Today is my anniversary; my wife and I have been married eight years. We've had ups and downs (mostly ups), and we've both grown and changed a lot over the past several years, but I'm still as crazy about her as the day we got married. Sound sappy? Perhaps, but it's true nonetheless. We've come through a lot together, from grad school (and the torture of an astronomy qualifying exam), to a cross-country move, to new jobs for both of us. She now has a simply outstanding job teaching community college, and she loves it. Even I have to admit, it's very close to the perfect job. She loves what she does, loves the people she works with, loves the hours she works and the environment in which she does it, and she gets pretty darn incredible pay and benefits to do it. And not only that, she's good at what she does -- really good. She's achieved what most people just dream of. You have to have a lot respect for that.
We have two great kids, one from my first marriage (whom she adopted when we got married) and one after a long struggle and a lot of modern technology. Both of our kids are smart, funny, personable, and have just enough rugged individualism to both be exasperating beyond belief and to make me secretly just a bit proud of them. We're really lucky, so here's to a lot more great years!
I'd like to link to an article I was pointed to by Cat Rambo, one of the current Clarion West students. This article really spoke to me. The Meaning of Life, a book by Bradley Trevor Greive, had a similar profound effect on me. The latter is what finally convinced me that I needed to look into writing full time; the former has strongly reaffirmed that belief. Many thanks to Cat for pointing that article out!
In other news, I flew myself to my Civil Air Patrol meeting last night and got re-certified in the Cessna 152. What a sweet plane. It's not terribly reliable (in fact I had a minor engine problem during the flight), but the simplicitly of the aircraft, small size, and low rental cost are perfect for a solo pilot. I wish we could afford for me to fly more, but at least I'm able to keep my currency up by flying to CAP meetings twice a month. In other CAP news, I am currently our squadron's Emergency Services Officer and now may end up also becoming our Communications Officer -- an assignment with a great deal of irony, as will be evident to those that know me.
And last, but not least, I've jumped on the bandwagon and taken the "Which Science Fiction Writer Are You?" test. Here are the results:
 | I am: Arthur C. ClarkeWell known for nonfiction science writing and for early promotion of the effort toward space travel, his fiction was often grand and visionary. |
Oddly enough, I find this to be pretty much dead-on. Not that my writing style is anything like Clarke's, but our point of view towards science fiction is certainly similar. Clarke was an engineer as well as a writer, so I can readily identify with him. Robert Heinlein (also an engineer) is probably my favorite SF author of all time, but I have to agree that the subject matter of my writing is a lot closer to the hard SF of Clarke than it is to the sociological commentary of Heinlein (though there is certainly an element of that in my work ).
Enjoy the day, I know I am!
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