Adventures in Reading
Dec. 19th, 2004 07:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
willow_redGads, I really don't post often enough, do I? Work has been keeping me more than busy lately. I should have been there today, but I didn't go. *Sigh* You're all going to laugh (with reason), but I'm going to try to get up early so I can get the stuff done that I need to by noon. We'll see how successful I am.
Though I'm sure anyone who cares already knows, Sean O'Keefe resigned as NASA Administrator. This makes me quite happy, as he is clueless when it comes to all things science- or engineering-related. The short list of candidates for O'Keefe's replacement are Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, former Congressman Robert Walker, and former shuttle astronauts Ron Sega, Charles Bowden, and Robert Crippen. I don't know much about some of these guys, but I have met Ron Sega, and he's a really cool guy. He did a short stint as the Dean of Engineering at UCCS. Robert Crippen was on the first Space Shuttle flight with John Young, who recently retired from astronaut status at NASA.
A likely outcome of this change in leadership will be sending astronauts to service the Hubble Space Telescope, rather than the currently planned Robotic Servicing Mission. As reports from the National Academy of Sciences and the Aerospace Corporation have said, it only makes sense to send astronauts. Sean O'Keefe is the only person who thinks a Hubble mission is any more dangerous than ISS missions, and he'll be gone by the time a final decision is expected next summer. Even though this affects my job directly, I still find it more important to do the right thing. Besides, I'm sure we'll manage to have some part in what gets done to Hubble. In the meantime, I'm learning a lot, and so are many other people.
I spent most of today reading, and read the entire second half of the book I've been on: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. I really enjoyed this one. To place it in a genre is a bit difficult. It's very sci-fi/alternate history, but that doesn't really do it justice. Instead of cyberpunk or steampunk, could there be such a thing as "literarypunk"? If so, this would be it. In this world, Britain has a rather extensive Special Operations department, with agents who work with everything from historical continuity to fighting vampires to safeguarding literature. The main character, Thursday Next, works for the latter group. This world is far more literary than our own, and classical art and literature are worth rioting over. I've never read Jane Eyre, but that didn't get in the way of the plot too much, since the author spells things out pretty well. The review on the cover of the book targets it toward fans of Monty Python (which I only vaguely see), Harry Potter, Stephen Hawking, and Buffy. I would say that if anything, it most closely resembles Read or Die. There are no paper users, but plenty of cool powers make up for that just fine. I don't want to give away any spoilers, since the twists and turns are so much fun. The villian is pretty villiany, but I think he almost enjoys being a mockery of the classic bad guy. Some stuff is fairly predictable, but I didn't mind all that much.
A quick check of Amazon tells me that there are three more books in this series, and an equally quick check of the local library shows that they have them. Going to need to get over there sometime in the next week or two. I was given The Eyre Affair by my friend Alyssa when I visited her in June, on the condition that I read it and pass it along to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
illyanarasputin, which I plan to do. However, I know she'll take at least as long as I did to get around to reading it, so with her permission, I'd like to pass it around a bit more first. I might try to get my mom to read it, since I know she'll love the Shakespeare conspiracy theories, but the person who I think most needs to read this book other than illyanarasputin is lilacwire. I can think of one scene in particular that the Mistress of Grammar will love! *Cackles evilly*
Since I knowashfae has read this book, I'll ask, have you read any of the sequels? Are they even half as good as the original?
I'm going to try not to think about all the things I should have done this weekend but didn't. At least I got to see House of Flying Daggers yesterday, which I really liked, even if some in the group didn't. Probably time to wind down for the evening so I can go to sleep and get up early tomorrow. I don't want to think about how much work I have to do this week.
Though I'm sure anyone who cares already knows, Sean O'Keefe resigned as NASA Administrator. This makes me quite happy, as he is clueless when it comes to all things science- or engineering-related. The short list of candidates for O'Keefe's replacement are Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald Kadish, former Congressman Robert Walker, and former shuttle astronauts Ron Sega, Charles Bowden, and Robert Crippen. I don't know much about some of these guys, but I have met Ron Sega, and he's a really cool guy. He did a short stint as the Dean of Engineering at UCCS. Robert Crippen was on the first Space Shuttle flight with John Young, who recently retired from astronaut status at NASA.
A likely outcome of this change in leadership will be sending astronauts to service the Hubble Space Telescope, rather than the currently planned Robotic Servicing Mission. As reports from the National Academy of Sciences and the Aerospace Corporation have said, it only makes sense to send astronauts. Sean O'Keefe is the only person who thinks a Hubble mission is any more dangerous than ISS missions, and he'll be gone by the time a final decision is expected next summer. Even though this affects my job directly, I still find it more important to do the right thing. Besides, I'm sure we'll manage to have some part in what gets done to Hubble. In the meantime, I'm learning a lot, and so are many other people.
I spent most of today reading, and read the entire second half of the book I've been on: The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. I really enjoyed this one. To place it in a genre is a bit difficult. It's very sci-fi/alternate history, but that doesn't really do it justice. Instead of cyberpunk or steampunk, could there be such a thing as "literarypunk"? If so, this would be it. In this world, Britain has a rather extensive Special Operations department, with agents who work with everything from historical continuity to fighting vampires to safeguarding literature. The main character, Thursday Next, works for the latter group. This world is far more literary than our own, and classical art and literature are worth rioting over. I've never read Jane Eyre, but that didn't get in the way of the plot too much, since the author spells things out pretty well. The review on the cover of the book targets it toward fans of Monty Python (which I only vaguely see), Harry Potter, Stephen Hawking, and Buffy. I would say that if anything, it most closely resembles Read or Die. There are no paper users, but plenty of cool powers make up for that just fine. I don't want to give away any spoilers, since the twists and turns are so much fun. The villian is pretty villiany, but I think he almost enjoys being a mockery of the classic bad guy. Some stuff is fairly predictable, but I didn't mind all that much.
A quick check of Amazon tells me that there are three more books in this series, and an equally quick check of the local library shows that they have them. Going to need to get over there sometime in the next week or two. I was given The Eyre Affair by my friend Alyssa when I visited her in June, on the condition that I read it and pass it along to
illyanarasputin, which I plan to do. However, I know she'll take at least as long as I did to get around to reading it, so with her permission, I'd like to pass it around a bit more first. I might try to get my mom to read it, since I know she'll love the Shakespeare conspiracy theories, but the person who I think most needs to read this book other than illyanarasputin is lilacwire. I can think of one scene in particular that the Mistress of Grammar will love! *Cackles evilly*Since I know
ashfae has read this book, I'll ask, have you read any of the sequels? Are they even half as good as the original?I'm going to try not to think about all the things I should have done this weekend but didn't. At least I got to see House of Flying Daggers yesterday, which I really liked, even if some in the group didn't. Probably time to wind down for the evening so I can go to sleep and get up early tomorrow. I don't want to think about how much work I have to do this week.
