The Nine Greatest Science Fiction Writers (So Far)

The greatest science fiction writers are those whose work has rigor, integrity, excellence, erudition, grace, clarity, drama, charm, humor and swiftness of read.

Since I have been emmersed in the question of "Who?" for several years now, I want to suggest a list of the best and greatest in order of eminence.

1. Isaac Asimov.

2. Joe Haldeman.

3. Kim Stanley Robinson.

4. Robert Sawyer.

5. Frank Herbert.

6. Robert Heinlein.

7. Michael Swanwick.

8. Karl Schroeder.

9. Orson Scott Card.

10. Who's next?

On the bitchfight on page 57 my novel

So tonight is the first time I have written significantly outside the Focus Plan of my novel Gaia.


It seems remarkable to me that I could've passed 20 thousand words this Wednesday with fairly smooth sailing. But when I got to the portion where a major character makes a major decision without any real drama around it, I could not go on knowing it was not the best way.

There had to be more drama.

So I added a fight. I added bitchery. I added academic bitchery. I added MALE academic bitchery (little known fact: hell hath no fury like a bitchy male academic scorned).

It was not good enough.

I sat down to write Focus Plan for the three to five pages but i made the astonishing discovery (duh) that one cannot just manfucture drama, unless it naturally arises from character and circumstance.

However i discovered that although it is hard to manufacture drama in a story, it is early to manufacture melodrama. And who's gonna know the difference this early stage, hm?

Movie: Attack of the AIDS Zombie Clones.

Novel:
Attack of the AIDS Zombie Clones.

Premise:
HIV mutates into an alternative immune system in millions of sufferers, and then a new form of syphyllis makes people rot and act as if possessed. Viola, Zombification a la carte! The resultant creatures, once cloned and bred for submission, become a human subspecies called "mules", sterile servants to rich countries middle and upper classes. But the viruses continue to mutate overseas, and the submissive tranquillity of the mules may not be all that it seems.

Explanation: *Yawn* Can someone please write that novel in the window? Why? Mainly because I want to purchase the plastic merchandising figures that comes out with the movie. In a world where even nostalgia for Star Wars figurines is a viral meme we frankly do not deserve better than movies about AIDS Zombie Clones.

Mood of the day: Jaded and conspiratorial.

Maca Mocha: a new coffee drinking concept

I have a great idea for anyone who wants to introduce a delicious new type of coffee.

Take two flat teaspoons full of "Peruvian Ginseng" aka Maca Root.
Mix with one full teaspoon of coffee and half a teaspoon on cocoa in hot milk.
Stir in and drink immediately with sweetener (stevia or licorice is best) to taste.

There's a fortune for the lucky soul who sell this combination to the right person.

In step format:

1. Boil the licorice or decoct the stevia.
2. Stir in coffee and cocoa.
3. Add milk THEN maca and stir in.

Enjoy!

Favorite Devotional Musicians

Favorite devotional musicians.

Nusrat Fateh Ali Kahn. Sufi devotional music. Amazing stuff.

George Harrison. His specifically devotional music is immediately recogniseable.

Robert Gass and On Wings of Song, the singing group he records with. Vedic, Christian, Buddhist, Native American - Gass is the grand musical syncretist of the last twentieth century.

REM's song "Nightswimming", which alone among REM's entire song catalogue is calibrate-ably devotional and has a noticeable anabolic effect on listening.

Riverdance the original CD. Sublime devotional music, especially ANY piece using the eillean flute.

WA Mozart, any piece at all, without exception.

Arvo P"art, any piece likewise. ( http://saintpaulsunday.publicradio.org/features/9810_part/index.htm#audio )

Most pieces by George Santana.

Most pieces by Louis Armstrong.

Lovingness knows no border, religion, creed or musical style. Its hallmarks seems to be freedom from needless adornment or intellectualism; inclusive or universalist intention, and a deeply personal expression of the heart's outpouring.

As I write this I've been listening to Santana... and now a flat-out phat-ass solo by Armstrong.

Ahhh! here come those familiar blues:

Love makes me treat you the way I do.
Gee baby ain't I good to you.
There's nothing too good for a goirl so true.
Mamma ain't I good to you? Yesss!

Oh Jai Jai Jai Om!

All beings are owners of their own karma

There is no avoiding the fact of our responsibility for our own consciousness and actions. The Metta Sutta simply says: Kammasakka. The translation? "All beings are owners of their own karma."

By hating and condemning others, we condemn ourselves. By seeking to understand others, we grow and learn to understand ourselves.

I want to make it clear that negative propaganda is the false and toxic mimic of genuine honest reason, and true reason humbly accepts that there are things it cannot understand.

Spiritual matters are personal. Make your own choices. Follow your own heart. But do not listen to haters please. Listen to people with peace and happiness, not embittered and angry people. Because you are responsible for your own consciousness. Don't expose yourself to the bitterness of criticism without the protection of wie reason and the fullest education.

Blood Test

I got my blood tested yesterday afternoon. Oh it was a learning experience.

Some lessons from blood tests I have known:

- Try to get a blood test when you are feeling in fine mettle. Try to avoid getting a blood test when you are (like I was yesterday) feeling a bit out of it, unwell, fragile, or simply coming down off addictive antidepressant medication.

- Try not to babble. It doesn't help. Nor does silence.

- Try not to mention how painful and degrading it feels when the nice young Chinese Nurse Steve misses the vein SIX FRIGGEN TIMES!!!

- Try not to tell others what to do. They don't know what to do any more than you do.

- Try not to say "thankyou" a lot as a way of getting out their office.

So....

The upshot was that they rang the pathologist and asked if half a miligram of blood was enough for the bloods.

Waiting for a reply, Nurse Steve says "In my country they can use that small amount of blood, but I donknow here."

I refused to have any more jabs after three attempts and ended up with four precisely administered red dots on both elbows.

It's raining: two poems

Falling Zen.

The rain is falling zen -
At all times wordless
Transmits life.


In the rain.

Some people walk with stiff shoulders
In the pouring rain.
Others grip their black umbrellas
Like wet's original stain
But I prefer most to go bare
In the shining open air.