Too True...

Courtesy of as SciFi Wire (sorry... now renamed SyFy Blastr, in keeping the the general degradation of the network's target  IQ)... Well, actually, they got from another site, but the ads there are even more obnoxious than the ones on SyFy.

The Lifespan of a TV Show

Enjoy... or cringe in sympathy as you remember favorite series of years past as they trudged along the arc of death.

Oh - and just so you don't leave on a totally depressed note:

Technovelgy, a site that shows how sci-fi-predicted gadgetry has become reality.

Web of Eternity

Offline, I just finished the Great Cross-Linking Project for Brightdreamer Books, a project I started in April.  This will be shown to the world (or rather the one or two people who stumble across the place) in the August update, but it has been such a monumentally time-consuming task that I had to note when I finished.

This is good news.

I also decided I needed to change how I reviewed books, namely adding a half-star for those books that fall right on the line between one rating and the next.

This is bad news.

It will require retrofitting over 600 pages and giving a quick re-scan to over 680 reviews to see where the half-star might apply.  It will be a pain in the tail to get done, but I know I'll be eternally bugged if I don't do it.  The site is also screaming for new graphics and a nicer layout.  I ought to consider listing books by genre as well as by author, too, one of these days.

Oh, yeah... I also wanted to try promoting the danged place in some way.  And I haven't even looked at Skyhaven in far, far too long...

Ah, well... I suppose the only finished website is a dead website.

Back at it...

Red Skies at Night

Today, the skies seemed hazy, in contrast with the area weather forecasts.

On the way to the weekly family gathering, I noticed an unusual amount of dust on my car.

As the day went on, the light took on an odd, orange tone, as if filtered through a slice of agate... a tone which shifted toward an unsettling reddish hue.

Tonight, I saw perhaps the strangest sunset I have ever seen in my life, something I can't recall witnessing outside of a sci-fi film set on planets far, far away.

Finally, it clicked. Wildfires east of the mountains have kicked up enough ash to dust my car and color the skies. (Actually, the news claims it was the fires in British Columbia behind it.)

Still creepy as heck, though...

(Yeah, this was mostly an excuse to post an I'm-not-dead-my-life's-just-dull update. I got new glasses which may or may not need realigning - still trying to figure out if it's me or the lenses - and I hit ten posts in a month over on Brightdreamer's Book Reviews, but nothing else has leapt out as postworthy.)

So Much Cooler Online...

And I'm not just saying that because I'm currently sitting beside a nice, cool fan on a warm and humid day.

Nice, cool fan....

Today, I made an attempt at personal socialization. Nobody died, at least not in a manner that can be legally connected to me or my actions, so I suppose it counts as a success. I just don't seem to do well when I can't cower behind a keyboard, unfortunately... nothing personal, you understand. I'm just a cowardly loser.

But I'm a cowardly loser with a nice, cool fan.

Speaking of nice, cool fans (in a different sense, but, hey, I needed a segue), today's excursion was to the local Sci-Fi Museum. Despite being a second-generaton fan whose existence can be directly tied to fandom (my parents met over fanac, or rather the printing of fanac, oddly enough), I hadn't managed to get down there before.

As promised before my departure, here are the photos I almost managed to salvage.

The Shiny Object That Ate Seattle Center
The EMP may be a photographer's paradise, but I still see it as the thing that spelled the beginning of the end for Fun Forest. (And if the rest of the site really does become another monument to Chihuly's oversized ego... one the general public can't even see without paying through the nose, despite the fact that the Center was supposed to be for everyone... Eh, never mind.)

Aliens! Aliens are attacking!
No, no, no - not them! That's just the Sci-Fi Museum's window washing crew.

These are them! Run! Run for your lives!
They look like normal tourists, don't they? Just a little too normal, if you ask me...

Retired robot, or security issue? You decide.
Typecasting's hard enough on human actors. This poor guy only had one hit, and hasn't been heard from since. Even Robby the Robot landed more gigs than him. He says he's not bitter, but try asking him for an autograph some time. Acts like he doesn't even hear you...

"Just because they're aliens doesn't mean they don't have to go to the little boys' room."
(Arnold Rimmer, from Red Dwarf) And you doubted my alien invader theory... see how welcome they are on this planet?

"And now, if you dare, look into the Hypnotic Eye!"
(from The Hypnotic Eye) A really, really cool spherical projection screen, covered in ever-changing, moving displays. Isn't this what TV was supposed to be like by now? I mean it's, what, 2010? Get with the program, you lazy tech guys!

Fanac gets its due
A nice display honoring the evolution and importance of sci-fi fandom, which helped launch more than one author from letterhack to bestseller. (No SAPSzines made the cut, though... and by now, the Spectator Amateur Press Society has to be one of the oldest running printed 'zine groups left. Most everyone else has folded or gone online by now.)

When I am an old alien, I shall wear purple
Just a cool con costume... shiny and glittery, ain't it?

Robby and Co.
Couldn't get a good angle on the original Robby the Robot (sorry Dad, I tried!), but I got the one from Lost in Space. I see the original Battlestar Galactica's Muffit made the cut for the museum, too, as did R2D2,  Twiki from Buck Rogers... but no sign of Dr. Theopolis. Maybe he retired and started a new career as a lunchbox...

A familiar face
A Scarran from Farscape. Dang, I miss that show...

When rayguns are outlawed, only outlaws will have rayguns
A portion of the sci-fi armory, which has seen many a cheaply-costumed hero through many an impossible battle.

Where's OSHA when you need them?
I mean, come on - not even a railing? There are kids down here, for cryin' out loud!

Destination Moon
Maybe this is why we never got ourselves a proper moon base going. We didn't have funky retro rockets to fly us there and back.

Yoda, Y-O-D-A Yoda...
It's hard to look him in the eye without think of Weird Al Yankovic's classic song...

"Great! Even in the future, nothing works!"
(President Skroob, from Spaceballs) Remember where Paul Allen used to work, folks... used to... Fortunately, the planet rebooted successfully. Probably time to defrag the thing.

Relics of yesterday's future
Can you believe anyone thought you could perform advanced calculations on that little weird sliding thing? Me, neither, but they were everywhere in the old days. Laughable now, isn't it? (Honestly, it boggles the mind, how anyone came up with a slide rule, let alone was able to use one to solve the kinds of scientific and mathematical conundrums that led us to the digital age on them. Maybe the experts are right; we are dumber than we were a couple generations ago...)

The ultra-groovy HypnoScreen (TM)
And me without my 3D glasses... I think the EMP is trying to run the Pacific Science Center's laser show out of business with this thing.

Look to the skies!
Ah, now I get it. While everyone is hypnotized by the HypnoScreen (TM), the Space Jellyfish descend and devour their prey.

The gift shop - OF DOOM!
One heck of an entrance for a fairly tepid-looking gift shop, if you ask me.

A sonic tornado!
Actually, this explains it. Yes, there were instruments rigged to play themselves; you could listen to them on the headphones by the base. Pretty cool, really...

That's about all I got. Afterwards, I headed off to a family function. In hindsight, I should've stayed behind... I really, really should've stayed...

But if I had, I wouldn't be here, writing up this blog post.

And sitting in front of my nice, cool fan.