Friendship and I-Walk

I-Walk is one of those stories that's been sitting on my hard drive waiting for the moment when I get around to rewriting it. The thing with writing Science Fiction (something I came to realize after my Children of the Falling Stars boo-boo) is how science fiction readers do look for real and solid science fiction facts. As a friend of mine said, the science fiction publications are looking for more hard-core science fiction which is based on hard science.

It wasn't my intention to write science fiction. I was thinking more along the lines of cross-genre fantasy. However, the I-Walk took its own science wending and I ended up struggling with aspects of communication where my knowledge is practically nihil.

My Jan is a radio amateur and knows a lot about communication, but I didn't know exactly what I was looking for, until last night's get together with his friends. Peter van der Post, Jan and Nel van Ooijen and Egon Honing, you guys are super. As radio enthusiasts, it was inevitable that the conversation turned to technical details, and so I learned about PCSA and antennas and how width is just as important as height, and it was awesome hearing Jan van Ooijen talk about his experience of going up to the top of the place that inspired I-Walk.

I love how these guys have the patience to explain in layman's terms the technical aspects that I don't quite get. And which my brain is currently regurgitating. All of this will eventually find its way into I-Walk and I can visualize how the story will be changed with this information, with this talk about ether and space, and communication, analog versus digital and all that.

Hm, hm. I should tell Peter that I read the PGAZ bulletins he sends around and I found it so interesting to note how another story in the works seems to have more solid science foundation than I thought it did. *big smile*

After the guys went home, I thought of how it isn't often that we come across true friends. And I told Jan how much I appreciated his friends for taking the time to come over and spend the evening with us. Never mind that the chicken legs didn't quite work out as I wanted them to, at least the lumpia and the pancit did a good showing :)

It's funny how life seems to rush by so fast in this country. Odd how little we see of each other inspite of living not so far from the other. It could be a matter of culture, I suppose, but I would love friends to feel at home to drop by whenever they feel like it. In the Philippines, our friends become part of our extended family, and that's how I'd like our friends here to feel.