Mom's Guide to the Galaxy

Thoughts on Bridge 108

I’m fortunate in that I’m provided with many good books to read. This review was originally published in the January 1, 2020 issue of Booklist.

Award-winning author Anne Charnock begins Bridge 108 by introducing readers to Caleb, a twelve-year old from climate-ravaged Spain, living illegally in England as one of Ma Lexie’s assistants. He found his way there with Skylark’s assistance, not realizing that he was being trafficked and enslaved. A spur of the moment decision leads Caleb to freedom and on an adventure to find a better life for himself, with the added possibility of locating his mother, who he was separated from before meeting Skylark. As his world turns upside down time and time again, he gradually realizes that his parents’ dream of escaping to England – legally – was naive, causing him to reflect on the people who have aided or hampered his quest for a better life. This coming of age story sees Caleb sampling multiple jobs in a dystopian world, striding solidly forward in his efforts only to have them come crashing down due to outside forces. The potential reality to this late twenty-first century setting, with drought, wildfires, and closed borders, makes Bridge 108 both appealing and frightening.

Three meals and a workout at Centr.com

One of the many generous offers that appeared online during this stay-at-home time was a free six-week membership to Centr.com, a fitness website run by Chris Hemsworth’s team. Yes, that Chris Hemsworth, better known to many as Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Centr can be accessed via a web browser or their app; the daily planner shows the same selection either way. There are recipe suggestions provided for three meals each day, at least one workout (some days more), an article to read, and a podcast or meditation to listen to. Any item on the planner can be swapped out by searching through the appropriate category and selecting a different one for the day.

The sign-up process allows users to select their fitness level and goals, and meal plan choices of Regular, Pescatarian, Vegetarian, or Vegan. The introduction also mentioned that you can make adjustments as needed, either due to dietary restrictions (for example, recipes that includes bread list Gluten Free as an alternate) or limited availability of ingredients.

Clockwise from the top left: Chilli mushroom & eggs toast, Dukkah salmon (& bok choy, not pictured), Greek chicken & lemon soup

The workout selection is pretty varied, from boxing to pilates to HIIT to dynamic yoga, and some insane training that Chris Hemsworth puts himself through. The recipe selection is equally varied, and frankly, quite tasty. I had a chai-spiced oatmeal the other morning, and there’s a variety of smoothie recipes available. I’m definitely enjoying the added variety in both my workouts and meals.

Spring is… oh, it’s snowing again.

What can I say, it’s Chicagoland. But it still looks like spring out there. My grass is green and will need mowing soon. My strawberries – added last year – are starting to revive. My hyacinths look lovely and smell better. And I’ve already started weeding.

Hyacinths (along with some leaves and weeds) in the front garden bed

OK, I’m not too thrilled about that last one, but it comes with gardening. Some of the weeds are things I planted, like the peppermint that wants to go everywhere in and around the star bed. Others, like thistle and burdock, which came with the yard, will probably come back soon, though in smaller quantities than when I bought the house.

And then there’s the vegetable garden. If you’re new to gardening, you may be deciding which seeds to order. I gather a lot of people are – my usual source, Territorial Seed Company, has stopped taking orders to catch up because of the unusually high demand. Due to compulsive organizing tendencies, I placed my order in January. In fact, I have peas and salad greens sprouting already, and I keep checking to see if my radishes and carrots are showing signs of starting.

Everything else that I want to plant, well, I’ll have to wait for the rest of spring to arrive.

The same garden bed, 2 days later, covered in snow with a couple hyacinths barely visible.

Thoughts on The New Improved Sorceress

This fabulous urban fantasy was hard to put down, and I am looking forward to its sequel. The review was originally published in the December 15, 2019 issue of Booklist. Online access to Booklist’s reviews is currently free; if you’re looking for ideas on what to read, that’s certainly the place to go.

In The New Improved Sorceress, the second book of the Wayward Mages series, Sara Hanover presents a realistic urban fantasy as college student Tessa Andrews adjusts to a maelstrom stone embedded in her left palm and all of her magical friends. This collection of supernatural friends includes her ghostly father, trapped in the basement; a centuries-old phoenix wizard sharing a young man’s body; and Hiram, an Iron Dwarf. Hiram requests Tessa’s help locating a magical gem, the Eye of Nimora, and the entire group chips in to help with her quest. In addition to her quest, agents from The Society (of wizards) attempt to recruit Tessa to a specialized college, she plays field hockey on her college team, and even attends classes. Further complicating her life, a book on Dark Arts imbues Tessa with magical powers of her own. Hanover references the previous book, The Late Great Wizard, enough that this sequel can be read on its own. Fans of Libriomancer and other urban fantasies will enjoy the gritty reality interspersed with magic. Any reader who has wondered what a normal person would do with magical powers will be delighted with this action-packed story.

The things you notice working from home

This isn’t my first work from home rodeo. You’re going to notice things in your house and neighborhood that were outside your scope of awareness before: the thunk the washing machine makes as it switches to the spin cycle, the water running through the pipes if you have a boiler, the creaking as a strong wind pushes the house, the way one cat announces before she uses the litter box and the other howls as she prepares to produce a hairball (typically while I’m working out). You may wonder why the small cat makes a thump when she jumps onto the counter, but the large one only thumps coming down.

Even in these strange times, you’ll notice things about your neighbors too. You’ll find out which ones hire a lawn service (and wonder why everybody on the block hires different ones), notice when the truck that always leaves at 5am is home or gone, and wonder why the curtains across the street are still closed this morning when they’re usually open before you head to work.

You may hear the guy who talks to himself – loudly until he notices somebody outside – as he rides his bike, or see the couple that takes morning walks year round, even in our winters. You can watch the birds at the bird feeder as they alternate with the squirrels, observing the different visitors as spring advances. If you look carefully later, you may see the evening visitors… woodchucks, raccoons, and skunks.

When you inevitably return to normal office settings, you will know so much more about your home and neighborhood if you take the time to look and listen now.

Quiet, but for the birds.

On a normal Monday morning walk, half of these cars would be gone from driveways. Some others would already have the spattering of snow cleared off, preparing to leave. Instead, I saw only a handful of cars on my way to the park, rush hour diminished by the Stay At Home order that went into effect Saturday night. As I walked, I listened to the birds.

Snow notwithstanding, the robins have reemerged in northern Illinois for the spring. The couple inches of snow that landed on Sunday had, for the most part, melted itself off the streets and driveways by Monday morning, but remained on the lawns and trees, a fluffy white layer made more pleasant by not needing to shovel it.

The cardinals never left for the winter, but now they’re singing. There are a couple woodpeckers in the neighborhood; I never see them, just hear them as I’m walking. That’s an improvement over the one woodpecker at my old house that started pecking on the wall outside my home office. Occasionally, I hear an owl, and frequently the crows.

For now, I hear fewer cars. They’ll return, after this crisis fades, but for now, I’ll enjoy the birds’ sound effects.

In times of trouble, find your family.

For most of us, the world has shifted immensely in the last week. More people than ever are suddenly working from home, and parents who never considered homeschooling are finding themselves with children underfoot and educators scrambling to produce online lessons.

The initial wave of panic shopping should be done, I hope, allowing grocery stores to return to the new normal – encouraging social distancing as people move through restocked stores. And the kindness may continue… people offering to go shopping for anybody in the neighborhood that can’t or aren’t comfortable going at the moment, photos of goods in a front yard saying “take what you need,” relatives dropping of food for family members in the vulnerable groups. Whether they’re technically related or not, these are the families that hold our neighborhoods together.

Our karate family is similar. Classes are either cancelled are reduced in size at the moment, so karate schools are turning to technology to make sure people stay active and keep training. Many of the schools are streaming classes through Facebook Live, and opening them up to everybody instead of just their students. That is how I attended a local class online on Tuesday, part of a class at Legacy Martial Arts in Pennsylvania last night (I had a meeting rune late), and am prepping for a kickboxing class at Double Dragon Tang Soo Do in Michigan tonight.

Stay active, stay upbeat, and if you’re able, take a moment to help somebody during this mess.

Tech workers rejoice! Kickstarter votes to unionize.

On February 18th, Kickstarter became the first well known tech company to unionize (article here). As somebody whose professional career has always been in technology, I rejoiced, as I’m sure many others did.

I find it interesting that trigger that pushed Kickstarter’s employees to unionize was the decision to cancel a campaign, rather than working conditions. Typically, trade unions engage in collective bargaining related to wages, benefits, and working conditions, rather than a management decision on satire. And that’s where I would see a benefit to unions for tech employees.

As a tech worker, with one exception, I have always been a salaried (or “exempt” – from overtime) worker. While union workers in the private sector are typically paid more, that’s not what I would look for from a union – tech workers are typically well-paid. But we are paid the same whether we work a 40-hour week, a 60-hour week, or an 80-hour week.

What if you work a 30-hour week, you ask? Well, in that case, you’re expected to use vacation time. But those extra 20 or 40 hours a week… are effectively unpaid. And they’re common… ask your friends in IT how many hours they work each week. Pause while they check their phone for the latest work e-mail, because we are always connected now. (But they’re not in the office, it doesn’t really count, right?)

If you’re lucky, you might be given a “free” vacation day to make up for the overtime, like when I worked an entire weekend for a system launch and got… one day. Or that 80-hour work week… no, wait, I received no days off or financial recompense for those extra 40 hours. And that was the beginning of 18 consecutive days in the office during a “hell project.”

As a disclaimer, the company I work for now is awesome in allowing employees to balance work and life, so I’m definitely not complaining about my current position. But management at many companies forgets that we are, in fact, employee humans, who need the time off, particularly in positions where we’re expected to be mentally engaged most of the time. I can assure you, my programming wasn’t up to par by the time I hit my twelfth hour at work, and I usually spent some time the next morning reviewing my code wondering what in the world I had been thinking.

I think Kickstarter unionizing is a good first step. Who’s next?

Stranded on Box Fort Island

Hosting a party at a convention is labor intensive and oh, so fun! Each party has a theme, from Books & Beer (the beer is free, buy a book or two) to Barfleet to the Minneapolis 2073 WorldCon bid (it’s been around for a few years now), and our own Box Fort party. Capricon’s theme this year was the Tropics of Capricon, so our party theme was Stranded on Box Fort Island. In addition to our basic box fort building, a couple team members cut out leaves and birds, and even painted some of them to give the room a tropical feel.

In keeping with the theme, we showed Gilligan’s Island episodes throughout the party – I didn’t realize the first season was in black and white!

We tried to name our drinks appropriately for the tropics… we came up with Banana Booty (Rumchata banana pudding shots), Fireball Island (Fireball whiskey & cream soda), Liquid Sunshine (our non-alcoholic option – mango juice, ginger beer, and lime juice), and Floradora the Explorer (gin, lime juice, crème de framboise, and ginger ale). That last drink was unnamed, so I Googled what the combination of ingredients was usually called, which turned out to be “Floradora”. Adding “the Explorer” seemed like a fun name for a drink on a tropical adventure.

Like last year, we learned from our adventure… we didn’t really need to restock on most of our beverages, and I’ll eventually finish the ginger beer and mango nectar I brought home.

Thoughts on Splintergate

I’m not sure if I actually receive more fantasy books than science fiction ones to review, or if it just feels like it. I’d have to go through my list of books and categorize each one to come up with a number. That said, when I do receive a science fiction book, it tends to stand out, which Splintergate certainly did. This review was published in the November 15, 2019 issue of Booklist. Shortly after I read it, I found myself in line for a rollercoaster at Six Flags talking to some other geeks, and highly recommended the book to them.

Deborah Teramis Christian returns to the world of the Sa’adani with Splintegrate, following the interwoven stories of Hinano Kesada (Kes), a professional dominatrix; Janus, a cartel triumvir; and Metmuri Esimir, a brilliant scientist. Their destinies converge when the Emperor’s right hand, Ilanya Evanit (Eva), embarks on a mission to assassinate Janus just after he travels offworld on a business trip. With assistance from the local authorities and the Imperial Navy base where Esimir explores splitting different facets of a person’s personality into separate clones, Eva rearranges Kes’s world and Esimir’s project to suit her assassination plan. As Eva’s plan reaches its apex, Kes’s life begins to unravel around her, a casualty of a political war she is completely oblivious to. Esimir is impressed with the results of his experiment, yet simultaneously appalled at Eva’s warped approach in using his process, which he realizes matches the Navy’s plan. There is never a dull moment in this thoroughly developed science fiction novel; the adventure and background will delight readers, with cultures and subcultures, science, and interspace politics explained throughout.