It’s that time of year when people start taking stock of where they’ve come over the last 12 months. In these parts, crafty (meaning they’re into crafts, not that they’re treacherous) housewives have already sent out their annual holiday newsletters cataloging how many extra-curricular activities their kids excel at. Journalists are putting together their lists of the year’s top headlines. And bloggers are looking back at… whatever it is that they do.

What I mostly do, it often appears, is watch movies and vintage TV shows, and read books. Actually, I do quite a few more things than that, but these activities loom large in my daily life; they’re also the things I tend to talk most about here on this blog. In keeping with this emphasis, I’ll be posting my annual recap of all the media I consumed in 2006 within the next day or two (see the previous installments here and here, if you’re into sort of thing). However, for right now, I’d like to say a few words in general about the year that’s winding down and what I’ve managed to do with it.

Continue Reading…

Friday was my last day of work for 2006. Not that much actual work got done, of course. The office closed at noon, and the staff was more eager to get to the company-sponsored Christmas luncheon than to finish up any last-minute projects. I do plenty of grumbling about my job — the hours, the stress, the clients, the sometimes ridiculously bad prose that I as a proofreader must try to make readable — but when it comes down to it, I think I work for a pretty cool company. I’ve had employers in the past who thought that bringing in a couple of five-dollar Hot ‘n’ Ready pizzas from Little Caesers was the height of holiday generosity; I’ve had other employers who didn’t do a damn thing for their employees around Christmas time. My current employer, however, rented out one of the hottest new clubs in Salt Lake City and provided a catered turkey-and-ham dinner, complete with an open bar and presents for everyone on the staff — genuine, useful presents, not just gag gifts or a coupon for a free slice of pie at some greasy spoon somewhere. Yes, I thought as I sat at a table with my fellow proofreaders, I have somehow managed to land myself a good job. After years of wandering in the wilderness, I found an oasis.

Or maybe I was just feeling good from all the Irish whiskey I drank. Did I mention there was an open bar?

Continue Reading…

So how’s this for a science-fiction idea come to life: there’s a village high up in the Italian Alps that goes without sunlight for three months out of the year, so the townsfolks have erected a giant mirror to reflect some rays into the town’s piazza during the winter. It even tracks the sun under computer control to maximize the usable light yield. What a stroke of genius… so long as there are safeguards to prevent some evil genius from refining the mirror’s focus into a coherent heat-beam and zapping people into ashes, of course…