Another of Scott's Homes on the Web

azurelunatic associates Bujold, the IT industry, dogs, family, and The Frozen North with me.

Bujold
Lois McMaster Bujold, most well-known for her Vorkosiverse books. I've been a fan of her's since Joel H. talked me into reading The Warrior's Apprentice within a couple of years of it coming out - I got to read it, Shards of Honor and Ethan of Athos very quickly. And I've been devouring anything new by her ever since. This one of my two on-line fandoms (the other is the Liaden Universe), and I've been hosting in-person get-togethers ever since norabombay came to Minneapolis to look into maybe coming up for school.

The IT industry
I've been doing computer support as my job since June 1990. I've done it for a professional engineering firm, an IT hardware company, the Federal Reserve, a manufacturing company, and a non-bank money services company. I try to keep track at least superficially of what's going on the industry as a whole. I've done a lot of stuff - maybe just about anything - that involves x86 hardware. I've been running a Debian/Linux system since January 2000 at home that serves the domains fireopal.org & ytilaer.com, with e-mail, web, ssh & mailing list services. I want to get into a server/network admin role - my next step on that goal is getting an RHCE certification.

Dogs
I'm a dog person. I grew up with chihuahuas. As much as I like chihuahuas, I won't buy one - they're too territorial for my life-style, we'd drive each other nuts. My first significant purchase after I bought my house was a dog - that was Ben, my first Shih Tzu. I've had three Shih Tzu's die on me - Ben had a car accident, Chela died of old age, and Gizmo's liver started eating his red blood cells. I've currently got Mac (Macguyver), a prize-winning former show dog, Josie, who is half-Shih Tzu/half unknown terrier, and Precious, a former puppy-mill mom who is all carbonel's fault.

Family
Wife, Mom, Dad, "The Evil Step-Mother", brother, sister-in-law, three nieces, three step-sisters, two step-brothers (TESM's kids - I've only seen two of the step-sisters and neither of the step-brothers in the last 10+ years), mother-in-law, two step-daughters, one step-son, two sons-in-law, three grand-kids, and a host of relatives of my wife. The step-kids each had one kid - the boy had a boy, the two girls had girls. My brother's in Iraq driving a semi for an obscene amount of money. Dad & TESM are currently living on the road. Mom lives in Duluth. The step-brothers/sisters live in Duluth, Duluth, North Carolina, Oregon & Missouri. Wife's brothers & sisters mostly live in the Twin Cities - the one exception is out on the Left Coast. We get together with my wife's family more frequently than mine.

Oh, yeah - the family fast track. I went from single with no prospects to being a grand-father in 729 days. My first date with iraunink was 5 April 2000. We got married on 5 October 2000. The first grand-kid was born on 4 April 2002. If someone had told me on Valentine's Day 2000 that I'd be celebrating Valentine's Day 2001 with my wife, I would have told them they were nuts!

The Frozen North
I live in Minneapolis, MN. I moved to Duluth, MN to start first grade. I went to college at MTU, in Houghton, MI. The first year I was there the previous snowfall records were broken, possibly shatterd, by 300" inches of snow. There was a spot 20-30 miles north of Houghton that got 360" of snow - yes, 10 yards. I like my snow and cold, and complain bitterly about the summer heat. For that matter, I've been known to complain that we only get a real winter here in Minneapolis once every four or five years! If I were to move away from Minneapolis/St. Paul, the only likely place would be the Pacific Northwest - I'll trade the lack of snow in winter for the low summer highs.

I'll give a try at if I know you, you've just to ask and I'll come up with five things I associate with you. If I don't know you, I may amuse myself by picking five arbitrary things (or not).

dreamhaven (AKA Dreamhaven Books) has an LJ! I'm certain there are people on my Friends list who will be interested in this fact.

About mid-afternoon, I checked my home e-mail, and there was a message from my friendly pusher. She wanted to know if I wanted loan of an ARC.

Needless to say, I said yes.

Sometime tomorrow, I get to start reading The Sharing Knife: Legacy.

I'm not reading it tonight - I'm too tired.

See http://carbonel.livejournal.com/47830.html

The Short Version: I am auctioning the galleys of Lois McMaster Bujold's upcoming novel The Sharing Knife: Legacy to benefit the John M. Ford Book Endowment, for the Minneapolis Public Library. Part 1, The Sharing Knife: Beguilement just came out in hardcover; the sequel won't be available until next spring.

This is a one-of-a-kind item, and the ONLY way to read the novel prior to its 2007 release. Opening bid is $100; bid increments of no less than $1, whole dollar increments only. Auction closes 11:59:59 pm Central, Friday, October 27. Please read the long version for more details and on how to bid.

The Long Version indicates that the auction is sanctioned by Lois, and she will personalize it if desired.

Not the best, but something!

You can take your pick of options here - the big pictures are 28nn x 21nn pixels. I'll try to get an index page up there soonish, but for now you can see the raw directory.

Here's the two thumbnails:





If you're ever in the Pohlad Auditorium at the Minneapolis Downtown Public Library, it's chair M8.

Here's a link to the first two chapters - http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780061137587/The_Sharing_Knife_Volume_One/excerpt.aspx

It's a neat fantasy book - so says me, who read an ARC, and a bunch of other people. Please, go read!