Fun with Old Sci-Fi

I like sci-fi books. I know, it's akin to admitting that I'm a nerd, but I have no problem admitting that. One of the funnest things in sci-fi that I've started to read are collections of short stories. There are lots out there, under titles of "The Best of Sci-Fi 2006" or whatever. The best ones are the old ones you can find in used book stores. Find the best sci-fi of 1942 and read that. You'll see what people were worried about then projected into the future. Imagine space settlements under the direction of the Third Reich. Hey, that's a good idea, I'd read that story.

I'm reading a book currently called 2041. It's a collection of short stories written in 1991 about what the world will be like 50 years into the future. You remember 1991, right? End of the Cold War. Stealth technology debuting in the first Gulf War. PCs were becoming common in the home, but no one had the internet. Fax machines and car phones were new, cell phones weren't around yet. Neither were digital cameras, GPS devices, DVDs, or LCD screens. The cassette tape was being phased out for the CD, and Windows 3.1 was the cool new thing that replaced DOS.

So what does 50 years into the future look like in 1991? Computers will have replaced teachers in the schools. Everyone will have a fax machine in their car. We'll watch books on CD-viewers. And we'll have space settlements on the moon and Mars.

It's easy to imagine improvements to existing technology. Computers will be faster, TVs will be bigger, thinner, and more life like. Your mp-3 player, cell phone, laptop, GPS, and portable DVD player will all be combined into one small hand-held unit with a virtual reality interface. But what's the next big thing?

Isaac Asimov was writing about robots and space settlements before there were personal computers or manned space flight. Star Trek, the original series, showed voice controlled computers, personal communication devices and teleportation.

I suppose we're still trying to create some of the technologies foreseen by these early sci-fi geniuses, but I pose the question: What's the next big thing? Is there any author today who can match Asimov's creations from the 40s and 50s? Let me know what you've seen, because I want to read it, and live it.

Nine Great Things About Being Married Nine Years

9. The TV never says "I love you" back.
8. Always having a date for Friday night.
7. Someone else's leg to warm cold feet on.
6. Extra driver for those long extended road trips.
5. Never having to wonder if that tie goes with those pants.
4. Someone to fix the back of your head when you cut your own hair.
3. Someone who thinks you're great for emptying out the mouse traps.
2. Someone always willing to pick you up when your truck breaks down.
1. Someone there to help you get through the hard levels on Lego Indiana Jones.

Why Easter Is Not a 3 Day Weekend

Today is Good Friday. I think most Christians recognize that but only the Catholics do anything about it. Maybe the Lutherans too, but I digress. I had to work today. I think most people did. My children had to go to school, but some people's children did not have school today. I think they attend private Christian schools who let out for Good Friday and Easter Monday. Yeah, I'd never heard of Easter Monday either but my Dilbert calendar lists it, as well as Easter Saturday. Apparently Canada and Australia like their Easter to last.
In the US most people can expect to get out of quite a bit of work around Christmas, but not other religious holidays. And I say "other religious holidays" meaning the religious holidays of other religions since Christmas and Easter are the only Christian holidays that I can think of (at least in the US). I'll just ignore the Utahans claiming the 24th of July.
So why does the US Government have no problem shutting down the economy for Christmas but not for Easter? Could it be the that the vast commercialization of Christmas allows for a day off from spending since we had just finished blowing the budget all month anyway? Could it be that Easter is always on a Sunday which most people have off anyway? That may be a part of it, but I don't believe it's the root cause.
The answer, like so many simple questions in primary, is Jesus. The US Government doesn't know what to do about Jesus. They can accept that He was born, and that a lot of people like Him, but that's about the extent of it. They can't accept that He was resurrected, and that in consequence all of us will be resurrected. If everyone will live again, and will live immortally, it causes serious budgeting issues. Will the recently un-departed be re-given social security benefits? Will the military pensions of Revolutionary War soldiers have to be paid? Where are all these immortals going to live, surely not on the streets? We'll have a whole new kind of housing crisis.
So the next time you hear someone talking about why the Atheistic/Socialistic Canadians get extra religious holidays off you can be assured that it is because their Atheistic/Socialistic government understands the dynamics of resurrected beings. Feel free to expound on this topic in your Sunday School classes this weekend.

Why Guns are Dangerous

For a long time our house was gun free, then I went to war. It was not the sight of battle that convinced me (for me the sight of battle looks like a computer screen with dots on it); but it was the long hours of sitting around with not much to do. Not much to do means plenty of time for reading. Plenty of time for reading means you burn through every novel and magazine you were previously interested in and start expanding genres to see what else you might be interested in.
My buddy was interested in guns. He has a small arsenal in his house. He subscribes to every legitimate gun magazine in the English language. When he finished memorizing each article he would pass them on to me. I would look at the pictures and read one or two articles per magazine. And then he showed me the Mosin Nagant. It's a Russian rifle mass produced during World War 2, and you could buy one online for 70 bucks. I knew I had to make one mine.
Today it came. Complete with a cleaning kit that I don't know how to use, and a container of genuine Russian grease. There was also a bayonet. Now a dull bayonet is worthless, so I had to find out if this one was sharp. I applied a proven scientific test to the bayonet to test its sharpness. First I jammed the bayonet onto the barrel, and failing to get it to lock into place I tried to pull it back off. In so doing I scientifically ran my thumb over the tip and sliced it neatly in half. Satisfied with the sharpness I decided to remove some of the 60 year old grease from the cut and put the gun back into the bubble wrap and locked it up, where it will safely stay until I can go to a rifle range and unsafely blow the smithereens out of tiny paper targets.