Whatever

The Playstation 3 isn’t playing nicely with the new TV for some unfathomable reason (I’ll figure it out later), and we needed a DVD player for the night’s New Moon Estrogen Spectacular, so I hooked up my desktop computer to the TV, since at the moment it’s not doing anything but sitting about waiting for my office to be fully furnished. It worked like a charm, so we had our DVD player, and as a side bonus, at the moment my new HDTV is pulling double duty as my computer monitor. Which is vaguely ridiculous, but fun, at least in the short run, and especially while playing Left 4 Dead 2. Mmm, supersized zombie killin’. Also, yes, I’m writing this on it.

For those of you curious as to what we purchased, it was one of these, which as I understand it is price and feature-wise somewhere in the great undifferentiated middle of HDTV choices one could make. I’m happy with it (or else I wouldn’t have bought it), and if nothing else it’s interesting to contrast it with the last big screen TV we bought. We got that one in late 2001, and while it was theoretically HD capable, at the end of the day it was mostly just big. I’m pleased that most of a decade later I can pay several hundred dollars less for something with roughly four times the resolution, twice the refresh rate and also at least 150 pounds lighter, thanks to that whole “flat screen” thing. It’s one of those “hey, I actually do live in the future” moments.

I’ll also admit to having conflicted emotions about the new TV. I’ve been wanting a new TV for a while, but have held off for the simple reason that the TV we had was still working fine. Both Krissy and I subscribe to the philosophy that when you buy, you buy as well as you can afford, because you buy to last, and you use that thing until you can’t use it anymore. This is a very fiscally prudent philosophy but it does get in the way of one’s wants (which is, you know, sort of the point). So when the electron gun finally went on the other TV, I felt a bit of glee: w00t! I can get a new shiny! But it also happened to blow when we’ve already been laying out lots of dough for new flooring and carpeting, so the additional expense makes me a little twitchy.

And you might say, well, then you should have held off getting a new TV. And in fact we did talk about that — not just holding off, but also whether we really wanted a replacement at all. But at the end of the day we did want a TV in the living room, and despite the unexpected expense, when all is said and done we’ll still be coming in under the amount we originally budgeted for home improvements. So it made sense to go ahead and get something now. Nevertheless, the discussion between Krissy and I was good to have — making sure not only that we could afford it, but that in fact it was something we felt was useful to have, and not just something to buy because you’re supposed to have it in the house.

And now, having justified the expense to you all, I’m going to tuck in just a little bit more supersized zombie killin’ before turning in for the night. Those zombies won’t kill themselves.

But our TV died and I spent the day acquiring and setting up the new one. It’s a joy beyond compare, it is.

I’m off – I likely won’t be back on today so asking me questions about the TV won’t do you any good. I’ll post pictures when it’s ready to go.

Science fiction author Peter Watts has been found guilty of “assaulting, resisting and obstructing a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer.” That happened this morning.

Here’s a news article on the matter. Here’s Peter’s take on it. He’s taking it a whole lot better than I suspect most people would in his position. He’ll be sentenced in late April; he could be sentenced to up two years but quite obviously I hope it’s for rather less than that.

Given that this is happening to someone I know and like and as such I am likely to be wildly uncivil to the first trolling jackass who pops in the thread to crow about the verdict, I’m just gonna not turn on the comments for this post at all.

Some of these are actually a few days old, but, hey, dude, my house has been a shambles for the last week, okay? Okay, then:

* Sweater Quest: My Year of Knitting Dangerously, by Adrienne Martini (Free Press): When Krissy was pregnant with Athena, both she and I decided to try our hand at knitting, and very quickly thereafter both of us stopped trying out hand at knitting, because neither of us could figure it out and we were likely to use the knitting needles to stab something instead. So I have a baseline level of being impressed with knitters, because they seemingly do quite easily something I very failed at. In Sweater Quest, Martini not only knits but attempts one of knitting’s supreme challenges: A Mary Tudor sweater, the mere mention of which apparently gives knitters the sweats. The book tracks that, plus explores the world of knitting — a world which, anecdotally, has a significant overlap with science fiction geeks, considering how many of them I know who knit (Martini herself writes for SF/F outlets). As noted, I’m not a knitter and likely never will be, but I did read through this book and enjoyed it as an exploration of a well-loved yet sometimes-frustrating hobby, which I think is something everyone can identify with (I know I can). It comes out next Tuesday, so now you know what to get that knitter in your life.

* Ship Breaker, by Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown): Paolo tries his hand at YA, and the resulting novel is unsurprisingly good, and full of the world-run-down-y-ness that has become his trademark. I was sent a galley of the draft for possible blurbing and indeed liked it enough to blurb it, although you’ll have to wait for May 2010 to find out precisely what I said. By that time Paolo may have picked up a Hugo nod to go with his Nebula nod for The Wind Up Girl. Not a bad year for Paolo, I’d say.

* Blood of the Demon, by Diana Rowland (Bantam): The second of Rowland’s series featuring Kara Gillian, a cop with supernatural gifts, searching for a killer who doesn’t just murder people, but eats their souls. Which is just rude, if you ask me. Diana, incidentally, is also running for South/Central Regional Representative in the current SFWA election and has my endorsement, because she would be just plain awesome in that role. So if you’re in SFWA, consider voting for her. If you’re not in SFWA, well, hey, look: A book! Which is out now.

* Not My Boy! by Rodney Peete (Hyperion): Former NFL player and current football commentator Peete’s memoir of his son’s autism and his own coming to terms with the autism and his work to connect to his son and connect him to the world. Out now.

* Fire Will Fall, by Carol Plum-Ucci (Harcourt): Prinz-winning author Plum-Ucci with the sequel to 2008’s Streams of Babel, in which four teens affected by bioterrorism try to deal with the fallout (so to speak) of their affliction while others race to find the cure. Out in May.

* Bitter Seeds, by Ian Tregellis (Tor): It’s the eve of World War II! Are the Nazis up to no good? Well, if they weren’t, they really wouldn’t be Nazis, now, would they. But what they’re up to no good with this time? Scary horrible mutant technology! And it’s up to the warlocks of Britain to stop them! I mean, obviously, right? This (clearly) fantasy-history telling of WWII will be the subject of a Big Idea in April.

* Dragonfly Falling, by Adrian Tchaikovsky (Pyr): The follow up to Empire of Black and Gold. This time two unlikely heroes have to warn their city of an encroaching menance. But will they be believed in time? Out in April.

Hey! There’s a lot of stuff I’ve been meaning to link all y’all to this last week, but I’ve been busy doing other things. Secret things. Things that if you knew what they were, they would change the way you look at the world forever.

Okay, I’m lying, I’ve just been spending hours admiring all the new flooring in the house. Because it’s so pretty. But I’m over that now, so here are some links for you.

1. Mary Anne Mohanraj asked me to let you all know about this writer’s grant:

The deadline for the Speculative Literature Foundation’s Older Writers’ Grant is fast approaching! The grant of $750 is available to any writer of speculative literature of 50 years or older at the time of application who is just beginning to work professionally in the field. There are no restrictions on the use of the grant money.

Applicants are asked to submit a brief autobiographical statement, a writing sample, and a bibliography. For full details on how to apply for the grant, please see the SLF web site (http://www.speculativeliterature.org/Grants/SLFOlderWriters.php), or email olderwriters@speclit.org. Applications must be received by March 31st 2010. The successful applicant will be announced on June 1st 2010.

If this could apply to you, consider applying.

2. The alumni of the Alpha SF/F/H Workshop for Young Writers are doing a fundraiser so that other teenagers will be able to get workshop experience and mentoring from top-name science fiction and fantasy writers. To help with their goal, they’re posting an adorable little picture book about love and zombies (of course!) called Ned & Jane. Where? At NedAndJane.com, of course. Check it out and if you enjoy it, considering chipping in to help them reach their $2,500 goal by April 30.

3. This from agent Colleen Lindsay:

Our good buddy Alan DeNiro is hitting the road down South and is trying to use his book tour to raise money for Mercy Corps and their efforts to aid in Haiti’s earthquake relief.

Details here: http://bit.ly/9egPak

And thanks in advance!

4. My excellent friend Chris Barrus has a new band called the ExDetectives, and their music is full of shoegazy goodness. Have you had any shoegazy goodness today? And don’t give me that “Oh, I gave up shoegaze for Lent.” Seriously, who does that. I’m ashamed you even tried that line on me. Look, go to the ExDetectives site, listen to the music there, and if you like it, their EP is available on iTunes and on Amazon.

5. Justine Larbalestier thinks this guest post on her site by Alaya Dawn Johnson about book covers and racism should be read by lots of people. And I agree. So there you are.

There, that should be enough for your linkable enjoyment today.

Athena and I are both off to the dentist this morning — yes, all father-daughter outings should be so much unalloyed fun – so until I return, here, have an interview of me at the Nebula Awards site, in which I discuss The God Engines and Zoe’s Tale, my Nebula and Norton-nominated works, and also my SFWA presidential candidacy and what it’s like to be a creative consultant for TV. The Nebula Awards site will soon feature interviews with additional nominees from this year, all of whom are fascinating people you want to know more about, so consider bookmarking the site for later visits.

The extended version of their theme song, which is actually a fun summer song. AND SUMMER IS COMING. Plan now!

My AMC column is out early this week (and in fact may be permanently moving to Wednesday; I have to check) and this week I’m looking at why Hollywood rarely gets the future right, or, why the Los Angeles of 2019 will almost certainly not have replicants in it. Yes, I know. I’m disappointed too. As always, leave your pungent nuggets of wisdom in the comment thread over there.

As you know, Whatever is all about me: Whatever I feel like writing about, whenever I feel like writing about it. But once a year, I like to make it about the readers, by which I mean I like to give my brain a break and make all y’all choose the topics I write about. For a whole week! I call it Reader Request Week, and 2010’s will start this next Monday. Between now and then I’m soliciting topics for consideration.

So: Is there a topic you’ve always wanted me to write on, which I haven’t? Something about me you’ve always wanted to know? Or do you just wish to see me dance like a monkey for your pleasure? Or some combination of any or all of the above? This is the time! This is the place! No subject is taboo, and no subject is too serious or too silly. I can’t answer every topic request, but I do try to get an interesting mix in there.

While you are brewing up your questions, allow me to make two suggestions:

1. Pick quality over quantity: A single, well thought-out topic question is always more interesting to me than one that says lists out very bland, general topics, i.e., “can you talk about writing? And politics? And about your cats?” Yes, I can do that, but I already do do that. Ask me something interesting.

2. Specifically on the subject of writing, I get asked about writing a lot, and one of the reasons I do the Reader Request Week is to write on something else besides writing. So while you’re free to ask writing questions, be aware that unless  find it a really interesting question, I’m likely to go for another topic entirely.

Once the requests start coming in, I’ll go through them and pick the ones I find the most interesting and start writing them up on Monday. To help you avoid asking the same questions I’ve recently answered, here’s an index of the last five years worth of Reader Request Weeks:

From 2005:

Reader Request #1: Creative Commons and FanFic
Reader Request #2: Peak Oil
Reader Request #3: Beatles, Batman and They
Reader Request #4: Pot!
Reader Request #5: Odds and Ends

From 2006:

Reader Request #1: SF Novels and Films
Reader Request #2: 10 Childhood Nuggets
Reader Request #3: Writers and Technology
Reader Request #4: The Nintendo Revolution
Reader Request #5: A Political Judiciary
Reader Request #6: Paranoid Parents
Reader Request #7: Writing About Writing

From 2007:

Reader Request #1: Justifying My Life
Reader Request #2: Coffee, or Lack Thereof
Reader Request #3: BaconCat Fame
Reader Request #4: The Inevitable Blackness That Will Engulf Us All
Reader Request #5: Out of Poverty
Reader Request #6: Short Bits
Reader Request #7: Short Bits II: Electric Boogaloo

From 2008:

Reader Request #1: Homeschooling
Reader Request #2: Technological Gifts
Reader Request #3: Sex and Video Games
Reader Request #4: Where I Am Now
Reader Request #5: Professional Jealousy
Reader Request #6: Author Relations
Reader Request #7: Fame or Lack Thereof
Reader Request #8: Politics and the Olympics
Reader Request #9: Polygamy
Reader Request #10: Meeting Authors (and Me)
Reader Request #11 Athena and Whatever
Reader Request #12: Soldiers and Support
Reader Request #13: Diminishing Returns
Reader Request #14: Quick Hits, Volume I
Reader Request #15: Quick Hits, Volume II

From 2009:

Reader Request #1: SF YA These Days
Reader Request #2: OMW and Zoe’s Tale (and Angst and Pain)
Reader Request #3: Space!
Reader Request #4: Procreation
Reader Request #5: Having Been Poor
Reader Request #6: 80s Pop Music
Reader Request #7: Writing and Babies
Reader Request #8: Twitter
Reader Request #9: Can I Be Bought?
Reader Request #10: Writing Short Bits
Reader Request #11: Wrapping Up

There you have it.

So: Questions! Topics! Subjects! You have them! I want them! Put them in the comment thread, and starting Monday, I’ll start writing about them.

Behold the front room of our house, which at the moment holds a toilet and a bathroom sink in it, both relocated from the downstairs bathroom, which today along with the front hall and at least part of the kitchen is being refloored. On the chairs you can see some of the contents of the hall closet, which is also being refloored. I’d show you the kitchen, but then I suspect Krissy would murder me. The fact is, the house is a real mess. But necessarily so; things simply have to be moved around when you’re putting down new floors, and there’s not much point arguing the necessity.

Our house will in fact be in a more or less constant state of mess for the next couple of weeks as things get moved out of rooms into other rooms, and then moved back into rooms with then other stuff as those rooms in turn get new floors/carpets. This was in fact one of the reasons why my office was the first room to be done; while people are crawling around the house, constantly moving stuff, I can hide in my room. Works for me. At least, until the cabinet maker comes to do the bookshelves. Then who knows what I’ll do with myself. I suppose I’ll worry about it then.

As noted earlier, for my office I am currently waiting on a desk and bookshelves, and while I wait, rather than reintroduce the previous massive and now esthetically incompatible desk (which sits, in pieces, in the basement), I went the other direction and got a laptop stand. As it happens, the laptop stand is the perfect height for typing while standing, and for when I want to sit, I got myself a nice little stool. And the laptop stand is finished in cherry wood, so it matches the flooring. Truly, the best of all possible worlds. So I’ve gone from maximum clutter to minimum necessary materials. We’ll see how long that lasts. But for now it’s nice.

It’s in, and I think it looks very nice. We’re still a ways off from having the office totally completed — we still have shelves and a desk to go — but now at least I can have my own space back, which is as it turns out a fairly important thing for my mental well being. Who would have guessed.

I’ve got about ten minutes before the contractors arrive to put down my new office floor (and in doing so likely knock me offline for most of the day) so before that happens: Here, look at my TempOffice, which is my laptop on top of a portable filing cabinet, with my daughter’s desk chair (I don’t generally favor pink), in my bedroom. Behind the TempOffice is the master bathroom, with Kodi valiantly holding down the floor, which considering what the contractors are here to do, is not necessarily a bad thing.

Now, you may ask, why don’t I just work downstairs? The short answer is that in addition to putting down my flooring, they also tearing up flooring, downstairs. Basically anywhere but my bedroom, I’ll be in the way today. Also, yon large dog gets antsy when people she doesn’t know are stomping about the house, so I’ll be keeping her in the bedroom with me (I’ve already put a gate on the door) to keep her from eating any contractors. Because apparently the don’t like being eaten. I don’t know why that is, but there you go.

So there you have it: My life, on the Ides of March, 2010.

Also and again: My Internet presence is likely to be iffy today because of all the house work. I have my cell phone to access e-mail, Twitter, etc., but in general don’t expect immediate responses to anything today. Thanks.

When the contractors arrive tomorrow I am likely to be knocked offline for most of the day. I know. I’m scared too. Expect delays in e-mail responses and such.

The folks handling the Hugos this year asked me to remind all y’all that you have until midnight Pacific time tonight to get in your Hugo nominations (that’ll be 4 am Eastern, because of the time switch), so if you haven’t done your Hugo nominating yet, jeez people, get to it already. I swear, this is the last time I’m telling you. This year.

It’s raining and the ground is saturated with water and so the earthworms have erupted from the very soil and headed to our garage, which is not saturated with water, but is now saturated with earthworms. The cats are very happy. I’m vaguely concerned I’ll be picking up earthworm-flavored cat vomit for the next couple of days. Life at The Scalzi Compound is not all flooring and painting, you know.

Apparently, before you can lay down new flooring you have to let it acclimate to the house environment for 24 to 48 hours, so last night my new office floor arrived to get cozy and comfortable before it actually gets laid down. Yes, we believe in ethical treatment of flooring. As should you all.

Pretty. AND I KNOW EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENS NEXT. Yes I do. Wait until you see the episode with hand puppets!

For those of you who wanted to know what “Scotland Road” and “Traditional Brown” looked like:

The picture was taken with my cell phone, so it’s not the best representation, but it’s close enough so you can see how the colors coordinate together. It’s very mint chocolate. Next up: flooring, followed by custom bookshelves. Followed by LASERS. Because you can’t have a home office without LASERS.

Getting an e-mail from a site saying that’s given my site an award for being famous, and that the site was “has been selected and evaluated by a network of subject specialists,” and then going over to see the site and noticing that I’m referred to there as “Joe Scalzi.”

That’s some excellent evaluation there, site specialists.

I do occasionally see myself referred to online as “Joe Scalzi” or “Jeff Scalzi,” both of which make at least a little bit of sense because of the “J” connection, but I’ve also seen me referred to as “Dave Scalzi” or “Richard Scalzi,” which are a little more puzzling to me. But all of them are a little weird; it’s not as if “John” is that difficult a name, you know. And it’s all over the Web site and the covers of my books. Maybe all somewhat-common first names blend together in people’s brains. This is where it’s nice to have a last name like “Scalzi.”