly present. Dramatic License and all that.  But it seems like too large a dose of Soap Opera for my taste.

Current Mood: disappointed

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Anyone interested in a ticket to Antiques Roadshow in San Jose on June 7th?
I won a couple of tickets in their lottery, and the person I had expected to use the other one will not be using it (health reasons).

I will asking a few people directly as well as this general posting here. This is NOT going to be first-come-first-serve. I may choose one myself, or I may draw names out of a hat, but the decision not be decided by a postmark.

Feel free to describe what sort of antiques (max 2) that you would bring to the show.

Current Mood: geeky

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2 for 1 moon viewing
The Lunal Eclipse is in totality right now. Sometimes enough light gets refracted by the atmosphere to make the moon a fairly solid red. Other times the moon just mostly disappears. Tonight it's the latter. There's some red on the leading half, the trailing half is almost invisible.

Earlier this evening I had heard a weather forecast saying that there were a lot of high clouds over the coast, but that they should be thin enough over my position (a bit inland) that I could see the eclipse fairly well. So I went out to size things up just as the eclipse hit the halfway point. There were enough high clouds that the moon looked fuzzy on the white part - but those same clouds were also producing a very nice Moon Ring from the (still reasonably strong) light from the moon. I stretched out my arm and spread my fingers. With my thumbnail covering the moon, the moon ring was just past the end of my pinkie. It was very clear for the "top" 180 deg. and pretty faint along the "bottom" 180 deg., but I =think= I saw a full ring of 360 deg. This ring, caused by ice crystals high in the sky, is known as the 22 degree ring.

As the eclipse has proceeded the sky seems to have gotten clearer, so I doubt there will be a ring as the eclipse ends.

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New overlord, er, cat....
One of my neighbors has a soft spot for cats. She also has a second home out in the valley. The development it was part of went under, and a lot of people abandoned their cats when they left. So she took them in, made sure they were copy-protected, and brought them over here. She had about 6 of them, passing some on to new homes but always seeming to have about the same number as new rescues replaced those that left.

After a little while, one of them (Suzie) decided to start spending more and more time over at my place. I have one cat of my own (Ramesses), an indoor-only cat (also copy-protected). They seemed to get along reasonably well through the screen door, so I had the vet give my cat the innoculations recommended for outdoor cats. I gave the innoculations time to take effect, then started letting the cats meet face-to-face (indoors, of course). First short completely-supervised visits, then a bit longer visits, then less supervision and so on. While my cat (who weighs about twice as much as the new cat) took the time every now and then to briefly remind the newcomer just who it was that runs this household, in general they've gotten along very well.

So my neighbor and I decided to make it official. Suzie will become MY Overlord cat, making official something that the cat had already decided.

This morning, lying in bed, I had a warm summer blanket. Suzie was lying on my chest and Ramesses was lying on my legs. I found the ON setting for Suzie's "Optional Vibrational Mode" via scritches around the head, ears and neck and we blissed out for a while until it was time to get up.

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Not a good night for meteors
The Perseid meteor shower is tonight, and the moon rises late and is only a sliver anyway. But unfortunately, there is a bit of a haze tonight. It not only mutes the light of the meteors themselves, it reflects back a significant amount of the city lights nearby. And when the moon rises (pretty soon now), the light from it will also be scattered over a good chunk of the sky.

I had a nice, comfortable air mattress and spent about an hour looking up. I saw only one meteor in that time. This is a far cry from the "one or two per minute" that is supposed to happen. But of course, with the haze I can only see the brightest ones.

"How Hazy Is It?", you may ask. Right now there are only 3 stars in the sky that are bright enough to be seen steadily. There's maybe a dozen more that can be seen more than half the time. That's pretty poor for this area, even as close to the city lights as I am.

The meteor shower is supposed to peak in about 2-3 hours (3AM-4AM), but unless the sky shows signs of clearing it isn't going to be worth staying up for it.

Current Mood: disappointed

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My mother died today
We were able to care for her at home all the way to the end, thanks to the good help of Hospice of the Valley. A good life, well lived, ending shortly after her 90th birthday. All her surviving children were here. We were truly blessed to have had her as our mother.

It's awfully quiet in the house tonight.

Current Mood: drained

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Seeing Friends again
My Friends page had turned into a "Page Not Found" error message for several days. I had tried clearing my local cache, but that hadn't helped. So I sent in a support request. Today I got a response from LJ indicating that the page worked fine for them, and directing my attention to the FAQ about clearing my local cache. Not all that helpful - BUT when I checked my Friends page this morning it was working for me too.

Besides the cache on my own machine, the FAQ mentions that some ISPs also keep their own caches. I suspect that this was the problem. I'm pretty sure that my ISP keeps such a cache, and the "Page Not Found" error message became the ISP's cached version for a few days until it got updated. So the message from LJ coming in overnight and the problem clearing up overnight was probably simply a coincidence of timing.

Anyway - it's good to see everyone again!

Current Mood: cheerful

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Where did my Friends Page go?
Yesterday and Today, when I try to access my Friends Page I get an error message that the Page Wasn't Found. That's happened before during the Denial Of Service attacks on LJ, so I just gave it some time. But it still hasn't resolved, and there's nothing listed on the Known Problems page that would seem to have any bearing on this. Anyone have any info on this?

Current Mood: lonely

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Consonance 2011- not expecting to make it
Due to my mother's health problems, most likely I will wind up missing the entire convention. If anyone is making recordings (whether video or just audio) and would be willing to trade for some videos of previous years, keep me in mind.

While Friday and Sunday look hopeless right now, I just MIGHT be able to squeeze in a couple of hours at the con Saturday night. So if anyone is looking to see me, check for me at the post-dinner concerts.

Current Mood: drained

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Interesting View
We've got light, fleecy clouds over much of the sky, tinged pink here at sunset. Even the clouds on the eastern horizon are pink. And there's a full moon shining through those pink fleecy clouds.

Current Mood: peaceful

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Tiny Earthquake
At 4:10 PM or so local time we had two noticeable jolts here, a couple seconds apart. No damage, no swaying pictures, nothing knocked off shelves.

Checking the USGS site for reporting they showed over 200 entries when I entered mine: almost all right in San Jose, and almost all showing strength 2 or 3 (which are both "weak" readings). So it looks to be very weak but very close by.

Current Mood: bouncy

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Christmas is a rather quiet holiday for us these days (though of course those who don't celebrate Christmas at all might wish things were a lot MORE quiet at this time of year). So let me just wish for everyone a bit more Peace On Earth, let me try to do a bit more Good Will To Men*, and may the upcoming New Year be a bit better for each of you in whichever way you wish it most.

*Yesterday was a Double Red Blood Donation and lots of letting others go ahead of me in traffic, in parking lots, in lines at the store and so on. Every little bit helps.

Current Mood: contemplative

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Tommy Emmanuel - Center Stage
I caught this PBS special on Tommy Emmanuel. Wow. For those who like great guitar work, you won't want to miss this.

Current Mood: impressed

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No Crossposting here either
From the number of posts I've seen about it, this crossposting thing is a big concern to many.  So let join the chorus that says "I will not be crossposting anything." 

Current Mood: thoughtful

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Happy Birthday, vixyish
We celebrate another year made happier by the presence among us of the lovely, talented, vivacious and just-a-darn-nice-person vixyish!

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Thoughts on BayCon 2010

The BayCon committee ran into some rough waters earlier in the year, but overall managed to put on a reasonably good convention (at least, the parts I attended).

Friday:  I got to the convention in the middle of the 4 PM panels and decided to just slip quietly in for the Graphic Novels panel.  The part I saw was very good, I wished I had been able to get there earlier and see the whole thing.  At 6 PM it was a choice between the Cassini Update and the BoF:LOST room.  Checking in 3 minutes before 6 PM there were only 3 people in the BoF:LOST room, which didn't seem enough to have the good interactive discussions I was hoping for - so I went with Cassini (which was packed, and a good presentation).  Cassini let out a bit early though, so I checked back on the BoF:LOST room and found a dozen people with high intensity discussions going on, so I got 20-30 minutes of that as well.  I ran into fireskin  in the hall, she said she would be at the Saturday Open Filk.  Last summer I had promised to sing her a particular song when we next met, and this was that next time.  I thought this would be easy - but see below.  Meet The Guests and Filk Lounge rounded out the evening.

Saturday I got to the con at noon (I commuted) in time for the Fan GoH Interview (mdlbear and Colleen), which ended early enough for me to dash over to the bloodmobile to give a pint.  There was not enough time for a Double Red donation like often do - there was barely enough time to get to the Home Recording panel at 2.  According to the schedule there would be filk concerts at 4 PM, but the sign next to the door said 5 PM, not 4.  The pocket program had a code for the various types of programming.  The 000 series was Events/GoH stuff, the 100 series was Art and so on up to 900 as "something else".  The filk concerts were listed as 1700.  I wondered if that was a double-secret code for "doesn't start on the grid time" when actually it was much simpler.  That must be the actual starting time rather than a program code.  (On Sunday's schedule it was a little clearer - it said 17:00 rather than 1700.).  Anyway, I went to the Better GMing panel for an hour, then got back to the concerts.  mdlbear , Barry Gold, and it_aint_easy with fireskin .  All 3 concerts were good. After some dinner, I decided to camp in the filk room at least until I got to sing that song to fireskin .  After a while I head outside the room to retune, spot her there on her way in, and it looks like everything will go smoothly.  Everything is set, we just have to go back in when - the fire alarm goes off.  It's a false alarm (a faulty sensor, they later report).  So after hiking downstairs and out of and away from the building, waiting it out, and letting everyone get back inside, I quick sing her the song before the opportunity gets away.  A little bit later there is a request for me to do a different song.  Someone else does a song while I dig it out.  So everything is set when - the fire alarm goes off again.  I head for a closer exit this time, only to be told by a staff member that was being locked off "even as we speak"  by the Convention Center.  (WTF?!?  Unless the fire is RIGHT THERE you don't lock off exits when the alarm has been rung!  Note - this wouldn't have taken us INTO the CC, but to a walkway BESIDE the CC and out to the parking structure.)  Great puzzlement, but I obediently follow the directions of the staffer to a different exit entirely through the hotel. (You also don't ARGUE at a time like that.)  They take a bit less time this time to confirm it's another false alarm (the same faulty sensor, apparently). So when we get back inside I quickly do the requested song, and whenever requested to do another song the rest of the evening I started looking at the alarm...  (I also overdid things playing.  With my RSI it's usually best to really limit the number of songs I play.  I went over the limit and thus showed up Sunday at the con in a wrist brace.  My choice, fully aware of the probable consequences.)

Sunday I arrived late at the con, but in time for A SHOT RANG OUT, a BayCon favorite that had been unexpectedly missing last year.  It's an improvisational story-telling panel.  It ranges from "So-So" to "Absolutely the best thing at the entire convention", and hoping for the latter I always attend when I can.  This year it was about in the middle of that range - pretty good, but not ROFL like some years.  The gimmick is this.  There is a box set out ahead of time for members to place a sentence or two.  Quite often cliches or movie quotes, but original sentences are allowed as well, even ones rather bizarre.  Each panel member draws a slip of paper.  The moderator designates one panel member to start.  The story always begins with "A shot rang out", and then the person starting has to direct the tale so he/she can end that segment with the exact words on the slip of paper.  The story is then turned over to the next panelist, who must bend the story so he/she can end on the next slip of paper and so on.  They go through the entire panel several times (drawing new slips of paper for each round).  Meanwhile the audience provides sound effects (one memorable year, for a steam-powered goat among other things), chocolates are provided to the panel and/or thrown out to audience members who contribute in some way, and there's a great deal of silliness and fun.  For a late panel on Sunday (with people probably sleep-deprived and so on) it's a great way to turn things around and recharge. (Jane Mailander is especially talented as a panel member, though she wasn't on the panel this year.)  It ended at 5:30 or so, meaning I had already missed Lynn Gold's concert - but I got to see Alison Lansdale, mysticfig  &  kaath9 ,  and Meg & k_stoph .  During the open filk I did a lot of listening, though late at night I did field one request (I had promised my wrist I wouldn't play on Sunday, but since it was after midnight it was technically Monday at that point....).

Monday I skipped.  I needed sleep more than I needed more con, I'd already paid for next year's membership, and I was scheduled to be at a BBQ/D&D game that afternoon/evening.

There were noise and ventilation problems, which really compounded each other.  It was really noisy outside the Open Filk room in the hall, but if you closed the doors it got unbearably hot and humid because the AC had been turned off (in spite of the hotel contract specifically saying it should be on for many more hours....).  Many people were disappointed with the Masquerade Ball that replaced the more typical Stage Presentation of Costumes.  The schedules for Filk Concerts got changed several times.  The false alarms.  But by and large they did a credible job with it in spite of the problems earlier in the year.


Current Mood: content

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Happy Birthdays to far-flung friends
Not that I'm in the habit of flinging my friends very far, mind you.  But a couple thousand miles over to ohiblather and a few thousand miles more over to katyhh  - Let The Birthday Wishes Fly!

Today is the day
Retrieve the music, press PLAY
Since you are not here

This technology
Refreshes my memories
Of wonderful friends

Waiting for the day
We meet again in person
And the music soars!






Current Mood: cheerful

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Once you pick it up - it's yours!
Sigh.  Apparently I picked up a virus over ConSonance.  Typical URI, and allowing some incubation time (and mingling with a lot of people from all over the place) that seems the logical source.

So I don't plan to go over to the usual Wed. night gathering.  No sense spreading this around.

Current Mood: sick

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