Space Humor

It happened long ago, in the dark ages of CRT monitors, when I first received a short forum message with :-) at the end. I stared at the message for a long minute(s) before giving up on decoding its meaning. It came from a well-respected friend of mine, so I responded with a short reply:

"What!?"

"You have to turn your screen 90 degrees clockwise." The answer came promptly.

My CRT was large and heavy, and it looked way too dangerous to tilt it that way, so after a little brainstorming of the problem, I concluded there's a better way of achieving the same goal.

I tilted my head 90 degrees anticlockwise.

"Aaaaaah!!!" I said promptly, and after realizing the picture, the big smile on my face slowly morphed into loud laughter. So I typed back:

"Wow!"

I didn't have to wait long for the next message:

"LOL!"

"What!?" I quickly copy/pasted my earlier message but realized I was too uninformed about new internet fashion, so I canceled the message and opened a new Netscape window instead, called www.altavista.com, and 'googled' new internet words. Ever since then, LOL has been at the top of my list of favorite acronyms. Along with all those cute ASCII faces. ;-)

In my case, and probably with many people as well, laughter is one of those most powerful cures for everything. The almighty vaccine for all diseases. Especially boredom and poor moodiness. LOL moments somehow come naturally with live social occasions and in movies, but in books they have one extra dimension. I really can't explain why that is. Perhaps funny moments in the written world often come unexpectedly and are more genuine. Take, for instance, Andy Weir's "The Martian." The hilarious parts in the book were genuinely funnier than in the film. At least with me... Well, nevermind that. So, to get to the chase, last month I read three extraordinarily funny books in the realm of science fiction and space exploration. So here they are in this short review, sorted by the count of LOL moments I had during reading. In descending order, of course.

The first one was "Where the Hell is Tesla?" by Rob Dircks. I stumbled on this one by accident, and boy, I am glad I did. Nikola Tesla is one of my favorite men in the history of people, science, and engineering, and here in Serbia, especially during my childhood, Tesla was idealized and always portrayed in a too serious manner. Anyhow, when I saw the title with Tesla playing the major role in the comedy story, I couldn't resist, and I didn't regret a single penny. It was by far the funniest book I read in a while. It had it all: decent science fiction based on cutting-edge scientific theories of the multiverse, the romance and friendship within different storylines, cute aliens, sci-fi battles of enormous proportions, great style of writing, Nikola Tesla in the most entertaining meaning of the word, and of course... Chip. I am not going to spoil the reading for you, but I will tell you this. On one occasion, I almost dropped my Kindle on the hard floor because of one of the strongest LOL moments. Enough said.

The second is "Jazz of Artemis." In the context of today's post, this is how I would name the book if I were Andy Weir. Of course, his new book is not a comedy per se. But it is not "The Martian" as well. However, in the realm of the funny moments, it is a decent sequel. Way better and much funnier. Jazz is... let me find the right word... an extraordinary girl on multiple levels. I enjoyed her adventures fully, and I do hope for the real sequel this time. I mean, with Jazz around, what can go wrong on the Moon? I really hope there will be a movie after this one as well, but not solely because of the entertainment part and all the LOL moments, especially with that Svoboda guy and his ability to manufacture various devices that do or do not belong to ESA blueprints and worksheets.

But seriously, what Andy Weir did with creating a fully functional city on the moon with both working technology and society organization is amazing and also extraordinary. It definitely deserves the motion pictures, and I am sure filming the movie that takes the entire story and action on the moon is another challenge. I am sure Ridley Scott is buzzing his mind with this as we speak.

Finally, and to use the cliché, last but not least comes the good old British humor. Something I grew up with was all the great TV shows like "Monty Python" and "Only Fools and Horses" or short comedy sketches and skits by Dave Allen, Benny Hill, Rowan Atkinson, and others. But in the flashlight of the parody novels, the throne is still with Douglas Adams and his "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". This was the first book I experienced LOL moments with, way before the LOL acronym was ever invented. "The Worst Man on Mars" by Mark Roman and Corben Duke was probably the most similar novel I read in a long while.

This is also a parody, but not really as much as its famous predecessor. This book follows plausible science fiction and doesn't go into wild imagination, like the restaurant at the end of the universe or "42". I really did like many technological backgrounds inside, like artificial intelligence or a space elevator, for example. But the humor with this one comes first, and the robots in their sitcom on Mars are something I do recommend warmly.

:-)

Refs:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25053578-where-the-hell-is-tesla
http://www.andyweirauthor.com/books/artemis-hc
https://www.amazon.com/Worst-Man-Mars-Mark-Roman/dp/1536930970
http://www.milanzivic.com/2013/06/dave-allen.html
https://www.space.com/38725-artemis-andy-weir-author-interview.html

Do You Live to Work, Or Work to Live?

Do you ever wonder why we work like we work? Why does working time last those eight hours, and why does it take the best part of the day? Who made it this way? And why? It all started with the Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century, which culminated into a real nightmare for most of the workers, especially in large factories, where long working hours were mandatory and kept people outside their homes all day long. The working day was 10 to 16 hours, six days a week, and not only for adults. Use of children was cheap and preferable. Deaths and illnesses from exhaustion were common, and it was cruel and inhuman. Eventually, the nightmare spread from workers toward capitalists as well, in form of rise of social movement with Robert Owen's famous slogan, "Eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest".

Well, today, almost two centuries later, we now live, more or less, in Owen's vision, working around eight hours per day and enjoying our lives during or after work. Or both. Nobody today dies from the job. Well, not due to poor working conditions, anyways. Perhaps some of us are in danger ofdeath by boredom on some rainy days in the office, but, and again more or less, today we are in control of our professional careers. On the other end, if you ask me, even these eight hours are sometimes too long. Many times. They say that with age comes wisdom, but also comes a certain dosage of laziness, especially in the second part of the working hours. After 20 years of continuous work in my professional career, eight hours now seems too long. I passed that period in my life with idealistic thoughts and glimpses of the world as it is, waiting for me to make the difference. If you are in your forties, there are other variables that must be included in private and professional life. Middle-age crisis, for example. Not enough challenges like before. Too much routine in both lives. Too competitive an environment, to say the least, wherever you look. Generation gaps. Following faster ways of living. And you don't have to be in your forties anymore to feel the difference or experience injustice.

Perhaps it is time again for another Robert Owen to appear and try to shorten this eight hours to six or less. Or to try and modify the working habits and move everything possible to freelancing and outsourcing. To ban offices in those businesses that still insist on using them in old-fashioned ways, although the entire job can be done today from a kitchen table and home wifi. Before, when I was a teenager and later when I was trying to take the first step in my professional career, they used to say that major changes will come in the 21st century. The new millennium will change everything. Well, the 14th year now in the new spectacular century is about to expire in a few months, and I can't notice anything majorly different. More or less. But still, the major question from the old times is still there. Do you live to work, or do you work to live?

It would be unfair if I continued with this story without answering it first. And to be honest, from the beginning and my first employment, I always worked to live. For me, family and home was, is, and will always be number one. No exceptions. No matter how important the project I was involved in was. But to be completely honest, if I used a scale from minus ten to ten, where -10 means full commitment to the job, while +10 is the finest family time, I would not score the biggest number too often. I don't think I score it easily even today. It is impossible. Sometimes, if it comes into my life challenged and pure, the job can suck me in for days. Months, even. But always let me go. So my number is within a wide scale from -5 to the very high of 9, with more positive than negative values. Ten only sometimes. And I want to keep it that way. If I looked to all my half-a-dozen companies I was working with in my former professional life, the cruel truth is, with a couple of exceptions, that I didn't stay in touch with my former co-workers. We all moved along. Simply put, while our intelligence and education define us completely, our curriculum vitae is nothing more than a document only worthwhile during searching for a new job. Nobody cares what is written inside while you are having a steady job. Only in between two of them.

But enough with work; let's see the other side of the medal. The story I wanted to tell in the first place, and maybe unconsciously, I started with too long an introduction. What actually inspired me for today's story is Tony Parsons—British journalist and novel author. About a month ago, after I read three of Harlan Coben's thrillers in a row and two of James Patterson's Alex Cross series during the summer, I felt that I needed a break from tension and crime stories. But I can't really swallow those light readings with love stories in the foreground, so I went in search of something different—hoping to find a story based on ordinary life, family affairs, or one of those with "true story" written on the main cover. Tony Parsons, with his "Man and Boy" trilogy, gave me exactly what I wanted. And more.

If you didn't read it already, I recommend it warmly. It is about a typical family of the early 21st century, filled with both pain and love, surrounded by a tough life in one large city in which work and mortgage can destroy your life in a split second. Harry Silver, in the main role, shows us everything that might strike one modern family in one fast-forward world and where, no matter how he tries to maintain normal family life, this proves to be not entirely possible with all the mistakes and distractions from the job. It is also about conflicts between generations and what connects them. About the shallowness of business life. Friendships. This is the story that will force your eyes to let go of a tear or two too often, but also it will put a smile on your face every now and again as well.

I stumbled upon "Man and Boy" within Serbian Laguna, my favorite online bookshop, in their editor selection called "Laguna gems" or something like that, and after I reached the second cover, I felt hunger for more stories like this one. So I browsed the bookshop's online store again, secretly hoping for a sequel, and searched the author's page. To my surprise I found two more novels in the trilogy and also short news about the author visiting our town on the tour to promote his latest book. To cut the story short, I ordered the remaining novels, read them in record time, and yesterday Viktor and I grabbed the first book and went to the signing event to meet Tony in person. I knew that a person who was able to write Harry's adventures couldn't be much different than his main character, especially after I read somewhere that his personal life story has many connecting points with the novel itself. As it turned out, Tony Parsons was one great guy with nothing but the smile on his face despite the endless line of people waiting for the autographs. He was especially nice with Viktor and shared the fact that his middle name is also Victor, named after his father, so I can't resist not sharing the photo of two Viktors below. After the event, my son and I went to McDonald's for a Happy Meal to sort out our impressions, and later, the first thing he said to his mother when we came home was, "It was the best day!" I couldn't agree more.

Tony Victor Parsons & Viktor

Anyway, to resume the main story and in conclusion, my life outside work, in its current stage, is one huge place and full of wonders and challenges. No matter if I just read a book, watch a movie, do dishes, participate in a social occasion, play a game, travel, or enjoy precious family time, it is always far ahead of the most enjoyable project at work for which I, in the end, receive a paycheck. This always makes me feel that "work has this strange effect of zooming things larger than they really are".** Money is one great thing we can't live without, but sometimes, if not always, it manages to spoil the very essence of the work it is paid for. In the latest years, when I ask myself why I worked so hard on a project that gave me pleasurable time while it lasted, I always answer with "Oh yes, for the money'. And it wasn't my first thought when I asked myself the same question twenty years ago...

Image refs:
http://www.crosswalk.com/blogs/5-things-every-son-needs-to-hear-from-his-dad.html
https://vomitingdiamonds.wordpress.com/2013/02/24/boredom-at-the-office/

Refs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution
* http://connections.msn.com/articles/detail/256476535
http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/05/typical-work-day-length/
** http://www.thehighcalling.org/work/work-life-balance
http://financecareers.about.com/od/careermanagement/a/LiveToWork.htm