Friday night, I made tacos and chocolate chip cookies with my kids. Saturday, I attended the Imagicon 2 speculative fiction conference, chairing a panel on time travel and forming part of a panel on legal aspects of interstellar empires without faster-than-light travel. I also talked to loads of people and bought a 70s paperback edition of Shea & Wilson's Illuminatus books, which I haven't read before.
Today I finished and submitted a review essay, which is sort of work but fun too, especially since it's the first time I've been commissioned by a major newspaper to write something. And as I type these words I have just sent off an audio file to Dr. Isis with the song she won by making comment no 10,000. Recording it was super fun, so when I was done I wrote to the editor of Escape Pod and offered my services as a narrator.
And you, Dear Reader? What did you do for fun this weekend?
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Had som fun collecting nice fall colors with my camera: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=colorful&w=29001722%40N07
I picked American Chestnuts and raked up the burrs (like little pin cushions). Got 20lbs of nuts from our trees this year, not counting the one I gave away already (maybe another 10 lbs worth).
Yesterday Seattle broke the all time rain in one day record. That was quite a storm. My favorite kind too, warm rain with thunder storms.
I attended Imagicon 2 and talked to loads of people, though only briefly with you.
//JJ
JSB, the story of that tree species is interesting! What are you doing with the nuts?
I love the Illuminatus books but they get less entertaining towards the end as all the plot threads begin to tie up. That said, you have to find out how it ends even so.
This weekend I mainly made this week's Powerpoint presentation and revised a paper that's due very very soon (or possibly already in the past, technically) but also made sure my son finished his half-term project, and he's really put some work in so that was quite rewarding. Fun, though... well, that'll have to wait for a few weeks yet. I listened to a bunch of new CDs I just got, that was fun: now I understand why people talk about Country Joe and the Fish as if they ought to bve legendary. Not legendary for maybe but certainly really really good.
You poor man, why must you make a PP presentation every week?
Proof-reading. Well, don't know if it classifies as fun, per se, but the end result is now a short story "in print" (it's web-only, but that qualifies as "in print" doesn't it?).
Well done! I look forward to reading it when not at work.
I took a teddy bear on a sightseeing trip.
Let me explain.
A school class in Tennessee is doing a fun project this year in geography and history. The class is divided into teams, and each team sends out a teddy bear to travel the world for them. When you receive the bear, you send a post card to the team from wherever you live, writing about something historical, political, social etc. You can also take the bear on a trip/adventure of some sort, take photos of the bear in typical situations and so on. These are put in the bear's back pack, and then you pass the bear on to some one you know in a different place (preferrably a different country).
During the year, each team uses the incoming post cards as a "springboard" to study that place and do a presentation on it for their class. When the bear returns in April, they compile a book detailing its trip, calculate miles covered, show the "souvenirs" and so on.
As its current host, I took the bear to Stockholm, snapped some pictures of him at Riddarholmen with City Hall in the background and at the Royal Palace. Then I took him to see some rune stones in Täby.
On Friday, the bear goes to Senegal. Considering it has already visited Switzerland and Bermuda, this team is at least getting a lot of diverse places to study!
Apart from that, I did nothing of any importance...
Cool! Reminds me of the "travel bugs" that circulate among geocaches.
Having previously devised an absurd and fanciful "translation" of the Phaistos Disk, I decided to tackle the (probably untranslatable) Indus script. It may take some doing to outdo all proposed decipherments in fancifulness.
That's right, aim for the absurd stars!
Yeah, American Chestnuts are fascinating. I set a few big nuts to sprout, but the squirrels plant plenty of them for me. Some I'm giving away for Solstice gifts. I plan to try different ways to cook the rest. In the past we roasted them and also used them in turkey stuffing over the holidays. But we got so many this year I'll need to try some new recipes. Any suggestions?
Chocolate chip cookies, maybe?
Martin, the Powerpoint is for the lecture course I'm currently giving; had I just got that when I saw you or ws it still in the future? I can't recall. Either way, I like to give them some pictures and maps as well as me being animated and talking too fast...
It's always fun when a speaker has a set amount of time and adapts his speaking speed accordingly, not the amount of material he wants to cover. (-;