Weekly Short Stories: 1999 Science Fiction, Part 6

This past week, as I continued reading through the annual retrospective anthology series edited by the late Gardner Dozois titled The Year's Best Science Fiction...this volume covering 1999 material being the Seventeenth Annual Collection...I managed to get through just one story.  Tomorrow I'm having surgery and see possibilities for a little more reading time in the week to come as I recover.  That's good, because the next story after this relatively short one is a long drawn-out novella...

WRITTEN IN BLOOD by Chris Lawson

A Muslim man is taking his daughter with him to Mecca as he is fulfilling Islam's Fifth Pillar by going on a pilgrimage there.  Told from his daughter's perspective, "Da" is a trained biologist who is in remission from cancer.  There they encounter a vendor selling a special product: the Qu'ran encoded into one's own blood.  Da takes him up on the offer, and as the story's ending reveals, most likely suffers the consequences of that action.  I felt that this story was sensitive to Islam and its believers, and I learned a few things about their prophet Muhammad in the process.  As for imprinting a document...or pictures...onto one's own DNA or blood is concerned, the author raises the point that while doing so might be done as a gesture of faith or  personal preference, it could also eventually be used against the person to identify them as being part of an group in disfavor, exposing them to persecution down the line.  In an allegorical sense, I think all the trails of ourselves that we leave in the Internet are doing something similar, don't you?

My intent for next Wednesday is to keep on reviewing stuff from the Dozois anthology...

Another Jigsaw Puzzle by Thomas Kincade

I just finished another 500-piece jigsaw puzzle by artist Thomas Kincade.  I like the scenes he depicts...this one is definitely a place I'd like to hang out at!  On a completely unrelated subject, I'd like to briefly bring up the widespread outrage I'm picking up on in social and mass media over what our current, thoroughly disgusting president has been doing on a wide range of decisions.  It's not that I don't generally agree with the criticisms I'm reading and hearing, but rather that the main problem, as I see it, is that American voters are responsible for the mess we're in.  THEY voted the jerk into power.  I have only one vote.  People had all the information they needed FOR YEARS to vote otherwise, but that didn't change anything.  So go ahead and spill out your outrage, for all the good it will do...

Podcaster's Episode about Toxic People

Personal development coach and podcaster Rob Dial sometimes has shows I'm interested in...some not so much.  Today he had a good topic: toxic people and strategies to escape their harmful effects.  His first piece of advice was to identify the toxic people in your life, and that doesn't necessarily mean folks who are annoying.  Toxic people are manipulators who can be aggressive in trying to establish control, often by expressing personal interest and then twisting the information they gather against you.  Dial suggested that, once such a person is seen for what they are, you then assume the role of a "grey rock", that is, be boring and uninteresting, giving the offender nothing to grab hold of about you.  Well, I gave it a thought and I think I came up with my "Number One" toxic person: Donald Trump.  I certainly would be a grey rock to him should the opportunity arise, but I doubt that the two of us will ever cross paths.  My strategy concerning this despicable, evil soul that my fellow Americans were foolish enough to elect is to follow Dial's final piece of advice: avoid the toxic person.  That's a bit of a challenge, since part of Trump's obvious strategy is to be in the news headlines each and every day, making provocative actions and statements that deliberately offend and frighten people.  Yet I would never wish harm for this individual, who I regard as an asset to Putin's Russia and the furthest thing possible from being a patriotic American...more a convicted felon and traitor who should be locked away in prison...   

Staying Positive Through Life's Complications

In the midst of a number of complicating interruptions to the intended flow of my life into retirement, I am still building a foundational structure on which to live out each day in a way that nurtures my competency, intellect, physical health and social relationships.  It does help for me no longer having to adhere to a 40-hour work week while being in a location under the authority and restrictions imposed by others, not to mention being freed from making the 17-mile round trip each day through often treacherous traffic.  My closest relationships, by far the most important of which is with Melissa, are supportive and want me to be strong, healthy and happy.  I think I'll try to satisfy them by being just that, whatever distractions happen to come my way.  And the recent prostate cancer diagnosis and my scheduled surgery this Thursday to remove said prostate is one of the major ones...

My Daughter Gets Married

Today my daughter Rebecca married her partner in Lakeland.  Melissa and I attended the ceremony, held there at Lake Parker.  Rebecca's spouse's family was also there, and we enjoyed their company, celebrating this important change for my daughter's life.  May their relationship bloom into something strong and enduring...I love them both...  

My Running and Walking Report for February 2025

For the first three weekends in February I participated in three races, speed-walking a 5K and the running the other two, one for 5K and the other for 10 miles.  My workouts were going well, that is, until February 19th when I suffered a bout of inflammation in both legs, especially in the calf area under each knee.  Two days later I had pretty much recovered, but to this day still have aches in the area and am not at 100%.  It feels a bit like arthritis, and my shoulder areas suffer some twinges as well...I had been doing push-ups to develop my upper body strength.  As far as races are concerned, it's over for a while not only because of that inflammation, but also because I am scheduled for prostate removal surgery (prostatectomy) on March 6th because of diagnosed cancer there.  I will need recovery time afterwards, and, besides, it's just going to keep getting warmer outside.  Later on in the spring I'd like to go back to trying a modest swimming routine mixed in with walking and a little running, but my more athletic efforts will be taking a back seat to surgery and recovery...

My Songs of the Month for February 2025

I didn't listen much to my music channels this past month, but I did hear some songs I liked more than others.  The preferred genre is Indie-Rock, and much of what I liked in January slid over into February.  My favorite song of the month was on January's list: Starburster by the Dublin, Ireland group Fontaines DC.  Number Two on the list was Besties by Black Country, New Road.  And the third favorite is January's song of the month for me, Everyone Out by DIIV...

Weekly Short Stories: 1999 Science Fiction, Part 5

As I continue to reflect on stories from 1999 I 'm reading from the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Seventeenth Annual Collection, I find myself a little "unstuck in time"...as Kurt Vonnegut might put it.  For me growing up and into early adulthood, the year 1999 was a far-off future time, science fiction in itself. Not only did it figure in Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick's space exploration classic movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, but we even had in the early 1970s a syndicated sci-fi TV series called Space: 1999 that starred old Mission: Impossible stars Martin Landau and Barbara Bain.  This was long before Prince enshrined the year with his 1983 hit 1999.  But now the year 1999 is more than a quarter century into the receding past.  Anyway, let's take a look at a couple of those stories...

GREEN TEA by Richard Wadholm

A "hard" science fiction tale about revenge, I found the technical descriptions of spaceship hardware and arcane narratives about chemical/physical breakdowns of exotic, dangerous substances hard to follow as the story's narrator describes, as an obvious survivor, the heavy loss of life and destruction as a ship transporting dangerous cargo must scramble against all odds to avoid its own destruction...and possibly that of the star system it has entered.  I did make it all the way to the end, for which I'm very proud of myself.  This isn't a story you can rush through, and I felt the author went out of his way to make it a difficult read...

THE DRAGON OF PRIPYAT by Karl Schroeder 

The nuclear reaction meltdown at Chernobyl in 1986 is the basis of this tale, set twenty years later in the "future" 2006 (you know, our "past" 2006).  It seems that the supposedly secured site is emitting toxic radiation, a "release", and an investigator is sent there to, well, investigate.  Is a terrorist group behind the new danger?...I enjoyed reading about how the surrounding environment responded to the Chernobyl debacle over the years.  The author added the twist of virtual reality here as an alternative lifestyle...

Next week I continue looking at 1999 in science fiction...

Miss the Good Old "Boring" Days

I'm looking forward to attending my dear daughter Rebecca's wedding this coming Saturday...it will take place in Lakeland.  My wishes and prayers are with the two of them as they stake out their lives together.  I will always miss and grieve for my son Will, who passed away last summer.  My wife Melissa's sister is now a patient in the same hospital where I'll be undergoing my prostatectomy surgery on March 6th...we are likewise praying for her successful treatment and recovery from her afflictions.  Some folks get restless and discontent over what they perceive as their boring lives.  I, on the other hand...other than my daughter's marriage...would be very happy with a vast sea of relatively eventless days stretched out before me.  But that doesn't seem to be in the works anytime soon...

Latest Jigsaw Puzzle

 

Here's a pic of the jigsaw puzzle I just did over the past weekend.  It's one of four in a box of scenes by the artist Thomas Kinkade that I picked up at my nearby Wal-Mart. Every puzzle has its own challenges, and consequently puts me just enough outside my perceptual comfort zone to serve as a nice little exercise.  Now on to the next one...

Political, Media Manipulation Will Only Get Worse

A few weeks ago, while surfing through YouTube in their section devoted to running, I "ran" across a couple of Canadian middle-age brothers who decided to tackle distance running and triathlons in order to get themselves fit after undergoing some health scares.  They're really a couple of top-notch athletes, it turns out, and they have their own channel committed to their ongoing efforts and accomplishments.  These two are, however, a bit insufferable with their self-promotion and putdowns of those they don't feel measure up to their standards...I felt early on that they held themselves to be on a higher plane of existence than me.  That's okay, they have their thing and I mine...to each our own: I don't HAVE TO watch their videos.  I cannot say the same regarding our recycled president and his musky wingman.  It's clear that the convicted felon that my own country saw fit to return to office has, as a centerpiece of his strategy, the notion of keeping himself the focus of media attention EVERY DAY with some new outrage to say or someone to offend.  Sadly, I think he's on to something...America is hopelessly hooked on reality television and celebrities: the more off-the-wall they are, the better. Some folks think that all they have to do is outlast this president and then things will return to normal, but I think the change is permanent.  From now on future candidates, on both sides of the political divide, will apply the lessons in mass manipulation they're learning here to their respective campaigns. If you think it's bad now, wait 'til AI and quantum computing attain their full realization and seamlessly merge into our mass and social media, forever blurring the distinction between fact and fantasy. Hell, it's already happening.  At least those Canadian brothers are real (I think).  On the other hand, it seems to me that the American voter doesn't even care anymore what is real or not: they just care about how it all makes them feel...   

Strange Inflammatory, Painful Leg Episode This Past Wednesday

Late afternoon this past Wednesday (2/19/25) I was napping in my living room recliner.  Upon awakening, I found both of my legs painfully immobile just below the knees, and had difficulty walking around without the aid of a pole.  This continued throughout the evening...after a good night's sleep I was much more mobile, but still at a loss as to what happened.  I hadn't been running any hardy Wednesday than usual...if anything, a little lighter.  I was running in a different building, on a wooden floor...why would that matter, though?  It's Saturday now and my leg muscles have a sore...although not bad...feel to them and I have resumed light jogging in place around the house as before.  I wonder whether I might have picked up a virus somewhere that manifested itself in my legs...I am vaccinated for Influenza Type A.  Or maybe I became a little too dehydrated and the body reacted, I don't know.  I am drinking more hydration, though, and am guardedly optimistic that this sudden inflammatory episode was isolated and won't return.  As of this writing there is no pain, only a residual background soreness.  I'm leaning toward the dehydration explanation and am liberally drinking fluids...

Weekly Short Stories: 1999 Science Fiction, Part 4

We've arrived at another Wednesday, and as such it is time for me to comment on the latest science fiction short stories I've read as I continue to go through the past, year-by-year, using as a story reference the Gardner Dozois anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Seventeenth Annual Collection, this volume featuring picks from 1999...

DAPPLE: A HWARHATH HISTORICAL ROMANCE by Eleanor Arsnason

On a distant world is a (furry) human society where the gender roles are inverted to a degree, and homosexual behavior is the accepted norm with heterosexual unions are highly ritualized and generally considered undesirable.  In this setting a girl has her sights set on putting on plays for others, following in the tradition of visiting friends of her sea-faring family.  Only problem: putting on traveling shows is considered "men's" work...she has some barriers to overcome, as well as a few life-threatening adventures, as this interesting narrative progresses.  This story illustrates the often arbitrary way that societies (including ours) construct themselves with their traditions and taboos...

PEOPLE CAME FROM EARTH by Stephen Baxter

Here Baxter, a noted "hard" science fiction writer, lays out the parameters for a Moon colony of people, cut off from Earth after it foolishly destroys itself in high-tech warfare.  Due to nano-weapons that destroyed the metal used in high technology, the remaining lunar population, their bodies thin, light and fragile and susceptible to wasting disease, no longer has the metals used in their previous higher state of technology, forced now to revert to more primitive agriculture and engineering.  A lunar man's young nephew is enthralled with the papers and legacy of Leonardi da Vinci...their conversations, along the boy's rapidly deteriorating health and the colony's race against time to develop its technological base...form the basis for this sobering piece...

Next week: more from '99...

AI Moving Fast Over Us

I have lately been noticing on YouTube and Facebook that artificial intelligence, or AI, has exploded in growth with the number of posts and channels dramatically increasing.  What's more, not only the AI-generated text but also its video presentation are coming chillingly close to resembling actual known people's images and writings.  I wonder how the Internet we've grown used to will look in just, say, five years and whether it will be recognizable.  AI presents its own challenges, especially coupled with the development in quantum computing that stands to massively empower processing speed and memory.  What's real and what isn't...that looks to be the fundamental question ahead of us as we trudge forward into this brave new world.  I've already seen commercials where users are using AIs as confidants, seeking personal advice from them..."really"?  What's the future going to be like?  Maybe each of us will have our own AI accounts, and with special glasses and audio we can have anyone we want around us, down to our most stringent specifications...who needs all those icky real people?  In the Ron Howard-directed award-winning movie A Beautiful Mind, mathematical genius John Nash, played by Russell Crowe, hallucinated his own circle of friends and colleagues...but it was revealed that this was an element of his schizophrenia.  Are we entering a time of mass insanity...or have we already arrived?  What a time to be alive...

Effectively Steering Conversation a Personal Challenge

Over this past weekend I found myself in three different social situations in which I was more or less habituated to take a background role in conversation and let others dictate the flow and content.  Coming away from it all, I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing.  On the plus side, this doesn't leave me overthinking later on about whether I misspoke about something and offended anyone.  But on the minus end, it all kind of left me bored since I know many of these good people out there have skills and interests, some of which they could help me develop if the communications were more directed and substantial (and interesting).  As I make my way into the wonderful world of retirement, I'm seeing more effective interactions with acquaintances and strangers as a kind of personal challenge.  And since there is no shortage of people out there, there should be plenty of opportunities to experiment with this conversational tactic or that.  But it's all pretty uncomfortable...I tend to be on the far reclusive end of "introvert".  On the other hand, enduring others going off endlessly with their boring rants and tedious talking points is uncomfortable as well...might as well get them talking about something I care about...

My Jigsaw Puzzle of the Golden Gate Bridge

 

Here's the final of the seven jigsaw puzzles I put together from the box depicting different notable American scenes I got last year...actually, it's the first one of the bunch I did.  The Golden Gate Bridge connecting San Francisco with Sausalito and northern California is another of those symbols of American engineering prowess.  I've never been there, but that climactic scene in the James Bond thriller A View to a Kill was impressive to watch.  This was the biggest of the puzzles at 1000 pieces, and that undifferentiated sky took up way too many puzzle pieces to be enjoyable.  Guess it's time to go get some more puzzles...

Ran Gainesville's Depot Parkrun 5K This Muggy Morning

This morning I drove out to Gainesville's Depot Park, just south of downtown, to participate in yet another of their Saturday morning free 5K Parkruns.  Sometimes I speed-walk the four laps around the pretty park there, but I usually run it like a race...that's what I did today.  It was 65 degrees and a stifling 97% humidity at 7:30 race time, though, and as is usually the case, I gave myself permission to just cover the distance if the muggy heat started to mess with me.  But all went well, weather-wise, and although the conditions were admittedly uncomfortable I found myself well-prepared to keep a reasonable pace going throughout, finishing at 27: 32.  There were a lot of people there this morning, including some little kids for whom this event was brand new and unfamiliar.  I wish them the best with their running futures, including figuring out that you don't sprint past other runners and then come to a grinding, sudden halt immediately in front of them, forcing folks like myself to take evasive action to avoid a collision.  That was a bit annoying, at least at the beginning, but in Parkruns you get quite a cross-section of the human population on the course, and even some canines...sometimes evasive action is necessary with these as well.  I'm glad I went there...click HERE to view today's results (when they're finally posted).  You can join in on the Parkrun experience by Googling their website and signing up (as said, for free).  They'll provide you barcodes that you can print out and take with you to the race for them to scan so that your finishing time can be posted with all the others. Parkrun began in England and has spread worldwide, growing here in the USA...

Happy Birthday, My Sweet Melissa

Today marks the fortieth time I get to spend with my dear wife Melissa on her birthday...1986 was the first, shortly after we met.  Yes, for most of us today marks the annual celebration of love known as Valentine's Day...we're into that as well.  Melissa, what a blessing you have been and are to me...let's keep it going with these birthday celebrations for several more decades!  I love you so much...

Recently Assembled Jigsaw Puzzle of Mount Rushmore

 

Mount Rushmore, near Rapid City, South Dakota, is one of the places I'd like to visit some day.  Situated in the state's Black Hills, the huge faces carved in granite depict four historically-significant US presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.  This National Memorial was sculpted, after US government authorization, by Gutzon Borglum, but the use of federal lands whose ownership is disputed by Indians has made the project, starting in 1927 and completed 14 years later, somewhat controversial.  My experiences with Mount Rushmore are tightly connected to the climactic scene in the great 1959 Alfred Hitchcock movie thriller North by Northwest, in which hero Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint flee there to escape the murderous bad guys, led by James Mason and Martin Landau.  The irony of it all is that the actual "Mount Rushmore" footage was done on models created for filming in Southern California!  Yes, I'd dig going over to South Dakota to check it out, as well as the nearby memorial to Crazy Horse that has been under construction since 1948 and still is far from completion.  Anyway, Mount Rushmore was the setting shown in one of my seven Americana jigsaw puzzles, pictured above...

Weekly Short Stories: 1999 Science Fiction, Part 3

This past week I only managed to read one short story in editor Gardner Dozois' anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction, Seventeenth Annual Collection, and which features his picks published in the year 1999.  Back then I was working at the Gainesville postal processing facility, sorting out mail on their flat-sorting machine while doing the graveyard shift.  That meant I was awake all night and could listen to late-night talk radio, most notably Art Bell's kooky, quirky Coast-to-Coast AM show that explored the paranormal, UFOs and conspiracy theories, to name a few topic categories.  But back to the Dozois anthology... 

GALACTIC NORTH by Alastair Reynolds

This is a tale of three people, very much in the future when humanity has not only spread out and settled the cosmos but has also mastered biology and medical science to the point that heads can be severed...and preserved, to be later reattached to the body.  Yes, it's pretty scary and gross, but the real horror to this true horror/science fiction story is the unintended consequence of the development of terraforming technology that is unleashed into the wild reaches of space, to develop on its own beyond anyone's control.  A woman is committed to protecting the thousands of "sleepers" on board her ship, but must land it on an asteroid as a ferocious, sadistic pirate seeks her cargo and forces her partner to betray her.  The rest of the story relates her very-long quest for revenge against both of them, and against the backdrop of a nameless doom destroying all known life in the galaxy.  Pretty heady stuff...normally I'd say that stories like this leave me cold, but somehow this time it all clicked together...

Next week: more from 1999...