{"id":11315,"date":"2014-06-08T22:01:23","date_gmt":"2014-06-09T02:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=11315"},"modified":"2014-06-08T22:02:13","modified_gmt":"2014-06-09T02:02:13","slug":"sundays-come-round-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/?p=11315","title":{"rendered":"Sunday’s come round again"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

Last week was a quiet one at work. I didn’t even realize until Friday afternoon that it marked the beginning of summer hours, largely because I’m not taking part in them this year. I came back from lunch and there were maybe only a dozen people left in the office. It was a little unnerving, but at the same time I kind of like the quiet.<\/p>\n

Yesterday was my father’s birthday, so we went out to eat, then had cake and presents. I spent the rest of the day, or at least a part of it, copyediting stories for next month’s new issue of Kaleidotrope<\/i>. Then that evening, after the cake, I watched The Purge<\/i>, which I cannot recommend. It felt a little like two very bad movies ganging up on one potentially okay movie. What it lacked in an understanding of basic human nature…it also lacked in basic movie-making technique. I think I knew going in that I wasn’t going to like it, and that I was going to be confused about all the reasons why by the end. And, in that respect, I guess I wasn’t disappointed.<\/p>\n

This afternoon, I saw Edge of Tomorrow<\/i>, which was much better. It’s not brilliant — it’s the military sci-fi video game crossed with Groundhog Day<\/i> you didn’t know you wanted — but I read the book it’s roughly based on (All You Need Is Kill<\/i>) last week, and it’s at least as good as that.<\/p>\n

I also wrote this with my weekly writing group:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153There you have it, gentlemen. The upside potential is tremendous, but the downside risk is jail.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Rich people don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go to jail,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Manheim said. He laughed, but it was clear he wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t joking. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have plausible deniability if the results of the tests become public.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the results I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m worried about,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Burke. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the tests themselves. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve already run afoul of a dozen regulations just by meeting here, discussing this. You can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t pretend they don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t send people to jail for conspiring like this.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh please,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Manheim, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no reason to start throwing around ten-dollar words like conspiracy. The inner planets wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be able to prove anything — \u00e2\u20ac\u0153<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153And we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve already established that the outer worlds don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Wilkins, breaking his long silence. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be presented with this opportunity if they did.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Exactly,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Manheim, even though all three of them knew he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d have agreed with Wilkins on anything.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We have a rare opportunity to test the good doctor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s theories on Circe,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Wilkins added, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153unfettered by any planetary regulation. The population is still small, and so projected losses are only — what was it again, Roderick?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Three million,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Manheim. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Give or take a point-five.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Perfectly acceptable losses,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Wilkins.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only if<\/i> things go belly-up,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Manheim. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The genetic modifiers in Dr. Breton\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s formula have been considerably refined since that fiasco on Ganymede. And you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll recall,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he added, seeing that Burke was still unconvinced, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153no one went to jail there except a few lab techs.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still a risk,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Burke.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Of course it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a risk,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Wilkins. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153What new business venture isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t a risk?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Just think what happens if the formula works,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Manheim told Burke. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And if we control that. Even if all we get is a planet of Breton\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s super-soldiers? Think what we stand to gain.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If you’ve read any of James S.A. Corey’s Expanse novel, you can maybe see where I’m ripping them off<\/s> paying homage to them. Not every free-writing exercise is going to mine gold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last week was a quiet one at work. I didn’t even realize until Friday afternoon that it marked the beginning of summer hours, largely because I’m not taking part in them this year. I came back from lunch and there were maybe only a dozen people left in the office. It was a little unnerving, … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4,14,28,12],"class_list":["post-11315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-kaleidotrope","tag-movies","tag-personal","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11315"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11315"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11317,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11315\/revisions\/11317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unreality.net\/weblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}