Wednesday 2 Dismember 1998

Pic of the day: Roger, the electronic Chihuahua (revisited)
The petz.net of P.F.Magic seems to slide in and out of our dimension, mostly out. Which is one main reason why Roger has had the electronic playpen to himself all this time. I've wanted to download of one the other exotic Dogz, such as a poodle (I've given up that idea now) or a dachs (I still think that would be cute). I think I'm spoiling the noisy little hyperactive maniac - the time he's out at all, that is. On the bright side, I've found that the crashes seem to not occur if the Win95 memory swapfile has had the opportunity to build itself up on other programs first. But without this, even the screensaver will lock up the PC.
(Me and my big mouth - or would that be big fingers? - now it off and crashed just because I wrote that.)
I finished Anderson's Roma Mater. It did end quite openly, really obviously part of a series. The best part of the book, in my humble opinion, was the small details that showed a civilization in retreat. It gave an eerie feeling similar to what I felt in my childhood when I come upon ruins of small farmsteads who had been left to the wood and wilderness years ago. Only on a much grander scale. After all, we still live in a civilization that is growing and expanding (though it may not necessarily grow more civilized in all ways).
Now started reading Brightness Reef by Brin. I admit it, I love SF with eyestalks and tentacles and such. The more strange the aliens, the better. Of course, realistically there are limits to how well two species can communicate, not to say cooperate, if they can hardly recognize each other as living (not to say sentient) entities. Still, I am all for eyestalks. I'm the kind of guy that just might fall in love with an alien female with fluttering eyestalks. :)

Visit the Diary Farm for the diaries I've put out to pasture until they buy the farm:
November 1998