Miscellany
Jun. 8th, 2007 09:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stoutfellowSummer semester has begun. (Actually, it began a couple of weeks ago, but my class didn't start until this week.) My daily routine has been thrown off by the fact that my class is in the morning; for the last several years, most of my classes have been afternoon or evening. I'm still adjusting, and that's part of why I haven't been posting much lately.
I don't think I'm going to write that post on over-powered heroes. Sorry,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kattsune; I just can't come up with anything interesting to say about them. The second post on Skowronek will come soon, as will the next Ramble.
Recent reads of interest include Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which I bought on a recommendation from Coyu, of Halfway Down the Danube; it's an absorbing depiction of a family in a poor Brooklyn neighborhood in the early twentieth century. Also, Pat Wrede's four-volume Enchanted Forest series, a set of revisionist YA fantasies; Harry Summers' On Strategy, an analysis of the Vietnam War from the point of view of military science; and Harry Turtledove's Return Engagement, another volume in the alt-history series that began with How Few Remain. Turtledove isn't anywhere near the equal of Poul Anderson; he's frequently turgid, and his alternate universes don't have the creativity or the passion of Anderson's. Still, I have to get my uchronic fix somewhere...
One of my Senior Project students made his presentation on Pell's Equation a few weeks ago, and did a very fine job. I got a nice thank-you card from him this week; he'll be starting a job as a high school teacher soon.
I've been playing far too much Civ IV lately. I finally got a Space Race victory with a decently high score - close to 19000 adjusted - but it was still low compared to a typical Domination or Cultural victory. I went for Alphabet and Literature early, built the Great Library, switched to Caste System, created lots of Scientist specialists, and built lots of Libraries, Universities, Observatories, and Laboratories (as they became available), but it still took me until 1936 to get my starship built. (The earliest I've ever gotten it done was 1933, but I got a lower score that time thanks to a rather unaggressive foreign policy.) Oh, well...
The Padres, as of this morning, were alone in first in the National League West for the first time this year. They also had the best record in the league and the highest Power Ranking in the ESPN lists. I'm happy with that, but also realistic; it's going to be a tough race in the West, with everybody but Colorado having a real chance. SD, LA, and Arizona will be in it at least into September. It should be fun.
Off to bed!
I don't think I'm going to write that post on over-powered heroes. Sorry,
kattsune; I just can't come up with anything interesting to say about them. The second post on Skowronek will come soon, as will the next Ramble.Recent reads of interest include Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, which I bought on a recommendation from Coyu, of Halfway Down the Danube; it's an absorbing depiction of a family in a poor Brooklyn neighborhood in the early twentieth century. Also, Pat Wrede's four-volume Enchanted Forest series, a set of revisionist YA fantasies; Harry Summers' On Strategy, an analysis of the Vietnam War from the point of view of military science; and Harry Turtledove's Return Engagement, another volume in the alt-history series that began with How Few Remain. Turtledove isn't anywhere near the equal of Poul Anderson; he's frequently turgid, and his alternate universes don't have the creativity or the passion of Anderson's. Still, I have to get my uchronic fix somewhere...
One of my Senior Project students made his presentation on Pell's Equation a few weeks ago, and did a very fine job. I got a nice thank-you card from him this week; he'll be starting a job as a high school teacher soon.
I've been playing far too much Civ IV lately. I finally got a Space Race victory with a decently high score - close to 19000 adjusted - but it was still low compared to a typical Domination or Cultural victory. I went for Alphabet and Literature early, built the Great Library, switched to Caste System, created lots of Scientist specialists, and built lots of Libraries, Universities, Observatories, and Laboratories (as they became available), but it still took me until 1936 to get my starship built. (The earliest I've ever gotten it done was 1933, but I got a lower score that time thanks to a rather unaggressive foreign policy.) Oh, well...
The Padres, as of this morning, were alone in first in the National League West for the first time this year. They also had the best record in the league and the highest Power Ranking in the ESPN lists. I'm happy with that, but also realistic; it's going to be a tough race in the West, with everybody but Colorado having a real chance. SD, LA, and Arizona will be in it at least into September. It should be fun.
Off to bed!
no subject
Date: 2007-06-13 03:33 am (UTC)And? You drop an interesting list of books on us & just walk away? What about Pat Wrede? Have you read her short story collection _Book of Enchantments_? You give Turtledove lots more time, & That's Just Wrong.