http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ArghInk/~3/t
http://www.arghink.com/?p=8346
It’s Tap Dance Day. What’s new, Twinkletoes?
(Also the day to wear the lilac and remember your towel, but that’s the next post.)
Firstly the tickets, or rather the location the seats were in. When the UK dates were first announced they went on general sale on a Friday, with a 24 hour pre-sale restricted to members of the Planet Rock VIP club which I was a member of at the time, with the on line box office opening at 9am. When I got on the site it was about 9:15am, and one of the first things I realised was that they only had the slightly cheaper seats available. However as you couldn't choose your seats and there was a statement to the effect that the seats would be allocated on a first come first served basis with the best seats going first, I wasn't too concerned as I was early enough to get very good cheap seats. This turned out not to be the case - OK I understand that maybe all the cheaper seats were only in the balconies but we were a few rows back from the front of the balcony and about as far away from the stage as we could get, up in a far corner. To add insult to injury, we could see a number of seats lower down (more expensive area I think) that was empty - why wasn't I offered THOSE seats when I booked?
The other slight spoiler was the venue itself. Neither Trevor or I had been to the O2, well he had but only for work while it was being kitted out just after the Milennium celebrations, so not for a concert. I'd had a long week & my foot/leg was quite bad, so we timed our arrival for about half an hour after the "doors open" time of 6:30pm on the tickets so i could sit down right away. Despite this we couldn't actually get to our seats until past 7:30, we had to wander around for ages while people tried to sell us the most over-priced food & drink I've ever seen - over £6.00 for a Herta hotdog, and a fiver for a "grab bag" sized bag of sweets????
When we eventually were allowed into the seating area, I was unpleasantly surprised by the narrowness of the seats. OK I know I'm not exactly skinny, but a size 18-20 bum and I could barely squeeze into the seat exacerbated by the cup holders. More tellingly, adults sitting side by side didn't really have room for their shoulders unless at least one person hunched forwards. I saw one lady coming up the stairs who was at least 3-4 dress sizes bigger than me so no way would she have fitted into the seats. There was very little leg room too, and even at my height my legs felt a bit cramped & poor Trevor at around 6' tall was definitely squashed.
The final venue issue for me was the acoustics weren't great, probably the worst either of us had encountered at a gig and in that we include crappy little local venues.
All in all I'm really happy that we went, but despite the convenience of getting there (20min bus ride from Trevor's house) we will have to think long & hard about going there again :(
- Current Mood:
pensive
- The day that Hell was abolished
...in English law anyway.
(tags: religion ) - If you can't boost the economy, boost house prices
Peter Birks on the proposed mortgage guarantee scheme.
(tags: ukpolitics ) - Why the world faces climate chaos
The FT explains that we are, in fact, doomed.
(tags: climatechange ) - Andrew Jackson's Big Block of Cheese
The truth behind the story.
(tags: history usa )
( Bears Likes to HelpsCollapse )
Everybodies had goods times at trains place. Then we wents wheres it rains too muches. Bears tolds Boys he is sillies to stand in rains with cameras getting wets and asked when we is going homes. Boys says wes is goings homes soons.
- Current Mood:
happy
Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are
- Current Location:Lake Oswego, Oregon
- Current Mood:wet
- Current Music:Giants Baseball
They did a remake about 30 years after the first one. If they keep to that schedule, another remake should be along around 2020. I would not do what the 1990s remake did and change when it is set because the movie (as was mentioned to me) has a very cell-phone unfriendly plot.
Hmmm. Assuming the actors are about the same age as Bette Davis was in WHTBJ, actors who will be the right age in 202* would include Charlize Theron, Drew Barrymore and Angelina Jolie.
(It's Blanche's house and she's not poor, so money isn't the issue)
Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are
1. You need to have it on standby all the time, because you turn it on by shouting at it. How much power will that consume?
2. "It does not have to be always connected, but Xbox One does require a connection to the Internet". So does that mean that it has to 'phone home once a day, just to say hi, or will it check every time you fire up a game that the game's licenced to you, that you're living in the right country, there aren't too many people in the room to violate the TOS of your streaming TV?...
3. You licence a game, you don't buy it. So the software companies have always told us, but now Microsoft think they've finally managed to go back a century, to before the courts ruled on the doctrine of first sale (do a web search for the EULA on Edison wax cylinders for what it was like before that). They also cheerfully say that there's nothing to stop you passing the physical media to a friend, but they have to pay a fee to play it on their console. Does anyone think that that fee will be anything less than 100% of the full retail price of the original licence?
4. The console isn't backwards compatible with anything. Given the amount that Xbox 360 owners will have invested in games for that console, what are the chances that they'll rush out and buy an Xbox One?
Cross-posted from DreamWidth at http://murphys-lawyer.dreamwidth.org/19
- Current Mood:
thoughtful
Washington State police say an Alberta trucker was responsible for hitting a steel beam precipitating a bridge collapse on one of the busiest routes in the American northwest.
Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there arecomment(s); comment here or there.
Which means you can watch a younger (24, although her character is clearly a bit younger) Christina Hendricks, pre-Firefly, in an episode written by Buffy/Angel writer Stephen DeKnight.
(For people with different genre preferences, the Very Special Plotline from the second season in which Katee Sackhoff learns that she can, indeed, love a man in a wheelchair, is also online.)
I'd like to say they'll pass, yet fear to lie.
It's probable that some of you will die
before all this is done. Will die alone
in exile or in prison, slowly starve
die from diseases we know how to cure
be left to die from them because too poor.
Worse yet, know while you live your every breath
is stolen from those poorer. Make them count
each angry moment, live write fuck and dance.
You cannot choose your time. So take each chance
to live. Remember me. Give good account
of who I was. And make the bastards pay
who kill our world, our lives, our brief lost day.
betrayals so bad they will break your heart
as they did mine. Quite soon, departures start
among you – lovers, comrades. Never ends
this agony of watching things go wrong
in times of trouble. One will turn to drink
and slowly die. Another start to think
small compromises best, self-sold belong
among the worst there is. And yet his face
still has the smile you loved, as with a moan
reluctantly he sends the robot drone
that kills us each in turn. I hope for grace
to curse, love, understand such traitors still.
Stare coldly in their eyes, then shoot to kill.
- Current Location:Horsham, UK
- Current Mood:
contemplative
"I do not use crack cocaine," Ford told a jam-packed news conference at Toronto City Hall. "Nor am I an addict of crack cocaine."
I expect a lot of people will comment on the tense he used.
Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are
Originally published at Cheryl's Mewsings. Please leave any comments there.
Last night I attended the launch party for the Union Cup, which was held at Bristol’s science museum, @Bristol, an extraordinary venue which I must visit again and report on in detail. The party was a fascinating experience. There were around 500 people present, of whom only 4 were women. Almost all of the men were gay, and very few looked anything like the mincing stereotype that the national media still trots out whenever gay issues get mentioned. Kudos is due to Peter Williams, the Chair of Gloucestershire Rugby Football Union, who made the opening speech, stressing rugby’s support of the tournament and its commitment to inclusivity.
The tournament got underway today with a ceremonial first kick by Ian Boulton, the Chair of South Gloucestershire Council, and the equivalent of the mayor for the region in which the Stoke Gifford sports campus is located. WISE Campus is home to Bristol Academy and boasts the only purpose-built ladies’ soccer stadium in the country. There’s even a little statue of a vixen with a football at the entrance to the ground. It also has three rugby pitches, and we used them all.
As might be expected, the standard of rugby varied enormously. Some teams were very professional, while others had never played a competitive match before. All of the teams, however, were out to do their best, and there was no shortage of aggression. In the very first game a Newcastle Ravens player left the field with a dislocated shoulder (rough lot, those Bisons). I saw several other shoulder injuries during the day; a Bisons player limped off with an ankle injury, and I heard rumor of a broken arm. Pride of place in the tough guy stakes goes to Matt, the fly half for Manchester Village Spartans, who took a boot to the face in his first game. After a quick trip to hospital for some stitches just above his eyebrows, he was back in action for game two.
There was plenty of needle too. In the first five minutes of their game against Cardiff Lions, the London Steelers were twice penalized for foul play, including a vicious clothesline tackle that left the Welsh player flat out on the field for a couple of minutes. Later on the referee stopped the game for five minutes while he gave the teams a good talking to and got them to calm down.
The conditions made play difficult at times. The wind was very strong and several times I saw players kick the ball only to see it blown back over their heads. Although there were some competent kickers, not once did I see a penalty attempt at goal. Everyone tried to keep the ball in hand, but the cold temperatures and occasional fierce rain squalls made that difficult too. We are all hoping for better weather tomorrow.
There was, of course, plenty of excellent rugby, and a nail-biting finish to the day. The teams in the 15-a-side tournament had been divided into four groups. Each team played three matches, mostly in-group, with points being scored according to a system of 4 for a win, 2 for a draw, plus bonus points for 4 tries and losing by 7 or less. At the end of the day all of the teams were combined into a single table. London, Dublin and Manchester qualified for the final being unbeaten in their groups, but there was a three-way tie for fourth place and a tense wait while Dave Aird, the tournament director, counted up points scored for and against in matches. In the end Newcastle Ravens just pipped Cardiff Lions, with Northampton Outlaws, in their first ever competition, finishing a very creditable sixth.
In the 10-a-side content Dublin and Montpelier were clearly the form teams. The French team is unbeaten, and will be expecting to vanquish the Irish again tomorrow. My new best friends, the Lisbon Dark Horses, will be delighted with a win over Birmingham Bulls.
As with rugby sevens, the tournament will feature additional playoff games for lesser trophies. Cardiff and Northampton will be joined in the Plate contest by the London 2nd XV and the Amsterdam Lowlanders. The Bowl will be fought over by Stockholm Berserkers, Brussels Straffe Ketten, Edinburgh Thebans and Lyons Rebelyons. The Spoon match will be between Berlin Bruisers and Bristol Bisons.
Although the Bisons lost all three matches, they can count themselves somewhat unlucky. They were not expected to beat Newcastle, but the Northampton Outlaws were very much the surprise team of the tournament. They had never played a competitive game before, and came within a whisker of making the finals. Bristol’s third game was against an experienced Amsterdam side that had only narrowly lost to Brussels.
Much as it pains me to admit it, I am fairly sure that London will come away with the cup again tomorrow. However, Dublin and Manchester are both fine sides. The Irish have come to Bristol with the firm intention of winning both tournaments, and have a group play record as good as London’s, but Manchester had to play a game against Newcastle. The Spartans have a proud tradition in gay rugby, having hosted the world’s first ever such match in 1995. They’ll be determined to make the final again.
Whatever happens, we can be guaranteed a lot of exciting rugby. Bristol’s Mayor, George Ferguson, will be joining us at the ground for the finals. I’ll be doing live commentary, alongside my new friend, Paul Davis, who runs BCFM’s sports show. We’ll also be doing the sports show live from the ground, covering all the day’s action (including the test cricket and the Monaco Grand Prix), and previewing Sunday’s Woman’s FA Cup Final. You can follow all of the action over the Internet via the BCFM website.
Since the ceaseless 'making' of his world extended from my father's youth into his old age, The History of Middle-earth is in some sense also a record of his life, a form of biography, if of a very unusual kind. He had travelled a long road. He bequeathed to me a massive legacy of writings that made possible the tracing of that road, in as I hope its true sequence, and the unearthing of the deep foundations that led ultimately to the true end of his great history, when the white ship departed from the Grey Havens.So I have come to the end of The History of Middle-earth, with this volume. The first two-thirds are about the composition of the appendices of LotR; the rest brings together some short essays, mostly unfinished. Two of these are rather interesting. "The Shibboleth of Fëanor" looks at how the original 'þ' became 's' in Quenya but remained 'þ' in Sindarin, as in the name Sindacollo, the Quenya version of Thingol; Sindarin itself is a Quenya word, the Sindarin calling themselves the Egladhrim. There is also an intriguing late set of thoughts on the true identity of Glorfindel, who appears in quite different contexts in both LotR and the fall of Gondolin; one fascinating possibility is that he actually was killed in the First Age but allowed to return from the Halls of Mandos to accompany Gandalf on his mission, which would explain why the Nazgûl are particularly perturbed by him.
There is also the fragment of The New Shadow, a sequel to LotR which clearly wasn't going anywhere; it is a story of boyhood orchard-robbing near Minas Tirith which didn't quite come together. It's been rather instructive to see the number of false starts Tolkien made on what might have been substantial works - The Lost Road, The Notion Club Papers, and his various attempts, all pretty unsuccessful, to tell the story of Ëarendil. These are not journeyman pieces; they were mostly written when Tolkien was already a published author. Fortunately, of course, he had the luxury of abandoning lines of writing that were just not working out (though he went back to Ëarendil several times over). But it's worth remembering that many good pieces of writing have quite a lot of less good writing from the same pen behind and below them, most of which we readers will never see.
Most people will either buy all twelve volumes of The History of Middle-earth, or none of them. My recommendation for the curious is to try the tenth of the sequence, Morgoth's Ring, with its essay on elf sex among other interesting fragments. As for me, I've got John Rateliff's two volumes about The Hobbit on the shelf, and a few other bits of Tolkieniana; so I shall not get bored.
"Honestly," Nettie said, shaking her head again. "The lies people tell themselves and call it the truth."These wee Puffin Doctor Who ebooks are having a good run right now. Here we have the celebrated Patrick Ness, delivering a very solid tale of two marginal teenagers in wartime Maine, finding themselves dealing with a peculiar fad for truth-telling gadgets which turn out to be alien tech, with a mysterious celery-wearing stranger and his scandalously dressed companion all mixed up with it as well. This is the first of the books in this series which is not told from the tight narrative viewpoint of Doctor or companion, and all the better for it.
My experiences with USB adapters of this type have been dire - they don't support older Macs such as my iBook very well, and Linux support seems to be very poor indeed, requiring more OS tweaking than I'm happy with. But any computer that has a network socket is pretty much bound to have appropriate networking software as part of the OS, and knows how to make a basic connection. It'd also free a USB port!
I know that there are 3G to WiFi hubs, which is of course another way of doing this job, but they need a separate power supply etc. and would be more of a hassle. And there were 3G GSM cards for older laptops that had PC card sockets, which wouldn't be much use to me.
Is this something that used to be around but has gone the way of the dodo, or just never got invented because USB was around?
- Thu, 23:29: Breakfast of home made miso noodle soup and veggies. #loveyourfood http://t.co/Qzo9TumkS8
This pic actually taken by my sister with her cell phone. It is the view from her front porch.
Short listed for this year's Hugos, this is another in Talbot's alternate history of Grandville, where most people are anthropomorphised animals and England is only now recovering from two hundred years of French rule after defeat at Waterloo. As well as taking us to the dark heart of political conspiracy, with overtones of Tintin (and also, frankly, Dangermouse), Talbot reflects art history too in his distorted gaze; the character here illustrated is one Jackson Pollo, and he refers in an afterword to the CIA's funding of Abstract Expressionism. It's a witty, absurd and also rather bleak story. I will find it tough to choose between this and Saucer Country for the Hugo.
Telling history through things is what museums are for.This brilliant book accompanies the brilliant series of podcasts which I listened to a couple of years ago. It is the same hundred objects from the British museum's collection, but this time in dead tree format. The individual talks, which were 11-14 minutes on the radio, are down to 5-7 pages here, so I think quite substantially cut; but what we get in return is pictures of the actual objects, which radio cannot give. Actually in most cases I felt I actually had got a fairly good impression of the objects' appearance from listening to the audio version, but there were a couple where the picture does make a big difference - the sexually explicit Warren Cup, and the extraordinarily detailed mechanical galleon of Augsburg. Anyway, it is all very nicely done (though I did notice as I browsed the maps at the end that none of the objects is from, er, Ireland).
---
Yesterday, I wrote 1,636 words and finished Alabaster: Boxcar Tales #13. Which finishes Alabaster: Boxcar Tales.
Spooky and I both got weepy, reading back over the last script.
Last week I spoke with my editor at Dark Horse and told him that it was time for me to step back from both Dancy and comics for the foreseeable future. That, after almost two years of pretty heavy involvement on this project, it was time to refocus my attention on my prose work. It felt a lot like I was tendering my resignation, like quitting a job, though it doesn't truly amount to quite that. It just means that, for the time being, I'm choosing to concentrate on other projects. In a lot of ways, working in comics is far more stressful than prose publishing, and, right now, I've got to decrease the stress in my life.
That said, working with Dark Horse has been a marvelous experience, and I thank everyone I've worked with – Rachel, Jemiah, Daniel, Shantel, Mike, Steve, Greg, Rachelle, Augie, and Spencer – for making Alabaster: Wolves and Alabaster: Boxcar Tales happen. I'm not an easy person to work with, and you've all shown admirable patience. I especially thank the many readers and reviewers who've believed in the books. Thank you. And if you are a fan, don't be sad.
There will be additional Dancy material from Dark Horse, but I'm not yet at liberty to announce what it will be or when it will be released. I'll make those announcements when I'm told that I can.
Into the Light of the Dark Black Night.
Aunt Beast
- Current Location:An old barn in east-central Alabama
- Current Mood:
tired - Current Music:Brown Bird, "Wayward Daughter"
- Bag News Notes' Michael Shaw considers the remarkable cool of one of the terrorists involved in the Woolwich killing of a British soldier. Does this cool mean this is routine?
- Beyond the Beyond's Bruce Sterling and Will Baird at The Dragon's Tales both note astronomers who think that Saturn's moon Titan, nearing summer, is about to experience hurricanes.
- Also at The Dragon's Tales, Will Baird notes a new study of exoplanet magnetic fields suggesting that planet Gliese 667Cc orbits too close to its sun to avoid tidal locking, and thus has suffered a collapse of its magnetic field and erosion of its atmosphere.
- Eastern Approaches notes the contretemps between Germany and Hungary, curiously triggered by the German chancellor saying that she would not send in the cavalry (metaphorically) to deal to Hungary's destruction of its democracy.
- GNXP's Razib Khan notes that the Aborigines of Australia were not culturally static, among other things observing that Aborigine language groups reflect the recent dominance of a single language family.
- The Search's Butch Lazorchak argues in favour of the development of lossless recording techniques versus lossy ones, from the perspective of long-term preservation.
- At Une heure de peine, Denis Colombi writes, in French about a recent article on race and sex. There may be tendencies, but they are only tendencies, not uniform across populations by any means. What does it take to belong to amorphous groups?
- Window on Eurasia links to a Russian commentator who argues that Russia should look not to Europe or China for models of development, but rather to the continental superpower that is the United States.
( Read more...Collapse )
Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are
Already various reports are trying to blame an overloaded truck for hitting the bridge which led to the collapse. Sorry, no dice, a bridge, especially one on an Interstate Highway shouldn't be able to fail from a truck damaging part of the structure. You might need to close the bridge and repair/replace, but a section shouldn't undergo catastrophic collapse.
Soon afterwards, a friend of mine who is a Civil Engineer working in the North West posted this:
There are always those that oppose infrastructure spending claiming we don't need to replace aging structures that are "just fine." Well, here's an example of what happens when structures beyond their life span are kept in service with nomeaningful maintenance...it's a problem people...the majority of the Interstate system was built in the 1950's with a 50 year service life...guess what...we're 10 years past that...as much as you may not like cars or highways, this a major problem in the US that needs attention and tax dollars.
And this is the heart of the issue. The US road infrastructure is tired and old and in some cases beyond being patched up. That's the actually appalling legacy left by the economic policies which have held sway for a generation. Everything focused on short term costs with no eye on the actual long term implications.
Also, last Saturday
eustaciavye invited me over for a David Tennantfest including the BBC Casanova, which last has been pleasantly haunting me all week. I never knew before that his first name was Giacomo -- anglicized, he's Jack Newhouse. Now I wonder if anyone's written a horny, charming character named Jack Newhouse into something or other.I imagine everybody reading this is saying, "Well, duh!" right about now, but I suspect a historically important point is being missed. What I see Pope Francis doing here is taking a head-on stance against Martin Luther's doctrine of Sola Fide, or Salvation by Faith Alone. It's been a point of major contention between protestant and catholic interpretations of Christianity for centuries, and Pope Francis is coming down firmly on the side of the traditionally Catholic position. However, he's going to a place where his namesake, St. Francis, went but few others have since. The pope is saying that not only is salvation by faith alone a bogus argument, but that faith doesn't even matter. Atheists who do good will obtain the Great Reward, while those who proclaim belief in Christ but do not do good will not have salvation.
Personally, I think Pope Francis is right about this. It's the way we live our lives that counts. But he's not making any effort to bridge an old difference with the protestant denominations by taking this position. On the other hand, I don't think any mainline protestant leader is going to make a big thing of it.
This entry was originally posted at http://wcg.dreamwidth.org/1532530.html
So...
PRE-ORDER TODAY
STARVE THE GLUTTON
DESTROY THE BEAST
http://bnreview.barnesandnoble.com/t5/I
In happier days, the shark-eyed alleged baby eater poses with wife-beating, drunk-driving mayor of Toronto.
Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there are
As a bonus, here's an actual screenshot from the story
. Yes, that was newsworthy enough to get captioned back then (and this was about a year before I got my first home computer, an Atari 800 that I still miss).
Members of Rob Ford’s executive committee say they are prepared to take over the day-to-day running of the city if the Toronto mayor is no longer able to perform his duties, amid a scandal involving allegations he was caught on video smoking crack cocaine.
Also posted at Dreamwidth, where there arecomment(s); comment here or there.
I’ve never been one for big cities. In some ways, I think of it as an extension of my introversion. Big cities = too many people, too much going on, and I get twitchy just thinking about it.
But I’ve watched my fellow authors do the occasional New York trip to visit with editors and agents, and it’s been strongly advised by a number of folks that I do the same, especially with the relative success of Libriomancer.
So when I received an invitation to moderate the Adult Book Bloggers Panel at Book Expo of America in New York, I was happy to say yes. I’m even happier now that I’ve been chatting with my panelists, including Sarah from Smart Bitches, Trashy Books — the woman responsible for making me do this — along with Mandi from Smexy Books and Rebecca from The Book Lady’s Blog.
My BEA schedule, excluding meetings and such, looks like so:
- 5/29, 11:15 a.m. – 12:05 p.m. — Book Blogging Panel.
- 5/31, 3:30 p.m. – 4 p.m. — Signing at the SFWA table.
- 6/1, 12 p.m. – 12:30 p.m. — “Meet the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America,” with myself, Jeri Smith-Ready, and Leanna Renee Hieber.
I am both excited and a bit intimidated. I’ve been to NYC once in my life, helping a friend move, and that was more than a decade ago. On the other hand, I’ll be spending time with a lot of great people, and attending an event devoted to the awesomeness of books. How can you not love that?
So blogging will be light to nonexistent next week. This will be my first time at BEA, and my second time in NYC (the first was more than a decade ago, helping a friend move, and I didn’t see that much of the city). My plan is to try to have fun, hopefully collect some books, and shamelessly gawk at everything.
Wish me luck, and if you’re going to be at BEA, then I hope to see you there!
Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.
Every year, some people tell me that I need to announce JayCon early so they can get it in on their calendars. Every year, some people tell me I need to announce JayCon later, because they don't plan that far ahead. Sometimes, these are the same people. So starting now, and going on through the spring, I will be reposting this announcement with occasional edits or updates as needed.
In celebration of my natal anniversary, JayCon XIII, my 13th annual 37th birthday party, is Saturday, June 15th, 2013 from 2 to 5 pm at the Flying Pie in SE Portland. We're partying because I was born, and because
If you can read this, you're invited. Prior JayCon experience not required.
Also, if you're coming from out of town, and you think I might not be aware of that, please contact me. There are some limited capacity extended festivities from Friday to Sunday.
Flying Pie Pizzeria
7804 SE Stark Street
Portland, 97215
(503) 254-2016
http://www.flying-pie.com/
[ Google Maps ]
As is traditional for JayCon, Paul M. Carpentier is specifically not invited.
Donnie Reynolds (@dratz of Waterloo Productions) left yesterday. He was kind enough to finish cooking my momos Wednesday night when my feet gave out, but more importantly, interviewed me yesterday morning, then filmed the critique session for "Rock of Ages". It was good critique, a combination of solid criticism and some important story points, along with validation that the story was doing enough of what I wanted it to do.
My two regrets here at Rio Hondo are that my feet continue to be troublesome, and that my trailing sun sensitivity issues courtesy of my friend Vectibix have not only prevented me from hiking (which given the state of my feet is probably a bad idea anyway) but even from going outdoors at all. I continue to wrestle with the emotional fallout from the recent diagnosis, but being here at the world's greatest Writer Camp is allowing me to parse it in small bits while immensely enjoying my days.
Oddly, I'm not getting much writing or WRPA done. This done not bother me. I am on vacation, after all. I'm spending hours each day immersed in manuscripts and critique, and hours more in fascinating conversations about everything from Age of Sail combat to social media personae for authors. Not to mention publishing gossip, convention horror stories, plotting sessions and all the other things writers get to talking about when you cram us alone together in a few small rooms for a week.
Meanwhile, a few more photos of the faces of Rio Hondo:
The marmot what hangs out in the lower parking lot — I did not have my 300mm lens on the camera body at the time, unfortunately
Donnie Reynolds prepping the critique shoot
David Levine, of whom I finally got several good shots
Rick Wilbur pretending he doesn't notice the camera
Kim Zimring, reading
Daniel Abraham, reading
Diana Rowland and her Girl Power t-shirt
Jim Kelly going for the high angle shot
Oz Drummond, thoughtful
The entire Rio Hondo crew, thanks to Donnie Reynolds piloting the camera
Photos © 2013 Joseph E. Lake, Jr. and Donnie Reynolds
This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. and Donnie Reynolds is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Berries, Washington state. Photo © 2008, 2013, Joseph E. Lake, Jr.
This work by Joseph E. Lake, Jr. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
Acoustic Levitation — This is seriously cool. (Via
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=1){kind=small}
threeoutsideMarketing to the Big Data Inside Us — In your DNA are clues to your health, your ancestry, and maybe even your purchasing preferences.
A molecular window on itch — Researchers discover chemical puppet master behind the need to scratch.
An Interplanetary GPS Using Pulsar Signals — Spacecraft could determine their position anywhere in the solar system to within five kilometres using signals from x-ray pulsars, say astronomers.
New Technique Could Probe Rocky Alien Planet Surfaces
Scientists: Arctic bacteria discovered on Earth may prove life could thrive on Mars
Glow-in-the-dark cockroach among top 10 new species of 2012
White tiger's coat down to one change in a gene
Race, Intelligence, and Genetics For Curious Dummies
The Iraq War Wasn’t Inevitable — Nope. It was a trillion dollar war of choice based on knowingly false premises brought to you by leading conservatives. I wish more Republican voters understood those simple facts. But they watch FOX News and listen to Rush Limbaugh, so they never will.
C.I.A. to Focus More on Spying, a Difficult Shift — Hmm...
Ignorance loves company: Four examples — Ignorance loves company. The truly stupid resent those who are not and won’t be satisfied until they’ve burned all the books, torn down the libraries, closed the universities, and made it impossible for anyone else not to share their own proud ignorance. Who could he be talking about? What segment of American culture and politics? I really cannot imagine, can you?
How Van Halen explains Obamacare, salmon regulation and scientific grants — This is why it's important to do nuance. Too bad Republicans have elected political vandals who proudly don't do nuance to dominate the House and derail the Senate. (Snurched from Slacktivist Fred Clark.)
Toomey's candor sheds light on post-policy party — "There were some on my side who did not want to be seen helping the president do something he wanted to get done, just because the president wanted to do it." Speaking of the GOP as political vandals. (Snurched from Slacktivist Fred Clark.)
President Obama and Counter-Terrorism: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
QotD?: How was your dinner last night?
5/24/2013
Writing time yesterday: 0.5 hours (WRPA editing, otherwise on workshop time)
Hours slept: 7.0 hours (very fitful)
Body movement: n/a
Weight: n/a
Number of FEMA troops on my block scamming disaster aid slush funds: 0
Currently reading: The Wee, Free Men by Terry Pratchett
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/wondermar
This weekend — Friday, Saturday, and Sunday — I’m at the Phoenix Comicon in Arizona! I’ll be at the TopatoCo booth. Look for the GIANT YELLOW ORB.
Here are some Roll-a-Sketches from last weekend at Maker Faire!
PLATYPUS + MARIO + CLOWN + HAMBURGER:
BEAR + PUPPY + MERMAID + SKATEBOARD:
BEAR + ARMADILLO + ALIEN + HAMBURGER:
PIRANHA + OSTRICH + PROSPECTOR + HELICOPTER:
PIRANHA + ICE CREAM:
Thanks to all who said hello at Maker Faire! And a PRE-EMPTIVE HELLO to those of you YET TO COME in Phoenix!
...from Andy Croft, of course.
And since nothing in the video tells you this, the book is 1948, published by Five Leaves.
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jennycrusie : Cherry Saturday 5-25-2013 [+0] - pmcray : Summa Technologiae [+1]
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- nwhyte : Links I found interesting for 25-05-2013 [+0]
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- kevin_standlee : Why We Moved to Nevada [+3]
- james_nicoll : The dolphins are stampeding! The dolphins are stampeding! [+3]
- james_nicoll : Whatever Happened to Baby Jane [+16]
- murphys_lawyer : Thoughts and questions on the Xbox One [+3]
- james_nicoll : American authorities assert vital bridge so fragile minor collision triggered collapse [+25]
- yendi : Old-school Whedon collaborators [+0]
- rozk : The Poet to her young comrades 3 [+0]
- rozk : The Poet to her young comrades 2 [+0]
- natalief : Posting the writings [+0]
- james_nicoll : Ford breaks silence [+19]
- cherylmmorgan : Union Cup – Day 1 [+0]
- nwhyte : May Books 19) The Peoples of Middle-earth, by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien [+0]
- eyemage : Peaceful Sunset [+0]
- nwhyte : May Books 18) Tip of the Tongue, by Patrick Ness [+0]
ffutures : Surely someone has invented... [+7]
- tanais : My tweets [+0]
lj_photophile :: facecat : Tennessee landscape [+2]
- nwhyte : May Books 17) Grandville: Bête Noire, by Bryan Talbot [+0]
- nwhyte : May Books 16) A History of the World in 100 Objects, by Neil MacGregor [+0]
- lj_photophile ::
aramis7 : Central Armed Forces Museum [+0]
- greygirlbeast : "Child, they're seeking weakness tonight." [+9]
- lj_photophile :: marina_herriott : creating own universe [+4]
- rfmcdpei : [BLOG] Some Friday links [+0]
- james_nicoll : Adventurer Conquerer King: Session Three [+9]
- daveon : The true price of the last few decades... [+3]
- browngirl : A sighting and a thought [+4]
- wcg : What I think Pope Francis is talking about [+20]
- nihilistic_kid : A reason to buy from amazon [+5]
- theweaselking : (no subject) [+2]
- theinferior4 :: pgdf : New Review at the B&NR [+0]
- theweaselking : (no subject) [+10]
- james_nicoll : Will association with scandal-plagued Rob Ford cause problems for scandal-plagued ReformaTories? [+4]
- yendi : The Newspaper of the Future [+5]
- james_nicoll : cabal poised to seize power [+6]
- jimhines : To BEA in New York! [+27]
- jaylake : [conventions|repost] Announcing JayCon XIII - plus - JayWake [+5]
- jaylake : [writing|photos] Rio Hondo continues [+1]
- rfmcdpei : [PHOTO] Cherry blossoms street-side, Dupont and Dufferin [+0]
- jaylake : [photos] Your Friday moment of zen [+2]
- jaylake : [links] Link salad dreams mountain dreams [+0]
- wondermark : #939; A Knight is Technically an Aristocrat [+0]
- wondermark : This weekend: Phoenix Comicon! PLUS: Roll-a-Sketches [+0]
- shewhomust : An introduction to the Pushkin sonnet [+0]