Hey friends...
I just wanted to tell you that in all of my time doing volunteer work for
missing kids organizations, this is the first time i've ever been in
direct contact with and asked by the family to help spread the word. I gave
this family my word that I would do all that I could.
So please, help me to raise awareness about this girl, Mickey Shunick?
She was en route close to a highway that runs from Louisiana into
California. Maybe you know people in & around those areas you could
pass this info onto to?
There are some good leads and it's quite possible that she can still be
alive, found and returned home. I am hopeful. Please know that I appreciate
any awareness you can raise. Let's hope for a positive outcome.
We hear all the time of the heartbreaking stories with horrific endings,
but you know what? Many many kids/teens are found alive and returned home,
so know that this may well have a happy ending.
Re-posting this info just once, could make all the difference!
Thank you!
Love & Hugs,
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1)
violets_r_blu
Please do contact her if you have any information.
I just wanted to tell you that in all of my time doing volunteer work for
missing kids organizations, this is the first time i've ever been in
direct contact with and asked by the family to help spread the word. I gave
this family my word that I would do all that I could.
So please, help me to raise awareness about this girl, Mickey Shunick?
She was en route close to a highway that runs from Louisiana into
California. Maybe you know people in & around those areas you could
pass this info onto to?
There are some good leads and it's quite possible that she can still be
alive, found and returned home. I am hopeful. Please know that I appreciate
any awareness you can raise. Let's hope for a positive outcome.
We hear all the time of the heartbreaking stories with horrific endings,
but you know what? Many many kids/teens are found alive and returned home,
so know that this may well have a happy ending.
Re-posting this info just once, could make all the difference!
Thank you!
Love & Hugs,
violets_r_bluPlease do contact her if you have any information.
Cornwall is famous for - and rather smug about - the mildness of its climate, and I knew I would see plants there which won't grow here in the north-east. I was still disconcerted by the golden California poppies nodding over the wall of the garden at the end of our lane - and that the ice plants which carpet (and stabilise) the verges of California highways are known here as Hottentot fig, and regarded as an invasive nuisance.
Some of the wild flowers were completely unfamiliar. I was particularly entranced by wall pennywort - also known, it says here, as Navelwort, Dimplewort, Maid-in-the-mist, Pennypies, Penny-grass, Venus'-navel, Wallwort - and took very many pictures of it, in all sizes from tiny to over a foot high. This one was taken at St. Mawes castle, and the circle in the stonework is sone three or four inches across.
However much you may think you are accustomed to the dawn chorus, it still comes as a surprise when the seagulls join in.
Some of the wild flowers were completely unfamiliar. I was particularly entranced by wall pennywort - also known, it says here, as Navelwort, Dimplewort, Maid-in-the-mist, Pennypies, Penny-grass, Venus'-navel, Wallwort - and took very many pictures of it, in all sizes from tiny to over a foot high. This one was taken at St. Mawes castle, and the circle in the stonework is sone three or four inches across.However much you may think you are accustomed to the dawn chorus, it still comes as a surprise when the seagulls join in.
Focus on small orange blob in top right window. He was watching Miss P right to her door. Wary or besotted? She, of course, never gave him a glance. Probably a good thing.
Posted via LiveJournal app for iPhone.
Spotted in a pond on a "nature reserve garden" in a small park near my house in London - I think this explains why I've never seen any amphibians in there. I was a bit astonished, given the occasional coldness of the British climate, but it's probably several years since we had enough sustained cold weather to freeze the pond:
Shell length about 4", I think. Almost certainly a red-eared terrapin.
Shell length about 4", I think. Almost certainly a red-eared terrapin.
Happy Birthday, ellenmillion!
For my birthday, I got ... misgendered. Constantly. Everywhere I went. And it was almost all in queer spaces, and it was all done unintentionally and as kindly as could be, by well-meaning folks, so I couldn't even work up a righteous head of indignation; I just got depressed.
I am not making progress. Part of it is that I haven't been able to afford my full doses of testosterone -- the treatment runs a little over $300 a month, which I pay completely out of pocket -- and so I've been stretching it out to half-doses, figuring some T going into my system was better than none. (Medically speaking, this isn't wholly unsound, as many trans guys start off on low doses.)
Thanks to Grey, I had a wonderful birthday weekend anyway. When we're alone together, the rest of the world recedes to the point where even gender seems relatively unimportant. And he can always boost my confidence, and he's so romantic, and he even seems to think I'm interesting. I know, the man must be deranged, but I sure do love him.
Re: misgendering, there was a good moment of comic relief at the drag show we attended last night. Local drag diva Bootsy DeVille was talking to us at the bar at Michael's on the Park before her show, and she turned to me and said, "I have a question for you. Now it's hard for me to phrase this right ... " Grey and I were both bracing for The Question, which I wouldn't have really minded answering for Bootsy, but instead she said rather hesitantly, "Did you use to be the boyfriend of a famous writer? Because we were googling Billy Martin, and there seemed to be some connection ... "
After collapsing with laughter, we explained as best we could, and only later did I realize I should have said, "Why yes, I used to date Stephen King, but I dumped him for Grey!"
I am not making progress. Part of it is that I haven't been able to afford my full doses of testosterone -- the treatment runs a little over $300 a month, which I pay completely out of pocket -- and so I've been stretching it out to half-doses, figuring some T going into my system was better than none. (Medically speaking, this isn't wholly unsound, as many trans guys start off on low doses.)
Thanks to Grey, I had a wonderful birthday weekend anyway. When we're alone together, the rest of the world recedes to the point where even gender seems relatively unimportant. And he can always boost my confidence, and he's so romantic, and he even seems to think I'm interesting. I know, the man must be deranged, but I sure do love him.
Re: misgendering, there was a good moment of comic relief at the drag show we attended last night. Local drag diva Bootsy DeVille was talking to us at the bar at Michael's on the Park before her show, and she turned to me and said, "I have a question for you. Now it's hard for me to phrase this right ... " Grey and I were both bracing for The Question, which I wouldn't have really minded answering for Bootsy, but instead she said rather hesitantly, "Did you use to be the boyfriend of a famous writer? Because we were googling Billy Martin, and there seemed to be some connection ... "
After collapsing with laughter, we explained as best we could, and only later did I realize I should have said, "Why yes, I used to date Stephen King, but I dumped him for Grey!"
- Mood:
recumbent
All I have to offer the world is inside those books. That's it, the absolute and dubious sum total of my ability to offer aid to anyone. If what you're looking for isn't in there, you need to look elsewhere. I can't save you. I can't even help you. All I can offer is my stories. And anyone who asks more of me is overstepping boundaries they have no right to cross.
---
I've had much worse birthdays than yesterday.readingthedark came down in the late afternoon. We had dinner at Tortilla Flats. We played an absolutely abominable game of "World of Warcraft" Monopoly (and why the hell are the Draenei represented nowhere in the game?!), and, in theory, Geoffrey won. We had some frozen caramel and cashew ice-cream pie thing. I got stoned. We talked too much. I got to sleep just as the sun was rising.
My thanks to all the "happy birthday" wishes yesterday. There were something like four hundred via Facebook, and, honestly, that just freaks me right the fuck out. Thank you for being there.
---
Spooky is still having a Caitlín Was (Most Years) Actually Born on the 27th of May Sale in her Dreaming Squid Dollworks and Sundries Etsy Shop. Cool and bow-tie stuff, with FREE SHIPPING, which will run through Monday. In order to take advantage of the sale, you need to use this code during checkout: CRKBIRTHDAY. Buy something bow tie, kittens!!! No, really!
---
Looking back from -08, here is what I will say: I want such very simple things. That's actually true. Instead, my life has presented me with a baffling array of complexities. I didn't say that quite right. "Baffling complexities" isn't actually what I mean. If the cosmos had some collective consciousness, if all our gods and goddesses and demons were anything more than fairy tales, they might understand what I meant to say. Those things I wish I had, though – those things I still hope for to the point I feel ashamed and ungrateful for not being gladder for what I have instead – they are so simple they might take your breath away.
Breathe In,
Aunt Beast
---
I've had much worse birthdays than yesterday.
readingthedark came down in the late afternoon. We had dinner at Tortilla Flats. We played an absolutely abominable game of "World of Warcraft" Monopoly (and why the hell are the Draenei represented nowhere in the game?!), and, in theory, Geoffrey won. We had some frozen caramel and cashew ice-cream pie thing. I got stoned. We talked too much. I got to sleep just as the sun was rising.My thanks to all the "happy birthday" wishes yesterday. There were something like four hundred via Facebook, and, honestly, that just freaks me right the fuck out. Thank you for being there.
---
Spooky is still having a Caitlín Was (Most Years) Actually Born on the 27th of May Sale in her Dreaming Squid Dollworks and Sundries Etsy Shop. Cool and bow-tie stuff, with FREE SHIPPING, which will run through Monday. In order to take advantage of the sale, you need to use this code during checkout: CRKBIRTHDAY. Buy something bow tie, kittens!!! No, really!
---
Looking back from -08, here is what I will say: I want such very simple things. That's actually true. Instead, my life has presented me with a baffling array of complexities. I didn't say that quite right. "Baffling complexities" isn't actually what I mean. If the cosmos had some collective consciousness, if all our gods and goddesses and demons were anything more than fairy tales, they might understand what I meant to say. Those things I wish I had, though – those things I still hope for to the point I feel ashamed and ungrateful for not being gladder for what I have instead – they are so simple they might take your breath away.
Breathe In,
Aunt Beast
- Mood:
you think there's a word? - Music:The Civil Wars, "My Father's Father"
- Sat, 13:51: Warming up for #eurovision by watching Sir Terry's 50 year retrospective.
- Sat, 13:57: At home enjoying first Eurovision beer. Excellent start — Drinking a Chocolate Marble by @marblebrewers — http://t.co/t39km9Z9
- Sat, 14:00: Da da dada da da daaaaaa da da.... #eurovision
- Sat, 14:05: Enjoyable intro. Great wire work. #eurovision
- Sat, 14:05: RT @foxxmetamatic: #eurovision Atleast if we do win, we shuold have a big empty stadium to host it in next year
- Sat, 14:10: No Graham, they arrested all those people so you *wouldn't* see any trouble! #eurovision
- Sat, 14:15: United Kingdom: the sort of ballad I mock when it's in Foreign. #thehump is in his element though. #eurovision
- Sat, 14:18: Hungary: scrub 'em up and you'll have a boy band. #eurovision
- Sat, 14:19: Hungary: singer clearly wants to be Robbie Wiiliams. #eurovision
- Sat, 14:22: Albania: Bj�rk's Albanian half-sister sings about the pain of constipation. #eurovision
- Another gray damp day: I hope the fire fighters can put #HewlettFire to bed today. #
- AFA must be graduating this week: Thunderbirds practicing overhead. #
- Cable wrangling: not my favorite thing to do. #
- Today marks four full weeks since Rion had a seizure. #
- Thunderbirds show 12:30 pm todat approx. #
- High wind warning today: be careful! #
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I am fairly convinced that the current flurry of anti-woman and anti-homosexual drives by the Republicans (and equivalents elsewhere) are because they have realised that they are _losing_ and this is their last ditch attempt to hold on to the America they know and love. More and more of the people that are against marriage equality are old, more and more of the people that are in favour are young, and the switchover is happening as older people die off, because their culture is just not being passed on*.
So, while the current backlash is frustrating and annoying, it doesn't worry me in the long-term**. Twenty years from now people will look at this last-ditch attempt to stop gay rights the same way as we look at the riots over integration in schools in 1960s USA**.
*The same is true in the UK - church attendance in children and teenagers is down by 90% over the last two decades.
**Which isn't to say that the anger and work that's being done isn't vitally necessary - just that the weight is now on the side of the people doing that work.
Original post on Dreamwidth - there are
Why is this song in particular ear-worming me today?
Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are
comment(s); comment here or there.
Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are
Everybody seems to be at cons, or on vacation, so I thought I'd play the Time Machine game.
Last night, went to see Avengers. Since there's no use talking about it without spoilers, here's the cut and the spoiler warning.
( Read more... )
Last night, went to see Avengers. Since there's no use talking about it without spoilers, here's the cut and the spoiler warning.
( Read more... )
That resulted in
Seriously, if you say "John Clute, M. John Harrison and", "James Nicoll" is not going to be the name that leaps to mind to complete the trio.
(For the record, I like a lot of anime, dislike many comics not because of the medium but because many comics are fuck-awful but, and this is the important bit, many are not, and ditto for movies. I prefer SF to F but A: that's more of a chocolate versus butterscotch thing than my god over your heathen beliefs thing and B: F and SF overlap a lot)
Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are
comment(s); comment here or there.
And then, they're disappointed and can't seem to understand why casual SFF readers don't give a shit about the John Clute, M. John Harrison, and James Nicoll of this world?
Seriously, if you say "John Clute, M. John Harrison and", "James Nicoll" is not going to be the name that leaps to mind to complete the trio.
(For the record, I like a lot of anime, dislike many comics not because of the medium but because many comics are fuck-awful but, and this is the important bit, many are not, and ditto for movies. I prefer SF to F but A: that's more of a chocolate versus butterscotch thing than my god over your heathen beliefs thing and B: F and SF overlap a lot)
Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are
Self-admitted Texan Elizabeth Moon suggests treating people like chattel goods, as is the custom of her people, and it is not close to being the craziest thing you will see at the other end of this link.
Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are
comment(s); comment here or there.
Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are
I went to this rather than the other good things in that time slot because the day before, Elise Matthesen and Debbie Notkin had told me and Velma we should be there in the front row, partly so she could point to us as an example of a very long-duration friendship. I might have gone without that push, and am glad I did, because there was good discussion about things including what friendship means, how to nurture a friendship, and some of the problems that can come up, of expectations and either person feeling that s/he isn't giving as much as she's getting. Cat Hanna talked about some of the ways that friendships overlap and affect each other, including social groups that seem to center on a couple, and the unfortunate fact that a breakup can cost the ex-couple's friends some of their friendships, not only with the couple but each other. This was in the context of the lesbian community, people for whom friends become chosen family. (No ideas on avoiding that sort of loss, alas.)
Before the panel, I was reminded thatrysmiel will say "my friend" to me in email, or while we're talking in bed, because that is so large a part of the connection there. (We were friends for a long time before that became a romantic relationship.) Which connects to Debbie (wild_irises)'s saying that she dislikes "just friends" because it devalues something important and difficult, and that you don't hear "just lovers." (My thoughts, not stated on the panel, but connected: There's a cultural assumption that if it's more than a single encounter, a sexual relationship must be important, and should be foregrounded and given priority over other things; unfortunately, we don't have another good way to say "friends who are not romantically/sexually involved.) I really want more vocabulary here, vocabulary that if it doesn't map closely onto the specifics of my life and feelings, at least doesn't contradict them.
Cross-posted from Dreamwidth (http://redbird.dreamwidth.org/1339109.h
comments. I welcome comments here or there (OpenID and "anonymous" are fine if you don't have a DW account).
Before the panel, I was reminded that
rysmiel will say "my friend" to me in email, or while we're talking in bed, because that is so large a part of the connection there. (We were friends for a long time before that became a romantic relationship.) Which connects to Debbie (wild_irises)'s saying that she dislikes "just friends" because it devalues something important and difficult, and that you don't hear "just lovers." (My thoughts, not stated on the panel, but connected: There's a cultural assumption that if it's more than a single encounter, a sexual relationship must be important, and should be foregrounded and given priority over other things; unfortunately, we don't have another good way to say "friends who are not romantically/sexually involved.) I really want more vocabulary here, vocabulary that if it doesn't map closely onto the specifics of my life and feelings, at least doesn't contradict them.Cross-posted from Dreamwidth (http://redbird.dreamwidth.org/1339109.h
Of all the novels in the Hugo voters packet, only one of them is in epub form, so that meant I would be reading it first before the dreaded PDFs. (Ok, I've already read Embassytown, but first among the books I got from the voting packet.)
Here is a quick plot summary of Among Others by Jo Walton for those who haven't read the book: Mor leaves Wales because she doesn't want to live with her crazy witch mother and to her dad is the only place she can go - she's also suffering because her twin sister died in a car crash while she and Mor (Morganna to her Morwenna) were thwarting her mother's nebulous take-over-the-world plans at the request of fairies (or possibly just running away.) She gets shipped off to a posh boarding school where she's unpopular because she has a limp and is from Wales and is middle class. Books are her only solace, and pretty much her only friend. But then she performs a bit of magic and suddenly she learns of an SF book club and it's all puppies and kittens - she gets friends, a boyfriend, a chance to talk about all the books she loves, makes plans to go to Worldcon, faces down her mum and makes peace with her sister's death.
So how is Among Others like Twilight? There are spoilers!
1. The overarching story is basically the same - A young girl (Bella/Mor) leaves her home in a place she loves (Arizona/Wales) to go live in a place she hates (Forks/Oswestry) to go live with her estranged father, who she calls by his first name, (Charlie/Daniel) and finds her OTP (Edward/Fandom.)
2. The only reason why the magic exists in the story is so that we know that Bella/Mor is special. (And by extension, so is fandom - special snowflakes ahoy!) Walton has gone on the record as saying that Among Other is unquestionably fantasy. I think it is a more interesting book if the fairies are simply the way Mor's PTSD manifests, so it's disappointing for Walton to confirm that yes, Mor seessparkly vampires fairies. In fact, since Mor did magic to find her OTP, it's possible the entirety of fandom was created just so Mor could find it. (Of course, Walton also said it was unquestionably fiction but then let loose the dogs of fandom when Jonathan McCalmont suggested Mor was a bit of a psychopath, so maybe we'll not trust her word so much.)
3. Both Meyer and Walton seem realize late in the book "oh yeah, books need conflict" and there's an almost entirely superfluous scene where Mor has to battle fairies because they think she should kill herself (which she had already made the decision not to once earlier in the book because she wanted to read some Delany. It's nice to know Delany can save lives with his fiction, but that's not going make doing that scene over again very interesting). And then hot on the heels of that, Mor faces down her mother. It's really rubbish closure that feels completely unearned.
4. Any tension in the big facedowns is undercut by the use of a first person narrator - it's never in any doubt that Bella won't get eaten by the evil vampire, just as it is never in any doubt whether Mor will kill herself or fall back under her mother's thumb.
5. Oh the creepytimes. Edward is a creepy stalker and Mor seems to take the things she reads in dodgy SF as without a whit of skepticism. There is a disturbing scene where Mor's father climbs into her bed and tries to get it on with her. Mor muses that she knows that incest isn't always bad because Heinlein said so but her dad is drunk and icky and she's not on the pill. And then it's never brought up again. I had to pick up the pieces of my head after reading this scene, so this review is later than it might have been.
6. This is the real kicker: They are both boring in exactly the same way. Oh the topic is different, so in Twilight you get:
“What’s your favorite color?” he asked, his face grave.
I rolled my eyes. “It changes from day to day.”
“What’s your favorite color today?” He was still solemn.
“Probably brown.” I tended to dress according to my mood.
He snorted, dropping his serious expression. “Brown?” he asked skeptically.
“Sure. Brown is warm. I miss brown. Everything that’s supposed to be brown — tree trunks, rocks, dirt — is all covered up with squashy green stuff here,” I complained.
He seemed fascinated by my little rant. He considered for a moment, staring into my eyes.
You get in Among Others:
Actually, James Tiptree, Jr.’s Warm Worlds and Otherwise gives The Wind’s Twelve Quarters, Vol II a run for its money. I’d say the Le Guin is still ahead, but it’s not as clear-cut as I thought it was. The other two books in the package from my father today are both Zelazny. I haven’t started them yet. Creatures of Light and Darkness was awfully peculiar.
Teen girls squee at the idea of all-consuming love and fans squee at the mention of books they also love. Which is to say neither book has much interesting to say about the one they love. In fact, they are pretty darn tedious. SF may have been a touchstone to Walton when she was young, but she's basically cashing in with people who already find it interesting - the mere mention is enough, rather than doing the heavy lifting of making the discussion interesting in and of itself.
That Among Others would be so awful was an unpleasant surprise - considering how much praise it's gotten and that Walton is an excellent book blogger, I'd really hoped for more. Apparently fans (and SF critics) wanted a Twilight of their own.
Here is a quick plot summary of Among Others by Jo Walton for those who haven't read the book: Mor leaves Wales because she doesn't want to live with her crazy witch mother and to her dad is the only place she can go - she's also suffering because her twin sister died in a car crash while she and Mor (Morganna to her Morwenna) were thwarting her mother's nebulous take-over-the-world plans at the request of fairies (or possibly just running away.) She gets shipped off to a posh boarding school where she's unpopular because she has a limp and is from Wales and is middle class. Books are her only solace, and pretty much her only friend. But then she performs a bit of magic and suddenly she learns of an SF book club and it's all puppies and kittens - she gets friends, a boyfriend, a chance to talk about all the books she loves, makes plans to go to Worldcon, faces down her mum and makes peace with her sister's death.
So how is Among Others like Twilight? There are spoilers!
1. The overarching story is basically the same - A young girl (Bella/Mor) leaves her home in a place she loves (Arizona/Wales) to go live in a place she hates (Forks/Oswestry) to go live with her estranged father, who she calls by his first name, (Charlie/Daniel) and finds her OTP (Edward/Fandom.)
2. The only reason why the magic exists in the story is so that we know that Bella/Mor is special. (And by extension, so is fandom - special snowflakes ahoy!) Walton has gone on the record as saying that Among Other is unquestionably fantasy. I think it is a more interesting book if the fairies are simply the way Mor's PTSD manifests, so it's disappointing for Walton to confirm that yes, Mor sees
3. Both Meyer and Walton seem realize late in the book "oh yeah, books need conflict" and there's an almost entirely superfluous scene where Mor has to battle fairies because they think she should kill herself (which she had already made the decision not to once earlier in the book because she wanted to read some Delany. It's nice to know Delany can save lives with his fiction, but that's not going make doing that scene over again very interesting). And then hot on the heels of that, Mor faces down her mother. It's really rubbish closure that feels completely unearned.
4. Any tension in the big facedowns is undercut by the use of a first person narrator - it's never in any doubt that Bella won't get eaten by the evil vampire, just as it is never in any doubt whether Mor will kill herself or fall back under her mother's thumb.
5. Oh the creepytimes. Edward is a creepy stalker and Mor seems to take the things she reads in dodgy SF as without a whit of skepticism. There is a disturbing scene where Mor's father climbs into her bed and tries to get it on with her. Mor muses that she knows that incest isn't always bad because Heinlein said so but her dad is drunk and icky and she's not on the pill. And then it's never brought up again. I had to pick up the pieces of my head after reading this scene, so this review is later than it might have been.
6. This is the real kicker: They are both boring in exactly the same way. Oh the topic is different, so in Twilight you get:
“What’s your favorite color?” he asked, his face grave.
I rolled my eyes. “It changes from day to day.”
“What’s your favorite color today?” He was still solemn.
“Probably brown.” I tended to dress according to my mood.
He snorted, dropping his serious expression. “Brown?” he asked skeptically.
“Sure. Brown is warm. I miss brown. Everything that’s supposed to be brown — tree trunks, rocks, dirt — is all covered up with squashy green stuff here,” I complained.
He seemed fascinated by my little rant. He considered for a moment, staring into my eyes.
You get in Among Others:
Actually, James Tiptree, Jr.’s Warm Worlds and Otherwise gives The Wind’s Twelve Quarters, Vol II a run for its money. I’d say the Le Guin is still ahead, but it’s not as clear-cut as I thought it was. The other two books in the package from my father today are both Zelazny. I haven’t started them yet. Creatures of Light and Darkness was awfully peculiar.
Teen girls squee at the idea of all-consuming love and fans squee at the mention of books they also love. Which is to say neither book has much interesting to say about the one they love. In fact, they are pretty darn tedious. SF may have been a touchstone to Walton when she was young, but she's basically cashing in with people who already find it interesting - the mere mention is enough, rather than doing the heavy lifting of making the discussion interesting in and of itself.
That Among Others would be so awful was an unpleasant surprise - considering how much praise it's gotten and that Walton is an excellent book blogger, I'd really hoped for more. Apparently fans (and SF critics) wanted a Twilight of their own.
So the whack factor ran a little higher yesterday. All to the good. After sleeping quite late (by my standards) and a morning workout, I met up with @howardtayler for a leisurely lunch off-site. We had a terrific conversation about writing, life and the value of kindness. Howard also did nifty caricatures of both our waitress and her manager. It was hilariously fun to watch them react with such delight.
Walking back from lunch, we passed a pretty radical steampunked car.
More photos later when I have the bandwidth to upload them. (That would not be right now, unfortunately.)
Back inside, I hooked up with Ellie Copperbottom of the League of S.T.E.A.M. to host a High Tea. Which was a blast, and very odd at the same time. After that, I recorded a brief podcast interview with them. Then I wound up down in the Vendor Room signing books, where we all but sold out of my stock at the table of Off the Beaten Path Books. Gail Carriger and I crossed paths there again.
Dinner consisted of me and a very helpful concom rep making a White Castle run. Sixty dollars later, the League and I were pigging out hard. From there, things devolved into an evening of music, hot tubbing (well, warm tubbing), drinking, and electroshock therapy. I managed to enjoy an electric kiss with a lovely young woman, as well as try out the new sport of electric motorboating. Plus people were doing shots off Boba Fett's icy head, but I eschewed that particular pursuit.
Today I have an author panel and a reading and a day of hanging out.
So, yeah. A lot of fun here. A lot of fun.
Photo © 2012 Howard Tayler, used with permission.
Walking back from lunch, we passed a pretty radical steampunked car.
More photos later when I have the bandwidth to upload them. (That would not be right now, unfortunately.)
Back inside, I hooked up with Ellie Copperbottom of the League of S.T.E.A.M. to host a High Tea. Which was a blast, and very odd at the same time. After that, I recorded a brief podcast interview with them. Then I wound up down in the Vendor Room signing books, where we all but sold out of my stock at the table of Off the Beaten Path Books. Gail Carriger and I crossed paths there again.
Dinner consisted of me and a very helpful concom rep making a White Castle run. Sixty dollars later, the League and I were pigging out hard. From there, things devolved into an evening of music, hot tubbing (well, warm tubbing), drinking, and electroshock therapy. I managed to enjoy an electric kiss with a lovely young woman, as well as try out the new sport of electric motorboating. Plus people were doing shots off Boba Fett's icy head, but I eschewed that particular pursuit.
Today I have an author panel and a reading and a day of hanging out.
So, yeah. A lot of fun here. A lot of fun.
Photo © 2012 Howard Tayler, used with permission.
Your Sunday moment of zen.
San Francisco houses, 2006. © 2006, 2012, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.
The current photo series is from my 'favorites' file, hence the dates jumping about
This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
San Francisco houses, 2006. © 2006, 2012, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.
The current photo series is from my 'favorites' file, hence the dates jumping about
This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Easter Island statues had bodies — Did no one ever think to look?
CSR project aims to create a high-speed, carbon-neutral steam-powered locomotive — Oh, cool. (Thanks to David E. Vincent.)
Egos and Immorality — Paul Krugman on the Wall Street fairy tale.
Scientist: Evolution debate will soon be history — This is stupid. The evolution debate has been history for a long time. What you have today is a combination of religious willful ignorance and conservative political opportunism. It's not a "debate" in any meaningful sense of the word, as the anti-evolution side has no evidence, logic or credibility.
Conservatives used to care about community. What happened? — They lost their fucking minds.
?otd: Ever been electric motorboated?
5/27/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (Con time)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 6.5 (solid)
Weight: n/a
Currently reading: Shattering the Ley by Benjamin Tate; Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leicht
CSR project aims to create a high-speed, carbon-neutral steam-powered locomotive — Oh, cool. (Thanks to David E. Vincent.)
Egos and Immorality — Paul Krugman on the Wall Street fairy tale.
Scientist: Evolution debate will soon be history — This is stupid. The evolution debate has been history for a long time. What you have today is a combination of religious willful ignorance and conservative political opportunism. It's not a "debate" in any meaningful sense of the word, as the anti-evolution side has no evidence, logic or credibility.
Conservatives used to care about community. What happened? — They lost their fucking minds.
?otd: Ever been electric motorboated?
5/27/2012
Writing time yesterday: 0.0 hours (Con time)
Body movement: 30 minute stationary bike ride
Hours slept: 6.5 (solid)
Weight: n/a
Currently reading: Shattering the Ley by Benjamin Tate; Of Blood and Honey by Stina Leicht
This is one of those weekends where everyone is off at a con having fun without us. I did see Men in Black III and enjoyed it a bunch. It was a huge lot of fun. It made a nice antidote for The Woman in Black which we rented and watched Friday night, and which was a very well-made, gorgeously filmed movie which I disliked so intensely it upset my stomach.
Question answers:
Brennan Griffin asked
Gate of Gods trilogy
Do you have any plans to re-visit the Ile-Rien world? You may have addressed this somewhere else, but I thought that Gate of Gods did not get nearly the shelf-space it deserved, and I'd definitely like to see more.
Not to say that I'm not enjoying your Cloud Roads sequence! And I quite liked the Wheel of the Infinite as well.
Thank you! The third book in the trilogy, The Gate of Gods, definitely did not show up in most bookstores and I've talked to many people who read the first two books (The Wizard Hunters and The Ships of Air) and never saw the third. The first two books didn't sell as well as the publisher wanted, so they didn't put much effort into getting the third out there. Technically, they are all three still in print, but you have to order them online. They are available as ebooks, too.
I did originally start a prequel novel about Giliead and Ilias, but the publisher wasn't interested in it, so I just turned it into a series of short stories which were eventually published by Black Gate Magazine. (Three of them are on my web site now: Holy Places, Houses of the Dead, and Reflections. There's one more that hasn't been published yet.) At this point, it's been so long I kind of doubt whether I would ever go back to that world. I haven't completely ruled it out, though.
desertport asked I have been wondering this for a little while: What is the ultimate fate of the Ravenna? Does she end up a museum or sink fantastically? Something else?
I always imagined her becoming a floating museum, kind of like the Queen Mary, but more honored and better maintained.
If anyone has anymore questions (about my books or about writing or publishing in general or about what I'm doing today (hint: it's boring)) go ahead and ask.
Question answers:
Brennan Griffin asked
Gate of Gods trilogy
Do you have any plans to re-visit the Ile-Rien world? You may have addressed this somewhere else, but I thought that Gate of Gods did not get nearly the shelf-space it deserved, and I'd definitely like to see more.
Not to say that I'm not enjoying your Cloud Roads sequence! And I quite liked the Wheel of the Infinite as well.
Thank you! The third book in the trilogy, The Gate of Gods, definitely did not show up in most bookstores and I've talked to many people who read the first two books (The Wizard Hunters and The Ships of Air) and never saw the third. The first two books didn't sell as well as the publisher wanted, so they didn't put much effort into getting the third out there. Technically, they are all three still in print, but you have to order them online. They are available as ebooks, too.
I did originally start a prequel novel about Giliead and Ilias, but the publisher wasn't interested in it, so I just turned it into a series of short stories which were eventually published by Black Gate Magazine. (Three of them are on my web site now: Holy Places, Houses of the Dead, and Reflections. There's one more that hasn't been published yet.) At this point, it's been so long I kind of doubt whether I would ever go back to that world. I haven't completely ruled it out, though.
desertport asked I have been wondering this for a little while: What is the ultimate fate of the Ravenna? Does she end up a museum or sink fantastically? Something else?I always imagined her becoming a floating museum, kind of like the Queen Mary, but more honored and better maintained.
If anyone has anymore questions (about my books or about writing or publishing in general or about what I'm doing today (hint: it's boring)) go ahead and ask.
![[Image]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0gzsvlNVW1r0f8s0o2_500.gif)
This was taken today, at a local garden. Shot with a Canon PowerShot SX150.
- Music:imagining - brian crain
These are the links I've saved to Pinboard in the last day. They also get posted to Twitter. (Relative times will be based on the time the tweet was posted, so take any uses of ?today? or ?tomorrow? with a pinch of salt!)
- Alan Alda asks scientists to answer 'what's a flame?' for an 11yo. Fascinating look at science communication!
- Awesome selection of save-the-date cards incorporating various fannish in-jokes.
- A photo of mission control at SpaceX and at NASA. Why does NASA have so much more paper?
- Interesting article about whether science should come before plot in SF films.
- THE AVENGERS rendered as a cop movie through GIFs.
- The director of IRON SKY is to turn his attention to time travel. (And Nazis, natch.)
- A navigation app that maps an interesting route for you based on your start/end points and desired travel time.
- Speculation from @marcoarment on whether Apple has abandoned the Mac Pro and when the next will be.
- Opinions on fanfiction by @neilhimself.
- Good article on the street party that UK Uncut held outside Nick Clegg's house.
- Several organisations, including WordPress, join together to form the Internet Defense League [sic].
Posted via Feed This To That.
End of Gender: Buck Angel Wants to See Your Cervix
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/end-of-gen
I recently stumbled across Buck Angel's "Public Cervix Announcement," in which the transgender porn star reminds us that transmasculine folks still need to go to the gyno. If the Supreme Court signs off on Obamacare next month, queer and transgender people will take another step towards affordably and comfortably getting the plumbing checked.
Mustafa's Space Drive: An Egyptian Student's Quantum Physics Invention
http://www.fastcompany.com/1837966/musta
Remember the name, because you might see it again: Aisha Mustafa, a 19-year-old Egyptian physics student, patented a new type of propulsion system for spacecraft that uses cutting edge quantum physics instead of thrusters.
Astronauts enter world’s first private supply ship
http://bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2012/0
Space station astronauts floated into the Dragon on Saturday, a day after its heralded arrival as the world’s first commercial supply ship.
Interview with an Adware Author
http://philosecurity.org/2009/01/12/inte
Q: You wrote adware. You bastard.
What the Bible Says about Abortion
http://dailymull.com/1400/What-the-Bible-S
I was a very serious Bible-believer at the time, and so I started looking through the pages of the Bible for some kind of evidence one way or the other... I'd like to point one passage out to my fundamentalist friends which I've only become aware of recently, and which is not subtle at all. In fact, I would go so far as to say that anyone who is honestly a Bible-believer, in the sense that they believe that the Bible is literally true and an accurate moral guide, cannot read this passage and still be anti-abortion...
The Keaton Music Typewriter
http://kottke.org/12/05/the-keaton-music-t
No, it's not a typewriter that plays music. The Keaton Music Typewriter was invented in 1936 for the purpose of printing musical notes on sheet music paper.
Blindside, a new "3D audio-only adventure game" for iOS
http://boingboing.net/2012/05/24/blindsi
The project was inspired by co-creator Aaron Rasmussen's temporary blindness as a result of an explosion in high school chemistry.
Conway’s Game of Life in Conway’s Game of Life
http://jeremykun.wordpress.com/2011/11/0
...here is an implementation of Life within Life.
Germany sets new solar power record, institute says
http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilN
German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity per hour - equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity - through the midday hours on Friday and Saturday... The German government decided to abandon nuclear power after the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year, closing eight plants immediately and shutting down the remaining nine by 2022.
A tale of openness and secrecy: The Philadelphia Story
http://www.physicstoday.org/resource/1/p
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.1560
A now little-known manuscript prepared by nine young physicists as a statement about the futility of scientific secrecy quickly became a test of the limits of free discourse in the nuclear age.
The 7 Greatest (Real) Bill Murray Stories Ever Told
http://www.ranker.com/list/the-7-greates
Bill Murray is a bad ass. Some of these Bill Murray stories are legend and some may have indisputable proof, yet they are all amazing and sound exactly like the kind of awesome thing the most enigmatic celebrity (that we actually like) would do... this is a list of the greatest (real) Bill Murray encounters of all time. And no one will ever believe you.
5 Reasons You Should Never Take Advice from Celebrities
http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-reasons-yo
There are reasons we wisely choose to ignore their advice (or in many cases, make fun of it), but I don't think the celebrities themselves see the problem. Allow me to explain...
Drawings of the LHC in the style of Leonardo da Vinci
http://kottke.org/12/05/drawings-of-the-l
Dr. Sergio Cittolin has worked at CERN for the past 30 years as a research physicist. He has also made several drawings of the Large Hadron Collider in the style of Leonardo da Vinci.
First Deaths As Radiohead Fans Attack Coldplay Ones
http://themusic.com.au/blog/industry/201
Diehard Radiohead fans have clashed with Coldplay fan-club members around Australia as the issuing of Coldplay tickets this morning brought up deep-seated hatred between the two factions.
Middle-aged thug stamped on young woman's head in vicious 'hate crime' simply because she was dressed as a goth
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2
A drunken thug who stamped repeatedly on a young woman's head aboard a crowded tram simply because she was dressed in goth-style clothes was today facing a lengthy jail term.
One of the two stories above is a laughable and ironic parody. The other is not.
Accusations that climate science is money-driven reveal ignorance of how science is done
http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/05/a
One of the unfortunate memes that has made repeated appearances in the climate debate is that money isn't just influencing the public debate about science, but it's also influencing the science itself. The government, the argument goes, is paying scientists specifically to demonstrate that carbon dioxide is the major culprit in recent climate change, and the money available to do so is exploding. Although the argument displays a profound misunderstanding of how science and science funding work, it's just not going away.
LimeWire Sued For More Money Than Exists In The World
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/indu
The RIAA told a court ...it should be compensated for every individual download of the tracks. ...its claim for $72 trillion is 20 percent higher than the combined wealth of the entire world, which is $60 trillion...
RIAA Insists That, Really, The Music Industry Is Collapsing; Reality Shows It's Just The RIAA That's Collapsing
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/2012021
...the real story of the report is that the market is thriving for artists and consumers, but is much more challenging for big, lumbering legacy players. That would basically be the RIAA's membership.
What Common Objects Used to Be Made Of
http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2
The first synthetic plastic--celluoid--was developed as a substitute for ivory, and the elephants survived. Bakelite was invented in 1907 to replace the beetle excretion called shellac... Looking for new markets, the marketers discovered disposability...
Man Loses $22,000 In New 'Policing For Profit' Case
http://www.newschannel5.com/story/182412
"If somebody told me this happened to them, I absolutely would not believe this could happen in America." That was the reaction of a New Jersey man who found out just how risky it can be to carry cash through Tennessee... In this latest case, a Monterey police officer took $22,000 off the driver -- even though he had committed no crime...
5 Internet Annoyances That Are Way Older Than the Internet
http://www.cracked.com/article_19847_5-i
If you think going back in time a century or two would help you escape things like email spam, Nigerian scams or LOLspeak, think again.
5 Reasons Pop Culture Is Run by Fan-Fiction
http://www.cracked.com/article_19084_5-r
If you spend much time online, the words "fanfiction writer" probably don't fill you with gushing respect. For those lucky enough not to know, fanfics are amateur, nonauthorized stories relying on the plot or characters already created in movies, television shows, video games and just about everything else that you can imagine... Fanfiction is actually everywhere, and in some ways you're already a fan.
Nazi legacy: The troubled descendants
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18120
The names of Himmler, Goering, Goeth and Hoess still have the power to evoke the horrors of Nazi Germany, but what is it like to live with the legacy of those surnames, and is it ever possible to move on from the terrible crimes committed by your ancestors?
How Bots Seized Control of My Pricing Strategy
http://carlos.bueno.org/2012/02/bots-sei
I can't help but think about that old gambler's proverb: "If you can't spot the sucker, it's you."
Holiday Party 2011
http://imgur.com/a/s6dgU/
This was a Mystery Tab. I've no idea where it came from. There is no description of the photographs therein. Seems like an... interesting party, though.
This exists. And it’s disgusting: The iPhone umbilical cord charger
http://www.zagg.com/community/blog/this-e
Well, here’s something disgusting. Japanese artist Mio I-zawa has created an iPhone charger to resemble an umbilical cord, of all things. The charger partially swallows the phone even, almost creating a "womb" of sorts for your iPhone to charge in. But that’s not all, folks. As if this thing weren’t already creepy to look at, it actually moves and pulsates as it provides power, or "life", to the iPhone. I, uh...words escape me on this one, really.
How the European Internet Rose Up Against ACTA
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/02/e
ACTA, or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, is an international treaty that was negotiated in secret over the span of four years. While the provisions are currently public, their genesis was hidden from democratic scrutiny, and most nations signed on to ACTA without any chance for their citizenry to review or comment on the process.
The secret world of Geocaching
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/prog
Imagine a secret world, all around you. A world of hidden objects; barely concealed metal containers, sometimes magnetized and affixed to the underside of fuse boxes, or drainpipes. Other times, hidden in the nook of a tree, or underneath some scrub.
'Fair and square' pricing? That'll never work, JC Penney. We like being shafted
http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/0
Penney's ill-fated attempt to cast itself as the only fair poker player in a game of cheats. Shoppers just aren't buying it. However unsophisticated consumers are, very few of them believe a pair of shoes bought at Penney's everyday low price will be cheaper than a pair of shoes bought at Macy's on clearance with a 25 percent off coupon.
33 Perfectly Timed Photos
http://www.boredpanda.com/perfectly-time
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."
An unbiased review of the Marvel "Thor" Movie
http://exurbe.com/?p=796
...let me present an old piece overdue for posting in the fandom vein, my review of the MARVEL comics Thor movie which distressed everyone last spring by being nowhere near as awful as expected.
An Unbiased Review of the Marvel "Avengers" Movie
http://exurbe.com/?p=1368
Fired with anticipation after the subtle and intricately imagined commentary on Norse Mythology offered by Marvel’s "Thor" film, I used my one free afternoon on a short conference trip to Oxford to see the sequel...
Iron Sky getting a sequel AND a tv prequel
http://www.quietearth.us/articles/2012/0
Our own rochefort called Iron Sky a guilty pleasure and it seems the world agrees. Word is they'll be getting a 3-part tv prequel to answer the question How did the Nazis end up on the dark side of the moon, and what happened when they had returned to the Earth? and a sequel to continue the story.
Why NBC and Sony Continue to Make Community the Rodney Dangerfield of Sitcoms
http://www.themarysue.com/community-the-r
Back in its 1990s heyday, NBC latched on to its sitcom hits and ran with them. Friends and Seinfeld were like the golden children who could do no wrong. And yes, those were good shows. You know what’s also a good show? Community. So why does NBC continue to treat it like its red-headed stepchild? That red-headed stepchild is hilarious, sweet, and has tons and tons of friends! Well, as one of those friends (and a fake redhead), I want to discuss how Community became the Rodney Dangerfield of television.
Leaked Memo: 'Community' Studio Tells Cast How to Address Dan Harmon Firing
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-fe
Sony Pictures Television issues a talking-points memo in an effort to minimize media backlash over Harmon's exit as showrunner of the NBC series.
A Better Death than They Offered Him
http://bradhicks.livejournal.com/458088.h
...back in January, on one of the only actually seriously dangerously cold days we've had this winter, an elderly dementia patient escaped from a Belleville, Illinois nursing home; police found his body, where he had laid down to die in a creek bed out of sight, two days later. The guy's family are distraught that the nursing home failed to stop him from escaping, and now say that they should have known better, because the guy had a history of escape attempts. Oh. My. Fucking. Gods. I should damn well think he was trying to escape. I will, too.
and Yet Another "Why Are You Depressed, Brad?" and "Why Do You Hate America?"
http://bradhicks.livejournal.com/461464.h
If you think that this shit isn't going on in Afghanistan and Pakistan and Yemen and god only knows where else that your tax dollars are being used to save you from Islamist terrorism? You're ignorant, at best.
http://bitchmagazine.org/post/end-of-gen
I recently stumbled across Buck Angel's "Public Cervix Announcement," in which the transgender porn star reminds us that transmasculine folks still need to go to the gyno. If the Supreme Court signs off on Obamacare next month, queer and transgender people will take another step towards affordably and comfortably getting the plumbing checked.
Mustafa's Space Drive: An Egyptian Student's Quantum Physics Invention
http://www.fastcompany.com/1837966/musta
Remember the name, because you might see it again: Aisha Mustafa, a 19-year-old Egyptian physics student, patented a new type of propulsion system for spacecraft that uses cutting edge quantum physics instead of thrusters.
Astronauts enter world’s first private supply ship
http://bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2012/0
Space station astronauts floated into the Dragon on Saturday, a day after its heralded arrival as the world’s first commercial supply ship.
Interview with an Adware Author
http://philosecurity.org/2009/01/12/inte
Q: You wrote adware. You bastard.
What the Bible Says about Abortion
http://dailymull.com/1400/What-the-Bible-S
I was a very serious Bible-believer at the time, and so I started looking through the pages of the Bible for some kind of evidence one way or the other... I'd like to point one passage out to my fundamentalist friends which I've only become aware of recently, and which is not subtle at all. In fact, I would go so far as to say that anyone who is honestly a Bible-believer, in the sense that they believe that the Bible is literally true and an accurate moral guide, cannot read this passage and still be anti-abortion...
The Keaton Music Typewriter
http://kottke.org/12/05/the-keaton-music-t
No, it's not a typewriter that plays music. The Keaton Music Typewriter was invented in 1936 for the purpose of printing musical notes on sheet music paper.
Blindside, a new "3D audio-only adventure game" for iOS
http://boingboing.net/2012/05/24/blindsi
The project was inspired by co-creator Aaron Rasmussen's temporary blindness as a result of an explosion in high school chemistry.
Conway’s Game of Life in Conway’s Game of Life
http://jeremykun.wordpress.com/2011/11/0
...here is an implementation of Life within Life.
Germany sets new solar power record, institute says
http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOilN
German solar power plants produced a world record 22 gigawatts of electricity per hour - equal to 20 nuclear power stations at full capacity - through the midday hours on Friday and Saturday... The German government decided to abandon nuclear power after the Fukushima nuclear disaster last year, closing eight plants immediately and shutting down the remaining nine by 2022.
A tale of openness and secrecy: The Philadelphia Story
http://www.physicstoday.org/resource/1/p
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.1560
A now little-known manuscript prepared by nine young physicists as a statement about the futility of scientific secrecy quickly became a test of the limits of free discourse in the nuclear age.
The 7 Greatest (Real) Bill Murray Stories Ever Told
http://www.ranker.com/list/the-7-greates
Bill Murray is a bad ass. Some of these Bill Murray stories are legend and some may have indisputable proof, yet they are all amazing and sound exactly like the kind of awesome thing the most enigmatic celebrity (that we actually like) would do... this is a list of the greatest (real) Bill Murray encounters of all time. And no one will ever believe you.
5 Reasons You Should Never Take Advice from Celebrities
http://www.cracked.com/blog/5-reasons-yo
There are reasons we wisely choose to ignore their advice (or in many cases, make fun of it), but I don't think the celebrities themselves see the problem. Allow me to explain...
Drawings of the LHC in the style of Leonardo da Vinci
http://kottke.org/12/05/drawings-of-the-l
Dr. Sergio Cittolin has worked at CERN for the past 30 years as a research physicist. He has also made several drawings of the Large Hadron Collider in the style of Leonardo da Vinci.
First Deaths As Radiohead Fans Attack Coldplay Ones
http://themusic.com.au/blog/industry/201
Diehard Radiohead fans have clashed with Coldplay fan-club members around Australia as the issuing of Coldplay tickets this morning brought up deep-seated hatred between the two factions.
Middle-aged thug stamped on young woman's head in vicious 'hate crime' simply because she was dressed as a goth
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2
A drunken thug who stamped repeatedly on a young woman's head aboard a crowded tram simply because she was dressed in goth-style clothes was today facing a lengthy jail term.
One of the two stories above is a laughable and ironic parody. The other is not.
Accusations that climate science is money-driven reveal ignorance of how science is done
http://arstechnica.com/science/2012/05/a
One of the unfortunate memes that has made repeated appearances in the climate debate is that money isn't just influencing the public debate about science, but it's also influencing the science itself. The government, the argument goes, is paying scientists specifically to demonstrate that carbon dioxide is the major culprit in recent climate change, and the money available to do so is exploding. Although the argument displays a profound misunderstanding of how science and science funding work, it's just not going away.
LimeWire Sued For More Money Than Exists In The World
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/indu
The RIAA told a court ...it should be compensated for every individual download of the tracks. ...its claim for $72 trillion is 20 percent higher than the combined wealth of the entire world, which is $60 trillion...
RIAA Insists That, Really, The Music Industry Is Collapsing; Reality Shows It's Just The RIAA That's Collapsing
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/2012021
...the real story of the report is that the market is thriving for artists and consumers, but is much more challenging for big, lumbering legacy players. That would basically be the RIAA's membership.
What Common Objects Used to Be Made Of
http://www.wired.com/beyond_the_beyond/2
The first synthetic plastic--celluoid--was developed as a substitute for ivory, and the elephants survived. Bakelite was invented in 1907 to replace the beetle excretion called shellac... Looking for new markets, the marketers discovered disposability...
Man Loses $22,000 In New 'Policing For Profit' Case
http://www.newschannel5.com/story/182412
"If somebody told me this happened to them, I absolutely would not believe this could happen in America." That was the reaction of a New Jersey man who found out just how risky it can be to carry cash through Tennessee... In this latest case, a Monterey police officer took $22,000 off the driver -- even though he had committed no crime...
5 Internet Annoyances That Are Way Older Than the Internet
http://www.cracked.com/article_19847_5-i
If you think going back in time a century or two would help you escape things like email spam, Nigerian scams or LOLspeak, think again.
5 Reasons Pop Culture Is Run by Fan-Fiction
http://www.cracked.com/article_19084_5-r
If you spend much time online, the words "fanfiction writer" probably don't fill you with gushing respect. For those lucky enough not to know, fanfics are amateur, nonauthorized stories relying on the plot or characters already created in movies, television shows, video games and just about everything else that you can imagine... Fanfiction is actually everywhere, and in some ways you're already a fan.
Nazi legacy: The troubled descendants
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18120
The names of Himmler, Goering, Goeth and Hoess still have the power to evoke the horrors of Nazi Germany, but what is it like to live with the legacy of those surnames, and is it ever possible to move on from the terrible crimes committed by your ancestors?
How Bots Seized Control of My Pricing Strategy
http://carlos.bueno.org/2012/02/bots-sei
I can't help but think about that old gambler's proverb: "If you can't spot the sucker, it's you."
Holiday Party 2011
http://imgur.com/a/s6dgU/
This was a Mystery Tab. I've no idea where it came from. There is no description of the photographs therein. Seems like an... interesting party, though.
This exists. And it’s disgusting: The iPhone umbilical cord charger
http://www.zagg.com/community/blog/this-e
Well, here’s something disgusting. Japanese artist Mio I-zawa has created an iPhone charger to resemble an umbilical cord, of all things. The charger partially swallows the phone even, almost creating a "womb" of sorts for your iPhone to charge in. But that’s not all, folks. As if this thing weren’t already creepy to look at, it actually moves and pulsates as it provides power, or "life", to the iPhone. I, uh...words escape me on this one, really.
How the European Internet Rose Up Against ACTA
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/02/e
ACTA, or the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, is an international treaty that was negotiated in secret over the span of four years. While the provisions are currently public, their genesis was hidden from democratic scrutiny, and most nations signed on to ACTA without any chance for their citizenry to review or comment on the process.
The secret world of Geocaching
http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/prog
Imagine a secret world, all around you. A world of hidden objects; barely concealed metal containers, sometimes magnetized and affixed to the underside of fuse boxes, or drainpipes. Other times, hidden in the nook of a tree, or underneath some scrub.
'Fair and square' pricing? That'll never work, JC Penney. We like being shafted
http://redtape.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/0
Penney's ill-fated attempt to cast itself as the only fair poker player in a game of cheats. Shoppers just aren't buying it. However unsophisticated consumers are, very few of them believe a pair of shoes bought at Penney's everyday low price will be cheaper than a pair of shoes bought at Macy's on clearance with a 25 percent off coupon.
33 Perfectly Timed Photos
http://www.boredpanda.com/perfectly-time
"Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity."
An unbiased review of the Marvel "Thor" Movie
http://exurbe.com/?p=796
...let me present an old piece overdue for posting in the fandom vein, my review of the MARVEL comics Thor movie which distressed everyone last spring by being nowhere near as awful as expected.
An Unbiased Review of the Marvel "Avengers" Movie
http://exurbe.com/?p=1368
Fired with anticipation after the subtle and intricately imagined commentary on Norse Mythology offered by Marvel’s "Thor" film, I used my one free afternoon on a short conference trip to Oxford to see the sequel...
Iron Sky getting a sequel AND a tv prequel
http://www.quietearth.us/articles/2012/0
Our own rochefort called Iron Sky a guilty pleasure and it seems the world agrees. Word is they'll be getting a 3-part tv prequel to answer the question How did the Nazis end up on the dark side of the moon, and what happened when they had returned to the Earth? and a sequel to continue the story.
Why NBC and Sony Continue to Make Community the Rodney Dangerfield of Sitcoms
http://www.themarysue.com/community-the-r
Back in its 1990s heyday, NBC latched on to its sitcom hits and ran with them. Friends and Seinfeld were like the golden children who could do no wrong. And yes, those were good shows. You know what’s also a good show? Community. So why does NBC continue to treat it like its red-headed stepchild? That red-headed stepchild is hilarious, sweet, and has tons and tons of friends! Well, as one of those friends (and a fake redhead), I want to discuss how Community became the Rodney Dangerfield of television.
Leaked Memo: 'Community' Studio Tells Cast How to Address Dan Harmon Firing
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-fe
Sony Pictures Television issues a talking-points memo in an effort to minimize media backlash over Harmon's exit as showrunner of the NBC series.
A Better Death than They Offered Him
http://bradhicks.livejournal.com/458088.h
...back in January, on one of the only actually seriously dangerously cold days we've had this winter, an elderly dementia patient escaped from a Belleville, Illinois nursing home; police found his body, where he had laid down to die in a creek bed out of sight, two days later. The guy's family are distraught that the nursing home failed to stop him from escaping, and now say that they should have known better, because the guy had a history of escape attempts. Oh. My. Fucking. Gods. I should damn well think he was trying to escape. I will, too.
and Yet Another "Why Are You Depressed, Brad?" and "Why Do You Hate America?"
http://bradhicks.livejournal.com/461464.h
If you think that this shit isn't going on in Afghanistan and Pakistan and Yemen and god only knows where else that your tax dollars are being used to save you from Islamist terrorism? You're ignorant, at best.
- 33 Perfectly Timed Photos
(tags: photographs funny ) - Laser Cut Seaweed for Sushi Rolls
(tags: japan sushi food lasers ) - Company tries straightforward pricing with no hidden charges - fails badly.
(tags: people business pricing ) - Israel continues to be revolting in its treatment of asylum seekers
(tags: asylum israel africa ) - The Eve-Online ship/galaxy viewer is pretty damned awesome for a web page.
(tags: games eve_online html5 webgl ) - An awesome flowchart dealing with all the objections to marriage equality
(tags: lgbt relationships marriage ) - An Analysis of Blaster Fire in Star Wars. God, I love the geekiness of this kind of thing.
(tags: starwars physics ) - What do The Avengers do on their day off?
(tags: funny avengers )
Original post on Dreamwidth - there are
- Sun, 02:47: Chauffeuring @marypcbuk and a friend around Temecula wineries. Sticking to local tangerines and water. #designateddriver
- Sun, 02:51: I don't think they like their car... http://t.co/NG3qiB0w
- Sun, 03:48: Winery Sunset http://t.co/dBjFcFkM
- Sun, 04:34: RT @Richard_Kadrey: RT @RubenBolling: Magazine covers created for a background newsstand in the movie Blade Runner http://t.co/SWSXm8Ga ...
- Sat, 17:51: George Takei & the Internet vs Facebook; I know who should win but I have a good idea who will :-(
- Sat, 19:52: Mexican breakfast with a view of a hummingbird buzzing a crow! (Checked in at Coyote Grill (Laguna Beach, CA)) http://t.co/oGB6rM5h
- Sun, 00:46: Rather sweet for the dry wines, rather a lot of tannin (Checked in at Baily Winery) http://t.co/mFq0MhsI
- Sun, 01:53: Selection of interestingly fruity roses, good blends, excellent cab sauv
- Sun, 04:19: Excellent for tapas (OMG chorizo croquettes, duck taco), just as good for steak http://t.co/nvnkPTNl
http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/3229.ht
 Inside the Capitoline Museums, Rome. |
The above photo is of the Capitoline Wolf, one of the most iconic sculptures of... well, I would like to say antiquity, but recent work on dating the statue has thrown serious doubt on its traditionally reported origin as an Etruscan work of the 5th century BC. It now seems most likely that the wolf part of the statue was actually made in medieval times, around the 13th century.
The suckling twin babies are in a completely different style and there is general agreement that they were added to the overall work in the 15th century, rather than being a part of the original wolf statue. They represent Romulus and Remus - according to myth the traditional founders of Rome, who as babies were abandoned to die in the wilderness but were found and suckled by a she-wolf before being taken in by the shepherd Faustulus and raised to manhood. This is one of the most famous legends of Roman mythology and is referenced all over the place.
The statue is a symbol of Rome, and reproductions or images of it can be found in many places and contexts symbolising the city, as well as in many other places around the world merely as an art object or icon representing the concept of "founding of a city" in general.
 Marcus Aurelius. Bottom left is the Capitoline Wolf. Capitoline Museums, Rome. |
The original statue is displayed inside the adjacent Capitoline Museums, which many tourists to the city of Rome don't have the time or desire to go into. And it's displayed at eye level so you can get a much better view of it than the copy outside. Despite all of this, when I went to see it there were far fewer people looking at the original inside the museum than at the reproduction on the pillar outside. So I was able to get this photo with no people in the shot.
There's another statue outside the Capitoline Museums - a magnificent bronze of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius mounted on a horse. It dominates the piazza and is impossible to miss. Again, this is a reproduction, and the original bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius is inside the adjacent Capitoline Museums. This statue is genuinely ancient, originally erected in 175 AD, and it is the only surviving bronze statue of a pre-Christian Roman Emperor (others were melted down either to reuse the metal or because they were unacceptably pagan to early Christians).
If I have a point to make today it's this: When you travel, don't just gawk at tourist attractions outdoors. Go into museums. Take a bit of time to learn more about the local culture and history. The rewards are worth it.
And in closing for today, I'll mention that while in Italy I managed close calls with all four Ninja Turtles:
- In the Pantheon in Rome, I saw the tomb of Raphael.
- In the Capitoline Museums I saw a special display of documents from the Vatican archives. This included a letter to the Bishop of Cessna seeking assistance for workers who had been locked out of building the newly commissioned St Peter's Basilica following the death of the superintendent's patron, Pope Paul III. This letter was handwritten by that construction superintendent: Michelangelo.
- In Venice I visited a museum featuring working reconstructions of dozens of amazing inventions, built from engineering drawings by Leonardo.
- Also in Venice, while taking a vaporetto (water bus), I saw a poster advertising (in Italian) "All manufacturers! Great discounts!" The company being advertised was: Donatello Outlet.
Via Flickr:
So now I know the answer to the question: "Which LP would you pull from your burning home?" PiL's awesome, "Metal Box".
I've not posted for almost a month and that's partly because I've been ill - some viral ick and then bacterial seediness that has taken two courses of antibiotics to knock out. Also writing for the Guardian - the radfem piece most of you have seen by now and the first two John Donne pieces. Also FLUTE DANCE, a short story for the second TALES FROM THE HOUSE BAND - it's another Mara story and possibly the best thing I've writted in the Rhapsodyverse. Publication looms, and a September US trip, and I still have about 15 k to write of Vol 2 REFLECTIONS. I know everything left to happen, sort of, and am getting up to speed and writing my thousand a day. So I will finish in June, and start the next critical book in July, and start volume 3 in January. If fate allows.
Poetry has gone into a fallow time, but more soon.
Poetry has gone into a fallow time, but more soon.
Happy birthday, mac_arthur_park
mac_arthur_parkProfile
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