Back to blog, hopefully
I’ve been seriously remiss populating this blog. I lost a most beloved dog. I have a new iMac. What else? Life rumbles on, for good or ill.
Miss you, Jessie, sweet writing companion. Always in my heart.
A Week of Reflection
First of all, my website has been renovated! Thanks to David Alfonzo, Webmaster. I simply don’t have the time and the expertise but my site now has a new flavour until the next update.
In the meantime, I’ve finished China Mieville’s THE IRON COUNCIL. Dark, dank and delicious. Mieville’s tale doesn’t focus on characters you can identify with, rather his powerful images are centred on places and settings, and on his monsters. In his PERDIDO STREET STATION, I was more attracted to his ravenous slake moths than to his human protagonists. What can I say–I have a darkly slanted mind.
Lastly, these weeks since Easter was a time of sadness. You may not work closely with a person in your office other than chance meetings in the hallway or the lounge but when that person, a young person, has passed on so suddenly, it leaves a void, and sad, very sad memories. Rest in peace. The troubles of this earth are behind you.
Today is January 11
What is so special about today? Well, for instance, this is the date when I, like so many other, am being reminded that I came into this world. As a kid, I was chafing for this day to come, for presents and parties. Now, today, I spent about an hour in a dentist’s chair. Why I chose this day to undergo the torment of teeth cleaning is lost in the fog of fading memory. Maybe just an excuse to get a half day off work to plunge into that other world, worlds of conflict and drama and lots more exciting things. And I am chafing for the proof of ENGELINKYN: THE WINGED HEMISPHERE to come. But wait, party we shall! In August, SF World Convention in Chicago. In 2012? “It is the end of the world, but we feel fine.”
In Memoriam Dr. Wu Jieping
Professor Dr. Wu passed away on Wednesday, March 2, 2011 in Beijing. Our meetings had been brief. A couple of handshakes, nothing more, when he came to Jakarta, Indonesia, in the 1960s, as the head of the Chinese medical team to treat President Sukarno. I was a bystander looking on from the sidelines, or more precisely from behind my Dad, who was a member of the Indonesian medical team. Yet he left a lasting impression. And more profoundly so, when my sister and I were in Beijing, on our own, during the violent times of the Cultural Revolution, he came on his bike to visit us (no cars for private citizens at that time) to render words of caring and encouragement. We lost touch after we left for Hong Kong. But he was never far from my thoughts. Not having had the chance to say to you, Dr. Wu, in your life time, I say it now: You are a giant among men, for your kindness and friendship, for your faith in your country despite the years of turmoil. I Wish we kept in touch and became closer friends but even so few our meetings, you proved to be the best of all friends.
The Very First And my Very own
My new revamped site is nearly complete. A BIG THANK YOU to Ceejay! This is really fantastic! Now I have my Blog, my very own. Personally, I just went through the grueling experience of Nanowrimo, grueling because the only time I can find time to write is in the evenings, evenings meaning past 11 pm to 2 or 3 am. At 6 am the alarm clock will start to jingle and off to work, grappling with legal terms where journeys to distant stars, to impossible worlds get crunched to a corner of your mind. Now this is over and I passed the 50,000 word mark, time for some relaxation and entertainment. I went to see Harry Potter, the Deathly Hallows Part 1 , in IMAX no less. For those who haven’t read the book, it takes a bit of time to follow events and places. Who is Bill and Fleur and what?! there is a wedding in the midst of death and chaos. Even I have to refresh my mind, so I am reading the last chapters of the Deathly Hallows!
Pet World
Jessie enjoying the view
Mimi acting the Queen
Mimi is no longer with us. Though she fought bravely, she succumbed to cancer. She is now happy in that Other Place where there is no disease and an eternity of kitty fun. We did everything we could for her and she knows it. She lives Here, forever in mind and memory.
I Dream, Therefore I am
Name:
(in Reality – It’s a secret…)
Location:
PAST: some of the most interesting spots in the world.
PRESENT: Sometimes in the clouds.
FUTURE: anybody’s guess.
Favourite pastimes:
books, reading (preferably science fiction, though I have read mainstream), writing and, OH!, Science Fiction World Conventions.
Everything else is irrelevant.
Battlestar New York
Other Worlds Cafe