After raddidge returned home, she logged into LambdaMOO.
raddidge asks, "Tell me some of the good things which came out of my window being broken."
raddidge says, "My car is getting cleaned out after not being cleaned for a long time."
Well this certainly took me aback and I understood what she was getting at by trying to help me have a more positive outlook on life in general. After much thinking, because I couldn't think of anything good, I realize that I made the acquaintance of the neighbor across the street who also had issues with noisy and vandalism-prone college students. Something has to be done so the neighborhood doesn't go to seed. Also raddidge got home much earlier so she can work on her various crafty things including her mysterious large stained-glass project.
I asked her to give me time, since I can't think of this kind of shit and finding something positive out of a negative situation only serves to give me a headache.
This is one of the reasons why I love raddidge. She can be my Jiminy Cricket.
Heck, when we went to King's Chef for breakfast on Saturday I was trying to be at my best. I kept asking her if I was behaving correctly and she seemed a touch exasperated each time. I do hope to be a better person.
The first book, Coyote, starts out as a dystopia novel about dissident intellectuals escaping a fascist regime which is fairly run of the mill. When the ship reaches Coyote, the tale becomes something very close to a Jack London story with the exploration and adventure on a new planet. Surprisingly Coyote is remarkably earthlike and has none of the problems of chirality or being poisonous or having some other malady beyond longer seasons, lighter gravity and a thinner atmosphere. In retrospect, the planet Coyote really seems more of a deus ex machina than an actual experiment in worldbuilding. Herbert's Arrakis and Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars were far more alien and interesting than Coyote.
When I finished the first book, I was disappointed in myself and reflected upon one of my New Year's resolutions to read less science fiction and more fiction. At the end of the day, Coyote was just an adventure novel which was no different than some fiction you'd find in Boy's Life except instead of wolves and bears there are giant, carnivorous birds. Was I really that superficial when it comes to what I read on a regular basis? Forget Asians, swap them with Martians.
Of course there are stories like The Clapping Hands of God which embody everything I look for in a science fiction story. Stuff like Altered Carbon and the like come across as being too Hollywood-friendly and can leave a bad taste in most people's mouths. I eagerly admit that I did enjoy Altered Carbon. Heck, I even recommended it to a nice young lady who knew nothing about science fiction.
Right now I'm waiting on maribou to pick up Coyote and eagerly awaiting her reading of Coyote Rising. First and foremost I enjoy her reviews when she's doing her book challenge on teh eljay. Nextly I want to get a non-citizen's point of view about Coyote Rising and its portrayal of the revolution against the new adversary. I found it charming and a very fun read because it read like the American Revolution in outer space. This aspect made the book feel more intimate to me having grown up in the United States and in New Jersey which is the crossroads of the revolution. One can't swing a dead cat without striking some rock saying "George Washington was here" or "This is the site of a battle". My father's hometown has a plaque on a rock stating that site was the deepest thrust of the British troops in the entire revolution. Of course I'm paraphrasing it due to my declining memory and mental atrophy.
Shit, I might post it tomorrow.
I'll tell you one thing, I'm sure as shit not going to share the prank idea that I hashed out with raddidge.
Ah, the power of pussy.
