What's with the weather?

I mean, it's going in the oddest cycles. 15 degrees at night, up to mid-20's during the day, gradually rising over the week to 33 - thirty-three?!?!?! on Saturday at which point we will have spectacular storms, and then back to 19 - nineteen!!!! on Sunday. At which point it goes up again gradually until 33 the following Saturday.


Do you think it's global warming? There's a popular (and probably misquoted) theory that weather patterns are due to a butterfly frapping its wings in the Amazon. But this article says that at least one species of flutterby is on the verge of extinction due to global warming. So I think it's actually all butterfly interspecies conflict. Eventually all that will be left is the species causing the weather, at which point they'll stop frapping their wings.

Oh wait, don't butterflies have to flap their wings to survive or something? Dang. That's obviously not a well-thought-out genocide plan.

how to calibrate a geek

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Chapman
Sent: Monday, 21 November 2005 10:19 PM
To: butercup
Subject: Top 20 Sci-Fi novels...

Link from Slashdot (featuring American Gods at number 17).

-----------------------------------
So anyway, rather than bore you with heading off to that link, there was a list of 20 sci-fi novels ranked according to how many geeks liked them. Of the top 20, I've read the following:

1. The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams 85% (102)
2. Nineteen Eighty-Four -- George Orwell 79% (92)
3. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley 69% (77)
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Philip Dick 64% (67)
5. Neuromancer -- William Gibson 59% (66)
6. Dune -- Frank Herbert 53% (54)
7. I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov 52% (54)
8. Foundation -- Isaac Asimov 47% (47)
9. The Colour of Magic -- Terry Pratchett 46% (46)
11. Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson 37% (37)
13. Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson 36% (36)
15. Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein 33% (33)
17. American Gods -- Neil Gaiman 31% (29)
18. The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson 27% (27)

and
14. Consider Phlebas -- Iain M Banks 34% (35) <<<-- I'm not sure if this is the one I finished, or the one I didn't. I borrowed 2 from the Michael named above, and damme if I can remember which one I liked less.

I'm obviously a geek. But the point is, I knew if I waited long enough, someone would make it easier for me to tell the universe what I like. The list from above, reordered according to my preferences, which can henceforth be used to calibrate my book reviews:

1. The HitchHiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- Douglas Adams 85% (102)
5. Neuromancer -- William Gibson 59% (66)
13. Cryptonomicon -- Neal Stephenson 36% (36)
18. The Diamond Age -- Neal Stephenson 27% (27)
2. Nineteen Eighty-Four -- George Orwell 79% (92)
11. Snow Crash -- Neal Stephenson 37% (37)
8. Foundation -- Isaac Asimov 47% (47)
7. I, Robot -- Isaac Asimov 52% (54)
15. Stranger in a Strange Land -- Robert Heinlein 33% (33)
4. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? -- Philip Dick 64% (67)
9. The Colour of Magic -- Terry Pratchett 46% (46)
3. Brave New World -- Aldous Huxley 69% (77)
6. Dune -- Frank Herbert 53% (54)
17. American Gods -- Neil Gaiman 31% (29)

BTW - I just finished American Gods, and I was disappointed. I think it comes down to the fact that Gaiman gives you too much. I could predict what a character would do next, or what would happen next, and it would be correct. I much preferred having to work a bit harder for the outcome, like in Quicksilver. Now that's an excellent book. Why isn't *it* in that top 20. Sheesh!

And come to think of it, there are other books by the writers in the "top 20" that I would put on *my* list anyway. I particularly liked The Number of the Beast by Heinlein, I mentioned Quicksilver (Stephenson) and I can't leave out The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul. But anyway ... consider the calibration complete.

... here endeth the lesson, kids. Now go out and read.

it is time for some poetry

Crap joke in inbox
Rewritten as a haiku
And then sent to blog:

Man visits the zoo.
But there is only a dog.

It is a shitzu.

Thanks jarv. You rock.

domesticity

Ahh .. peace ...

It's 3.45pm on a Sunday afternoon. The birds are chirping happily, it's about 25 degrees with a bit of a breeze and I've just farewelled the last of my school friends who was here for brunch. Brunch!! It's 3.45pm!!

It's so good to be finished with the studying. For one thing I've been able to read Novels!! Although nothing stopped me from reading them during the MBA, I always felt like there was something else I should be doing instead. Matter of fact, there usually was!! But now I'm free, I have the results due in December sometime, and so now I can indulge in some essentially non-productive behaviour. Like ... reading novels! In fact I started my first post-MBA novel on Tuesday (after the Exam) .. and finished it this morning. [It was Neil Gaiman's American Gods, if you're interested. Very well written, but not as gripping as Neal Stephenson.]

I'm so happy to be able to relax on the couch, feet up, watching Buffy, with a glass of leftover bubbly and some brunchy nibbles. DTM's gone for a sing - maybe I'll have tetris-stacked the leftovers into the fridge by the time he gets back ... or maybe not. It's just so hard to get motivated ...

smells like green spirit

You recall I was wondering about the smell of freshly cut genetically engineered grass, among other things .. well thanks to the largish amount of rain we've had recently, and some well-timed sunshine, our lawn had its first haircut last weekend.

The entire of the saga can be viewed through flickr . Suffice to say, that lawn never stood a chance, 10 minutes and the lawn mower was victorious.

Posted by Picasa


And after all that, even if it did smell like freshly cut grass, we couldn't keep it. Someone already trademarked that smell - for tennis balls. *sigh*

I"ve visited my blog this many times:

Free Web Counters