7/26/13 at a picnic in the rain

Drops falling swiftly,
Driving through the sandy loam.
A little river.

Book Review: “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass” by Frederick Douglass

This is the account of Frederick Douglass of his time as a slave and as a runaway before he became a public speaker.  It was published in 1845 partially, I am told, to counter critics who charged that no runaway slave could possibly be as eloquent and well-spoken as Douglass was.  At this time Douglass was in his late twenties based on an age overheard from his master in 1835.

The Dover Thrift Edition I have opens with a preface by William Lloyd Garrison, a leading figure in one wing of the abolitionist party in New England in the time before the Civil War.  Garrison expounds on Douglass’s skill as an orator and fulminates on the terrible crime of slavery, particularly as it was practiced in the southern states.  It also has a letter from Wendell Phillips to Frederick Douglass, praising him for writing the “Narrative”.

This work is the work of a speaker.  It reads as if Douglass is there speaking and that gives it a certain power that is missing in the prefaces to this work.  It begins where Douglass began; on a farm in Maryland.  It proceeds through his life with regular digressions reflecting on various topics about slavery in general.  He describes how he first learned to read and then to write by various subterfuges.  He talks about how slaves were often separated from friends and family at the whim of their owners.

He also describes the evolution of Mrs. Auld as she goes from never having owned a slave to owning him.  The transition from being a kind and generous woman to being suspicious and cruel is shown in a bare bones way, but that makes it all the more remarkable as a sign of the corrosiveness of slave ownership.

Another period that is described in some detail is his time with Mr. Covey, a poor farmer who used his reputation as a slave “breaker” to get cheap labor.  In the first sixth months Frederick Douglass didn’t resist Covey and was reduced to little more than a brute by hunger, exhaustion, the beatings for any cause, and the stress of never knowing when Covey was watching.  After that sixth months Douglass collapsed and went back to his master’s plantation.  The master provided no assistance and required Douglass to return to Covey, but when Douglass returned he decided to resist Covey.  That resistance saved his life and brought Douglass into a spiritual freedom.

One interesting thing about the account is that almost no one that gave Douglass material aid is ever named and this is explained as an effort not to bring them any embarrassment or other troubles.  Despite this often groups of people are described.  The exception to naming names is for his owners; who he names and assesses.  A few get a kind word and few are described as being the most brutal of wretches, though none is worth being a slave for.

Douglass concludes with an almost bashful account of how he became a public speaker for abolitionists.

This edition continues with an appendix where in Douglass lays into the common American Christianity of his day for gross hypocracy.  This brief appendix could be, if read aloud, a powerful and biting indictment.

Douglass’s style is very powerful in this book, especially if you read it aloud or perform it.  It is well worth reading both to learn about a dark part of America’s history and also for the incredible style.  As Douglass studied “The Columbian Orator” so this work could be fruitfully studied by those interested in the arts of rhetoric.

Book Review: “Beyond World’s End” By Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill

This is the third of the Eric Banyon series from Mercedes Lackey and starts the series of novels where Eric has moved on and separated from Kory and Beth.  The separation starts off this book in fact.

Eric has gone back to Julliard to finish what he started there years before.  Then the day he moves into his new apartment he learns that he has a live gargoyle for a neighbor and the apartment building is for more than just providing shelter.  It also houses and cares for “Guardians”, people that are specially called to protect normal people from magical and otherworldly threats.  Not a problem for Eric as he is now a fully trained Bard.  A teacher that hates his guts… maybe a problem.  Ria showing up at the Winter Concert… getting to be a problem.  Add in black ops nutters using druggies as experimental subjects for a magic super soldier/assassin program and an Unseleighe elf that figures he’s bad ass enough to take out New York City by himself, well with his hordes of minions.  Poor Eric has a problem on his hands.  Especially since he’s been told that he is not to get involved.

This is a fun read.  It is an easy read and a lighter read than some of Mercedes Lackey’s other Urban Fantasy novels since it doesn’t include anything on kids in poverty.

LCNUG 6/13/13 - R Programming language

The talk today was by Kevin P Davis.  He talked about the things he's learning about R Programming. This programming language was originally created to handle statistics questions and it handles those, and arrays/vectors, quite well.  It also makes it easy to create "publication ready" graphs with a single command.  If the libraries qplot and ggplot2 are included those graphs can be quite interesting.

He walked through an example.  He wanted to know how long a card game "War" can last and also whether having all the aces guaranteed winning... in the very long run.  It turns out that War can last 300,000 rounds and generally takes at least 10,000 to complete.  He also demonstrated showed the graphs drawn from the dataset.

It was a fascinating presentation and raised a number of questions in my mind.  Most seriously, is there a good way to integrate this with a C# application?  Also, is there something that ordinary users can use this, possibly with a drag and drop style interface?

It turns out there are ways to call R functionality from C# through one of several dlls though there are limitations around which version of R the dll references.

On the second question... well, they exist, but at first blush they seem limited and mostly aimed at getting  users familiar with the scripting language.

There are some obvious uses where I'm working.

You can download R here.

Book Review: “The White Dragon” By Anne McCaffrey

This is the fifth novel Anne McCaffrey set on Pern.  It is placed with the first two novels in the series to form a trilogy called the “Dragonriders of Pern”, but it can almost stand as a separate novel.  There are references that will be easier to understand if the first four books have been read.

The story begins a year or two after Jaxom accidentally impressed Ruth.  Ruth has reached his full growth and Jaxom is now permitted to train to ride Ruth.  The training only includes flying Ruth not fighting with him, so Jaxom secretly tries to train Ruth in how to fight Thread, the nasty flesh eating spore that periodically falls on Pern.  He makes use of his limited training while playing his part in recovering a queen egg the Oldtimer’s stole.  After that he is trained in fighting Thread, to prevent future foolishness.  Then he is drawn into the task of finding where D’ram, retired weyrleader of Ista, has taken himself after the death of his weyrmate (wife).  This leads to a serious illness and then an exploration of the southern continent that marks the Pern series as being Sci-fi rather than fantasy.

Along the way Jaxom grows up.  He starts as a teenager with a certain amount of teenage angst over how he fits into his world.  By the end of the story he’s married and grown into his dual responsibilities as Lord Holder and dragonrider.

This is an enjoyable book; not challenging, except maybe on the women’s rights front, but not so formulaic as to be predictable. The main characters are complex enough that they can be interesting and the minor characters are simply drawn, but solidly enough not to distract.  Unless women’s rights are a serious concern, this is a book that is well worth putting on the list for light reading.

On the women’s rights front this book follows the earlier books, which were published starting in 1968.  All of the top positions are filled by men and expected to be filled by men.  There are a handful of strong women, who are put in positions supporting the top men.

Book Review: “Finding the Way” Edited by Mercedes Lackey

This is a collection of stories set in Valdemar. Most of the stories are decent though none are particularly outstanding. One of them uses a plot devise I particularly can’t stand.

Here are some brief comments on each of the stories included.


“Finding the Way” by Mercedes Lackey and Larry Dixon

Sherra is a hertasi living on the edge of the Gripping Mire. She lives outside of the Vales and makes a living off of the swamp, partially by guiding people through it. One morning she awakens with a Companion outside her hidden hut. The Companion, Vesily, is going after her Chosen. All she knows is that the Chosen is either in or on the other side of the swamp.

This is a solid story of staid experience helping the inexperienced.


“In Burning Zones We Build Against the Sun by Rosemary Edghill and Denise McCune

At the beginning of the reign of Queen Alliana the King of Karse demanded that she banish the Companions and marry his son. Alliana refused and the King sent his army and the demon summoning priests to attack Valdemar. Hedion is a Mindhealer and he goes around the southern border healing all those who have been damaged by Karse’s demons. Hedion collapses when on his way to save another dozen people and is saved by Gaurane, who insists that Hedion needs to take on his impossible quest intelligently.

This is a solid story. Rather sad in away, like Don Quixote without the comedy.


“Unintended Consequences” by Elizabeth A. Vaughan

Lady Ceraratha’s husband Lord Sinmon is dead after participating in the treasonous attack on Queen Selenay. This is the two scene denouement of the affair.

This is so short a story that it doesn’t amount to much or go anywhere.


“The Education of Evita” by Mickey Zucker Reichert

This is the story of how Evita came agree to be a Herald trainee and be educated at the Collegium.

I don’t know if this story is any good or not. The character Evita suffers from a crippling level of naiveté and her Companion is foolish enough to decide that the best way to handle this is to give her a large dose of uncontrolled reality. It’s the sort of character and plot that I simply can’t stand.


“A Charm of Finches” by Elisabeth Waters

Maia has the gift of Animal Mindspeech, which she is using to assist the priest/veterinarians at the Temple of Thenoth, Lord of the Beasts, in Haven. Then a distraught girl brings in her finch, which had been injured by a small knife. She investigates the incident and learns tha the girl’s older brother is running a scam where he accepts money to pray for the deceased and then uses the money to drink and party. Maia, with the assistance of her friend Samira, brings him to justice.

It is an enjoyable story with vivid characters.


“Healing in White” by Kristen Schwengel

Shia is a newly Chosen Herald with a strong Healing gift, a significant knowledge of herbcraft, and a gift of Foresight. Not long after she begins her training her foresight tells her that she is needed. She is sent and most of the story is about her tireless efforts to cure the people of Norflank.

It’s an ok story, but it is very much repeating the stereotypes that Mercedes Lackey has used in other stories.


“Songs of a Certain Sort” by Brenda Cooper

Rhiannon is a Bard travelling with her sister, Dionne, a Healer. On their travels they come upon a small fortress town, called Paradise, where women kidnapped from other towns are being held. After a brief risky investigation, and a poisoning, the town is taken care of by the family of the kidnapped women. This leads another bard to write a song about it. Rhia refreshes her complaint that it isn’t the sort of song she’s looking for. She wants to find a song, written by herself, that is popular.

It’s ok but really only ok. The characters are rather simply drawn and the plot isn’t strong enough to carry the load.


“Otherwise Engaged” by Stephanie Shaver

Bard Lelia and Healer Grier met when they both went out to see who the Death Bell was tolling for. They become lovers though they each have a secret they can’t share. By the end of the story they’ve each shared their secrets and then they have to part.

It is a sweet little story, if a little sad. A really enjoyable tale.


“Heart’s Choice” by Kate Paulk

Ree is a cat-like change child created by the Mage Storms. He and his boyfriend Jem live on a small farm in an out of the way valley along with Jem’s grandfather and an adopted daughter Amelie. The story starts with a pair of cat change children dead after attacking a cow and cowherd. Ree and Jem agree to go looking for the kits as there is evidence the change children had them. It ends with Ree and Jem adopting the change child infant and call him Meren.

This isn’t a particularly good story. The story focuses on Ree so the other characters are relatively simple, but Ree is fairly static despite grappling with the question of how human he is.


“Heart’s Own” by Sarah A. Hoyt

A further tale of Ree and Jem. Ree is wrestling with whether Meren is more human than animal.

Not a bad story, but even with the preceding story it is rather static with not enough plot or character development to be interesting.


“The Time We Have” by Tanya Huff

Jors is a Herald on his circuit when he comes on a trio of bandits that have lit a barn full of horses on fire. One of them is a woman. He is joined by Herald Erika who has been chasing the larger band these three came from. He agrees to assist her. They catch the three but the woman makes it out of the ambush. Jors chases her into a canyon until she goes off a cliff.

This is a well enough written story but I must admit I didn’t enjoy the way it ended. It became a story of how things just seem to happen.


“A Bard by Any Other Name” by Fiona Patton

Someone is leaving poetry painted on walls in Haven. The Watch wants to find whoever it is so they direct their talent in a better direction and also assist in cleaning up their vandalism. Hektor is one of the watchmen looking for the vandal and he knows a few people. His younger sister, Kasaith, also knows people. Particularly, a girl with an artist for a father and a love of poetry that has recently become infatuated.

A charming story and really quite amusing with many of the adult characters reminiscing about past courtships and youthful romances.


“Change of Life” by Judith Tarr

Maryls’ sixth daughter, and youngest child, is about to be wed. Shortly before the wedding a Herald gets passes through town amidst all the rush and bustle of preparations. The next day a Companion shows up to choose someone and only Maryls and Ginee, the bride to be, notice.

It’s a thoroughly absurd story, but the interplay between Maryls and the Companion is quite fun.


“Lack of Vision” by Nancy Asire

A murder has been committed in the tavern. The blacksmith’s apprentice, Bred, has been accused of the deed because he was found asleep in the tavern with the murder weapon on his table. The judge, Perran, is an honest judge and skilled investigator. He even questions the blind man that lives in the tavern.

This is an interesting and enjoyable short story, though it doesn’t stay a mystery very long.


“The Groom’s Price” by Michael Z. Williamson and Gail Sanders

Keth’re’son shena Tale’sedrin is a young Shin’a’in man. He was chosen by a Companion named Yssanda. She wants him to go to Valdemar and be trained to use his magic and mind magic. He claims he would rather remain on the plains and never learn any magic what so ever. However, he does enjoy an adventure and he gets hired to escort a young mage student to Valdemar.

The scenes are often too short for much more than a couple sentences. Other than that it’s an ok story.

Book Review: “Grantville Gazette IV” Edited by Eric Flint

This is the fourth anthology of short stories set in the universe of the Ring of Fire. Overall it is an enjoyable collection of stories. The anthology concludes with a series of technical documents describing particular challenges the people of Grantville might face. This is also the last of the paper editions of the Gazette that includes all the stories from the electronic version of the Gazette.

It is every bit as enjoyable as the other editions.

Here are some brief comments on each of the stories included.

“The Anatomy Lesson” by Eric Flint

This story deals with the relocation of Elisabeth Stuart and her brother Rupert from Brussels to Amsterdam. Since they are teenage royal folk this gets a fair amount of attention from the various powerful people. It also touches on the challenge of living with a known alternate history. Rupert, Rembrandt, Rubens, and Wentworth show different ways of handling the difficulty. An interesting story because it looks at the challenge, which is usually ignored.

“Poor Little Rich Girls” by Paula Goodlett and Gorg Huff

This story starts out with the market panic sparked by Guffy Pomeroy’s death. The girls in the Barbie Consortium use the opportunity to pick up good stocks at very good prices. Vicky makes a deal with one Arend Nebel for a thousand stocks of an oven company. The story moves on, Arend realizes that he sold at a low price and is outraged. He pulls in Hennig and Justine his brother-in-law to be and fiancé. He wants them to help him get revenge on Vicky. They refuse and he adds them to his list of intended victims. Arend attacks Justine, which pulls in her new friend Brandy. There is an exchange of confessions that helps with healing for both girls. Arend is caught by the police when he attacks Vicky. Then at the party Brandy’s mother holds to celebrate paying off her mortgage an undiplomatic comment by one of the Barbie Consortium leads to several people asking to be taught more about how to invest. It also sparks an interesting description of the financial situation of Grantville. This is an eventful story.

“’Til We Meet Again” by Virginia DeMarce

This rather sad story shows the state of the mechanical services in Grantville. It also shows how Iona Nelson became free to go to Quendlinburg; teaching music in the women’s college there.

“One Man’s Junk” by Karen Bergstralh

Journeyman Blacksmith Martin Schmidt had not been having a good week. For demanding that he receive journeyman’s wages he has been banned from working as a smith in Grantville. Now he is having dinner with Master Carpenter Glauber. Master Glauber has plans that could make him a healthy profit in Grantville. He hires Martin to assist in clearing out all the junk in a dilapidated shed. Inside they find, as Glauber thought, all the tools a blacksmith would need to setup his own shop. In the end Martin has a rather better week then he expected. This is a fun little story of the shenanigans going on outside the main action in Grantville.

“Chip’s Christmas Gift” by Russ Rittgers Chip Jenkins, who was once nearly slaughtered by Alex Mackey, is visiting with a friend for Christmas. They are both attending the College at Jena. He decides to give the family a special gift for Christmas, by playing on the violin. This isn’t a particularly interesting story though it is well enough written.

“Dice’s Drawings” by Dan Robinson

Dysart (Dice) Clifford is not pleased to find himself in the 1600s. He had been all set to retire from his job as a pressman when the Ring of Fire occurred. Now he has neither a retirement, nor one of his beloved printing presses. Elfriede Schutzen is a cobbler’s widow now in Grantville trying to make a life for herself. They meet while she is collecting dandelions from his yard. He helps her when her son is off playing. She makes him a meal. He shows her his newly constructed printing press. This is another small tale of people finding a balance after the Ring of Fire.

“The Class of ‘34” by Kerryn Offord

This tale of the end of the year for the class of (16)34 reminds me of stories about modern high school classes. It isn’t bad, but it isn’t all that good.

“Magdeburg Marines: The Few and the Proud” by Jose J. Clavell

When Mike Stearns appoints John Simpson as Admiral of the new Navy the Admiral decides that the navy requires the formation of a new Marine Corps. He goes to Duke Hudson, a retired Marine Gunnery Sergeant, for the founding NCO of this new Marine Corps. This story describes how several of the major decisions are made in founding that military body. Including how the “Horse Marines” come into being. This is one of the better stories in the collection.

“Elizabeth” by Ernest Lutz and John Zeek

General Jackson has a transport problem. He doesn’t have enough wagons or horses to support the larger army he needs to support and he doesn’t want to pay for the gear for the horses. He makes the mistake of idly grousing about the problem to Henry Dreeson. Jackson is surprised when Henry calls Lieutenant Elizabeth Pitre over. It turns out she has a possible solution, narrow gauge tactical railroads. Jackson takes her by surprise when he appoints her to lead the unit. There are difficulties in the doing, but the story covers how the TacRail division came to be another Grantville addition to the war effort. This is a fun story with a focus on some of the difficulties such a unit could run into.

There is one continuing serial in this volume. “Heavy Metal Music” by David Carrico

This is another installment of the ongoing saga of the musicians Marla and Franz. A short and enjoyable story that adds Master Ingram Bledsoe, Master Hans Riebeck, Friedrich, Anna, and Thomas all come from Mainz to see Franz. This is also the story where Ingram and Hans become partners.



The rest of these are articles describing particular challenges and solutions to be faced by the characters.

“Drillers in Doublets” by Iver P. Cooper

This is a long essay describing the situation Grantville finds itself in regards to oil and natural gas. It discusses where oil can be found, the technologies available, and the geology of oil and gas.



How to Keep Your Old John Deere Plowing” by Allen W. McDonnell

This is a short article describing how to keep the diesel powered tractors of Grantville running. Some could be converted to run on natural gas and some could run on vegetable oil with the addition of a heating element.



“How to Build a Machine Gun in 1634 with Available Technology: Two Alternate Views” First alternative by Leonard Hollar, Tom Van Natta, and John Zeek

The first alternative is an organ or volley gun, a weapon with multiple barrels that can all fire simultaneously. This is described in some detail.

Second alternative by Bob Hollingsworth

The second alternative is very similar to the first. It is a battery gun. It also has multiple barrels, though these are generally laid out next to each other. This article also discusses the available uptime guns, rifles, and ammunition available.



“A Looming Challenge” by Pam Poggiani

This article talks about the various ways to improve the cloth making industry. It begins with the spinning wheel and moves on to the loom. From there it moves into a long discussion of the process of harvesting many different materials for spinning and weaving. This leads into the process of spinning and weaving.