The Black Horse of the Blog World

The last time I saw the internet ‘pipes’ this full was 9/11. Back then when I couldn’t get to any sites I went around the corner to see the news reports on the TV, and listened to streaming BBC to get coverage. Now there’s no TV. I don’t know why I’m posting this now, except that I hope someone survives and sees it. I haven’t seen one of them myself yet, and my only hope at this point is that I don’t. I can’t get to any of the regular news outlets, but at this point, everyone is blogging about it, and some people have posted pictures. One guy set up a webcam showing the masses somewhere in NYC, but that went offline a few minutes ago. The CDC has posted a ‘more information coming’ notice across their web page, but no one yet knows what’s causing all the dead to come back and attack everyone around them. None of the pictures are clear, but if you see someone looking kind of grey, and frothing at the mouth, run as fast and as far as you can.  If they kill you, you become one of them.

I’ve locked myself into an unused office here in the basement, and the rest of the building seems to have cleared out. In a few minutes I’m going to try to make a break for it. It’s a good thing it is summer, and summer school hasn’t started up yet; there aren’t a lot of people on campus, which is probably slowing the spread here. If I can get to my car without encountering any of them, I should be able to get away. I’ll have to stay off the highways, they’re probably a traffic jam by now. I don’t know if I should go back to Framingham or just clear out. I better stop back and get a few things loaded up, see if A. is still there, or if she already grabbed the cats and fled.

If any of you survive…. if any of us survive…. and if any of you read this.. Call me. I hope the cell phone towers will still be up, and I’ll keep my phone charged as long as I can get gas into the car or plug into an outlet somewhere. I’m going to head for the quiet parts of the western end of the state, maybe a state park. I’ll take the laptop, but may not have access.

And if we don’t survive…. I love you all.

Had a good weekend. Reorganized the paperbacks. Or maybe, organized. Most fit on the shelves, and are now findable in some logical order. Cleaned the desk at work. (Technically not part of the weekend, but it was close of the day Friday). Saw Pirates 3. Mixed feelings there. Did anyone else look at the scene where Jack is talking to the pirate lords, and he puts his hands on the shoulders of the Japanese (?) pirate woman, and think: “Angela Merkel, President Bush, bad idea, no touchy!”? Saturday was rainy and sleepy. Sunday there was strawberry picking. 15 pounds of strawberry picking. If you come over in the next week, there should be fresh strawberries available. After that, jam. And now I’m sitting back with a bag of popcorn, and watching the liveblogging of today’s Apple WWDC Keynote. Good stuff.

Just a reminder, that if you’ve nothing better going on tonight, you should come to http://noneabove.org/sf/ at 8pm. Great music, concessions, casual fun, and requires very little on your part beyond being there. I’ll be there either way, but the more, the merrier!

Played a little hooky last Friday and went out to the Arnold Arboretum with friends for a few hours. It was a good trip, and I’m glad I went. The rest of the weekend was eaten up with helping my brother pack up stuff from his condo and get set up at his new apartment up in Ithaca. It’s a minimum of a six hour trip, so by th time we got packed up and on the road Saturday, we had no chance of arriving in town with enough time left to do anything but crawl into the camper and sleep. So that’s what we did. Sunday he picked up his keys, and we got the truck and the u-haul unloaded, and spent some time picking up supplies and essentials for the new place. Finished out the day with enough time to crawl into the camper and sleep. So we did. Monday was brunch, a last trip to the drugstore, and then the trip back to CT, where I quickly picked up my car and headed back home, spent a few hours settling back in and went to sleep.

On the upside, I did listen to the entire audiobook version of John Hodgman’s The Areas of My Expertise, complete with the table of 700 hobo names.

I also had time to read the entirety of Dream Park, by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes. First published in 1981, which means it came out the same year SIL was founded (And a few other groups, some more immediately drawn from the novel). For someone who is hip deep into LARPing, I suppose I should have read this a _long_ time ago, and now I have. You should too if you haven’t. I need to get the sequels at some point. (Side note, I find it *very* interesting that the image on the cover has little to do with the story, in which neither dragon nor futuristic clothing and scenery features prominently. I surmise that the cover art is there entirely to draw in the unsuspecting browser in the bog standard book store which crowds fantasy next to sci-fi on the shelves. This book, which an uneducated shelver might place in either section [or even mystery…] may appeal enough to fanciers of either fantasy or sci-fi, so was deemed to need a cover that would draw the eyes of both…)