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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Chris McKitterick's LiveJournal:
| Thursday, December 10th, 2009 | |
| 11:17 pm | Astro-Porn of the Day: Alien Wormhole Update. Sadly, it turns out that the wormhole photos and videos I shared a couple of days ago were just the Russians after all. *sigh* The reason they were so slow to 'fess up was that the missile that failed so spectacularly was their newest, high-tech, sub-launched, intercontinental nuclear missile. Maybe next time. But we'll always have the Norwegian Wormhole Spiral: Click the image to see the story. So it was just terrestrial, after all. Or so they say.... Chris |
| 1:39 pm | Have yourself a redneck little Christmas....  Click the image to see the post. (Actually, I would argue that this is a WIN, not a fail, but then I'm a weirdo.) |
| 1:09 pm | Books make great presents! As we approach the Official Present-Buying Season™, please consider supporting Hadley Rille Books. Disclaimer: Hadley Rille will publish my novel, Transcendence, in the spring, and has published some of my stories (with more out soon). Great books make great Xmas presents! Here's what's out now from Hadley Rille. Here's what's coming soon. Heck, since I'm pimpin' my publisher, let us pimp some anthologies that contain my stories:  Visual Journeys: A Tribute to Space Art  Ruins: Extraterrestrial Global Warming Aftermaths (forthcoming) Sentinels In Honor of Arthur C. Clarke (forthcoming)Support your favorite publisher by giving books! Chris |
| Wednesday, December 9th, 2009 | |
| 12:47 pm | Astro-Porn of the Day: The Aleins Have Arrived! Check out this still-unexplained phenomenon over Norway:  Click the image to see the UK news story. This amazing light-show started as the spiraling green beam, then grew to fill the sky with the giant spiral. Whoah! First assumption was a Russian rocket test, but the Russians deny that they launched at that time. What's it look like to you? Another photo:  Click the image to see another story. There are plenty of sources, so it's verified, not a Photoshop job. Heck, there's even a video of the spiral forming. Welcome, Alien Overlords! Thanks for the heads-up, ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} normalcyispasse! |
| Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 | |
| 11:32 pm | blog as MFA thesis I'm on the thesis committee for a former student of mine, Jen, who is writing a blog for her MFA thesis. I think it's a wonderful idea, especially because the University bureaucracy is having fits trying to understand how to deal with this format. But I also love this because the internet is really where the personal essay thrives today, and to ignore the web as a delivery mechanism is to look backwards. And as metaphor for the transience of things - a major theme on the farm - a blog is the perfect form for her project. Jen's blog is called Up From the Ground, which she explains "is where I explore life as a wannabe Kansas farmer (vegetables, livestock, and home canning included). Competing with this much romanticized return-to-the-land agrarian life is my interest in technology and especially its affect on communication. The two are far from mutually exclusive." There's some lovely writing about the hardships and joys of farm life in Kansas... and discovering how to succeed (or survive) without a background in farming. So go check it out and support her efforts! Chris |
| 9:09 pm | It's a winter wonderland out there! Gorgeous: Snow clinging heavy on the branches, making everything quiet and bright even after teaching night class (my last Tuesday class of 2009). Walking home from the University, I was a bit hesitant, what with an inch or more of snow on the sidewalks. But, alas! My new boots are awesome for blasting through the snow! Yes, I've entered a new phase in my life. Since 2000 or so, I've worn only Double-H brand strap-and-buckle-and-zip boots, these puppies:  Well, one can no longer buy these in men's sizes. The pair I've been wearing is now a few years old, and considering that I wear them every day of the year, while working on cars, cutting down trees, crawling across asphalt shingles, and so forth, that's a pretty good record. But the straps are falling off, the zippers are failing, and they're generally beat to hell. I've continued wearing them only because I haven't found anything I like better. I mean, geez, you can't even get the traditional Dr. Martens tall, black boots any more - what I wore for several years before the Double-H items. They looked like these, only taller:  Well, a local store (Vanderbilt's for you locals) was having a boot sale after Thanksgiving, and though they carry both the Doc and Double-H, they had nothing I liked from those brands. But, hark! They did have another pair that I found sufficiently good-looking and comfy to boot (ba-da-boom). And I think they look like the boots that people wore on the Battlestar Galactica:  They're side-zip, like the Double-Hs, which means I can lace them to where I want, double-knot, and they're ready to pull on and off (especially handy in airports). But they cost half as much, weigh a couple hundred pounds less, are much more flexy, and - here's what prompted me to write this - offer complete traction in the snow and ice. Hooray new boots! Which means I can enjoy the snow again. Life is good. If only the parking brake worked on the Saab - thereby enabling irresponsible cornering - life would be perfect. Chris |
| Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 | |
| 12:28 pm | Cutest kitten video EVER. WARNING: The Surgeon General has determined that the following video will make you *ded* from teh cute: Sure, everyone's posting this. But, OMG, you can't watch it too often. EDIT: Yup, after 1431 viewings since last night, still the cutest video EVER. Chris |
| 1:03 am | Astro-Porn of the Day: Most amazing meteor fireball EVER. WOW! Just an hour or so ago, on my way home after class and picking up the last of the big donation to the Center, I saw a bright fireball transform over a period of a second or two into a streaming green streak across the sky. AMAZING! It went from bright white to vivid green, as if a lurid painter had broken open a lightbulb and painted phosphorescent pigment across the sky, which glowed for a few seconds afterward. It looked sort of like this, only more dramatic:  What a treat after a massively long day! Somewhere east of Lawrence, Kansas, a pile of space-debris lay smoking in the dry soil. Chris |
| Monday, November 23rd, 2009 | |
| 3:39 pm | ...and thanks for all the kind words  ...about little Hammie-Boy. Last night (rather, early this morning) when I got home from the office, out of habit I walked over to the gaming bookshelf where his little house used to perch. He loved to come out at night and roll around in this Ball of Speed Magnification™. I was so tired that I thought I heard him scuttling around in his nest. Instead of his cage, though, stands a candle burning in remembrance of him. That was both warm and sad-making. Thank you for your well-wishes last week. The sympathy is much appreciated. It's nice to know that y'all don't think I'm a weirdo for falling for a short-lived guy like Hefner. Weird for lots of other reasons, sure, but hamsters are people too. Especially little guys like him, so kind and full of personality. Chris |
| 3:16 pm | SF study guide  This was a fun but exhausting project: I just finished the "Science Fiction" entry for the Research Guide to American Literature: Post War Literature, 1945-1970, co-authored with James Gunn. Fun because I got to do lots of research on this fascinating period in SF's history, going through a bunch of wonderful resource texts here in the Center's SF Research Library. Exhausting because the deadline was much too short, especially considering all the other stuff going on at work lately. Now I want to write more material like this.... But it's done, edited by Jim, revised by me (mostly to cut 1000 words, ugh), and off to the editor, John Cusatis. Woohoo! Should be a really neat resource for teaching that period of American lit. Chris |
| Friday, November 20th, 2009 | |
| 3:11 am | RIP Hammie-Boy Living with hamsters as pets guarantees frequent tragedy. As recently as Sunday, little Hefner was healthy and full of beans. On Tuesday night, he showed signs of serious illness, with a belly full of scabs and infection. I brought him to the vet on Wednesday, where the kind Dr. Gibbs gave him a shot of cortisone to slow the growth of (suspected) cancer and a shot of antibiotics to kill the secondary infection from his chewing on the growths. She said that if he responded well to those, she could compound him treatment to give him another week or two. Then he had a healthy and relatively energetic night and day today. Wouldn't you rather go when you felt well than suffer for a week or two? So we fed him his favorite foods - blueberries and nuts - and cuddled the little boy, then brought him over to the vet.  The nurses at the front desk didn't even check us in, saw the teary eyes and brought us straight to an exam room. After some time alone with the sleepy Hammie-Boy, Dr. Gibbs took him to the euthanization room, and a few minutes later he returned asleep but not breathing in his ball. She said that he was full of tumors when she felt him after the procedure, so we had made the best decision. I dug a hole in the rodent cemetery in the back yard and buried him in his favorite toy, his ball, with a pint of blueberries. Hefner was the gentlest, most easy-going, but most curious hamster I've ever known. He would run in his ball for hours. He let little kids squeeze him and wouldn't bite. He would sleep in your lap. He loved peoples' shoes. He took food so carefully from your hand that he'd sometimes drop it. He invented the litter box for himself so he wouldn't have to sleep in a mess. He was the best hamster ever. We get so attached to our little friends. I'm not sure I want to keep doing this every few years. Perhaps a bit of a break before another little Rodent-American. Chris |
| Thursday, November 19th, 2009 | |
| 12:10 pm | Astro-Porn of the Day: HUGE fireball during last night's Leonids Holy sky-on-fire, Batman! Here's a little video taken by the University of Utah's observatory on Frisco Peak, presumably an automated camera. Watch how this fireball changes night into day: Apparently, it was visible all over the western USA, with people reporting sightings across Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho. I'm so envious! Skies in Kansas were cloudy last night... but it's clear today. Although this happened during the Leonids, this fireball was not a Leonid meteor. Scientists suspect a small asteroid that exploded when it hit Earth's atmosphere, releasing the equivalent of a kiloton of TNT. That's some serious interplanetary warfare, folks. Imagine if it had exploded a little lower in the atmosphere, especially over a city? We are tiny creatures who dwell on the surface of a small planet that's hurtling through the cosmos along with billions of other objects. Once in a while, we collide. Often we get to watch a pretty meteor shower, sometimes we have the thrill of a fireball, and once in a while - frequently in terms of the life of the Earth - we experience ecosystem-destroying asteroid impacts. This one sits right between those last two. Here's the aftermath, still visible in the morning sky:  Click the image to see the story. EDIT: Lots more videos on this Utah news site. Astro-porn indeed! Chris |
| Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 | |
| 11:36 pm | |
| Tuesday, November 17th, 2009 | |
| 7:54 pm | Contortionism circa 1944 This music video from 1944 shows perhaps the most amazing contortion performance I've ever seen. Meet the Ross Sisters in "Solid Potato Salad": Thanks to roya_spirit for the tip!Chris |
| 4:07 pm | Paul Di Filippo and Sheila Finch Join Campbell Award Jury Paul Di Filippo and Sheila Finch have accepted appointment to the jury for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for the best SF novel of the year. In 2009, Paul A. Carter retired from the jury after having bravely served for many years, almost since the Award's inception. Sheila Finch is the author of seven science fiction novels and numerous short stories that have appeared in Amazing, Asimov’s, Fantasy Book, Fantasy & Science Fiction, and many anthologies. A collection of the "Lingster" stories recently appeared as The Guild of Xenolinguists. Sheila taught creative writing at El Camino College for thirty years and at workshops around California. She also writes non-fiction about teaching creative writing and science fiction, most recently, a series of short essays on the field that appear online at the SFWA website. Her work has won several awards, including the Nebula Award for Best Novella, the San Diego Book Award for Juvenile Fiction, and the Compton-Crook Award for Best First Novel. Paul Di Filippo sold his first story in 1977, and his second in 1985. Since then, he has accumulated over 150 periodical credits, and had twenty-five books published. He has two more due out in 2010. He reviews for a number of venues, including The Barnes & Noble Review. He has lived with his partner Deborah Newton for 34 years in Providence, Rhode Island, currently with a calico cat named Penny Century and a chocolate cocker spaniel named Brownie. The Campbell Award is one of the major annual awards for science fiction and is presented by the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction. The first Campbell Award was presented at the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1973. Since then the Award has been presented in various parts of the world: at California State University at Fullerton; at St. John's College, Oxford; at the World SF Writers Conference in Dublin; in Stockholm; at the World SF meeting in Dublin again; the University of Kansas; and in a joint event with the Science Fiction Research Association in Kansas City in 2007. The current jury consists of Gregory Benford, Paul Di Filippo, Sheila Finch, James Gunn, Elizabeth Anne Hull, Paul Kincaid, Christopher McKitterick, Pamela Sargent, and T.A. Shippey. ___ The original news release is on the Center for the Study of Science Fiction's news page. Best, Chris |
| Sunday, November 15th, 2009 | |
| 2:16 pm | What I'm doing; what I want to be doing. What I'm doing; what I want to be doing: 1) Grading papers, dealing with work-related things, scootering to work in the rain. 2) Revising my novel, working on song lyrics for a short album, writing the script for an indie movie, writing a new story, starting the next novel. Guess which is which? Bursting with creativity but must fulfill crazy-busy Day Jobbe duties even though the top-level administration is considering cutting my position. Why, exactly, am I fighting for this? Feh on being a grown-up. Chris |
| Friday, November 13th, 2009 | |
| 7:18 pm | Hadley Rille book signing tomorrow...
Best, Chris |
| 12:09 pm | Astro-Porn of the Day: Water on the Moon! NASA just released news that they're positively identified water on the Moon from last month's LCROSS mission, where they crashed a rocket and payload into the Cabeus crater near the Moon's South Pole. Here's the plume:  Click the image to see the story. That water hasn't seen the light of the Sun for billions of years. Does this mean we can live on the Moon? Well, that's taking it a bit far, but it does mean that it's more realistic to consider establishing colonies on the Moon: As the Fremen tell us, water is life. Chris |
| Thursday, November 12th, 2009 | |
| 11:29 am | Planning for the Future: The Job Edition. I'm preparing to meet with the Department Chair in a few hours, where we'll do strategic planning about how to keep my position. Tomorrow, she and the Associate Dean meet about this. Some time soon, I'll give my presentation to the Dean. No pressure. On the ego-boosting side, I got a couple of job offers last week, one that pays more than twice as much as teaching. Tempting, yes, but I love this teaching gig, and the students need the tech-writing classes I teach (and appreciate the SF and fiction-writing courses I teach). It drives me crazy that the powers-that-be at KU have (historically, anyway) displayed no understanding of the importance of writing in the professions. KU stands alone among our peer schools with no official technical-communication program. Shame on us. I've done all I personally can to get the program approved, but those at the Dean's level and above are terrified of commitment to a new program, so they're sitting on the proposal. And now they're considering eliminating my position. Let's examine that proposition for a moment: Just about every Engineering program requires the first tech-writing course I teach, as do a number of science, design, business, and other programs. The English Department voted to make my position a permanent hire (that is, tenured). A couple of GTAs teach it occasionally, but they're done this year. If I'm not here, we'll likely have zero people teaching the course. This, despite demand that could support at least three full-timers teaching the tech-comm courses. This is not a position to cut in order to save money. Oddly, I've come to realize that I wouldn't feel sorry for myself if I do lose my day-job: I would see it as an opportunity to dive head-first into my fiction-writing career for at least as long as the unemployment insurance holds out. See, I have a novel coming out in early 2010 and one more ready to sell right away. I have two previous novels I want to revise and publish. A young-adult SF series I'm dying to write. Three more adult novels. Tons of stories. Even a tech-writing textbook that I plan to give away online. In that light, why do I care about keeping my position? Why am I fighting for it? Well, I love teaching. But I could easily teach part-time or just on occasion. No, it comes down to my loyalty to James Gunn and the Center for the Study of Science Fiction. It would kill me to see his legacy wither. I refuse to let that happen. In a perfect world, a wealthy science-fiction fan would donate funds to set up a sustainable Center. It would be truly perfect if we could have our own, independent facility with rooms for residential students to occupy for extended stays, but all we would really require is funding sufficient to support a permanent SF position at KU. The facilities to run ongoing programs - monthly seminars, credit courses, non-resident workshops, speakers, and so forth - are free or cheap to use here. We have our own offices, one of which is big enough to house our massive SF research lending-library. KU has a couple of fine libraries on site with large SF collections, plus museums and so forth. Lawrence has a fantastic downtown with restaurants and shopping and movies and music and everything else visitors need to blow off steam. With an endowed SF Professorship, KU could not cut that position. Grad students could come here just to study SF. We could have guest authors and scholars stay for a full semester at a time, if they wished. And Jim Gunn's legacy would be secure. But even if we can't secure such, and even if I lose my day-job, I'll continue to serve the Gunn Center for the Study of Science Fiction. I'll fight to keep our programs housed here, where our endowment lives, where our book collections live. I'll fight to keep the office that also serves as our lending library. So off I go to prep for a meeting to save my job. It's comforting to realize that I won't feel sad if I end up losing that job. Chris |
| 10:58 am | Astro-Porn of the Day: Leonid Meteor Shower on the 17th Hot on the heels of August's Perseids and last month's Orionids comes what promises to be the mack-daddy of showers this year: The Leonids. It's scheduled to peak on the evening of the 17th - and by "peak" they really mean it: 500 meteors per hour! Also, a former student just let me know that he saw the most-dramatic fireball he's ever seen last night, nearly a week before the peak. According to NASA, the peak will fall between 21:34 and 21:44 Universal Time. Unfortunately, that's afternoon here in the Central US (those of you living in Asia will have the best show). Fortunately, because this will be such a massive storm, we should get a good show even hours after the peak, when darkness falls.  Click the image to see the story. To eliminate as much sky-glow as possible, go north of your local city (toward the constellation Leo), so that the city's lights are behind you rather than between you and the show. Try to get dark-adapted as soon as you can after nightfall, so get out there at sunset! Chris |
