Future Poltergeist

Last summer I linked to a book trailer for Valente's 'Palimpsest' which I thought was very well done. This morning at Tor.com I ran across a trailer for her upcoming book, 'The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making'. I think it looks pretty good: It doesn't come out for a while yet but I'm going to put it on my list.

For the last two mornings I've put DF in the car while Relia screams bloody murder from the front porch. What horrible thing has caused this? It's simple. I've made her wear pants. Yep, pants. Pants, pants, pants, pants. It's 2011 and my daughter is convinced that she needs to wear glamorous clothes or no one will like her. It's like the feminist movement never happened!

My dad tells a story of the first joke I knew well enough to ask strangers. Q: How do you get dragon milk? A: From a cow with short legs. I think he told Relia about this last week because now she knows it too. She hasn't told it to any strangers yet (that I know of) but I'm sure that's because she never finishes our family tree and history quickly enough to get to the jokes. Yesterday in the car she tried playing with the formula: Q: How do you get princess/fairy milk? A: From a cow with very tall legs. Gotta love that!

Btw, this is the 3000th post of this blog.

This morning near our hat station: Relia: Is that your Viking hat? Me: Yes. Relia: And is that your White Sox hat? Me: Yes. Relia: I like your White Sox hat! Me: Thanks, sweetheart. Relia: (pause) But I want a Tinkerbell hat! Yay, Tinkerbell! Go team Tinkerbell! Could be an interesting baseball season . . .

A couple of weeks ago we went to Girl McO'Donalds and in Relia's meal there was a set of Pac-Man toys. I had to explain them to her and (thank you internet!) I was able to show her the real thing. Warning : if you've ever been addicted to Pac-Man, please don't click this link . She played it for a bit but doesn't really understand how to keep away from the ghosts. Fast forward to today and she asked me to play again. This time I let her do it all on her own and (this seemed like a milestone) I taught her how to restart it after her three lives were up. Which she did. Again and again. It wasn't even irritating. In some ways it felt nostalgic. I can't wait until she starts playing Asteroids!

Let me begin by admitting that I missed writing about last week's episode. The FP Gal and I didn't even watch it until Monday night and by Tuesday it was so late that it didn't seem worthwhile. I won't do a full recap but there is one thing that I want to say: the bunching point at the train leaving Lijiang made the entire first half of the leg unnecessary. For competitive reasons that sucks. Still made for good TV but it undermined the idea that the race was important in and of itself. And now, on to this week's episode! Each team had one small task to perform before leaving China. They had to find a tea shop and drink some tea. What they didn't know was that they would later have to identify that one specific tea out of a multitude of others. They all flew to Calcutta, India on the same flight. They were all amazed at the crowds at the airport at midnight. For some reason that's when the international flights arrive in India, in the middle of the ...

The Aurora from Terje Sorgjerd on Vimeo . Gorgeous video here. Bonus points for whomever identifies the movie that the music is from.

We're continuing through the kindness of grandparents again tonight. We've dealt Relia off to Grandma D for the night. We've talked about watching a movie but . . . I wouldn't be surprised if the FP Gal goes down for an early night. Possible updates later.

Last week the FP Gal surprised me with an offer of a day off. I didn't think I'd get any more of these until the kids leave for college. I've been trying to figure out what to do with my time. Here are some options: See some art at a museum. Take in some theater. Run off and see a circus. Invite myself to a posh embassy party. Partake of some exotic cuisine. And of that doesn't work . . . Catch a movie. Learn a new language. Unearth some hidden gems at the used bookstore. Buy something selfishly for myself. We'll see what happens!

Interesting item at io9. They set up some brackets with the top 64 science fiction movies of all time. They've already done a couple of rounds so the choices are whittled down but it's interesting to see what current fandom thinks. Also interesting was the seeding that the io9 staff decided on. Their top four seeds: Star Wars 2001: A Space Odyssey E.T. Blade Runner You can go there and vote if you're interested. No registration or anything needed.

This is spring break week for the FP Gal. I took off the nights so that we could go on a wonderful trip to somewhere warm and beachy. Well, that didn't work out. But we could get some grandparents to come over and watch the kids for the last two nights and we took advantage! (And before I go any further, I big, big thank you to my dad and to the FP Gal's mom. Watching two small kids overnight is a lot of work and you were both very helpful. Thank you, thank you, thank you!) On Sunday we lit out for exotic Rosedale so we could have some eats and see a movie. Our timing was poor and we missed the afternoon showing. That meant a 430p trip to Macaroni Grill. I recommend the 'penne rustica', by the way. We'd debated on going to Panera but we decided that we can easily do that with kids and it was good to take advantage of our carefree status. Went to see 'King's Speech'. An excellent movie, well acted and written. Made me glad that I wasn't bor...

Part of me thinks that this looks beautiful. Another part thinks it should be captioned "Brakes failed".

Just about off on our little local vacation. Very light posting the next few days.

You've probably heard that tonight's moon is the brightest in some time. Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration Unfortunately, we've got cloud cover here! If you've got clear skies, please enjoy...

In the car today Relia told me that she hurt her foot. I asked her to hand it to me so that I could take a look. Relia: I can't give you my foot! Me: Why not? Relia: (pause) Because it's connected to me. (longer pause) My foot is connected to my leg. And my legs are connected to my . . . bottom. And my bottom is connected to my tummy. And tummy is connected to my neck. And my neck is connected to my head. Me: Very good, sweetheart! Relia: And my arms are connected to my shoulders.

Normally this is where I talk about the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament (i.e. March Madness) and how this tournament, especially the first four days, is one of the true highlights of the sports calendar. I still think that's true. The next few days will offer random team match-ups and hopefully a slew of upsets and buzzer beaters. But this year I'm actually a little bit down about the whole deal. There are two reasons for this. The first is that for the last ten years I was the guy in the office who organized the office pool. On Monday morning I'd send out the email and print off some brackets. Then I'd dutifully collect $2 from all the participants (not so big that it hurts, big enough that the final prize is worthwhile) and hang on to copies of their sheets. On Friday and Sunday nights I'd tally up everyone's points so I could send out updates. All wonderful stuff. Of course this year I'm at home. I thought about having Relia pick out teams a...

Very funny stuff here . Sample: If you watch Jurassic Park backwards, it’s the heartwarming tale of scientists and dinosaurs working together to build an amusement park. Then the people betray the dinosaurs, putting them in cages and ultimately flying back to Montana to bury any evidence they existed at all. And: If you watch Jeopardy! backwards, it's a show about rich people paying money for answers to questions.

The other day while driving Relia home from preschool I mentioned to her that back when I was young, we couldn't keep phones in our pocket. They were bigger and has to be plugged into the wall. (We still have one like that so she had at least seen this obsolete technology.) Relia: Why didn't you just unplug them? Me: They wouldn't have worked if we unplugged them. Relia: (pause) Well that's stupid . Cell phones are great, I have no doubts about that. They've given us freedom and connectivity that was simply unavailable back when I was a kid. We use them all the time to casually separate at the mall, comfortable in the knowledge that finding each other will be easy. I can call from the grocery store to get guidance on where they've hidden various things that the FP Gal wants. We can easily call for help if something happens to the car. I'm not sure how we'll handle the cell revolution when the kids get old enough to use them. Do they get their own ...

Interesting article from the Nymag about a man who decided to set the world record for continuous sailing, over 1000 days at sea. He was originally joined by his girlfriend but she had to stop due to chronic sea-sickness (which turned out to be pregnancy). The whole thing is very readable. The guy is kind of an odd duck, and I don't think it's an exaggeration to suggest that he wasn't really a part of society even before he left. The article is interspersed with quotes from Bernard Moitessier, who was kind of a sea going mystic. My favorite is: You do not ask a tame seagull why it needs to disappear from time to time toward the open sea. It goes, that’s all, and it is as simple as a ray of sunshine, as normal as the blue of the sky. Which sounds totally cool until you remember the people left behind.

Today we went to the MOA, and while there to the aquarium. They have a new play area and it has kind of a strange layout. The kids like it but it's not easy for adults to get in there. We're nearby, less than twenty feet away but the kids have quite a bit of autonomy while playing. All to the good; I'm working very hard not to be a helicopter parent. So while we there today Relia came back to me with a sock in one hand. She said that a boy had taken it off of her. I quickly put it back on and told her if she didn't want to play with him, she should simply stay away. She went back into the maelstrom. A couple of minutes later she ran back and fell and the boy got on top of her. I fought off protective dad urges so I could see what happened. She told him to get off twice and he didn't. They were close enough that I leaned in and said, "Kid, you should get off of her. She asked you to." He did so right away. Don't think he knew how to feel ab...

This picture was picked out by Relia Normally I'd just go with her choice but I really liked this one a lot.

Spoilers ahead! At the end of last week's episode the Globetrotters were assessed a half hour penalty for accidentally taking another team's pack. I was pretty sure that it wouldn't matter since most legs start with a flight and a bunching point. Sure enough, this week all of the teams were told to get on the same flight to Kunming China and then on to Lijiang. The flight left about twelve hours after the first team departed so they had ample time to drive to the airport. At least it was ample for most of them. Kent and Vyxsin got horribly lost, drove in the wrong direction for hours and ended up missing the flight. Most teams divide up between driver and navigator. I've never understood how the navigator could just sit back and get more and more lost. Keep checking the map. Double and triple check it! Keep an eye out to spot signs along the way. Driving for three hours in the wrong direction is unacceptable. The bulk of the teams ended up in Lijiang , which i...

There is something about the power of a well done list and this one is a doozy. The bloggers at List-a-Beefy are counting down the top 200 songs that reached number one on the charts. Which means there was a pretty hefty amount of work behind this one. Each post comes with a link to a video of the song, a brief description and a defense for why it was placed there. Definitely something to check out.

Suddenly, while in the car . . . Relia: (in a very irritated voice) Why can't I see Grandma Erna's skeleton! Me: Uh . . . Lately she's a little fascinated with death. Great fun for us parental types. Update: This is not Grandma Erna's skeleton .

Here is a list of ten wonderful life size mazes . I've actually been to the Dole plantation maze and wasn't all that impressed. The eighth one, the Villa Pisani Labirinto , is simply gorgeous. I told Relia that if I ever become wealthy I'll build something like it. I especially like the central tower. However, please take a look at number ten. It's called The Great Maze at a little place called the Puzzling Center in New Zealand. How cool would it be to take the kids to something like that?

One of the things that has gone by the way side on the blog is the little chart to the left that tracks what I'm reading. Not sure why I stopped updating it, but it's horribly out of date. I'm going to fix that at some point but I thought it might be interesting to mention some of the books that I've read since then. 'Fountains of Pardise', Arthur C Clarke - this was a Hugo winner and I'll give it a full review when I get back to doing so. 'The Road', McCarthy - a bleak masterpiece. Post apocolyptic journey of a man and his son. Reminded me of the best of Stephen King. 'Anathem', Neal Stephenson - this is on my reread regularly list apparently. Damn fine book. 'Godforsaken Sea', Lundy - a book about the '96 Vendee Globe race, a single handed yachting race that takes place every four years. The story is phenomenal, filled with injuries and sudden disappearances. The writing was good but not nearly as good as: 'A Voyage f...

I made a mistake this weekend. I've been looking for an opportunity to take Relia to a real live stage play. My preference has been to find something by Matchbox down in Austin. Both for sentimental reasons and because I have a much better feel for how their stuff works. And as an added bonus, I still know some of the theater people down there. So I looked at the Matchbox website and lo and behold, they have a play coming up in April. A quick peek at the cast list and I find that her cousin Montana is there. Now we have to go! And then I made the mistake. I talked about this to the FP Gal in front of Relia. Now she's obsessed. Today's ride to preschool went something like this: Relia: Are we going to the play? Me: No honey, that's not until next month. A long time from now. Relia: Why? Me: Because that's when it is. Relia: But Montana will be there! Me: Uh, yes she will. Relia: Why can't I be in the play too? ( !!! ) Me: You can sometime but not for ...

This makes me happy .

I've been looking back over the last few months of this blog and I'm not really thrilled with the content. Neither the amount nor the quality. I think there are a couple of things that are playing into that. Kids. Two kids take up sooooo much more of my creative time than one did. That's especially true with DF. Months ago he always needed watching but didn't need a lot of hands on care, now not so much. Other media. I have so much trouble figuring out whether to post something here, on Facebook or at Twitter. Quite often this means that the post simply disappears into the back of my head never to be seen again. I've got some ideas on how to fix this. The first step is to admit that it's happening. Lack of feedback. I'm not sure what happened but it seems like my audience went silent about four months ago. I don't know how many people still visit the blog on a regular basis, though I know that the number is down. Looking around at my blog tr...

Spoilers ahead! One of the things that the FP Gal and I do is pay close attention to the starting time of each of the teams. We're not quite certain that the editing crew plays fair with chronology and the start of the show is pretty much the only place that they give us a concrete time for each of them. This week started with only a half hour spread from first to last. First up was a flight from Sydney to Tokyo. There was a choice between a direct flight that would arrive at 615a and a connection through Hong Kong with a 6a arrival. Normally I'd always choose the nonstop, especially since the advantage was only 15 minutes. But . . . the connection time in HKG was a full three hours, plenty of time. I hemmed and hawed and told the FP Gal that I'd risk the connection. Of course that flight had a delay and ended up an hour and half late. All of the teams had to drive themselves in Tokyo traffic. Which was nightmarish. The Cheerleaders clipped someone's mirror and...

DF is getting more and more brave about walking. He started out by only doing it when we forced him to move without our help. Then we got to the point where we could coax him to voluntarily walk back and forth from one of us to the other. Now he is actually choosing to walk over to things like tables and chairs. Not all of the time . . . but he's getting there. Today he choose to use his new power to knock over a pile of cardboard bricks that Relia had stacked up. We tried to calm her by saying that he was just being Godzilla. Of course, she had no clue what we were talking about. (And upon reflection, exactly why did we think that would be calming?) She's just starting to learn that little brothers aren't always fun. Still sick here at home, nothing really serious. My cold is nagging it's way into week four by now and I'm really tired of it. DF has decided that he isn't going to sleep at all tonight (boo!). At least it will be spring in the next six t...

While in the car going to preschool today and talking about dinosaurs. . . Me: Is a pterodactyl bigger than a robin? Relia: Yes! (pause) Robins have red tummies. Me: Very good! Relia: I'm a . . . bird expert. [I swear this is what she said.] Me: Wow, you sure are. Did you know that robins are Grandma D's favorite bird? Relia: I didn't know that. Me: And that one of the surest signs of springs are when the robins return. Relia: . . . Me: They fly south in the fall, like so many other birds. Relia: The ostriches walk south. I love, love, love the idea of big migrations of ostriches wandering south from Minnesota and down through Iowa and Missouri. As I told this story to the FP Gal tonight Relia started a long story about the ostrich family reunion when millions of ostriches gather together and have cake.

I love this. I hope this is what goes on up on the third floor when I'm not there.

While driving to preschool today . . . Relia: Sometimes I get owies on my hand. Me: Yep, we all do. Relia: There was that one time with the kitty box that I got hurt! Me: But you're fine now, right? You can't feel it anymore. Relia: Right. Me: We all get hurt a little bit now and then, but we get better. Relia: (pause) When they put me in jail it hurts my feelings. Me: (not sure what to say) When they put you in jail . . .? Relia: They don't usually put me in jail. (long pause) Only in stories.

Here is an interesting list of steps that could be taken to improve the Oscars. Frankly, it's better than my ideas. Especially number 10: 10. Start with Class and Stop Thinking Outside the Box Go back and watch the best reviewed and most beloved telecasts. Rinse, wash, repeat… Couldn't hurt. However, I did have one 'outside the box' idea this morning that frankly they'd never go for. I've complained before that the Oscars don't release the vote totals. Finding out the second and third place choice would be almost as interesting as finding out who won. To this end they could flash the rankings and percentages as they announce the winner. Yes, it's kind of game show but it would be absolutely riveting TV.

Watch here . Very funny stuff. Made me think of my grandma.