July 28, 2009
So I’ve been a craptastic blogger as of late. I’m not going to give you any cool excuses, because really, I don’t have any, but I had a great weekend and I’m going to tell you about it.
On Saturday I went to a wedding. My mom was at a different wedding in Halifax, so my dad and I went to the one in Toronto. It was someone my brother went to school with since Kindergarten, who was teaching English in Japan at the same time as him, and who has always been a friend to the whole family. She met her husband Tariq while she was in Japan. He’s a super nice guy and I know they will have a fun life together. This was the first Muslim wedding I’ve been to. I thought the ceremony was really interesting, and honestly not that different from some of the more traditional Christian weddings I’ve been to. I spent the night talking to Lambton County farmers who are kind and fun, but there was one dud in the group, and she was beside me. It was a great night.
Sunday I went to Forest to experience Lambton county in person. Lemmers’ mom threw her a baby shower, so I went and hung out with Lemmers, Maggie and Kathie. Showers in general aren’t exciting, and this one was no exception, but Lem made me do stuff and that helped pass the time quickly. I’m making a blanket for young Galaxar, but I only have two blocks done, so I promised that the blanket would be normal bed-sized and done by the time Galaxar makes it into that bed. Lem got lots of lovely baby things, and everyone was nice, but I still think showers are boring and … I’ll get into it another day. After the shower, the ladies I went to high school with met up with all the men folk of the group and had fun at the Tim Horton’s. After that I went to the homestead to wait for Mom to return from Halifax. I spent a couple of hours hanging out with my parents before they leave on their great adventure.
It was a long drive home, and I didn’t get much sleep either night, but I guess that’s what week days are for. It was a great weekend, and next weekend is sure to be just as fun.
Shannon Patterson, filed under Life |
July 27, 2009
Isaac Asimov - Robots And Empire
Isaac Asimov, 1985
The fourth and final installment of the Robots books came as a pleasant surprise to me. The Robots of Dawn I believe I described as ‘meh’, or ‘enh’, and the first few Empire books were less pleasant than that. So when I picked up Robots and Empire to wrap up the books, I wasn’t expecting much. It was a longish book, and the quality of Asimov’s writing seems to be inversely proportional to the length, and at a few hundred pages, I didn’t expect much.
What I came to realize was this book is actually a study on the role of technology (in this instance, robots) in society, and the balancing of the needs of one versus the needs of all. Robots that behave according to the Three Laws of Robotics, can never harm a single human in order to protect the future of humanity, as humanity is a largely intangible concept, and any particular human is a known entity.
The majority of this book happens in small flashback vignettes, where Asimov excels, and much of the rest is a dialog between Daneel Olivaw and another robot named Giskard. Giskard has the ability to read and alter human minds, but Daneel is one of the most advanced humanoid robots ever created. These two spend the majority of the book discussing how they can alter their programming in order to prevent the long-lived Spacers from waging war against the short-lived Earthmen.
There was some plot, but not a lot, but overall, I really just enjoyed the debates between Daneel and Giskard. Asimov said that he wanted to make Daneel the real hero of the Empire and the Robots series, but I don’t think it was the greatest idea. It came across as the humans involved having no foresight or control in their own destiny. I would have preferred if the humans had been able to figure things out for themselves.
I liked this book. I’m glad I’m done with the Empire and Robots books, though. Time to move on to some new books and authours.
Shannon Patterson, filed under Reviews |
July 2, 2009
Isaac Asimov - The Robots Of Dawn
Isaac Asimov, 1983
The Robots Of Dawn is the third book of Asimov’s Robots books, and features the human & robot crime-solving tag-team of Elijah Baley and R. Daneel Olivaw. Baley is an Earthman, and Olivaw a humanoid robot not physically discernible from a human being, one of two humanoid robots in existence. The book opens with the other humanoid robot, Jander, dead (or at least as dead as a robot can be as they never technically live).
Baley is brought to the planet Aurora to solve the crime, which has been pinned on expert roboticist and Jander’s maker, Han Fastolfe. An investigation ensues, and as Baley follows the clues, Asimov weaves hints of the Foundation series into the plotline, as well as a slightly annoying romantic subplot. Baley has a tenuous grasp of Auroran society, as humans on the outer worlds live for centuries on large estates with small populations, as opposed to the largely underground cities of Earth, with their large populations with short lifespans. Most of this book focuses on the culture of Aurora, which I found much more delightful than the actual plot which was formulaic and very linear.
As Baley stumbles from clue to clue, he inexplicably solves the case and eventually returns to Earth a hero of his people.
I found Asimov’s weaving the Foundation series into the book annoying. Other than that, this book was quite good. His inclusion of sex wasn’t annoying as it was in the other books he wrote in the 80s, as it was actually part of the plot, and it doesn’t exactly follow the quality = 1 / (length * year of publication) formula I had devised earlier, but I’m still not in love with the idea that every book of Asimov’s should happen in the same universe. Failing that, Asimov should have been much less overt in having all his later work pointing inclusion in the Foundation universe and timeline. True fans could have picked up on much more subtle hints and felt like it was an inside joke they were sharing with Asimov, rather than having it thrust upon them.
I would recommend this book but only after you have read the first two Robots books, The Caves Of Steel and The Naked Sun.
Shannon Patterson, filed under Reviews |
July 1, 2009
Monday on Q, CBC Radio’s wonderful music/arts show, Jian interviewed an author about the robot revolution, a musician, and then a woman who had been tasked with hunting down the history of the butter tart, a truly Canadian desert. They talked about the supposed history of the tart, where to find the best one, and what the ingredients should be (butter, brown sugar, syrup, raisins). It wouldn’t be surprising to members of my family that butter tarts brought back memories of my Grandma.
Butter tarts remind me like no inanimate object of my Grandma. She was the master. Grandma didn’t make a few butter tarts at a time, she made a few dozen. They were stored in the freezer in white margarine tubs, and they were full of sugary deliciousness. I’m sure each butter tart was about a thousand calories, but no family gathering was complete until there was a plate of butter tarts. I remember a few times being allowed to help with the making of Grandma’s butter tarts. She made her own pastry, and did not have a recipe to follow, except the one in her head. She would look into the batter from yards away and tell me it needed more corn syrup, or it didn’t have quite enough butter. It was crazy magic, and it was wonderful (my Mom can do the same thing). Because she would make these tarts dozens at a time, the act of making the tarts would take a full afternoon. Time spent waiting for the tarts to finish was often spent playing Mexican Rummy, a game that doesn’t even closely resemble the game rules I found on the Internets.
My Grandma passed away during the summer of my first year of university. From then on, we have never had butter tarts at a family gathering. The first year, we had butter tart squares but it was the end of the butter tart era. I am glad that I have these simply delicious, buttery awesome items with which to remember my Grandma. I think it’s cool that there is one thing in the world that will always remind me of her. There are other items in the world that remind me of other people, but I don’t think the connection is as strong as with my Grandma and butter tarts. Also, store bought butter tarts suck.
Happy Canada Day everybody.
Shannon Patterson, filed under Uncategorized |