It looks like my first batch of bees will arrive on April 13. That is a Monday.
Erica does not want to be left alone to handle the bees. I will try to coordinate to be there, but if I can’t, I’ll try to talk the guy into dropping the frames into my hives. The alternative is to just leave the nuc box on the walk and I’ll transfer them as soon as I get home. The nuc boxes cost $5 each so I would rather not have to pay for a cardboard box.
A while ago I read a Ben Barzman science fiction novel that I liked. He was a good writer, one of those that has a style as smooth as silk and lots of good ideas. Barzman was also a screenwriter and an anti-war activist. The Boy With the Green Hair has a strong ant-war message. I think that Barzman was blacklisted because of the movie.
The Boy with the Green Hair stars a very young (and bald for much of it) Dean Stockwell and a singing Pat O’Brien. (Erica’s Great Uncle was friends with Pat O’Brien and Erica had his autograph until her mother cleaned her room and threw it out. One of my great Grandfathers was an Irish Clog Dancer and appeared in theaters with Pat O’Brien. Small world.)
I remember this movie from when I was a kid, but all I remember was the green hair. I enjoyed it when I watched it last night, but I thought that the message was quite heavy handed.
If you can find it, try it out. I don’t think that it will ever come around into one of the cable movie stations. Just try to ignore that the movie is making its point much too strongly, and try to enjoy the good acting and the interesting premise.
In my “good morning” bookmarks group is Li’l Abner by Al Capp. The crew at comics.com has been screwing up the order of the comics and they jumped from a 1930s sequence to a late 40s sequence. I enjoyed the Fearless Fosdick episode where the comic within a comic manages to arrest a felonious Chippendale chair. The chair gets “the chair” for murder. It’s all very convoluted and weird.
Capp started a new story line (March 1948) involving the witch Nightmare Alice. The art and the story are just wonderful. I just hope that comics.com is able to keep their act together so I get my daily dose of Dogpatch.
301 days ago I submitted to the Heinlein contest. There has been no responses to my queries. It looks like a dead end. It is too late to publish a book as suggested in their press release. The website has not been updated in 4 months. There are going to be several hundred pissed off writers who wasted nearly a year with this farce.
It looks like the Heinlein Society is a dead end, also. I joined the Society last year out of my respect for the writer – well fool me once.
March has been a bad month for my friends. I’ve been losing people left and right.
John Cephas was a friend that I met at Blues Week in Elkins, West Virginia about 15 years ago. His partner, Phil Wiggins, gave me my first lessons in how to play the harmonica. I have their CDs on my ipod and I always mist up when I think of those great days back in the early 90s.
John was 78, which I think is much too young to leave us. He will surely be missed.
I thought about it today and tallied up how many words I probably write in a day. I have several blogs that I try to hit almost every day. I get lots of email, both personal and business related. I have a job where I have to write reports, summaries and documentation. If you add it all up I am doing more than 5,000 words a day.
5,000 words a day is a good size novel every month. Of all the things I write, fiction, though, is at the bottom of the list. The kind of writing that I like the best is always pushed off because the other stuff I do pays the bills. Imagine if a writer could make money writing science fiction – think of it.
Somebody tried to count how many words a person speaks in a day. Supposedly a woman can say 20,000 words a day where a man says about 13,000 words. My own preference is to keep total daily words down to about 500 total, and that’s probably too many. When I teach my throat gets sore from talking after about 45 minutes. I don’t talk much and my vocal cords aren’t used to being used.
Conquest of Earth reads like a first novel with a few fundamental problems with the plot and narrative, but is still a good read. I have other Banister books on the shelf and I will try them soon.
One of the best places to get SpecFic gossip was at speculations. It was an elegantly simple message board system that allowed you to view messages in a variety of very useful ways. A year ago they folded under the weight of spam. They had unrealistic ideals about anonymity and the sanctity of the message and the spammers took advantage. The process of marking spam (but never deleting it) eventually killed the board.
I went to far as to duplicate many of the speculations features in a prototype system, but I never released it.
Now, after a long hiatus they are thinking about returning with a new functionality. I accidentally clicked on the link and found that they are creating a mash-up with twitter and livejournal. I don’t know how this will work. I don’t use my livejournal account and I am not a big fan of twitter. I don’t need to read more meaningless messages about what kind of bagel someone had at coffee break.
Twitter is not focused on a particular community. Twitter is very unfocused and I have dropped some interesting people (like Neil Gaiman) who suffer from the twitter “runs”. I am eagerly waiting to see what comes up. The old speculations had incredibly useful information. I wish that they would at least make the old messages as a read-only archive.
Coincidentally, John Shirley has dropped support of his discussion board. He took his name off of it. He was the object of political flaming and he found himself trying to moderate extreme left and right elements and just got sick of it.
This is unfortunate because Shirley seemed to spend a great deal of time on the internet and always had interesting links to odd news or important information. I think that the bbs was taking up too much of his time, especially in the act of moderating, and he should have been spending more time writing.
I’m not happy with the name. I am not an “Older Writer”. I am a young writer (about 14) whose body unexplainedly has the appearance of a 50-ish person (although a young 50-ish).
I am going to enter this. I have my stories archived on a 250meg drive in the basement. I’ll have to hook it up to the network so that I can find one that will get me the $750 grant.
The SLF Older Writers Grant is awarded annually to a writer who is fifty years of age or older at the time of grant application, and is intended to assist such writers who are just starting to work at a professional level. We are currently offering one $750 grant annually, to be used as the writer determines will best assist his or her work.
This is what it looked like out my front door at 7:15 this morning. We had some good weather and I told the people on the bus to expect snow up through the first week in April. They did not believe me. There will be at least one more day of snow flurries.
I received this from cousin Corinna. Please read it. If you are from Rockland County you might consider signing the petition.
Hi all,
For those of you who don’t know, in 1981, my sister-in-law Paula Bohovesky was brutally raped and murdered a few blocks away from her home in Pearl River, NY. The men responsible were caught and convicted, however, since 2005, they continue to come up for parole every two years. So far they have been denied parole, but we believe that without our continued efforts, they may eventually have a chance of getting out of prison. We can’t let that happen.
Once signed, it can be mailed to the address that appears at the top of the first page to the attention of Barbara Tobin. Please let me know if you send it — I’d like to have an idea of how many signatures we get this time. Every signature counts.
Thanks to all of you who have helped in the past. With your continued support, we can keep the people responsible for the brutality commited on Paula in prison where they belong. I’ve included the latest Journal News article below.
Please let me know if you have any trouble opening, viewing or printing the petition and I can get a hard copy to you.
… it is stupid to allow any random reader the ability to place messages on you blog.
You may have noticed the blue “shout” box to the right. It allows users to leave unmoderated notes behind.
I wonder how long it will be before I regret doing this and pull the thing out.
Actually, hundreds of people pass by here every day. Very few of them leave any sign that they were here. Now anyone can say anything in a fraction of a second without any hassle. I am hoping people will not be able to pass up on the ability to scrawl on the bathroom wall. Someone must have an opinion about something.
The software is a very simple php script from shoutbox.sourceforge.net. It is outdated and not maintained, but it works. I may add one of those captcha images.
Year 2018! (They Shall Have Stars) is the prequel to Blish’s Cities in Flight series. Erica gave it to me on my birthday. It is a great novel in Blish’s best series.
O, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth And pierced the atmosphere on leathern wing; My kind’s nocturnal ultrasonic mirth Ne’er touched so high a pitch as this I sing. Starward I soar into the darkling dome Where never morning lifts the starry veil; And is not this my kind’s ancestral home? Through timeless vaults where nebulae gleam pale My voice shall sound a last sweet sonar strain; No human ear shall hear my wish that I May pass before the Moon’s full-circled pane, Unfurl my wings, and raise the Signal high.
This is a quote that starts off the book that I’m reading:
We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert.
I have not actually watched anything on the scifi channel in over two years. The reason is the lack of Science Fiction. They seem to have mostly monster and horror content, but hardly any real science fiction. Any SF content is shown in the wee small hours. The Crotchety Old Fan keeps an index of the actual SF purity content on SciFi and it always under 20%, dipping much less at times.
When the scifi channel started out they were purported to have paid a cool million dollars for the scifi.com domain. Now, they are rebranding themselves as SYFY.com, which is totally stupid. The reason is their inability to trademark SciFi. SciFi was used by too many writers, editors and fans over the years. Gernsback used it in the 1930s so it would be difficult to say it is not in the public domain. SyFy.com can be trademarked, but since it is really just a different spelling for SciFi, it is not really different. SciFi, by the way, is properly pronounced Skiffy, so the SyFy moniker is going to confuse everyone.
A year ago I almost registered Sc1F1.com, which uses the number 1 instead of the letter i. I did not do it because sciencefictional keywords make no money at all in online ad revenue. Maybe the SyFy channel will register it now.
If money was no object and you wanted to create the ultimate modern science fiction and fantasy rare book collection in a single swoop, then The Fine Books Company in Rochester, Michigan, is offering first editions of all the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novels for a cool $116,530.
The listing includes 126 books covering 82 titles (many titles won both awards), and 95% of the titles are signed or inscribed, and in fine or better condition. When a paperback is the true first edition, then the first hardcover is also included. In some cases, US and UK hardcovers have been included where the paperback is the true first.
David Aronovitz, from The Fine Books Company, describes the collection “as a unique gathering of books that has never been offered for sale anywhere before and in all likelihood will never be offered again. The highlights include Starship Troopers and Strangers in a Strange Land, both of which are signed or inscribed by Robert Heinlein. However, arguments might be made that signed copies of both A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M Miller and A Case of Conscience by James Blish are even scarcer to locate.” As to signed copies of They’d Rather Be Right, David Aronovitz states that he has never seen one nor remembers a copy ever being offered on the rare book market since he began as a collector in 1976.
My old friend Chris Klint died a few months ago and I just found out. Kris and his brother Rolphe were my friends when my parents lived in Shanks Village in Blauvelt. Shanks was an army debarkation point during World War II and after the war the shacks were converted to low cost housing. My Mom and Dad were dirt poor in the early 1950s and lived there until 1956. The made friends with the Klints and many others. The friends that they made at Shanks they kept their entire lives.
In the picture below is Rolphe, who is my age and turns up every 15 or 20 years. He is on the left. Chris is in the middle and I am on the right. I remember the cowboy hat. My Aunt Connie gave it to me on my fourth birthday. I lost it on the Tarrytown ferry when it blew into the river. I was a little over 4 in the picture. I don’t know why Rolphe looks so upset.
Erica made me a birthday cake (no it is quite impossible that I am 58 years old. I feel more like 14)
Here are some amazing pics. It is a lemon honey cake in the shape of a beehive. Very complex and very tasty. Erica wanted to commemorate my recent ventures into apiculture
I finished the book First Lessons in Beekeeping that I received with my order from Brushy Mountain Bee Farm. This is a very very good book and answered almost all of my questions. I am alarmed at the risk in beekeeping, though. There is much that can go wrong with bees.
I am getting nervous about my upcoming bee run. I have found another bee seller that might still have bees (BetterBee is out of bee packages and nucs). If they are still taking orders I will get more than one colony as a backup. I am keeping its name secret though, until I get my order confirmation.
By the way, I am convinced that the Brushy Mountain starter hive setup was quite a deal. If bought separately, the setup would have cost quite a bit more than what I paid.
E. Jim Shannon lives in the northern hinterlands of Edmonton in Canada. They have some pretty fierce cold weather there. It goes down well below zero Fahrenheit. He had been taking in a stray cat he named Boots. Two weeks ago, in the middle of a deadly cold blast, Boots ran out onto the cold and disappeared. He and his wife called him for days but there was no sign of him.
Today, on his blog, Jim has a picture of Boots who met them at the door yesterday and ran up to the apartment and is now resting from his adventures.
If you live on the east coast and the weather is good tomorrow night you might try looking out the window towards the south and east at around 9:20 pm.
You may be able to see the glow of the Space Shuttle’s engine. I don’t know how much would be visible.
The forecast for Wednesday night is partial clouds so we should luck out.
You might want to connect to NASA TV where they have a live feed in case the launch is delayed.
I got this mail through the RCC mailing list. It looks like the jobs are mostly hospitality, but I guess you can check regularly for that "Assistant to the Traveling Secretary" job.
Hello everyone: A former colleague of mine now works in the Human Resources – Department for the new Yankee Stadium and they are looking to hire 3000 people for the start of the season. If you know of anyone looking for work they can apply in person on: Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:00 – 7:00 PM, Wednesday 12:00 – 4:00PM or Saturdays 10:00 AM – 4:00PM. They can also apply by sending a cover letter along with their resume to the following address: Human Resources Department New York Yankees Stadium Bronx , NY 10451 To preview the job opportunities available online follow this link:
The bus was late this morning so I wandered around the parking lot and fond where they pile the snow that is plowed up from the other lots. It has been cold, but sunny, so the snow sublimates revealing all the garbage that was scooped up with the snow. There are hundreds of crushed and broken shopping cards emerging as the snow goes away. I wonder if there will be any human parts appearing with the carts?
The cell phone has a bad camera and I realized today that it was taking pictures in 640×400 economy mode. I have changed it, but it is too late for these pictures.
Conquest of Earth reads like a first novel with a few fundamental problems with the plot and narrative, but is still a good read. I have other Banister books on the shelf and I will try them soon.
6 From Worlds Beyond, is a good collection of some stories a little outside the Golden Age of SF mainstream and a very good read.
Year 2018! (They Shall Have Stars) is the prequel to Blish’s Cities in Flight series. Erica gave it to me on my birthday. It is a great novel in Blish’s best series.
If money was no object and you wanted to create the ultimate modern science fiction and fantasy rare book collection in a single swoop, then The Fine Books Company in Rochester, Michigan, is offering first editions of all the Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novels for a cool $116,530.
A good read. Exquisitely crafted short stories. Each a gem. All are very short. If you haven’t read it, go right to Amazon and grab a copy.
A lesser (and creepy) novel by a great writer.
