Andy and Darcy’s Blog

People have said I should read it and now I have. The Time Machine is very old science fiction / fantasy, and even though it is a classic it is very readable and even quite suspenseful. It is really a very simple story (just one story line), which is really refreshing. And it’s a quick read. Like many other books of this era, the main character, who is a sort of snooty scientific fellow invites all his snooty scientific friends over to discuss physics and time travel. The second time the snooty science friends meet, the main character tells the story of his journey to the future where he discovers the Morlocks and the Eloi. The Morlocks and Eloi are both descended from humans, but the Eloi are more like cows and the Morlocks are more like Eloitarians. And the Morlocks are slimy (figuratively) and could be the foreunners of the Tlulaxa (in my imagination anyway).

I think the main character went about 108,000 years into the future. It’s too bad he didn’t stop in the 24th century to meet Jean Luc Picard because this guy needs to know about the prime directive. He created some really serious havoc to get his time machine back. Those slimy Morlocks took it.

Three Stars on Darcy’s Sci Fi / Fantasy rating scale, which is quite respectable.

So as I was going through my Google Reader links. I noticed this one from Kiger’s Notebook. (Which by the way is a wonderful blog that will keep you up to date on the business/going-ons in Rochester).

It does imply that there is already a hard ice cream spot in the Miracle Mile, I would guess in the Chocolate Shoppe (I don’t care if it doesn’t have the extra “pe”, thats the way I’ll always spell shop when it has chocolate in front of it) there.

So tonight after Adam and Amber stopped by …

I finished reading A Scanner Darkly. This book is quite interesting. I don’t know what genre of science fiction it is from but it has a cyberpunk-like quality except that it is actually entertaining. Everyone takes drugs knowing fully that they will fry their brains and some are undercover police officers who are drug addicts as well but on the side of good. There are plans within plans. I’d tell you what the title means but it is deep and it requires an explanation that is longer than I’m willing to type tonight. Here is what Philip K. Dick says about the novel at the end:

“There is no moral in this novel; it is not bourgeois; it does not say they were wrong to play when they should have toiled; it just tells what the consequences were. ”

And the ending notes by the author indicate that it is very autobiographical. That’s even more messed up.

So on my science fiction rating scale of personal enjoyment and likeliness to reread, this book gets 3 stars. This is a quality book. I probably won’t read it again, but there is really nothing wrong with it. It’s interesting, it grabs you, and its really not even about a topic I would normally enjoy. (Minus one because its not something I would normally enjoy and minus one because I probably won’t re-read). I feel a little guilty that such a good book has gotten such a low rating on my personal scale, but oh well. 3 stars are what I have rated A Storm Of Swords and The Crystal Cave (both good). But 3 stars are also the rating I have given A Fire Upon The Deep (not that great, although well written + original). Maybe I should rethink these ratings.

But I would be interested enough to see the movie, which is very artistic looking as well. I know this because I saw Andy watching a lot of it…I wasn’t really paying attention though. I think Keanu Reeves is in this movie, and for some reason when I think of him I feel the urge to say “Dude!!”. So there it is.

That’s about how our volleyball match turned out tonight too. We were the Dahlias. And the Lilies only won 3 games. Oh well!!

I really appreciate weekends in Rochester. This is what I say after having some crazy weekends that involved some traveling and general business. It started with some hail (see Andy’s post for photos!!), but after that it was a beautiful weekend.

Saturday
Saturday morning was nice and relaxing. Saturday afternoon I got some errands done. Saturday at 4:30 we went to mass. Saturday evening Andy and I cooked. We’ve been cooking out of the Rick Bayless cookbook that Kyle and Holly Lucke gave us. We had Roadside Chicken with Roasted Tomatillo salsa. And then we had strawberry icecream. That was a fabulous meal. And we watched Hitch, which is a very funny movie (ok, Andy didn’t watch all of it). Here’s one thing I noticed about the movie, which was just on television: they cut out part of the dancing scene. That is my favorite scene in the whole movie!! I really don’t feel complete. Can borrow this movie from anyone?

Sunday
Sunday was also good. We slept in. We did a few things outside around the house. We went rollerblading/biking in Silver Lake park. And then we made yet another recipe from the Rick Bayless cookbook. Chorizo, Potato, and Mushroom tacos with watermelon for dessert. And for second dessert we went to Dairy Queen for their fabulous soft serve. I had a chocolate dipped cone, which is my favorite thing there for many years running. (My previous favorite was the cherry Mr. Misty float but I’m not sure why anymore…its like a pixie stick slush with some really good soft serve in the middle).

And in between all of that I finished The Hand of Oberon (now onto The Courts Of Chaos) and I read (and am still reading) A Scanner Darkly. I also discovered that another lily has begun to grow (go lilies! we’re now 4/7). And somehow the house ended up a little cleaner than it was the week before.

My picture posting project has come to an end. They’re all there now, unless they were already in Andy’s folders before my project started.

Now that I’ve finished that, I may scan in some of my older pictures. Or I might continue reading The Great Book of Amber, which I’ve determined has been mostly likely written by a fantasy geek engineer. The engineer part is important because of the unique, overly descriptive, anachronistic phrases that are sprinkled throughout the book. These kind of bother me. Or maybe it is more accurate to say that there are certain phrases in this book that are either the main character stating the obvious (like “It’s me, Corwin, speaking”) or they sound like they’re spoken by someone about my age in their normal course of speaking. Obviously everyone should have a British accent when you live in a fantasy world.

So today when I was waiting for Darcy to get home from work, I noticed it was getting pretty dark out. Not surprising since the bike ride home was a bit wet. Well I kept watching and it started to rain, which was then followed by some “heavy rain”, which turned out to be some quarter sized hail, shortly following that was the storm siren. Being the enterprising photographer that I am, I went around the house and took some pictures.

Luckily Darcy showed up mid-storm and wasn’t driving in the hail for all that long. I wonder how many people weren’t so lucky…

So after realizing I have a picture taking paradigm (see my previous post), I have come up with a new idea. My idea is this: to try and take a picture of something everyday. I think I’m going to try and carry around my camera more often. For instance, tomorrow we’re going to Rochesterfest for lunch. I will probably take a picture there.

I’ve thought about the sorting and organization of this new experiment as well. I think it will be organized something like how I organize my longer vacations…it will probably have its own folder with sub folders for classification.

So we’ll see how long this lasts.

As I’ve been uploading my photos to our zenfolio account, I’ve noticed they fall into these three categories for the most part. Maybe I should try and include more everyday activities! Tonight I took two pictures of Andy laying on the couch. I don’t think he was too thrilled. Maybe I’ll put these in the “Andy Sits On Couch” gallery.

So for the longest time I have been taking pictures and storing them on my computer. I enjoy them, but no one ever gets to see them. Now I am working on putting them all at photos.andyanddarcy.com. So stay tuned, and check back at our photo website regularly.

I do take requests.