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@T - 691 days <****>

"The hack"

strong setting, Silicon Valley during the dot-com boom; strong plot, a
blow-by-blow of a major hack; moderate character development, we see a
bit of Burns - his technical skill, his drug use, his deceitfulness

The college hack described here was an amalgam of two different hacks
- the news server hack done by friends of mine, and the student
workstation hack that I did.  I finally ditched my own hack and used
my friends exclusively - this is just a one-paragraph intro, not a
thesis.

The company is basically Cisco, the only Silicon Valley operation I
got to see from the inside, but I think the description here is
sufficiently general that it could be any one of dozens of high-tech
startups.  Its name is a hats-off to my friend Terry Slattery and
Chesapeake Computer Consultants, which in its hey-day was one of
Cisco's top training partners (and my first corporate employer).

"'Red' Briwom" is also a tip of the hat to Rob Widmer, Terry's first
employee (I was his second).  I respect Rob's "staying power with the
boring tedium the finicky machines impose on their masters."

T - 370 days <****>

"A tough reception"

Mercuriou visits Vic.  Description of the hydroponic farm - has to
be a more extensive operation than just marijuana

T - 355 days <*****>

Vic's vision quest

The site exists as described, but it is not in New Mexico.  It
is on the Baja Peninsula, in Sierra Laguna Biosphere Reserve,
close to the town of Santiago, Mexico.

Don't ask me how Orion got into a _summer_ sky, I don't know, either.

T - 350 days <****>

"The crapshot"

John Pople.  Gaussian.  Vic joins up.

isn't it usually a "house with an attached garage"?

T - 313 days <***>

Press conference announcing the new fuel

Moderate plot, at least its moving forward (the chapshoot paid off);
weak setting, but something I learned from Tom Clancy is that you can
use the ability to explain technical details to create setting, here
and in about a hundred other places in the novel; moderate character
development - we meet Andrea Yeats for the first time!

I found out after this book was mostly written that Andrea Yeats is
the name of the Texas women who drowned her four kids in a bathtub.
Coincidently, her husband worked for NASA.  I'm not changed the name -
her identify is too deeply ingrained in my mind.  Or maybe it's not
coincidence - maybe God's trying to tell me something about was this
character espouses (I hope not)...

"Kyle" was originally "Lou" but my friend Kyle Hourihan demanded one
the characters be named after him, so I lent his moniker to this minor
character.

T - 312 days <****>

Terry and Steve are apparently Terry Slattery and Steve Satterfield.

"The Franciscan Frier"

strong setting - a inner-city soup kitchen; slow plot (but who cares);
strong character development - we learn a lot about Andrea here.

Brother Dunstan is a amalgram of two religious I know - one is a
California-based Franciscan in culinary school (probably graduated by
now) that proposed basically this idea for a "Franciscan restaurant"
as a class project (and what a great idea it is), though I "cooked up"
its name myself; the other is my good friend, the Benedictine Dunstan
Robaduex, who lends this character his name.  The Benedictines don't
make it into this novel (sorry guys), but any fraternity couldn't good
far wrong by patterning its house management after the Benedictines
and its work ethic after the Franciscans.

Dunston only appears this one time, but he's probably my most
important minor character.  St. Francis has been such an influence in
my life; it's so important to me to showcase the Franciscan movement
in such a compelling scene (one of my favorites in the novel).

T - 138 days <****>

Alister's hack

T - 137 days <****>

Alister's meeting with Mercuriou and Burns - they cut him in

T - 131 days <****>

Alister's tour of the production facility

T - 93 days <**>

description of Burn's reworked 747

they name it Icarus

T - 17 days <***>

we meet Andrea for the first time.  Kyle dispatches her to look into all this

T - 2 days <**>

Andrea picking up a hitchhiker

T - 1 day <***>

Andrea hitchhiking.  picked up by Merceriou and Alister and locked up

Launch Day <***>

Andrea esacpes and warns NASA.  Merceriou decides to launch

We see his company name here for it's one and only time.  "TenTech",
in addition to its obvious play on N-1033, was inspired by "TempTech",
one of my mother's old accounting clients (an HVAC contractor).

T + 1 day <***>

Mercuriou's first press conference

T + 3 days <****>

ship's library

the air leak

T + 4 days <***>

Mercuriou's first media appearance.  Asked to justify his theft.  Retorts
that in a capitalist society you had to have a business plan to justify
your returns and that, as he has none, could not expect to get funding.
Justifies theft from capitalists - the "most selfish people in the world".

But he's broken the rules - rules made collectively, through a democractic
process.  Answers that democracy is simply the rule of the majority and
compares U.S. to Soviet Union - "it's same kind of trash that runs it".

"By all means, doctor... jump in anytime you please!"

T + 5 days <***>

Mercuriou vs congressman Richard Ecks.

Ecks justifies capitalism as having produced the highest standard of
living on the planet.  Mercuriou answers that communism also produced
a higher standard of living and asks rhetorically if you want Sputniks
or freedom

Ecks invokes democracy and freedom to justify the society.

Mercuriou gives an example of how capitalism 'works' - the reading program.

[I wrote this program, only it works for Spanish rather than Greek.
Unlike our hero, I didn't even bother to try and publish it, for all
the same reasons.  It sits on my computer disk, waiting for a freely
available Spanish-English dictionary.]

Ecks says he was guilty - he stole someone else's intellectual property;
tells Mercuriou he's got a 'problem with authority'

Little bit here about the secrecy of capitalism

Ecks - "who the hell are you to tell someone else what they can and can't
do with their property?!?!"

Mercuriou says we could build a twenty-first century library of Alexandria,
but our leaders want an 'information economy' where knowledge is one
more commodity to be bought and sold.

T + 6 days <***>

Mercurious vs senator David Wye.

Wye starts right off with democracy, and Mercuriou asks if
communism/KGB/gulags would be justified by elections.

Wye answers that we don't have KGB/gulags and Mercuriou counters with
the War on Drugs - "isn't it funny how in all of these great
_people_'s societies, the biggest enemy of all always ends up being
_your_own_people_?"

Wye cuts to the Constitution, and we have a big discussion over it.
At the end, Wye loses, and tries to trump Mercuriou by answering that
all the unconstitutional powers are supported by "the overwealming
majority of the people of this country."

Mercuriou - still would like to see additional powers codified in Const.

Wye again answers that that's what the majority of people want, and
Mercuriou slams populist government in general - look at the police
slamming people to the ground and draging them off in handcuffs.

Criminals!  Wye says,  Criminals!

Mercuriou tries to lept out of his chair!  He's one of those criminals!

We've got freedom!  Wye says

The issue is what people have chosen to do with their freedom, Mercuriou
says.

Andrea's attempt to butt in.

Andrea Yeats tries to interrupt with 'morality'.  Wye asks who's
going to tell people what they can and can't do with their freedom.
Obviously, the Bible.  Wye says we've got freedom of religion,
invokes the Salem Witch Trials, and the interview breaks up.

A small scene between Andrea and Mercuriou - 'right and wrong are
subject to a vote'  Andrea says seperation of church and state
is a chimera


T + 7 days <***>

Govenor Zee.  Mercuriou gets in trouble when he starts talking
about morality (imagine that).  Andrea to the rescue.  Gates could
decide to be a Christian, instead he's decided to be philanthroper.

Andrea demolishes pop morality.


T + 8 days <**>

Mercuriou vs. Governor Zee

MAYBE CHANGE THIS TO BE MORE A HISTORY LECTURE

"the majority don't want good leaders"

Zee tries to claim Communism wasn't populist, and Mercuriou retorts.

"The problem isn't Bill Gates.  The problem is John Doe."

Zee says "you'll be telling us the Germans elected Hitler".  Mercuriou
disects Fascism and shows its populist nature.

"Democracy is another communism."

Zee: "democracy may not be perfect, but it's a damn sight better
than just about anything else out there."

back to the abolition of slavery.  Zee claims democracy is a "legitamite
system of government" and Mercuriou disects this.

A little bit about Napoleon.

Mercuriou summerizes - "the broken record of democracy for the last
two hundred years." 'put the people in control'

reaction - "you tell 'em Marc",  "let the bastard die up there"

FUCK YOU YOU FUCKING FUCKS
This T-shirt isn't original.  A friend of mine has one.


T + 16 days <***>

decision to move out of LEO to higher orbit

T + 21 days <***>

Vic appears on TV.  We get a snapshot of his views - the back-to-earth,
hardcore environmentalist, American Indian perspective.  Mercuriou
breaks in when the TV opponent declares that human society has
abandoned greed/force/human nature and "it's called democracy".
Back to Dr. Antonov - all society is coercive.

Alister, Yeats and Burns all reject the opportunity to grandstand
for the cameras

T + 33 days <***>

Andrea's press conference.  She presents a positive philosophy
(as opposed to her negative criticisms of T + 7)

do you advocate a welfare system?  isn't picking up hitchhikers dangerous.

You bet.


T + 54 days <****>

Description of the stable module configuration now achieved.

MUTE: This T-shirt is original.  I've never seen one as described.

Andrea asks Burns about Merciruou.

The problem with being smart.

We find out why Burns answers to Mecuriou - Merciriou does the
management.


T + 60 days <****>

Andrea and Vic.  why he went to medical school.


T + 188 days <***>

Soy beans and sushi.


T + 231 days <****>

Plutarch. Sparta.  Vic challenges Andrea to prescribe rules to be
Christians.  'Primitive' societies.  Modern societies based on
dependancy and forced labor.  The bastardization of Christianity.

Andrea: faith in God got _her_ there.

T + 424 days <***>

discussion of landing

"If you learn to live with disappointment, she'll never leave you for
another man."

T + 637 days <***>

"Live from Mars orbit"
crew conference

T + 639 days <***>

Andrea, Merceriou, and Burns.  Andrea argues against the landing.
Merceriou goes ahead.

T + 650 days <***>

the landing attempt

interestingly enough, in this chronology, if you plug in all the dates
to figure out when "T + 650" was, Mars was on the wrong side of the
solar system!  (see, i actually did think of trying to propose a
realistic series of orbit transfer burns, but gave up)

T + 651 days <***>

"remove the spacesuits and launch it"

crew conference.  

T + 652 days <***>

suicide watch

T + 653 days <***>

talking to NASA

T + 654 days <***>

"Can the kid get them home?"

I guess they better all die.  Who am I to argue with Nostradamous?

T + 657 days <**>

memorial service

T + 658 days <*>

Alister begins maneuvering the cargo modules.

T + 690 days <***>

Mercuriou and Andrea - everybody cuts corners.

T + 695 days <**>

OMS-17

Do these numbers add up?  Does a 17 minute, 37.42 mega-newton burn
give something roughly the mass of the spaceship about a tenth-gee
acceleration?  I have no idea!  Does a five-minute wait in a six-hour
orbit change your orientation by about one degree?  No, it should be
about 5.

The quote is from Deutscher's 'The Prophet Unarmed', part two of his
three-part biography of Trotsky:

	Nearly thirty years had passed from the moment when the young
	Trotsky saw the towers and the walls of Moscow for the first
	time.  He was then being transported from a jail in Odessa
	to a place of exile in Siberia; and it was from behind the bars
	of a prison van that he had his first glimpse of the 'village
	of the Tsars', the future 'capital of the Communist International'.
	It was from behind such bars also that he now had his last
	glimpse of Moscow, for he was never to return to the city of
	his triumphs and defeats.  He entered it a persecuted
	revolutionary; and so he left it.


T + 699 days <**>

need this to buffer between OMS-17 and 9/11

I suspect you could have found another way... like writing a book?

What if you don't beleive in Jesus?  People once thought the Earth was
flat.

T + 705 days <**>

we don't run this ship.  Burns runs this ship.

T + 714 days <***>

Alister: do you think we're living in the end times?

"parts of it are inspired by God, and parts of it are the errors of men"
   maybe a little bit like this book?
   like its introduction said?

T + 729 days <***>

September 11, 2001

wine in orbit.

T + 733 days

turn on the camera, Alister

T + 734 days <****>

they took advantage of capitalism, not freedom

the attack was against the majority - the people who run democracy

Alister - maybe they're just incompotent

T + 770 days <***>

Vic: We're not sufficiently advanced to possess jet aircraft.

lot of talk about 9/11

technology is a tool

atheism is a severe handicap to moral value judgements

humanity is primitive

T + 904 days <**>

What's going to happen to the U.S.?

T + 974 days <**>

Do you support the War on Terror?

T + 1033 days <***>

The Great Conversation

A critical scene to set the stage for the end of the novel

T + 1094 days <**>

Big government was in.

T + 1253 days <****>

Earth orbit burn.

T + 1257 days <**>

"Look what I found"

T + 1262 days <****>

Arrival at International Space Station.  Borzov.

Our patient reader, who lasted this far, gets (hopefully) a reward -
an interesting new character, then the grande finale

Borzov was the mission commander in Rama II.  I've always imagined
him something like this, and _who_knows_ what people will think
of Col. Ramon - he doesn't say anything too unreasonable I hope

OK, so _Columbia_ couldn't even dock with the ISS.  Sue me for giving
you a lossy ending.

T + 1237 days <*****>

February 1, 2003

9/11 was Julian day 254 of 2001, February 1 was day 32 of 2003
all these years had 365 days, so (365 - 254) + 365 + 32
536 days from 9/11 to Columbia

so 9/11 is T + 729 days, that makes Columbia T + 1237

9/11/1999 - Launch Day (Julian date 254)
11/30/1999 - T + 80; Exxon-Mobil merge (Julian date 334)
12/31/1999 - T + 110 (Julian date 364)
1/1/2000 - T + 111
4/3/2000 - original court ruling in U.S. vs Microsoft
7/10/2000 - T + 302; pipeline explosion in Nigeria kills 250 gasoline scavengers
9/8/2000 - 9/16/2000 - UK fuel protests
9/26/2000 - T + 381; anti-globalization protests in Prague
1/1/2001 - T + 476
6/20/2001 - T + 646; Andrea Yates drowns her children
6/24/2001 - T + 650; landing attempt
8/12/2001 - T + 699 (JD 224 of 2001); a Sunday
9/6/2001 - DOJ no longer seeking to break up Microsoft
9/11/2001 - T + 729 (JD 254 of 2001)
1/1/2002 - T + 841
1/1/2003 - T + 1206
1/16/2003 - T + 1221
2/1/2003 - T + 1237; Columbia reentry

this and 9/11 are the _only_ two dates I've 'pegged' in the
chronology, so any kind of speculation about why the author picked "T
+ 650" is absurd - they're just random numbers

"The prequel is all human history.  The sequel is the fate of mankind."
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