It's too bad I kind of gave up on the speech-to-text software, as that might be the only way I can get all my random thoughts preserved on this blog. Of course some things probably are best left unspoken (apologies to Hall & Oates), particularly after a series of nasty encounters with drivers on the way home.
Anyway, here are a few things that I should have discussed in the last month, roughly in order of importance. (I may have to split this up into a few posts if it just gets too long.)
I didn't keep up with the SFYS site, assuming back in July that it would run on the 2nd or 3rd week. Perhaps I felt particularly pressured at work and just didn't want to look until I had my piece ready. At any rate, I ended up missing the entire event, which is very out of character for me. It might be the first time I missed tuning in in a couple of years. Oh well. On the other hand, my entry for August was quite early, and I didn't have to think about deadlines at all for several weeks. My piece is recasting one of the truly terrible SF pieces I wrote as a teen into a comic piece. In fact I actually sent this in to a science fiction magazine, and gotten a form rejection letter back. How different my life might have been if I had written a stronger piece and gotten more positive feedback early on. (Not to mope too much about it but the writers of an earlier age, like Harlan Ellison, often discussed the detailed feedback they got early in their careers, but that was a thing of the past by the 1980s. Similarly, the path to becoming an academic was completely different and much, much easier in the 1960s and 1970s than in the 1990s and 2000s.) At any rate, I'm looking forwarding to seeing my piece, Tipping Infinity, done Monday night.
The Olympics are wrapping up. No question I would have preferred the Games to have been cancelled outright, though perhaps they won't be nearly as much of a super-spreader event as I feared (simply because they allowed no fans in the stands.) Indeed, that will probably fall to Lollapalooza, which certainly also should have been cancelled... I have fallen very out-of-love with the IOC, which needs to be reformed, or failing that, simply abolished. I think given the way they bully countries around is despicable, and the hype and outsized carbon footprint really makes the Games something I will never be able to support, ever again. That said, I ended up reading far more stories about the Games than I expected. To some degree it was inescapable, given the way on-line news is structured now. I did like the U Michigan connection I have with the Canadian swimmer and gold medalist, Maggie MacNeil. I'm sure she will be featured heavily in the next alumni magazine...
I'm very relieved Bob Odenkirk seems to be recovering well. That was quite a scare he had. Coincidentally, I have finally been trying to get caught up Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul. I'm actually debating whether I should alternate seasons, though I think I'd have to start with Breaking Bad Season One, and then I'll have an extra season of Better Call Saul at the end (of course who knows when it will actually air and then when will the DVDs show up at the library...). I've been having terrible trouble with the library copies of Better Call Saul Season One. Disc 1 is always scratched and skips, so I am still waiting on a clean (enough) copy.
I guess things are slowly returning to normal, but much slower than I would like. I was really hoping more cultural events would be on. In particular, I was really hoping that the Bard on the Bus tour would happen this summer, but it is cancelled again. I'm just not that interested in the High Park events and there seems to be literally nothing going on in Withrow Park, aside from the farmers' market. I wasn't going to, but got so desperate for any culture that I am renting a car to go see The Rez Sisters at Stratford in a couple of weeks. Incidentally, it is essentially impossible to rent a car on the weekend anymore, so I have to take a day off and go on a Thursday. (No surprise that the Stratford bus isn't running this summer, and I have my doubts about next summer as well.) I think the timing is such that I may be able to go to the McMichael on the way out, so that would make it a slightly less bitter pill to swallow. I'm extremely annoyed that they don't have drop-off after hours at the rental place,* and this is certainly an unwelcome trend that I hope ends by next year. (I'll wait for another post to talk about vaccine passports and the "new normal.") It's very hard to say when international travel will recover. I really was expecting this summer to be able to travel more, but it is not to be. Maybe 2022.
This covers a lot of ground, and I think I'll break here.
* As it turns out, I was able to drop the car after hours. It ended up being a busy but fun day out.
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