The Bearer of Light Brings No Morning

I just finished reading 2061: Odyssey Three by Arthur C. Clarke. For some reason this book felt a little longer that the other two. Anyway this one takes place some 50 years after the second novel, and one of the main characters, one Heywood Floyd, has returned at the ripe old age of 103. Though through living in reduced gravity and having undergone two hibernation cycles in the previous book he may be more like 65. So anyway I’m gonna do something different here and give you a little plot. OOOOooooo. Don’t get used to it.

In the last book, the humans rendezvoused with Discovery and HAL, life was found on Europa, Jupiter was collapsed by the Monoliths, and humanity was told not to land on Europa. There that should catch you up. Well humanity has improved its space faring ability and has stretched out its hands to the solar system. The Jovian system’s ministar Lucifer, Bearer of Light, has vastly changed the climate on the planets surrounding it. Europa’s shrouded in clouds, but sensors indicate what appears to be a Monolith on the surface. Suddenly a several kilometer high mountain appears on the planet, and no one can explain it. That is until one man makes a remarkable discovery. He travels to The Jovian system aboard the Galaxy to test his theory, but he’s been too careless with his information. A rival group is on the ship with him and forces a landing on Europa, against the instructions from the message 50 years earlier. Now the only ship that can rescue them is the Universe, on its maiden flight on the other side of the system, in the middle of an expedition to Halley’s Comet. Heywood Floyd, aboard the Universe, must once again travel to the Jovian system aboard the fastest ship in the solar system to reach a stranded vessel. Only this time His Grandson is aboard the stranded ship and no one knows if the rescue mission will be allowed to land.

There, look, plot. BE AMAZED. Anyway, it’s a pretty good third installment. You can tell Clarke worked the second book and this one with continuations in mind. They are quite different than the first book. Anyway, this one is at least as good as the last one, though I have to say I still prefer the Rama series. It’s also nice to see the similarities and differences to the Time Odyssey series. On to the last book.

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Second Time Around

Several days ago I reviewed 2001: A Space Odyssey, when I had actually already finished 2010: Odyssey Two. I always find Clarke’s choice of simplistic titles interesting. Anyway I’m going to keep this review shorter than the last one.

2010 was published in 1982, a full 14 years after 2001. Clarke does something interesting here too. He decides to make this book the sequel to the screenplay rather than the first book. It’s an interesting choice, and probably a necessary one for the plot he wrote. Jupiter just offered too many options. This book also seems to develop the characters a little better. Clarke also delves into interpersonal relationships more, sexual relationships specifically. It’s a sign of how the times had changed from when the first book was written. May of Clarke’s stories since then devote a fair amount of page space to things of a sexual nature.

Overall this is a fitting sequel to the first book about which Clarke said he never intended to write a sequel. I was surprised at how quick a read it was. Plus it’s funny reading about the dates that things happened in the book’s alternate history.

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Drink Naming

For several months, I’ve been enjoying a version of the screwdriver I created. I had been trying to think of a good name the whole time. Well the screwdriver recipe is as follows:

3 oz vodka (from the freezer of course) I like Frïs (mild), Tanqueray Sterling (nice flavor), and Ketel One (peppery)

1 oz quality tangerine juice

4 oz quality orange juice

Feel free to adjust the vodka portion to taste.

So I’ve been drinking these for several months. At first I had to squeeze my own tangerine juice. Just recently my grocery store started to carry tangerine juice. Anyway I was talking with some friends before lunch today and the name came to me. It’s an Africanized Screwdriver. In order to understand that one, just look at the origin of the tangerine name and a certain insect’s history of hybridization

Now back to finishing my Africanized Screwdriver.

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Sunday Picking

I picked some tomatoes on Sunday Morning. I also picked Saturday morning, but this is by far the largest tomato harvest I have had or will have this year. I supplied the requisite Dr. Pepper can for scale. All the ones on the ground are Brandywine, with the basket containing Better Boy and Century.


This is the biggest Brandywine of the bunch. It was so massive it bruised itself due to it's own weight.


This is not the largest harvest of Roma tomatoes I have gotten, but the harvests look to be tapering off from now on.


This is one of the two Pomegranate seedlings my Dad brought me.


Other than that, there's not much to talk about.

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Homer Never Imagined This Odyssey

I’ve read a bunch of books by Arthur C. Clarke, including the Rama series, but I never managed to read the Space Odyssey series. Well I finally got around to starting it with 2001: A Space Odyssey. The book I have is nice because it has a special introduction form Clarke that gives all sorts of interesting information. I had forgotten that Clarke built the book on his short story “The Sentinel” along with many other stories and new ideas. The most interesting thing is that Clarke and Stanley Kubrick worked together to make the screenplay and Clarke wrote the book at the same time. Clarke even indicates that the movie came out first because Kubrick didn’t finish reviewing papers Clarke sent to him. Also the Apollo 8 crew got to see an early showing of the “2001” movie before they launched for the moon. They later told Clarke that when they rounded the back side of the moon they had been tempted to radio back the discovery of a large black monolith. But on with the rambling at hand.

I’ve seen the movie a few times, so I was interested in the differences between it and the book. First a little background on the book/screenplay. Clarke and Kubrick started discussing and working on it in ’64. Since it draws on some previous stories it really sits at the end of the Golden Age of Science Fiction and just before the beginning of the New Wave. The book is very Clarkian, if I can use that word. It deals with big themes and ideas, astoundingly competent science for the day it was written, and questions the very essence of humanity and our place in the universe. The book differs from the movie in that the final destination is Saturn not Jupiter. In the book Jupiter is merely used as a gravitational slingshot to reach Saturn. Kubrick apparently changed this when he found out there was no appealing way to create Saturn’s rings onscreen. There are some differences with how the events unfold with HAL and the deaths of all the other astronauts, but other than that most of the story is the same.

The book is actually far shorter than I was expecting. It is probably one of the shorter big name Clarke books I’ve read, besides Childhood’s End. You can tell it’s earlier in his career while you are reading the book. The characterization isn’t as good as it becomes later, and the sexual events and overtones are not there. It all reflects the dying embers of the Golden Age. When reading the book one must remember that man had yet to set foot on the moon, and we had sent to probes beyond Earth’s gravity field. All of Clarke’s descriptions of the Jovian and Saturn systems are astounding. Any small errors one detects must softened by the realization that the systems had only been observed from Earth based telescopes. Clarke even admits in the foreword that some have criticized him for revealing too much in explanations of what was happening. I disagree, but to each their own.

Basically, if you like Clarkian books then this is a must read. Besides, it’s a 4 book trilogy that started as a single screenplay/book.

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Potter’s Wheeling

Well last Thursday I went to the theater with my brother to see “Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix.” I reviewed the previous movie a year and a half ago. It’s hard to believe it’s been that long, until you see how the actors have aged. Anyway, on with the show.

I said in the previous review that I thought the movie was rushed. It was based on a long book and there were scenes that felt like the last minute of dialog were cut. Well this movie is based on an even longer book, but there didn’t seem to be as many scene fragments lying around. It seems that they spent more time figuring out what they could prune and making the rest mesh together better. The editing was better. However, it was pretty obvious that there was a lot missing. Characters that received only fleeting air time in the previous movies were there a lot more, but didn’t develop much. New characters hit the ground running without much back story. It makes the watcher beg for more information about characters. A friend said he thought it should have been about 30 minutes longer. Well I haven’t read the books, so I don’t know all the stuff that was left out. However, listening to others talk about it indicates to me that the additional elements might have been difficult to mesh in 30 minutes, and may have already been left out of previous movies. In any event, the missing explanations and character development makes me want to read the books even more. And that should be considered a success for any author.

This one was better than the last movie. I will read the books at some point, probably when I can by all of them in one boxed set. At that point I may have some more words to say about the films, but for now it’s a good movie and worthy successor to the rest. Go see it.

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I don't think I've posted too many pics recently. Well i haven't posted that much at all. Anyway i thought I would put something up. Here is a pic of one of my Dwarf Crepe Myrtles I have anchoring the walkpath to the driveway. They seem to be doing alright considering the late frost and dry hot summer. It's just starting to bloom.


This is the second Brandywine tomato I picked from the vines. That is indeed my hand and that is a pile of Romas i picked in one day from my 4 vines. I gave the Brandywine to one of the guys at work. I've got more coming in now. For some reason the Better Boys have been more susceptible to blossom end rot. I'll have to research and maybe test the soil for next year.


In case you thought it was an optical illusion, this is the same tomato from the side. The scary thing is that this isn't the biggest tomato on the vines.


I'm still getting okra and I've had a few ears of corn come in. Some of the ears are small due to the hot dry weather and my tendency to not thin the ranks enough. But all in all it's not too bad for a first year try.

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Die Cast Action

Well last Tuesday I had the day off. I have vacation time I’m having to start taking or I will lose it. So I went to see “Live Free or Die Hard.” First of all Bruce is getting a little old for these parts. Other than that however, this was a bang up good movie. And for once the good guy actually gets to beat up the villainous woman. Come on equal treatment in the workplace. It got good reviews on RT and I enjoyed it a lot. The only thing about it was not so good was the depiction of the computer stuff and the action with the plane. Who thinks server rooms look like that? I mean really. Oh well. If you liked the other Die Hard movies then go see this one, at least at the matinee.

Then Saturday some out of town friends and I went to see “Transformers.” I wasn’t sure what to expect, but according to some of the reviews I was hopeful. They had the real Optimus Prime voice, and most of the geek crowd wasn’t crying foul. So how did it fare. It was a pretty good rendition of a live action Transformers movie. I was impressed. The acting was good and the story line was pretty good. It turned out better than I expected. Plus the battle scenes were awesome. There was some service for the kids and hokey love stuff, but it was kept manageable. I recommend anyone who likes action take a look at this one.

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Myopic, Lethargic, and Rapacious

I’m reminded of a quote from Abraham Lincoln that goes, “You cannot escape the responsibility of tomorrow by evading it today.” I thought of that, because I just finished read Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond this past weekend. That quote sums up a great deal of what the book is about. The other measure of the book concerns studying the past in order to understand ourselves. I recommend reading the reviews of friends here and here.

This is the second of the books by Diamond I have read. I reviewed Guns Germs and Steel earlier. Whereas that book coved why certain civilizations became the world conquering powers of today, this one explores the civilizations that didn’t make it. Well that’s not true. It covers some that made it and some that didn’t. Then it delves into the differences between the two.

This is a long book and it took me longer than normal to read it. I was distracted by other things and had to steal time away to read it. However, it was well worth it. GGaS may have won Diamond a Pulitzer, but I see this book as more important. Almost anyone who can read a book of this length can understand where Diamond is coming from here. In chapters he lays out societies from early civilizations to pretty modern nation-states that that have collapsed due to essentially mismanagement of their environment. He then examines similar societies that survived, and in some cases thrived, because they undertook the steps necessary to secure their future.

As my friend Smitty commented in his review, the brilliant thing is that Diamond doesn’t get preachy about saving the horned owl or some such thing for its own sake. The point he does make is that saving a little money right now by ignoring pollution, overpopulation, overfishing, and overworking the environment is going to cost taxpayer a hell of a lot more money down the road. He explains it all in dollars and cents manner rather than appealing to altruism. I think that method will appeal to far more people than most others.

So as you might be able to tell I really liked this book. It’s probably one of the best I’ve read in a long time, and I think most people should read it. I let my father borrow GGaS to read, and I’ll probably send this one after that.

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Saturday

A few interesting things happened Saturday. For one thing the continuation of the rain storms at some point during the day continued. We got some rain in the evening. I’ve been really happy that I haven’t had to water the garden in the past several days. Watering different parts of it daily was getting to be quite a chore. Now however, the grass is starting to grow. Well you can’t have everything.

I picked okra early in the morning, since I had neglected to pick it Friday. My parents went to Commerce, GA Friday and stopped by my house that morning on the trip. They picked up something I had to exchange for my Dad and a little okra as well. I had way too much for myself to be able to prepare and freeze, so they took it. As a surprise they left something in its place. They left me some corn from my Dad’s garden, and 2 small pomegranate sproutlings they got from a friend’s yard. Now I have them in pots waiting on them to get a little bigger before I decide where to put them. I’m thinking it’ll have to be in the sunnier and drier parts of the yard. Maybe in front of the garden.

I did the requisite dish cleaning and such after some breakfast and a little TV watching. I went outside to receive my self prescribed dose of ultraviolet radiation. It’s my way of fighting the kickin’ farmer’s tan I was building up in the early spring. While outside I heard something moving around and looked up from my book. Lo and behold, what may have been a Gray fox went trotting across the back yard. I’ve been looking up information about them. The animal seemed a little tall and the muzzle was a little long and thick for a Gray fox, so it may have been something else. In fact it looked a little like a young Grey wolf, leading me to believe it may have merely been a wild dog. I’m not sure, but the scat that appeared in the front yard a week ago resembles descriptions of fox scat on the web, and I have seen several dead foxes on the side of the road over the past year. I’ll keep my eyes open and see if I can get a picture if I ever see it again.

I came back in showered and decided I was bored, so I went to see a movie. I freely admit I went to see “Evan Almighty.” I enjoyed the first movie, so I figured why not. As for the review, I give it a big meh. It was ok. Rent it if you want to see it. No need to go to a theater and pay those prices. In the end it’s a sequel that doesn’t live up to its original.

I came home made some dinner and roasted about 3 dozen little Roma tomatoes. I’m trying to make a sauce so I can freeze it for later. Then I decided to do something I haven’t done in many months. I took my blender out to make a “Purple Pomelator,” that’s a “Purple Nurple” with some pomegranate juice in there. Anyway I put the mixin’s inside and the ice and fired up the blender. I heard the normal grinding of the ice and what not and then it went WHEEEEEEEEEE. I wasn’t sure what had happened. I lifted the jar off the motor and my worst fear had happened. The danged gear on the top of the motor housing had shattered. It was ruined. I had always considered that to be my greatest concern as a point of failure, and those fears bore out. Well it did last for over 5 glorious years and lots of ice and frozen beverages. I’m going to see if I can find a way to replace the gear. I hate for a piece of hard plastic to kill an otherwise fantastic piece of equipment. Anyway, so Sunday I took my trusty 20% off coupon to BB&B to get a new one. Well BB&B doesn’t sell that model anymore. They sell a new model that has a design change that specifically fixes the component that failed on my blender. The only problem is that it comes with a polycarbonate jar rather than a glass one. Polycarbonate costs less to make and ship, but it is much noisier when you start throwing ice around inside of it. So I broke down, used the coupon, and bought the blender. It works quite nicely, but it is at least twice as loud as my old one. But I haven’t given up yet. I’m going to look for a way to revive my onyx jewel. Hopefully I can.

Update: I have just placed an order for 2 blender couplings for my little black baby. They should arrive in a couple of weeks. From forum that I have read I now need to make a special wrench to hold the shaft while I take the busted one off. I like a challenge.

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