(1) David Brin urges everyone to make a fashion statement for Back To the Future Day:
Okay so October 21 is “Back to the Future” Day,” when movie houses all over will be holding special showings of BTTF-II, to commemorate our crossing that particular frontier — when Marty McFly and Doc Brown arrived at the ‘future’ of 2015 from the year 1985. Here is a rundown of ways the film was eerily on target… and another… if you set aside hover boards and flying cars and hydrated pizzas. And Mr. Fusion, alas. Hey, everyone wear a DOUBLE TIE that day! I haven’t heard anyone else pushing that meme, so pass it on starting here!
(2) Jim C. Hines’ Icon report includes a photo of a group posed around the “Future Birthplace of James T. Kirk” monument in Riverside, Iowa. Hines is there with Ann Leckie, David Gerrold, Joe and Gay Haldeman, and some others I should probably recognize.
(3) Amanda S. Green considers possible outcomes of Amazon’s new move against fake reviews in “To Pay or Not to Pay”.
I can’t speak for Amazon but I have a feeling what we will see happening is that a number of reviews will simply drop off the site. These reviews will either be directly tied to the sites Amazon has suspicions about or will have key phrases that are oft repeated across other reviews. It is easy enough to code a data crawler to find such similarities. It is basically the same sort of tool that schools use to determine if a paper contains any plagiarized parts.
Amazon might go one step further. Right now, if you look at Amazon customer reviews, you will see some from verified purchasers and then those that aren’t. A verified purchaser is someone who actually purchased the item from Amazon. The only problem with this is it doesn’t reflect those who borrowed a book or short story under the Kindle Unlimited program. This may be the point where Amazon needs to add that as one of the descriptors. I know a number of authors, and readers alike, who have been asking Amazon to do just that. At least that way, people who look at reviews before buying something would have an idea if the reviewer actually put down money on the book in question.
There is always the possibility that Amazon will require you to have purchased an item from them before you are allowed to review it. I’ll admit to being torn about this option. That would keep reviewers like Shiny Book Review from posting reviews on all sales sites. It would kick out reviewers who receive free copies of books unless Amazon has them register as reviewers. This is a path I’m not sure I want to see them go down.
Right now, Amazon gives more weight to reviews written by verified purchasers. As they should.
(4) The Tiptree Award is looking for recommendations. Got one? Click and fill out their form.
Most of the books and stories that Tiptree Award jurors read to pick a winner are nominated by authors and readers. We need your suggestions. If you’ve read a work of science fiction or fantasy that explores or expands our notions of gender, please tell us about it by filling out the recommendation form below. If you have more than one, just fill out the form again with a new recommendation and submit it until you’ve told us about them all.
Recommendations close on the 1st of December, 2015.
(5) Fans and everyone seeking eyeballs for their blog are busy mining the newly-released Star Wars trailer for provocative material like – Who dies in the movie?
The first full-length trailer for Star Wars: The Force Awakens gave fans plenty to speculate wildly about, but one moment in particular is causing widespread panic across the galaxy — or at least, the Internet. Towards the end of the trailer (watch it here!), there is a one-second shot of heroine Rey (Daisy Ridley) sobbing over what looks like a dead body. So who dies?
(6) Geeks Are Sexy has photographic proof that Canada’s Newest Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, is a member of the Rebel Alliance. Eh?
(7) Catherynne M. Valente delivers The Big Idea today at Whatever. You were warned!
Radiance doesn’t have a big idea at its heart.
It has about six. It’s a decopunk alt-history Hollywood space opera mystery thriller. With space whales.
Over-egging the pudding, you say? Too many cooks going at the soup? Gilding that lily like it’s going to the prom? I say: grab your eggs and hold onto your lilies because I am cannonballing into that soup FULL SPEED AHEAD.
(8) Brandon Kempner assesses the chances of Kim Stanley Robinson’s Aurora getting a Hugo nomination.
The Hugo is a murkier award in 2016, given the turbulence surrounding it. 2312 took third place in 2013, and was also third in the nominations. Given the campaigns that are sure to take place in 2016, 3rd place is probably vulnerable to being pushed out. Add in that 2016 is a strong Hugo year (former Best Novel winners Robinson, Stephenson, Leckie, Walton, Bacigalupi, Scalzi, and Liu are all fighting for 5 spots, and that’s not even factoring in Puppy campaigns or buzzy authors like Novik). As a result, I think Robinson will miss the ballot, but a strong year-end push could definitely grab Robinson a spot.
As for metrics, as of mid-October 2015, Aurora has 2,535 Goodreads ratings with a 3.79 score and 264 Amazon ratings with a score of 3.7. Those aren’t great but they aren’t terrible. It’s a rare thing to see the Goodreads score higher than Amazon, but I couldn’t tell you what that means. I think around 1500 Goodreads / 100 Amazon is the cut off to be competitive, so KSR is well above that. Score doesn’t seem to matter for either the Hugos or Nebulas; VanderMeer won a Nebula last year with a 3.62 Goodreads score.
(9) Tobias Buckell is losing readers right and left. Mostly right. “Today’s passive aggressive fan mail: reader will not read more of my books because I don’t speak English English as my first language”
(10) Peter David “Just when boycotts couldn’t get any more stupid: Star War VII”
When the first “Star Wars” film came out in 1977, it was criticized for the overall whiteness of it. The one major black actor, James Earl Jones, wasn’t even given voice credit (his choice). This was answered with the introduction of Lando in the very next film, but still, mostly white.
So now the new film prominently features a black hero and there are actually idiots who are declaring it should be boycotted because of that? I mean, I knew there are people for whom Obama can do no right because of his skin color, but this is quite simply insane.
(11) But Gary Farber says it’s a fake boycott trolled by 4chan.Here’s one of those claiming credit.
https://twitter.com/The_Extrange/status/656225411773300736
(12) Meanwhile, in the interests of being fair and balanced, we bring you the A.V. Club’s post “Conservative pundit bravely comes out in support of the Galactic Empire”.
Star Wars’ Galactic Empire tends to get a bad rap. Oh sure, Emperor Palpatine started the whole thing by manufacturing a phony war to scare people into supporting a leader who would slowly take away their freedom in exchange for “safety,” the entire organization is suspiciously stocked with almost exclusively white human men, and there was that one time it destroyed an entire planet full of innocent people just to prove that it could, but is any of that stuff objectively evil? Conservative pundit Bill Kristol doesn’t think so, according to a tweet he posted this morning in response to a joke about how the Star Wars prequels encouraged conservatives to root for the Empire….
(13) Today In History:
- October 20, 1932 — James Whale’s The Old Dark House makes its theatrical debut.
(14) Today’s Birthday Boy:
- Born October 20, 1892 – Bela Lugosi. As they say at IMDB:
It’s ironic that Martin Landau won an Oscar for impersonating Bela Lugosi (in Ed Wood (1994)) when Lugosi himself never came within a mile of one, but that’s just the latest of many sad ironies surrounding Lugosi’s career.
(15) Today’s Birthday Book:
- October 20, 1955 – The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien published. The Wertzone pays tribute:
The Return of the King, being the third part of the novel, was released on 20 October 1955, completing the publication of the tome that had begun on 29 July 1954 with the publication of The Fellowship of the Ring. The Return of the King had originally been planned for release much earlier in the year, but Tolkien delayed it due to working on the book’s appendices, to the annoyance of readers (yet another epic fantasy trend begun by the Tolkmeister).
(16) Belfast-born writer C.S. Lewis is to be honored in his native city with a series of new sculptures depicting characters from The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe reports the BBC.
Belfast City Council has commissioned six new pieces of public art, including Aslan the Lion and the White Witch.
They will be erected in a new civic square, currently under construction, at the Holywood Arches in east Belfast.
…As well as the lion and the witch, the six pieces of art also include sculptures of Mr Tumnus, Jewel the unicorn, Mr and Mrs Beaver and the Stone Table
(17) Belfast is also where the third C.S. Lewis Festival takes place from Thursday 19 – Sunday 22 November 2015, marking the 52nd anniversary of the death of the author, theologian, academic and creator of the incredible Chronicles of Narnia series.
Across 4 days of Lewis-related events will be reflections and assessments of the cultural significance of Lewis’ rich legacy, the impact he had on Belfast, as well as the strong influence his native city had on his vast body of work. There will be something for everyone with many magical and free events offered; it’s definitely worth checking out.
Clive Staples Lewis was born in Belfast in 1898. The C.S. Lewis Festival will recognise and celebrate both his life and his legacy to the world. Across 4 days of Lewis-related events will be reflections and assessments of the cultural significance of Lewis’ rich legacy, the impact he had on Belfast, as well as the strong influence his native city had on his vast body of work.
(18) Free lifetime memberships for trying it! One of the best book cataloging sites. LibraryThing launches in iPhone app.
We’re thrilled to announce the official LibraryThing iPhone App!
What it does. This is our first version, so we’ve limited it to doing the most basic functions you’ll need for cataloging on the go:
- Browse and search your library.
- Add books by scanning barcodes. Scanning to add is VERY FAST!
- Add books by searching.
- Browse and upload covers, using the iPhone camera.
- Do minor editing, such as changing collections and ratings. Major editing sends you to LibraryThing.
(19) Wait, you mean it isn’t fake? “This Software Lets Someone Else Control Your Face”
Researchers created expression transferring software that projects mouth, eye, and other facial movements onto another face in real time.
(20) “Life on Earth likely started 4.1 billion years ago – much earlier than scientists thought” reports Phys.org.
“Life on Earth may have started almost instantaneously,” added Harrison, a member of the National Academy of Sciences. “With the right ingredients, life seems to form very quickly.”
The new research suggests that life existed prior to the massive bombardment of the inner solar system that formed the moon’s large craters 3.9 billion years ago.
“If all life on Earth died during this bombardment, which some scientists have argued, then life must have restarted quickly,” said Patrick Boehnke, a co-author of the research and a graduate student in Harrison’s laboratory.
Scientists had long believed the Earth was dry and desolate during that time period. Harrison’s research—including a 2008 study in Nature he co-authored with Craig Manning, a professor of geology and geochemistry at UCLA, and former UCLA graduate student Michelle Hopkins—is proving otherwise.
“The early Earth certainly wasn’t a hellish, dry, boiling planet; we see absolutely no evidence for that,” Harrison said. “The planet was probably much more like it is today than previously thought.”
The researchers, led by Elizabeth Bell—a postdoctoral scholar in Harrison’s laboratory—studied more than 10,000 zircons originally formed from molten rocks, or magmas, from Western Australia. Zircons are heavy, durable minerals related to the synthetic cubic zirconium used for imitation diamonds. They capture and preserve their immediate environment, meaning they can serve as time capsules.
(21) A New York Comic Con panel on the economics of Star Trek gathered Trek writer Chris Black; Manu Saadia, author of the book “Trekonomics”; Annalee Newitz, founding editor of the culture site io9; moderator Felix Salmon, of Fusion; Paul Krugman, a Nobel Prize-winning economist and New York Times columnist; and Brad DeLong, an economics professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
“Gene Roddenberry tried to paint our future,” said DeLong, noting that we’ve gone far down that road. “We’re now, in fact, approaching post-scarcity in food and products.”
But, as Newitz pointed out, because “Trek” is a future where money no longer exists, people work because they want to but are therefore supported by other economies. To prove her point, she cited as an example “Measure of a Man,” an episode of “Star Trek: The Next Generation” that centered on the character of Lt. Cmdr. Data, an android.
Even though Data is a crew member of the starship “Enterprise,” unlike his fellow crewmates, he’s a robot. But does that make him a person or Starfleet property?
“We’re constantly being reminded that slavery and low wages support the comfortable, ‘Enterprise’ living,” Newitz said….
Salmon, the panel’s moderator, pointed out that in 2016, “Star Trek” will turn 50 and Thomas More’s book, “Utopia,” will turn 500. He then asked the panel if there is anything utopian about “Trek.”
“We are problem-solving, puzzle-solving, status-seeking creatures,” DeLong said.
Krugman responded by saying: “People have an amazing ability to be unhappy. The problem with utopia is not the lack of scarcity — it’s people.”
[Thanks to Will R., Steven H Silver, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit goes to File 770 contributing editor of the day Will R.]
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SHOWS I LIKED THAT DIED A DEATH:
Firefly
John From Cincinnati
SHOWS I WANTED TO LIKE MORE THAN I DID THAT DIED A DEATH
The Flash (Chaykin/Shipp edition)
Space: 1999
SHOWS I LIKED THAT DIED A DEATH BUT LETS FACE IT I WAS A KID
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
SHOWS I THOUGHT SUCKED THAT DIED A DEATH
Space: 90210
The Starlost
SHOWS I NEVER GOT INTO, WHICH IS WEIRD
The Incredible Hulk
Spider-Man
Robin of Sherwood
Doctor Who (classic)
SHOWS THAT CERTAINLY EXISTED AND ARE ELIGIBLE
Alf
Lost in Space
UFO
Ultraman
Hmm… Brainstorming other possibilities:
Nowhere Man (not sure if this was SFF or not, actually)
Dark Angel
Lost
Millennium
Friday the 13th
The Bionic Woman
Wonder Woman (ah, nostalgia!)
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
A few years ago I put together a post of what I considered the best science fiction shows of all time. Let’s see, ah, here it is.
From ten to one my picks were:
Red Dwarf
The Prisoner
The Twilight Zone
Doctor Who (Classic version)
Blake’s 7
Firefly
Star Trek: The Original Series
Stargate: SG-1
Farscape
Babylon 5
Other shows that might merit consideration:
Doctor Who (New version)
Space Island One
Moonbase 3
Jupiter Moon
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Star Trek: The Animated Series (the best Star Trek spinoff, even if it doesn’t meet the rules)
Stargate: Atlantis
Stargate: Universe
Crusade
Robin of Sherwood
@Jim
Ultraman was not terrible! There’s a whole bunch of people for whom it was a fairly early introduction to the crazy world of Japanese anime/ Super Sentai / etc (despite most incarnations not really being any of those)
I’ll need to think up a more comprehensive list, but for now:
Deep Space 9
Space Above and Beyond
Stargate SG-1
Nu BSG
So, if I’m understanding correctly, the current rules would say:
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (6 episodes) — allowed, because a second season was planned but fell through.
Neverwhere (6 episodes) — not allowed, because no second season was ever planned
Firefly (14 episodes) — allowed, because a second season was planned but fell through
The Prisoner (17 episodes) — not allowed, because no second season was ever planned
@Kyra: Exactly. Good summary.
Ok — TV:
First things first — anthologies:
Twilight Zone
Outer Limits
Night Gallery
Heros and Super-Heros:
Knight Rider
Smallville
Hercules the Legendary Journeys
Superman
Xena, Warrior Princess
Merlin
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Agent Carter
Hey, who let a love story in here:
Beauty and the Beast (1980s)
The aliens among us:
The Invaders
V
Space, the final…
Star Trek, TOS
Battlestar Galactica TOS
@Lori Coulson:
These are both ineligible because their on-air date is after the cutoff, alas. But I love your and others’ lists as memory prompts. It makes it much less likely we all wonder “How did we forget Red Dwarf?!” or whatever in a couple weeks.
That was off the top of my head — I put down everything I could think of, even if I wasn’t certain it was eligible…
And I forgot something:
Time Tunnel
IS The Man from U.N.C.L.E science fiction?
Two I almost forgot:
Batman (66-68).
The Greatest American Hero (81-83)
I’ve already been reminded of 2 more I shoulda thoughta (Quantum Leap and B&B)
Sapphire and Steel!
Quantum Leap, yes!
The Time Tunnel, yes!
And because no one has said them yet AFAIK:
Bewitched
It’s About Time (yes, I know I’m the only person who saw it, but I loved it — Imogene Coca!)
My Favorite Martian
Dark Shadows
Sliders
I know my choices are quite old as these things go — well, except for Sliders, which is pretty much forgotten even though it isn’t that old, but I did eschew My Mother the Car from the great old days of fantasy TV. I’m mulling whether I want to enter Sabrina the Teenage Witch into the sweepstakes because I did like it in its time. Just not sure it holds up.
The Friday the 13th series is a good thought. That one was much better than it had any right to be.
SHOWS I REMEMBER WATCHING AS A KID BUT HAVE NEVER RE-WATCHED AS AN ADULT:
Automan
Misfits of Science
SHOWS THAT I REWATCHED AS AN ADULT AND REGRETTED, BUT ARE STILL WORTH MENTIONING:
The Tomorrow People (I think I have seen three different iterations of a show involved evolved teens called “The Tomorrow People”)
I just remembered there was a Planet of the Apes TV series!
Unless there wasn’t and I dreamed it.
I just want to mention The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr, which I quite liked. And I agree with most of the nominations already listed.
Man, many of the older shows I want to recc have seriously fallen victim to the Suck Fairy.
Regardless, I’m adding Get Smart to my reccs as it has aged better. Also:
The 4400
Fringe
Angel
@Jim Henley
re: series
Since I was confused about your definition of the word ‘series’ I asked. My confusion was if you meant some related storyline with continuing characters was a series (Superman) but a collection of unrelated but fantastic stories was not a series (Twilight Zone). You answered.
@junego: Awesome.
She-Wolf of London (she muttered, and skulked off).
I forgot to add this link to my reminiscing list of largely ineligible suggestions:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:British_science_fiction_television_programmes
Some more recent things on there that I haven’t seen suggested yet –
Primeval (which I found a bit meh but it has dinosaurs)
Life on Mars – which was great but is really a police procedural with a weird twist
Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace – which I’ve mentioned before and is…not easy to describe but is definitely a thing
Not listed but also worth throwing out there for the longer end of the long list
The Adventure Game https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventure_Game – but I suspect Children’s celebrity game show doesn’t quite fit into the rule despite its other SFnal qualities.
US shows I’d forgotten about
The TV version of The Planet of the Apes was a thing and I remember it (!) and it was back in the day when ‘diversity’ meant that there had to be two male leads and one was blonde and the other had dark brown hair.
The David Macallum Invisible Man series https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invisible_Man_%281975_TV_series%29
Has nobody said The Six Million Dollar Man yet?
OMG Misfits of Science! Loved it as a kid! Haven’t thought about it in years! Would be scared to watch it again for fear of the Suck Fairy…
Weren’t both versions of V planned as limited miniseries?
And how is it none of us have thought to mention Third Rock From the Sun yet?
@Petréa Mitchell:
The human brain. It is limited!
Man from U.N.C.L.E was often considered science fiction at the time, so on my list it goes.
Shadow Chasers. If anyone knows if this made it to DVD, please tell me. Wonderful show.
Sapphire and Steel
Firefly
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Max Headroom
Dr Who
Star Trek TOS
Wild, Wild West (steampunky as hell)
BigelowT
It’s About Time (yes, I know I’m the only person who saw it, but I loved it — Imogene Coca!)
I enjoyed the cave age stories.
A series I can recommend: Wild Wild West.
Some I can’t, but did enjoy:
Salvage 1
American Gothic
Brimstone
Seven Days
The Sentinel
Daybreak
Logan’s Run
Warehouse 13 (2009–)
And four that somebody may have liked
War of the Worlds
Planet of the Apes
Logan’s Run
Alien Nation
I haven’t re-watched Misfits of Science for exactly that (suck fairy) reason.
I don’t think Garth Marenghi’s “Darkplace” was ever intended as a continuing series, but if so … yes. Absolutely. Very funny stuff.
I have a list, but it’s a bit long so I’m trying to cut it down before posting.
(I also have a list ready for any future miniseries/puppets/animation brackets, since it seemed worth being prepared…)
Oh man, I can’t type fast enough!
Star Trek Original
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (For me, the best Trek.)
The X-Files (Unlike many, I liked Season 8 with Annabeth Gish and Robert Patrick.)
Beauty and the Beast
V (original)
Babylon 5
Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (before Kevin Sorbo became an asshat)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Angel
Max Headroom
Battlestar Galactica (2003) (Maybe it blew the ending, but for the first three years, there was nothing like it on television.)
Total Recall 2070 (Only ran for one season, but I loved it. Fun fact: The star, Michael Easton, ended up on the soap opera Port Charles, playing a non-sparkly vampire!)
Yes, I do remember the Planet of the Apes TV series. I didn’t like it that much though.
I’ll also second Nowhere Man, although I’m not sure it’s true SFF either. Although the last episode with the reveal that gur cebgntbavfg pbafgehpgrq uvf bja cerqvpnzrag, sure seemed to veer into X-Files conspiracy land.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Lena Headley before Game of Thrones!)
Kolchak: The Night Stalker
Sliders (one of the latter seasons featured The Who’s Roger Daltrey as a villain)
Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda (The first season was quite good, before Kevin Sorbo’s ego went off the rails.)
@rgl
I liked Alien Nation a LOT on first broadcast, made a point of not missing each new episode, but for some reason have never been able to stand rewatching it (even the reruns between seasons). I never have understood what was up with that. Liked the ideas and disliked some aspect of the actual production, maybe.
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Oh yes, +1-ing this, definitely. Best Terminator ever.
(@Jim, I realise my reccs are all over the place, shall I compile and post later or are you picking up as you go along? If the former, I won’t do a compilation as I don’t want to run the risk of double-counting)
Also, Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse. First season was in 2009. Is it considered eligible?
Hang on, how strict is the no-puppet rule? My SO points out that it could rule out MST3K, Babylon 5 (Kosh), and countless shows that have occasionally turned to puppetry to render the alien of the week.
@snowcrash: It sounds like Meredith may also be compiling. I’m happy if anyone wants to put out a compilation as we approach the nominating stage, or even interim compilations during the rest of the brainstorming period. I wouldn’t worry about “double-counting” since there isn’t even counting right now.
I’m going to see Joe Jackson tomorrow evening, Eastern US Time. When I get home, I’ll post the nomination procedure and kick it off.
If The Man From U.N.C.L.E. was considered sf, does that qualify Get Smart as well?
I assumed the no puppets rule was aimed at things like Captain Scarlet, which is all puppets all the time, rather than stuff that used puppets as part of the special effects within a live action show.
ETA: I always compile. 😀 Don’t worry, I save names so there won’t be double counts. I don’t think numbers (as a deciding factor of what is part of the matches) are a thing until the nomination stage, anyway.
@redheadedfemme: Dollhouse first aired on or before 2010, so it is eligible.
I was wondering what shows if any meet the 2010 cutoff and are still airing. I came up with Supernatural and Vampire Diaries. There may be others.
@Petréa Mitchell: It’s really a “no puppet shows” rule. So once again, Babylon 5 is eligible.
Does Highlander make the cut? (TV show not movies)
@Meredith:
Precisely.
Was Man From UNCLE any more SFnal than James Bond movies? In the one episode I saw that revolved around an alien first contact, the reveal was that it was all a hoax. It’s been a long time since I saw the show – decades! – but I don’t recall there was much speculative about its fiction. “It had fancy gadgets” seems like an awfully low bar, if that’s the driver.
Calling Get Smart “SF” for the purpose of these brackets seems like even more of an effort.
@Lori Coulson: According to IMDB, the Highlander TV show came out in 1992 and ran for six seasons. If it’s not eligible, nothing is.
Also please add Kolchak,
Alien Nation,
and… oooh, SUPER conflicted about Highlander TV, but why not.
Wild Wild West,
and LOST, yes even the last year.
Incredible Hulk and
Brisco County Jr.
Total Recall 2070
Another vote for Knight Rider and Sapphire and Steel, and I guess someone needs to mention Tom Corbett, Space Cadet.
Forgot while writing, but I also recommend
Wonder Falls
@Petréa Mitchell: Just to be absolutely clear, and apologies for possibly jumping on casual language like a pedant, but I want to forestall as many misunderstandings as possible – there are no “votes” yet. You probably didn’t mean “another vote” literally, but in case anyone jumps into the thread late and sees the word, I’m taking the opportunity to keep them from getting the wrong impression.
@LunarG, belatedly: The pumpkin pie mochi may only be available at Trader Joe’s, but it’s made by Mikawaya just like the other flavors, so keep looking.
Also, I wanna be a minion when you get the Migraine Wand.
But it’s 66 and we’re busy in Judea (with the Judean People’s Front AND the People’s Front of Judea), plus we’ve got Nero, so it’ll be a while.
Catching up… as a non-Canadian, I didn’t realize I cared personally (I mean, beyond the abstract “how will this affect the country and people’s wellbeing”) about the outcome of the Canadian elections until I read this blog post by one of my favorite bloggers a few days before the election. That kicked me into hoping Trudeau would win.
Meredith, much sympathy! In my experience, the aspect of having to figure out how to perform “disabled enough” to meet an assessor’s standards and get the support one needs is really draining. Especially if ordinarily one’s orientation to one’s condition is less medical model, so one isn’t used to thinking on a day-to-day basis about “how do I not meet society’s standards of competent?” I find having to shift into a “well, I can’t do X, or Y, or Z” mode of thinking both demoralizing and angering.
SJW cats: when I was born, my parents had five Siamese cats. I sometimes joke about “clearly I imprinted on the wrong species” but actually I think it was the right one.
ObSF: I’m a few chapters into Linesman by S. K. Dunstall and am enjoying it so far.
I loved loved loved Max Headroom. I also had an odd fondness for The Highlander, and I would propose it if it weren’t for the fact that their fan merch people are STILL calling me all these years later and I only bought like one keychain or something equally small from them to put into a gift basket for an auction. I mean, seriously. I am not buying your swords or your leather jackets. SO LEAVE ME ALONE.
Sorry. I did like the TV series and thought the main guy was super hot. Also, one of the Fine Young Cannibals — Roland Gift — popped up more than once as an immortal villain, and that was fun, too.
Has no one mentioned ST:TNG? Patrick Stewart is hard to beat. And Data had a cat. So…
Of course, back here in 1253, all we know of androids is what St. Claire, patron saint of TV, is sharing of her visions for the future.
Thanks, Lurkertype!
Hmmm… Seeing Tomorrow People (and I am old school Thames production in that) reminds me of another show I loved on Nickelodeon, The Third Eye. Probably doesn’t qualify, as it was really just a collection of Australian children’s miniseries, like The Stone Circle, Under the Mountain, and Into the Labrynth.
I deny you the Nidus!
@Lexica
Generally I prefer to concentrate on things I can do, even if it takes me a long time to do them, or I have to take a million breaks, or I can only do them sometimes but they’re worth the wait. Shifting into focusing on the things I can’t do, or detailing exactly how long or how many breaks, or how rarely I can do them, is as you say totally demoralising. Performing disability as a way of life is a lot less satisfying or fun than just living differently normal.
Yearly or bi-yearly assessments that drag out for months and force you to stay in that mindset are awful. If I had my way they’d be on a five year timetable at minimum.