SciFi

RIP Ray Bradbury

From now on I hope always to stay alert, to educate myself the best I can. But lacking this, in the future I will relaxedly turn back to my secret mind and see what it has observed when I thought I was sitting this one out. We never sit anything out. We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.

We are the miracle of force and matter making itself over into imagination and will. Incredible. The Life Force experimenting with forms. You for one. Me for another. The Universe has shouted itself alive. We are one of the shouts.

I don’t describe the future. I try to prevent it.

You must live feverishly in a library. Colleges are not going to do any good unless you are raised and live in a library every day of your life.

Write only what you love, and love what you write. The key word is love. You have to get up in the morning and write something you love, something to live for.

My stories run up and bite me in the leg — I respond by writing down everything that goes on during the bite. When I finish, the idea lets go and runs off.

Why would you clone people when you can go to bed with them and make a baby? C’mon, it’s stupid.
All from Ray Bradbury, 1920 – 2012

Chronoptimist

June 12: chronoptimist

A person who always under estimates the time necessary to do something or get somewhere.

“Hey, Cindy. you know my parents are expecting us in 20 minutes.”
“No problem. I just have to wash the dishes, take a shower, do my hair, walk the dog and then I’m all good to go. See you in 15.”
“You are such a chronoptimist! I’ll see you in 45.”

I think this is the opposite of the Scotty Syndrome. You overestimate the time a job will take and then look like a hero when you do it in less.
Gawd I miss Star Trek.

Musical Inspiration

I have finally figured out why the Enterprise TV show theme music is so bad.

Okay, *I* didn’t figure it out, Bob did.

We were drinking copious amounts of tequila and watching an Enterprise re-run last night. The theme music came on and I made retching noises and a general, “That is sooooo bad!” comment.

Bob answered with, “Hey, that sounds just like a bad Rod Stewart song!”

And he was right on the money. Sheesh. All these years not knowing why I disliked the song so much, Poof! My tequila soused spouse cleared it all up. 🙂

SciFi Read Meme

There has been a science fiction book meme making the rounds on live.linuxchix.org. The idea is simple: from a list of books bold the ones you have read, strikeout the ones you didn’t like, and just leave normal the ones you haven’t read unless you want to read them, in which case they get italicized.
My entry follows. If I haven’t read and haven’t italicized, it means I didn’t know about it. 🙂 I’m a sci-fi hound, fer sure.

1. The HitchHiker’s Guide to the Galaxy — Douglas Adams
2. Nineteen Eighty-Four — George Orwell
3. Brave New World — Aldous Huxley
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? — Philip K. Dick
5. Neuromancer — William Gibson
6. Dune — Frank Herbert
7. I, Robot — Isaac Asimov
8. Foundation — Isaac Asimov
9. The Colour of Magic — Terry Pratchett
10. Microserfs — Douglas Coupland
11. Snow Crash — Neal Stephenson
12. Watchmen — Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons
13. Cryptonomicon — Neal Stephenson
14. Consider Phlebas — Iain M Banks
15. Stranger in a Strange Land — Robert Heinlein
16. The Man in the High Castle — Philip K Dick
17. American Gods — Neil Gaiman
18. The Diamond Age — Neal Stephenson
19. The Illuminatus! Trilogy — Robert Shea & Robert Anton Wilson
20. Trouble with Lichen – John Wyndham