Low key day today, after sleeping in following our expedition yesterday. We strolled through the throngs walking the city. Here’s the Edinburgh Castle, which overlooks the city. We never got up there for a tour of the inside, so I guess we’ll have to come back.
We also discovered that the tall monument I posted a picture of a couple of days ago is not actually to Saint Andrew, but to a scoundrel who, two and a quarter centuries ago, worked to prolong the African slave trade. (!! See my correction.)
One notable fact of our visit in Scotland so far has been the remarkable number of really pleasant and helpful people we’ve met, some of them local and some visitors like ourselves. Basically, everyone has been helpful or cheerful to talk to. We had our final dinner here at Abbotsford Pub on Rose Street, where we found ourselves chatting with a very nice couple from Kennebunk, Maine.
Tomorrow our daughter Jayce flies in to join us, and we leave for Glasgow and Worldcon!
Yesterday we saw more of Edinburgh, including an exhibit of contemporary Scottish painters, the St. Giles Cathedral, and a lot in between. Here’s the Walter Scott Monument, standing in our path. Or wait, is that Barad-dur?
Well, whichever, here’s Allysen tasting an Old Engine Oil Stout with her fish and chips. Tastes good!
Today we boarded a train for Dunkeld, mostly to see the countryside—which was stunningly beautiful, very Middle Earthish…
…and to poke around Dunkeld-Birnam (here’s the River Tay and Dunkeld)…
which among other things contains the Beatrix Potter museum and garden. The museum was closed, but the garden was lovely, with bronze sculptures of Peter and a friend, and the fox…
…and also a gorgeous sculpture of a coo (a cow) painted with lovely psychedelic mushrooms.
That’s Edinboro not Edinburg as the Delta pilot called it. We’re here, and it’s beautiful! We came within a whisker of having to cancel the trip because of a painful blood clot in my leg, but I got cleared by the docs at the last minute, and here we are. So far, we’ve seen the National (Art) Gallery, which had some excellent Impressionist work, as well as halls and halls of older paintings. We arrived, coincidentally, during Fringe Festival, which features a lot of shows by stand-up comics. Lots of enthusiasm in the streets for that. We might or might not get to one, because between my gimpy leg and dragging around a POC (portable O2 concentrator), activities that involve close quarters and sitting a lot are iffy. Still, there’s plenty to see.
Here’s a tall statue at St. Andrew’s Square. Edit: It is not Saint Andrew, as we had guessed. It is a monument to a Henry Dundas, first viscount Melville (1742-1811), who as Secretary of State for War in 1996, was instrumental in delaying the abolition of the British Atlantic slave trade, resulting in the enslavement of half a million Africans.
Later, me, in our basement hotel/apt suite with my new favorite beer, Wingman session IPA from Scotland’s Brewdog Brewery.
I want to get this posted before we leave for Scotland. Bria Burton has interviewed me a couple of times in the past on the radio, and she’s a great pleasure to talk to. But this is our first video interview, for Joy on Paper. No time to say more right now, ’cause I have to get to the airport! But it was a lot of fun, and it just went up on YouTube. Here it is:
Yes, we’re going! Allysen and I have never been to Scotland and have always wanted to go. Our chance is upon us. This year’s SF Worldcon is in Glasgow, Aug. 8-12. We’re flying into Edinburgh, where we’ll spend about a week seeing what we can see. (And I’m sure there’s a lot.) Then we’ll hop a train to Glasgow and join our tribe at worldcon! We’re excited!
I am currently scheduled to be on one panel, one table conversation (formerly called kaffeeklatches), and an autograph session. Details to follow when things are finalized.
In what has sadly become a pattern, problems have arisen in the Hugo Awards balloting, this time from someone or someones trying to game the system by submitting ballots from “not natural” people, using obvious fake names and/or other disqualifying characteristics. The statement from the Hugo administrator explains the situation. (Sigh.)
If you are anything like me, you have become accustomed to thinking of science as Big Science: science produced by NASA, JPL, and large universities and institutes all around the world. Well, I recently watched a fascinating documentary about a friend of mine, astronomer Larry Molnar, a professor at Calvin University, a small Christian liberal arts school in Michigan.
Larry has put the “t” in teaching, involving his undergraduate students in some serious hands-on study of contact binary stars—specifically, seeing if they can predict when binary system KIC 9832227 might come together and light up in a nova. (Prior to their work, novae could never be predicted more closely than “This star could erupt any time in the next ten thousand years.”) Does their prediction pan out? Watch the documentary to see.
The film is called Luminous, and was shot over the course of five years. It lets you see science as it actually is done, complete with frustration and disappointment, and success or failure hinging on uncertain data points. It touches a bit on Larry’s faith, just enough to highlight the fact that one can both have spiritual faith and do solid science. (On a personal note, when I saw them doing research at the University of Wyoming’s WIRO Observatory, it gave me a flashback. I spent some time at that observatory when I attended the Launchpad Astronomy Workshop in 2007.)
You can stream Luminous from a variety of sources, including Kanopy or Hoopla via your public library, the Roku channel—or for a few dollars, from most of the popular streaming sites like Apple+ and Prime (see Luminous for links).
We’ve known Larry and his amazing wife Cindy for something over thirty years, dating back to our attending the same church in Cambridge, Mass., and trading babysitting when our kids were very young. Larry was a postdoc at Harvard then. He helped me with brainstorming the science in my novel From a Changeling Star. We recently got to see them for the first time in many years! Here are Larry and Cindy, our mutual friend Peggy, and Allysen and me.
Click here for an earlier post featuring Larry’s and my snow sculpture of Sam the border collie.
I’ve got a new online conversation scheduled for tomorrow! This will be a panel discussion about creativity, and I have no idea what to expect, except that I think it will be fun! You can watch live, or catch it later on demand.
Here’s the info, as provided by the host, akaRadioRed:
Read My Lips: Cool Conversations with Creatives with producer / host akaRadioRed
WATCH / LISTEN LIVE – Monday, July 15, 2024
2 PM Pacific / 5 PM Eastern / Find us in your time zone
My lovely wife Allysen has retired! Her company, Ab Initio software, gave her a great sendoff. (Ab Initio has long been outstandingly generous to its employees, and her departure was no exception.) She’s been editing their software documentation for the last thirteen years. With perfect timing, our sister-in-law Youngmee came to visit on that very evening and spent the weekend with us. This is Allysen receiving a toast from us at one of our favorite restaurants, the Menotomy Bar & Grill.
In her first half-week of retirement, Allysen has celebrated by sleeping, and sleeping some more. Tonight, another great friend flies in for a visit!
I recorded this a couple of weeks after the one I recently mentioned with Blasters and Blades, but I didn’t realize until just now that it had gone live first. This is with Darshaun McAway on the W.O.W Podcast. Depending on how you get to it, it’s either video or audio-only, so you have to do it right if you want to see my august face on the screen, as well as Darshaun’s. This, directly below, should do that.
It’s on a variety of platforms. This happens to be the Spotify feed.
It’s high time I ran a sale. The audiobook of Eternity’s End is on special at Chirpbooks for a limited time, for just $1.99. That’s crazy cheap for a 22-hour audiobook read by a Grammy-winning narrator. It’s one of my favorites. (Warning, one reviewer didn’t like it because there’s some mild swearing in it.) While you’re there, you can pick up some of the Chaos books on sale, as well. They even put together a special bundle.
