[Read the whole thing]]]> http://www.fascinationplace.org/2010/03/11/the-morning-after/ This morning I noticed Jefferson was not eating – not even a treat – and was being very lethargic. He’d lost a lot of weight over the last 8 months, and he looked even more gaunt than he has recently. I took him into the vet, and by noon she called with the

[Read the whole thing]]]> http://www.fascinationplace.org/2010/03/10/remembering-jefferson/ This is the end of my first week in our new building at work (well, almost; I was out yesterday to go with Debbi and her parents to the Monterey Bay Aquarium to see their sea otter pup, who is awfully cute and energetic, by the way), and it’s been a lot of little adjustments:

[Read the whole thing]]]> http://www.fascinationplace.org/2010/03/05/adjusting-to-my-new-environment/ We recently caught up with the last episodes of Doctor Who starring David Tennant. Taken a whole, they were okay, better than the fourth season, but they still show lead writer Russell T. Davies’ tendency to be overly sentimental.

The theme of the season is both one of the Doctor’s impending regeneration (which we know

[Read the whole thing]]]> http://www.fascinationplace.org/2010/03/04/doctor-who-the-end-of-tennant/ And so I celebrated my 11th anniversary at Apple by walking in to a new building this morning:

It’s actually kind of familiar to me, as two of my friends have worked here for the last few years, and their team headed elsewhere as part of the big game of office musical chairs which involved us

[Read the whole thing]]]> http://www.fascinationplace.org/2010/03/01/my-new-environment/ [Read the whole thing]]]> http://www.fascinationplace.org/2010/02/28/this-weeks-haul-172/ It’s been a lo-o-ong time since we’d been to see anything at the Stanford Theatre, but when I saw they were doing an Akira Kurosawa film festival, I persuaded Debbi to go with me to see the classic Japanese film The Seven Samurai (1954). I’ve actually never seen any Kurosawa films, and I’ve always

[Read the whole thing]]]> http://www.fascinationplace.org/2010/02/27/the-seven-samurai/ No, I’m not leaving Apple, but our team is moving to a new building this weekend, so today is our last day in Infinite Loop, the main Apple campus. I’ve never worked at Apple anywhere else, having been in 3 different buildings on campus. In fact, I’ve been on the same floor of

[Read the whole thing]]]> http://www.fascinationplace.org/2010/02/26/bye-bye-infinite-loop/ Roger Ebert is one of those people I thought would be around forever, because after all I’ve been watching him since I was a kid, when he and Gene Siskel were hosting Sneak Previews in the late 1970s. It was a little shocking when Siskel died in 1999, but also reassuring (I thought) that

[Read the whole thing]]]> http://www.fascinationplace.org/2010/02/25/roger-ebert/ A huge week this week, the most expensive I can recall in recent memory. (Okay, I bought some Magic cards, too, since my Worldwake booster boxes haven’t arrived yet.) Two hardcovers, two paperbacks, and a goodly set of books.

[Read the whole thing]]]> http://www.fascinationplace.org/2010/02/20/this-weeks-haul-171/ Considering this is a week full of holidays – Valentine’s Day, President’s Day, Mardi Gras, and Ash Wednesday – it hasn’t been terribly festive for me!

First of all, I ended up going into work on Saturday. Blah. On the other hand, when I’d told her I’d be going in the day before, Debbi

[Read the whole thing]]]> http://www.fascinationplace.org/2010/02/17/not-a-holiday-holidays/ My favorite science fiction writer, Alastair Reynolds, has a new blog: Approaching Pavonis Mons by Balloon.

It includes the first chapter of his forthcoming novel, Terminal World. Which I really need to preorder soon…

Incidentally, I recently read his “hardcover Ace double“, Thousandth Night/Minla’s Flowers, which was fun. Minla’s Flowers is perhaps a bit obvious,

[Read the whole thing]]]> http://www.fascinationplace.org/2010/02/17/approaching-pavonis-mons-by-balloon/ [Read the whole thing]]]> http://www.fascinationplace.org/2010/02/14/this-weeks-haul-170/ Zoë’s Tale can be read on its own, but it fits better as a companion novel to Scalzi’s previous book, The Last Colony. It follows the events of that novel through the eyes of Zoë, the teenaged adoptive daughter of John Perry

[Read the whole thing]]]> http://www.fascinationplace.org/2010/02/12/john-scalzi-zoes-tale/ Interesting article at the San Jose Mercury News today on the rebuilding of Sunnyvale Town Center having stalled out, and how the only piece that’s thriving – and having a hard time of it even then because of all the surrounding construction – is the one block of Murphy Street. A few choice quotes:

[Read the whole thing]]]> http://www.fascinationplace.org/2010/02/06/rebuilding-downtowns/ A light week, for a change:

[Read the whole thing]]]> http://www.fascinationplace.org/2010/02/05/this-weeks-haul-169/ Why is it that Jack McDevitt’s second novel, A Talent For War, is one of my favorite books, but the others I’ve read by him have been merely… okay? Talent starred antiquities dealer Alex Benedict, a resident of human space in

[Read the whole thing]]]> http://www.fascinationplace.org/2010/02/03/jack-mcdevitt-the-devils-eye/ I’ve had three nights in a row of strong, vivid dreams. They’ve been pretty nonsensical, but powerful, considering that I rarely remember my dreams. I rarely write about them when I do remember them (because reading about other peoples’ dreams is pretty boring, I think), but after three nights in a row, I

[Read the whole thing]]]> http://www.fascinationplace.org/2010/02/01/vivid-dreams/ At the end of Matthew Hughes’ Majestrum, Henghis Hapthorn, Old Earth’s foremost discriminator, found that his intuitive other half, his own fully-formed personality inside his head, had taken a new name, Osk Rievor. This new story begins with Rievor researching

[Read the whole thing]]]> http://www.fascinationplace.org/2010/01/31/matthew-hughes-the-spiral-labyrinth/ [Read the whole thing]]]> http://www.fascinationplace.org/2010/01/30/this-weeks-haul-168/