Happy Day!

About two weeks ago, I learned that the estate of E. E. "Doc" Smith was in negotiations with Ron Howard over the movie rights to the Lensman series of books. Now, if you haven't read these books, you need to, right now. They are some of the greatest science fiction ever written. Pure pulp, but such a wonderful read.

The Lensman series has influenced so many people. Robert Heinlein was strongly influenced by it. George Lucas based the Jedi Order on the Galactic Patrol. J. Michael Straczynski credits the Lensman series for giving him the inspiration for Babylon 5 (which in turn opened the door to shows like Battlestar Galactica, Heroes, and Lost). "Doc" Smith invented the entire genre of space opera.

And I would be willing to bet that everyone who reads this also has reason to be personally grateful to Smith as well. In one of his many careers he was a food chemist, and is credited as being the man who discovered how to make powdered sugar stick to doughnuts.

Well, today I was pointed to this article by a friend.

Now that the Writer’s Strike has ended, Straczynski said he has seven scripts in front of him, which he cannot talk about, but, he says, “If you’re genre science fiction fans … there are two projects … I wish I could tell you.” When prompted by the audience, he followed with, “It did leak out that Ron Howard has acquired the rights to 'Lensman,'" the story by writer E.E. Doc Smith. In regards to his film work, he says, “There are times I think I’ve woken up in someone else’s life.”

I don't know about you, but that sounds to me like Straczynski has been given the job of writing the script for the movie. To me, that is some of the best news. Straczynski is one of the few people that I know understands the series, and has the writing skill to tell the story as it should be told. Yes, he will have to make changes, because what works in the books won't work the same in the movies, but I trust him to be true to Smith's works.

Roast Chicken

Tonight, I fixed my usual Sunday dinner for myself and my brother. I sort of improvised the recipe, but it turned out so well that I thought I would share it here.

I started with a 6 pound roaster chicken and rubbed down the outside and inside with a bit of kosher salt, garlic powder, and coarsely ground black pepper. I then placed two sprigs of rosemary inside the cavity and another three sprigs on top of the bird. I finished by cutting an orange in half, squeezing some of the juice onto the top of the chicken, and then putting the two halves into the cavity. I then roasted it at 350 degrees until it reached an internal temperature of 180 degrees.

I served it with a spinach salad (spinach, dried cranberries, walnut pieces, and some slivers of swiss cheese) topped with a balsamic vinaigrette (3 cloves of garlic, some kosher salt, a touch of ground pepper, 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar, 1/2 cup light olive oil, and a touch of sugar), and a loaf of fresh wheat bread (follow the bread machine instructions).

All in all, it was a very good meal, and I look forward to making chicken soup later this week from the carcass.

Unrequited Love

Recently, I have been rewatching Babylon 5 from the beginning. (If you haven't seen this series, I highly recommend that you find a copy and watch it. It is easily one of the most impressive TV series of all time.) I finished Season 4 over the weekend, and a comment from the next-to-last episode struck me. (Yes, there are spoilers, but the series is 10 years old already. You have been warned.)

Towards the end of the season, Commander Susan Ivanova is severely injured in a battle and not expected to survive. They transfer her back to Babylon 5 so they can make her more comfortable in her final days. However, Marcus Cole (who has obviously been in love with her without her noticing) learns of an alien device on the station that can heal people, taking energy from the operator and giving it to the patient. He rushes back to the station and breaks into where the device is stored, then goes ans uses it on Ivanova, giving his life for hers. In dealing with the aftermath of this, she says to Dr. Stephen Franklin:

All love is unrequited, Stephen. All of it.

I was looking up something related to this quote online, and got pointed to another site, which is especially fitting in light of Valentine's Day last week.

Now, I can understand a little of the view that all love is unrequited. In a way, that's right. In its purest form, love shouldn't depend in any way on whether it is returned or not. True, selfless love is given to someone else with no strings attached.

At the same time, Ivanova is wrong. Not all love is unrequited. Yes, some is. Who hasn't felt that feeling of love for someone else who doesn't return that love? Who hasn't wanted, with all of their heart, to confess their undying love and devotion to someone, but stopped short of doing just that out of fear or lack of timing? Or worse, they work up the courage and are rejected instead. I know I have. Several times. It takes a lot for me to admit to myself that I have fallen in love with someone. Admitting it to someone else, especially directly to that person, is far more difficult.

And yet, not all love or relationships go that way. I look at my parents, who have been married for just shy of 35 years. I see my sisters' relationships with their husbands. I see family and friends with stable, loving relationships. I know that it's possible, and I know that I won't rest until I can find someone to develop such a relationship with myself.

So, I guess I agree with Ambassador Delenn, who later in that episode is commenting on Ivanova's observation with her aide Lennier (who is in love with Delenn, but refuses to tell her, but that's another sad story). She says, "She's wrong, of course."

But then, you have to live life as it comes at you, taking what joy you find as it comes along. Possibly the best advice from the episodes I watched on Saturday was this tidbit from Marcus: "Touch passion when it comes your way, Stephen. It's rare enough as it is. Don't walk away when it calls you by name."

Happy belated Valentine's Day, everyone. I hope that everyone who reads this is able to learn for themselves that Delenn is right and Ivanova is wrong, and that not all love is unrequited. Hold on to that love when you find it, for it is one of the most precious things in existence.

A Bit of History

This post is for my sister Meredith, another Chris LeDoux fan.

Caravan of yellow wire and crawling across the plains
Rolling along in a single file like a slow moving train
It rumbled down out of the mist into the early morning light
Said they stay till the job was finished if it took them till midnight
There were cats and scrapers all caterpillars packed up by mile high crane
And it looked like monsters from the old b movies the drive-ins use to play
And we'd sang goodbye Saturday under the stars
Wake up little Suzy in my daddy's car
So many memories got lost and found
When a piece of history hit the ground
The day they tore the last drive-in down

Memories thick as the smoke clouds they made man and machine became one
Boards snapped like toothpicks on their blades but to us it sounded like guns
Cowboys soldiers gangsters and thieves James Bond and his golden girls
Well you could sit in your car and never turn the key and go half way around the world
And it stood like a landmark for forty years we never thought we'd live to see
It fall it to the ground and then just disappear like so many childhood dreams
And we'd sang goodbye...

A lot of the drivers had tears in their eyes but I don't think it was just the dust
See I still believe there's a little piece of that old drive-in left in all of us
Nobody moved through what seemed like hours, and slow motion it came tumbling down
We just stood there with a taste of metal in our mouths and a silence all around
The day they tore the last drive-in down
And we'd sang goodbye...

For the past few weeks, I've had that song on my iPod rotation as I travel to and from work each day. One of my memories from my mission is from my greenie area, Las Vegas 4th Ward. There is a drive-in theater in the northern part of Las Vegas that was right in the middle of our area. While missionaries aren't supposed to be going out to the movies (and we didn't), sometimes we would be caught in traffic near the theater on our way home, and get to see small segments of movies that had come out (for example, I remember seeing a few minutes from Wild Wild West, although I didn't get to hear any of it until I got home).

Well, I did a little looking today. It turns out that there is a website that lists all of the drive-ins still operating in the US. Better yet, there are two of them about an hour or so away from me.

Meredith is planning to come to DC to visit for a few days sometime in May or June (bringing Sam so her Sam and my Sam can meet each other). Coincidentally, both drive-ins are reopening for the summer in May. When I told her this, she started insisting that we go to a real drive-in movie, if only for nostalgia's sake.

For some reason, I'm sensing a road trip.

I Finally Did It

I have finally started my new job search in a meaningful way. I've done job searches before, but this one is really different for a few reasons.

First of all, this is my first, real "professional" job search. The last time I was actively looking for a job, I had decided to make a change in my career path, and I was only about 9 months past getting my degree, so it was really a search for a new entry-level position in my new chosen field. I took a more junior position than I would otherwise have gotten (especially with a title like "Director of Development" on my resume). It's a bit of a shock to put your resume together and realize that you have three pages of professional experience and skills to present to people.

Second, this is the first time that I'm actively looking for a job when I don't really have to. I mean, I have a good job that I like, and they pay me well (including a nice raise a month ago). Before, I've either looked because I needed the money, because I was about to graduate, or because my then-current job just couldn't ever pay me on time (making it hard to support a family). That makes it hard to really get motivated to find a new position.

Most of all, this is a difficult search for me because I don't really know where to target it. All I know is that I feel like I should be looking, and I need to prepare to move when my lease is up in June. I've known that this is coming for quite a while (I started getting promptings almost the minute I renewed my lease last May), but it's frustrating to not know where to look.

I do need to move, if only to a new apartment. I love my apartment, but unfortunately I can't stay there. My new neighbor is the mother of my ex-wife's best friend, and that's just a little too close for comfort. When you combine that with the fact that I've always said that I planned to get out of the DC area before it can kill me, it seems like the time to start looking elsewhere for places to live. I just wish I knew where.

Since the beginning of January, I've been getting my resume together and trying to motivate myself to start actively looking. Today, I can say that I have finally started looking (as opposed to simply browsing), because I have finally started applying for a few positions. I just emailed off an application for one of two Unix administrator spots in either Columbus, Ohio or Dearborn, Michigan, and I'm putting together another application for a spot that's open at the University of Idaho (in Moscow - about 2 hours from my parents). I've got a few leads in San Antonio, Texas, and am starting to branch out from there.

I've seen a few possible open spots in Utah (heaven forbid!), and Georgia, and I'm basically looking wherever I can for an opening.

Both Michigan and Ohio look like appealing jobs (I'm perfectly qualified for them, they would both get me a security clearance, and I have either family or friends who live within an hour of each of them), but I'm not sure that either of those places is where I've supposed to end up. When I try asking the Lord for guidance, the only response I get is "Patience" and "Don't be hasty".

It helps that my boss knows that I'm looking, and even has asked if he can help any. He knows that I'm not doing it because I want to leave here, but because I need to see what's out there. Because he knows, we're taking the time to make sure that if I do wind up leaving, there will be plans and resources available to keep everything running smoothly. In a way, all of that makes the search even harder, because it makes where I am all the more tempting to me.

Of course, if the right opportunity doesn't come up by the time I need to get ready to move, I can always find a new apartment in the DC area, and try this all again in a year. I don't really need to stress about all of this too much. I'm sure that when the time and opportunity is right, the Lord will make it clear to me. I just need to do what I can to keep watching for that opportunity.

And, of course, when or if I move, the biggest challenge will likely be how to move Sam the pig with me. There's no way I'm leaving him behind.

So, now that I've finally started it, if any of you reading this* know of anyone who might be interested in hiring a Unix or Linux administrator outside of the DC area, please let me know.

* This includes all of my younger sister's friends I have been told are "cyberstalking" me since she gave them a link to my blog on her blog.

Friends in Crisis

This morning, I needed to do a little work from home (to bypass the proxies they have at work and test some configuration changes). I had just called my boss to let him know that I would be coming in to the office in a little while, when I got a call from my roommate, Scott.

Now, Scott is a coworker of mine who needed a place for a few months, and I happened to have an extra room, and things just sort of worked out. My rent got cut in half, and I have someone to watch my guinea pig when I get sent out of town unexpectedly, and he got a more convenient place to stay.

Well, Scott called me right after I got off the phone with my boss. It turns out that he needed to have some emergency surgery to stop some bleeding (he had his tonsils out last week). He had tried calling his parents, his sister, and his girlfriend, but couldn't get a hold of any of them, and he needed someone to be able to bring him home from the surgery center. I called my boss back, and told him that there was a change in plans, and I was going to be out for the rest of the day (but available by phone if I was needed). I then walked down to the surgery center (it was about a mile), and waited until Scott was out of surgery (it was only 15 minutes long, plus an hour or so for recovery), then drove him home in his car.

Why do I mention all of this? Because I spent a good bit of time chastising him for not letting me know that he needed help when he woke up at 3am spitting up blood, and again at 6am when he finally decided he needed to call the doctor. I was right there, asleep in the next room. There was no need for him to drive himself to the surgery center, and it was only by chance that I happened to be still home to go get him. If I hadn't been available, he wouldn't have had anyone to get him home, let alone keep an eye on him as he recovered from the surgery.

I'm very protective of my friends. I have always had an open door policy for them. If you need a place to stay for a night, or if you need a ride home, or anything else like that, all you have to do is call me, and if it is at all within my power, I will do everything I can to help. I figure it's the least I owe, considering how much help and support my friends have been to me, especially in the past two years. If you need immediate help, all you have to do is call, and no questions asked I'll be there to help (but no, I don't help dispose of bodies).

If I find out that one of my friends was in need, and didn't call on me because of not wanting to bother me, I will be extremely put out with them. Consider yourselves all warned.