2015 (almost) gone already? Whoa! Whiplash!

Year's end is, traditionally, a time for reflection, for looking both forward and back. I'll do the same here -- trying not to compile the kind of things you'll find on other sites. No blah-dy blah blah blah "Best of" or "Worst of" lists here!

Cool stuff ;-)

So what will you find? As in the image at left, cool stuff!

Tis the season ...

... to be Really Busy.

I get the math. I do. We're all adding end-of-the-year deadlines, end-of-the-year festivities, and (the worthwhile subset, anyway, of) last New Year's unfulfilled resolutions to our daily routines, commitments, and aspirations. (I am still making headway on the new novel in progress. Thank you for asking.) Still, even more than usual, I can't help but wonder: where does the time go?

All of which is to fess up that I'm more pressed than usual to feed my blogging habit. Many regular visitors here, I suspect, likewise find themselves busier than their norms. Put it all together and this isn't the occasion for a long post.

Some of you will be in a reading and/or shopping mode. I'll refer you to three recent posts Spread the meme: Buy-a-Book Saturday! (it's never too late to buy a book, especially an ebook), 2015 Best Reads, and -- because I find this so amusingly quirky -- Robots and Descartes and Shakespeare, oh my! What's not to like?

"A Stranger in Paradise"

I'll end with a graphic by the mega-creative SF artist Dean Spencer. This is hardly the traditional celestial image of the season, but it's been a favorite artwork of mine since its 2007 appearance in the late, lamented e-zine Jim Baen's Universe. The image illustrates (and was based upon) my novelette "A Stranger in Paradise." The story remains available online, without charge -- click that illo -- for your enjoyment. (Assuming, of course, you somehow have the time ;-)  The link will be here, waiting.)

(The novelette headlines one side of my 2010 flip-book collection, Countdown to Armageddon / A Stranger in Paradise. There's more about that book, should you be curious, on my authorial website.)

Happy holiday(s) of your choosing!

Life (if not the universe and everything)

 Is life what it used to be? Maybe not.

Beware VR?

To begin, virtual reality is new, and at least some VR implementations have the potential to trickle over -- nastily -- into real reality. That overlap may involve interaction with human biology.

Samsung, maker of the Gear VR headset cautions:

... that people should stop using the Gear VR immediately if they experience seizures, loss of awareness, eye strain, nausea or "any symptoms similar to motion sickness." In addition, the device is not recommended for children younger than 13.

See more about the risks at "Samsung Gear VR: Virtual Reality Tech May Have Nasty Side Effects." (Posting in December about a February article? Am I kidding? No. It's timely if VR headgear is potentially on your holiday shopping list.)

Typing fast and furious ...

... but on the emerging novel that's getting Extra Super Interesting, not a new post.

Most of you who visit here (my last survey demonstrated) also read my fiction. I hope -- and trust -- you'll indulge me for a few days while I concentrate on the book. There'll be a payoff, I assure you, once it's finished :-)

A burst of creativity?

Still, I wouldn't ever want your dropping by SF and Nonsense to be a disappointment. I think you'll enjoy the following Seriously Cool Things:

A potpourri

Given the widespread reporting on Google's self-driving cars and Tesla's recent foray into autonomous driving (and with a dollop of wishful disregard for recent incidents of wireless automotive hacking), you may have fond thoughts of upgrading sometime soon to such vehicular luxury.

Look, Ma, no hands!

Maybe think twice. Navigation and lane following may require only (comparatively) simple "narrow AI" tasks, the associated algorithms reasonably robust and perhaps nearing maturity. Not so, the ethical dimension of driving.

For example, suppose that a deer just darted in front of my car. Do I purposefully endanger myself by ramming the deer? Or do I veer, and in the process endanger pedestrians or other drivers? For a machine to make such judgment calls -- on a case-by case basis, in the split-second during which such decisions must be made -- would seem to require mastering general (aka, human equivalent) AI. See: "Why self-driving cars remain more science fiction than future."

Sorry if that was a downer. Here, let me make it up to you with some out-of-this-world (literally) news.

Spread the meme: Buy-a-Book Saturday!

Regularly since 2010, at about this time of year, I've posted about Buy-a-Book Saturday. That's my personal variation on Small Business Saturday: a day (specifically, the second day after Thanksgiving, and one day after retail's infamous Black Friday) on which holiday shoppers are especially encouraged to consider patronizing small businesses. The big-box stores and Internet giants will do fine this holiday season. But will your neighborhood stores?

Why the buy-a-book variant? Because what business is smaller than the author toiling away by him- or herself? Because, as I (and many others) post from time to time, the publishing business is becoming tougher and tougher -- especially for the authors. Because more than likely you're a reader, or else you wouldn't be frequenting this blog.

So: I'm suggesting you give serious consideration to books -- whether print, electronic, or audio -- for some of your holiday gifting. Friends, relatives, coworkers, your kids' teachers, the local library you support ... surely there's a book that's right for each of them. And for yourself, of course :-)

Robots and Descartes and Shakespeare, oh my! What's not to like?

Call it a poem. Call it flash fiction. Either way, the illustrated version of it is awesome. And trust me: that (hopefully evocative) subject line fits it perfectly.

And what, you ask, is it? "I Clink, Therefore I Am." Surely a copy of this poster belongs on the wall of every English lit student -- and teacher/professor -- you know. Ditto every student and teacher/professor of robotics. They just don't (yet) know they need it.

Just a hint ...

(Hmm. I might also, with the slightest of tweaks, have added a detail to the setting and subtitled this "The Merchant of Venus." But I digress.)

As you will by now have inferred, I have dipped a toe -- by proxy, through the auspices of Sci Phi Journal -- into merchandising. The words are mine, and the meter Shakespeare's. The art is by the massively talented Cat Leonard.

It can't hurt to look. Right? Check out the poster (or T-shirt, or travel mug, or iPad case, or ...) at Red Bubble.

2015 best reads

I read a lot. Often it's research for my own writing. Sometimes it's as competitive analysis (re-plowing the same ground as other recent books -- except, apparently, where zombies are concerned -- isn't the easiest way to sell one's own works). Many evenings, it's for relaxation. On many an occasion, it's for two or all three reasons. If I finish a book, it has -- at the least -- been useful.

This post looks at the handful(ish) of books I read in 2015 (which isn't to say they were all written this year) that rose beyond "useful" and even "memorable" to "I remember this fondly and can well imagine rereading at a future date." In a couple of cases, they're books that I reread this year.

Presuming that you visit SF and Nonsense because you appreciate my take on science or technology or fiction, you might find, in the post that follows, books you (and like-minded friends, relatives, etc.) will also enjoy. (And FYI, every cover is an Amazon links.)