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kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
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Janet Kagan's Hellspark is on Kindle

kyrielle: (text butterfly)
Saturday, July 2nd, 2016 03:53 pm
I love that book. I didn't find out it existed until after she passed away, so it was a nice surprise to get to read something "new" (to me) by her. Although I'm still sad, because apparently she had a sequel plot in mind, but the publisher didn't want a particular character to reappear and she did, so she never wrote it since she couldn't write it her way. I wish I could have read that book.

If there are books or the dreams of books in the afterlife, maybe it will be waiting for me one day, but otherwise - this is the book I have, in that world, and that's it.

But re-reading it raised one of my original confusions, and at the same time, another "hey wait a minute" hit me.

So first: this is a very good book, and if you enjoy first-contact stories, or sci-fi "anthropology" type things, or quirks of human interaction, you might like it quite a lot. I would suggest not reading my further comments before reading the book if you're at all tempted to read it...although I won't be spoilering, or even mentioning, the two "official" mysteries in the book. I will, on the other hand, be thoroughly spoilering one of the character development threads, because in no way can I talk about the "hey wait a minute" without doing so.

( Herein lie spoilers. )
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Prices and value, and things to do with kids.

kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Sunday, February 6th, 2011 10:49 pm
So, Wilsonville now has a Swap & Play (and on Facebook). Seeing the sign, I checked it out online to see if I could learn more about it. The page for it is...minimal, but present. It didn't look that impressive. But what stunned me is the fees.

A swap and play is a space you can go to with your kids and they can play, an indoor play area, as well as swap toys/clothes with other families. Yes, they do have to pay for utilities and space (in this case just utilities, the space is apparently being donated), and being small they don't get the economies of scale a larger business might.

The fact remains that the cost for this thing is a one-time $20 joining fee plus $20/month in three-month increments (so, basically, $60/three months is more accurate). Ignoring the one-time joining fee entirely, that's $240 a year.

Now, granted it has the advantage of being local to me, so heading to things further away has a transportation and time cost. Still....

OMSI membership for a family (2 adults and 4 children) per year: $90. Portland Children's museum membership for a family per year (2+4): $85. Zoo membership for a family per year (2+any children): $79. So, that's $254 a year for all three. Of course, that's with no guests - the Swap & Play allows one guest per month. (The more expensive memberships at each of these three do allow guests - one per DAY.)

Which is less than the first year of Swap & Play, $14 more than subsequent years, more driving/travel expenses, but a LOT more options and play. Oh, and the Swap & Play is only open Monday thru Saturday while the others are open seven days a week. Of course, it's smaller and if you happen to be there at the same time as others it would let you get to know people. And it doesn't require as long a trip, which I can see being nice.

But not that nice. That's expensive. And if I think so, I can't imagine anyone for whom the transportation issue is prohibitive is going to be real thrilled with the cost either. Meh. It seemed like such a bright spot when I first saw the sign, now...I wish them luck, but it seems like a bad idea. :P

Besides, you could compare it to either the Children's Museum or OMSI alone and still get more options with the bigger name, for way less money...and then it's even more of a humongous expense. And it's not a daycare facility or similar where other people watch your kids, so it's not like it has that aspect to the cost. And all the quoted fees above assume you pay full price - I've been told the Children's Museum has membership assistance based on need and it wouldn't surprise me if the other two did also. (Perhaps the Swap & Play also does. But...they have to get some people to pay the $240 or that may not help much.)
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LiveJournal and Facebook integration...nice.

kyrielle: painterly drawing of a white woman with large dark-blue-framed glasses, hazel eyes, brown hair, and a suspicious lack of blemishes (Default)
Friday, September 10th, 2010 03:19 pm
They didn't respond as quickly as I might have expected, but LJ has announced in the latest news post that with the next code push, Facebook/Twitter integration will no longer be able to publish comments made on protected posts. Which, honestly, addresses the only security issue I really saw there. It no longer encourages (accidentally) dissemination of protected information (the existence of the post, anything quoted or implied in the comment).

I might even use the Twitter integration, since a misclick / mistab will no longer be likely to send something I didn't intend. I'm debating, though - most of the people who want to read my LJ who read Twitter DO already read it. So I also may not.

But honestly, the real win? The giggle-worthy image at the bottom of the news post. Because, yes, the launch did hit them in the face, but that picture's...just great. And the fact that they shared it? Win.

I see a lot of people getting angrier, because they took so long to respond, and because they're not giving journal owners a way to block posting comments from public entries. I understand it's important to those people, but it's not important to me...public entries are, well, public. The social convention of the 'net is that linking to them with commentary is fine, which is what this tool allows.

I'm actually feeling a lot better about LiveJournal since they have addressed the issue I had with it. And if a week isn't superfast...it's not a bad response time, either, especially with a holiday weekend in the middle.
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Writer's Block: Orlando lives again!

kyrielle: (building a mystery)
Friday, July 30th, 2010 04:22 pm
If you could become one person--alive,dead or fictional--for one month, who would it be, and why?


At first I am tempted to borrow the answer from a couple of my friends: do I get to keep their income and/or the income from any of their assets I sell during that month? Scott and I are fine, but extra money for security and to help our families would be lovely.

But no, in the end, I'd have to pick either Mom or Dad - near the end of their lives - and I'm not sure which. And spend a month writing down all the family stories I've forgotten or never heard, all the anecdotes and moments lost to the mists of time that deserved to be preserved.
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