(no subject)

 11:00PM Central Afghan Time

Yes, I’m still continuing to write. A little under 1,500 words added to “Glass Ceiling”, including some things that I didn’t actually expect to happen. When a story starts moving itself, things get interesting. I’m Sergeant of the Guard tomorrow, which involves a lot of sitting at a desk, so — unless I opt out and take a paperback with me — I’ll have the opportunity to add even more than usual

Yesterday we had a conex (big metal shipping container) come in, holding lots of foodstuffs to be distributed to the locals to help them get ready for the winter. We were in a rush, so rather than using the big crane that would have lifted the conex off the truck, set it down in a vacant spot, and put an empty conex on the truck so the drivers could proceed with their business, we transloaded by hand from one conex to the other, ten guys and a lot of sweat. Cans of cooking oil, sacks of sugar, salt, beans and rice. Some of the sacks had the weave open up in handling, and in some the material was so thin that our fingers would go through it when the sack was tossed from one man to the next. Needless to say, stuff got spilled. At one point someone looked around at the loose beans and rice and said, “We’ve got the makings of a Cajun feast right here on the floor.” Ten minutes later there was some fast, urgent discussion as to whether a rat had been seen lurking among the sacks, and the same wit observed, “Hey, that’d just be meat for the stew.”

Sorry. When you make your own entertainment, you have to be a bit forgiving of the quality.

Yesterday I started watching my Firefly DVDs. (I had planned to do Veronica Mars first, but once I acquired a local copy of Serenity, I wanted to get Firefly out of the way so I could watch it.) Sudden, intense new interest. I saw a few episodes — three or four, I don’t remember for sure — when the show was on the air, but I could never fully get into it. For one thing, I was busy with this and that at the time; for another, I just have trouble appreciating something when I come into it partway through. Of course, now I know that everybody had to join it in the middle, thanks to the network’s oppressive and inexplicable decision not to air the series opener until after several should-have-been-subsequent episodes. Which was, as we know, only the opening offense in a systematic abuse of a good property. Why will people taken a proven commodity like Joss Whedon, screw around with everything he tries to do, and then dump the whole project when their meddling trashes the ratings that it might otherwise have garnered? After all, it only managed to generate enough of a fan base to justify a theatrical movie release, which — so far as I’ve been able to ascertain — has not lost money. Oh, yes, I’m definitely preaching to the choir here, and well after everyone else has dealt with it and moved on. It just astonishes me.

ludditerobot’s recent Tales of the Agents: Interrogation put me onto the track of jgracio’s series of that name. Both are interesting and provocative. I had actually read “Congo Bar” previously, but hadn’t known it was part of a series. I may offer to do some beta work for jgracio; as I understand it, he’s operating with the handicap of not being a native English speaker, and still turning out some effective storytelling. I wouldn’t have a chance of doing the same in any language other than my own.

I seriously miss beer.