Nibling found the pic! And reading samples

Years ago — possibly 10, actually — nibling went to a con — probably Connecticon — and met John Hemry / Jack Campbell. When I learned she was there, I expressed envy, because I love reading his books, and she went and got a picture with him and sent it to me. This was a really NICE thing to do! I can imagine it not being nice in other personality dynamics, but here, it was intensely awesome. I couldn’t be there, so she found a way to share. I couldn’t find it anywhere (and I foolishly set my text history to auto delete, so I couldn’t just scroll back forever, the way I used to), so I texted her and asked if she had it and she found it! She also supplied a bakery recommendation for Balticon. Woot! So I now have a prop for when I attempt to introduce myself to him before / after a panel at Balticon or wherever.

I’m also reading samples today. I reread Doctor Galaxy yesterday, but I’m in the mood to try some new stuff, so, Samples!

First up: Breathing Space by Kristen Painter. It has detailed, amazing reviews on Amazon, and it sounds potentially interesting to me: a cozy mystery, the protagonist is a librarian, on a cruise ship in space with a bunch of people in cryostasis. I’m a little confused about the cryostatis + cruise ship? But possibly that’s just the future equivalent of steerage?

In any event, so far we have a plumber in the chat complaining about people not putting the lid down in the loo and that interferes with the proper functioning of the “WCS”. Which, fine, but signage exists now, as do motors. Future space ship can’t solve this problem? Next, the head librarian is having a hot flash and goes over to cryo to cool down, which is kept at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. We’re still using Fahrenheit in the future. How utterly discouraging. The librarian says that library cards are complimentary in the chat, and invites people to visit the library to access entertainment like video games. Why do you have to go to the library to access that? Why are there library _cards_? These are all details that are likely intended to make this Space Ship more relatable to readers — oh look, it’s our society, but on a space ship! It’s like a cruise ship now, but in Space! I hope that it works! I’m pretty sure it does work for some readers. It does not work for me. Next issue: the jumpsuit. There’s a whole thing about the librarian opening up her jumpsuit in cryo to cool down (they don’t have effective treatment for hot flashes in the future? Plausible discouraging), which has a strong cover of RAH’s Friday vibe to it. If that’s an elaborate reference, I’ve got a whole other set of issues. The librarian’s daughter is Vice Admiral on this starliner, and yet still, jumpsuits. Then there’s a paragraph about how she doesn’t have to wear the jumpsuit when she’s not working _but she is still wearing it_.

This is too much. This is way too much. None of this makes any sense. I’m going to try to read a few more pages, but unless it turns into a totally different book in that time frame, I’m abandoning it. ETA: I can’t. I just can’t. If this sounds like your kind of book, I wholeheartedly hope you enjoy it. It’s available on kindleunlimited — this wasn’t even a sample in the end.

I’m off to do Duo and then try something else new. Happy Friday, and may your experiments with new things be enlightening and enjoyable! For all my complaints, this experiment for me was both. While I do not want to continue reading, I am ecstatic that readers who like this sort of thing have this author / this series as an option.

More of the results of shopping have arrived

The smaller hair sprayer looks great and works fine.

I ordered a regular ipad (a16, but I bumped the memory up some) so I could get the magic keyboard folio and see what that was like. I have mixed feelings about it. I still so love the keyboard folio I took for granted with the ipad pro from 2020 that I foolishly replaced. I wish there were more / better smart connector options. I’m currently using a TypeCase (purple!) but I really fucking loathe bluetooth keyboards.

I discovered, to my chagrin, that the a16 compatible pencil is the one of four pencils that I’ve never acquired. It might also be compatible — I’m not sure — with the original pencil, but I’d already put that in ewaste, took it out of ewasted, listed on FB marketplace and gave away. I wasn’t in a hurry to spend that kind of money on something I provably will only use to become familiar with it and then never again, but then Amazon served me up the ESR digital pencil, and that is a compelling price point. Also, purple. I’m never really going to use it so I don’t care about the pressure sensitivity, and it has everything else. Would be nice if it had wireless charging, but I’m not prepared to complain about it, honestly. It uses USB-C.

I’m almost to a point where I’m ready to do a test pack for Balticon, which in turn is a test run for one-bagging longer trips in the summer. I’m not genuinely trying to one bag, but while I can manage two rollers with soft bags strapped to the top on an escalator, it makes me irritable, and my poorly concealed inner control freak persists in believing it should be possible to traverse an airport and public transport with equanimity (obviously an excessively high standard, but if you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll have gotten used to that). My goal is to have A. use her roller and soft bag, for me to have a backpack (specifically, the Fjallraven 17” laptop, which fits under every airline seat as near as I can tell), each of us have a small-to-medium sized purse, and if I cannot quite get everything into my backpack, overflow needs to fit into her soft bag. This should let me completely takeover all of her stuff and my stuff (because when she meltsdown, asking her to deal with luggage does not make it better) and continue, if not with equanimity, at least at speed to a location more amenable to her.