Weekends

Last Saturday (the 12th), a lovely afternoon date with mizarchivist was interrupted by her burning desire for BRAAAINS! I thus sadly had to watch her and buxom_bey shamble off to participate in the Zombie March. Pictures ensue: MzA. Bey (in the burgundy). Both together. (Pictures courtesy hammercock and pixel.) We all met up again at lifecollage and mangosteen's Re-Stacking Party, which really had almost too many pretty woman per square foot.

Monday, Bey and I had our first dancing lesson, so we won't look silly at the reception. We learned the basics of the waltz, foxtrot, and rumba. Slow, slow, quick-quick; slow, slow, quick-quick . . .

Wednesday, Bey and I had cathijosephine over for the night, and watched Star Trek: Nemesis. Yeah, you could tell they cut out all the character bits. (I've got the disc with the deleted scenes on its way from Netflix.) Still, I've seen worse Trek films, and Wil Wheaton looked so delighted to be there in the split-seconds he was on screen . . .

Sunday, Bey and I shopped like mad things, populating two more of our wedding registries (we have, umm, too many), and hitting the sale at Harrison's Comics.

And today we have doeeyedbunny over to watch Heroes and yell at the television . . .

Books: Thrilling Tales of Barbarians and Mutinies! Plus, Mind Hacks

McSweeney's Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales, edited by Michael Chabon

This anthology was Chabon's experiment with subverting the modern definition of the short story, which he lays out as "the quotidian, plotless, moment-of-truth revelatory story". He went out and asked authors for stories with plots in 'em, darnit. The stories he ended up with are often quotidian, and also often revelatory, but they do actually have plots, and some of them (particularly Gaiman's "Closing Time", Hornby's "Otherwise Pandemonium", and (though I wouldn't have guessed it was to my taste) Laurie King's "Weaving the Dark") are quite good. A few others, I didn't finish. Moderately recommended as an experiment in modern short stories, not recommended as a collection of pulp advenutures (as the cover might lead you to think it is).

Kothar, Barbarian Swordsman by Gardner Fox

Though Fox is better known for his work in comics, I seem to have a soft spot for his novels. Kothar is a blithe Conan-clone (to the point that the Kothar stories were adapted into Conan comics in the 70s), but they're moderately imaginative and entertaining. Even if Fox clearly had no idea what "shibboleth" means.

Mutiny in Space by Avram Davidson

A novel about the loyal survivors of a mutiny, who set down in their lifeboat on a planet where the women are six feet tall, and the men are three feet tall, with the inevitable result that the women are the warriors. The coming of six-foot-tall men into this society rips it to bits, even before the rapacious mutineers show up . . . Interesting, and I give Davidson points for wrapping up a complex plot in the last few sentences of the book, with seconds to spare, but I'm still not sure why people are so gung-ho about him.

Mind Hacks by Stafford and Webb

An O'Reilly book about assorted tricks of how our brain works, many of which are kinda freaky to learn. Summary: Our brain is faking it most of the time, and it's very easy to make the seams show, if you know how. Recommended.