Meerkat Meade

Monday's Child R.I.P.

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 02:03:00 +0000

Should have posted this a while ago, in remembrance.

Monday's child is Farrah Fawcett,
Tuesday's child is Fuller Brush Man,
Wednesday's child is Martin Balsam,
Thursday's child is Tommy Newsome,
Friday's child is Euell Gibbons,
Saturday's child is Richard Simmons,
But the child that's born on the sabbath day
Is John and Paul and George and Jay.

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Act Well Your Part Now Available for Kindle

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 16:14:00 +0000

Don's first novel, Act Well Your Part, is now available in Amazon Kindle format for $3.50.

Act Well Your Part is the story of Keith Graff, who dislikes his new school, Oak Grove High. He misses his old friends, and despairs of ever fitting in. Then he joins the school's drama club, where he meets the boyishly cute Bran Davenport. From there on it's a rollicking good boy-meets-boy story.

Since its original publication in 1986, Act Well Your Part has become a classic, an unabashed love story set not in the world that was, but in the world as, perhaps, it should be. It is a world in which sexual orientation matters about as much as eye color of left-handedness.

Amazon Kindle format is an electronic text format that can be viewed on Amazon's Kindle device and Apple's iPhone.

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Help Spread the Word

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 23:23:00 +0000

Folks, please help me spread the word that a thinly-disguised Michael Jackson was a character in Dance for the Ivory Madonna. I think lots of people would be interested to see Michael Jackson in a science fiction novel.

The link is tinyurl.com/mjsfnovel

Thanks!

-Don Sakers

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Reviewing the Star Trek Movies

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 02:28:00 +0000

Everyone is asking what we thought of the new Star Trek movie. Before answering that, you should know what we thought of the others.

First, a few words on how we review movies:

To begin with, we rate movies along two axes. One is good/bad; the other is fun/not-fun. A movie can be good and fun (The Princess Bride), good and not fun (Das Boot), bad but fun (Independence Day), or bad and not fun (Ernest Goes to Camp). In addition, we sometimes rate movies on a scale of 1 to 101 Dalmatians (the animated one, of course).

That being said, here are our opinions of the various Star Trek movies.

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#1: Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Very good, pretty fun

A good science fiction movie, although not necessarily good Star Trek. Maybe 85 dalmatians.

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#2: The Wrath of Khan

Pretty good, very fun.

Although we still want to know where they got enough mass to form a planet in the middle of that nebula. Maybe 80-85 dalmatians.

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#3: The Search for Spock

Pretty good, very fun.

Very hard to separate from Wrath of Khan - they're really 2 parts of the same movie, aren't they? Maybe 70-75 dalmatians.

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#4: The Voyage Home

Bad, somewhat fun.

Time travel is not Star Trek's forte. And why did the whale tank have to be transparent? Maybe 50-55 dalmatians.

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#5: The Final Frontier

Bad, not much fun.

Maybe 50-55 dalmatians.

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#6: The Undscovered Country

Very bad, not much fun.

Okay, guys, which ship was doing the gas surveys? Maybe 30-35 dalmatians.

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#7: Generations

Not too bad, somewhat fun.

Crashing the saucer section was fun. But time travel again...oh my. Maybe 50-60 dalmatians.

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#8: First Contact

Not too good, somewhat fun.

Impossible to reconcile this version of Zefram Cochrane with the one seen in the series. And...oh dear...time travel and the Borg? Really? Maybe 60-65 dalmatians.

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#9: Insurrection

Quite good, quite fun.

Good sf, good Trek, a cool planet and a plot that makes sense. Maybe as many as 80-85 dalmatians.

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#10: Nemesis

Very bad, not much fun.

Proof that Star Trek can be awful without time travel or the Borg. Maybe 30-35 dalmatians, maybe fewer.

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#11 Star Trek.

Not that good but really fun.

Lots of nods to fans, some really good actors. But necessary to give up trying to piece together the sloppy narrative. Head off to save Vulcan with only two real officers and a bunch of third-year cadets on the Federation Flagship? Really? Make a third-year cadet who is on probation the First Officer? Did I mention it's the Flagship? Promote that cadet to Flagship Captain, over the heads of all the existing officers? Sure, why not?

Maybe 75-80 dalmatians?

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Soured on Apple

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 00:32:00 +0000

I am well and truly pissed at Apple.

It all started on June 7 with Security Update 2009-02. I installed it on our venerable seven-year-old iMac G4 (running OSX 10.4.11). Afterwards, the iMac wouldn't start up. It froze on the blue startup screen. What's worse, it would not boot into so-called "safe mode."

I looked online and found that I was not the only person bitten by this bug. There were many suggestions, so I started trying them. Start up in single-user mode (which it did) and repair the startup disc, repair permissions, change the name of various preferences files, delete this-that-and-another file from various Libraries. No dice.

I finally learned the trick of opening the DVD drive, so was able to boot from the install disc. Fromt there, I was able to boot into OS9. But that did me no good.

One source said to boot from an external Firewire drive. So I used the install DVD to install OSX 10.4.6 on the external drive, and tried to boot from that.

No luck. Under OS9 it mounted the external drive without trouble; but it would not boot from that drive no matter what I did.

Eventually, I had no other choice but to reinstall the OS. I was reluctant to do this, because I had to do it back in February (after another botched Security Update) and the update destroyed a bunch of settings, as well as wiping out all our iTunes playlists. But there was no other choice.

So I installed OSX 10.4.6 on the iMac. And it rebooted successfully, hooray!

But...

The wireless card is messed up. System Profiler sees the card, but the iMac insists that it is not installed. The ethernet port is messed up -- the system doesn't even admit that it has an Ethernet port, and it certainly won't go online. (Both the wireless network and the ethernet connection work fine on the laptop.)

Worse, the iMac won't mount the external drive. Nor will with external drive mount on the laptop. That drive holds all our iTunes, all our iPhotos, and a bunch of other stuff that I really don't want to lose.

Without being able to go online, I can't install any system updates. I am afraid to run anything because I don't want to have OS conflicts.

Thanks a lot, Apple. You've turned a perfectly-good computer into a wreck.

I'd been planning to buy a brand-new iMac with tax refund money...but now I am very reluctant. I've recommended Apple to many friends over the last few years...but I can't do that in any good conscience any longer. I am definitely soured on Apple.

----------

Update 9:08 PM: Well, I can still boot into OS 9.2...and then the iMac recognizes its wireless connection. So we can get online using a ten-year-old version of Internet Explorer. Bah.

Apple still sucks big-time.

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CostumeCon 27 Pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Tue, 05 May 2009 01:19:00 +0000

Our CostumeCon 27 presentation was "CostumeCon 1889: Steampunk Style." In it, we did a masquerade-within-the-masquerade, in Steampunk style, which spoofed all the standard cliches of costuming: Star Trek, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, and five different Snow Queens. Not only did we get a group award for workmanship and the "Best Concept" masquerade award...but the New York/New Jersey Costumer's Guild awarded us the coveted Spazzy Award, given for the most sick and twisted presentation.

Here's the group picture:

And here's Thomas as Darth Vader. His helmet is made of folded and glued cardboard.

And here is the last costume we presented, Don as the ultimate Snow Queen: a steampunk drag queen cocaine dealer (Snow Queen, get it?)

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Earth Day

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Mon, 04 May 2009 14:22:00 +0000

I can see a time, in the not-too-distant future, when Earth Day will replace Easter as the default Spring holiday. I'm in favor: with the exception of Christmas, all of our other national holidays are secular ones. And we need a Spring holiday.

I can also see a time, in the more-distant future, when people on the Moon, Mars, and various space settlements will insist that the name "Earth Day" be changed because it's too Earth-centric. And there, too, I'm in favor.

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How We Designate Planets Nowadays

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 19:35:00 +0000

(GEEK ALERT! Only interesting if you are a science or science-fiction geek. Mundanes may skip without penalty.)

How do we designate planets? The old way, the venerable science fiction way, was to give planets roman numerals in order of their distance from their sun. In this system, Earth was "Sol III," Khan was exiled on "Ceti Alpha V," and in the Dune universe, the planet Ix derived its name from the fact that it was the ninth planet from its sun.

That's not how it works in the real world. According to the all-knowing Wikipedia:

The most common way of naming extrasolar planets is almost the same as binary stars, except that a lowercase letter is used for the planet instead of the uppercase letter for stars. A lowercase letter is placed after the star name, starting with "b" for the first planet found in the system (51 Pegasi b). The next planet found in the system could be labeled the next letter in the alphabet. For instance, any more planets found around 51 Pegasi would be catalogued as "51 Pegasi c" and then "51 Pegasi d", and so on. If two planets are discovered around the same time, the closest one to the star gets the next letter, while the last planet would get the last letter. For example, in the Gliese 876 system, the most recently discovered planet is referred to as Gliese 876 d, despite the fact that it is closer to the star than Gliese 876 b and Gliese 876 c. The suffix "a" was intended to refer specifically to the primary, as opposed to the system as a whole, but this did not catch on. At present, the planet 55 Cancri f (being the fifth planet found in the 55 Cancri system) is the only planet to have "f" in its name, the highest letter currently in use.

In practical terms, this basically means that we're assigning letters in decreasing order of mass, since we detect extrasolar planets by their mass.

I assume that the old "roman numerals" system would still apply, once we get close enough to another planetary system to be sure that we've detected all the planets in the correct order.

Anyway, it occurred to me that I haven't seen the new way applied to the Solar System. So here it is:

I'm going to let the dwarf planets fight it out among themselves.

I suppose there's an analogous system for satellites, under which Ganymede = Jupiter b, Callisto = Jupiter c, Io = Jupiter d, Europa = Jupiter e; Titan = Saturn b; Triton = Neptune b; and even Charon = Pluto b. Saturn is going to cause problems, since it had more than 25 satellites.

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Analog Reference Library June 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 22:22:00 +0000

Starting with the June 2009 issue, Don Sakers is the new book reviewer for Analog, the longest-running science fiction magazine in the known universe.

Don's June column is available here. Ignore the stray paragraph about utopias; it came from somewhere else.

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Can iPhone Replace a Palm?

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 04:53:00 +0000

Don has been using Palm organizers for about ten years. First it was his Palm III, followed by a Handspring Visor, and then a Palm Zire 71. Recently, when his Zire died, Don got a used replacement from eBay But recently, the handwriting has been on the wall (graffiti, of course). Even if Palm survives, the company is moving away from the venerable Palm OS.

Meanwhile, Don has been very happy with his iPhone. As iPhone's capabilities increased, it made less and less sense to carry two devices. Even before his Zire died, Don was exploring the possibility of transitioning to iPhone as his only PDA.

It's all about the apps. Over the last decade, Don has built up a stable of Palm programs that fill his needs: some built-in, others add-ons. Finding iPhone replacements has been a challenge, but at last Don has put together a suite of iPhone apps that allow him to move beyond Palm. As a public service, he presents here his list.

Of course, your mileage may vary, everyone's needs are different, blah blah blah.

Palm: Contacts iPhone app: Contacts (native): Syncs with Address Book via MobileMe

Palm: Calendar iPhone app: Calendar (native): Syncs with iCalc via MobileMe

Palm: Tasks iPhone app: Todo (Appigo): iPhone doesn't have a native to-do app, but Appigo's Todo fills the bill nicely. It syncs with the free online service Toodledo, which has a web component

Palm: Memos iPhone: Notebook (Appigo): iPhone has a native Notes app, but it pales in comparison with Palm memos. Appigo's Notebook not only allows categories, but it syncs with Toodledo.

Palm: Calc iPhone: Calculator (native) Good basic calculator; turn it sideways and get a scientific calculator with a fair array of features

Palm: VersaMail iPhone: Mail (native): Mail has VersaMail beat hands down

Palm: WebPro or Blazer iPhone: Safari (native): In its time, Blazer was a wonder. Wow, a web browser on a Palm! But Safari on iPhone is lightyears ahead

Palm: Camera iPhone: Camera (native): Again, the Palm camera app was a wonder in its time. But compared to the iPhone camera, Palm's is slow almost to the point of unusability. One thing, though: the Palm camera allows one to take video; iPhone's does not

Palm: Media and RealOne iPhone: Photos and iPod (both native): Media let you view photos and videos (but only Palm videos); RealOne let you listen to mp3 files. The Photo and iPod apps are so far superior that there's almost no comparison. Sync to desktop via iTunes

Palm: Voice Memo iPhone: coming in iPhone 3.0: Advantage to the Palm. There are non-native iPhone apps for voice memos, and that capability will apparently be native in 3.0. I don't use voice memos, so it's not a lack I've felt in iPhone

Palm: Expenses iPhone: PocketMoney (Catamount): iPhone does not come with a native expense app. For more on PocketMoney, see PocketQuicken below

Palm: Prefs iPhone: Settings (native): Settings has a cooler icon

Palm: HotSync iPhone: Sync Settings (not a separate app): There's no global sync app for iPhone; sync is very much an app-by-app thing. It's worth noting that native apps like Contacts, Calendar, and Mail sync over-the-air via MobileMe, which is too cool for school. Other apps require iTunes, or have their own sync/backup solutions

Palm: DateBk6 iPhone: Calendar (native) and Todo (Appigo): I confess, iPhone doesn't have anything as cool and useful as DateBk6. Calendar needs a lot of work (at least search is coming in 3.0), while Todo does a pretty good job -- but after years of having my schedule and to-dos displayed on the same screen, it took a paradigm shift to accept using two different apps

Palm: HanDBase iPhone: HanDBase: Without a good database app, switching to iPhone was unthinkable. Once the people at HanDBase announced that they had an iPhone version, then I started to contemplate switching. HanDBase syncs to the desktop, and easily reads Palm HanDBase databases

Palm: GlucoTools iPhone: Diabetes Pilot: I have diabetes and need an app to record and manage carbs and insulin injections. GlucoTools is a very simple insulin dose calculator; Diabetes Pilot is a full-featured recording, calculating, and reporting app. As the name implies, it's a port of the Palm program with the same name

Palm: Palm Reader iPhone: Stanza and Kindle: Stanza can read pretty much anything I throw at it, and can load files from the desktop. Reading books on iPhone is a much better experience than reading them on the Palm

Palm: YAPS iPhone: 1Password: YAPS stands for Yet Another Password Saver. 1Password is a perfectly acceptable replacement. I had to manually move all my account names and passwords, but that was a one-time-only inconvenience. 1Password backs up to the desktop but doesn't sync -- but YAPS was the same way

Palm: AIM iPhone: AIM and Twitterific: I never Twittered on the Palm. A while ago we went searching for a dedicated Twitter app for Thomas's Treo, but couldn't find one that was satisfactory. He just goes to the Twitter website with his browser. Meanwhile, Twitterific on iPhone is a joy. AIM on iPhone works pretty much the same way as AIM everywhere

Palm: PocketQuicken iPhone: PocketMoney: Neither Landware or Intuit seem inclined to do a version for iPhone. PocketMoney is a perfectly acceptable replacement, and it imports Quicken files. Caveat: I always used PocketQuicken exclusively, not messing with the desktop program. If syncing with desktop Quicken is important to you, that could be a problem

Palm: BigClock iPhone: Clock (native): Every Palm user I know has BigClock. I use it primarily as an alarm clock while traveling, but it also has world time, stopwatch, etc. The iPhone Clock app has the same capabilities built in

Palm: HandyShopper iPhone: GroceryIQ (you'd think they'd have the company name somewhere in the app): HandyShopper is the premiere shopping list program for the Palm. It has legions of devoted fans. And the folks who produce it have made it clear that they're not going to do an iPhone port (more the fools they: thousands of people would pay through the nose for an iPhone version of HandyShopper). GroceryIQ is not a total replacement for HandyShopper, but it does allow you to sort by aisles (as well as making your own custom aisles; put the two together and you can approximate HandyShopper's aisle sort). At the moment GroceryIQ is set up for only one store -- but they say they're working on it. (Oddly, one big concern of iPhone shopping list apps is to have a huge database of pre-entered items, in order to reduce typing. Maybe so; I can type the complete name of a product far faster than GroceryIQ can find the same product in its database.) With effort, one can massage GroceryIQ into about 80% of a HandyShopper replacement -- until some enterprising programmer decides to clone HandyShopper, that's the best we're going to get

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Time Magazine Catches Up to Dance for the Ivory Madonna

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 13:33:00 +0000

The cover story in the current issue of Time magazine is "10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now." One of those ideas is "Africa: Business Destination." Suddenly, Time has discovered Africa's vast potential for becoming a world economic player.

Don Sakers totally called this in his 2002 novel Dance for the Ivory Madonna. In that book, set in the year 2042, Africa was mostly unified under a government called Umoja (the Kiswahili word for "Community"), and Umoja was the economic and technological powerhouse of the world.

Here's a brief snippet talking about the fictional history of Umoja, and you can read more about Dance for the Ivory Madonna here.

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iPhone Apps I Use Daily

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 01:14:00 +0000

There's a new report that says only 1 percent of users who download an app from the iPhone App Store become long-term users of that app.

Well, Don must be one of those one percent. Here are some of the apps he uses every day, in no particular order.

Todo by Appigo. This is a fine "to-do" app that synchronizes with the free online service Toodledo. The iPhone came without a to-do app; I've been wanting to transition away from my dying Palm Zire to iPhone, and Todo is big step along that path.

Iconic Notes by Hoofien. A notes app that allows the user to put notes into folders and subfolders, as well as allowing color-coding and replaceable icons for notes.

HanDBase by DDH Software. Database software. Both Thomas and I are long-time users of HanDBase for the Palm: Thomas keeps the Star Toys Museum catalog of 10,000+ items with it. On iPhone, I have databases for comics, filk tapes & CDs, and books I'm reviewing. HanDBase is indispensable.

Diabetes Pilot by Digital Altitudes. Another port of a longterm Palm program. Written by diabetics for diabetics, Diabetes Pilot helps keep track of blood glucose readings, medications, meals, and exercise. It calculates insulin doses, and has a built-in food database for counting carbs. Definitely worthwhile.

Twitterific by the Iconfactory. Twitter on the go. What more could one ask? (BTW, if you want to follow us on Twitter, Don is meerkatdon and Thomas is darthmarmalade.

Stanza by Lexcycle. Read books and other documents on iPhone. The best ebook reader I've ever used.mAnd BTW, allof Don's books are available for Stanza from Fictionwise.com.

1Password by Agile Web Solutions. One place to store all usernames, passwords, and other sensitive information, all protected by a master password.

ComiXology by comixology.com. Browse new releases, make pull lists, and a whole bunch of other features tied in with the website comixology.com.

So there you have it, plenty of iPhone apps that get used all the time.

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Shady Character

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 19:31:00 +0000

That nefarious character, Reginald Kennett Dwight
We're having a Forensics program at the library, where kids will be given clues to solve the mystery of who stole the cookies. So today several of us dressed up for mug shots.

Here's Don as "Reginald Kenneth Dwight." Some people say he looks like a young Ozzie Osbourne, others suggest Howard Stern. The name comes from Elton John by way of Vicar of Dibley.

And no, I can't reveal who actually stole the cookies until after the program (next Tuesday).

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Bottle City of Kandor

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 19:24:00 +0000

Here's our Bottle City of Kandor. We've had it forever, and finally today Don added the little battery-powered lights that we bought at Ikea maybe ten years ago.

And here's the city without its bottle:

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Arisia Update

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 01:12:00 +0000

Sigh. We have decided to stay home.

We were thinking of getting a rental car, but the prices were obscene: $500+ at every place we tried. Then Thomas realized that this is Inauguration weekend. Anywhere in the greater DC/Baltimore area, rental car companies can name their prices. And they're doing so.

Ah, well. We'll have fun at home.

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Analog and Eurovan News

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 21:03:00 +0000

In the March 2009 issue of Analog (the longest-running science fiction magazine in the world), Don appears as a guest book reviewer. The regular reviewer, Tom Easton, has retired; Analog decided to try out several guest reviewers before making the decision of which one would get the permanent gig.

The March issue of Analog should be on the stands now. You can read Don's review here.

In vehicle news, our beloved Eurovan (seen here being towed to the dealer in Louisville, KY) is still in the shop. We were hoping to have it done in time to drive up to Boston this weekend for Arisia, but alas that will not be the case.

Now we face a decision: should we spend the extra money to rent a car for the trip, or should we do the smart thing and stay home this weekend? It depends on how smart we want to be...and what effect our decision will have on other folks.

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Annual Diabetes Blog Day

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 19:14:00 +0000

Today is Annual Diabetes Blog Day, so here's my attempt to blog about diabetes.

Trouble is, there's not a lot to say. I watch my diet, I take my insulin (3 or 4 shots a day of two different insulins), I check my blood sugar before & after meals...and things go pretty well.

Here's the people I feel sorry for:

1. Diabetics who don't have good health insurance, or any health insurance at all. Insulin is expensive; blood sugar test strips cost about a dollar apiece (I often use 5 a day), the various oral medications (which I don't take) are also expensive. Without good insurance, I don't know how diabetics can afford all the stuff they need -- I suspect that they don't, and instead skimp on necessary medication or equipment.

2. Diabetics who manage without insulin. If my blood sugar starts getting high, I can just take a larger dose of insulin and everything evens out. [Well, okay, sometimes a larger dose of insulin means that my blood sugar goes too low, which could make me pass out, but I take a few glucose tablets to get it back up.] My dad, on the other hand, doesn't use insulin -- if his blood sugar is too high, his choices are (a) go back in time and eat less or be under less stress, (b) do some additional exercise to burn up the excess glucose, (c) put off his next meal, or (d) live with it. That last choice is a particularly bad one, because high blood sugar does all kinds of invisible, systemic damage in the body.

Sure, taking insulin is a chore and a pain, and I don't always get the doses right...but it sure beats the alternative.

3. Diabetics who don't have access to modern high-tech medicine. If my grandmother wanted to know her blood sugar level, she could use urine test strips...which gave a hazy reading of how much sugar was in her blood several hours ago. (Or she could go to a lab, pay a fortune, and get her results in a week or so.) She had only one kind of insulin, and dosing was total guesswork. She had to boil and reuse glass syringes and nasty needles. And she died relatively early. That was forty years ago; there are plenty of people in the world today who don't have access to even the level of technology that she did. They'll go blind, lose limbs, get multiple infections, and die early from all kinds of complications.

Me? I have nothing to complain about.

[Okay, I lost a toe, and a year and a half later the foot still hurts all the time...and I spend a whole lot of time & effort managing this disease...but really, I can't complain.]

Meanwhile, if you've just been diagnosed with diabetes...or if you know someone who was...download this flyer and check out this website. And use all available tools to manage diabetes. It's important.

-Don

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Surgery

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 21:52:00 +0000

On Tuesday morning, 26 August 2008, Don is going into Saint Agnes Hospital for fairly routine surgery to correct a pinched nerve that's been causing him pain for quite a while.

The surgery is scheduled for 7:45 am, and with great good luck Don will be able to return home Tuesday evening or on Wednesday. He'll be out of work for an undetermined time, probably a week to ten days.

Meanwhile, Eurovan is in the care of our fine mechanics, who are still diagnosing problems and coming up with a plan.

Further bulletins as events warrant.

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Safe at Home

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 19:07:00 +0000

We are home and safe. We got home about 2 am on Tuesday, 19 August 2008 and spent Tuesday recovering. On Wednesday we were back at work.

One place we stopped was the meteor crater in Odessa, TX. This is the second-largest meteor crater in the United States (the more famous Berringer Meteor Crater in Arizona is the largest). A local tv news guy was there taking video of the crater and of us; here is a clip from their broadcast that night.

And Eurovan? It is now sitting at the shop of our local mechanic. The engine is seized up and probably needs to be replaced. We'll know more when we get the full poop from our mechanic.

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Our Poor Eurovan Takes a Ride

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 02:07:00 +0000

At 5:19 pm we pulled off the Interstate at Bardstown, Kensylvania for gas. As we approached the gas station, the oil pressure alarm went off, and the engine quietly and peacefully died. We coasted to the gas pump, filled up the tank, and put in a couple quarts of oil.

We turned the key, and there was a click. This is odd, because when you turn the key in Eurovan, usually there is no click...just the roar of the engine starting up. We tired again. Click, but no roar. In fact, Eurovan would not start up. We begged, we pleaded, we had a nearby car guy look at the engine, we sacrificed a goat (the emergency goat that's stored next to the spare tire)...all the usual stuff. And all to no avail. Eurovan just would not start.

So we called the VW Emergency Roadside Service number. After determining that Eurovan was no longer under warranty (we knew that), and that we had attempted the sacrifice-the-emergency-goat maneuver, they called a tow truck to take us to the nearest VW dealer -- fifty miles away in Louisville.

Jason the manic tow-truck guy showed up in quick order and hoisted Eurovan aboard his truck and drove it (and us) to Louisville. There was only one bad moment, when we went over a bump at 85 mph and Eurovan tried to jump off Jason's truck. But Jason stopped and secured it some more, and we made it to Louisville without incident. (A damn good thing, too, because "incident" in this case means "Eurovan toppling sideways off Jason's truck and into the middle lane of I-65 at 85 mph." It didn't help our confidence that Jason kept saying "I'm really nervous carrying this sumbith.")

We left Eurovan at the VW dealer, packed up stuff we needed for the night, and hiked down the road to Clark's Motel, where we are now resting somewhat comfortably, albeit shaken (and stirred).

Tomorrow, we will find out (a) if the dealer's mechanics will work on Eurovan on a Saturday, (b) if they can figure out what's wrong, (c) if they can fix it, and (d) how we will pay for it.

Needless to say, our plans to get home on Saturday night have been derailed. We are 612 miles from home, which we could conceivably do in one day. But we'll have to see.

Stay tuned.

Amepica the Beautiful

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 15:25:00 +0000

Sign at our motel in western Tennetucky.

Roswell

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:28:00 +0000

Alien Zone in Rosewoo, NM

Filking

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 04:57:00 +0000

After-con filksinging at Denvention 3.

Con Suite

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:09:00 +0000

The Worldcon is officially over, but the Con Suite (hospitality area)
is still open. Like refugees from a natural disaster, those of us who
remain in town gather together to preserve the atmosphere of the con.

Clone Wars Sneak Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Meerkatdon) — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 17:58:00 +0000

Costumes fans at the Clone Wars Sneak Preview in Westminster, CO.