I’m madly in love with Project Gutenberg, and use it extensively in my online classes – free source material is the holy grail of every English teacher. However, there’s not a lot there I’m personally interested in. I could never really get into short stories, and I’m not sure why. I’ve tried reading the Sherlock Holmes stories, Bradbury, and a host of others, but just couldn’t get into them.
Love 'em. To me real sci-fi must involve hard science, at least in the sense that a plausible scientific premise is central to the story. It’s hard to build a long novel-length story fully exploiting that premise, although it’s certainly been done. But the short story medium allows one to come up with a variety of interesting science-based premises and spin a single short story out of each one of them. The late, great Arthur C. Clarke was a master of both, but I’ve got the most enjoyment out of his short stories. I have a large weighty paperback that I treasure which contains the entirety of his short story writings. But Clarke was also the author of the famed Childhood’s End novel and of course the story behind 2001: A Space Odyssey (which, incidentally, Clarke derived from his own short story The Sentinel). But lengthy sci-fi novels often turn into Star Trek type stories in which the science premise is secondary or entirely non-existent, and subservient to some mundane plot.
A great example of a “hard science” and thus real sci-fi short story is Clarke’s Technical Error. I don’t want to give away the plot but the story involves a repairman down inside a gigantic generator in a power station, from which the rotor has been removed for maintenance. There is a sudden huge power surge through the coils that creates an enormous magnetic field that opens a portal into the fourth dimension. The story involves an exploration of some interesting and unexpected implications of that from a science-based standpoint. No monsters, no love interests, but a fascinating story with a frightening conclusion nonetheless.
Not looking forward to that alarm clock tomorrow morning. At least my house got the electricity back mid-afternoon. Sunset was red from the wildfire smoke in the air but no overbearing smoke smell. Hope the air is better for you ‘Dopers out west and none of you have to worry about how bad it will be in the morning.
@spoons
At least our teams both won. The Chiefs had me worried though. The last few seconds of OT? Really? Aged me beyond my years.
Boo
I missed any games before tonight’s Patriots-Seahawks matchup (which I’m watching now), so I was pleased to see that both our teams won. However, tonight’s halftime show indicated that the 49ers’ Garoppolo sustained some sort of injury. I missed whether it will have him out for a significant amount of time, if indeed at all, so I’m a little worried about next week.
If I remember the highlights, Niners had 5 injuries but his sounded the most worrisome.
The after game I listened to said “we’ll see. We’ll know more by Thursday”. A crafty hedge it sounded like. Wanted next weeks opponents to have to practice defending against multiple styles and strategies? Keep ‘em guessing and off kilter?
Boo
Air quality was “moderate” today (yellow on AirNow). Acceptable for letting the cat out, but it was better yesterday.
Back to commuting by bus, which means close to 2 hours each direction. Ugh. On the plus side, this is because DH goes back to actual paid work on Tuesday (he has physical therapy tomorrow). Still light-duty, not yet back to his normal work, but it’s progress.
Bleargh. Thanks so much for that news, Boo. Well, que sera sera, I suppose.
Interesting watching a Brady-less Patriots. When was the last time we saw that? Twenty years ago?
The air has been remarkably clear here in my neck of the woods this weekend(outer edge most of the fires) but still had ash fall on friday. We’ve not had it bad this year, some years we’ve had air like Portland did, but for the entire fire season. This is the first year I’ve ever seen ash from a wild fire blow in.
That was an impressive moment for the Chiefs kicker, Harrison Butker. I aspired to be a placekicker when I was a kid, though I wasn’t nearly good enough to even have a chance of playing in high school, but I’ve been a student of kicking ever since. He’d made a 58-yarder earlier (tying for the all-time team record); when he was called in to win the game with that OT kick, the first time, he nailed it from 53 yards, but one of his linemen was called for a false start. That backed it up to 58 yards, and he hit that one true, too, but the Chargers had called time out just before the kick. So, he had to do it a third time, but was completely unrattled, and the kick that counted would have been good from another five yards out.
Today’s continued excitement with the yellowjacket situation was seeing several dozen of the little bastards flying around in the same area of the back yard where I got stung yesterday; I suspect that the spray I’d put down there last night only pissed them off. So, tonight, after the sun went down, I sprayed down that area well with another can of wasp killer. I’ll have to see if they’re still there tomorrow; if so, I think I’ll have to call a professional. 
Many years ago I inadvertently found a yellow jacket nest with my lawnmower. 9 stings IIRC, had to go to urgent care, and gave me a allergy to insect stings that persists to this day.
What I did after that was I scoped out the area where I knew the nest was until I found it. The hole in the ground was almost invisible — no bigger than a 50 cent piece – but once I located it it was easy to find: yellow jackets make a beeline (ha!) when they are flying to and from the nest, so I just had to watch for the spot they were flying to.
I waited until about 1 am and then went outside with a full can of wasp spray (not the foaming kind) and a Dixie cup full of gasoline. I sprayed the entire can straight into the hole followed immediately by the gasoline. Then I booked it. The nest was pissed, and it sounded like a smooth-running V-12 engine redlined somewhere deep underground. It was very unnerving.
But it worked. The nest was completely dead the next morning.
I’m actually going to bed soon, fingers crossed I get some sleep tonight. I have Fall convocation first thing in the AM (puke), so I would really appreciate a good night’s sleep. I took a melatonin last night and I actually slept, but this morning I felt kinda… I dunno. Punch drunk. Or just drunk-drunk. It wasnt a pleasant feeling but I didn’t feel sleepy, which was a blessed relief. I’ll skip the chemicals tonight as I need my wits about me tomorrow.
I got the slice of birthday cake next to my username!
That means that it is my SDMB anniversary! And I’ve been here for twenty years now!
Now, as I understand things, the Powers-That-Be discourage anniversary threads, since they often lead to post-padding; but I don’t think they’d mind me putting this news in an MPSIMS thread that has nothing to do with anniversaries. I think I can safely share this news with my fellow Non-Sleepers.
Twenty years. Holy hannah.
Happy cake day @Spoons 
Happy anni Spoons.
Aye, where does the time go?!?
Anywho, 1214 GMT. Feels like a cool shirt sleeveF outside. Not much to post. Had my early AM nap now it’s time to get ready for work and to roust the Vaderling so I can take him to Gma and Gpa. (Some interesting observations to post about that later if I remember)
Happy party reason day 
@spoons!!
Glorious Last Day of Summer to all. Hoping for an easy going, breezy, 70 degree sunny day full of the freshest smoke-free air for us all. West coast North Americans can opt for rain if desired. I nominate today for an international universal holiday.
BBBoo
We are all here for you Beck!
Another night.
Got some groceries tonight, and made it back in time to catch Monday Night Football. Nice to see the Raiders win the first game in their new stadium. For now, the TV is blathering in the background while I surf the Dope.
Oh, and thanks to all who posted about my SDMB anniversary. As I recall, I first logged in here on a dial-up modem. Now, I’ve got high-speed wireless. We’ve come a long way.
Another night.
Met up with the boys after work today, for our weekly “beer and BS” session. Good to see the guys again. Lots of talk about sports–hockey playoffs and the NFL season, and we may try to get to the horse race track at some point. Well, I’ll definitely get to the track; whether the boys come along is their business.
Well hell. I’m in it now. Started a holy war. Vaderling has been on probation with his gaming priviliges. Tonight, he wouldn’t eat two pieces of baby corn and and two snow peas. Tried, for an hour. I figured, he’s been pretty well behaved since I put him on probation. And he LIKES corn and snow peas. Nope, he dinnit wanna. Warned him, he was at the limits of my patience and reminded him of the probation. Now I need to figure out something else for discipline. Taking down the system tonight, boxing it up. No more xbox at my house.
And this week was going so well.