not bad for a hairless ape and a couple of tin cans....

Some days I'm convinced the entire human species was a waste of evolutionary energy. And then something happens to make me think maybe we're not so hopeless after all...

Giant 'telescope' links London, New York

LONDON, England (CNN) -- As the first splinters of sunlight spread their warmth upon the South Bank of the River Thames this morning, it became clear that after more than a century, the vision of Victorian engineer Alexander Stanhope St George had finally been realized.

In all its optical brilliance and brass and wood, there stood the Telectroscope -- a 37 feet long by 11 feet tall dream of a device allowing people on one side of the Atlantic to look into its person-size lens and, in real time, see those on the other side via a recently completed tunnel running under the ocean. (Think 19th century webcam. Or maybe Victorian-age video phone.)


Is it gonna solve any of the world's problems? Nope. But it's neat and cool and was designed to bring us together, not tear us apart. Never underestimate that....

Thus, Thursday...

It rains. Now, wait, the sun is out! Aw, it's raining again. But the sun is still out. It must be coming up on summer.... I wish someone would tell my gym that, btw. I prefer my sweat to come from the workout -- time to put the a/c on, guys.

Got some writing done, and the first batch of signed bookplates went out today. Check your mailboxes next week, folk.

Now, to try and get my iPod to sync up with Toke, prep and pack for tomorrow, and try to get to sleep at a reasonable hour. Tomorrow, I'm off to Baltimore, Balticon, and a weekend of hangin' with the skiffyfolk!


Meanwhile, if you ever for some reason wondered what my fridge says about me?

( it's a fair cop... )

RiP, "Yang the Nauseating" June 28, 1946 - May 22, 2008

It's been reported on sff.net that Robert Lynn Asprin has died.

I knew Bob years and years ago, back when I was at Ace. I worked on some of the MythAdventures and the Phule's Company books, and was always in awe at the level of punnish pain Bob could inflict. But more than all that, I will remember him for being part of the crowd that gave us Thieves World -- a series that showed me how well-done gritty fantasy could be, and how very difficult it was to do properly.

Bob did not have an easy life, and -- to steal from another now-gone friend, Charlie Grant, he was too often an example of what NOT to do to your career. But he gifted us with many hours of enjoyable reading, and so I raise a glass tonight, in memory....

We forgive you the Great Dark Horde, Bob.

(ducks whaps from my SCAdian friends)