Outies Takes Iraq Out of This World

I thought about the post-war (or was it still war?) period of 2003-2004 for a good long time after returning home. Of the many things I thought about, one was war fiction, and especially military science fiction. War books have compelling plots, generally along the lines of : there are good guys; there are bad guys. Sometimes some bad guys, that is, guys who were individually bad, redeem themselves and become heroic good guys. Anyway, the good guys win, or die valiantly trying. War's over. The End.

But nothing I saw in Iraq was ever that cut-and-dried. On any given day, it was hard to tell if, when & where we were having a war. It was generally impossible to tell good guys from bad guys - and there were many shades of both, on both sides.

Outies is science fiction, set a millenium hence, on a fictional planet. A lot of this blog makes it into the backstory. (Plus a lot more: See Kris Hirst's review in About.com,  where she discusses Outies as Social Science Fiction.)

Amman: Computing Days and Breezy Nights

We've had a large new IBM instructional computing lab installed here at ACOR (American Center for Oriental Research), where basic computing, internet connectivity, and how to access archival and research sites is taught evenings after lectures. Spent the day troubleshooting, upgrading, and updating: all the behind the scenes back office tech support more-or-less taken for granted at home institutions. It's a great addition to regional instructional capacity: we'll probably use it again in the Fall for librarianship training (here, because the library, and librarians, are well-ordered and well-trained) in online cataloguing, circulation, and reference.

Had a glorious evening up the hill, at the classy British equivalent of ACOR (in their new building). Stunning time up on the roof: view of the city, fireworks in the hills, muezzin, sunset, windy, cool night, music, even a wedding going on down below (and still going on). Everything we imagine a wonderful time in the Middle East to be. Several Californians; lots of mutual acquaintances. Heaven, in fact.