Maybe not the most exciting way to spend an afternoon, but at least the weather is nice so I can wait outside comfortably.
Personal
The stuff about me and my life. The “diary” side of blogging.
📚 forty-three (yes, again; this book was a two-in-one) of 2020: Collision Course by Robert Silverberg ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Shaky first half, but the latter half actually reminded me of TOS Star Trek’s “Errand of Mercy” (two warring races forced into detente by a third more powerful race).
According to Photoshop’s new neural filters, this is what an elderly me will look like.
Other experiments were not nearly as flattering, and occasionally somewhat frightening. AI-based image editing at our fingertips has both fascinating and disturbing results.
My ballot arrived on the 16th, and was filled out and placed in a drop box that same day. As of today, it has been counted!
King County voters can check their ballot status here, all Washington state voters can check their ballot status here.
Get out and vote!
📚 forty-three of 2020: The Nemesis from Terra (originally Shadow Over Mars) by Leigh Brackett ⭐️⭐️ 1945 Retro Hugo Best Novel
Rather amazing to think that this is just a year before Asimov’s Foundation win. If this was the best of ‘45, that was a bad year for SF.
📚 forty-two of 2020: Close Encounters of the Third Kind by Steven Spielberg ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
A pretty straightforward translation of the story from screen to page, but as it’s a classic of 80s optimistic sci-fi, that’s not a bad thing. Really has me wanting to rewatch the film now.
My local indigenous history
Reposting for this year’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day — I’ve moved since I first posted this in 2018, but not far enough for any of this to change.
According to this map, I (along with many of my Seattle-area friends) live on Duwamish tribal land, part of the Puget Sound Coast Salish tribal group (is that the right term to use?). The closest village was “sawh-WAHWH-weh-wad (‘place of whistling’). Duwamish. On Cedar River about 2 miles above present-day town of Renton. This village was occupied by the riverine Duwamish or doo-AHBSH, after doo (‘inside’) referring to (present-day) Duwamish River, Black River and Cedar River, along all of which this group resided.”
Lushootseed (which has several dialects) was the language spoken in the area.
The land was part of Cession 347, taken by the United States in the Point Elliott Treaty in 1855, ratified and proclaimed in 1859 (19KB .pdf). The signatory for the Duwamish was Chief Si’ahl, namesake of the city of Seattle. For all the land taken by this treaty, the tribes were “paid” $150k (roughly $4.3 million in today’s dollars — or roughly 1.3% of the cost of Avengers: Infinity War), distributed over nineteen years not as direct funds, but “to be applied to the use and benefit” of the tribes as directed by the government.
Despite being the first signatory tribe of the Point Elliott Treaty and having cultural history and stories dating back to the last ice age, the Duwamish Tribe is still not recognized as an indigenous nation by the United States Government.
📚 forty-one of 2020: A Rock and a Hard Place by Peter David ⭐️⭐️⭐️ #startrek #tng 🖖
Riker’s sent off on a B-plot, so a troublesome first officer is temporarily assigned to the Enterprise in the hopes that Picard can corral this loose cannon. He’s an ass, but is he unstable?
📚 forty of 2020: A Call to Darkness by Michael Jan Friedman ⭐️⭐️ #startrek #tng 🖖
Almost a standard 3-star “stranded in primitive conditions/‘Bread and Circuses’ variant” adventure, but had some really weird oversights that knocked a star off.
📚 thirty-nine of 2020: Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1969 Hugo Best Novel
While it was good, it was so tough right now to read a cynical dystopian novel about overpopulation, eugenics, and colonialism, featuring endemic racism and sexism, that it was a real slog.
