This past week I read and very much enjoyed Project Hail Mary (2021), by phenom Andy Weir. This is his third novel, his third time with an award-winning bestseller, and the third time Hollywood has acquired the rights for a film adaptation.
All three of his books are what I call “diamond-hard” science fiction — projections of future technology with a bare minimum of gimmes (such as warp drive). Bonus points if there are none.
This story has a somewhat magical material that plays a key role, not to mention an exotic alien lifeform that’s the raison d’etre for the whole story.
Time for another Mandelbrot Monday. I’ve mentioned before that aimlessly playing around with Mandelbrot zooms gets old fairly quickly. I find that I do it for a little while, lose interest for a long while, and then pick it up again for a little while.
I’m in the lost interest phase right now — have been for a couple of months. I think I’ll cool my jets until May, when I’m planning a series of posts (“Mandelbrot May”) exploring the Mandelbrot set and how images of it are made.
But I still have images from previous phases to share, so off we go…
Today’s Friday Notes post is a small first — I’ve never published one on the sixth of the month (until today). A bit more significantly, this one is early in the month. I’ve discovered a strong bias towards publishing these posts in the latter half of the month: only 14 posts before the 16th of the month; 44 after (very close to exactly a 25/75 split).
As it turns out, I have plenty for a post (including some stuff left over from the previous post). And, of course, there’s always the weather and various other charts.
I think it must be the case that, once baseball season is over, what hours I do devote to watching TV fill with other things, and I catch up on shows or movies I neglected during the six-month summer season (162 games for your own team plus any other games you watch).
As such, I have a lot to report since the last TV Tuesday back in early December — two months’ worth of viewing. Even better, no ranting or venting (well, maybe just a little), and I even have some movies and shows to recommend. Some highly.
There is a modern triumvirate of British far-future space adventure SF writers: Neal Asher, Iain M. Banks, and Alastair Reynolds. I listed them alphabetically, but that also happens to be my order of preference for their work. Make no mistake, I like all three, but I have found myself disengaged by a few of Reynolds’s books.
We started on a positive note [see this post], but I quickly ran into some issues with his writing [see this post and this post]. I was very disappointed by a couple of his books. That so far hasn’t happened with Banks or Asher.
Recently, though, I read Reynolds’s Halcyon Years (2025).
In what now seems the distant past — the late 1990s or early 2000s — as I walked to my car after work each evening, I noticed a common behavior in others also walking to their cars. A lot of them were talking on their cellphones.
This was before smartphones became a thing and long before apps on phones. To the extent there was texting, one had to laboriously use the dialing keypad. Those devices were just cellphones.
Watching so many walk-and-chat struck me as odd — I valued the quiet moments of transition from work to personal life.
Winter announced itself a bit earlier than usual this year. In December it settled in with a fair bit of snow, though some warm spells melted a lot of it. We had our annual January Thaw but are in the deep freeze now.
Maybe it’s winter. Maybe it’s the insanity of the last decade catching up with me. I find myself decidedly in the blogging blahs (and fishing ain’t gonna help).
But let’s see if I can whip up another edition of Friday Notes.
The previous post looked back at 2025; this post looks forward to 2026. As each new year begins, I typically don’t have specific plans for it. This year, though, I am planning three series: two here, one on my programming blog.
Logos con Carne celebrates its fifteenth anniversary in six months. Anniversary years ending with a “5” (other than the fifth and twenty-fifth) don’t seem as big of a deal as ones ending with a “0”, so I’m not planning anything major.
If I make it to 20 years here (2031), that will be a big deal.
It’s Janus 5th — the last day of Chillaxmas — and time for a look back at 2025. Be warned: this is the twice-yearly post with all the narcissistic stats and charts.
Not that any of it means anything, but it’s fun for me. I’ve always liked massaging data and visualizing it in various ways. (It’s a part of what I did before I retired. Loved it then and now.)
This past week I read and very much enjoyed Project Hail Mary (2021), by phenom Andy Weir. This is his third novel, his third time with an award-winning bestseller, and the third time Hollywood has acquired the rights for a film adaptation.
Time for another 
There is a modern triumvirate of British far-future space adventure SF writers: 
In what now seems the distant past — the late 1990s or early 2000s — as I walked to my car after work each evening, I noticed a common behavior in others also walking to their cars. A lot of them were talking on their cellphones.
Logos con carne 