Scalzi has put up a nice entry on his blog, The Whatever. It’s the chronology of the stories in the Old Man’s War universe.
His new book also came out today, Zoe’s Tale.

gem convinced me to try Harry Potter last week. I began with the first in the series, and as it turned out, I rather liked it. I’m now in the 5th book, reading one every three days (which I happened to notice be the exact rate while reading the 4th). The author includes a lot of plot twists. I’m sure my ficitonal writing teacher wouldn’t like it, heh. There are some things that seem repetitious (it’s the end of the year again, Harry’s gotta do something great now, right?), but the novels are still really fun to read. One and a half more books left to catch up.

I just finished reading Venus on the Half-Shell. It was great fun to read. I’m reminded of stories by Douglas Adams although this lacked as much depth in its plot. The book has a lot of sex in it, and was once considered pornographic, but it wasn’t really erotic. There’s just sexual humor thrown in. Check it out if you liked the Hitchhiker trilogy.

Revenge of the Sith the novel is much better than the movie. Now I actually loved the movie, but the acting was just horrible. The book offers a chance to see the powerful events unfold without the bad acting getting in the way. Of course, it also offers much better character development. Check it out.

Here Joseph tells of how he met Her. He says that met Her during IDP. He partnered with Murat and they worked with Brannon and Her. They worked together at school for weeks, and before IDP was due, they met at Her house to complete the project. He says that he didn’t talk to Murat much, but enjoyed talking politics and other issues with Brannon and Her. After the project finished, they continued to talk politics occasionally but not very often. He says they were more associates than friends.
This chapter is obiviously important because it shows how Joseph met Her. Other than that, it isn’t very important. Nothing out of the ordinary happened during this part of his life. It does, however, set the stage for the next year of his life.

In this chapter, Joseph explains his ideal woman. He says that this is not a standard he compares every woman to; it is only an ideal. He says that most persons want their children to have their own traits. To get these traits, a person would need to mate with a similar person. He states the races he’d prefer, from most ideal to least ideal, are Apache, other Indian races (Navajo, Sioux… Cherokee), Hispanics (Peruvians… Mexicans), certain Asians (Filipinos, some types of Japanese, Chinese), non-white Europeans (black Irish, Portugese), other Asians, sub-Saharan Africans (lightest to darkest), and finally, Aryans (WASPs). His ideal woman would be his height with black hair, brown eyes, reddish brown skin, wide hips, and large breasts. He’d prefer slightly overweight to underweight. He’d prefer a devout Catholic but would also be happy with a liberal Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Jew, or a Hindu. She should be liberal and definitely not extreme in either political direction.
I think this chapter very clearly defines his ideal woman in many traits. He begins by saying that most men would like a woman who is similar to himself, and from his description of the ideal, this is true. His ideal woman is very clearly sharing many of his own characteristics (of course, not the large breasts part). Joseph mentions that it’s odd that She doesn’t fit many of these categories. I find it odd too, and perhaps it’ll be further explained in later chaptors. I’d like to see more about his ideal in other aspects though. What kind of personality? How educated? What hobbies or interests? Hard working or stay at home? Follows all the rules or likes to get wild once in a while? Despite wanting to see more, this chapter can give one a very clear idea of who Joseph would and wouldn’t want to be with.
Update: Joseph says that his ideal woman would be able to intelligently hold a conversation with him. She should be moderately knowledgeable in history and politics, and he’d prefer her to be better in the fields he is lacking in. He does not have an ideal hobby, interest, or personality for her.

Joseph Pi