(no subject)

All right, this is absoutely best of breed, as far as 2004-election jiggery-pokery Flash animations go. I'm tempted to actually put down the three smackers to download it... it's that good. (Yoinked from jordanwillow.)

(Ignore the 'Server too busy' message if you see it; the server-side includes seem gemucked. Just click where it tells you to click, and it will eventually get around to playing.)

Tacos Lupita! with extra Vinge

Working from home today, and took a combo lunch/laundry break. While my clothes were drying, I went across the street to Tacos Lupita (at Wilson Square in Somerville, this is), from which I have purchased many a to-go taco or burrito. Since I had time to kill I thought I'd finally try one of their combination plates, and so, feeling protein-deficient, ordered a steak platter.

Wow! I wasn't expecting it to be as good as it was. While I knew the tortillas would be fresh and yummy (this being the reason to buy tacos there), the beans and rice were very good too, and the steak was wonderful; thin, crispy, and seasoned just right. Shockingly good, given that the meat in their steak tacos is usually leathery little nodules. (So why, knowing this, did I order what promised to be an entire plateful of it? Maybe I am just that magical. Or absentminded.) And the portion was also perfect, for me... just enough to make me feel full.

Therefore, if you are stranded near Porter Square, are hungry for something Mexican, and can partake of the animal flesh, do that↑. It's good.

---

While enjoying this rare meatgasm (You gain a Moxie point!), I started in on the epilogue of A Fire Upon the Deep, so I'm all but finished with that story. Quite a feast to be had there, too; I don't think a single SF lover I know wouldn't like this book. Even the ones who hate dogs would probably like it, despite all the dogs that are in it. It's that good! It overcomes its own dogginess. (I think I have at least two SF-loving, dog-hating friends. Coincidence? Meh.)

I am intrigued by the single truly fantasy-flavored element that the book's universe contains, the mysterious cosmic speed-zone structure that basically defines the whole setting. While characters and narration make constant references to it, neither ever describes what it is, exactly, or how it works, or why. It's just there, and the characters deal with it, just like they deal with gravity, or time. I want to say it's handled more like an element of magical realism than a piece of an SF setting. Magical futurism? Shrug!

Anyway, it's delightful. Maybe the epilogue will have something more to say about it... and I'm rather suspecting that the followup novel has more to do with it.