out of the blue

I've been here for a few days, and I'm enjoying classes. Unfortunately, the internet in our house broke down, so I've not been able to update recently. I know you've all been looking forward to seeing all my stories from the first few days, but you'll have to wait a couple more (depending on when our internet is restored to us).

Talk to you folks later.

I made it to Spokane. Other franticness commences. I am very happy to see Becky. More later.

It's that time of year again. Frantic packing, frantic sleeping followed by frantic driving, and then again by frantic unpacking, and frantic resting to top it off. Yes, frantic resting.

I just finished pretty much all of my packing, and it's time to place my beloved computer into a box as well. As you may guess, it's the last thing I pack, and the first thing I unpack. Anyway, no time to chat, for the frantic sleep is calling me. Goodnight world! I'll see you in Spokane.

An in the New York Times claims that there is a recent trend of scientists willing to speak up about their faith. Apparently the "stereotypical" scientist is a bit shy on the subject.

"Their belief in God challenges scientists who regard religious belief as little more than magical thinking, as some do. Their faith also challenges believers who denounce science as a godless enterprise and scientists as secular elitists contemptuous of God-fearing people", says the article.

This quote made me laugh. I don't know if I'm unusual or sheltered from conservative religious thinking (I come from a moderately conservative background myself, so I don't think that's it), but do many staunch religious folks see science as "godless", or scientists as automatically "secular"? This view must surely be a rarity.

Another quote that fascinated me was said by Steven Weinberg, who won the Nobel Prize for work in particle physics. "I think one of the great historical contributions of science is to weaken the hold of religion. That's a good thing."

What do you think?

I will update this eventually, really! Right now, though, I'm just taking the chance to point you all to Neil Gaiman's Blog, where he has put up the first 9:03 minutes (16.5 mb) of his upcoming novel, Anansi Boys. As soon as I get my sound working again, I'm listening to it. (Of course, I may steal someone else's computer in order to try it out.)

Tomorrow I set off on a journey of epic proportions to devour the glorious vistas along the mountain trail, to shun the conveniences of civilization, and to fellowship with my brotherhood of friends in a peaceful haven nestled amongst the crags of the Cascades. The destination, Rock Lake, is a place of myth and of legend. I have heard tales of its wonders from travellers who have past occasioned upon it, and now I go to see for myself whether they hold true with the reality. Will the rumours surpass the legend, as happens so often in this age of dreary mediocrity. Or will the legend instead surpass the rumours and fill me with joy in my first tasting of it, that thereafter on my pilgrimage I am sent into transports of delight that will end only reluctantly upon the return? Perhaps I may always long for another glimpse, but forever be bound to this drab plane in which we live. And will then my life be fuller or more pale that I have gazed upon the bounty of the Earth? I shall cast myself into that uncertainty, and emerge with a new understanding. Gods willing, I may have the better of the two.

Upon my return, you will not need simply take my words as truth, for I shall bring back evidence of my travels, that you may also delight in its beauty. A fiendish device I have, which steals the essence of a place and throws it into its bowels, only to keep it trapped there for all eternity. It may then be paraded about on other arcane instruments, so other eyes may glimpse the memories of another. These visions and more I shall convey into your hands from afar.

Wish me luck, that I may indeed share in the perfection of experience, and be filled with light when once again I speak to you.

(A necessary piece of equipment for such a sojourn into the uncivilized corners of the world is the "tent", which, though found in many various sizes and shapes and manufacture, often includes a strange contraption called a "zipper". This has been causing me no end of grief for the last couple years. I finally examined it, and sought teaching in its setting-right. From there, it was but an easy step to mend the "zipper". Now no tragic flaws exist in my equipment, and I may depart in all readiness; this is the victory of which I spoke.)

Good news! My computer is up and running again!

Many thanks to Neil Tuttle, who is a wonderful person :)

Patrick Nielsen Hayden linked to a scathing review by Roger Ebert. It's really stylish. Here's the part of the review he quoted:

According to a story by Larry Carroll of MTV News, Rob Schneider took offense when Patrick Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times listed this year’s Best Picture Nominees and wrote that they were “ignored, unloved and turned down flat by most of the same studios that…bankroll hundreds of sequels, including a follow-up to Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo, a film that was sadly overlooked at Oscar time because apparently nobody had the foresight to invent a category for Best Running Penis Joke Delivered by a Third-Rate Comic.”

Schneider retaliated by attacking Goldstein in full-page ads in Daily Variety and the Hollywood Reporter. In an open letter to Goldstein, Schneider wrote: “Well, Mr. Goldstein, I decided to do some research to find out what awards you have won. I went online and found that you have won nothing. Absolutely nothing. No journalistic awards of any kind…Maybe you didn’t win a Pulitzer Prize because they haven’t invented a category for Best Third-Rate, Unfunny Pompous Reporter Who’s Never Been Acknowledged by His Peers.”

Reading this, I was about to observe that Schneider can dish it out but he can’t take it. Then I found he’s not so good at dishing it out, either. I went online and found that Patrick Goldstein has won a National Headliner Award, a Los Angeles Press Club Award, a RockCritics.com award, and the Publicists’ Guild award for lifetime achievement.

Schneider was nominated for a 2000 Razzie Award for Worst Supporting Actor, but lost to Jar-Jar Binks.

But Schneider is correct, and Patrick Goldstein has not yet won a Pulitzer Prize. Therefore, Goldstein is not qualified to complain that Columbia financed Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo while passing on the opportunity to participate in Million Dollar Baby, Ray, The Aviator, Sideways and Finding Neverland. As chance would have it, I have won the Pulitzer Prize, and so I am qualified. Speaking in my official capacity as a Pulitzer Prize winner, Mr. Schneider, your movie sucks.

Patrick ends his post with, "Speaking in my official capacity as a reader, I would not be surprised to hear that, at the moment that Roger Ebert typed that concluding statement into his word processor, he was bodily transported into Heaven, his work on Earth done. How can the rest of his life be anything but a pale anticlimax?"

Well, the Hugo award winners are up now on Locus News. Check it out. I read Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, and it's a wonderful novel. I'm glad it got the Hugo. I'll have to find a way to read some of the other award winners.

I realize that I'm lessening my own chances of winning this thing, but anyone who likes Neil Gaiman should go enter the contest on HarperCollins to win "a Neil Gaiman library! The library includes the paperback editions of American Gods, Neverwhere, Stardust, Coraline, Smoke and Mirrors, hardcover editions of Mirrormask and The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish, and the new hardcover, Anansi Boys."

Where did The Wolves in the Walls go?