Tiger Toy

That's my nickname. I'm attaching some pictures so my new writing group can see them.
The kitties are Siberian tigers (also known as Amur tigers). They're the biggest of the natural cat family still in existence today. There are a couple of "ligers" that are considerably larger. But ligers do not occur naturally since the ranges of lions and tigers are pretty well separated... even in India, which has a lion area in its far west.

A few comments

Fall is a terrific season for the garden. Those dead leaves make great mulch to protect plants from lower temperatures in the winter. But another neat thing is that many of the annuals begin to go to seed. So now is a good time to begin harvesting. I have been getting seeds from the purple cone flower


and the Indian blanket flower. Both are shown here.



Of course there is the delightful changing of the leaves. They turn glorious colors as the sap leaves them to dry and to fall. The Japanese maple shown here is pretty red most of the year. But it gives an idea. The hard woods, such as maples are the most colorful. But birches, aspens, and Bradford pear also put on a fine show.



This afternoon, my wife and I were having lunch in a Mexican restaurant. There were a couple of people who sat and talked on their cell phones while feeding their faces. That's slightly rude. Ruder still was the fact that they were having lunch with other people. I fear that if one of my friends were to do that, they would get some pretty stiff words on the subject. Fortunately, most of my friends are, like me, from the stone age when almost all telephones were attached to the wall and only portable as far as the cord between the handset and the telephone body. There some radio phones. These were considered a rare novelty and were quite expensive. They were also big enough to make them inconvenient or impossible to carry anywhere but the car.

The saddest part of that cell phone attachment was a young woman who was having lunch with her children. The kids were very well behaved. And in between the calls she made, wanted to talk to her. She appeared to enjoy the conversations. But she still went back to the phone and made more calls. The kids were bored to the point of putting their heads on their arms and napping while she chattered away.

Truly, I feel a little sadder for that woman. Time spent with your children when they want to be with you gets increasingly rare as they grow up. Often, by the time they reach teenage, they don't want to even admit that you are their parents. That woman wasted half an hour that she can never get back. When the kids leave home, or just begin to be independent, she may recall that time and wish she'd talked with them instead of chatting with her friends.

My opinion is that cellular telephones are only appropriate in certain places and at certain times. Too many accidents have been caused by people talking on their phones, texting or just dialing numbers. When they are using their phones, they usually don't have a hand free to operate their turn signals. They certainly are not paying much attention to their surroundings. I sat behind a woman who didn't move through two cycles of a stop light. When I got out of my car and approached, I saw she was yakking on her phone. I guess my approach got her attention. She burned rubber getting onto the road, then stayed in the turning lane, still talking. [I heaved a big sigh here] Hey, you all, hang up and drive!!!

Postop report

Yesterday, an ophthalmic surgeon removed the cataract from my left eye and replaced with a new lens that is supposed to adjust for distance and near vision. The operation went well. My sensitivity to anesthetics is such that I'm still feeling a little loggy. On the bright side of that, I sleep long and well when I let myself lie down.

The eye is still a little swollen from the surgery. That means that I see double in an odd way. Images are on top of one another instead of side by side (what happens when your eyes cross). If I move my head to the proper angle, the images re-impose themselves on one another. It's kind of cool. But, alas, that effect is already changing back to normal vision. At present, my distance vision is binocular, but I haven't noticed any effect on near and intermediate distance vision As my eye goes back to its normal size and shape, that may change. At worst, I'll be far sighted and have to wear reading glasses. Well, that's necessary now, so no sweat.

I do have to say that this really appeals to my love for gadgets. I feel like I did the first Christmas I received an electric train set. The night before, I had been too excited to sleep. But I did get a little sleep. I awoke early that Christmas morning and crept into the living room where we had set up a live tree and decorated it. The tracks ran around the tree and the lovely steam engine with its trail of cars was on the tracks. The transformer was plugged in. It was torture to wait until the rest of the family awoke so I could run the train and sound the whistle. But then... Ah bliss; the engine even puffed steam (it had to be fed tablets to do that).

At that time, our house sat atop a basement and garage. The living room overlooked the drive and front yard. As I ran that train around its track, I could imagine the view that the engineer and passengers had, with our living room and then front yard with its persimmon trees flashing by.

This year, I don't have to imagine. But I do have to wait for things to even out and work the way they're supposed to do. Waiting is not my favorite thing. But the Army taught me patience, sort of.

The image, by the way, isn't of that old tree, but of a modern one in my daughter's home.

Archon 32

This year was the thirty-second St. Louis Science Fiction Convention. It is named Archon in honor of the St. Louis Arch.

Before getting to the convention, I must pause to review some nomenclature. SF fans (there is a minor disagreement about whether it should be SF [ess eff] or Sci Fi) have a few words of their own. Prime examples are con for convention and fen as the plural of fan. Non SF readers are called mundanes.




The convention is now held the first weekend of October. For a long time, it was held in July. The heat of a St. Louis summer made some of the costumes torture to wear. Costuming is an important part of a con. The weather in October is chancy at best, but this year was delightfully cool, allowing fen to wear an imposing array of the costumer's art.

Science fiction is a genre with many sub-genres. Some of these, like horror, are found in different parts of the book store. Others like fantasy, space opera, hard science fiction, alternate history, cyberpunk, steampunk and military SF are lumped in with the other parts of science fiction. It mostly depends on the management of the store or chain. But all of these can be taken under the mantle of SF.



Science fiction is not something new. Although Jules Verne is the father of modern SF, it goes back at least to the 17th century. During that time, Savien Cyrano de Bergerac (yes, the guy the play was written about) published his "Comic Story of the Countries of the Moon and Sun." If you're not familiar with the play, read it. There are some of the most romantic scenes ever written therein. The films based on the play are very well done and fairly faithful to the original by Rostand. However, there have been claims that science fiction goes all the way back to biblical times. When I was growing up, I read several articles that claimed that the "great wheel" seen by Ezekiel.

Fandom (another SF word) consists of a huge variety of people. There are science fiction clubs and authors all over the Americas, Europe and the Far East. In fact, each year, a world science fiction convention is held. More abut that in the parties section. While many fen are scientists and engineers, a multitude of other folk love the genre or part of it. There are teenagers, literature students, artists, clerks, accountants and policemen that I have met at cons. Fandom is also one of the most accepting, tolerant populations I have met. Almost any foible is acceptable at a con.

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The gentleman in this photo, by the way is running his computer from a solar cell.

The most common question I hear about science fiction conventions (cons is so much easier, but a little repetitive) is "What do you do there?" The answer to that is quite a bit. During the day, there are panel discussions ranging from weapons of the medieval warrior to surgery in space. Experts in writing and publishing talk about both writing and getting what you write published. Artists will talk about how they got into SF art or how they draw imaginary creatures. Astronomers can give lectures on how to make up realistic imaginary worlds or biologists might talk about what sort of aliens might exist. I even managed to give a few panels about my life with big cats.



In the evening, there is more programming, usually there is a continuous science fiction film show and the parties. Parties are an integral part of the con experience. Reasons for hosting parties can vary from the desire to get together with friends and others to a bid for a world science fiction convention (worldcon) location. You see, worldcons are held in a different city every year. There have been a number of repeat visits, to Los Angeles and to Denver, for examples. But the con itself moves each year. Attendees of the worldcon two years before vote on the location and the winner hosts the worldcon two years hence. Believe me, two years are the minimum required to organize a successful worldcon. It is usually the biggest SF con held in the year, hosting memberships from 3,000 to 10,000 in recent years. The parties are to convince fen that a particular locale is ideal for a worldcon. Since some delightful people love to throw parties, there are also fake worldcon bid parties for places like the moon or Mars.

The parties usually serve food typical of their areas and some serve beverages native to their areas. Especially notable among these was the successful Scotland bid party. Glasgow won hands down that year.

Last, but not least, many people ask about the "Trekkies". They are with us, along with fans of Dr. Who and other TV series. But Star Trek was the seminal science fiction television show and brought the medium to the attention of more people than anything until Harry Potter (there are Harry Potter fans too.)




Try Googling "Science Fiction Convention" and attend one in your area.

Arkansas State Fair part III

I see, by reviewing my older blogs on this subject, that I managed to duplicate some pictures. I'll try to get some more in this time, since my last attempt was truncated by schedule and slow upload times.






That's all for that. My next posting shall be about the science fiction convention sponsored by the St. Louis Science Fiction Society. The convention is named Archon and that will be part of the title.

Arkansas State Fair part II

Here are a couple more photos from the fair (as promised yesterday). Unfortunately, the connection is a little too slow for me to be able to post many more before leaving the house today. Perhaps later.



The kids on the rides were marvelous. Along with the very serious tots on the merry-go-round and the usual cheerful screaming as the rides did something that dropped stomachs, there was an informality in their attire that I enjoyed.



I got a kick out of the new teen style. All that extra material reminds me of the pictures of "zoot suits" that were in style before WWII. They went out of style quickly. I suspect it was due to the fact that a lot of young men were drafted or volunteered after Pearl Harbor and the shortage of cloth that came with the war effort.

Arkansas State Fair

It is Sunday evening. The Fair has almost drawn to a close. The livestock
has been taken home by the people showing it. The prizes have been awarded.

And the busy show schedule is over after nine days of hard work.

The fair continues until later tonight. Most of the vendors are doing plenty of business, selling food, junk, and all kinds of things from pots and pans, perfume to cattle panels.

There were the usual rides, carny games and other things like face painting.



There was a terrific tiger show. I love tigers and these were delightful, playful and awesome.


And of course I had a great time, finding pictures to put into this blog.






That seems to be all I can post right now. But I have many more and I will post them another time. I think I still have a con report for Archon 32 to post here as well.