March came in like a lion and is going out (relatively) like a lamb. I have no idea how that saying that started, but like many such aphorisms it is both colorful and has more than a nugget of truth in it. Sometime I should buy a book on origins of sayings just for the fun of it.

I got an email offer today from the Discovery Channel Book Club (of which I am a member) offering me “Buy One – Get One Free” for the next three days. Since I just got a great history book Sailing to Byzantium in the mail today from th History Book Club, I really should not succumb to this latest offer. But it is sooo enticing. ☺

Jean and I have not gone to a Chinese buffet in several weeks, maybe even months, so today we independently thought we should go to one this Friday. We have both been invited to a Sunday Brunch as well, so this should be a relatively piggy weekend. Maybe I’ll only cook soup and salad Saturday.

When I woke up this morning, the house was freezing with virtually no heat at all. Since there was an obvious leak under the furnace, I had no choice but to call a repairman and wait home until he arrives. Meanwhile my classes are doing some Emergency Lesson Plans I devised for just such an emergency several months ago. The AP classes are doing prep work for their upcoming AP tests, while the Algebra 2 classes are doing SAT work. Hopefully the furnace will get repaired this morning so I can at least return for my afternoon classes!

Tonight is the Indian Culture Club Bollywood show. Rehearsals went well last night. I hope the kids are not panicky when they realize I am not in school today, since I will definitely be there in time for the show tonight.

Currently listening: Afterglow, the Electric Light Orchestra’s boxed set of classic 70s progressive rock. Very little rock and roll soars like their music did in their prime.

Currently reading: I am actually between books since I just finished Jack McDevitt’s fabulous future historical mystery Infinity Beach. For a (rave) review of it, check my sfnal blog.

This is a four-day Winter Break weekend and, as usual, I have tons of work to do, including preparing my taxes, sorting through my 2006 receipts, doing a bunch of estate work, grading 2 tests, writing 2 other tests, and proofreading the AP Calc final exam. At least I do not need to worry about getting bored (or doing my own writing, alas).

Speaking of writing, I think I will do something rare here and indulge my ego a bit by discussing my current writing projects. I apologize if you find this boring:

This summer Fei Fei and I hope to spend a few weeks finishing the Tibet book and send out a query-and-sample to a bunch of publishers. Since I am primarily editing the book while Fei Fei is doing the writing, I can state publicly that this is going to be a fabulous book about the history and culture of a land which is largely misunderstood in the modern world. The book’s main storyline about the year she spent there studying traditional Tibetan medicine is also fascinating in how she dealt with the clash between traditional Tibetan medicine and modern western medicine, as well as the experiences of a young Chinese girl working in a country where most Chinese are looked upon very warily, and rightfully so considering the recent histories of those two countries.

As for my personal writing, when I can squeeze a bit of time away from my now-monthly Visions of Paradise (which is available for reading at http://efanzines.com/ *hint hint*), I have been developing a series of far-future sf mysteries. Don’t get the idea these are either crime fiction or action/adventure thrillers. My idea of the ideal mystery is a historical mystery in which the main character tries to unravel either questionable historical facts or legends in a futuristic setting different enough from the contemporary world to be wondrous and thought-provoking. Examples of this type fiction are Robert Silverberg (whose love of history shines through such novels as Nightwings and A Time of Changes), Jack McDevitt (in books such as Infinity Beach and the Alex Benedict series), and Poul Anderson (particularly in his Polesotechnic League stories whose settings and alien beings are truly wondrous, although the plots are more problem-solving than mysteries).

I’ve already written two recent stories of this type (one of which, entitled “Starflame,” is posted as issue #109 of VoP), and have have preliminary ideas for another story in each series which are the same type of story. Maybe this summer I’ll have time to draft them.

As for nonfiction, I’m still in the very preliminary stages of planning two books. One of them is a commentary/history based around an extensive series of fascinating photographs a photographer friend took of northern New Jersey, while the other is a book about how immigration affects students of high school age, based on my experiences as teacher and advisor at a school with a very large immigration population (mostly Asian). Both these books are still in the “percolating in my brain / doing very general research” stages though, so I have little idea what direction either will take, assuming they get past the general stage and progress into the stage of active planning. If I’m lucky, you’ll hear more about both these books in the future.

Today is the first snow and ice storm of the winter! Schools are closed, thankfully, since I dread driving on icy roads. To make it worse, I live atop a mountain which gets considerably more snow and ice than surrounding communities, so there are times we have several inches of frozen precipitation while the rest of the county is virtually spring-like. Not this time though.

I can actually use this day off to catch up on work, both schoolwork and estate chores. I spent a few minutes this morning making pea soup in the crockpot (using a delicious ham bone left over from Sunday’s dinner) and I’ll make pizza dough in the bread machine this afternoon. I guess the only downside of this day is at some point Andy and I will be outside shoveling (or snow-blowing if the ice is not too bad) our huge driveway. My poor back... ☺

Currently listening: Time Traveler, the Moody Blues’ boxed set. Their brand of soaring progressive rock was one of the musical highlights of the last 60's through mid-80s, and it is still worth listening to.

Currently reading: The February issue of Locus Magazine is their annual year-in-review issue, and their critics are mostly in agreement that 2006 was not a banner year for novels but an exceptional year for single-author collections. My reading of Stephen Baxter’s Resplendent and Alastair Reynolds’ Galactic North put me in agreement with that latter opinion, although I still hope to read Jeffrey Ford’s The Empire of Ice Cream, which is pretty much their consensus choice for the best collection of the year. Considering how much I loved such Ford stories as “The Empire of Ice Cream” and “The Cosmology of the Wider World”, that should definitely be a collection worth reading.

Some historical figures I admire...

• Thomas Jefferson. How rare is it for an intellectual to also be a founding father of a nation? It’s sad that recent intellectual Americans have either been failed politicians (such as Jimmy Carter) or so mistrusted because that they lost major elections to intellectual inferiors (Adlai Stevenson and Al Gore).

• Abraham Lincoln. Here was a man who failed at nearly everything he did previously, yet became perhaps the finest president this country has ever known. And he made his most important decisions out of a deep sense of conscience rather than personal aggrandizement. Too many people who invoke his name are not even worthy to be mentioned in the same breath as him.

• Dante Aligheiri. One of the greatest Italian writers ever and an important cornerstone in literary history. And he did it all out of love! What’s not to like about him?

• Walter Scott. He practically invented the historical novel, certainly popularized it, and his classic novel Ivanhoe popularized Robin Hood as well.

...and don’t admire...

• Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great, and Napolean Bonaparte. Three men whose greatest claim to fame was killing people and invading countries. It says a lot about modern civilization that they are still considered three of the so-called “greatest” men in history. Bah.

Some random recommendations:

The Waterboys are one of the most underrated music groups. I particularly recommend This is the Sea and Fisherman’s Blues.

My all-time favorite comedy tv show was M*A*S*H, and I still enjoy watching episodes occasionally.

Most science fiction movies do not appeal to me because they are basically dominated by special effects and thriller plots. An occasional sf movie does meet my standards though, such as the virtually-unknown but highly-recommended Dark City.

John Cleese is my favorite all-time comedian, which might mean nothing to you or you might realize I was a big fan of both Monty Python’s Flying Circus and Fawlty Towers.

I have subscribed to several dozen magazines in my life, most of them interesting me for several years before I move on to other interests. Archaeology is my latest interest, especially human evolution, so I am very happy reading Archaeology and Athena Review, two very good magazines, the former more for the general reading public, the latter more scholarly (but not so deep that an ill-informed amateur like me cannot comprehend it).

If you do not particularly enjoy science fiction, I recommend Way Station, by Clifford D. Simak.

My favorite author of historical fiction is Iain Pears. I strongly-recommend An Instance of the Fingerpost and A Dream of Scipio.

I am in the middle of several busy school-related nights. Last night was the Indian Culture Club dance, which went very well and the kids seem to have a good time. I had visits from three former students, which was very enjoyable.

Tonight is the annual Rotary Club dinner at which my good friend Chris is being honored as Teacher of the Year. I normally do not like attending school functions on weekends, but this should be a very pleasant evening.

Monday night is the monthly Target Teach seminar, while Wednesday night is the annual Eighth Grade Parents Orientation, so they will both be late nights out, which will probably exhaust me for the entire week. Oh, joy...

The highlight of this weekend though will be tomorrow when Jean and I pick up our surrogate daughter at the airport. She is finally returning to N.J. fulltime after spending the past six years in California and Illinois. That will make all the other long nights this week worthwhile.