Becca Stareyes

So, tomorrow, if all goes well, SpaceX (a private aerospace company) will launch an uncrewed capsule which will dock with the International Space Station. This is the first commercial spacecraft to dock with the ISS -- so far it's all been Space Shuttles and Soyuz crafts.

Now, when the Space Shuttle was slated to retire, the idea was that the US could pay private companies to pick up the slack. Which... well, I actually think it's a great idea. Basically, NASA should be encouraging private companies to take all the sweet technology developed from years of working for governments and see if they can make it commercially feasible without making it a flying deathtrap. Meanwhile, NASA can put more of its budget into building me more robots... I mean, doing new and innovating things in space exploration.

On the other hand, I would have liked the government to time it better, as the earliest commercial launch with actual humans on board isn't planned until 2015. (The US government has strong feelings about the safety of anything that will carry humans into space to visit their very expensive space station.)

Anyway, so, this launch tomorrow. NASA TV is covering it, and there's a 70% chance the weather will be good. It should be routine -- rocket goes up, drops off capsule, capsule orbits for a bit, catching up with the ISS and they dock. The Dragon capsule has been tested back in late 2010 and is the first commercial spacecraft to go up, orbit and come back down in one piece. Heck, only three nations have done this*.

Unfortunately, the launch is at 4:55 AM Eastern time, so I'm going to be asleep for it, probably. But you can watch a simulation here

* Plenty of stuff has gone up and not come down, or come down in little bits of space debris (preferably after it did its thing). But you really got to stick the landing in this business.

So, um… thoughts! About Legend of Korra!

( Spoilery thoughts! )

I saw othercat do this on Tumblr, so...

Name two series you know I've read/seen, and I'll script out a crossover*.

* This may actually be a fusion of the types of 'Characters from Series A were born into Universe B and meet the cast'.

So, I decided to do the 100things_index, a challenge to write 100 blog posts on a topic or topics. Mine is going to be 'stuff I've read'. There may be some repeats from my book reviews, since I'm on the 'reread until I get the Hugo voter package'.

( 001: Deadline by Mira Grant )

There be spoilers here. I'll keep anything that's not spoiler-rific outside the cuts if you want to read it anyway.

I read the sample chapters to Mira Grant's (aka seanan_mcguire) upcoming book, Blackout. And something caught me...

( Spoilers for Feed and the sample material from Blackout )

There's another one in when Seanan McGuire asked who would win in a fight, Georgia, or the heroine of her other series, October Daye. Seanan noted that, while George was a better shot, Toby had one advantage.

Toby is known as working blood magic: she can use blood to see through another's eyes, even if they died. Moreover, she grew up in mid-century America. Georgia grew up in post-Rising America where any sign of blood was a risk of someone becoming a zombie, and any fluids from a zombie could spread the disease if they got into your body. So, Georgia has a reflexive avoidance of blood because of this, something a character from a setting that doesn't involve zombies just wouldn't have. Especially not a changeling that needs blood to work some magic.

Another worldbuilding detail that I didn't think about until the author pointed it out.

( Spoilers for Feed (the same ones) and also old Heinlein juvenile SF )

I've started walking into work -- well, walking to the north campus parking lot, then riding the campus bus the rest of the way. Between that and my mid-afternoon 'get up from my desk and go outside' walk, I'm probably walking about a half hour a day -- which is at least a mile. And, given I take five minute 'walk three times round the building' breaks every hour, my pedometer, which my nutritionist asked me to wear to measure how much exercise I get, is starting to regularly top out around 6000-7000 steps (maaaaybe 4.5 to 5 km (2.8 to 3 miles) a day).

And now when I go home, by 8 PM I'm ready to fall asleep. It's not even a medicine thing, as I've been steady with my meds. Also, my feet usually hurt by the end of the day.

Which is annoying. That's really not that much walking, even if it's starting to get to twice what I used to do. And I like having evenings to do things.

I finished editing my casestory fic, and it went to yuuo, who is beta-reading. Anyone else who wants to help beta-read a novella-length (23,100 words) Slayers fic is welcome to volunteer.

The start of the fic may well pre-date my graduate school career; I know it pre-dates my master's degree and had to be edited for continuity since it was written before Slayers Revolution was even a rumor*.

I could probably look in my writing journal -- the LJ one, since it was before I had even heard of Insanejournal, let alone Dreamwidth. Neither may have existed back then. But, I'm tired. I'm going to bed.

* Well, besides the standard 'they'll make another season Any Year Now' that's been happening since Try.

Some people have inner editors. I have an inner skeptic. She comes out to play when I try to worldbuild, especially if I'm playing on the science-fictional side of the force.

( Example conversation: )

The thing is, my inner skeptic rarely (if ever) rears her head while I read. And less so for fantasy fiction.

Another edition of this meme

yuuo got H from me, and had some trouble. So when I asked for a letter, she gave me X to try to give me some trouble.

( But I have triumphed! )

I'm reading Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn trilogy, specifically the final book. And I got to thinking about the structure of trilogies. It seems like, even if each book in the trilogy has a plot, the trilogy itself has a pattern of the first book ending on an up beat, and the second on a down beat.

( Some examples to explain what I mean )

So, I wonder if this is inherent to the construction of a trilogy. I can think of counter-examples: N. K. Jemisen's Inheritance trilogy doesn't quite have a downbeat second book, but I might have to reread it as a trilogy, rather than as a series of stand-alone novels. The Lord of the Rings... well, I have to go back and see where Tolkein cut the story, since the films changed things up. And discussing the differences there might be a post into itself. I can think of plenty of trilogies that do do this -- even darker stories, like seanan_mcguire's Newsflesh trilogy have a more upbeat first book end than second book end.

I'm trying to decide if I want to do the blog 100 things challenge. And, if I do, if I want to do '100 places/things in the universe' or '100 SF/Fantasy books and book series'. Or both. Which would you all like to read?

Today I need to finish writing an informal talk for lunch seminar tomorrow. If I'm running ahead of schedule (I know, but it's possible), I might get on Skype and practice it to the folks at home.

1. Leave a comment to this post, specifically saying that you would like a letter.
2. I will give you a letter.
3. Post the names of five fictional characters whose names begin with that letter, and your thoughts on each. The characters can be from books, movies, or TV shows.

I ramble a lot here. Be warned.

stormsdotter gave me Z.

( Z is for Zelda, Zelda, Zelda, Zelda and, of course, Zelda )

I also got T from dqbunny

( T is for Toph, and that's good enough for me! )

I always feel like I didn't get enough done over the weekend. Then again, it could just be my chronic inability to figure out how long things take.

I'm currently on new project hiatus for art and writing -- no new projects until I finish the things I owe people. Considering I'm on the blacklist for both art exchanges I'm in, that helps enforce it. So, no signups until I clear my to-do list, and I might just close things down until I get out of grad school...

... which hopefully will be by the end of the summer, since my adviser isn't sure if he can support two students, and we might have a new student join the group. He's working half-time between two professors for the summer. Normally the first summer is considered your chance to try out working for a professor.

What I did get done was make enough food so that I shouldn't have to buy lunch on campus, and clean and organize my mess of crafting supplies. Also, bought enough shorts and pants to last me years*, or until I change pant sizes again.

* I don't like buying pants and the brands that fit me best also tend to be expensive. So, when they are on sale or I'm desperate, I buy enough to last me.

Posted the summary for my casestory fic. The rough draft isn't due for another two weeks, and I'm easily on track to finish -- it didn't hurt that I was mostly done when I signed up.

Now, to hope artists who know Slayers sign up. (You get a sneak peak of the fic.)

I'm considering getting the supporting membership to Chicon 7 -- basically you pay $50 to vote for the Hugo Awards, Science Fiction and Fantasy's version of the Oscars. I'm getting into a phase in my readings where I've actually heard of (and read) some of the nominees already. Heck, last year I watched the ceremony via web streaming and I certainly didn't do that for the Oscars.

Also, the 'voter package' they put together each year is usually worth the $50 -- ebooks of all the novels (and usually the shorter stuff too), PDFs of the comics, etc. I probably won't get the long or short form presentations*, and... well, I don't know. seanan_mcguire might do something, since she's the first filksinger to ever land an album as 'Best SF/Fantasy Related Work'. (She also set a record for most times a woman has appeared on a year's Hugo Ballot -- once as a filksinger, once as a podcaster, and twice as a writer (under her pen name).)

Really, besides Wicked Girls and “The Drink Tank’s Hugo Acceptance Speech", seeing John Scazli's April Fools 2011 short story (a prologue that parodied epic fantasy, but was sold and published on Tor.com) make it on the list, so it's nice to see fandom can have some fun. I'm sure people will be complaining about how we aren't Taking This Seriously. But, oh well.

* Basically the TV and movie categories, though you also get odd things. This year, an acceptance speech from last year is on the ballot for 'Best Short Form Presentation'. Last year I think had the music video of 'Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury', and I know Doctor Horrible has been on there. Otherwise, it's mostly Doctor Who and whatever SFF movies were released.

Name a fandom and I'll sketch my favorite character from it.

I just downloaded Sketchbook Express, and I want to play with it.

Have I mentioned how much I hate my allergies? Because I do. Even on Claritin and a decongestant*, half the time my middle ears are clogged and I get pain/pressure in my left ear. And also sinus headaches. Yesterday, I spent most of the evening lying down and I overslept today because my normal recourse to headaches is take painkillers and sleep until they kick in.

Work goes well. I mean, I'm pretty close to submitting a paper, which means my dissertation is half written. And the other stuff is mostly done, but... well, I could easily pick at it forever if people let me.

Also, the job market is terrible and I don't want to talk about it. Add in that NASA's planetary science budget -- at least the one Obama proposed -- is terrible. (Mostly, the money going into old missions that are moving into cheaper parts of the mission aren't getting put into developing new missions. If the budget stays the way it is, that means NASA will not only be unable to do any big planetary missions, but the little ones will get less frequent. And ESA is pretty annoyed at us because NASA has to drop a couple of joint missions we said we'd help with.)

I'm working on an afghan and doll clothing and drawings and writing and roleplaying, so I'm keeping busy. And... really, I don't know why I've been silent. Besides late winter blahs. I'll try to update more than once a month.

* You know, one that you have to sign and show ID for, because somehow this prevents you from making meth from it. I mean, I assume this is somehow going into a tracking database...

Well, no. I assume it's actually Security Theater where someone decided making my life a little more complicated shows they're Tough on Drugs.

Sorry about the lack of updates. The winter blahs have kicked in late. But, since I'm here...

um...

Have a meme!

1. Go to page 77 (or 7) of your current ms.
2. Go to line 7
3. Copy down the next 7 lines – sentences or paragraphs – and post them as they’re written.
4. Encourage other people to do it!

"Either someone's organizing it, or things are going rotten here fast. If something else happens like the mill… someone will start throwing punches.”

"I see..." Amelia frowned. Sending down part of the guard could just be the straw that broke the donkey's back. Most of the nobility and governors she was certain supported the project were very much in the model of her father -- justice-loving people who might be good at managing their land or towns, but had all the guile of an overeager puppy. Saillune never had been good at espionage, and her father had outright refused to use it, a topic of constant debate between him and Uncle Christopher. Lina and Gourry were still away in the Outer World. However, there was one person she could trust on this.

That's from page 7 of the Slayers fic I'm working on to post for casestory. (That's a Big Bang style ficathon, so if any of you artist types want to help out with the fanart portion...)

In which I go through my WIP folder and post every first line, no explanations. Okay, anything that looks like Doctor Who fic was written by request of a friend in a pan-fandom RPG, so may be wildly OOC since I'm working from her writing and not the canon -- that's the only explanation I get to give.

Maybe someday I'll finish them.

Also, feel free to ask me about them, play guess the fandom (on ones where I don't name people/places), or whatever. Maybe it'll be incentive.

( Read more... )

I had to personally negotiate a peace between the three factions in Starcraft, because there was a fourth set of people showing up with weird technology and kicking everyone's asses. Also, I could fly, had psychic powers and Fullmetal Alchemist-style circleless alchemy that I could use to heal people. And I suspect the place where we were was old Orion from the setting developed at sabra_la_tau, but there were also giant flowers and spheres of water that held ancient alien cities.

I don't even know; my subconscious, man.