I have FINALLY dragged artemisiabrisol into Babylon 5, after nearly two years of threatening to do exactly that. Now that I own the entire thing (Thank you, inexplicable Best Buy sale, thank you. *fondles DVDs*), my evil plan was much more convenient to everyone.

She has already voiced the concern that this show is going to ruin her for all other science fiction TV.

...

Mwa ha ha. ^.^

We have gotten through The Gathering (and beyond Laurel Takashima) and ended the night with 102, Soul Hunter.

(I had actually forgotten how fucking creepy I found the Soul Hunters.)

But this is great! I expect most of you have done this, where you drag somebody new through a show you love. It's kind of like watching it again for the first time. Also, she has threatened to liveblog the experience, which for The Gathering I expect to be thoroughly hilarious.

In other news, my battle with Rogers Wireless to replace my phone with something not dead-ended in Android 1.5 brickitude continues apace.

( Die in a fire, Rogers Wireless.Collapse )

Today, there was birthday yarn purchasing (thanks, maelie!). Tomorrow, there will be indescribably boring business class reading. (And more Babylon 5. Which is the only thing saving Sunday.) Next week will be my last full week of classes before the Olympics shuts down the city until the end of February. Only 47,987,034 things to do before then. *headdesk*

Okay Apple, you have finally managed to impress me.

*stares pointedly at Google to please match this, and immediately*

I'd be more impressed, of course, if the damned thing weren't running up to $829 fucking dollars USD just for the magical privilege of WiFi and/or 3G, particularly since they're not selling in Canada and probably won't for a year, if history is anything to go by.

After all, Google still hasn't gotten off its ass to offer proper support for Android in Canada yet, like access to the Apps Store, even though Canadian retailers have been (incompetently) selling and (negligently) marketing Android devices for the better part of a year (~8 months). Hell, Canada still doesn't even have Google Voice! The Nexus One has still only been released, as of this week, to the USA, the UK, Hong Kong, and Singapore. No offense to Hong Kong, Singapore, and the UK, or anything, but we're right fucking here. My phone still doesn't have Android 1.6. (I'll be fixing that as soon as I get my free Magic, and as soon as I get together the courage to root my beautiful, beautiful Dream, because I am officially fed up with this bullshit.)

The moral of this basically being that it sucks to be Canadian, when it comes to cool toys.

I mean, I admit it. Looking at the specs and watching the videos made my fingers itch. That's nothing special, though. My fingers always itch in the presence of shiny media technology. But the iPad has the same problem all Apple products have: they just get more expensive the longer you have them. Not to mention the "closed app ecosystem" that means you can't install anything on it but what Apple approves. Like a browser that isn't Safari. Or Google Voice (if you happen to be fortunate enough to live in a country graced by the blessings of Mighty Google, which I don't). Um, no.

(Speaking of open-source, did anybody else notice that the e-mail client and calendar UI look JUST LIKE the Android e-mail client and calendar UIs? Hm.)

Now if the thing gets down below $600 CAD by next Christmas (and holy crap, gains flash support or a camera or a USB port or the ability to multi-task, WTF?), it might be a cool toy. And we've yet to see how Google does with its version of this, not to mention the dozen other companies trying. But otherwise, I'll give it another five years. And hey, by then I'll probably have a real job again!

Okay, so you probably know about Noradsanta.org, where on Christmas Eve you can track Santa as he travels across the globe. (In my opinion still in the top ten Reasons Why The Future Is Awesome.) Well, apparently on December 24th one can search for "Santa" on a Google-supported phone and see his current location (presumably this works with ordinary GoogleMaps as well).

Also last night I finally figured out how to sync all my phone's old SIM card contacts with my RL Gmail, so I never have to worry about tragically misplacing people's phone numbers and addresses again. There was, of course, an app for that.

The future? It is totally awesome. Especially the little green robot-y parts.

(It would be even more awesome if Rogers Wireless wasn't a bunch of lazy assfaces who still haven't gotten around to releasing the 1.6 or 2.0 OS update. And can't even answer the question of possible release dates when asked.

( ETA: Because OH MY GOD I want to be able to run this:Collapse ))

In other, less-awesome news, little Faildog has broken her Good Dog streak by a) throwing up supper at three o'clock yesterday morning, b) taking her revenge for only getting rice for supper by tearing up a ball of very nice yarn and c) throwing up tonight's supper just about an hour ago and proving that actually, rice was the way to go. (Unfortunately this means no solid food for her at all tomorrow, but now I don't feel as bad about it. I am beginning to suspect that all of her wickedness resides within her inordinately delicate gastrointestinal system.)

In other, edging-back-into-awesome news that is not about dog vomit, I have actually started the little-Rodney-trails-Jessica-around-Cabot-Cove-helping-her-solve-mysteries story. In the open Word document it is presently titled "Fisherman's Rib." I will at some point during the story find some way of making this relevant instead of merely adorable.

Um. Probably. ;)

While they're not offering Windows 7 via The Ultimate Steal like they did with Office, Microsoft is apparently offering students a discount (~$30 USD) version of Windows 7 Home Premium/Professional, starting tomorrow for folks not in the US/UK. I love me my XP Pro (*clings*), but I know that at some point, I'm not going to have much choice but to upgrade. Also, I'm frankly curious.

And, hm. Dilemma. I just ran the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor and apparently Podkayne (my present desktop machine) can run it, but for a few graphics issues that I don't really care about (I think Aero is silly.).

However, I'm still pretty sure she's going to die soon. She's six (seven?) years old including the time before refurbishment, and has been freezing some and making working-too-hard sounds lately. I'm loathe to replace her, but I also don't want to be without a desktop computer. (Yes, I have two other computers, but they're both laptops and it's different, shut up. :P)

So do I:

a) buy the damned upgrade (~$40 CAD with taxes and such) and possibly need to replace the entire PC in the near future anyway, or just

b) throw up my hands and replace her before she blows, with a newer, better machine that will come with Windows 7 preinstalled?

On a related note, have any of you been using the betas? How does it look? Shiny or Tissue Of Beautiful Lies like Vista?

artemisiabrisol and I - or one of us, I'm not sure which - nearly impulse-bought a Wii this evening. We went into Future Shop to replace the ethernet cable that Faildog chewed up the other night when upset with both of us from kicking her out of first one bed and then the other, and they had a Wii set up with Wii Resort, which as one of its games (its only important one, in my opinion) is one where you run around hitting other characters in the head with a plastic light saber.

It was a very, very close call. Especially when I saw the Beatles Rock Band setup. Mostly because I can absolutely see myself spending hours running around on a pixellated beach, hitting people in the head wiht a plastic light saber. It's very satisfying.

Of course, I haven't owned a game console since Grandma bought us an NES in, oh, Jesus, 1990? So perhaps I am just dazzled by the shiny and everything else on the Wii is just silly and ridiculous. (Though since that appears to be the whole point of the Wii, I'm not sure that's a minus or anything.)

Instead, artemisiabrisol bought a new camera. For the purpose of webcasts for The Secret IRL Project, because her old camera was seven years old and couldn't do video, and my Rebel doesn't do video (I do have a video camera, but apparently it's not pretty and wee enough. ^.^)

(Incidentally, huh. I should start a Secret IRL Project filter, because I'm going to want to start exploiting some of you for beta-testing purposes in the near future.)

( Also, this is a PSA for Canadian F-listers: be wary of giving T Booth your business.Collapse )

I'm trying to track down magazine reviews for the years surrounding the release of Robert Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Yes, this is one of my very favourite books, but this is actually for a class!

Aside: Today, as the college's Student Reference Assistant (I found out today that I beat out sixteen other people for this job that I didn't even know I was competing for. The Tech Services librarian - or whatever her title actually is - just called me into her office and said "hey, want a different job that gets you out of Circulation?" and I nodded emphatically. Next year I plan to capture the Lab Support job purely by accident.), I got complimented for being nit-picky, something that has never been said to me except by my mother. Also, the magical moment cataloguing-prof told us would happen, where AACR suddenly goes click and starts to make sense? That happened to me on Tuesday. ROCK ON. So far, am loving my program.

Except for the Google class. That is silly.

I'm considering creating a library tech school filter, because I find myself wanting to ramble and complain about things that are heavily jargon-laden and involve a lot of whining about American English and commercial ILS being the devil and other things that cannot possibly interest ordinary people. If I did such a thing, would any of you want to be on it? (I'll probably just end up cutting it anyway, so it probably doesn't matter either way.)

Anyway. I'm supposed to, basically, write a biography of a book's publication history. To that end, I've got articles, interviews, print runs (nothing on sales, alas), etc. I am trying to include a bit about the book's reception, which means I have need of the reviews of the book, most of which appeared in sci-fi magazines between 1966 and 1976. Unfortunately, it appears that only three libraries in Canada keep back-issues of sci-periodicals more than two years, and those are back East, and interlibrary loans take several weeks, and by the time I'd gotten the assignment it was already too late for such things to get to me in time.

So I ask you, clever, clever F-list, do you have any of the following titles in your posession?

* Locus, August 1996, (1996), reviewed by Russell Letson
* The New York Review of Science Fiction, July 1996, (1996), reviewed by Earl Wells
* Galaxy, December 1976, (1976), reviewed by Spider Robinson
* Galaxy Magazine, December 1966, (1966), reviewed by Algis Budrys
* The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1966, (1966), reviewed by Judith Merril
* Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, August 1970, (1970), reviewed by P. Schuyler Miller
* Analog Science Fiction -> Science Fact, December 1966, (1966), reviewed by P. Schuyler Miller
* SFRA Review #280, (2007), reviewed by Alfred E. Guy, Jr.

See, the really frustrating thing is, I more or less have all the citations for the damned things, but I can't get my hands on a one of them. (Well, maybe one, if I can get my ass down to White Dwarf Books at some point this week.) I mean, I can write around it, but I'd like to have the background, y'know?

If you do happen to have one of these magazines lying around, particularly the ones with reviews by Spider Robinson, and you could slap 'em on a scanner and e-mail them to me, I would be endlessly grateful.

Second aside: Is it just me, or do the weeks seem longer this semester than last? It may just be that I am really, really tired all the time due to not having been this busy since... oh, god, film school, and that's a comparison I could have lived without. And I have to get another job, because despite getting grants this year, tuition went up significantly again, so I'm short anyway! Ha ha ha!

Ah, well. Maybe I'll get super-lucky and score the giant bursary, but I'm not holding my breath. I need to start getting more than four hours' sleep a night, is all, probably.There's not even that much work, is the thing - just, like, a hundred pages of reading every two days or so, if I'm being studious and attentive and all, and I'm making an effort to actually be studious and not do all my assignments the night before they're due. So far I'm averaging a completion date about two days before due date, which is better than I've done since high school, so.

It was probably unwise of artemisiabrisol and I to start a mad and massive side-project at this exact time, but it's not as though you have much choice about ideas that hit you after 1:30 in the morning. (On that note, I fucking hate you, Internet Explorer. You ruin everything.)

No, I'm not going to tell you what that means. Well, I might; we may at some point need feedback and beta-testing and such. For the meantime, I am choosing to be enigmatic. Live with it. :P

Perhaps because of all of this, I have started writing something kind of, um, dark. For me. It is John/Rodney (as though I'm capable of writing anything else these days), and there is... well, I don't want to spoil it, because it's interesting, but.

Yeah, going to bed now. So tired.

By which I mean, my friend Brad-who-is-going-to-England-soon has cajoled me into going to Whistler with a bunch of friends instead of being responsible and staying home to do homework and readings (counting quizzes, I have four things due every week until November 15th and HA HA, I STILL NEED TO FINISH BIG BANG, so, uh, it was nice knowing you all?).

Downside: no matter how carefully I prepare, I will probably not do very much work on vacation.

Upside: I'll be in Whistler, so who the fuck cares?

Seriously, I probably will get at least some reading done. Mostly there will be a lot of sleeping and watching of nerdy television, and possibly some hurling of ourselves partway down a mountain on a steel cable. (Ziplining really is as fun as it looks, for the record.)

Also: went with roomie artemisiabrisol to buy her new computer today, courtesy of the Alberta government. I may have enjoyed it more than she did, as I went along as Tech-Savvy Friend #1, and I do believe the CSR was disappointed at being unable to sell us even one piece of superfluous software, since we are both students and have it all already. I am now jealous of her shiny new 8GB RAM, 2.5 GHz, 1TB HDD (YES, THAT SAYS ONE TERABYTE, WTF) quad-core desktop PC with 22-inch widescreen monitor. Not that I don't love my desktop - Poddy has always served me well - it's just. ONE. TERABYTE.

And I bought an agenda (realised I actually could not wait another week for the free LSU ones to get in) and a copy of Sabriel.

So, uh. Yes. Leaving tomorrow evening after my last class (at which point I will doubtless have another seventeen assignments to add to my kickass new agenda). Back on Sunday? There's supposed to be internet there, but you never can tell.

An interview with Brad Wright on Stargate: 90210 in which he tells us adoring fans that apparently, they're getting a million dollars more per episode than SGA. After seeing the trailer last week in all its gritty, dramatic SERIOUSNESS, this all just shows me that apparently, I'm still really really angry about the whole thing.

I have to go and peer-review terrible websites now. Rec me fluffy comfort boykissing fic? Or baby animals? Or chocolate? So I don't get too honest with my "peers"?

I know a lot of you use Gimp rather than Photoshop and sing its praises often - after all, it's free. Hurrah. I, myself, learned Photoshop, way back in film school, and have kept using it. Recently I even acquired a legal version (O.O).

In Web Design class, we had to create a gradient image today, in order to apply it to the background of a CSS element. He uses Gimp, but said we could use Photoshop if we liked - he just didn't offer explicit instructions for Photoshop. Oh, okay, I thought. Open Photoshop, create file of appropriate size, select Fill tool in Gradient mode, click-and-drag, there we go. There's our file.

The same operation in Gimp took eleven steps and ten minutes.

I sort of... stared. There must be an easier way to do this. Right? o.O

Whatever. I'm happy with Photoshop.

Coming to understand that coming to school today was a Mistake; sneezing has progressed to sneezing and coughing, oh joy. Only here forty-five minutes and kind of feel like shambling death. Debating going to work, or not. Certainly popping by clinic on way out, regardless. (Really, emphatically not looking forward to bus ride home with giant head.)

Midterm lasted: 23 minutes. Now two hours to kill until work. Sigh.

I have been reading the news again this morning, and am disturbed that Firefox's automatic RSS feeds have populated only three out of thirty stories with news about Iran, in contrast to nine, yesterday. I admit I have difficulty understanding how anyone can look at a regime that flatly denies the existence of the Holocaust and homosexuality, that silences protest with armed force, that storms university dormitories with automatic weapons, and believe that this is a government even capable of legitimacy. But people are.

(What was it Heinlein said about manners? That an epidemic of bad manners is usually a symptom of a dying culture? Similarly, states driven to violence to pacify protest have usually been states on their way out. Used to be, anyway.

One can only hope.)

I know they only did it to elbow in on the news cycle, but it's kind of awesome that Twitter delayed their scheduled maintenance so that Iranians could continue beaming out news of the election protests.

"We decided together to move the date. It made sense for Twitter and for NTT America to keep services active during this highly visible global event."

I've seen six people on campus today wearing green wristbands. I couldn't guess about the percolation into the world outside colleges and universities...?