Pushing Ice

This 460 page novel by Alastair Reynolds is an excellent example of science fiction although he (or his publishers) call it a space opera. I don’t know that I agree. I don’t have anything against real opera (I love the Pearlfishers and Carmen and I’m all over that Ring of des Nibelungen) but space opera has the sound of something hokey or soapy or, worse, like something I jokingly wrote a long time ago. Pushing Ice is far from that. It’s an impressive work and just because it has good characterization, strong female characters and conflict doesn’t make it space opera. The science is believable, the shear scale is epic and I enjoyed the highly imaginative use of Janus, one of the moons of Saturn. This is one of the strangest satellites in the solar system and Reynolds gives a unique explanation for its oddly shared orbit along with brother (sister?) moon Epimetheus. Like the god it’s named after, it is a rather two-faced character in Reynolds’ story but satisfying even at its end.
The Welsh writer has some solid scientific background with the European Space Agency and maintains a website and blog. I liked his entry remembering the life of Arthur C. Clarke.
I will look forward to reading more from this author and recommend it highly.

Anniversary

Today is my 23rd anniversary so I naturally don’t have much time for golbing. Just know that I enjoyed some wonderful food at the Carden Street Cafe with my amazing Lady wife!

The proud father

I was very proud of my daughter as I watched her perform tonight as a member of the chorus in The Mikado being put on by Royal City Musical Productions. I’ve always loved the word play and music of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas and this one is a favourite. Em did particularly well in the intricate dancing and singing involved. This is quite difficult on a small stage (Co-operator’s Hall, The River Run) and under the hot lights with a constrictive kimono, huge makeup and heavy hair.
But the music. It’s so great. This wasn’t the best technical performance of this musical I’ve seen but it was so delightful to see my daughter perform in it made it all shine for me. My wife and I were very happy and gladly participated in the standing ovation.

The waiting

I sweated up the three flights of stairs in the old medical clinic and slipped into the waiting room. I immediately leaned back against the door. I wasn’t tired but the sheer number of people sitting there made me want to back up. My GP must be close to retiring but the demand, well the demand is pressing on a man who takes his profession seriously.
No seats left: I was the third man standing.
I didn’t want to push through the knees of the lucky sitters to get at the magazines so I kept my claim on the door. Not much in the way of a barricade but I would do my best. I looked at the others and those who didn’t have their own ancient issues looked back. There was disdain in more than one pair of eyes. They were the queued. It was the traditional welcome for the late comer.
“Terry!” My GP’s wife had been his receptionist for years.
“Hi! You’ve got a full house here!”
She rolls her eyes. “Oh yes. And some of these people are actually in NEED of care, too!” Her stressed words seemed to make some of the disdainful and even a few of the reading eyes look down. “It’s good to see you, though!”
“You too!”
“We’re running a little late but I’m sure you will be able to see him soon.”
“No trouble.”
But I was lying. I wanted out of the waiting room. I fought down a sudden feeling of claustrophobia although I had just arrived. I had no right really. Back to staring I saw some eyes were a little more curious now. One pair belonged to a small boy with a bandaged arm. He stared at me like he had never seen anyone like me before. He probably hadn’t.
I reached into my backpack but maintained eye contact with him and my face gave nothing away. My big hands easily hid what I had pulled out and that was part of my act. I moved my hands out in the boy’s general direction, hiding their contents. The boy’s stare was now rapidly moving back and forth from my eyes to my hands. He couldn’t help himself. I took a small step forward and went down on my haunches very slowly. Many eyes were on me now. The boy’s mother’s hand circled a little more around the boy’s chest. But it was only a light touch as if she didn’t want to deny the boy in his discomfort. But she was too late. I had him now.
I slowly parted the last fingers on my left hand to reveal some colour. The boy’s eyes were riveted. With a quick flick I turned it up revealing a bright red, yellow and blue ball. I turned over the right showing two more.
The boy’s mouth parted and a small pent up breath escaped. The mother had a smile on her face now.
I tossed a ball from my right to the left and caught it. Then I tossed one back to the right. I said nothing. I was the essential deadpan but the boy was beaming. I began to juggle lazily. Tossing each ball high and waiting until the released ball was almost in my hand before I sent the other up. He laughed.
My arc slowly descended and I was juggling faster and faster. Then I changed the pattern so that one ball was always on the outside and the other two in.
The boy liked that and so I gave to expand that arc upwards. His hand and his other bandaged hand moved up and down trying to copy my hands.
Suddenly the door to the hallway opened and I barely caught the balls as I quickly hopped forward.
We all stared all the new comer. The interloper. She was trespassing into OUR waiting room.

Robinson Crusoe on Mars

While the science in this science fiction classic from 1964 is admittedly dated it was very much ahead of its time and is an engaging and very enjoyable adventure story. Of course we know now that the surface of Mars is too cold and the atmosphere too thin to allow humans to breathe or water to exist in liquid form, but they didn’t then. Director Byron Haskin did very well with what he had. The Criterion Collection DVD also has some excellent special features that are worth watching. It includes some short interviews with one of my favourite authors, Robert J. Sawyer.
Highly recommended to those who have an interest in classic sci-fi flicks.

Bassarah (part 2)

More Complications to Bassarah

Let’s say that sometime later, when its your turn to deal, the table has built up and you have the following cards on it: AD 5C 6H 4H 2S QC. Your opponent removes the Q with his QS. Luckily you have a 6. You can actually make three sets of 6 from the table: the A and 5, the 6, and the 4 and 2. So you get all the cards and a triple bassarah!

Another, though admittedly rare, possibility is that a J or the 7D is left on the table somehow. This cannot have been at the beginning of a round since the wild cards would have been removed to the bottom of the deck. But it is still possible: if you’ve just cleared the table with a J or 7D or a bassarah and your opponent only has one card left and it’s a J then he’s forced to discard it. Since there’s no cards to take it must be left on the table. If, during the next hand, you are lucky enough to be dealt a J or the 7D then you have a wild bassarah which is worth 3 times a regular bassarah. This also applies if you’re picking up a 7D as a bassarah with J.

The end of a round is when the dealer has dealt the last 8 cards. If there were any wild cards at the beginning you should be able to figure out in whose hand they are. So let’s say you play on and after the last card there are still some cards on the table. The last player to have removed anything from the table must claim them and add them to her or his pile. After counting scores, you switch dealers, shuffle well (you don’t want all the pairs to be together or that will result in a boring game) and deal (again 2 to the opponent, 2 to the table, 2 to the dealer and repeat once.)

Scoring

As I wrote in my first post, the larger deck (compare sizes on the table to make it easy) wins the cards or the 30 points. In the event of what looks like equal heights, you may be forced to count. If there’s a tie then no points are awarded for the cards. Each bassarah is indicated by turning up a card face up and putting it at the bottom of your pile (it will be counted in the cards too) sticking out as far as your bragging rights permit. Double, Triple or the incredibly rare Quadruple bassarahs are counted with 2, 3 or 4 cards. After each round the 30 points for the cards and ten points each for each bassarah is counted up for each player. Once a player reaches 150 points with more than a 10 point lead the game is over.

Comments

As your proficiency increases you’ll learn that this game lends itself to being very fast paced. This makes the game a little more interesting and satisfyingly quick. One newbie pitfall is to forget about the 7D. If you do and you use it like a normal 7 (OK for a bassarah but rarely a good idea otherwise) or discard it onto the table it is treated like a normal 7 and you simply lost your chance. And you’d better hope your opponent can’t maneuver the 7D to be alone on the table and use a J for a triple bassarah (on the other hand that may be your plan too!)

Bassarah a Card Game for Two (part 1)

I have no idea whether I’m spelling Bassarah correctly: it’s pronounced like the fish plus ‘a’ as in rad plus ‘rah’ as in Sarah. I learned this card game for two on many nights during the summer of 1979. I spent that summer on a great program called the Junior Conservationist’s Award Program with a terrific group of guys. Our leader was a student at the University of Waterloo’s Man and the Environment program named Bob Pickering. I learned this game from him.

Bassarah

Use a standard 52-card deck.
Jacks and the 7 of diamonds (7D) are wild.
Winner is the first to 150 points but they must win by at least 20.
There are 2 goals: to gain the most cards in your pile (30 points) and to get as many bassarahs (10 points each) as you can.

High card deals.
Dealer deals well-shuffled cards in two’s in the following sequence:
2 face down to the opponent, 2 face down to yourself, 2 face up in the centre of the table, 2 face down to the opponent, 2 face down to yourself, 2 face up in the centre of the table. Cards for the table are lined up in a single perpendicular row halfway between the players. If, while turning up these table cards on the initial deal (only), a wild card is revealed it is immediately put to the bottom of the deck and replaced with the top card from the deck.
This is a counting game with all but the face cards. Aces are worth one, all other number cards are worth their own number except for the 7D which is the greatest card. It can be ANY card. Jacks can remove all the cards from the table. Queens and Kings are merely themselves and have no numerical value.
The opponent plays first. You can use any one of the cards in your hand to remove a like value from the table and start adding to your pile. If you have, for example, 7C KS QH JD in your hand and the table has 2H 6C 5C QD then your best move is to take the 2 and the 5 with your 7 and so you’d have 3 cards in your pile. Let’s say the dealer takes the 6 with his 6H. Then the only card left on the table is the Q and, as luck (or I the magic internet card shark) would have it, you’ve got a Q. If you take the Q you’ve cleared the table with a matching card and that is a ‘bassarah’ and worth 10 points. The dealer has to put a card on the table. If he puts down a K you’ll get another bassarah. Let’s say he does and you do. Then he puts down the AH. All you have left is the jack and so you clear the board BUT you didn’t clear it with a matching card so it isn’t a bassarah but you’ve just made an opportunity for one with the next deal.
The dealer plays his last card which is the 4C and then deals another round. This time (since it’s not the start) the opponent gets 2, he gets 2, opponent 2 and dealer 2. You’re always dealt a hand of 4 cards and this time you have 5D 7D 9H 10D. You put your K down and the dealer then puts down the QS. You then put your 9 down and he takes everything with a jack. You can’t give up your wild card so you have to put down the 5. He puts done a 3. You’ve got a bassarah since the 7D can be any card including an 8 (or a Q or K or even a Jack).

I’ll continue with more info about the game tomorrow.

Re-Present

So I took an agenda for a meeting and took first words from various lines as I scanned down each of the two pages. One word from it jumped out at me and I made it the title. I came up with these words:

All
unhandled
continue
investigate
setup
actionable

So here’s my first attempt:

All the crises
unhandled by those in the know
continue to harbour and
investigate the possible
setup for
actionable sequential habits.

Hmm… a little dry. OK how about:

All washing woman who seek
unhandled perspiration must
continue to find and
investigate improper morning
setup people doing
actionable things.

Certainly not dry but very stupid! One last go:

All recipients of
unhandled luggage must
continue along the white counter to
investigate possibe lost handle claims and we will
setup a quick repair with
actionable needle and thread.

There we go. Sense at last!

Twilight Zone: the Movie

This movie was made in 1983 so my review comes a tad late but… what the heck. I borrowed the DVD from the library and enjoyed it very much. There is an introductory prologue (with Dan Ackroyd and Albert Brooks) and then 4 segments with Dan Ackroyd reprising at the end of the 4th segment.
To start off with, the prologue was a nice blend of comedy, horror and suspense.
The 1st segment about the just desserts of a hate-filled and prejudiced man was directed by John Landis and I didn’t find it all that interesting. It was OK… just not particularly fresh even though this is the one section that I don’t think is a remake of one of the original stories.
The 2nd is a remake of one of my favourite episodes: “Kick the Can”. It was an interesting extension of the original Serling show where some of the old folks choose to stay old and the instigator keeps moving on to share the possibility. This was skillfully directed by Steven Speilberg.
Joe Dante directed the 3rd part and used one of the scariest and most famous of the Twilight Zone shows: “It’s a Good Life”. I like the thought that somehow someone could find a way to reach the boy and help him.
The last segment was a remake of “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet” and done by George Miller. I don’t think it adds much to the original. It did feature some absolutely brilliant acting by John Lithgow who plays the same character as another sci-fi TV series star did: William Shatner. Nice effects and confrontation with the gremlin though.
I do recommend the movie but only if you’ve seen the original series. These are brilliant works of art that will likely thrill audiences for as long as the media lasts. The movie is a loving homage and tribute to the genius of Rod Serling and the other brilliant writers he provided with opportunities (like Jerome Bixby who also wrote The Man from Earth and Richard Matheson who wrote the book I am Legend but none of the three screenplays).

Exhale

Luxury of warmth
from too much time wintered away
cycling into a season
with no thick coat.
Insoulation.

I exhale
quiet but big
laughter.

-2008/04/17-