Kat’s Den

What with my new-found spare time, I’ve been catching up on space science. Not just because it’s something that’s always fascinated me- I don’t count myself a trekkie or a Star Wars geek, but some of the first novels I read were Heinlein juveniles, and science fiction has always been my primary source of reading material- but because I also want to write science fiction. With role models such as Heinlein, Asimov, Niven, and Pournelle, is it any surprise that I want my writing to be as scientifically accurate as possible? My hard science background is rather limited- I was a biologist in college, not a physicist- but there are plenty of people with the same interest, and a burning desire to catalog what they know. I have to give Rocketpunk Manifesto and Atomic Rocket a lot of thanks for providing my reading material over the last week. There have been some advances since the last time I took a serious look at the state of the art in space travel and proposed travel, but no huge surprises for me. The future of sci-fi, space-opera, Trek and Star Wars style space flight is, on a realistic level, very depressing.

Why? Those pesky laws of physics. Faster than light travel? Not so far as we know. Travel times measured in months and years, finite amounts of fuel and food available to our intrepid explorers, ships that look like an erector-set explosion rather than some sleek, sexy dreadnaught; studded with ugly habitation rings (forget artificial gravity) and heat radiators (because no one escapes the laws of thermodynamics). Great space battles with masses of space-battleships crossing the T of the enemy fleet? Nope; you’ll know where they are from across the solar system and when they do get in range, the weaponry even by today’s theories is pretty devastating, if not visually exciting. No clouds of Battlestar Galactica Vipers or X-Wings, either; there’s little point in open space.

Which is why even the hardest of the great hard-scifi authors has to do some magic hand-waving and allow some bit of impossibility into the story to get the universes they do. The biggest, of course, is faster-than-light travel; it’s all but essential to the scifi most of us have come to know and love. They do try and keep some internal consistency, however; if you postulate X for your FTL drive, the side effects will be Y, and your characters will have to deal with them.

There’s a movement afoot, though, that says even this amount of handwavium is a cheat. “Mundane SF” says that look, what we know so far is that there’s no FTL, no alternate universes, very few habitable planets anywhere, much less close enough that we’d ever have a hope at reaching them- and the same for intelligent species, with whom we couldn’t hope to communicate and who are under the same restrictions as we are. Stop with the FTL battleships and Mos Eisley spaceports; they can’t exist. Our SF must be pure… no hand-waving allowed. One quote that struck me was “Geoff Ryman has contrasted mundane science fiction with regular science fiction through the desire of teenagers to leave their parents’ homes. Ryman sees too much of regular science fiction being based on an ‘adolescent desire to run away from our world.’ However, Ryman notes that humans are not truly considered grown-up until they ‘create a new home of their own,’ which is what mundane science fiction aims to do.”

So. Every great SF author of the past 100 years has been childish. Past SF has been escapism, and only “mundane SF” is pure, and adult in theme.

Wow. That sounds a little… childish. Not pink-unicorn-rainbow childish, but grumpy-teenager-locking-themselves-in-their-room childish. Here’s a hint: All fiction is escapism, no matter how based on reality it is. Why else are people reading it? Why are they writing it? Saying that having a bit of handwavium FTL drive in an otherwise superbly consistent story is childish, as you sniff pretentiously and push your glasses back up the nose you’re looking down, is ridiculous. Don’t you think the author knows what e=mc^2 means, and its implications? Don’t you think the average hard-sf aficionado does? Here’s a hint, it’s called “willing suspension of disbelief”, and it plays a part in just about every work of fiction in some way and amount. Without it, your story reads like… well… like most blogs you read, including this one. Dry as a dog biscuit.

Does this mean I won’t be reading any mundane SF? Of course not… just because they’re hobbled by physical reality doesn’t mean they won’t be interesting and engaging. By the same token, is any SF that gets the science really wrong worthless and deserving of nothing but contempt no matter how compelling the story? Again, of course not. My complaint here is the assumption that any SF that requires a bit of handwavium to exist- whether it be an FTL drive, thousands of habitable planets, or a menagerie of exotic aliens- is automatically forfeit of any consideration; and, in fact, is no better than childish fantasy, no different from a Dr. Suess coloring book.

I bet the most vociferous Mundate SFers grind their teeth and stomp off to their room to play some Morissey at the very mention of Star Wars. Heh. Fiction is entertainment, it is escapism. Otherwise, what’s the point? When the pseudoscience reaches the point of interfering with the story, sure, then it’s bad. But for the most part, some bit of handwavium is inevitable, and even enjoyable. There is such a thing as being TOO much of a geek, you know. You know you’ve reached it when it interferes with your enjoyment of things.

Sourpuss.

Yup, I’m talking about myself. Why? Well, with one stupid, panicked decision, I threw away a 14 year career. Fired from my current job, charged with False Statements, most likely going to have my certification as a police officer revoked.

Wait, what? What did I do? Murder someone? Take a bribe? Bone the mayor’s daughter?

No, no, nothing like that. I really can’t- or, rather, shouldn’t, until the mess is over- spew details. Long story short, I made a mistake on a record, and lied when called on it. When I realized that I was in fact wrong with my facts, I fessed up… but by that point it had gone too far. The record itself is wrapped up in a rather politicized, highly publicized case; and while others have done much the same sort of thing, it’s far too public to minimize. The mistake itself was forgivable; and, in fact, really had no bearing on the case it was associated with one way or the other. But my lie- induced by panic at the mistake I’d made on such a public item- isn’t forgivable. I’ve told students in my classes countless times that the one thing in law enforcement that you can never get back once you’ve given it up is your integrity, and that’s the one thing I tossed away in a frantic moment of panic.

And, actually, that’s probably the hardest thing to deal with- the number of cops that I know around this part of the state, who I’ve either worked with or taught in a class, calling wanting to know what’s going on. Most of them are expecting me to say that I’ve gotten shafted, that I’m the fall guy for something, that there’s more to the story that absolves me of some of the guilt. And I have to tell them that nope, this was my fault; I made this bed and I have to lie in it. Some of them still believe that there’s some kind of conspiracy behind it, because they know me, and this isn’t something I’d do… and I thank them for their belief in me, but sometimes you never know what a person will do under extreme stress.

So now I’m once again looking for a job… and the market sucks. Really sucks. I do have real-world experience in a number of areas- supervision, management, abundant computer skills- but it’s hard to get an employer to realize that when all they see for the past 14 years is law enforcement. Well, that’s what a resume is for, right? Describe those skills and how they’ll relate to whatever job it is your applying for? Sure, sure… if a human ever sees it. So many jobs direct you to a website to apply… and if that script doesn’t see exactly the right combination of words, it dumps it into the “not qualified” bin before a person ever sees it. Gets downright depressing, it does.

One would think, then, that I had ample free time to exercise my writing. And, in fact, I have been thinking about writing down all the strange, disturbing, funny, or otherwise somewhat interesting anecdotes I’ve lived through in my now-aborted career, grouping them by subject, and posting them up here.

Right after I check monster.com for the hundredth time.

…for not updating. I blame the curse of World of Warcraft. A friend of mine bought a copy of it for his kids, and I warned him that if he started playing he’d become addicted. Little did I know that I would too. I keep asking myself why I’m playing but I also keep logging in every night to level my night elf druid. Sad, sad, sad.

So, over the past few months, a routine has developed. Work during the week- the usual administrative slog of creating and teaching classes, minding the quartermaster duties, background checks- then make the hour commute home, find something for dinner, and log in to WoW. Weekends I end up over at the friend’s house mentioned earlier to either go hunting, paint guns, or- you guessed it- log in to WoW. Lather, rinse, repeat. Although I did get promoted to Lieutenant at work- same job, but butterbars and a slight pay raise.

The modeling bug as bitten again, and I purchased a new airbrush and compressor. Unfortunately, the writing bug hasn’t bitten again, so no progress on the novel.

Oh, and I sold the Mustang. I didn’t want to, but I’ve had it three years and only put 15,000 miles on it. I went for stretches of a month at a time without starting it. By contrast, I’ve got 12,000 miles on the bike in a year. Why sit on a chunk of money that’s depreciating every year without driving it?

Got off my bum and updated the webcam page. Not that I ever remember to turn them on; but there are now cams for the office, laptop, and work.

I’m also a little tired of the constant yes-it-is, no-it-isn’t back and forth over “global warming”. Science should never bow to the whims of politicians on either side. The axiom of the scientific process is that you test your hypothesis to understand how something works; if the results consistently defy your hypothesis, you throw it out in favor of what the evidence tells you.

Unfortunately, in the political world, you find someone who’ll make the evidence fit the hypothesis you want. Or, more commonly, just look at a tiny slice of the evidence that supports your position and hype the crap out of it. Get it on the internet; after all, if it’s on the web, it’s true. Sorry, I think I’ll listen to the scientists who are honestly evaluating the data… at least, the ones who aren’t shilling for one side or the other. The honest scientists will say “Here’s our data, here’s the trends we’ve noticed, here they are on a millennial scale and here’s what we expect to happen.” You’ll also notice that most of them are cautious about causation… the why and how of these events is extremely complex and no honest scientist can state with certainty that X caused Y. I don’t look for scientific analysis from Rush Limbaugh or Al Gore.

But what can be stated is that there has been a global rise in temperatures within the last 1000 years. Wait, I already hear anguished gnashing of teeth. Yes, that 1000 years is a drop in the bucket on the timeline of the planet. It may very well be a normal cyclic change that has nothing to do with human intervention. But that’s unimportant. What is important is how does this change affect humanity now? What can we expect for our modern civilization? Certainly the planet will still be here. I expect that the worst doomsday scenario will still see humans surviving and possibly thriving- we’re almost as hard to kill as a species as cockroaches thanks to this grossly bulging frontal lobe. But what will the costs to our society be?

Pretty damn drastic. And whether or not it’s caused by human action is pretty insignificant. Even if it is, we don’t understand how; and any corrective action on our part is based on guesses and speculation and may ultimately make things worse- or not. We simply don’t know.

But if I hear another group of politically polarized idiots arguing yes-it-is, no-it-isn’t over a topic that they’re woefully, blissfully, and willfully ignorant of, it’ll take a lot of prozac to prevent my removing them and their potential offspring from the debate forever.

Sounds like a band name. Actually, it’s a set of heated pants, jacket liner, and gloves for the bike. And man, do these things work! Rode in 38 degree weather Saturday morning and only needed to put it on low… why did I wait so long before buying these? Have also ordered a Givi E52 top case and mounting plate, but they’re apparently being shipped from Nevada and haven’t arrived yet.

In other news, that firewall seemed to fix itself… and I have no idea how or why. I hate it when that happens, as it could happen again at any time and I still don’t know why. And I created a Facebook account… God knows why, but I have heard from folks since doing it that I haven’t heard from since childhood; so maybe there’s something to it.

Sooo… first week at the new job. I knew I’d have a job ahead of me setting up a training program pretty much from scratch; but no idea how much of one. It seems the former Sheriff of this county- we’ll just call him “G”- was basically coasting until retirement and never pushed for the budget the agency required nor allowed his deputies to do… anything. There hasn’t been a ticket written in the county in two years. The only training the deputies were allowed was the minimum required by the state. He was so anxious to move into the new jail before he retired that none of the jailers received any training on the facility. And, apparently, no one knows where anything is or how it operates.

Well, he retired in 2008, and his successor- my new boss at this new agency; call him “R”- has inherited a mess. A severe lack of equipment, uniforms, vehicles, and training; but at least the deputies seem eager to improve the office. When I started Monday, my training room in the new jail was bare except for a small wooden desk with a penis carved into the top of it. Spent the week getting desks, tables, chairs, office supplies, organizing and preparing; but it’s finally starting to come together- except for two things: The thermostat in my office doesn’t seem to do anything. Cold enough to hang meat in there. I suspect that the thermostat was turned off from a central location to save energy, since the room was vacant for so long. Heating and air guy is coming Monday to look at it.

Second thing is that since no one really knows how the new equipment in the jail works, no one knows how to service the phones, network, or camera system when they fail. Friday the hardware firewall that controls a VPN tunnel between the jail and the courthouse- and, therefore, internet access (not needed for many but essential for my job), the LiveScan fingerprinting system, and criminal record access went tits up and no one knew how it worked. The original contractor, when contacted, was helpful and friendly but wasn’t contracted to service it. The company that manufactured the firewall has a product support service that includes hardware replacement, but the old sheriff had let it expire to save money. On top of that, the model of firewall we have will be discontinued and unsupported after October of this year.

*sigh* So I spent the day, after spending $74 of my own money to re-instate the service contract through October, on the phone with tech support. Must be a problem with the DSL connection, they say; so now talk to Windstream. Everything’s fine on our end, they say; so back to WatchGuard. Finally get WatchGuard to send a new firewall that will be here Monday; so I guess I’ll be setting that up after the weekend and keeping my fingers crossed that it works.

So, if you have any experience with a WatchGuard Firebox X5 Edge, I may have a job for you.

2009 will certainly be a year of change!

If you’ve read earlier posts, you’ll recall that the candidate I supported for Sheriff of the county I live in (and the office I work for) lost the primary election. Wondering every four years who your boss will be is hard enough; but in Georgia, an “at will” state, unless your agency has civil service protections in place, you serve “at the pleasure of the Sheriff”. In other words, if he chooses, he can fire you for no reason at all.

You can probably already see where this is going. New Sheriff; not the guy I supported but I’m willing to work with him. I’ve got a good job, doing what I like, and an excellent pay check. Except, that on New Year’s Eve after swearing in the employees, he pulled me aside and informed me that he was bringing someone else in from the outside to take my position on February 1st and would not have a position for me after that date.

Well, yippy skippy. That’s the strangest way to be told to hit the door. I’m not the only one, either; but it’s a fairly common occurrence around Sheriff’s Offices after every election. There’s a long history, in Georgia at least, of outgoing Sheriffs destroying records and spending every last penny in the budget and incoming Sheriffs firing anyone who might be a political threat or whose position is needed to provide a job for a crony or supporter. Which brings us to the question: who do you want your law enforcement to be beholden to? Theoretically, an elected Sheriff is beholden to the voting citizens of his jurisdiction; but the same thing could be said of any elected official, and tell me with a straight face that they have the interests of the citizens in mind and not pandering to the loudest voice in order to get a vote. On the other hand, an appointed official, such as a police chief, is beholden to the mayor or city commission; who, also, are theoretically beholden to the voters but more often than not will be the real rulers of that agency. Six to one, half a dozen to another; both have some serious drawbacks.

In any case, I’m not waiting until February 1st; my resignation is effective January 23 and I start at a new agency the following Monday. I didn’t have a whole lot of time for job seeking; while my resume is impressive, in this economy, agencies are either in a hiring freeze or only have entry-level positions available. I’m taking a pretty heft pay cut, but it beats standing in the unemployment line.

Yeah, I’m an internet junkie. Surfing for me means following link after link on whatever little thing crosses my mind while I’m sitting at the computer. Every now and then I’ll fall back on old favorites, like failblog.org. While browsing failblog, I noticed two posts that really made my brain squirm: In one, I believe it was a letter to a newspaper editor, a gentleman speculated that the recent droughts were the result of daylight savings time. You see, all that extra light in a day heats the earth more, drying things up…

Oy. Really? There are people that stupid? Must be, because the other one that caught my eye was of a lawn sprinkler with a nice rainbow behind it. The woman holding the camera was complaining that she never used to see rainbows so close to the ground. “They” must be putting things in the water to cause rainbows so close to the ground! It’s a conspiracy!

Physics. It’s a conspiracy.

It’s been a really crappy couple of months. First the election- covered in the last post- then the usual drama around the station house, and then I find my mom has stopped taking her medication and had a paranoid episode in which she called 911 and got five cops respond to the house. She’s spent the last week in a behavioral health center and has returned home this weekend. What causes the most stress is that dad is convinced he can handle this on his won’t tell the kids what’s going on, so quite a bit of it came as a surprise to me. Not surprisingly, when I went to my doctor to renew my migraine medication, my blood pressure was pretty high. Doesn’t help that I have the eating habits of Michael Moore.

Found this, which appeals to my inner geek- don’t have much tolerance for graffiti “artists”, but this is a non-destructive graffiti that’s pretty damn cool.
Laser graffiti!

Yes, it’s been a long, hot summer. Not just because of rising temperatures due to the planet’s axial tilt and an ongoing drought in the southeast- no, because it’s election year.

Now, normally I’m a pretty apolitical person. I vote for who I think will do the best job, rather than along any party lines. I’m conservative on some issues, liberal on others, and middle of the road most of the time. But this election year, the vote affected me quite personally- I work for a Sheriff’s Office, and my boss, the Sheriff of this county for 24 years, is retiring. This opens the field up quite a bit on who will be my boss- and direct my job- for the next four years. In the running for the Republican Primary were the current Chief Deputy, a man who’s run the Sheriff’s Office for the past four years, is a bar certified attorney, graduate of the FBI National Academy, and someone who’ve I known to be a very decent, honest person. He has his faults, but is widely believed to be the most experienced choice. On the other side of the ticket is a Sergeant in a local police department, who’s been in law enforcement for 10 years and is also a decent person; but who has never worked in a Sheriff’s Office (which is a whole different beast from a police department) and has some skewed ideas about how a Sheriff’s Office should function. In his favor is that he’s the home-town boy. Of course, as the campaign wore on, the local guy’s supporters got nastier and nastier. To his credit, he hasn’t done anything really dirty that anyone can point to, but his fans are another matter.

So, who wins the primary in July? The home town guy. In my mind, the voters of the county threw out the nastiness of the local guy’s supporters and the vast experience of the Chief Deputy just to vote in the local guy. What’s really annoying is the fact that many of those people who voted for the local guy called the Chief Deputy after the election and asked him to stay on as Chief Deputy- “because (local guy) is going to need a lot of experienced help”. Are you shitting me? Add on to this the fact that out of 65,000 people in the county, only 31,000 are registered to vote- and only 6700 of those bothered to vote at all. What’s the point? It starts to make me wonder why I bust my ass every day for these people when only 1/10th of them vote and those that do seem to have said “We don’t like how you do your job”. The same trend is towards voting in county commissioners whose only concern is stopping growth- not controlling or directing it, but stopping it altogether and taking the county back to a small, agrarian, rural area. Hmm. Good luck with that- the growth is coming whether they want it or not. We’re too close to Atlanta and on too many transportation arteries for it not to. By sticking our heads in the sand, it will grow uncontrollably and in directions that will cause many, many problems in the future. But no, let’s stop it altogether- as if that’s ever happened without destroying the community.

Yeah, it’s got me annoyed and grouchy, questioning the idiots in this county, and wondering if I should flip them all the bird and go work somewhere else.