http://celchu19.livejournal.com/58494.html

sigh.

Welcome to Episode #9 of Station Keeping. If all goes well, we’ll begin our run up to the finale of our first episode of station keeping. Next week’s episode is a bit longer, and will be posted in two parts, the following episode is a special one, and then we’re ready for the finale, which might be a week long, which I think is terribly cool. Remember, as always, to check out past episodes of `Station Keeping <http://tychoish.com/hanm>`_ on the `SK site <http://tychoish.com/hanm>`_. Also, if you’re interested in participating or contributing to the Station Keeping project there’s `information here <http://tychoish.com/participate>`_ on that kind of participation. We’re eager to have your contribution. Feel free to contact me via email: tycho@tealart.com. Enjoy, this week’s story! Cheers--tycho

Doctoring

“So doc, am I still alive?” Laben asked.

Marc Perrin looked over his patient skeptically. He was checking for any obvious signs of disease or previously undetected injury, and consulted the medical scanners, and his acute perceptions of the mans autonomic functions. Marc had been a battle medic in a previous life, and he was pretty good at doctoring without input from the patient.

“Seem to be,” Marc spoke softly and avoided eye contact. There was a pause before they both chuckled, it was a funny moment, but the tension didn’t really fall much.

“Why are you here again?” Marc thought that he might have missed the presenting complaint: he doubted it, but he continued to be mystified.

“Because, that’s how it works…” Laben looked quizzically at the doctor.

The awkwardness was broken up by Doctor Mahal Reese who strode in rubbing the scrub solution on her hands “Construction worker, right?” she asked.

“Yep”

“It’s policy, and a danm good one, for all of the station-employed labors to get regular checkups: we don’t want people with medical concerns going on space walks and dealing with high voltage power systems.”

“Fair enough.” Marc turned his attention back to his patient. “We’ll your in great shape, may you stay that way for a long time. If your worried about anything, please fee; free to stop by,” Marc said “That was a silly thing to say, they were the only medical facility on the Station, of course he’s going to stop by.” He stood there for a moment, but when it was clear that the man didn’t have any questions he turned and walked over to a computer terminal and entered information into a report so the patient could leave without being starred at.

The medical facilities were completely abandoned, aside from the two doctors. There were a couple of techs in the adjacent lab that could assist if need be, but it was still erie. “Enjoy it while it lasts,” he thought.

“So they teach you to be distant and allof core-side, or is that just how you are?” Reese asked after the door closed.

“Pardon?”

“You didn’t interact with Laben very much, and he was here for a physical, at least out here we typically engage the patients a bit more, and stare at them a bit less.”

“I haven’t taught in a coreside meds-chool for years, so I’m not sure what they’re teaching these days,” the doctor attempted to deflect the criticism, but realized that the flippant answer might not be completely warranted. “Though I’m ok at assessing mental health, I generally like to examine physical health by observing behavior,” he continued. “But I suppose you’re right, I haven’t given formal physicals in years, or really done a lot of routine doctoring.”

“I’m sorry that we can’t be more interesting out here, but people still need caring for, and we need you even if you are a little weird.”

Marc didn’t know how to feel, and attempted to avoid feeling entirely. “We have different approaches, as long as people get better we shouldn’t have a problem.” This was, Marc realized, an awkward way to establish himself as a leader--it was a good thing he didn’t have an interest in establishing an empire in the infirmary.

You’re going to hire me.

David was startled when he realized there was another person in the bar, but he tried to hide it, with mild success. “Sorry, were not open yet,” David pointed at the hole in one of the walls, where he hoped to have a light fixture installed yesterday. Such was life.

“That’s alright, I’m not looking for a drink.”

“That’s good, cause it’s all warm,” David said, before he remembered that the people here drank everything warm. Weirdos.

“My name’s Carter.”

“I’m David.” He tapped his collar bone in identification, and suddenly felt embarrassed for his appearance: he’d been working all morning, and he felt dirty.

“Well, if you don’t want a drink, and you don’t know me, then what brings you to a bar that hasn’t opened yet.” David extended the broom that was in his hand. “You wanna sweep the floors for me?” He chuckled.

“Actually, I would.” Carter took a step closer to David.

David squinted, perplexed. “Um, ok.”

“I mean, I’m looking for a job if you’re hiring.”

“Oh, right.” David hadn’t really considered hiring help, but upon reflection that seemed kind of foolish, he would need help at some point.

“Well, I don’t have anything worked out yet, of course, but yeah, we could give it a shot.”

“Great!” Carter smiled.

“No one should be that happy about getting a job helping me,” David grumbled to himself.

“Should I start now?” Carter was incredulous.

David took the broom back, actually, all kidding around, the floor doesn’t actually need sweeping, but how about you come back the day after tomorrow and we’ll talk. I think I should have some things for you to do by then.

“Ok, that works. I’ll see you then!” Carter turned and left as quickly and quietly as he entered, leaving David slightly dumb struck, and a little worried about what he’d gotten himself into. At least he’d have an interesting story for Marc tonight…

“Gainful Employment” was written by, `tycho <http://tychoish.com/tycho>`_, the creator of `TealArt <http://tychoish.com>`_ and `Station Keeping <http://tychoish.com/hanm>`_. He is a student and knitter by day and a science fiction writer by night, you can read his work elsewhere on `TealArt <http://tychoish.com>`_ and at `~/tychoish <http://tychoish.com>`_.

• memes and literary rights of passage (retellings of nightfall; mars books).
• the difference between plots and arguments; stories and essays.

the bad news: my next year is unsure. once again. pondering the possibility of being a lame-o and staying here (believe me, not option one, but life happens).

the good news: new eager station keeping contributor possibility.

given this, we must pose this question: will I have a ph.d. or be a science fiction internet sensation first? cast your votes now.

or should I just stick to knitting.

Good Monday!

I hope that you weekend was productive and restful. I think I was able to get a lot done and still have some time to relax and knit. I’ve been working on a sweater that I’m using a different sort of construction method (and modality, really) than I often do, and it’s taking a fair bit of brain power to keep things straight, but I think I’ve been neglecting my knitting for a while and it’s certainly interesting to see how I function (or don’t) in its absence. Thankfully it doesn’t take a lot of knitting time for me to get refreshed. I think I’ve managed the distinction between dedication to my craft and obsession.

In terms of TealArt this week, I’m inclined to say that “we’re back!” But then I realize that you probably haven’t noticed much, because I’ve been covering my tracks pretty well. I’ve been pretty low on writing mojo, and/or I’ve been spending writing mojo in non-TealArt places: knitting patterns, Station Keeping projects that won’t go live for a year, and so forth. I was able to get my act together this weekend and get some content ready for this week.

There will be Station Keeping this week, as you’ve grown accustomed to. Though I think it is worth mentioning that we’re drawing close to the end of our first season: next week, I think, we’ll start getting ready for the finale. Which means more Station Keeping for a few weeks. When we’re done, we’ll be on hiatus for about a month, while we get ready for the second season. Have no fear, there’ll still be SK related content, just no stories for a while so we can collect ourselves, and figure out where we’re going.

There is of course another encounter in “Better Living through Regular Expressions in the land of¹:” Pure joy. I have a call for you, If you have a regular expression form or template that you’ve written for a script or that you use in your day-to-day life, send it in to me and I’ll see if I can forward it to the guys ([GH]) and we’ll see what we can do with it.

Which brings me again to promote my nifty particpation page, which you might be interested in checking out if you want to contribute to Station Keeping, or any other part of TealArt. We’re a group project, and that means having a group and a community is of great importance to the site. Just so you know.

On Thursday, I’m posting the long awaited sequel to one of TealArt’s enduring classics; and I have, of all things, a post about creativity and productivity for friday. I hope you’ll enjoy.

Anyway, I have to get ready for work, but I’ve gotten a renewed interest in twittering of late, and for the up to the minute tycho, this is probably the place to check things out. Twitter’s are of course collected for a time in the site sidebar.

I’ll see you all around. Be in touch!

Cheers, tycho

ps. The new job that Chris talked about a while ago starts today, if I’m counting right. Huzzah for him--and good luck.

I just was browsing through stranded on fair isle and I saw the Irina sweater, that I think is in starmore’s “Scottish Garland.” Must. knit. it. someday.

Except I’d do it as a cardigan.

And in two colors.

And maybe with set in sleeves.

It strikes me that there must exist a piece of software that does the following task:

1. Allow you to maintain a directory structure of plain text files with some sort of mark up of your choosing (ASCII, markdown, textile, html, etc.). for the purposes of example, lets say that these files are in the format of /FileName.txt
2. When you go to /FileName.php (or whatever) the program:
   • adds the content of a designated header.php and footer.php file to the begining and end of the file.
   • runs the file through some sort of text filter

That’s it. Maybe you’d want to figure out how to get an auto-generated page list, but that’s not necessary. Now I figure to make the whole thing work that the .txt files would need to be in a different directory than the directory that “users would be accessing”

Does this sound too much like blosxom? It strikes me that blosxom is sort of being pulled apart by too forces: the desire to hack it to death so that it does a bit more than what its designed for would otherwise suggest.

Another cool idea, would be, if the database of files, such as it is, is drawn from a subversion repository, though I’d certainly be happy with straight up FTP file system stuff.

There’d be no need for an interface outside of a config file, and no real security, outside of .htaccess (and I would expect that there’d be no small measure of .htaccess wizardry.)

Thoughts? pointers? cheers

I futzed around with this idea for a bit using php bloxsom, and well, I got it to handle markdown the way I want it to, and the page header stuff. but other than that. not so much. sigh. well what’s time anyway.

I think the problem with this is that bloxsom is too blog-oriented, and for that, wordpress does a slightly better job, or at least, I’m more comfortable with it, even if I don’t need very many of the features.

Though I have to say, for the notebook idea, which is what tychoish is supposed to be, I think bloxosm is better, I just don’t feel like fucking around with it.

anyone with better ideas?