Thanks to everyone for the well-wishes. The surgery went well, and my dad picked me up at the hospital afterwards. I’m staying at The Parents’ house for a couple of days of recuperation.
The main benefit to this surgery, besides the pain relief, is that for the rest of my life I can never be accused of having the gall to do something.
I’m going in to have my gall bladder removed this afternoon. So any thoughts and prayers on my behalf would be appreciated. Details to follow.
*** SPOILER ALERT FOR TWO EPISODES AGO OF 24 **
Jack Bauer, the counter-terrorism agent, has just discovered where the bad guys he’s been looking for have taken the nuclear warheads. He’s trapped in the Russian embassy, and they know he has the information. Naturally, they will cut off all outside communication as soon as possible. Jack picks up a phone and calls Morris at CTU.
Jack only requires two words to reveal the location of the bad guys and the nukes. Just two words: “Shadow Valley.” If he just says those words, CTU will get there before a nuke is launched.
Unfortunately, I’ve noticed that while Jack Bauer can be laconic, when the show needs to create suspense he can become downright loquacious. And you end up with conversations like this (only slightly exaggerated):
Jack: Morris, it’s Jack.
Morris: Jack? Where are you?
Jack: Don’t interrupt. I don’t know how much time I have, but there’s some extremely important information that I need to pass on to you.
Morris: What is it?
Jack: You know that guy we’ve been chasing — the Russian who’s teamed up with the Arab terrorists? I have his location. You’ve got to get a team out there right away to shut them down.
Morris: We’ll do that the moment you give us the location, Jack.
Jack: There’s no time for your interruptions, Morris. I can’t emphasize enough just how vital this one piece of information may be if we’re to have any chance at all of stopping these terrorists from detonating three nuclear bombs on U.S. soil. And with the Russians closing in on me here at the embassy, I may get cut off at any moment. So it’s essential that you listen to what I have to say.
Morris:
Jack: Morris? Morris, are you still there, or have the Russians finally cut off the phone line?
Morris: I’m here, Jack. I was just listening, waiting for you to–
Jack: Stop interrupting me! How am I supposed give you this key information if you keep interrupting? The location of the terrorists we’ve been hunting is… [PHONE LINE GOES DEAD.] Argh! If only I’d had more time!
(OK, so it’s more than slightly exaggerated. Still, in the actual version of the conversation, Jack had enough time to say, “Shadow Valley,” but didn’t.)
It was my 40th birthday on Friday. The highlight of the day was my birthday party at Chili’s. The Parents were there representing the family. Jade, Carla Jo, and Nikki (and her two cute little girls) from my old Barnes & Noble writing group came. Ben Hardin from the Quark writing group was there. Brandon Sanderson (and his wife, Emily), Isaac Stewart, and Janci Patterson from my new writing group were there. Rounding out the attendees were Howard and Sandra Tayler, with whom I’m not in any writing group.
Ben was kind enough to commission a piece of birthday artwork for me from Howard, who is the creator of Schlock Mercenary, my favorite webcomic. Here it is:
(Click to see larger version.)
For those of you unfamiliar with the webcomic, that greenish blob is Sergeant Schlock, who has a plasma gun he is often a little over-enthusiastic about using. The human is his commander, Captain Tagon.
The evening was spent in fun conversation and eating. (A big thank you to The Parents, who paid for the meal.) Gradually the party shrank in size as various people had to leave, and eventually we decided to yield the tables to other customers. Howard and Sandra were nice enough to invite those who remained over to their house, where we continued talking until it was no longer my birthday.
All in all, a great birthday, even if it does mean I’m forty.
Now that I have a little spare time, here are more details:
If all goes according to plan, “Premature Emergence” should appear in the February 2008 issue of Baen’s Universe.
The response time on the submission was one year and one day — which is not the longest I’ve had. Baen’s was overstocked with stories, so last year they put a freeze on buying. When I was notified of the freeze, I had the choice of withdrawing the story. I’m glad I didn’t take that option! The main reason I didn’t was I felt “Premature Emergence” was just the type of story they were looking for. I guess I was right. Read the rest of this entry »
A great bit of news via email this morning: Eric Flint wants to buy my story “Premature Emergence” for Baen’s Universe.
More about it later — I have to go to work.
After a long drought, I wrote 500 words of a new story today. Because it’s going to be submitted anonymously to the 2007 Codexian Idol contest, I can’t reveal any details about the story itself. But I came up with the idea yesterday and it’s the first idea I’ve had any enthusiasm for since November. So it felt good to write.
To understand my buying process, you have to understand what happened the last time I bought a car. I went to two dealerships, the first of which gave me an offer for my trade-in that was a little bit under its Blue Book trade-in value. The second offered me less than half that amount, until I mentioned what the first dealer offered. Then they “took a closer look” at my car and “realized that it was in very good shape,” at which point they matched the first dealer’s offer.
Since the first dealer didn’t have the exact car I wanted in stock, I ended up buying from the second dealer, but the experience left a bad taste in my mouth. (Figuratively, not literally.)
I bought a new car today: a silver 2007 Honda Civic EX sedan.
How did I end up choosing the Civic? By process of elimination.
First, I eliminated all American car manufacturers. It’s unfortunate, but I just don’t feel like GM, Chrysler and Ford are making cars that have the reliability of Toyota and Honda.
No, wait — I didn’t eliminate American car manufacturers first. I eliminated French car manufacturers first. My first car was actually French: a Renault Le Car. It was actually a pretty good little car. But I eliminated the French car manufacturers for political reasons.
Despite my decision not to go with a hybrid, I still wanted very good gas mileage. After some research, that left me with three cars that combined good gas mileage and reliability: the Honda Civic, the Toyota Corolla, and the Toyota Yaris.
I test drove the Yaris a few weeks ago, just to see whether it would work for me. It’s a nice car, and relatively inexpensive. However, because it’s intended as a low-end, inexpensive car, it didn’t come standard with some of the features I wanted (things like variable intermittent wipers and cruise control). I would have had to special order one to be made to my specifications and shipped from Japan.
That left the Corolla and the Civic. After test-driving both last week, I decided I just liked the Civic better. So I bought one today.
Still to come… where I bought a Honda Civic.
It’s not because I’m anti-environment.
For over a year, I planned to buy a hybrid as my next car. I’m a technophile — I love having high-tech stuff. And while I’m not convinced that anthropogenic global warming is as bad as Al Gore says, getting excellent gas mileage is a good thing (especially if Iran starts playing hardball with oil prices.)
So last December, I seriously considered buying a hybrid. (The reason for the timing was I wanted to take advantage of the tax breaks for hybrid vehicles.) I went and test-drove a Honda Civic Hybrid and a Toyota Prius.
And I cam away disappointed, as I didn’t feel like either one was a vehicle I could buy.
The Civic Hybrid didn’t quite seem ready for prime time. There was a noticeable jerk as the engine switched between gas and electric modes. And I found the “sport seat” uncomfortable.
The Prius engine was very smooth and amazingly quiet. Overall, I found it a very cool car, with one huge flaw: the rear visibility is significantly obstructed. Now, for parking purpose that isn’t a problem, as there’s a rear-view camera that lets you see what’s behind you. (I told you it was cool!) But for driving purposes, I did not feel comfortable with that level of visibility. (I feel the same way in Sebring convertibles with the top up. With the top down, rear visibility is great!)
So that’s why I’m not buying a hybrid.
