the pod bay door

:: Derryl Murphy has sold his twentieth short story. This is not a trivial accomplishment, but one worth celebrating. I met Derryl in 1987, when I was dating his sister’s best friend. The rest is history.

His story, Island of the Moon, will be appearing in Neo-opsis. Read a “brief snippet from the beginning of the story” here.

:: Robert sent a note about The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra. At first I thought it was a joke, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t appear to be real. Check out the trailer on the official site, or watch it here. The FAQ clears up a few issues. I checked the IMDb, and sure enough, there’s an entry for it. One of the stars, Fay Masterson, was in Eyes Wide Shut (sorry, the WB site doesn’t function these days). The first question I have is, what took anyone so long to make such a spoof – it’s a no-brainer. Second question: will it be funny? My favorite line from the poster: “This was the day the Earth was disembowled in terror!”

:: The Segway, invented by Dean Kamen, is in a bit of trouble. 6,000 of the units are under voluntary recall because of a problem with the battery that may result in the rider falling off the unit as the battery nears the end of its charge. (From: The Gothamist)

I haven’t seen a Segway yet, and don’t know if any are in Edmonton. Personally, I’d like to see DEKA develop the Stirling Cycle Engine, which doesn’t require gas or oil to function, into something that could be economically viable so that it could be used in mass market applications (like automobiles and other gas powered vehicles, which at the moment isn’t feasible) and present a direct challenge to the oil industry (which will have to happen eventually, anyway – we will run out of oil someday). Here’s an analysis of one of DEKA’s patents on the Stirling engine by the American Stirling Company.

:: Opus is returning. The penguin who anchored Bloom County returns to the weekend-only funny pages on November 23rd. It remains to be seen if the Edmonton Journal will carry the strip. I’m not holding my breath. But this is great news, one of those “I never thunk it would happen again” moments. Great work, Berkeley! (Derryl sent word of this to me. He’s changed his blog, Cold Ground, to a TypePad site, check it out, it looks great!)

This Slate article discusses which comic strips will be important in this decade. Leading the pack for me is Boondocks, which of course isn’t published in either newspaper here in Edmonton.

:: OCLC has released an official statement regarding its lawsuit with The Library Hotel.

:: If you thought a 19-inch monitor was the pièce de résistance, check out these megascreens from Liebermann. The Cinerama has a 45″, 51″ or 57″ screen size. Not big enough for you? The Grand Canyon comes in 76″, 81″ and 92″ screen sizes (resolution is 6400×1200 pixels). The 92″ is a bargain at $17,499.99US. (From: Roland Piquepaille).

:: My most excellent Winnipeg friends Steve, Mike and Tony like to hop on their bicycles and ride for long period of time, take pictures of themselves doing this, and then post them on the web. Bike With Mike is a document of their cycling adventures.

:: Hewlett Packard has introduced a device called a DC3000 DVD Movie Writer, that lets you transfer VHS and other formats, including BetaMax, to DVD. Another new toy!

:: I experienced two “firsts” today. At work, we began our Librarian On-Site! service. For the first time in my 25-year career as a librarian, I left the library to do information and reference work, and went to where the users “live”, on their turf. I set up shop in a large computer lab, and offered consulting to any engineering student or faculty who needed help. It was a lot of fun, especially in the second hour, when a class of chemical engineering design students descended upon me with a propane pricing and chemical property question.

The other “first” was more personal – I was fitted for a hearing aid. Yah, you read that correctly. It’s wonderful getting old. I’ve had a version of low tone conductive deafness in my right ear since 1985 or so. It’s never worsened or improved, so my ear doctor suggested I consider a hearing aid. I’m going to try it for a few weeks, and then decide whether or not to purchase (~$1,500Cdn, just a pile of chump change).

A hearing aid. I can’t believe I typed those words. It seems to work well most of the time. It doesn’t work well with a telephone or headset or headphones, so I’ll have to get used to using the phone in my left ear. It has two settings, one for group noise (used in a meeting or a party), and a basic setting for conversation. The device feels ok in my ear, not too much of a bother, and most people I spoke to didn’t even notice it. That’s cool because it protects a bit of my vanity, but inside, a small part of me is very, very sad.

:: I’ve been cranky all week. Sometimes I don’t want to be around other sentient beings, and I think most of Those Sentient Beings are aware of that right now. I’ve been working hard on a new eating plan and exercising six days a week, and I don’t feel or look any different. I’ve been on the eating plan since August 6th. It’s very frustrating at this point in time. I’m beginning to wonder if I might have to accept the fact that I will not lose my tummy, despite my best efforts, or get in better shape. I’ve consulted with a nutritionist and a personal trainer. What’s left to try? Oh, I could bang my head against a wall.

It’s like, things seem so collectively lousy right now that the smallest, dumb thing that happens causes me to giggle hysterically for a second or two. I’d like to take an industrial-strength vacuum cleaner, and suck all the shyte out of my house, the zillion papers and magazines and other peripheral junk, and stare at the walls.