Chess claymation - for the fun of it.

I was looking for something else in my archives yesterday and came across this. It made me smile so I think we all need to watch it again. Today!

Give this one about 30 seconds for the charm to really show. When the pieces begin knocking each other off is when the fun really begins.



Via Thomas L. McDonald at State of Play (the gaming blog) who says, "'Scacchi' is not the animator's name: it's the Italian word for chess."

Engines of God by Jack McDevitt

The Engines of God by Jack McDevitt

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


My review which ran at SFFaudio.

Climate change has Earth on the brink of disaster. The only viable solution is terraforming other planets to ensure survival. For a small group of archaeologists, however, terraforming is the worst possible solution. The only suitable planet is also the one planet with the most promising artifacts of an unknown alien race. Known as the Monument Makers, the aliens’ buildings feature a seemingly uncrackable code on them. The team is looking for the alien equivalent of the Rosetta Stone and must race against time to finish excavations before terraforming begins.

Despite the fact that the book begins by talking about climate change, which always gives me a sinking feeling, that is just the pretext for launching readers into a mystery. The team’s quest takes them to outer space, other planets, and into extreme danger as they follow the Monument Makers’ trail to discover their whereabouts and why every alien civilization has been abandoned.

This book reads as if it were a series of four novellas strung together with the common thread of tracking the Monument Makers. Each of the completed stories gives Jack McDevitt the opportunity to take the reader a bit further into archaeological mysteries while also examining different planets, space travel, and alien beings. Transitions between “novellas” are minimal at best and character development is weak. Still McDevitt wove a mystery that kept me listening at a red-hot pace. This is surprising because the author revealed his story in a very straight forward manner with plenty of foreshadowing. In McDevitt’s case, however, the telling itself was so compelling that I was fascinated to hear what would happen next.
In short, I enjoyed this very much, although at the end the story suddenly threw off narrative and resorted to bullet points to finish things off. “In audio, it was an abrupt ending that startled me, however, that didn’t spoil it as the story itself was done. In fact, I didn’t care about the “[insert name here] went on to do this” summary and it could have been left out without hurting anything.

Tom Weiner did a fine job of narrating the book. His reading was not something that stood out for any reason but which carried the story along very well. It left me with the memory of story rather than reader, which is surely what good narration should accomplish.

McDevitt tells a very good mystery that gives answers to some questions and leaves others to the readers’ speculation. Engines of God is ultimately a satisfying adventure which introduces us to a universe that he went on to write other novels about and which I will be seeking out.

Prayers for Aurora with Office of the Dead

Everything else on the blog today was prepared before I heard the horrific news about the mass shooting in Aurora. I thought, "What has the world come to?"

And then I realized I have had to think that too many times in the past few years.

From Joseph Susanka comes the expression of our heavy hearts:

“I wish it need not have happened in my time," said Frodo.

"So do I," said Gandalf, "and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

So I turn to what I know and can do for those broken hearts and broken lives in Aurora. Prayer.

Via The Anchoress comes the prayer that helps soothe my heart a little and that I hope helps those afflicted:

Have mercy on them O Lord, and make them welcome into your company; in your kindness console hearts broken; bind up the wounds inflicted upon our bodies, minds and spirits, for you are the Source of all healing and all love.

On the cross, you showed mercy; let your example become alive to us in these days of heavy grief, that our pain may not be fed and grown on the poison of suspicion, exploitation, and vengeance — to which our hearts too quickly turn, and by which we are further weakened — but that it may, rather, be bathed in your light of revelation and truth, and soothed by the touch of your all-embracing, all-conciliating peace.

In Christ’s name, we pray.

A deserted town, outlaws after gold ... just another day in the wild, wild, West with Louis L'Amour.

At Forgotten Classics, where we offer a sample of perfect vacation reading ... Louis L'Amour!

Free or Cheap Classics "Classes" on the Internet

I must say that I have never been so interested in so many truly classic books as right now. My interest has been piqued by various bloggers and podcasters whose discussions are so interesting that I swim in the wake of their enthusiasm. With such guides as these, I am diving deep into the classics and having a grand time.

These are all underway but it is easy to track back and start at the beginning:

The Flannery O'Connor Summer Reading Club - blog
For a simple reader like me, some help is necessary to understand O'Connor's short stories. The reading club has been looking at a different short story each week and I have been enjoying it immensely. Blogger and club host Jonathan Rogers has a book about O'Connor coming out soon and, based on this, it is definitely worth reading.

The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot - blog
I've always been so intimidated by this poem. Its reputation looms large for complexity. Plus, I'm not that into poetry. However, Melanie Bettinelli loves poetry, Eliot, and this poem. She's going through it a few lines at a time which has been very good for helping me digest it. Oddly enough, often my personal feelings about the lines lead to completely different interpretations of Bettinelli's but that is all to the good in this case. Because it means I'm engaged with the poem and her discussion is making me think about it more than I would just sitting down and reading it through.

The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer - podcast
I've also always been intimidated by Chaucer. (Yes, if it is an old classic then I'm intimidated ... let's not discuss Beowulf, please). However, I am now going to get it spoon-fed with some of the best help possible ... from Heather Ordover at Craft Lit.

If you support the Craftlit podcast by subscribing for $5/month, then Heather gives all sorts of delightful goodies which are CraftLit Originals. One is that her husband, Andrew, is narrating his book Cool for Cats, and a wonderful narrator he is of this mystery which I much enjoyed. The other is that she is offering Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Having just gone through the introductory episode I can say that my anxiety is eased already. Heather is an experienced teacher who truly loves Chaucer and she's recruited a fantastic reader. She is also offering an enhanced version which will have the text, images from that time and much more.

CLARIFICATION: you must subscribe to receive the Chaucer podcast. Here is the link to Heather's explanation and her PayPal spot.

The Odyssey - podcast
Jesse and Scott at SFFaudio have been working their way through The Odyssey four chapters at a time. They're close to the end, but that doesn't mean you can't catch up. I've been reading along in time to their discussions and it has been a good way to experience the entire thing.

Classic Fantasy and Horror Authors - blog
Kindle Review is a great place to find free and discounted Kindle books. There is a list every day, sorted by category. Recently, there has been an extra bonus for those of us who like fantasy and horror. Using the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series as a guide, there has been a series of posts briefly covering various authors and linking to some of their major works that are free for the Kindle. The Ballantine series, which began in 1969, showcased fantasy and horror writers who had long been long out-of-print or only published in pulp magazines such as Weird Tales.

I know, these aren't the true classics such as the other listings, but they are classics in their own right and difficult to find sometimes.

Religion, The Washington Post, and Media Bias...

Let’s start with three basic observations, after mulling over the contents of this [Washington Post] story:

(1) It appears that liberal Catholics listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Conservative Catholics prefer, for some reason, to listen to fallible men called “bishops.”

(2) The Post seems to love, love, love believers whose approach to doctrine and church history mirrors that of the modernized Episcopal Church, especially when those people are billed as reformers in the Roman Catholic Church.

(3) Based on years of reading Post coverage of the many doctrinal battles between liberal and conservative Episcopalians, it appears that it absolutely crucial for conservative Episcopalians to obey their liberal bishops (and everyone heads to secular courts if they cannot work things out), but it isn’t terribly important for liberal Catholics to obey their conservative bishops, even when those bishops are acting in obedience to that Bishop of Rome guy.

Read it all at GetReligion.

I couldn't help myself. This made me laugh because it is not simply true of The Post, it is true of practically every media outlet these days.

And, also ... I like lists of things that make me laugh.

3-D, Frames Per Minute, and the Clash of the Titans

The titans being Peter Jackson and James Cameron. Roger Ebert has an interesting piece on film quality, 3D, movie length, and much more at his journal.

Throughout movie history Hollywood has bragged about ever more stupendous motion picture "events." It has used technical innovations like sound, color and widescreen to increase its impact in theaters. The era of 70mm "roadshows" produced some great movies. Now it appears that 3D has its claws in certain kinds of new productions, and even a director like Martin Scorsese has embraced it.

I think there may be a marketing error here. Moviegoers are growing less attentive to picture quality at a time when many are actually willing to watch a movie on a cellphone, and lower-def streaming occupies more than half the bandwidth on the Internet in the evening. While there will always be an audience for "The Hobbit" or "Avatar 2," at least as long as Jackson and Cameron maintain their standards, I believe there is lessening consumer enthusiasm for paying extra to see "Kung Fu Panda" merely because it is in 3D.

I've seen a lot of 3D movies lately. I no longer routinely devote a paragraph at the end of my reviews to comments about the 3D. That was getting boring. But this fact remains: No matter what they tell you, current 3D involves a loss of picture brightness of at least 20%. Watching one of these movies is like sitting though a film using a projector whose bulb is near the end of its life span.

I have a little ritual I invariably perform during 3D movies. I lift the 3D glasses off my eyes and see how bright the picture would look without them. That is a reminder of what the movie is supposed to look like.

That trick with the glasses is what I kept doing during Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter. The 3D was so very dark.

Do go read his column if you are a movie lover.

Class Alert: Science Fiction, Part 1 - From Modern Beginnings through the Golden Age

I have been a fan of Amy H. Sturgis ever since hearing her talk about science fiction history at StarShipSofa podcast. I'm gonna say that, based on that experience alone, you'll get a wonderful class if you are interested in the subject. But let's let Ms. Sturgis tell you all about it.

I’m thrilled to say that this fall, online and worldwide, I’ll be offering the first of my two-part history of science fiction course, Science Fiction, Part 1: From Modern Beginnings through the Golden Age, for the innovative Mythgard Institute. It’s a graduate-level course, but students don’t have to be seeking a degree from Signum University in order to “sit in” (or audit) just for the love of the subject. Anyone may sign up. Registration is now open!

You can see a full list of the lecture topics, assigned readings, and more here.

The class will consist of 24 90-minute online lectures with live Q&A. These lectures will also available to registered students for immediate download as audio and video files. I’ll also accept emailed questions in between lectures. There will be a class discussion forum available 24/7.

The second half of the two-part course will be offered soon and will build upon this one. It will begin with the New Wave.

Here are the vital bits...

Who? Dr. Amy H Sturgis
Where? The Mythgard Institute
What? The History of Science Fiction, Part 1

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

It was a pleasure for Julie and Scott not to burn any books during the recording of A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast. Go listen before someone else pulls out the flame thrower.

In Search of London ...

... in which we discover that there's more to London than meets the eye. Pick it up at Forgotten Classics.

Think always of me ...

I die in the Catholic Apostolic and Roman religion, that of my fathers, that in which I was brought up, and which I have always professed. Having no spiritual consolation to look for, not even knowing whether there are still in this place any priests of that religion (and indeed the place where I am would expose them to too much danger if they were to enter it but once), I sincerely implore pardon of God for all the faults which I may have committed during my life. I trust that, in His goodness, He will mercifully accept my last prayers, as well as those which I have for a long time addressed to Him, to receive my soul into His mercy. I beg pardon of all whom I know, and especially of you, my sister, for all the vexations which, without intending it, I may have caused you. I pardon all my enemies the evils that they have done me. I bid farewell to my aunts and to all my brothers and sisters. I had friends. The idea of being forever separated from them and from all their troubles is one of the greatest sorrows that I suffer in dying. Let them at least know that to my latest moment I thought of them.

Farewell, my good and tender sister. May this letter reach you. Think always of me...

From Marie Antoinette's letter to her sister-in-law, written eight hours before she was beheaded, found at Letters of Note. It is touching and worth reading.

The Mystery of the Hopping Cardinal

Walking through the neighborhood this morning, my eye was caught by a young male Cardinal that landed in the grass not too far away.

He was obviously a juvenile, being slim and fairly small, but with a bright red color that contrasted wonderfully with the vivid green grass.

He looked around cautiously and then gave a great hop forward. Again, he looked around and another great hop. The third time this happened I thought, "What is going on?"

Via Wikipedia

There was a grasshopper just ahead of the bird, as it turns out. Every time it gave a hop so would the cardinal. Since I was standing and watching, all the nearby birds got quiet. Except for one chirp from overhead in a tree. I couldn't see the bird but I wondered if that was mama calling.

Sure enough, that little guy caught his hopper and flew up to the roof. Bam -- the other bird landed near him. Significantly larger, but definitely female, this had to be mom. She surveyed him as he gulped.

I rarely get to see those sorts of scenes acted out in nature so it was a real treat.

An Old Classic Still Has Power to Surprise: Heidi by Joanna Spyri

Heidi by Johanna Spyri

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I came across this when perusing Semicolon's list of 55 Free Kindle Books Worth Reading. I don't know why Heidi appealed to me at that moment but I remember loving the book when I was a child and reading it many times. I began reading it this weekend just to get a taste of the classic I loved, but had no intention of reading all the way through. Imagine my surprise to find myself hooked and when the story was about 25% through, saying to myself, "What else is there to it? Isn't this most of the story?" As I went on, I remembered that the story was more complex than I remembered.

Briefly, for the handful of people who haven't any idea of the story, Heidi is a Swiss children's classic about a five year old orphan, Heidi, who is left with her grandfather, the Alm Uncle, in his isolated hut high in the Alps. Heidi's adventures with her grandfather, Peter the goatherd, the goats themselves, and the mountains (which are a definite character in the book) are just the beginning of the story. When she is suddenly swept away to the big city, how will Heidi adapt? What will happen to those left behind who have come to depend on her sunny personality? And so forth and so on. This is a much more compelling story than I am making it sound, albeit with a nice touch of Victorian moralizing about learning to read, how hard work never hurt anyone, etc.

That leads us to the second surprising thing: about half to two-thirds of the way through, with the introduction of Clara's grandmother, there was also an introduction of God into advice and conversation about how Heidi should live. It was done in a very natural way but I didn't remember it at all. Neither did I remember how Heidi took her personal experiences with God and passed them on to others who then put them to good use.

Something this made clear to me is that atheists who worry about exposing their kids to Christian novels shouldn't fret. Raised by atheists who just didn't think religion was worth discussing, I remember talking with my mother about the details we both loved in the book. Evidently the God-talk just passed right by me as particular to the characters but not something that I was interested in at all. (God had to wait for the right moment which was 20 or 30 years later.) I did vaguely recall that the grandmother (Peter's, not Clara's) was mightily attached to her hymns but that also was a vagary I applied to her personality (or old people, possibly?) and not something which mattered to me.

I think this also applies to a lot of things that people worry about their kids being exposed to. My twenty-something girls still talk about the shock they experienced rewatching The Little Mermaid a few years ago and hearing the double entendres in Ursula's song. They accused us of exposing them to wanton behavior. We laughed at them because why would they be so shocked if they understood it in the first place? Likewise this applies to why kids love Coraline by Neil Gaiman from the first page while adults often take a while to warm up to it (guilty as charged).

Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

Definitely the influences we expose our children to should be age appropriate, but we can relax a little about a lot of the specifics.

Keeping the Sabbath in Modern Times

I was listening to Heather Ordover's wonderful commentary on Gulliver's Travels (which comes with audio of the book specially recorded for us, y'all). In this particular episode of Just the Books, she mentioned a New York Times article about a good way to be able to fully enjoy vacation. It is to "practice" turning off electronic devices and taking a day to rest every week (as far as I gathered). Essentially, let's keep the Sabbath (secular style) everyone!

Heather and her husband have been working gradually in that direction and resolved to turn off electronic devices and do activities with their children that they wouldn't normally do during the week ... on Saturday for them because they are Jewish.

Love it!

You know that I have struggled to try to keep the Sabbath holy. It can be tough, especially at first, but as time has gone by I have found it becoming an easier habit and an almost unconscious practice. I fully realized this on the 4th of July when I was deliberately not turning on my computer or iPod. And then I said, "Self, this isn't Sunday, it's ok."

But you know what?

That made it less of a "special day" so I went ahead with my Sabbath-style "no electronics rule." I did have to work preparing holiday food, but it was special food work and so also contributed to the holiday mood. That is how I tend to treat Saturday, as a matter of fact ... fewer electronics, more time for weekend cleaning and cooking and books and things.

Here's the email I sent to Heather, who is used to getting my emails when I'm all excited. It's my on-the-fly version of our journey to keeping the Sabbath holy.

Anyway, I think I've already mentioned that we try to "keep the Sabbath" also? For about a year or so, I'd say. It began because of a book [The Power of Pause by Terry Hershey - my review here] that was loosely tied to spiritual practices and the point that keeping the third commandment (not a request, but a commandment) comes above honoring your father and mother as well as above "thou shalt not murder."

Darn it.

Partway into it, I then read Rabbi Heschel's amazing book, The Sabbath, which was partly above my head but most of it was amazing and brought me to that understanding that the "lounging around, wasting time, turning off devices, just hanging with our loved ones" is what life IS SUPPOSED TO BE LIKE ALL THE TIME.

Of course, I say this as a Catholic ... the younger brothers of our elder brothers, the Hebrew people ... but seriously. If we are to love God and then to just have a blast hanging out, essentially loving each other too? C'mon. That's a bit of Heaven on earth.

Though I have to make my Saturdays super-full to get it to work, that's ok (and that's also why I have to quit typing soon) ... it is so worth it.

Now I feel as if I'm cheating to turn on the computer, iPod, etc. So I don't. And it is lovely. We visit Tom's mom, we talk to Rose on video Skype, Hannah comes over and we have cocktails, a meal, and a movie ...of course, we go to Mass ... and you know, when you have a whole day with "nothing to do" then you can focus on Mass because you're not
busy making that mental list of what else to do the second you get out the door.

Of course, it is not always like that. But our rule of not doing something that can be checked off a list is one that works. And it makes it like a little vacation every week.

I'll add that I was already being influenced as well by a bulletin insert I wrote about the third commandment (yes God uses everything to get my attention).

Weekend Joke - Knights

From the brilliant xkcd.

BBQ Chicken Pizza and Fahrenheit 451

No, that's not the temperature I want you to cook the pizza at.

BBQ Chicken Pizza is at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

While you're fixing it, you can listen to my sample of Fahrenheit 451, at bit of lagniappe at Forgotten Classics.

Kenyan Muslim youth will provide a vigilante service to the Christian churches

Mr Wachu said that at a meeting the Inter-Religious Council of Kenya on Tuesday it was unanimously agreed the church attacks were acts of "terrorists and terrorism".

"Therefore we all resolved to stand together as one united front," he said.

"We decided as solidarity that the Muslim youth will provide a vigilante service to the churches not only in Garissa but in any other places that the Christians may deem fit."

He said that it was now up to the Muslim leaders in Garissa to organise out how the estimated 30 churches in the town would be protected.

"Muslims felt that because those Christians are a minority in their domain they must be protected at all cost."

Get the whole story here (via Deason's Bench). God bless them.

Venus is occupied by bathing beauties who need Earthmen to fend off the vicious space-dinosaurs ...

(1) Space colonization not only is possible, but Venus is occupied by bathing beauties who need Earthmen to fend off the vicious space-dinosaurs, and Mars is occupied by Amazonian nudists who lounge about the dead sea bottoms and in the jeweled, deserted, antique cities, yearning for Earthman love. For some reason, these advanced alien societies all prefer to use swords rather than firearms;

There are few things more entertaining than John C. Wright in a scientific debate. The Space Princess Equation, for example, proves my point.

Nothing + gravity + time = Leonardo da Vinci

Strange Herring wrestles with the God-Particle question and shows just one of the reasons I love reading it.

Garlic-Glazed Chicken Pizza

Oh, so good ... and, despite the length of the instructions, simple ... get it at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.