Category: Uncategorized

Water hardness off the charts!

Andrea

The water in Bamberg tastes like chalk, and this is not an exaggeration. See the image with the hardness chart. The soil around here is rich in Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) and magnesium carbonate (MgCO3). As the water filters through, it dissolves these minerals and delivers them to unhappy visitors from the U.S. who are unaccustomed to water that sticks to your teeth. There’s nothing unhealthy about it, but it’s unhealthy if you avoid drinking water that has the distinctive aftertaste of concrete.

Most people in the city have water softeners in their homes, but not my hosts. They serve water with every meal and sometimes beer. If the beer wasn’t available, I gritted my teeth and drank maybe four or five ounces. It tastes so bad that I had started to avoid drinking it, relying on coffee and cola to get my H2O intake. This wasn’t a good idea, and I started feeling cranky, lethargic, constipated, and moody, but I didn’t realize what was going on. My stupid self finally caught on that I was straddling the line on dehydration. I may have crossed the line entirely. In retrospect, I’m not sure I could even see the line anymore

I started buying bottled water. I dislike buying plastic bottles, but they have an excellent recycling system here, and it may have saved my life.

I explained the situation to my hosts, and they don’t seem to be insulted by me bringing bottled water to the meals. I was worried I would about that.

Feeling better. Studying isn’t so difficult anymore. I don’t feel lethargic or constipated. Take it from the experts (of which I’m not) that hydration makes your life more fluid and comfortable.

Two Months in Bamberg — day 7: An American’s Perspective.

Andrea

I’ve posted about these before, but I think they bear repeating. These are stumble stones, or Stolpersteine, that commemorate victims of the Nazi regime. They are placed at the last known address of the victims, and act as a decentralized reminder. Though I suspect many in the current administration will claim that they’re part of some elaborate hoax. They are not just Jewish victims, but other victims of the regime.

They are not without controversy, obviously. The city of Munich has banned them on public property following criticism from the President of the Jewish Community there, who considers it disrespectful for the names of murdered Jews to be on the ground where people can walk over them.

Culture shocks of the Day:

My hosts serve dinner at about 8 in the evening. This has advantages and disadvantages. One advantage is that by the time we sit down for dinner, I’m so hungry I’m willing to eat most anything. It also allows for a later lunch, which is typical for me.

Also, they are enthusiastic consumers of vinegar — French for “sour wine.” It goes into most every dish, even dishes I would never consider pairing with acid. I’ve never been a fan of adding household cleaners to my meals. I suppose after eight weeks, though, I’ll grow to either enjoy it or really hate it.

Two Months in Bamberg, Germany. An American’s Perspective

Andrea

Day 1

Culture shock of the day.

There are free-standing cigarette machines throughout the city. The weirdest thing is that their distribution seems to be random, and not associated with any retail outlet, although I’m unsure if they’re also present in residential areas.

The buyer’s age is checked by inserting a debit card. Not sure how valid that is.

I googled some data (take that for what it’s worth) and discovered that the teen smoking rate in Germany (14 to 17-year-olds, 2024) is 14.9% and shows signs of increasing. The rate in the U.S. is 1.7%, though the rate for vaping is much higher at 5.9%.

There are about 300,000 of these machines nationwide, mostly in areas of high pedestrian traffic. They started requiring age verification in 2007, usually with a debit card or national ID, but really, how hard is it to get your older sibling or cousin to cooperate?

Does the ease of purchasing tobacco have anything to do with these disparate rates? No idea. I suspect there are other variables that have a greater effect, like lower prices (tobacco prices in the U.S. are among the highest globally) and greater social acceptance of smoking.

It rained all day, and it wasn’t very tourist-friendly. I spent much of the day learning how to shop for groceries. There are as many differences as similarities between shopping in the U.S. and Germany, but one thing remains constant: Shopping for only one person is a pain in the patootie. Tomorrow I’ll move in with the host family, and meals will become both more complicated and easier.

Thoughts While Sitting at the 2025 World Science Fiction Convention in Seattle.

Andrea

Sitting in the dealers’ room at the 2025 World Science Fiction Convention (WorldCon) in Seattle. Wearing my replica TNG-era com badge and Starfleet delta earrings. I didn’t wear my Manticoran Navy officer’s uniform because my involvement in the TRMN has waned significantly. A gentleman sitting at the same table is wearing his uniform, and I said, “Go Manticore!”, but he ignored me.

My publisher threatened to take away my author card if I didn’t autograph copies of my books at his table. So, if you want some autographed books, you can head over to Water Dragon Publishing, or, better yet, send me an email and I’ll be happy to address an autograph to you personally.

The first ribbon I attached to my member badge says, “No Kings.” I picked it up at the registration desk before I even obtained my dealer badge (ribbon). Dozens of people have asked me where I got it, and when I tell them, they respond, “There weren’t any there when I went through registration.”

Sorry, dude. Can’t help you with that. I haven’t seen many No Kings ribbons, so I’m thinking they may have been a limited run.

I’m not seeing many panels on today’s schedule that I want to attend, but there is one at 19:30 tonight that looks interesting:

Why Does the Alt-Right Love Science Fiction?

The description: Over the past few decades, there have been attempts to co-opt science fiction in support of racist, sexist, and classist political movements. Even works such as Star Trek, Neuromancer, and The Dispossessed have been claimed by alt-right leaders as foundational texts for their awful worldviews. Why does the alt-right love science fiction, and what problematic assumptions are coded into the genre that cause it to be open to these interpretations?

First off, anyone who wonders, “When did Star Trek become so woke?” has had their head up their butt since 1966. 

Second, I’m well aware that embracing science fiction fandom has placed me solidly in a progressive echo chamber. If the bulk of Sci-Fi fans had their druthers, The Felon and his cronies, along with all the White Christian Nationalists, would have been launched into a parallel universe long ago, where they can play out their Project 2025-basedmasturbatory fantasies without bothering other people.

That’s not to say that there aren’t any Republicans at the Con today, but they tend to keep their political opinions to themselves and quietly back out of conversations that turn political. And they tend to be the kind of Republican who’d vote for Eisenhower or Nixon, but not The Felon.

Thirdly, I have a dinner engagement tonight, but if I can get back to the Con before 19:30, I’ll attend this panel.

What do I do about the echo chamber? Truthfully, not much. I remind myself that the loudest progressives are just as guilty of not fact-checking their talking points as Fox News is. I mean, really, people just don’t google it when it supports their agenda. 

Apropos of nothing, here is a Hawaiian Dalek.

Death by Cooties: A Martian Mystery

Andrea


Illustration by Henrique Alvim Corrêa, from the 1906 Belgium (French language) edition of H.G. Wells’ “The War of the Worlds”, 1906. License: Public Domain

In H. G. Wells’ classic War of the Worlds, the invading Martians are defeated by microbes, to which the Martians have no immunity. When the book was written in 1898, the readers thought this was a clever turn of events. Wells needed a way to defeat the Martians without relying on conventional military victory, and used germs as a deus ex machina that relied on science and not gods, and showed how the hubris of the Martians was brought low by the humblest of life forms.

“And so the Martians fell… slain by the putrefactive and disease bacteria against which their systems were unprepared.” — H.G. Wells

However, 127 years later, it’s hard not to squint at this plot twist. I doubt my thoughts here are original, but they’ve been festering in my brain long enough that I feel compelled to write them down.

Plot Hole #1: Advanced Civilizations Should Know About Germs

First, the advanced Martian race should have known about germs and how to deal with them. After all, the existence of megafauna, such as the Martians, implies the existence of microorganisms, just as the existence of planets implies the existence of atoms. This is a humungous plot hole.

On Earth, microbes are ubiquitous, filling every possible environmental niche from the bottom of the ocean to the lint in your belly button. They are fundamental to every ecosystem, including the digestive systems of larger animals. It’s nearly impossible to conceive of a complex biological system capable of supporting megafauna, like the Martians or any other large creature on Mars, that does not also involve a vast microbial landscape.


Let’s ignore the realities of what we know about Mars and assume for a moment that the fourth planet has its own long evolutionary history. The Martians would have co-evolved with Martian pathogens and would have developed their own immune systems to deal with their native germs. The Martians would have almost certainly developed an understanding of disease, hygiene, and germ theory. They would have had their own plagues and epidemics throughout their history.

At some point before the invasion, some Martian scientists working for the Martian Space Agency would have said, “Y’know, we really should send a robotic probe to check out the air and water to make sure it’s safe for us.” Had they not considered this, then, shit. The universe has little patience for civilizations that skip the basic biohazard protocols.

Plot Hole #2: Why Would Earth Germs Recognize Martians as food?


The Martians evolved in a world completely isolated from Earth. What are the odds that Earth-based germs would find the Martians tasty? Or would even be able to find a way to infect them? 


Our microbes on Earth have evolved over billions of years to exploit the organic molecules and metabolic pathways that we depend on: breathing, eating, and drinking. The micro-beasties have evolved enzymes and receptors to interact with Earth-based proteins, sugars, and lipids. We are in a biological arms race with germs — we develop immunity, and the germs find novel ways to infect us. 

The converse is true with Mars. Earth-based microorganisms would probably not recognize Martians as food or a host. 

Science Fiction, Not Science Fact — And That’s Okay

None of this is meant to disrespect Wells or the book. The War of the Worlds is a foundational work of science fiction, and its denouement is memorable, iconic, and metaphorically powerful. Wells used the science available to him in 1898 to craft a compelling narrative, even if it doesn’t stand up to 21st-century astrobiological scrutiny. 

That said, the bigger question is this: Why does Hollywood keep falling back on such a well-trodden trope?

I know — the answer to that question is always “money.”

Every time we watch another remake of War of the Worlds, we already know how it ends. Spielberg used it less as science fiction and more as a mirror for Americans’ post-9/11 insecurities. But let’s be honest: if he hadn’t signed Tom Cruise, Dakota Fanning, Tim Robbins, and Morgan Freeman, I doubt it would’ve had the same impact.

And speaking of casting calls

One moment in Spielberg’s War of the Worlds (2005) that I genuinely appeciated was the cameo of Gene Barry and Ann Robinson — the stars of the 1953 adaptation — as the grandparents in the final scene. It was a graceful nod to the film’s lineage, acknowledging the cultural staying power of Wells’ story and the generations of audiences it has haunted (and inspired). For all my criticisms, I have to give Spielberg credit for honoring the franchise’s legacy.

Hands Off rally in Corvallis, Oregon

Andrea

We had beautiful Spring weather in Oregon today. Clear, warm skies that invited tee-shirts and broad-brimmed hats. Thousands of people could have spent the day at the beach, or skiing, or kayaking on the Willamette River, or fishing. Instead, they chose to spend the afternoon showing solidarity against the gross man-child who spent the day watching a golf tournament in Florida while the country figuratively burned.

Americans want to know: Does this president make our country look stupid?

Getting Political Because I No Longer Have a Choice

Andrea

Indivisible Oregon sent me a message on March 25, asking me if I’d help organize an event for the Transgender Day of Visibility in Salem, Oregon. Oh, boy! Six whole days to plan it! But, how could I say no?

Together with Heidi B., we pulled it off! I called the office of Andrea Salinas, the Congresswoman from Oregon’s 6th Congressional District, inviting her or a spokesperson to join us. They sent Mr. Brandon Jordan, who read a letter from Congresswoman Salinas.

Transgender individuals are under threat of erasure as one anti-trans law after another are introduced and passed in Republican controlled states, like this bill in Texas. Transpeople face unsafe conditions in about half the country. Imagine being out and about, and you have to hold your pee until you get home because using a public bathroom might get you arrested. I don’t like using clichés like “clear and present danger” or “unprecedented,” but this clearly is. The threat is clear enough that even cis-women are paying the price. Unless someone looks like a stereotypical woman, there is a chance that they’ll be targeted by the anti-trans militia. For instance, see this article. Any short-haired woman wearing baggy clothes could be targeted. As we saw at the 2024 Paris Olympics, any woman of color who outperforms white women could be accused of being secretly male.

It’s important to understand the flawed logic behind these attacks. If transgender women have such an unfair advantage in sports, why aren’t they dominating the competitions they’re entering?

Now I have three days until the “Hands Off” protest. The organizers did it right and gave us a month to get our act together, and I hope there’ll be sizable crowds in Corvallis, Davis, and Salem.

It’s against this backdrop of increasing legislative attacks and the very real dangers they pose that the ‘Hands Off!’ protests take on even greater significance. While the Hands Off protest isn’t specifically about Trans Rights, the core message of the Hands Off! protest is to tell Trump and Musk, “Hands off our lives! Hands off our Social Security! Hands off our bodies! Hands off our religion! Hands off our pensions!” If you’re able to join us this weekend at any of the hundreds of locations where protests are planned, your presence and voice will make a difference.

And, for those who might be questioning the impact of showing up, I offer this compelling video by the one and only Rebecca Watson, who details studies showing that protests actually do work.

The Constitutional Convention – Andrea argues with her characters.

Andrea

Some background: I meet with a writers’ critique group every Friday, where we read our WIPs to each other and get instant feedback. I’m going to read this to the group this Friday. Of course, by commenting on the piece, they become part of the story.

The Constitutional Convention

A Meta Story about the Republic of Kentaurus

By Andrea Monticue

It was a cold, gray, rainy April morning in Monmouth, Oregon, and my Invicta Dive Watch indicated that it was still five minutes before the meeting started. I had the meeting invitation in my daypack, but I knew it by heart: Organizational Meeting. Noon. Public Library. Topic: What the hell, sistah? Bring your laptop. Other participants: Your literary creations.

This was not the first time my “literary creations” had forced a meeting of the minds on me. Usually, they didn’t bother with an invitation to a meeting – they just showed up at my office, helping themselves to my coffee, carrying a handwritten list of grievances. This always annoyed me, considering the advanced technology I’ve bequeathed to them. They have starships that travel at many multiples of the speed of light, for crying out loud! Can’t they invest in one measly iPad?

I walked into the library meeting room expecting to see the usual suspects and I was surprised to see some additional faces. 

Bear stood near the door dressed in his medical corpsman uniform. He presented himself standing at a full seven feet tall, his tongue lolling over his wolfish teeth and his tail wagging to indicate pleasure at seeing me, greeted me at the door, and handed me a complimentary pair of smartglasses. 

“Thank you, Bear! You’re always so thoughtful.” I was pleased that it was the better iGlasses from Apple and not the minimalist Google Viewer. Bear wasn’t able to reproduce human vocalizations, so he needed the translating ability of the smartglasses to participate. Everyone in the room was wearing them. This was good because, with the exception of Sharon Manders, the former UC Santa Cruz anthropology professor sitting at the podium on a stool, I was the only one there who spoke 21st-century English.

I set my daypack down on the nearest chair and donned the smartglasses while Sharon talked. “Thank you for showing up on time, Andrea.”

I gave her the finger then looked around the room. Teagan Wough with their unreadable mien, and Etta Place, dressed in a cowboy hat, tee shirt and jeans, were sitting to one side. Xoanna Campoverde, the Minister of the Navy on Kentaurus, and Elrydien Daerîsiell, the Elf who did Campoverde’s dirty, often extrajudicial work, sat next to each other opposite from Teagan and Etta. They both had their arms crossed in silent defiance.

The biggest surprise was Senator Robert Schoonover from the Annermani Province of Kentaurus, currently chairing the Senate Intelligence Oversight Committee.  Despite his position, he wore casual slacks and a plaid vest over a simple cotton shirt. 

“Bob,” I said, giving him a nod. “Always good to see you.” I greeted the rest with a glance and gritted teeth.

“Hey, boss,” he reflected and smiled. It’s always nice to have one’s fictional characters acknowledge who’s in charge, though I wondered if Bob was just being ingratiating. 

The room was designed for business meetings with tables and hard chairs, an acoustic drop ceiling, and large windows facing the parking lot. Rain battered against the glass, causing a distraction.

Refusing to take a seat, I looked Sharon in the eyes and said, “Okay. What’s the deal? What are you pissed about now? You called this meeting, I’m sure.”

“Don’t get your dander up, Writer,” she said, raising a placating hand. “We actually think you’re doing a bang-up job on your current projects. We just feel that something is lacking.”

“Lacking?” I raised my voice louder than I intended to. “Lacking? Do you understand how many nights I lie sleepless in bed, thinking about the details of your universe?”

“C’mon, boss, that’s not fair,” Bob interjected. He was wearing that smiling politician’s face, designed to deescalate tensions among his constituents. “We’re not saying that world-building is easy or that you’re giving less than your all. Just hear us out, okay?”

“Yes, madam universe creator,” Xoanna said. Did she have the world’s sexiest accent or what? It made her sarcasm easier to swallow. “We merely want to point out a foundational lapse.”

“If I may,” Teagan interrupted. “Let me give you a scenario: The first paragraph of your first book mentions a ship traveling in space. This ship cannot just pop into existence without people to build it. And people infer a society with its attendant laws. But what are these laws?”

“I, uh, I’ve been creating them as necessary,” I offered.

“Yes, but is that fair?” Teagan said. “Especially since a solid hunk of the story takes place in a government setting.”

“Exactly,” Bob said. “How am I supposed to be a senator when I don’t know how the role is defined? What authority does my committee have? How was I elected, and who elected me?”

“The citizens, of course!” I said, feeling like I was pointing out the obvious.

“But what’s a citizen?” Xoanna asked. “Shouldn’t this be defined somewhere? And is it a direct vote, or do they choose their electors?”

I admitted internally that they had a point. “You’re asking me how the government is run. What its constitution is. That’s like asking me how the FTL engines work. I have no clue!”

“I’d like to point out that that isn’t entirely true,” Elrydien spoke for the first time. Everybody turned to look at her. “You have an education in physics, and you like to stay current on physics research. You’ve made an effort to incorporate this into the story without getting bogged down in details.”

“Yeah, that’s a good cure for insomnia,” I said.

“But look at the work you’ve done behind the scenes,” she continued. “You have literally pages of spreadsheets detailing stellar distances and how long it takes to travel between them. You’ve written detailed specifications on different models of starship engines. Your readers never see this stuff.”

“Almost sounds obsessive to me,” Bob said, smiling. If he was trying to disarm my defensiveness, he wasn’t doing the best job.

“You need a constitution,” Xoanna said. 

I thought about all the work that goes into writing a modern constitution and nearly collapsed in imaginary exhaustion.

“Nobody has to see it,” Bob said. “But it will keep our interactions consistent, and you won’t have annoyed readers sending you emails, saying, ‘In your first book, you said that the Kentauran parliament is unicameral and consisted of representatives, but in the second book, you introduce Bob as a Senator.’”

“Good point,” Sharon said.

Shit. And Bob didn’t know the half of it.

“Is that what this is all about? Okay, you’re a representative.”

“That’s not the point!” Bob objected.

“Okay, I’ll retcon the parliament as bicameral.”

Bob blew air from puffed cheeks in frustration. “Look, I don’t care. You just need to be consistent, or fans will eat you up.”

“And you can work on it when you have to take a break from your WIPs,” Etta jumped in, referring to Works in Progress. “It’s not like there’s a f’king hurry. The only lives on the line are the ones in your overactive imagination.” I could tell she was actively trying to curb her sailor’s mouth.

“If I may,” Teagan interrupted. “I don’t know anybody who’s written a constitution for a space-faring society before. Although, it wouldn’t surprise me if David Weber has. You can take all those musty, centuries-old Earth constitutions and give them a post-modern twist. What other nascent nations have had to worry about multiple species, genetic manipulations, robots, and interstellar treaties?”

“I’m not a lawyer,” I said defensively. “And I’m not a politician, or a philosopher, or any of those things one needs to be to write a constitution.”

“You’re also not a starship captain,” Etta offered. “You’re also not a spy, or a sailor, or a combat aviator, or a quantum electrician, or a diplomat, or a roboticist, or an information specialist, or an anthropologist, or a —“

“Etta, enough,” Bear calmly interrupted with his synthesized voice that sounded like Laurence Fishburne. 

“Oh, you get the idea. You’re none of these things that you write about.”

“It’s not just that,” I said apologetically. “You can’t write a constitution with just one voice. You need a chorus. It requires a meeting of the finest minds of that society. Otherwise, you risk expressing only a single ideology.”

“We can contribute,” Sharon offered.

“All of you,” I said, indicating the entire group with a gesture, “are me.” 

“I do hope you don’t believe that you and I share ideals of what a government is supposed to do,” Xoanna said, sitting up straight, ready for a fight, looking as if she’d just been insulted. 

“You can always take it to that critique group that meets on Fridays,” Bear said. “They certainly have a variety of opinions, more or less valid.”

I cringed. I could already hear the group’s questions and objections.