( Being a meandering account of an inaugural triumph in making that classic summer libation )

My 2006 Civic 4-door automatic is getting up towards 70k total miles, and while in many ways I'm as happy with it as I was with the 1997 version that preceded it, I've become aware of a few problems. Worse: as far as I can tell these are not problems with my specific vehicle, but inherent design flaws with the model. Feh!

( gripe gripe )

A number of my friends seem to like Charles Stross, and a couple of his novels came into the bookstore recently, so I gave them a go. Massive spoilers below.

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It's official. I gave notice today at Openwave, and will be starting at Google on 3/31.

Miscellaneous youtube videos for songs I've been listening to lately below the cut. I expect some of these to appall various family members, but to them I have only one thing to say: Ed McCurdy.

( Six videos )

I just learned that one of my coworkers was once in a band (Annwn) that toured with one of Emma Bull's bands (Flash Girls).

Funky.

A friend of mine, Andrew Plotkin, has undertaken a monumental task: annotating and cross-referencing John M. Ford's masterpiece of alternate history, The Dragon Waiting. The fruits of this labor, Draco Concordans, just went live. Here's his announcement to the Nielsen-Hayden weblog Making Light:

( The Announcement )

It's magnificient, and illuminating. After reading through it [and rereading the novel afterwards] I can't believe that this book was not shortlisted for the Nebula in 1984.

Go read it, everyone who hasn't, then hit the concordance and revel in just how much depth there is! Puns, quite subtle thematic ties across the whole book, actual versus Ford's history, sly references to contemporary SF... it's just dizzying. Mr. Plotkin has done a wonderful job.

Inspired by recent conversations on IFmud, I've been tearing through my collection of Jack Vance stories in an orgy of rereading. Vance doesn't seem to be widely read nowadays, but I've always been fond of his work. He was successful and indeed decorated in science fiction, fantasy, and mystery—one of only three writers I know of to win both a Nebula and an Edgar Allen Poe award.^†

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Everyone remembers which story Valentine Michael Smith is in, or Paul Atriedes, or Sarah Connor. But do you remember...?

Name the F/SF story in which these less-prominent characters appear. Only one correct guess per person per day please, to give everybody a chance to play. As usual, some are more obscure than others. More than one work by a given author may be represented. Struck-through entries have already been guessed. (I'll also be adding more characters for the tough ones as they go unguessed.)

Final update: Answers provided for the 4 that went unguessed. Thanks for playing along, everybody!

( On to the quiz... )

This is probably old news, but oh my. A marble-based 6-bit binary ripple carry adder.

We were in a car accident today. Someone hit us as we were driving through the parking lot behind J's work. They backed out of their parking space just as we were behind them, not seeing us, and trashed the two passenger-side door panels.

Fortunately, there was a policeman present when the accident occurred. He's the one who hit us.

( Details )

We're home, a bit shaken but apparently unharmed, and the prognosis for the car looks good. *Sniff*. It's less than a year old! It's too young to be in the wars! (Even though it does have more than 23k miles on it now....)

Intended dinner time: 6:30 pm. Food into oven: 1:30 pm. I'm making pulled pork for the first time, oven-roasted rather than smoked because of lack of equipment. We'll see how it turns out.

The project was inspired by a gift from a friend of mine. She owns Big Guy's Custom Barbecue, a highly-regarded barbecue concession at AT&T Park (where the San Francisco Giants play), and gave me a bottle of her sauce a couple of weeks ago. Hooray for tasty gifts!

( The Rub; Cooking; Verdict )

I'll definitely be doing this again, although filling the house with BBQ smell all day isn't something I want to repeat too often. The aroma is a bit tenacious, and I don't want it to get into the upholstery!

Another short dip into the theme meme: name the artist and title, given these snippets of lyrics. Only one correct guess per person, please, to give everybody a chance. Some of these are fairly obscure, but not all. (And remember, kids; using Google is cheating even if you work there!)

Final update: unguessed lyrics bolded and the citation provided.

1. if I could open my mouth wide enough for a marching band to march out - "Marching Bands of Manhattan" by Death Cab for Cutie
2. she is the prom queen and i'm in the marching band - "Girl Next Door" by Saving Jane
3. my father took me into the city to see a marching band - "Welcome to the Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance, id'd by ooshiny
4. even though I was a fat kid and a marching band geek - "My Hometown" by Bowling for Soup
5. the marching band refused to yield - "American Pie" by Don McLean, id'd by lpsmith
6. you paid the piper and called the tune and you marched the band away - "Slow Marching Band" by Jethro Tull, id'd by ceo
7. my heart is like a marching band, i'm a fan in the stands - "Morris Brown" by Outkast
8. the sky's a raven marching band, black blizzard blowing across the land - "Raven Marching Band" by Laura Veirs
9. and all the little ants are marching, red and black antennas waving - "Ants Marching" by Dave Matthews Band, id'd by paulobrian
10. the hums and the drums of the marching band - "Easter Parade" by Jump, Little Children

Following nothings's lead, paulobrian gave me the letter V and memed me to name my favorite ten songs beginning with that letter. And, uh, well, here are my current favorite ten songs that start with V. Well, four, actually - that is all that I could think of that I know and like. (Curse you, Paul!) [* More! storme reminded me of some; thanks!] [* and edited because i'm silly and hadn't yet ripped an album, so didn't see a current favorite 'M' in iTunes.]

1. Vincent, Don McLean. Starry, starry night / Paint your palette blue and grey / Look out on a summer's day with eyes that know the darkness in my soul
2. Vow, Garbage. I came to cut you up / I came to knock you down / I came around to tear your little world apart
3. Vienna, Billy Joel. Slow down you crazy child / Take the phone off the hook and disappear for a while
4. Virginia Woolf, Indigo Girls. They published your diary and that's how I got to know you / Key to the room of your own and a mind without end
5. Video Killed the Radio Star, The Buggles. They took the credit for your second symphony / Rewritten by machine and new technology
6. Violently Happy, Bjork. Violently happy / 'Cause I love you

( Some notes on the 'V' songs )

Addendum: ten 'M' songs, to make up for 'V' being so sparse. Like the 'V' songs these aren't in any particular order.

1. Mysterons, Portishead. still holding on / this ocean will not be grasped
2. The Mary Ellen Carter, Stan Rogers. And with every jar that hit the bar / we swore we would remain / and make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again
3. Mary, Mary, Chumbawamba. And now I'm growing old disgracefully / Whatever happened to Mary?
4. Mercy Street, Peter Gabriel. Wear your inside out / dreaming of mercy
5. Modern Love, David Bowie. Modern love walks beside me / Modern love walks on by / Modern love gets me to the church on time
6. Mr. Brightside, The Killers. Destiny is calling me / open up my eager eyes / 'cos I'm Mister Brightside
7. Mr. Freeze, K's Choice. I am wondering today in the sun on a boat to Dover / could you freeze me in and defrost me when it's over?
8. Mrs. Robinson, Simon & Garfunkel. And here's to you, Mrs. Robinson / Jesus loves you more than you will know
9. Mr. Jones, Counting Crows. Standing in the spotlight / I bought myself a grey guitar / When everybody loves me, I will never be lonely
10. Marching Bands of Manhattan, Death Cab for Cutie. If I could open my mouth / wide enough for a marching band to march out

( Notes on 'M' )

If you want me to pick a letter for you, comment here. I promise I won't pick 'V'.

Chicken-tomato pasta
Serves two

( recipe snipped )

My friend Dan is an instructor this semester for a sophomore-level software engineering course, expected to be the students' first encounter with sizeable programming projects. One of the lectures, according to the syllabus, is explicitly supposed to be a sort of exposé of the realities of a career in the field. He solicited contributions from former orkers, but alas I didn't get back to him until after the lecture in question.

But that's what LJ is for! Plus, I know quite a few software professionals, and I think it's an interesting topic. University students in CS certainly didn't get any sort of realistic view of the industry when I was in school; I got all my reality checks by working summers writing lab-automation and data-analysis software at NIST. So, all you software-industry or nearby people: any ideas what to tell the young'uns to prepare them for the real world?

( Musings behind the cut )

That's a start. Your turn.

Noted SF author and poet John M. Ford died a few days ago. Teresa Nielsen Hayden's weblog Making Light is hosting a memorial thread and a long bibliography of occasional works, but I wanted to call out one piece of Ford's I hadn't seen before, the finest memorial of 9/11/2001 that I've encountered:

"110 Stories"

(His poem "Against Entropy" begins the Making Light memorial thread, and is all too appropriate.)

An old home, a bear home, remote from human-haunts,
Wall-girt and weather-warded, where ones wise in woodcraft
Lick into new life, a baby, a bear cub,
Safe among saplings, far in the forest.

Till one comes slyly, girlchild, goldilocks....

Three Bears Norse. Tee hee!

Via natecull

Nature Magazine: Severe water scarcity arrives decades earlier than predicted.

Hat tip: yhlee

( wine stuff: carignan )