Saint Nickanuck of the Tundra

Did I ever have a wonderful part 2 of my Balticon post-mortem for you! Then, through a series of events that could only happen to yours truly, I somehow deleted it prior to posting.

“CMAAARRR!!!”

It will see the light of day… just not until after this weekend. It is coming, and will contain many entertaining and confounding anecdotes, such as how the above cry has become immortalized as my new moniker.

As to this weekend, I am about to head out to meet up with Laura (on the way back from Ireland) and catch a plane out to Phoenix for the Wingin’ It pool party, which should be quite fun and interesting, given recent developments.

Tee is unable to make it. I have been deputized by him to say something in his absence. This could be dangerous.

Balticon 41 was, hands down, the most interesting convention I’ve yet attended. As I am greatly fatigued and need to rise in a few short hours to put on a good face for orientation at the new job tomorrow - ignoring the fact that I just worked at this same place for four years, and only left two years ago - I’ve decided to save my personal thoughts on my Balticon experience for another day.

Some of the excellent people I hung out with there have posted some great insights elsewhere, which are worth your time to read - a few of these belong to Steve Eley, Christiana Ellis, and Matt Wallace.

By virtue of it being “her” camera, Laura has quite the number of images up in her Flickr account.

All that said, Matthew Wayne Selznick’s retrospective is truly a home run. It’s been hard for me to put some of my feelings about our convention experience, and this community we’ve found ourselves in, into fulfilling words. Matt did.

My words, soon.

Wow.

Balticon was great, and interesting, and fun. Then Real Life ™ had a few things in store for me when I got back, between work-related fun and car repairs, so this has been quite the distracted and slow-to-recover week. I’ll have my own recap of Balticon and related excellence on the ‘morrow.

Laura finally has her visa for the China trip to ISU, so things are finally falling in to place. Last night and today fall under the category of “socializing with peeps before Laura leaves for months,” with us departing for Williamsburg, VA, and the company of friends shortly. As Laura will be doing some events with the incoming NASA academy crew tomorrow, I should have some time to play catch-up with those I haven’t yet from this past weekend.

Then again, sometimes I’m a bit of an optimist.

I’m leaving for Balticon today, with a plethora of gameage and libations in tow. Laura will be joining me this evening, upon return from her Colorado trip, and some degree of gibbering madness will ensue.

If you’re not going, be sure to peruse the website to check out some of what’s going on. Things I’m looking forward to? The biggest, for me at any rate, is going to be hanging out with people both podcastery and authory. Michael and Evo are special guests this year, and there’s a whole podcasting track lined up. Notable things include on-site recordings of Wingin’ It and Geek Fu Action Grip, among many others. I have the pleasure of contributing an “evil” voice to the Mr. Adventure episode being recorded there, as well!

Other notables include author guests of honor Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, as well as events surrounding our favorite sculpturist Lisa Snellings-Clark, and her PoppetPlanet project. The science track is pretty stacked as well, which is great to see.

It will also be great to see Ronnie and his wife Lora again, as they are coming out for the convention as part of a vacation trip. Hopefully we’ll get some of his local gaming friends to make the trip up as well. Not that there will be any massive time for gaming available, but one can always hope… I think we’ll try to get a group together to see the glorious mess that will be Pirates 3 on Monday evening, as well.

If you can make it out, do so! If not, we’ll be in touch on the other side…

Busy week, as always.

I’ve finished a draft of an avian influenza textbook chapter I’ve been working on, and submitted it to my mentor for review. It’s been my primary focus over the last week, with me finally getting it out late last Friday evening. I found it to be a surprisingly difficult experience, and I really should have been able to complete far more swiftly than I did. I mean, avian influenza is easy for me to blather on about. The more challenging thing, I think, is that it is for a public health textbook that has a somewhat bizarre chapter formatting guidelines, and that the focus isn’t really on the science behind avian influenza, but more on potential public health consequences, the outlined criteria for which are somewhat vague. The irony, of course, is that I’ve not had formalized public health training beyond medical school, such as an MPH (which, all things being equal, I’d love to obtain), and I’ve been tasked to write this chapter focused on a potential public health topic for people unergoing such training, with little actual guidance as to what “public health-specific” content needs to be included.
Such is the way of things, I suppose.

So, ’tis done and submitted, and we’ll see what my mentor and the editor have to say about what I chose to include and how I included it.

This past weekend, scant hours after chapter submission, Laura and I trekked up to Ashtabula, OH, to visit her mother and stepfather. We had a vastly relaxing time just hanging out with them, and doing some things I’m not normally accustomed to - walking the beach along Lake Erie while trolling for interesting debris and photographic opportunities, and doing a whirlwind tour of yard sales and flea markets. We also visited the Animal Protective League no-kill shelter there, which is where Laura rescued our youngest cat Oberon from two years ago. The latter was an enjoyable, if heartrending, experience. I’m just happy that we somehow managed to leave without any new animals. Finally, we did catch Shrek the Third as well, in which I was disappointed, but more on that in a bit.

And so, what’s up for this week? Funny you should ask… A little thing called Balticon. More on that, and other sundries, a little later today.

For those whom it is appropriate, I hope your Mother’s Day has been excellent!

It seems that Laura and I were remiss as to blogging about what was going on over the past couple of days before they actually occurred, but such is the way of things. Today marks the end of Public Service Recognition Week, a component of which included exhibits on the national mall in downtown Washington, DC. NASA had a big presence there, and a big part of that involved the James Webb Space Telescope that Laura’s been working on lo’ these many years. Northrop Grumman brought out the full-scale model on Friday and Saturday, and Laura was one of the volunteers to enhance the model with her radiant beauty, as well as answer questions and educate an eager public about the project. In a brilliantly cool outreach idea, there were also Lego models of the JWST that people could come by and assemble with volunteers, which Laura had the pleasure of working with as well. I feel like they missed an opportunity by not having said Lego sets available for purchase on-site, although they did have flyers available with information on how to obtain them online. Many thanks to everyone who came out and stopped by, including Thomas of the Command Line Podcast, as well as author Rich White.

There were also numerous other NASA related exhibits, as well as those from other areas of public service. The various military branches had a large area of tents, vehicles and equipment on display. Aside from basking in the glorious exhibits of armored death-dealing machines, including the M1A2 Abrams tank and M109A6 Paladin mobile Howitzer, I also had the pleasure of talking with a representative of the Marine Corps Systems Command about current research into new components of front line first aid kits, specifically anticoagulant dressings for major traumatic wounds. Excellent stuff!
Smaller and lesser known public service agencies were represented as well. I was particularly enamored of the Mine Safety and Health Administration booth, which included an informational booklet on mine disasters of the late 19th and early 20th century, as well as several disturbingly illustrated flyers warning children not to explore abandoned mines, ride ATV’s into sand and gravel pits, or go swimming in abandoned quarries. Venomous snakes, steep drops, and submerged razor wire and circular saw blades abound!

Expect plenty of images related to the above to crop up on Laura’s and my Flickr accounts within the next few days.

Last night we spent some time at game night at the Family Game Store at Savage Mill in Savage, Maryland. We were introduced to two games we had not previously played, namely Citadels and Carcassonne: Hunters and Gatherers, which we both enjoyed and look forward to playing again… in part, because Laura trounced me at both. Well, at least at Carcassonne… I also spent some time with at the nearby Ram’s Head Tavern, with some good company in the form of several former coworkers from Sinai, and some good drink in the form of Fordham’s Oyster Stout.

Finally, we saw Spiderman 3 today… I’m going to do a combo post with it and 300, but for now I’ll say that it was good, and a worthy successor to the previous two films.

Now, to sleep, and the FFF of another week!

Joe Murphy, excellent friend and podcaster, died today. He had a good death - it was expected, and so not a shock to him or those around him; it was in the presence of a vast amount of love from family, friends, and even total strangers; and it was comfortable, as he was in Hospice, and receiving amazing care.

I have plenty more to say about Joe, but my time and energy are both quite low. Instead, I point you to the wisdom of others, which will multiply over the coming days:

*the final thread on Wingin’ It

*Laura’s musings on Joe and podcasting, as well as her posts from today here and here

*the Joe Murphy Memorial Fund, established in Joe’s memory to raise awareness of leiomyosarcoma, and money for research into treatment

[originally uploaded by Sci-Fi Laura]

Joe Murphy, a.k.a. Mason Rocket, a.k.a. Letch Carson, a.k.a. Randy Innuendo,

a.k.a. our dear and wonderful friend,

we love you, and we can’t help but miss you. Through your words and deeds, you’ll never be forgotten, and your wisdom and humor will continue to touch us for the rest of our days.

[illustrated by Cheyenne of arcanetimes.com]

Laura’s mother got a tattoo. The Cross is obvious, and one has to assume the triangle brings the Trinity into play.

Or, perhaps, the Triforce? Probably not…

In any case, it looks good! While you’re at it, go visit her site and give her some Comment Love.

Let me be neither the first, nor the last, to wish you a most excellent Saint Patrick’s Day!

First and foremost, remember who the holiday is named for… and not to get our beloved patron saint of Irleand confused with Saint Patrick of Spain, Saint Patrick of France, Saint Patrick of Prusa, or Blessed Patrick Salmon of England.

That aside, celebrate well, and if you choose to do so with libations, do so safely and responsibly. This includes not drinking bland beer from the huge American macrobreweries (in general) that’s been dyed green (specifically)… that’s not Irish. It’s just wrong.

Instead, partake of something with a bit more flavor, a bit more character, and a lot more Irish: Murphy’s Irish Stout or Irish Red. Smithwick’s Irish Ale. Guinness Stout. Harp Irish Lager. Magners Original Irish Cider. Or for a distinctly American take on the Irish style, try Harpoon Brewery’s Hibernian Ale, or Rogue Ales’ Kells Irish Lager.

Oh, and go leave Ronnie more Comment Love, because that boy’s got some serious Irish pride. And while you’re at it, do the same for Laura - she’s got the red hair and all!

The are many denizens of teh Internets who are aspiring writers, and blog of their struggles and experiences, but few are as talented and glorious as my good friend Ronnie. Writer. Physicist. Ex-NASA engineer. Philosopher. And most recently, Arkansasian neo-hermit.

Visit his site and follow his progress as he hones his craft… and give him some Comment Love.