MITSFS meeting called to order, 1700 SST, Andrew Clough, President and Skinner, presiding; Edward Keyes, Vice and Pseudo-Onseck, recording.
Minutes read.
Motion to have the Pseudo-Onseck read the minutes from two weeks ago. Passes 7-1-2 plus Spehn.
Margaret arrives. ``Get this: Warhammer. 40K. Costume. Contest. I am legally obligated to show up.'' Margaret leaves.
Minutes read again, from two weeks ago.
Motion: the noise out in the hall a few minutes ago. Passes 5-0-2 plus Spehn.
BING!
We have an incredibly-thick book in the ZGT purporting to be A Feast for Crows. Yay, British edition! It even outweighs the new Robert Jordan book. JFC shows off the compared thicknesses, though the page count is about the same. Jordan even blurbed the book: ``It's brilliant!''
Incest and fratricide, blah blah blah, ``an effortless read'' says Robin Hobb. Except for carrying it around, apparently. Anne McCaffrey ``read her eyes out''. Is this a good thing?
Malcolm somehow relates Samurai Pizza Cats to the discussion that ensues about various other books and the experience of reading them. The latest Harry Potter book apparently is constructed to fall apart after approximately three lendings, says Malcolm's spy at the public library.
JFC pulls out our German edition Harry Potter book to show off, when someone asks for a Latin edition.
We have submitted our space allocation form, which will hopefully result in our getting more (storage) space from the ASA.
Malcolm: ``On the subject of 'everybody dies'...'' There follows a description of an anime about the myth of the Minotaur, with various interesting interpretation of Greek stories by Japanese animators.
A frenzy of activity, turning boxes of books into other boxes of books! Hardcovers, to be specific, processed enough so that they're now Niagaracomm and Bluebellcomm's problem.
Kat is on the verge of publishing something, but perhaps less close to the verge than before?
A biology professor was fired for scientific misconduct, faking data in published research. A short discussion about academic misconduct versus scientific misconduct.
BING!
Jamie offers to take Ed to tour the warehouse at some point. The space there is roughly 7 feet x 7 feet x ``a lot''. Discussion of parking changes in the vicinity of Metro Storage due to road construction.
The conversation wanders and eventually resurfaces in the vicinity of Serenity comic books and the infamous Buffy musical episode from season six. Except for that episode, Jamie advises stopping at season five due to the problems with following through the consequences of the return from the dead. Spoilers abound. JFC: ``I didn't know about that, but I didn't care.''
Discussion of people having the advantage of watching the Matrix without having the plot spoiled for them ahead of time. Jamie: ``They were all living in a computer?!? I watched it and never figured that out!'' Discussion ranges to eXistenZ, Tron, and other ``the <foo>-man's Matrix'' examples, as well as the definition of ``to reify''. Watching Tron while tripping is pretty cool, apparently.
Usual stuff.
ALGOL BING!
ALC: ``Are you saying something about my bing?''
JFC is wondering whether he has fallen into an alternate universe, due to discovering an old book he never knew had been published by an author he likes. The consensus is that the book might actually be from an alternate universe, since its smaller mass makes the timeline-slip somewhat easier to manage.
JFC: ``I remembered that it wasn't by Greg Egan, but it should have been.'' Maybe the author's brain jumped between universes... Discussion of GURPS alternate-universe powers, grabbing things from and sending things to them. You want to be careful to specify objects that don't come from an antimatter alternate universe... The Timeline Wars series by John Barnes discussion: describing a laser pointer to an alternate Edward Teller, leading to the invention of a nuclear-powered laser weapon.
The conversation then fragments into multiple parallel threads in various corners of the room, and the Pseudo-Onseck is highly amused and not attempting to record any of it.
Motion: the meeting has broken up into enough threads that you might as well have a banana motion to reunify it. Passes 8-3-5 plus Spehn.
Meeting adjourned, 1747 (``eighteen negative thirteen'') SST.