I’ve been meaning to blog, but my back’s been so bad I couldn’t endure sitting at my computer for any significant length of time. Last week I injured something picking up a not-that-heavy box, then proceeded to do some very stupid, very lumbar-hostile things the next day that exacerbated the problem. So I’ve been taking Aleve, applying ice packs, and trying to stay horizontal. And, despite my skepticism, I’ve even been trying to get an appointment with a local chiropractor (unfortunately, he’s pretty booked up and there’s been a delay in scheduling because of some snafu in obtaining my records from the only other time I ever visited one of these guys back in Pasco). But, blah, whatever — I’m sick of the whole mess and just wish it’d stop hurting.

So, anyway, to catch up a little:

Here’re some pics from when I was last in the Tri-Cities. Left to right: Jones looking slightly demented whilst gaming at Adventures Underground, a Carcassonne board from the same session, and a photo I took of the Blue Bridge (wasn’t sure how it’d come out with the sun in the shot, but I think it looks kinda cool).

…And some stuff I cooked. On the left, a sort of Chinese-y pork pseudo-stirfry that employed an orange juice reduction and sour cream. (Served it over white rice; Brett said it was the best thing I’d made in a long time.) On the right, petite sirloin steak, baked potato, and broccoli orzo. Can you believe we got 2.7 lbs. of these steaks for under $10? Unusually fresh and well-marbled for the price. (We saved a third of ‘em for fancy fajitas.) I’m told I eat too much red meat, but these are far too delicious for me to care.

While grilling, we were visited by a raccoon. I didn’t even know we had them around here. Managed to snap a picture of it up by my sister’s front door. (It was too dark for the auto-focus to engage, but at least it’s recognizable.)

Finished Accelerando. Decent overall, but I was irritated by the protagonists baseless fear of Economics 2.0 and “losing their humanity.” I don’t think Stross explained the core’s/Matrioshka brain’s motivations and society very well. To me, it came off as “their intelligence is as superior to ours as ours is to a tapeworm’s, they practice unfathomable economics that force all outsiders into relative destitution (even though they only trade IP), and yet they somehow have less free will and can barely form simple sentences in English.” Also: Does anyone know why the Macx clan, et al. kept going back to ridiculously costly physical realities after uploading? If you can live in a virtual environment that perfectly imitates the real world, why waste matter and energy on gigantic O’Neill habitats and inefficient bodies? Anyway, it was a good read, but I still like Greg Egan’s Diaspora better — it deals with a lot of the same core ideas.

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