#nerdy9th

#Nerdy9th – Sleep Data!

So, about 6 months ago, I was diagnosed with sleep apnea (I woke myself up not breathing) and got a CPAP machine. While I dislike the indignity of wearing it at night, and there are certain design flaws (the vent blows air up and into my partner’s hair/neck all night when I spoon him), I  do appreciate the fact that I’m getting better quality sleep. Also, because I am a nerdy, I like the data.…

A Video Game Review for #nerdy9th

For #nerdy9th, I’m going to talk about my recent video game obsession!

As you may know, I am not much of a video gamer. I tend to get “hooked” and obsess over games for a few months before dropping them. I played the Sims online last year for about 6 months. I play Minecraft, but periodically delete my worlds to start all over. I loved Final Fantasy X, but that’s about the only typical video game…

The full first episode of "The Expanse" is on YouTube!

I'll give it a watch, but I'm less enthusiastic about the series than I have been, because I'm finding the books a grind.

On the other hand, I loved Game of Thrones, even though I found the George R. R. Martin Game of Thrones books a grind too, and for the same reasons I'm struggling with "The Expanse." No coincidence the works are similar -- "James S.A. Corey," who gets the byline in the Expanse novels, is a pen-name for Martin's research assistants. The two series are very similar, even though one is the hardest of hard science fiction, while the other is high fantasy.

Like +Bruce Baugh here, I'm intrigued by the illusion of hard science fiction. I no longer believe that human beings will ever venture off in significant numbers off Earth unless our bodies are modified to such an extent that we won't be human anymore. But like Baugh, I find that the attempt to make the impossible seem plausible is satisfying.

#Expans #scifi #sf #sciencefiction

Bruce Baugh originally shared:

Syfy put up the first episode of their adaptation of James S.A. Corey's The Expanse for free viewing. I approve of this.

I've mentioned before how much part of me will always be 14, watching the initial wireframe animation of Voyager's encounter with Jupiter and those increasingly amazing pictures. Part of me will always have a presence out there in space, watching bits of light and data become places. Well, that part of me is so happy it could explode, right now. 

I don't really think this a kind of 23rd century that can happen, for various reasons. (Charlie Stross has blogged well about what gets assumed away in fantasies of space colonization.) But y'know, there's something to be said for feeling plausible, with attention to details that make it feel intensely grounded.

There are a lot touches here that I had no idea how they'd pull off, or if they'd try, like the pervasive deformations in the physiology of people who've been living in the asteroid belt's low-gravity environments. Furthermore, the show doesn't at all whitewash the racial diversity Corey put in the books. 

What I'm curious about, though, is how this works for someone who hasn't read the novels. It's dense in terms of scene-setting. If you watch this and haven't read the books, let me know what you think, would you?

(A mellow version of #nerdy9th  rules apply: if you didn't like it, you can say so and then stop, and nobody gets to slag off others' opinions.)

PS. They took the time for some CGI work to make a bird picking up crumbs in Ceres Station’s low-G environment move right. These people are speaking my language.