by Melinda Snodgrass | Aug 22, 2009 | Blog
I’m reading John Scalzi’s THE LAST COLONY and it’s just wonderful. It reminds me of all the old Heinlein classics that I loved so much — HAVE SPACESUIT, CITIZEN OF THE GALAXY, THE ROLLING STONES. I’ve just come off reading a number of fantasy books. Okay, some of them were interesting, but diving back into this Scalzi book is like coming home and getting comfortable. Thank god that someone is still publishing science fiction and keeping the dream...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Aug 20, 2009 | Blog
You have to check out this wonderful web cartoon sent to me by Ty Frank. It’s especially wonderful for those of us lucky enough to know the amazing Stephen Boucher, SMOF, and computer guru. Jesus sounds just like him. Anyway, enjoy and do watch all of it. It’s worth it.
by Melinda Snodgrass | Aug 20, 2009 | Blog
I had to run into Santa Fe today to mail back the contracts for my next book contract. It was 1:00 pm and I was hungry. I never could find the New York deli that I’d heard advertised. Finally, in desperation, I turned into a China Star. Chinese buffet. Now, I don’t know if this a national chain, or just in New Mexico, but it was _awful_. There were six steam tables loaded with Krab wontons, and egg rolls, spicy beef, various chicken dishes, etc....
by Melinda Snodgrass | Aug 19, 2009 | Blog
I did my civic duty on Monday and went to a heath care town hall meeting hosted by Congressman Ben Ray Lujan. I went partly because I thought it was past time that supporters of reform showed support, and stopped letting the trolls turn this from a debate into a rage-filled shouting fest. It was being held in a Unitarian church, and since I didn’t know where it was I went by early to look for it. Good thing. At 6:00 pm the parking lot was filled and people were parked...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Aug 16, 2009 | Blog
I’m back from Montreal, and spent the past three days digging out. Bills to be paid. Bills that had gotten lost because of the change of address so I was frantically paying past due bills by credit card. Which was actually okay because I get airline miles for every dollar I spend. But I digress. Worldcon. Well it was younger than last year’s probably due to the presence of Neil Gaiman. That was a good thing. A wise fan and I were discussing the fact that we couldn’t find...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Aug 15, 2009 | Blog
I just got home from seeing JULIE AND JULIA. What a wonderful film. If TERMINATOR SALVATION was a primer on how _not_ to write a movie, this film is an example of how to write a good movie. It didn
by Melinda Snodgrass | Aug 14, 2009 | Blog
I was reading through an old Atlantic magazine (June 2009) which had lain forgotten on my cluttered desk when I came across the most absurd article ever. Apparently there is now signature ice at your better drinking establishments. There is a bar in Chicago that features eight different kinds of ice, type to be selected being dependent upon your cocktail. It seems that normal bar ice is too cold and chills the drink to quickly, and the ice melts too quickly causing the drink to go flat. We are...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Aug 4, 2009 | Blog
I’m a big Torchwood fan because John Barrowman is hot. Yes, I know, he’s really, really gay, but he’s also really, really hot. The show is much darker than Dr. Who and I’ve found that hard to take at times, but I was excited to watch the five hour plus mini-series.I tivoed the entire thing, and then Ian and settled down to get our fix. The first three hours were terrific. Increasing tension, paranoia, a heroic rescue, and at the end of the third...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jul 30, 2009 | Blog
Here is the best press release ever in the history of the world –" We completely understand the public’s concern about futuristic robots feeding on the human population, but that is not our mission,” Let’s see, they are developing predator drones that will make their won decisions about when to shoot. Now we’ve got robots that will feed on biomass to fuel themselves. What could possibly go wrong? I haven’t had time to write...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jul 30, 2009 | Blog
A Congressman from New York threw down a gauntlet to the Republicans today. He said if they all thought "government health care was so bad" then they should have the courage of their convictions. He proposed an amendment to the health care bill to do away with Medicare.I know you’ll be shocked to read this but — not a single Reblican was in favor of killing Medicare. Guess Medicare and military health care aren’t soooo bad. My...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jul 30, 2009 | Blog
Because of the dearth of science fiction novels I’ve been reading a lot of fantasy recently, and it’s not my preferred reading material. I prefer straight up science fiction. So I tried Night’s Dawn series by Peter Hamilton. (It’s a trilogy in Britain, but published as six volumes in the U.S.)I have taken to just putting aside books I don’t enjoy and not finishing them. The fact I finished all six books says there was a lot to like in this...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jul 27, 2009 | Blog
Paul Krugman has a fascinating column in the NYT’s today. Here is a sample and read the entire article here."Reform, if it happens, will rest on four main pillars: regulation, mandates, subsidies and competition.By regulation I mean the nationwide imposition of rules that would prevent insurance companies from denying coverage based on your medical history, or dropping your coverage when you get sick. This would stop insurers from gaming the system by covering only healthy...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jul 23, 2009 | Blog
Last week Ian and I went off to the Harry Potter movie. Despite the flaws and the letdown of the final book, I still really love this series. Hogwarts is a real place for me, and Harry, Ron and Hermione are equally real.This movie did a very nice job with the character development part of the story. One of the real surprises and frankly, treat was the performance turned in by Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy.In short I enjoyed the film right up to the end where it collapsed like a...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jul 23, 2009 | Blog
I’ve been watching this debate with desperate attention. I’ve been calling Congress and the White House. Because I’m one of those people with a pre-existing condition that means I’m an automatic deny for purchasing an individual policy. It seems likely my taxes will go up, and that’s okay because here’s the financial breakdown with which I’ve been dealing.Carl and I founded a two person company so we could qualify for...
by Melinda Snodgrass | Jul 21, 2009 | Blog
I meant to post yesterday, but life intruded. It was the fortieth anniversary of the Moon landing. For geeks like us it feels like a lost opportunity, but it was still one of the most profound experiences of my life.I’ve only had two such moments brought to me courtesy of television. Moments when I could only sit and cry. One was Apollo 11, and the other was the night Obama won the presidency.So what went wrong with NASA? Tom Wolfe had a really interesting...
