Getting ready for Texas in a few weeks. I'd hoped to see many of you there, but I'll take what i can get. After all, I'll be meeting Joe, Myr, Dan K, and Trebs, plus a few others, and those cannot be considered minor points.

As far as reading has gone, I've been working my way through a backlog of ebooks I came into possession of a while back. They are all from www.baen.com, a niche publisher that mainly comes out with "Hard" sci-fi, "military" sci-fi, and "space opera;" where these various genres do not overlap of course. The latest book I've finished is of the second genre called The Oath of Swords by David Weber. It's main character is a seven-and-a-half foot orc, though they don't call them such in the books. It's the beginning of a series, so I'm holding back full judgement as I make my way through the rest fo the books, but I've liked it so far. David Weber is a good series author, though his latest books have tended to be on the bloated side. J K Rowling has unleashed monsters on us all by her example.

On a more critical analysis, I wonder about the conspicuous absense of the word orc. Every other Tolkienian race is present, though halflings have horns for some reason, and based on the description of the hradani (as the main character's race is called), they have every descriptive and psychological detail cannoncically associated with Orcs, including a racial tendency to go bonkers on occasion and wreck hell. Is David Weber trying to rehabilitate the image of Orcs by using a different word, thereby letting a reader come into it with open, unsuspecting minds? I don't know, but my own experience tells me that re-empowering a word has more lasting impact than hiding what you are behind a pretty name.

Aside from my adventures in reading and upcoming adventures in Texas, I come here bearing a blog meme. Feel free to play along if anyone would like.

The rules, according to Drew, from someone named George:

1. Click on this link. The title of the page is the name of your band.
   
2. Click on this link. The last four words of the final quotation on the page are the title of your album.
   
3. Click on this link this link. The third picture is your album cover.
   
4. Take the pic, add your band name and album title.
   

My results: