Monthly Archives: June 2009

Space Trilogy, Hunting Elf

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I’ve been forcing myself through C. S. Lewis’ Space Trilogy, AKA Cosmic Trilogy, AKA Ransom Trilogy in audio. I’ve finished 1938′s Out of the Silent Planet and 1943′s Perelandra so far.  I’ve been stalling before starting the final bit, That Hideous Strength (1945).  The story really isn’t bad, but I think this one might be a little easier to read than to listen to.  For some reason it’s awkward to listen to these books. One thing I have to admit, other than some bits of the language here and there you can hardly tell these stories were written in the ’40s, which is pretty amazing for science fiction.

As a break before tackling That Hideous Strength I listened to the Podiobooks version of Hunting Elf.  I guess I didn’t remember the description properly, because I went in expecting a juvenile.  It wasn’t until after a couple of murders and some sex that it occurred to me that this was not at all a juvenile.  The Podiobook version is read by the author, and it’s a great production.  It’s a fantastic story,  and was a well timed diversion from the sci-fi bender I’ve been on.

Anyone who has spent any time around the dog show and / or dog training scene will really appreciate this.  Really anyone who has or has had a dog will probably appreciate it, in fact.

In addition to the free podiobook it’s available in print from Lulu.

Just as the Eastern Standard Tribe Podiobook introduced me to Cory Doctorow, Hunting Elf has introduced me to Dave Donelson. I’m adding Heart Of Diamonds to my Goodreads list.

Menus, Confusion

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Ever been the Cheesecake Factory?  I haven’t been in a couple of years (I’m not even sure there’s one around here,) but there are three things about the Cheesecake Factory that stand out in my memory – 1) surprisingly good steak, 2) surprisingly mediocre cheesecake, and 3) a terribly long menu.  The menu goes on for pages and pages. Any one page could service an entire restaurant. I think I even remember advertisements in the menu.

Long menus annoy me.  The Cheesecake Factory’s menu infuriates me. Five Guys Burgers and Fries, on the other hand, is menu perfection.  They make Burgers, Fries, Hot dogs, and Grilled Cheese.  Ordering from the 5 Guys menu is a joy.  Ordering from the Cheesecake Factory’s menu makes me want to hurt people.

Today I stopped by our local small town BBQ joint.  I walked in and was greeted by a couple of women behind the counter.  As I stood there staring at the menu on the wall one of them asked what I wanted.  I continued staring at the sign, but all a saw was blob of words.  Nothing was gelling into a coherent thought.

Finally I said, “I don’t know, I don’t understand what you have.”  She said, “Platters and sandwiches. Chicken, beef, or pork.”

Ah! Perfectly clear.  In just 7 words.  I looked back at the sign and tried to independently figure out from the sign that they offer “Platters and sandwiches. Chicken, beef, or pork.”  Nothing.  The sign still just seemed like a blob of words to me.

I said, “Platter, pork.”

She said, “There’s a sign on the wall around the corner that explains the sauces.”

My head exploded.

Why Gunsmithing (And Why Not?)

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I mentioned this last month in “Trying to Learn” but never got around to posting it.

The world of computers, IT as it’s called now, has been a passion of mine since the day my dad brought home a Commodore VIC-20. I’m not sure there was ever a time when I said, “When I grow up I will be in the computer industry.” It was never really a choice for me – if anything it seems to have chosen me. At some point, 5 or 6 years in to my IT career, I was give a permanent vacation from the company I was working for, and with it an opportunity to start fresh.

I’ve always wanted to do something with my hands. To directly create something, and be able to step back from it and say, “my hands created that.” I credit this with a construction job I briefly held as a teenager. The work was horribly taxing, but in the end the whole crew could step back and look at what we made. Then we cleaned up and left. Glory, however short-lived. One giant deck on the Chesapeake Bay in particular really comes to mind.

While computers and other technology have always been part of my life, and always will, they are but a small portion of all the things I love. It was time for me to pursue something new. I had not, of course, left computers behind forever. I simply took some time to learn a new skill. So that’s why I left IT, but still leaves half of the question unanswered – why gunsmithing.

Part of this answer is obvious – as I said I have for some time now wanted to create something with my hands. I didn’t want a new skill that was at all related to IT, the whole point of the exercise was to go in an entirely new and different direction. I thought about some of the aforementioned passions, such as cooking, gardening, hunting, and a list of others that would fill volumes. Those three rose to the top of the list. Does anyone really make any money gardening? That’s not a career, it’s a hobby. It’s not something you leave the lucrative world of information technology to do, unless of course you’re retiring to Florida. I, as fate would have it, was already in Florida, and was looking to leave Florida in order to effect this change.

So, on to cooking. Strange thing about my love of cooking – I don’t think I have one. I have a like of cooking, but I’m not sure it’s a passion. I love eating. Love is an extremely overused word, but I don’t think I’m abusing it at all here. I think about food all the time. I’m always planning my next meal, even while in a middle a meal. I can’t stand making dinner plans at a favorite restaurant a week in advance, because that’s all I can think about for a week. It only follows that I would enjoy cooking, because the end result is, of course, food. And it combines two passions – eating and creating. Should be perfect, right? Well, no. I’ve worked in a restaurant before. Closing at 3:00 AM. Scrubbing kitchen floors. Dishes. Changing oil in the fryers. Did I mention closing at 3:00 AM? So it seems that while I love eating, cooking is really just a necessary evil, a means to an ends.

Hunting and shooting. Okay, so neither of them is a career, I know. But this brings us to gunsmithing. What is it really? It’s part science, part art. A gunsmith is an artisan. To create a gunsmith you need one part mechanic. Combine with one part machinist, one part whitesmith, one part woodworker. Add a little bit of chemist, some metallurgist, engineer, engraver, physicist, historian, blacksmith, sculptor, troubleshooter, toolmaker, welder and inventor. Now you have the makings of a gunsmith.

The trade is at least as diverse as any other. If you ask someone what they do for a living and they say, “I’m in Information Technology” you know almost nothing about them. Do they answer a help desk phone, run cabling, develop kernels, design networks? If you don’t know me you probably wouldn’t guess at this point that my specialty is phones. A gunsmith may specialize on a particular gun (down to the model) or maybe they only checker stocks, refinish antiques, manufacture barrels, or any of a long list of skills.

Gunsmithing has served as in introduction to many new worlds, new opportunities, new passions… Just not a new career. I have another way I sometimes define a gunsmith – a successful gunsmith is either a great artist or a great machinist. I am neither, and as such I’m not a practicing gunsmith.

Twitter kills my blog

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I used to keep a draft open in my blog all the time called something like Random Bits, and when it got to about five or six different little one or two line thoughts I would post it.  Or I would save it until a day when I had nothing else to say.

Now-a-days the Random Bits post is always blank.  It’s not that I don’t have little one line thoughts to share, it’s just that I’ve already posted them on Twitter.  Twitter is cutting into to some of my premium blog content, 140 characters at a time.

People complain a lot about the 140 character limit, but I think it’s great.  It forces people to cut to the chase.  Twitter is teaching people you can say an amazing amount with a tiny little bit of text.  Of course many of us were already used to this limitation from SMS, we just had to give up 20 more characters.

And with the combination of Auto-Text, an elementary school education, and a little self-respect you can even communicate in 140 character bursts without shortening all of your words to one or two letters.