I had a nice

trip into work and did a lot of reading over the last couple of days on JU. I took my employer part of the subsidy form to be signed out. We’ve had these forms for about a year now. I got to work and of course JT was still pouting. Gary though was nice to me and he fed me some details of what went on today. We did CRF taps. With these ones, they took the dates away. I ended up with $755 and 3 CC’s. No bonus at all. I had a nice reading trip home as well on the train and the city fixed the trap at Sifton school, which means the #183 bus service route is normal. Anne made a nice pirogue lunch with a smoky.

Well, is Stephen Harper going to call a Federal election for October 14th? Dion thinks he’s politicking because he put into Law that elections have to be called ever 4 years. Except when there’s a minority Government. Now that I think about it, if Dion’s whole political platform rests with his so called “Green shift,” then he may as well kiss his PM bid goodbye. Just what this country needs is another tax. The other thing I’m thinking about is even if Dion goes through with his scheme there might be a loophole with Ed Stelmach’s plan to implement a carbon capture route. No emissions no tax right? I doubt it’s going to be as simple as that though.

Over there at SF Signal they’re asking: “How do you think media tie-in novels affect the genre of sf/f?” This one is easy enough to answer. Fan-Fic. Or fan fiction. For example, take the “Star Wars” franchise. At the moment there is something like over 300 “Star Wars” novels published. I have a lot of those novels on my own book shelves as it is. Writing for these franchises in someone else’s Universe is Fan Fic. The original author created the Universe with everything already there. We know what a light saber is and what a Jedi Knight is so these terms need not be explained. In Star Trek, we know what the phrase “Beam me up.” means. “Energize” we mean anything after the original series. Everything is all laid out for us. And that’s not for just “Star Wars” and “Star Trek“ its for any franchise. I’m not saying media tie-in novels are bad but we know what’s down the end of that road: Fan-Fic. And it’s not just movies or television although these mediums basically corner the media tie-in novel market. So what’s my point? Media tie-in novels are great for the sf/f genre because they get more people reading. I wonder how many people that loved the original “Star Wars” when I first saw it in 1977 ventured to get their “Star Wars” fix through the novels? How many “D&D” players got their “D&D” fix through the many “Forgotten Realms” series or “Dragon Lance” or even “Indiana Jones” in the novel format? I wonder how many new “Iron Man” fans there are because of the movie and these fans decide to delve into the comic book? It works both ways.

At least we’ve got the rent paid for September with $100 owing on the balance. I’ll cover that with my next cheque and I even get a $20 allowance as well this Saturday so I can get a couple more books. Now we're worried about October with my wife essentually out of work..

Anyway Bloggers, that‘s all for now

e. Jim