A Curious Statistical Anomaly

Cowboy Trouble by Joanne Kennedy. ISBN: 978-1-4022-3668-6, 416 pages. $6.99 mass market paperback/ $4.79 Kindle edition. On sale March 2, 2010.

Libby Brown always wanted to have a farm. That was definitely impractical while working as a journalist in Atlanta — not much scope in farming on your balcony. However, when her love life goes up in flames, she decides “chickens will never break your heart” and buys a ranch and heads to Wyoming. She barely arrives before her next door (but miles away) neighbor show up to welcome her to the area. Luke Rawlins makes a fine first impression even though he’s decked out like a cliché movie cowboy. But she welcomes the help and the information and who wouldn’t want to spend time with those eyes and the dimples. There’s a lot to learn about running a ranch with a herd of chickens while holding down a job on the local paper.

She begins to meet the people of Lackaduck, Wyoming. There’s the handsome sheriff who seems very committed to his job and is definitely making an effort to get to know Libby. Luke seems to always be around and the tension between the sheriff and Luke is palpable. When Libby hears that there’s next to no crime in Lackaduck but there is an unsolved murder still on the books, her journalistic juices start to flow.

I’d never read anything by Joanne Kennedy before but she sure got my attention with Cowboy Trouble. The story moves at a snappy pace with the point of view shifting smoothly from Libby to Luke to fill in some background information and keep the reader in the information loop. The unsolved mystery drives the story as Libby uses all her skills to identify the killer or at least to turn up some new evidence in the case.

On the level of a mystery, the story is top notch. Kennedy plays fair with the reader and the clues are all there to be collected so that the reader should be able to figure out what’s going on. Of course, the fact that Libby is a bit slower than the reader just adds to the tension. We can guess what’s going to happen but no matter how much you yell at the page, Libby just does her own thing.

The book is billed as a romance and there’s definitely all the expected tropes of a romance. Kennedy has a light touch and even while ratcheting up the tension on the mystery, she keeps the romance boiling and the humor unexpected but appropriate and a welcome tension reliever. Though I must warn you that even though the sex is very low key and more vague innuendo than exactingly detail (vague is good, and Kennedy is great at this) some of those scenes sizzle so much I thought the book was going to spontaneously combust.

All in all this is one heck of a good book when you just want to put your cares on the back-burner and forget about your problems for a few hours. Libby is strong, independent, witty, and definitely not to be trifled with. Kennedy manages to write Libby as a fully developed character who doesn’t do dumb things just to move the plot along. She does occasionally do some real dumb things, but always with solid reasoning behind the acts — you could imagine if you were Libby you’d do something similar.

Reading Cowboy Trouble by Joanne Kennedy is like stepping into another world and being the proverbial fly on the wall. If you enjoy mystery, romance, or a bit of both — you’ll want to add this to your To Be Read stack (and maybe bump it to the top).

Okay, I’ve posted here a few times about the fact that I’m chairperson for Capclave 2010 which is the annual convention for WSFA, the Washington Science Fiction Association.  This year’s guests of honor are Connie Willis, Ann VanderMeer and Jeff VanderMeer.  The convention is being held at the Rockville Hilton in Rockville, Maryland from October 22 to 24.

Well, we’re trying to get the word out about our convention and we’ve been throwing a lot of ideas around — but there’s not a whole lot of feedback to go on.  So, I need some feedback.

Flyers or Rack Cards?

In the past, we’ve had flyers at all the science fiction conventions that members of WSFA were attending.  The flyers are 8 1/2 by 11 inch paper with information on one or both sides. You can click on the Flyers or Rack Cards links to see what I’m talking about. (The photo to the right is a reduced image of the full color Rack Card.)

Flyers are usually black print on colored or white paper. The Rack Cards are full color front and back. I’ve only showed the front to give you the idea of what they’re like.

The question is which one would be more likely to get you to read the information and maybe even think about going to the convention?

Please leave a comment, I really want to know what catches people’s interest.

As usual, as we near the end of a month, I’m gearing up to get the ezines on line for the next. SFRevu and Gumshoe Review go live with new content on March 1st. It means days are a bit longer and with a bit more stress to add spice.

Meanwhile, I’m also trying to finish the first sock of the first kit of my Rocking Sock Club. This year I joined and the first kit convinced me that I made the right decision. When we receive a package, we’re asked to not post photos of our projects for 30 days. So, sometime during the first week of March, I’ll get some photos up.

Then there’s all the other little projects I’ve been trying to get to. I’ve cleared up my office (once the dining room) a bit. Had to, we’ve got to get all the tax stuff together.

Anyway, since I was clearing some things up anyway, I’ve started trying to use “lists” again. Just writing down what I need to do helps to get me thinking about what’s in the queue and how to arrange those jobs to get them done in a timely manner.

Now if I could only find about a billion more spoons or canned energy or a package of fibro-be-gone, I’d be all set. We’ve finally got the basement floor cleared enough to set up the Wii again. I plan to do something on it every other day until I don’t feel like a wet noodle afterwards. The docs keep telling me exercise will help me deal with the pain and give me more energy. I didn’t see that the last time, but I did lose weight and my arthritis was better, so it’s back to the Wii. But, I do wonder why they coded that little guy with so much attitude — that little appliance can be very snarky.

Oh, well, back to work.

When I saw this article on BoingBoing, I could not believe it.

Evidently, the laptops that students received from the school also contain software that allows school administrators to spy on them and their families. There is now a class action suit against the district because:

The issue came to light when the Robbins’s child was disciplined for “improper behavior in his home” and the Vice Principal used a photo taken by the webcam as evidence. The suit is a class action, brought on behalf of all students issued with these machines.

I find this creepy in the extreme. What is it with people who believe that they have the right to spy on others anytime they want. This is an invasion of privacy at the least, and child pornography on the part of school officials at the worst — since I’d imagine many of the students have the laptops in their rooms.

What’s even less appealing is that the school said:

The school district admits that student laptops were shipped with software for covertly activating their webcams, but denies wrongdoing.

NOTE: There are links in the BoingBoing article to the filings and letters and other documentation.

I’m just stunned that not only did some at the school spy on the students but that they don’t see anything wrong with this. There is no excuse for spy on the students at home. Even if there was a reason to do so, the school does not have the right to do so, since the parents are responsible for their children.

How can you expect to raise and educate children and young adults if you don’t even understand the basic principles of privacy, fairness, and respect. The school district is in the wrong and there’s no excuse for their actions and every adult involved needs some lesson in how to conduct themselves in society.

When Al Gore wrote Inconvenient Truth about the dangers of global warning, he couldn’t have found a name for his book that could be any more indicative of many people’s reactions to global warming, its possible causes and potential results.

Today, I came across an article in the guardian.co.uk entitled, “Utah delivers vote of no confidence for ‘climate alarmists’“. I figured it was just another bit of ranting about how could global warming exist if it snowed and we had winter. These types of stories happen a lot in the US as many people can not or rather will not grasp the concept of “global” in the phrase “global warming”.

Nope. I was wrong. The state of Utah has proved to the world that the United States has, in positions of power, some of the most scientifically uneducated buffoons on the face of the Earth. Note that the vote on this bill was 56 to 17 — only 17 people could see that this was a bad piece of legislation. Utah Legislature HJR012 says in its General Description:

This joint resolution of the Legislature urges the United States Environmental Protection Agency to cease its carbon dioxide reduction policies, programs, and regulations until climate data and global warming science are substantiated.

Obviously, members of the Utah legislature need a refresher course in General Science 101. They also need to pay attention to what has been coming out of the Climate Change Summits over the last several years. They may also need to watch Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth DVD a few times. No matter what government legislates or believes, facts are facts. Our weather is changing. We can work to mitigate those changes but denying the existence of the facts isn’t going to make them go away.

The scientific community is not in doubt about the need to reduce carbon dioxide emission or that global warming is taking place or that human activity is a part of the equation causing global warming. Utah believes that since they want it not to be true they can simply demand that all the data has to be done again and again and again until they get the results they want. Because at heart, that’s what they’re really trying to do.

It might also be noted that Utah is a solid Republican state. That’s important because the Republican party has been the party of wishful thinking for quite a few years. If they don’t like a fact they try to make out like it isn’t a fact. If they don’t like a law that is passed they try to repeal it. If that doesn’t work they try to make it impossible to enforce or use that law. If they don’t like something, they consistently try to denigrate it, besmirch it, or make fun of it. One thing they never ever do is try to come up with a better way of doing things or helping the country or its citizens achieve their potential.

Unfortunately, passing frivolous legislation and showing a total lack of understanding of scientific data to the world is not going to make global warming go away. Passing legislation that denies the existence of gravity and calling it a passing fancy of Newton will not cause you to float if you should trip over an apple peel. Facts are what they are and denying them and asking for more and more proof of their existence when most countries of the world have already determined the facts to be only arguable in degree not in actuality, only shows that here in American we have discovered a way to live on denial to the detriment of our economy and our country.

I cringe to think what this effort on the part of Utah to maintain its place as a oil and coal producing state in the face of such inconvenient truths will do to the standing of the United States on the world stage whenever science and facts are being discussed. It’s fairly obvious that wishful thinking rather than scientific inquiry rules in at least one state of the union.

My busy day I’ll admit is not the same as most people’s busy days. But for me I did a lot. (Remember I’ve got that whole lack of spoon things still going on.)

Well, I did the wash, dried,  folded, and put it away.

I made bread. Okay so we’ve got a bread machine but it’s now old and wonky but I managed to get it to produce a loaf so we could have it with the chili for supper.

I managed to gain on the email. Answered, sorted, handled, responded, entered in forms, whatever. It got done. Managed to weed the backlog down to under 100 — hopefully tomorrow I’ll get the rest of it taken care of.

By then the headache was starting so switched to reading some of the stuff I need to get done for March.

After supper we watched a movie and knitted on my sock — the plain vanilla one not the sock club one. I’m doing the cuff now and should finish it tomorrow. Then I get to start the next one of this pair.

See. Not much. But I feel right now like I ran a marathon. Sigh but still that’s improvement.

Today is Valentine’s Day and I suspect that many people will be sending cards or ecards to their special someone. Most will have X’s on them to represent kisses. I found this bit of an article on Valentine’s Day at How Stuff Works interesting:

How about the “X” sign representing a kiss? This tradition started with the Medieval practice of allowing those who could not write to sign documents with an “X”. This was done before witnesses, and the signer placed a kiss upon the “X” to show sincerity. This is how the kiss came to be synonymous with the letter “X”, and how the “X” came to be commonly used at the end of letters as kiss symbols.

Whether you deliver your Valentine his or her kiss as an X or in person, I hope everyone enjoys the day with someone special — family, lover, special friend, children, grandparents — whoever gives your heart joy.

Hyperion and I will spend the day together — just enjoying each other’s company. We’ve been married 20+ years and we still love to just spend time together. That is a gift I treasure.

It’s difficult to put into words just what one person can truly mean to another, and have it make any sense to a third person. When I say that Gayle completes me, I’m not insinuating that I couldn’t live without her, or any such silly sap as that. Obviously I managed to live for a couple of decades without her before she came into my life. But rather, I mean that being with her magnifies the joy life provides. Her strength gives me the courage and determination to do things that I simply wouldn’t have tried without her. Ten years ago we took a trip to Australia and toured half the country. Would I have bothered to do that alone? No, I’d have saved the money. But with her, it was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. Would I have the job I have today without her? No, because I knew I was completely unqualified for it, and never would have applied without her encouragement.

So, to Gayle, who brings richness and belief in the impossible to my life … happy V-Day!

“You are my sun, my moon, my star-lit sky. Without you, I dwell in darkness.” And it will never go away.

Today we made cinnamon-ginger donuts. Came out pretty good and we remembered to get them in containers before they could dry out.

Then it was some housework and picking up, followed by going out to do the shopping. We checked three stores looking for the 20 watt halogen lights that fit in our kitchen fixtures (4 of the 8 are burnt out — can’t believe how bright it still is). Anyway, decided it was time to get the replacements and some extras. All we could find were 50 watt ones. We got the fixtures at IKEA so I guess we’ll head up there tomorrow. I like lots of light in the kitchen.

Finished reading A Night Too Dark by Dan Stabenow. I’ll be writing a review for Gumshoe Review’s March issue. It’s another Kate Shugak — short version, I really liked it.

Didn’t get anything done on the sock during the last three days.  I’m up to turning the heel and I’m still hesitant about the directions.  They seem perfectly clear but for some reason I can’t wrap my mind around the stitch numbers.  There are more stitches to be knit than are on my needles so I guess I need to look at the directions with the sock in my hands and with the photo.  Maybe I just need to take a leap of  faith.   Faith leaping is best done on Sunday anyway.