Science Fiction Writers Tell the Future

As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing inherently wrong with so called "reality shows." Not that I love them, mind you, there's plenty I haven't seen. One that I've never seen because the title always sounds kind of disgusting to me is Wife Swap (I feel dirty just typing it.)

OK, I just got back from washing my hands.

Sometimes people tell me about podcasts they listen too, and I think, well, that sounds interesting, but later I can't remember what they told me.

Here are my favorites:

• The History of Rome. Mike Duncan explains it at just the level and pace that appeals to me, along with a dry humor.
• NPR Science Friday. Hosted by Ira Flatow. Guests and topics that I find interesting. I especially liked a recent episode with They Might Be Giants.
• NPR On Science. Science stories from Morning Edition and All Things Considered.
• Get-It-Done Guy. There's a lot of Quick and Dirty Tips podcasts, but this is the only one that's had any staying power with me. Stever Robbins gives hints and tips on how to organize your work and life. Not all the episodes relate to what I need, but I still listen.
• X Minus 1. Yes, the old radio show, in podcast form. If you like science fiction short stories, you should like this. They dramatize stories by science fiction writers. Since I've started listening I've already heard a couple from one my favorites, Robert Sheckley.

Years ago, probably in high school, I read a Sheckley story that has for some reason stuck with me all these years. I don't remember the title, but in the story there is a popular TV program that chooses a family at random and shows up at their house to record what they do day to day. If the audience finds you interesting enough, you win something, or something along those lines.

Well, in the story, the show finds this family and they turn out to be quite dull and they don't win. The family is disappointed and set about to do better the next time. But it's a one in a million chance that the show would pick you once, let alone twice. Nevertheless they start dressing crazy and doing everything a little off, (and the story ends something like this) so that next time they'd be ready.

From what I understand, the Henne family's been on Wife Swap, twice. I think they'd really, really have to do something interesting to get on TV a third time. But I could be wrong.

Canoe Goals

A couple of weeks ago my son and I went out on the reservoir in my canoe. My goal was to reach a train trestle that's inaccessible by road. It was a little windy out, but we decided to go for it.



Immediately the wind started pushing us, and not the direction we wanted to go. I'd try to head directly into the wind, but kept getting turned and pushed off course. The trestle is, what I know now, a little over two miles away from where we put in. It didn't seem possible we'd make it. And at one point we gave up and decided to head back.



But, what else did we have to do that afternoon? Nothing! We decided to give it one more big push.



If you're not familiar with the Harry S. Truman Reservoir, there are parts upstream where trees still stand in the middle of the water. They are long since dead, but you can still navigate through them almost as if the land had never been flooded.



These trees proved to be the key. When we decided to make our last big push, instead of focusing on the bridge over two miles away, I picked out a tree just a few yards ahead and made for it. Before I knew it, we'd reached the tree, so I picked a stump yet a few yards ahead again. We reached it.



We leap-frogged from tree to stump to tree in this way and found that, though the paddling was strenuous, we were making progress. We would do so well at times that I would fail to pick out an intermediate target and just paddle toward the bridge. That's exactly when the wind would get a hold of us and turn us around. So I'd have to spend a few minutes getting the canoe pointed in the right direction, which wasn't easy. Then once again I'd pick out a tree and make for it.



It took us about two hours to get to the bridge and about a half hour to get back. Yeah, it was ridiculous.



There's got to be a lesson there about how in order to reach your big goals you have to set smaller, intermediate goals.



Here's the trestle. I'd like to jump from it some day, but it is very high. About a hundred feet I would guess. I suppose I need a smaller, more attainable goal. I'll paddle out to it on a less windy day next time.

Cheap Halloween Costume

Halloween is coming up, and I know what I'm going to be-Left Behind Guy. All I have to do is write 666 on my head with a Sharpie. That'll be freaky scary at the Sunday school get together.

Adam Sandler would be proud.

Kanye West?

Let's pretend it's a couple three weeks ago, and Kanye had just verified for us that Beyonce had one of the greatest music videos of all time.

Why is everyone so mad at Kanye? I'm not. I don't even feel sorry for Miss Swift. If Kanye's interrupting her VMA acceptance speech is the worst that that happens to poor Taylor this year, then she is having a pretty good year. I bet there's a million 17 or 18 year old (I don't know how old she is) pretty young blonds with half a voice that would give her left ovary to be interrupted by Kanye at the VMAs.

I don't hold a grudge against him, but I'm not in love with Kanye either. I wouldn't recognize a Kanye song if I heard it. I don't hate rap or R&B, it's just been a long time since I've paid attention to popular music.

But here's the deal. While they were raising money for Katrina victims, Kanye and Mike Myers were supposed to read from cue cards. Myers read his part, but West went off script with some impromptu rant and punctuated it with, "George Bush hates black people."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but back then I don't remember even one person calling Kanye an A-hole.

Coke Zero

In my opinion, Coke Zero makes no one happy. My wife says she can't drink it because it tastes too much like regular Coke. It tastes like Diet Coke to me. So who's going to drink this stuff?

If it truly tastes just like regular Coke, why still make regular Coke. Coke would say, "Hey, look how healthy our soda is. And you can't tell the difference!"