looking for lillies, not for friendly neighborhoods

Part Two of my trip to the bookstore... I asked the young lady in the tv/movie section if she might have "Lillies of the Fields", but every time she searched for it, the system instead came up with "Spiderman".

making an impression

Part Three of my trip to the bookstore... One of young men working there asked if I'd been on a panel at Bubonicon, and I said yes, on the Space Opera panel. I guess that, in spite of my having had the gumption to be on something with Melinda M. Snodgrass, Daniel Abraham and Walter Jon Williams, I made a good impresion and didn't come across as a total fool. ("Or maybe you made an impression because you came across as a total fool.") I heard that.

the kind of work I prefer

Being in charge of our system's support essentially is a reactive activity: something goes wrong, I fix the immediate problem, then the machine resumes its activity. I much prefer going to the source of the problem and fixing it by hitting it on the head with a big stick so that it'll think twice before screwing up again.

the calendar's new page

My office calendar's page for October reminds us, as did previous months, that while women are not as strong as men, they are quite tougher. The July/August 1950 art for "FUTURE - combined with Science Fictions Stories" features a woman clad in naught but a gold-lamé bikini, while her probable boyfriend is garbed in a thick space suit, both of them sans helmet. Also, while the lady is jumping off the edge of the airbone rocket's fiery nozzle with a "Wheeeeee!" expression, the man appears reluctant to follow her.