 |
| This seems a little harsh.... |
On the other side of the coin, it was also most definitely the least successful year for shipping as well. As it turned out, the quondam Science Fiction Museum and Hall of Fame (now MoPop) doesn't ship outside of the United States, which immediately took the Star Trek movie posters out of contention as possible gifts. (How strange that an institution that deals with themes involving all of time and space would refuse to ship to Canada.) Alternative Star Trek posters didn't trickle in until early January. I also ended up with two copies of Naomi Novik's Uprooted just because my benefactor received two of them, for whatever reason.
However, the most impressive shipping gaffe involves my workplace gift exchange. I received an IOU from my Secret Santa (AKA my office mate Bill), who was mortified by the absence of a shipment containing my presents as the 25th drew near. As January wore on, he became increasingly embarrassed by this continued lack of fulfillment. He harassed the shippers, terrorized his postie, and finally arranged for the order to be re-sent. Shortly after that, a package arrived on his doorstep, almost a full month after Christmas and almost two months after his original order - with a postal label that explained everything. (Well, the delay at least.)
I think that if a package leaves Connecticut with Vancouver as its destination, Sweden is probably the long way round, even by the convoluted standards of international postal shipping. Now let's see if the replacement shipment takes the same route.
Once everything was in hand, it was certainly an impressive haul: in addition to Uprooted, I received Archivist Wasp by Nicole Kornher-Stace, Ian McDonald's Luna: New Moon, and Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear, which reads surprisingly like a well-written fan entry into Cherie Priest's American steampunk Clockwork Century series.
On the video side, three excellent episodes of Doctor Who - The King's Demons, with Peter Davison, Tom Baker in The Stones of Blood, and The Moonbase, a fascinating partial Patrick Troughton episode with existing audio only for two of the chapters, and the missing video filled in with animation. Part of Bill's gift was a beautifully transferred Blu-ray edition of The Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Karli gave me a long desired copy of The Day of the Triffids**. Amazon.ca gift cards allowed me to purchase the entire run of Star Trek: The Original Series on Blu-ray, along with Star Trek: Beyond and X-Men: Apocalyse in digital and Blu-ray formats.
The most unexpected choice from my list would be the Halo UNSC M6 blaster, which I included on a whim but never expected to receive. It's surprisingly well made for a child's toy, and feels sturdy and nicely sized for an adult grip. But forget using it on Jaq the Cat, I'd be reluctant to aim this thing at a person - it's rated to shoot the supplied rubber-tipped darts 70 feet, which means that it has quite a punch in the ten to fifteen foot range. All in all, a much appreciated addition to my science fiction armoury - thanks, Karli! And thanks to everyone else who read my list of suggestions, and followed through so considerately and generously.
Damn...now I have to come up with a new list...
- Sid
* My gorgeous girlfriend Karli, to be completely accurate.
** Full disclosure: as far as I can tell, there's only one extant DVD or Blu-ray edition of this movie, and to be honest, it's not a fabulous transfer. Which doesn't make me any less pleased to have received it, but it's sad that they didn't do a better job.
** Full disclosure: as far as I can tell, there's only one extant DVD or Blu-ray edition of this movie, and to be honest, it's not a fabulous transfer. Which doesn't make me any less pleased to have received it, but it's sad that they didn't do a better job.
No comments:
Post a Comment