Jason F.C. Clarke

I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out my cousin and good friend Ed’s touching tribute to my recent nuptials. I can’t thank him enough for handling the MC duties for our “love story.”

The so-called Shindig–the East Coast reception for those who couldn’t make the West Coast wedding–went off last weekend without a hitch, since my wife and I had already gotten hitched in early August.

The wedding itself deserves its own post, as does, well, pretty much every non-toy-related thing I’ve been doing since I last posted here regularly, but PGPoA is still taking up most of my blogging time and energy. We’ll see if I can up the post count here in the near future.

Speaking of PGPoA, some of you may recall the craziness that was October ’06 here at BBn. Well, something similar will be happening over on PGPoA next month…

Man…drear, drear and more drear. Rain or snow, a sky covered in clouds–whatever, it’s awful.

I’ve been sleeping an average of one to two hours every evening, between 5pm and 9pm (I work 8am-4pm). I then sleep a full seven hours. It’s a particularly odd situation for me since I spent the last fifteen years being unable to sleep well at all.

I’m pretty sure it’s a mild case of season affective disorder. I’m not really depressed–no more than anyone is during weather like this–but I am exhausted all the time.

OK…just had to vent for a second.

Rotor Magazine has posted an article on their website about the 1955 Disney short film “Men Against the Arctic.” My grandfather, Captain Hank Cassani (ret.), helped fly the helicopters used in the filming of the short. It went on to win an Oscar for Best Short Subject Story in 1956.

But the story behind the scenes is just as interesting, featuring a helicopter being forced to land in Arctic waters and a run-in with a polar bear. You can read the article here (PDF). In the photo, my grandfather is standing third from right.

Roy Scheider, the actor who spoke the immortal line in JAWS that gave this website its name, passed away yesterday. He was 75.

In the last act of JAWS, Scheider’s character, Chief Martin Brody, is ladling chum out of the back of a boat when the giant shark pops his head out of the water for the first time. A shocked Brody backs all the way into the cabin, where he turns to Captain Quint and says, “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.” The line was an ad-lib by Scheider and was #35 on the American Film Institute’s list of 100 Years…100 Movie Quotes.

Scheider had many other memorable performances in other movies, such as The French Connection. But for me, he will always be Chief Brody. Rest in peace, Chief.

And so, with that wonderful send-off (that’s sarcasm, folks), we officially enter the long, dark period when New Englanders just grit their teeth, turn their faces away from the freezing wind, and pray for spring. Sometimes it starts as early as mid-January, when the post-holiday glow wears off, but it was held off a bit this year. Well, not anymore.

(And don’t remind me the Wonder Twins Manning can now put their rings together–which, combined, still don’t match the number on Tom Brady’s hand, by the way. So there.)

February and March are tough months in New England. I’ve often thought Garfield got it right when he referred to February as “the Monday of months,” but now I’m not allowed to say that because DG’s birthday is in February. Of course, DG is also currently on a trip to Los Angeles, which, despite some inclement weather, still promises at least some sun and warmth.

Last summer and fall were pretty warm, even hot, so it’s only the last week or so that I’ve actually started to miss it. But now I wouldn’t mind some sun and, more importantly, some green on the trees.

But that’s a long ways off. Until then, I’ll just have to turn my face away from the wind and–DAMMIT! If they’d just lost ONE freakin’ game, like that one against Baltimore they had no business winning anyway, this wouldn’t be so painful…

…it’s going to be a long couple of months.

This editorial perfectly articulates my position on man-made climate change.

An Inconvenient Question

The write creates an analogy between smoking and man-made climate change. The tobacco industry successfully suppressed or cast doubt on evidence that smoking caused cancer for years. If you’d read a report of such evidence in the 1960s, would you have kept smoking–a luxury habit–at the risk of dying of lung cancer later?

Of course, the answer is very often yes, for reasons related to the nature of the human brain. The question is whether humanity has enough imagination and willpower to overcome these inherent mental and emotional obstacles.

On the same topic, here’s a great guide to the candidates’ positions and records on environmental issues.

First off, apologies for the long lack of posting. Between the holidays and my birthday, things were pretty busy in December.

The holidays went well. My fiancee, DG, and I remained here in Massachusetts and spent it with my family. We made an effort to mix our family traditions–we all exchanged pajamas on Christmas Eve, as her family does, and then we watched a Christmas movie, one of my own family’s traditions (this year it was the critically acclaimed classic Ernest Saves Christmas–which, I have to say, doesn’t have nearly as much Ernest in it as you would expect. Whether that’s a good or bad thing I leave up to you).

Of course, the real reason I’ve neglected this blog is because of the new kid in town. I posted daily–sometimes more than daily–over there all last month. I’m really enjoying it–as I told my Web designer, it’s my favorite new toy.

But it does leave me wondering what to do with Biggerboat. I always had trouble trying to decide what to post here–I didn’t really want it to be a purely personal blog, but on the other hand, my plans for it to be the home page of “speculative science fiction author Jason F.C. Clarke” hasn’t really panned out either.

I suppose it will end up morphing into a mainly personal blog, a way for my friends and family to keep up on what I’m doing–not unlike my cousin’s site. After all, I will occasionally want to post something not toy-related.

Speaking of which, 2008 is going to be a banner year for me. DG will get her Ph.D; the two of us will tie the knot in August; and I will turn the ripe old age of 30 before year’s end. How crazy will I be driven? Wait and see!