Musings, Part P

- I missed Shakespeare Day? Oh, Chicago. You have art museums, pizza, hot dogs, you had a pretty bad fire back in the 1870s, you're not too pure politics-wise and now Shakespeare Day. Awesome.
- With Kindle, Can You Tell It's Proust?. I have a Kindle, one of the first generation ones. I got it using birthday money from my grandparents that they gave me early so I could enter the queue for it on Amazon. I still remember the thrill when I got the email that I'd moved to the front (or really, that production had moved to my spot) and my Kindle would be arriving soon. My new toy was shiny (well, bright white) and awesome. I carried it everywhere, still do. For me, an unapologetic bookworm, the Kindle doesn't replace books. I still buy them and request them in lists that most people would wince at (the length, not the titles I hope). I take a book with me everywhere and now I take my Kindle. It's like the transition from having a cd player to having an iPod, you still buy music (I now mostly download, legally, from the iTunes store and keep my shopping cart on there full, waiting the day when I either have more money or just need new music) it's just easier to carry around and change at a whim. I still buy books and I'll never, ever stop. Now, I can just get electronic versions as well so when I travel I don't have to pack three or four books (depending on the length of the trip it may be more or less) I can just pack the Kindle and it's power cord. I can change computer Word documents to text files and load them up and read them away from the computer without having to print things out (which kills trees and I'm so used to reading off the computer I wouldn't bother anyway), I can even make notes on the document while I go and with the smaller screen, be able to focus on a couple paragraphs at a time without being distracted by something else on the page. And yeah, so people don't know what I'm reading, but if it's a guilty pleasure, I don't mind being mysterious. Let them think its Dickens or Tolstoy, I'll just be happy with my Alex Archer or JD Robb. Terry Pratchett though...that I wouldn't mind advertising. And with my Kindle, I can always stop in the middle of whatever I'm reading and indulge in some Pride and Prejudice.
- Oh, Star Trek. You're awesome. Until this article (Vulcans Never, Ever Smile), I didn't realize a series had been on pretty much consistently from the year after I was born until the end of my freshman year of college (if it really has been only 4 years since Enterprise went off the air). I think one of the things that sets it apart from other sci-fi series is that it's a very hopeful vision of the future. Earth is a utopia, there's basically a United States of the universe in the United Federation of Planets. The military arm of the UFP has a mainly scientific mission, to discover new stuff and boldly go. There's even a rule (the Prime Directive) about not mucking about in cultures which aren't at the same technology level you are, a kind of anti-imperialism which is awesome. Yeah, they fight bad guys, but to protect freedom and all that (We're All Trekkies Now). Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of apocalyptic/utopian/dystopian sci-fi but I'm an equal opportunity sci-fi reader, I'll read anything that looks like it has an interesting plot. And Star Trek is no stranger to the darker stuff, Section 31, fleshed out in Deep Space Nine (my personal favorite series), acts as an intelligence bureau with seemingly no real oversight or accountability for their machinations, they just claim to "defend" the Federation. There's parallels to the Holocaust with the Cardassian's subjugation of the Bajorans, fears about keeping one's individuality and resisting oppression with the Borg, fears about being able to tailor your child to be better and stronger through Dr. Bashir's illegal genetic engineering (that his parents did to him when he was a child, fearing he would always be slower than the others). But it's still hopeful and a universe where diversity is accepted without question, no matter whether it is skin color, religious background, number of forehead ridges, or whether a person has red blood or green, everyone is alien so no one is excluded. What a wonderful world.
- Mexico City is not having a good day. First, the swine flu thing so people are staying indoors and now, a 6.0 earthquake meaning that not even indoors is safe (Strong Earthquake Felt in Mexico City). Welcome to the beginning of the end of April, Mexico. Happy Monday.
- Cue girlish aww: Suppers at Midnight.