The Lent Term Experiment: Week 1

Right, time for the first update of this experiment.

In summary, all I can say is that I'm regretting not doing more work over the weekend. As now I am absolutely up to my neck in it. Stupid 4th Year Project. Stupid solar car with the wheels that won't fit inside the fairings.

Grr.

I'd also like to remark at how useless I get at things when I'm tired and hungry. Having spent all day in the department today, I came back to my room after a trip to Sainsburies. The plan was to make a quick egg fried rice for dinner using some leftover rice that I remembered making a day or two ago.

Well, I stopped in my bathroom to relieve myself, and my mind wandered to those stupid fairings I'd been working on all day. Then, I suddenly found myself brushing my teeth. I mean, what the eff?

After hastily putting an end to that, I went to the kitchen and fished out my rice. One sniff let me know that it probably wasn't edible anymore. After thinking back with some difficulty, it turns out that I had made the rice last Friday.

Time flies when you're having fun, eh?

Luckily, ingredients for Egg Fried Rice are mostly interchangeable with Carbonara, and that is what I'm sitting here eating whilst bashing out this post.

Anyway, without further ado, here is the graph (click for full size):

The Windup Girl

...I'm not sure it's all its wound up to be.

The blurb is as follows:

Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen's calorie representative in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, he combs Bangkok's street markets in search of foodstuffs long thought to be extinct. There he meets the Windup Girl - the beautiful and enigmatic Emiko - now abandoned to the slums. She is one of the New People, bred to suit the whims of the rich. Engineered as slaves, soldiers and toys, they are the new underclass in a chilling near future where oil has run out, calorie companies dominate nations and bio-engineered plagues run rampant across the globe.

And as Lake becomes increasingly obsessed with Emiko, conspiracies breed in the heat and political tensions threaten to spiral out of control. Businessmen and ministry officials, wealthy foreigners and landless refugees all have their own agendas. But no one anticipates the devastating influence of the Windup Girl.

I stumbled upon this book in Waterstones, with "The Hugo and Nebula award-winning novel." emblazoned across it's cover. I picked it up with high expectations, and after having read it, have to say that those expectations weren't entirely fulfilled.

The Windup Girl is a deeply complex book, set it in a dystopic Thailand where all sorts of machinations are going on. It does many things right - the world building is absolutely fantastic, and you can tell that Bacigalupi has done his research as the prose is crammed to the brim with bits of detail which really throw his vision of Thailand into sharp relief.

I am in awe of how immersed he makes the reader feel without burdening our minds with unnecessary technical detail - this is a Sci Fi with a focus on the characters after all, and not the scientific magickery which makes the world in which they live tick. This is not an easy task, given that there are mountains of technical detail which could have been delved into had he desired; how do kink-springs work? How does all the genehacking and generipping work? It's left as food for the imagination.

Another thing I ended up loving about the book is it's use of the present tense. I was initially skeptical, not having read too many books with such a narration and it felt a little odd. However, as I sank into the story, I realised that as a technique to deliver the story with, it lends an immediacy to the proceedings, which when coupled with his fantastic poetic use of language, makes the book an absolute treat to read.

So, what turned me off?

Well, for the most part, this book feels like an extended "slice of life" prose. It just didn't feel like it was going anywhere for the first half. The characters, whilst well defined and memorable in their own right, play around in the lovely sandbox world that Bacigalupi has created, and whilst this is entertaining to read, it seems for the most part the plot is missing a sense of purpose and only slowly gathers its wits as the story comes to a climax.

I think this is due to several factors - the complexity, for one. Having such an ensemble of characters to manipulate in the story inevitably leaves some of them under-developed and I definitely feel that some of the relationships between the characters should have been explored more deeply. In the end I found that although the visceral action scenes had great impact, I didn't for the most part feel emotionally connected to any of the character strands; with the exception of the Kanya/Jaidee subplot, which was quite well done. Instead, I made my way through the book rather like an impartial third-party observer. Whilst this was interesting in it's own right, sort of like people-watching, it's not the sort of experience I read books for.

Perhaps there is a case to be made here for making characters too grey.

To conclude, I feel that had Bacigalupi handled his characters with as much finesse as the world, this story could have been an absolute scorcher. As it is, I am left feeling a little cold, although the world will stay in my mind for some time to come.

On my once before used scale of ten, I give this book a 7.

The Lent Term Experiment

As I returned to Cambridge on Saturday, I was inevitably immediately buried in the mound of coursework which I should really have completed over the holidays. Thankfully, that's all been done and handed in (as of today).

Still, I wondered what the hell I did with all those weeks that we had off. In my mind, I seem to recall spending a lot of it working, or at least thinking about work, moaning about work and generally not having a very good time of things.

So, to clarify whether Cambridge really does just suck up all your free time as an Engineering Student, or whether I was just having one of my bouts of procastalazyslackitis, which is an unfortunate acute chronic condition I suffer from, I have decided to track what I spend my time on for the coming term.

Broadly speaking, I will be keeping a log of how I spend my time, which I hope to post up on this blog in the form of some pretty line charts, for your perusal.

So, without further ado, here are the results from Week 0. There are five major categories:

1. Total Course - Includes all lectures, work, the 4th year project etc.
2. Total Activites - Includes all sports and socialising etc.
3. Total Free Time - My spare time (currently all being spent on GT5, and boy is it worth it!).
4. Sleep - Yeah.
5. Total Time - Sum of all the time above, this probably won't come to 24 hours, unless I somehow spend an entire day not eating anything (unlikely) and not travelling anywhere etc.

What am I hoping to accomplish by running this time keeping experiment, you may ask.

Apart from a curiosity to track how I really spend my time, I hope it will just turn out to be an interesting view into how much time the 4th Year Cambridge Engineering course takes out of a student's life, which, after all, is part of the point of this blog.

I don't really have any hidden agendas - I mean, if it does turn out I spend a disproportionate amount of my time doing work, I'm not going to print it out and throw it at the Undergraduate Teaching Office in protest, no matter how tempting that may be.

Anyhow, I shall attempt to keep this going throughout the term, and inform the world of my goings on with weekly updates. Fear not though, if you are worried that this blog will turn into nothing more than a series of depressing line charts saying "4TH YEAR ENGINEERS WORK A LOT", for I am still planning to write regular blog posts here and there.

So, strap yourselves in, we're in for a wild ride!

...

In the metaphor above, the phrase "strap yourselves in" means "do whatever you want", and the the phrase "we're in for a wild ride" means "at best, this could be mildly amusing".

The appropriate image would be doing laps of the Top Gear Test Track in an electric wheelchair. Yes, that's right.

Peace out.

I Wroted Something!

Last year, wait...make that two years ago (I'm going to be doing that annoying thing where I accidently date everything as 2010 for a while).

Anyway, in the winter break of 2009, I started writing a novel.

One of my New Years Resolutions last year was to finish it, and in an unprecedented turn of events, I actually did. This surprised me, and probably the universe at large, as it was probably the first time I've ever actually kept one of my resolutions.

Whilst I'm on the subject, I wanted initially to rant about New Years Resolutions in general, and the meaningless crap people set for them. However, since said resolutions helped me to steel my resolve and finish the aforementioned novel, I can no longer rant without looking like a hypocrit, which I probably am, but I digress...

Back to the novel - here is a short summary:

"In the future, the world is just as screwed up. Escalating social and political tensions reveal a deep ideological divide and a plot is devised in the name of saving humanity from itself. Gritty and sharp, this hard-edged sci-fi pulls no punches."

If that actually sounds good to you and you are curious to read the story, just know it is a hell of a lot easier to write a three sentence summary than it is to write the story which that summary summarises.

I was debating whether to leave the link to the story here, but I've decided not to in the end, on account of it being a first draft and me knowing that it needs some revision. Instead, I wanted to blog about the process of writing a novel, which, now viewed through the lense of hindsight, was quite amusing.

There was the initial excitement and the novelty (hah, see what I did there?), which was great. My novel would be great; it'd have deep, meaningful themes, a rollercoaster ride of a plot and realistic characters which my vast readership would instantly adore. There would be a multi-million pound publishing contract, film contracts and even plays! I would be set on the path to world domination!

Being creative is a really good feeling, and at the start of a novel, there is a feeling that anything is possible, which is also a really good feeling. Basically, it's a smorgasbord of joy.

Then, after the initial chapters had been written, I entered into the middle part of the story. Things quickly did a heel face turn. Everything was shit. The plot wouldn't come together, what themes did exist seemed to be forced by the authorial hand, and the characters seemed bland and cliche.

DIE DIE DIE stupid novel.

Apparently, this is not an uncommon thing to have happen, and so it just became an act of perserverance, just gritting teeth and sticking words to the page. However, after a certain point, things get easier, and as all the loose plot strands begin to be tied together, and the story rises to it's climax, the process gets enjoyable again.

Finally, one year on (almost exactly, actually), a 48957 word first draft appears.

So...what's next?

Well, I guess I'll write another one...

Battlestar Galactica

...it's a frakking review.

First of all, greetings 2011. May you be one better than 2010.

Secondly, let's get on with the review at hand.

I'm a fan of Science Fiction.

You're probably thinking lasers, epic battles between massive space fleets, the discovery of new worlds etc.

That's all good stuff, however, the true strength of the Sci-Fi genre, as I see it, is it's ability to place human characters (they don't have to be human) in situations which are unlikely or even impossible to occur in the real world, so as to provide another lense through which we can observe the human condition.

The technology, whilst being cool and is nice eye-candy (also brain-candy if handled correctly), should never overwhelm the story telling - otherwise it would be like attending lectures, except for subjects which don't exist except in the imagination of the writers - and that's no fun.

WARNING: There are a few spoilers, from the mini-series and the earlier parts of the first season.

So, Battlestar Galactica is a TV series I picked up and watched over the holidays (whilst I was meant to be working, of course). The premise of the show is simple and a little cheesy:

Twelve Colonies of humans are destroyed by their own robots who have developed sentience and are tired of being used as slaves. The attack comes as a surprise. Billions of lives are lost and the existence of humankind is reduced to a small rag-tag fleet of civilian ships and the Galactica, a Battlestar class war-ship. The series charts their desperate attempts to run from the pursuing Cylons and to find a new home.

I wasn't really sold on the idea - especially as it was a re-imagining of a 1970's show, which really was as cheesy as you'd expect, and a blatant cashing in on the Star Wars image.

However, as I began to watch the miniseries (basically a 3-hour pilot), it became quickly clear that this show was going to be something different.

It is dark, it is gritty and it is realistic. The Cylons nuke humanity, leaving their homeworlds a wasteland of radiation and death and there is no shying away from the human effects of this. Whereas the original series essentially used it as an excuse to have a jolly space adventure, this new treatment shines the spotlights on it's wide array of generally well thought out characters and their struggles to cope with the destruction of all they've ever known.

Basically, shit happens. A lot. Engineers don't suddenly pull miracles with worn machinery, pilots don't suddenly pull superhuman stunts, men and women don't heroically rise above their flaws. Accidents happen and people die for no reason other than being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Space is dark, the enemy is always on their tails, and there is no relief.

The show focuses mainly on the military personnel on board the Galactica - the sole remaining warship, and the characters and their choices as they attempt to protect a species on the verge of extinction. The writers aren't afraid to give the characters hard choices with no easy way out, and they do this time and time again.

The commander of the Galactica. How can one lone warship protect the entire civilian fleet? How do you provide motivation and leadership for your men when all that stretches before them is the endless expanse of the universe, with nowhere to go?

The writers are also fantastic at capturing that sense of desperation that I imagine would be present in such a scenario; one wrong move and that's game over for humanity. No continues.

It's fascinating and compelling viewing, even though it does make it hard to consistently root for the characters as inevitably their morale scales are all different. But, it is these shades of grey which provide the characters with such depth and you can't help but sympathise and understand their choices, even if you disagree.

She's a Cylon agent programmed to think she's a human, but with a deadly secret mission. They're in love. Sparks are going to fly when the truth comes out.

The extremes of human behaviour are handled with maturity and realism, and the acting performances are all solid at worst, and absolutely exhilarating at best. Edward Olmos is especially good as the commander of the Galactica - his quiet gravelly tones and immense screen presence are fantastic.

The show raises some nice questions for the viewer to ponder, such as the meaning of survival - are we only supposed to survive for it's own sake, or do we need to be worthy of survival? Transhumanism issues - what's the difference between a human and a robot which is a perfect biological replica anyway? Does it even matter in the end? It also contains a hefty amount of religious material, although it is presented in such a way that I didn't view it as provoking any meaningful debate, more to provide a richer background tapestry, which was fine by me.

Although none of these questions are new per se, the show shines a light at it from a different angle, providing perspective and insight which feels fresh (to me at least).

A self-serving computer genius seduced by a Cylon who used him to get the access codes for the Defence Mainframe. He realises what he did but no-one else does, how does one live with that sort of guilt?

The thing which I will be left with upon reflection though, are the terrific nuanced characters. The writers really hate the characters on this show - and love to put them through one crisis after another, pushing them to breaking point and beyond. Sometimes, I did find it just a tad depressing; there are really very few happy endings here. However, somehow, the show manages to dig out humanity in those dark moments, and reminds the viewer that hope springs eternal. The characters go through some pretty epic personal arcs through the course of the show, and no-one emerges unscathed.

Formerly a teacher, who became the Education Secretary. 42nd in line for the Presidency. Well, the other 41 people above you just got killed, so better figure out how to lead the remnants of humanity, and fast. Oh, and you have cancer.

If your conception of Science Fiction on TV is founded on the Star Trek idea (crazy aliens, technological deus ex machinas and flat characters) - I would suggest giving this a try just to dispel that. If you like a compelling drama (regardless of genre), this will probably be well up your alley.

On my never before used scale of 10, where 10 indicates absolute, unreachable perfection. I give BSG an 8.